Forever Claimed

Chapter Nine

Even though he'd hardly slept after the day Kamryn had run from him in fear, Algar fought off the tiredness that tugged at him. He gently brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. The other was pressed to his chest while she lay sleeping. His cock had long since softened and slipped free of her body, but he made no move to adjust how they lay. He was quite happy to be Kamryn's mattress.

He stroked his hands, claws having receded under his skin, up and down her back. He gave the mark close to her right shoulder extra attention. When Brand had said Kamryn now carried the start of Tiw's mark, he'd known there was no question; she was his mate. After aching, longing to be with his mate for days with no respite in sight, the wolf inside him had thrown back his head and howled with relief when he discovered she was truly his.

Kamryn's mark seemed to be taking longer than Lexi's had to fully materialize, but he wondered if it had to do with the fact she hadn't accepted what he was at first.

Lexi hadn't run from Raed, and she hadn't stayed away from him for days.

He tightened his arms around Kamryn, thankful to have her back. He wasn't going to kid himself by thinking they still didn't have things to work out. Making love didn't mean they wouldn't have matters to discuss. For instance, they still had to talk about living arrangements. Kamryn being from the States posed its own set of problems. He couldn't immigrate, because he couldn't walk away from the duty he had to Tiw. That meant she would have to give up her home. The days apart had shown him he'd fallen in love with her, and probably had from the start when he'd barreled into her that fateful night. Since she would have to be the one to give up so much, he'd make sure he showed her everyday what that meant to him.

Kamryn sighed in her sleep and rubbed her cheek against his chest. He smiled.

He would let her sleep, but once she awoke, he'd have her again. They had lost time to make up.

Kamryn sat at the manor's kitchen table while she watched Algar whip them up something to eat. It was late at night and this was the first time they'd left his bedroom.

After their marathon of sex, her stomach protested its emptiness, loudly. Algar had been quick to suggest they raid the kitchen.

Reluctantly, they'd gotten dressed before heading downstairs. Algar had loaned her one of his t-shirts since he'd ripped her top. It was miles too big. The sleeves were past her elbows and she'd gathered up the bottom of the shirt and twisted it into a knot at her waist to keep it from looking like a mini skirt. But at least she was covered, and she liked wearing it since it belonged to Algar.

Where the other occupants of the manor were, Kamryn could only guess. They were obviously giving her and Algar some much needed alone time. Not that she was complaining. They had put the time to good use. When they hadn't been making love, they'd talked. A lot. Listening to Algar talk about living during the Dark Ages in Britain, she still found it hard to wrap her head around the fact he was that old. He didn't look a day over thirty.

They'd also talked about her moving into the manor with him. She'd readily accepted the fact that Algar couldn't move to the States. His job was a little more important than hers as an assistant to a wedding planner. As for leaving her family behind, she wasn't close to what little she had. Her parents were divorced and had been since she was a child. Her father was a dead-beat-dad who never really had much interest in her. Her mother had remarried and had given birth to Kamryn's half brother shortly after the divorce. Kamryn had been classed as the outsider since her stepfather hadn't really wanted to raise another man's child. She'd been happy to move out of his house once she'd finished school and got her first fulltime job. No, her family wouldn't really care that she was going to pull up roots and immigrate to England.

"You've gone awfully quiet over there," Algar said. He turned away from the stove to face her.

She shrugged. "I'm just lost in my thoughts."

"What's troubling you?"

"Nothing really. I was just thinking about my family, and how they won't care I'll be living thousands of miles away." She'd already told him what her family was like.

"Are you going to miss them?"

She chuckled as she shook her head. "No. Keeping in touch with them through the phone on birthdays and holidays is fine with me. And my family being the way they are, I can't see them helping me with this move." She met his gaze. "I'm going to have to go back to the States like I first planned to empty out my apartment and get the things I want to keep shipped here. It shouldn't take me long, but it'll still be a few weeks before I can return."

