The One He Claimed by cooper (Sophie and Hunter) novel Chapter 416

Chapter 416

I stare at the river, my feelings overwhelming me again.

“Robin?”

“What if I’m too late? What if I don’t get to her in time?” I whisper.

“You will. We will. So, let’s stop dragging our feet and get moving,” he says briskly.

I take a deep breath.

‘Get

your shit together, Robin. Nikki needs us,‘ Derric says.

Everything feels like it’s spinning out of control without her. She’s become so much a part of my life, and I almost don’t know how to function without her. And the thought that I might let her down, that she might not believe that I’ll find, that I might not find her…

Derric snarls in my head. ‘I said get your shit together! Get in the fucking river and start swimming.‘

I do as he says, the cold water shocking my system. It feels like a slap in the face, a slap that I needed. The current is strong. Dutton’s right, it’s not likely that Nikki made it across, but we need to know for sure

I’m able to swim across, but by the time we get to the other side, we’ve gone much farther south. I step out of the water, shivering with cold.

Chapter 416

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Derric isn’t strong enough to keep you warm?” Dutton asks.

“Not yet.” I say. I’d rather he saves his energy to heal himself right now anyway. Once he does, we can move faster. “Once we start running, I‘ ll warm up.”

Rather than shifting, Dutton stays we me as we turn to head north.

“How far down do you think we floated?” I ask him.

“A couple of miles at least.”

The sun is starting to set, and I want to make it back to where we found her scent on the other side of the river.

We begin jogging, both of us keeping our noses in the air. About a mile into our run, we come across the scent of a female exiting the water. Dutton shifts and Orion begins sniffing the ground.

He begins following the scent, but stops and turns back, shifting back into Dutton.

“Do you smell Nikki at all?” he asks me.

I lift my nose in the air, Derric pushing forward.

If I do, it’s extremely faint. “Maybe she stopped in the water and rested before floating farther down the river?” I suggest, sniffing the air and desperately trying to catch her scent.

“Let’s keep going. We may be getting whiffs of her scent on the breeze if she’s farther upriver. Besides, we need to reconnect with the others.”

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Chapter 416

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And your and Jake need to get back home,” I say, looking around. There’s a mountain range in the distance. If I don’t find her upriver, we can look there tomorrow.

“I’ll call my mates. I feel like we’re close to finding Nikki, and I don’t want to leave if we’re this close to finding her. This female’s scent, while very faint, isn’t familiar. If that’s the case, then she’s on the run, which means…”

“Other Alphas and ranked members are still out hunting for their mates. It means, we don’t just have to worry about Camden finding her. If any of these ranked wolves looking for a mate are like Zahn or Aiden and they find her, they may mark first and ask questions later.”

We make it back to where we found Nikki’s scent by the river. Hunter, Kayce, and Lucas are all there, waiting for us, looking around and obviously trying to catch her scent again.

Dutton howls and we wave for them to join us. Behind us, we hear the howls of Ezra and Jake. I turn, but I already know they’d have howled earlier if they found her.

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