A/N: Wow, 2 updates in as many hours, I am good. Once again, I own nothing but Lupa and the plot. Oh and I'm kinda vague about the time line of Origins: Wolverine. I'm guessing it's in the 70s since Three Mile Island had the nuclear leak in real life in 1979. I'm just gonna blend the comics and movie time lines together I think, it's already AU anyway, right?

Chapter 21

Mine

The worried soldier found Logan in the brothers' room again. It was half past midnight, after all. Victor wasn't there though and Dukes wasn't sure if he was relieved at the absence or not. He needed to talk to him too, even if the man-beast did scare the bejesus outta him. If Creed wasn't here, that meant he was with Lupa. And Dukes didn't know how he felt about that, either. On the one hand, if anyone could protect her, Victor Fucking Creed could. The Blob had witnessed the fierce blood-loyalty between Logan and Victor and the violence with which they used to defend the other. If things continued the way there had been, if Sabertooth kept up with his newly found protective behavior, the soldier believed the feline feral would guard his little friend with that same ferocity. But on the other, could the elder brother keep her safe from himself?

"Bad news Logan. We got a 16 hour window now," and the Blob proceeded to tell the available brother how he'd been summoned by their C.O.* at an unusually late hour as well as the orders he'd just been given.

oOo

Still in the bleak gray room, Lupa remained in Victor's lap and in his arms. A few minutes had passed since his mate's story and Sabertooth finally asked his first question, "He was just your protector?" The emphasis the male feral placed on the word 'just' was not missed by the female.

Briefly and detachedly, Lupa considered how she felt about his question and her options in her response to it.

She could laugh again, he didn't seem to get angry when she had before and the question did amuse her in a strange way...Well, that or she was becoming hysterical. She could pretend to be offended at his implication, that she and her little Zsiga had had some kind of an affair. Though she risked his anger at that, on top of the fact she would be lying. At last, Lupa sighed heavily. She was rambling in her head again. A sure sign how exhausted she was becoming.

"Yes, Victor. He first was my cub, then my brother and always my protector, though as he got older he became more successful in that endeavor. But nothing more than that. We loved one another, though were never in love, do you understand? But why does it matter? Decades have passed since then." She asked this out of pure, innocent curiosity. Out of the desire to know him, to understand him, though she couldn't explain (even to herself) exactly why she felt the need to know him, understand this man.

"Because I don't like other people touchin' what belongs to me. Don't matter when it happened." He snapped out angrily, baring his teeth at her to display dominance.

"I belong to you?" Lupa questioned quietly. The Wolfgirl's mind was oddly calm and accepting, as if some part of her brain had known this fact all along and was merely patiently waiting for the rest of it to catch up. Her heart continued to beat steadily, but she noticed Victor's had quickened.

Why am I so calm? Why am I not reacting? Perhaps I am hurt worse than I thought...The Wolfgirl trailed off in confusion.

"Yes. You belong to me. You are my mate. MINE." Creed's words were hard and not at all comforting, let alone romantic as they hung in the air between them. He sounded very final in this declaration.

"If it makes you feel any better, you are the first person to ever hold me like this. At least that I can remember. And my memory goes back very far. When he was a child, Zsiga would hold my hand through the bars of the circus cage, but only when we were alone in the tent, when there were no customers or Roma. He liked my claws."

There was a brief, incredulous silence.

"That's fuckin' it? You're not gonna say anything else?" Victor was dumbfounded, and when confronted with a situation he could not readily understand, he would always fall back on the one emotion he was most comfortable with: Anger. So, he got angry. Creed could feel the heat build in his chest and began to move upwards to his head. He'd be seeing red soon.

"Yes, that's fucking it. I think I do...belong to you," the female tranquilly replied. She looked into his dark blue eyes with her own clear silver ones, softly blinking once. She had only briefly hesitated before using the word 'belong.'

Lupa felt strange. She was aware she should feel umbrage at his presumption and arrogance. Indignant anger and immediate, bitter resistance to the idea, the very suggestion. (She belonged to herself! No one owned her!) The woman even wanted to feel anger because she wanted to be angry. At the very least, she wished she were angry at herself for her lack of horrified response.

Yet instead, Lupa again experienced the strange sensation of something clicking into place within herself. Acceptance and relief. A strange feeling that everything would be alright. That they'd be able to work everything out now they were together. A sense that maybe she could belong to someone and yet not be owned as a slave was. That she could still belong to herself. That maybe it was a fair trade for what she got in return. Who she got in return.

But deep down, on some primal level, the Wolfgirl was angry. Angry for seeming to 'give in' so easily, to submit to this male without him proving his worth. The animal in her warred against the human who knew it was a mutual submission, a partnership, even if the male did not see that yet.

He will catch up, though. Lupa smiled internally.

To Victor, her words were a splash of cold water on the fire of his burgeoning rage. They seemed to deflate him and his arms slightly loosened their hold on Lupa momentarily.

"Oh," the man seemed to be at a loss, looking into her eyes with a surprised, slightly silly look on his face.

"I don't know why or how it happened, but I know that I'm yours. I can feel it somehow." She smiled up at him a bit. The Wolfgirl pulled on Victor's shirt to get his face closer to her own. "And you, you are mine." Before Victor could bristle at that, Lupa closed her eyes and brought her lips to his.

While her actions were bold, her kiss was hesitant, she had no experience before this except for the wet baby kisses Zsiga had given her when he was a pup. Lupa kept her lips closed and only pressed them against Victor's. It took him a moment to respond as his body had frozen the second she'd claimed him back. He guided her mouth with his, though he was inexperienced as well. He fucked whatever girls came his way, usually the paying type to keep things simple, this was the first one to actually mean something. And he'd never particularly liked kissing frails before, but Lupa's lips were honeysuckle sweet and oh so soft. He felt her sharp little claws comb through the fine hair at the back of his neck when her arm came up around to hold him close.

As they kissed, the feral tasted her lips with his tongue and slid between them when her mouth parted in surprise. He could tell she liked it because she responded in kind, massaging her tongue against his eagerly. Their kiss became rougher and two sets of fangs clashed. Sabertooth tasted the his Lupa's blood and groaned, he was rock hard from just a damn kiss. Somewhere far away Victor realized he'd cut her lip and she couldn't afford to lose anymore blood. But she didn't seem to mind, Lupa just bit him back and licked at the wound. He groaned more deeply this time.

Creed lifted his head so he didn't lose control. She wasn't in any shape to continue. However much they both wanted to, he thought smugly. And he knew she wanted to, she had resisted pulling away from him and now had her head was tucked beneath his chin, holding onto his shirt. He could smell the scent of her naive arousal drifting up into his nose. Creed's muscles tensed until he forced his own desires down.

Focus ya little shit! Ya gotta take care of her, look after her. Listen ta the big head, not the little one, ya asshole!

With his thoughts clearing, Victor listened to their ragged panting. He could hear their hearts pounding hard in unison. But they were not pounding so hard the two hotblooded ferals didn't hear the footsteps approaching from outside the door.

"Someone is coming."

oOo

*C.O. = Commanding Officer

A/N: MWUAHAHAHA! Yes! I did end it there! Again! I shall update when I have have gotten some reviews. Remember, not only will I update faster if you review, you get a cupcake too. Who doesn't love cupcakes, right?