Algar turned back to the stove and switched it off. He went to the cupboard and took out two plates. Once he dished up the spaghetti he'd cooked for them, he placed a plate in front of her and gave her a fork. He took a seat with his plate in hand.

Taking her hand, he brought it to his mouth and pressed a kiss on the back before releasing it. "You won't be going back to the States alone."

"I won't?"

"No. I've thought that one through, since you told me how your family treats you. Lexi's family was able to do everything she needed to facilitate her move without her having to go back to the States. You don't have anyone. So I'll go with you when you return."

"Raed won't mind?" Algar had explained how even though Raed was no longer their king, the warriors still thought of him as such and expected him to give them orders when needed.

"I'm sure he won't. He and the others will be able to handle the werewolf front without me for a few weeks. This will actually be my first holiday, ever." He shot her a sexy grin. "I already know how I want to spend most of my time away."

From the smoldering look in his eyes, Kamryn could easily guess what he was implying. "I think I can handle that," she said. Her momentary smile slipped when another thought crossed her mind. "Do you have a passport?" Being his age, and considering the century of his birth, they didn't exactly have passports, or birth certificates, for that matter, back then.

Algar nodded. "I have one. When the age of needing those documents came to be, Raed made sure all of us had them. We've had to fix them from time to time so our age matches our pictures."

"I guess you would have to since you don't age."

He took a forkful of spaghetti, chewed and swallowed before he said, "And yours will have to be fixed the same as ours at some point too."

She froze with a forkful of food inches from her lips. "What?"

He gave her a strange look. "You'll be immortal just as I am, Kamryn. Tiw has marked you. To make us fully mates, he'll grant you immortality as he did Lexi. I thought you would have known that."

She slowly lowered her fork to her plate. "Oh." She'd known Lexi was immortal and not a werewolf. Kamryn just hadn't put herself in the same equation. It was an oversight on her part. Algar had claimed her as his mate the same as Raed had claimed Lexi. Why would her being taken as a mate be any different? And truly, to be mated to Algar she would have to be immortal like he was.

A look of concern flashed across Algar's face. "You're okay with being immortal, aren't you? You're not going to freak on me again?"

Kamryn could hear the underlying uncertainty in his voice. She reached over and cupped the side of his face. "I'm all done freaking out. I want to have forever with you. The immortality was just something I hadn't thought about."

Algar visibly relaxed. "Oh, good. You had me worried there for a minute."

The whole immortality talk and having forever together got Kamryn thinking.

Algar and she had discussed many things, but they had yet to say those three little words that needed to be said. It seemed a little rushed, but how she felt for him matched those words. Pretty sure he felt the same way about her, she still needed to hear him say he loved her.

"Algar, do you love me?"

He dropped his fork so it clattered against his plate, pushed back from the table, and picked her up so he could settle her on his lap. He cupped the back of her head and hungrily kissed her. When he pulled away, he met her gaze.

"It would seem I've been a bit neglectful, which I intend to remedy right this very second. You're my mate, the other half of my soul. I'll love you forever and always. That will never change."

Kamryn swallowed around the lump that suddenly formed in her throat. "I love you too."

He brushed the pad of his thumb back and forth across her bottom lip. "I never doubted it, even when you were too afraid to be around me. Tiw wouldn't have marked you otherwise."

She opened her mouth and swirled her tongue around the tip of his thumb. He sucked in a sharp breath.

"You're playing with fire," he said in a voice gone gruff.

Kamryn gave his thumb a nip before she released it. "No, I'm playing with a wolf. One that I don't think I can get enough of."

A low growl rumbled out of Algar's chest. "This wolf definitely likes the way you play with him."

He leaned in and took her lips, pushing his tongue inside her mouth, devouring her as if she was the only thing he hungered for. Kamryn shifted so she straddled his lap. She rocked her pussy against the bulge in his pants. They'd made love for hours and already she wanted him again. Nothing else seemed to matter but having his thick cock inside her. Not the food that was sitting on the table getting cold or the empty state of her belly. One kiss and she turned to putty in his hands.

