The Claiming by Cooper novel Chapter 288

The Claiming by Cooper Book 4

The Beta Trials by Cooper (Jace & Jordan)

Chapter 15 (Unknown POV)

“Alpha, why are we here?”

I lift my nose in the air. “Don’t you smell her?” I ask. He’s not an Alpha, so maybe he can’t smell what I’m smelling.

“Uh, what am I smelling?” he asks, sniffing the air.

“There’s a second female Alpha. This one seems to be alone, or at least, not part of a pack. I smell family, but no other pack members.”

My father was an Alpha, his mate was a female Alpha. Not my mother. My mother was a worthless human who did nothing worthwhile on this planet other than give birth to me before she died. And then, my father was murdered, and our pack was lost. The pack I was owed, the pack I deserve.

I had intended to take the other female Alpha, but now that there are two, I can much more easily capture and mark this one. I may have been young when my father died, but he taught me everything he knew about catching and claiming a female, specifically catching an Alpha female.

“We’ll have to get around the patrols. Tell the others to stay here. Keep everyone quiet. I’ll get in, snatch her up and get out. Once she’s marked, there’s nothing anyone can do about it,” I tell him.

“Sure thing, Alpha,” he says, as the wolves behind him begin fighting over the scraps of the last bear we killed. It’s the only animal big enough to fill their voracious appetites.

“Quiet them down. NOW!” I order my warrior.

“Yes, Alpha,” he says, rushing into the fray and tearing into our pack members. There’s no snarls or growls, only ripping flesh from their bodies to get their attention.

It’s a constant problem in my pack. Too many males, no females, no way to get any relief from all this masculine energy. For whatever reason, whether it was our fathers or it was because they mated with humans, there are no rogue females, only males. I watched my father slip into his madness, watched him lose his mind while he tried to find a new mate, one who could save him.

The humans didn’t save him, but they did help him to live a bit longer.

I turn, looking at all of them, cowed for now. “Stay quiet, or I’ll kill you when I get back,” I say.

They nod, then begin snapping at each other again, their growls getting louder. I shift and leap into the group, grabbing one by the back of the neck and shaking my head violently until I hear the snap of his neck. I drop him, looking at the others around me and snarling low, warning them that they are next if they make any more noise.

Once they are quiet, I turn, slinking up to where the patrols have been running. I watch, learning their pattern, before sneaking past them.

Time to get my mate.

Nolan POV

After sending all of the new Alphas home, I had stopped in Alpha Giovanni’ s pack for the night. He had offered to let me stay as long as I wanted, or to bring me back to Jordan’s pack with him, but I had declined.

In truth, I felt the need to get my head straight. It’s obvious to me that Jordan’ s feelings have been on the fence since the beginning, but now that Jace is obviously make a play for her, I can see the mate bond working its magic. The question I have for myself is, how hard to I want to push Jordan to consider me as her mate?

Rather than driving back to the pack, I decide to run. I could use the time to clear my head and the run will be good for my endurance training. At this rate, it will take me a day to get back to

He leaps at me, and we begin to roll around on the ground. I remember what the councilman said about these rogues possibly being descendants of the banished pack members with feral fever or the claiming haze. I’m also old enough to remember that those with feral fever could pass on the disease by biting another. So I go on defense, making sure I don’t get bit.

We’ve been fighting for a few minutes, him snapping at me, me making sure that I don’t get bitten when I smell it, the scent of the sweet-after-death plant. It’s a scent very similar to vanilla,

but only found deep in the forest, near streams or lakes. I love this scent, not only because of the sweetness of it, but because it’s hard to find and you have to know where to go to get it.

I’m so distracted, that the rogue Alpha gets the upper hand, pushing me over and getting on top of me, snapping at my neck and face. A moment later another wolf, a gorgeous black wolf slams into him, pushing him off of me. She stands in front of me, snarling at him, protecting me. I realize, this is the wolf that has the scent that is so distracting that for once in my life, I can’t even think about fighting.

He lifts his head up in the air, and howls before looking back at her, and now it’s my turn to snarl. His look is full of lust. Lust for MY mate.

I slowly begin to stalk toward him, but he takes off. I’m about ready to give chase, when teeth bite, gently but firmly into my tail, holding me in place.

I turn, seeing the beautiful she-wolf holding my tail.

I shift and stand, watching her. I’ve waited so long to find my mate, and here she is, right in front of me. Finally. She shifts and I take a moment to look over her gorgeous body. The Moon Goddess has finally blessed me with my mate and oh, what a mate she is. “Mate!” I say.

She smiles a brilliant smile at me. “Mate!”

I take a step toward her and then I see the other wolves, shifting behind her. I turn and look, stopping in my tracks. “Jordan.”

The smiles falls from my mate’s face as she turns to look at Jordan and then back at me.

“You’re Nolan?”