The Claiming by Cooper novel Chapter 256

The Contest by Cooper (Jaxon & Evangeline)

Chapter 56 (Jaxon)

I wake, curled up with my mate on the morning of day two of the sparring battles. Hopefully, if all goes well, we’ll both wake up tomorrow, having moved on in the contest. Both of us had a fairly easy time with our opponents yesterday. Joanna was a tough competitor, but I’m ready to win, today and in the last three events of this contest.

When we get to breakfast, it’s the same as yesterday. Everyone is quietly eating, contemplating today’s events and what they need to win. When we’re done, we head out to the leader boards to see who we are paired with today.

The first thing I notice is that they now have a “1” next to everyone that won their match yesterday and a “0” next to anyone that didn’t. So, now, it’s obvious to everyone who needs to win today to move on, and those that, if they lose today, will be done with the contest overall. A make a note that Jace lost to Tobias yesterday. He has to win the next two days or he’s out of the competition.

I start hearing people calling “Alpha” and I turn to see Jordan striding up to me.

I turn, pulling her into a hug. “Hey, what are you doing here?” I ask her.

“I took a couple days to come root on our pack.” She walks around me to hug Eve before looking up at the scoreboard. I see her frown. I turn and look back, quickly going over the list of our pack members that lost and I can’t imagine she’d be surprised by anyone except Jace.

I turn back to her. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah, I’m just surprised to see several of our pack members with zeros next to their name.”

“Our pack did have the most contenders of any other pack,” I say.

“By one,” she says, giving me a look like I’m exaggerating things. “Griffin’s pack has eleven in the competition.”

She makes a face, still looking at the leaderboard. “I see Taylor beat Lazio, Evangeline.”

“Yeah, he said she’s pretty tough.”

“She is. She’d make a good Alpha,” Jordan says, and her tone has gone sad.

I’m about to question her when the leaderboard changes and our competitor’s names for today are flashed on the board. As soon as I see mine, I turn, heading for the tables. “Well, I guess…. Jaxon? Jaxon! No, Jaxon!” Eve says, having seen my name next to hers and hers next to mine.

I’ve just walked up to the tables, when I see Tobias from the corner of my eye doing the same thing.

“I forfeit,” we both say together.

I turn, looking at him. “You got put up against your mate too?”

“I told Flavia I refuse to fight her,” he says and I nod. We’re both asked if we’re sure as our mates come rushing up.

“I’m sure,” I say, just as Eve catches up to me.

“Jaxon, don’t. If you insist on doing this, let me forfeit. You’re only doing this for me,” she says, as her number turns to “2”.

I take her face in my hands. “It’s done. And it was my choice. You’re moving on, so let’s decide who we want to watch today. I know I want to see Jace. He lost to Tobias yesterday and there is a real possibility that I will have to fight Tobias tomorrow since he also just forfeited to his mate,” I tell her.

She looks past me, seeing Tobias and Flavia in the same situation that we’re in.

“I wish you hadn’t done that,” she says, leaning into me.

“There’s no need for me to fight you, not ever Eve. We’re partners. We’ve talked about this. We’re both Alphas, we’ll run our pack as co-Alphas. I don’t care what our names are. You can be the TF and I’ll be the TM,” I tell her.

“TF?”