The sound of heavy booted heels hitting the kitchen floor had Algar breaking their kiss, but he held her firmly in place when she tried to slip back onto her own chair.

Her face heated when she saw Garrick walking toward the fridge.

"You're back early from the hunt," Algar said.

Garrick took a beer from the fridge and turned to face them after he closed the door. "It was a slow night for prey, at least where I hunted." He gave them a knowing smile. "It looks as if I returned just in time for a good show."

Feeling more embarrassed, Kamryn pushed at Algar's chest until he released her.

She kept her gaze off Garrick when she moved back to her chair and picked up her fork to eat. Algar had told her Garrick liked to yank his and the other warriors' chains to see if he could get a rise out of one of them.

"Shut up, Garrick," Algar said with a growl. "Kamryn hasn't had time to get used to your abrasive personality yet. Don't start in on her."

Kamryn looked up at the sound of Garrick pulling out the chair across from her.

He sat and met her gaze with a smile. "I apologize, Kamryn. Sometimes my mouth gets the best of me. I don't mean anything by it. I'll admit I can be a jerk when the mood suits."

She shot him a small smile. "Apology accepted. I've lived alone for so long now I've forgotten what it's like to live with other people. I guess I'll have to get used to it again."

Garrick lifted his beer toward Algar and Kamryn. "Congratulations. Since the two of you hadn't come up for air before night fell, I had a feeling you must have worked everything out." He then gave Algar a hard stare. "Let's make sure this mate doesn't run afoul of the pack leader of Fenris' get, shall we? The bastard got away, but I'll bet my sword he's still lurking around out there waiting for another chance to strike against us."

"As long as Kamryn is in the manor, she's safe. You know Tiw now protects our home from Fenris' kind ever since Lexi was abducted by Nathan."

Kamryn turned to look at Algar. "Lexi was abducted?"

"You're not in any danger here," he reassured her. "Lexi was taken off the manor's property."

If the leader of the bad werewolves was supposedly still around, Kamryn had to wonder if he'd found out about her yet. If he had, she didn't want to think about it, especially since she'd just spent a week alone in her hotel room without the Anglo-Saxon god's protection. She could have been taken as easily as Lexi had been. And since she had been avoiding Algar, he wouldn't have found out until it was too late.

"Do you think this Nathan would know about us being mates?" she asked with a slight tremor in her voice.

Algar put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side. "I doubt it. He would have had to have one of his pack follow me. And even if he did, I haven't been out in public with you all that much. It's more likely Nathan is watching the manor, and not from the front of it either. He'd be too visible there. The back garden has more trees for him to hide in."

"I guess it's a good thing I won't be staying at my hotel." They'd both decided she would collect her luggage from the hotel the next day.

"Since Kamryn has the start of the mate mark, at least we don't have to worry about her falling victim to a werewolf bite," Garrick said. "It will be even better once Tiw grants her immortality."

"We're working on it," Algar said. "Once Kamryn is settled in here, I'll talk to Tiw about it."

During the bouts of talking they'd done during the day, Algar had also taught her the differences between his type of werewolf and those sired by Fenris. She'd learned the bad werewolves, as she liked to call them, were harmed by silver just like in the werewolf movies. That was the reason the warriors had the metal mixed with the steel of their swords. And unlike Algar and the other warriors, Fenris' get were more beasts than men while in their werewolf forms. They killed for the sake of killing, hungering for human flesh and blood. Then there was the whole 'being bitten once by them would turn a mortal' thing. Meeting up with a bad werewolf was not something she ever wanted to experience.

Now that she'd been given first-hand knowledge of Fenris' get, her fear of Algar's werewolf form had diminished even more. She would do better to save all her fear for the beasts that hunted mortals in the dark of night, and not for the warriors who had made it their long life's work to protect them.