So, let's talk about Claiming--what do I mean by that word, and why do I mean it so? I think of claiming as the moment when two people commit exclusively. That sounds like I'm talking about marriage, but it doesn't have to be. In Late Blooming Lily, Rob claims Lily by shouting his love for her to the stars. He claims her, too, when a drunk starts hitting on her at a bar, and he tells the man to back off in no uncertain terms. This isn't about a kind of leg-lifting macho behavior (okay, there's a little of that, he's a man after all!), but it's about a powerful recognition and desire to display that the beloved is yours. And not only men claim! Women do it in their own ways too. A hand on the arm, a look that tells other women to back off... We show ownership over our men.
But the most powerful claiming is what happens privately between two people in bed. When bodies impress on each other the urgency of their desire. When urgent lips and teeth and hands grip and hold and mark one another because the two know in their hearts that they've found their partner, their mate, their love. Love bites are a result of that kind of claiming, and so is soreness after a really long, marathon lovemaking session. So are the marks that can follow a hard spanking. These are ways people claim one another that are just about the two of them and bodies learning what hearts already know.
And, in my forthcoming urban fantasy series, the fae have a very different meaning for claiming...but we'll talk about that another time!
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