The One He Claimed by cooper (Sophie and Hunter) novel Chapter 49

“My mate is being generous.” Calvin growls, tossing his napkin on his plate as if he’s lost his appetite. “She tore, bled, because of me. Not only that, but I’ll tell you Dutton, the worst feeling in the world is when you sink your canines into their neck, and you feel every goddess–awful emotion that you are causing them, your mate, the one should love above all others. I don’t know how some of the other Alphas do it, knowing their mates are horrified or that they despise them for what they’ve done.”

“Those Alphas don’t love their mates,” Hunter says quietly, watching Calvin.

“It wasn’t like that for you, though, was it?” he asks, angrily.

“Calvin?” Amelia says, putting her hand on his arm.

“Was it, Hunter?” he growls again.

“No, it wasn’t,” Hunter says quietly.

I look from Alpha Calvin to Hunter. If what Hunter felt was anything close to what I felt, it was love, happiness, pleasure, pride, all positive things.

“Excuse me, Amelia, I need some air,” Calvin says, abruptly getting up. When Amelia reaches out to him, he takes her hand, kissing the top of it gently, before releasing it and quickly walking

away.

We all watch as Calvin walks outside, and Dutton looks back at his plate. “I don’t mean to be meddlesome or obtuse, but, is it really that terrible? Even when your mate tries his best?”

“Yes,” Amelia says softly, watching the place where her mate walked out.

“Alpha Dutton, I wouldn’t have run, other she–wolves wouldn’t be running, if it wasn’t that terrible. And sadly, what Amelia went through is the best that ranked she–wolves can hope for. I saw a she–wolf hunted down in the woods, her mate growling at her to never run from him again before he slammed his canines into her. She was already sobbing from being mated roughly and he didn’t even try to make the marking gentle. It’s not a risk that I was willing to take and not a risk that many she–wolves are willing to take. From what I understand, many are putting their lives in peril to escape, and some are taking their lives preferring death to such a life, so yes, Alpha Dutton, it is that bad,” I say firmly.

“I guess…I guess I never considered what it would be like, for the woman. I assumed, stupidly

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Chapter 49

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apparently, that if I did my best, like Alpha Calvin did, that it would be okay,” he says, looking between me and Amelia.

She drags her eyes away from where her mate went. “We’ve found our way, but it took nearly two years.” She turns and looks at me. “And I still don’t find accepting my mate’s touch as easy as Sophie does, especially not in public. Excuse me, I need to check on my mate.”

Amelia gets up from the table and follows in the direction that her mate went.

Alpha Dutton looks up at Hunter. “So, you’re going to war?”

“If I have to, yes. They’ll come for Sophie, the other Alphas. They’ll try to force me to mark her publicly, try to strip her of her title when I refuse. I won’t allow it. She’s my mate, she’s my Luna, and I shouldn’t have to make her suffer for others to accept that. I won’t.”

I turn from Alpha Dutton and take Hunter’s hand. “And this, Alpha Dutton, is why I trust my mate implicitly. Because I know that he will always put my best interests first, always put ME first,” I say, smiling up at Hunter.

“Always,” he says.

Calvin POV

I run my fingers through my hair, again, and take a deep breath. I’m so filled with envy that I want to punch something. No, I want to punch Hunter. But I know it’s not his fault that his mate responds in the way we all want our mates to respond us. Even now, two years later, Amelia doesn’t respond to me the way Sophie responds to him.

I remember that night, remember the horror I felt when my teeth sank into Amelia’s neck and her emotions came flooding into me. I remember….

“Calvin,” my

mate’s sweet voice says softly from behind me. I spin and without thinking, I pull her into my embrace, burying my face into her neck and hair.

As always, she stiffens in my arms. I go to release her, but she wraps her arms around me, holding me to her.

“You did what you could, Calvin,” she says softly in my ear.

“No, Amelia, I didn’t,” I choke, my throat getting tight. “It should have been like that with us. I should have made a stand, I should have…”

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