Free Claimed by the Alpha by Saranna DeWylde

earth. This scene was them. There was a wolf inside of her, there always had been, and Luka awakened her. That was the new voice she’d heard.
    What was behind the curtain reflected truth and hope back at her.
    The chanting grew louder and the static buzz in the air told Marijka she didn’t have much time.
    Her fingers shook as she unlatched the armor from around her throat. Fear spiked and shot after shot of adrenaline rushed through her blood. Dread pooled low in her gut as memories of her mother played on a macabre slideshow in her head.
    Even so, Marijka would not be dissuaded. The time for fear was over. If she regretted it, so be it. The virus would destroy any trace of it..
    She dropped the armor.
    “Give me your bite.”
    “Weren’t you listening?” The timbre of his voice was subhuman, and sounded like it echoed up from the pits of hell rather than the creature in front of her. “I’m infected.”
    “I know what you are.” She took the final step, closing that last bit of distance between them. The blue fibers throbbed through his black gaze. “And I know what I am.”
    Marijka didn’t back down, didn’t even flinch when his human shape fell away and the infected beast stood before her.
    She trembled, but she was sure of her choice. Eyes still locked on his, Marijka turned her head to the side slowly, exposing her neck for his bite.
    He lunged toward her, growling as his jaws snapped in an iron vise around her throat. Marijka expected there to be pain, but there was only bliss and a certain rightness of the world as he claimed her.
    Even with the lights blaring in her eyes, even with the voices chanting to rip a whole in the world, even knowing they’d be left in that endless darkness—warmth bloomed inside of her brighter and brighter until it exploded into a million stars.
    Until there was nothing left of the world but them.
    * * *
    Luka Stansilav came back to the world one heartbeat at a time.
    Each pulse of his mate’s heart, spilling her blood against his tongue, was poison to the virus. The cells in her blood were like Marijka herself, fierce and unyielding, launching themselves into enemy territory to hunt, destroy and take back what belonged to her.
    When he realized what he’d done—bitten her, ravaged her—he tried to pull away, but she wouldn’t let go. She clung to him the way she did when he made her scream his name in bliss. He eased the pressure of his bite, using his saliva to heal her wounds.
    She sagged against him as her blood and the virus fought the same war inside of her that waged in him.
    Luke didn’t doubt her victory for a single moment. He swept her up in his arms and looked for Kenneth. He’d heard his voice earlier, he’d been the one directing Marijka to leave the circle. “Bardot?”
    The chanting stopped, but the power of the circle still thrummed in the air.
    “Do we have a cure?” Bardot’s voice boomed across the crowd.
    “We might,” Luka answered him.
    “Get a medevac!” Bardot called, and the necromancers parted.
    There was no question as to whether or not Luka was cured. The Aeternali Senator’s word was absolute.
    “Hold on, Gypsy woman. Fight a little longer and you’ll never have to fight again.”
    “I like fighting,” she croaked as he hauled her into the chopper with him.

Epilogue
    Marijka had a scar.
    It wasn’t a dainty or delicate scar—it was big, ugly and angry. The twisted and ropey flesh looked exactly like what it was: the fight of her life.
    Marijka studied it and the woman she saw in the mirror. The scar was almost an incongruity with the pretty lace-trimmed silk lingerie. The material flowed against her skin, rippled with her movement, smooth and perfect. The flesh underneath was a jagged mess.
    She didn’t mind having the indelible reminder that when she’d been knocked down, she’d come up swinging. In fact, the wolf inside of her loved it. The beast preened when it caught sight of it whether in human or primal form.