The Claiming by Cooper novel Chapter 142

The Council Chapter 49 Jara

Jara

My little pup has become very active. I was so excited when I first felt her move inside me. It was wonderful. Ever since Mason could hear her heartbeat, he couldn’t wait to be close to her at night. Now that he can feel her moving around inside me, he’s always touching my stomach, hoping to feel her move. When she’s awake, she never disappoints him.

Today, after Mason and our large group of warriors leave to help Alpha Davis rebuild, I decide to go with Layan and the kids outside to play. Jace and Melinda are very active and giving them time outside to run around is a great way for them to burn off some of their energy. Since Katerina will be here tomorrow for the weekend, I wanted to spend some time with Layan today to see how she’s feeling about the

visit.

I sit and watch Layan chasing the kids around the yard, playing tag and then hide and seek. When she finally comes to sit beside me, I turn to

her.

“How are you feeling about tomorrow and this weekend?”

She shrugs. “I don’t want to scare her off. You, Hana, Annabel and Mignon all had good experiences. I know mine wasn’t the norm and I know that you are working to make sure it never happens to anyone again, but….” She trails off, watching the kids playing.

“But?” I prompt her.

“But that wasn’t my experience. If she asks me, I’ll tell her the truth. Things can go bad inside the claiming territory. You know that as well as I do.” She says.

“Yes, I do.”

I’m just about to say something else, when the howl of warning goes up. Almost instantly, it is cut off, as if the person was attacked. I’m hoping they are okay but I don’t have time to worry about that.

I jump up as does Layan. “Jace! Melinda!”

We run to them, picking them up and turning to go inside when the scent of rotting flesh hits my nose.

I turn and see the most hideous creature I’ve ever seen running straight toward us. It’s black, its fur, if that’s what it has is matted all over its body. It looks like it has four legs, but they aren’t placed like they should be on a four-legged animal. The two in back are too close together and they are too close to what should be its front legs. Whatever it is, it isn’t natural.

I shove Melinda into Layan’s arms. “RUN! Get them into the safe room. NOW!”

“Jara!” She yells, seeing the creature behind me.

“GO!” I yell again, turning to put myself between the creature that is still coming straight for us and Layan and the pups.

She grabs a child in each arm and turns to run, yelling for help as she does. The men and wolves that were heading toward the sound of the howl immediately turn to help her. My guards, having been off to the side, giving me space to relax with Layan, come rushing up.

Just as the creature leaps at me, Lewis jumps in front of me, taking the brunt of the hit, but the force of the creature attacking pushes it and

Lewis into me, knocking me to the ground.

“Luna!” I hear someone yell and the creature pins Lewis to the ground,

its teeth snapping at his face.

Another guard comes over, ripping the creature off and Lewis gets up, standing in front of me. The smell is horrible, worse than anything I’ve ever smelled before.

From behind Lewis, I can see that our pack members are trying to surround the creature, but it’s so wild, and misshapen that it’s just attacking randomly. Its snarls are feral, and I finally realize that this is a feral wolf. I don’t know what’s happened to it to make it so

disfigured, but it’s so far gone that it doesn’t even know that its body is so broken.

The men begin fighting and I see Elijah in wolf form come racing over, leaping over the men to fight the creature, the creature that is also a wolf, but looks nothing like one.

Elijah grabs it by the scruff of its neck and yanks it away from me. The men following, attacking the intruder as they can. It continues snapping its teeth at everyone. Even when they get a grip on the creature, he pulls away, seemingly oblivious that his body is broken.

“Luna, get up, I’m going to get you into a safe room.” Lewis says to me, never turning his back on the creature.

“What is it?” I ask. “It looks like a wolf.”

“It’s Alpha Typhon, Luna, you need to get up. Are you injured?”

“Typhon?” I exclaim, looking at the creature again. I would never have guessed that it was my sister’s mate.