The Claiming by Cooper novel Chapter 305

The Claiming by Cooper Book 4

The Beta Trials by Cooper (Jace & Jordan)

Chapter 32 (Jace)

I go back to the room and while I wait for Jordan, I get clothes and go bathe in the nearby lake. I’m just getting back when she walks in, looking thoughtful. “Everything okay?” I ask her.

“Yeah, how was today? Did you find anything?”

“We found some well-used trails, hunting trails we think. Their scent is way off, Jordan. They smell unclean, like they never bathe after taking down game and the blood and guts are just on their bodies, rotting. It’s disgusting.

Apollo and the other bears had it worse than we did with their enhanced sense of smell. But at least I know what I’m looking for now. I’ll recognize that stench from now on. Dad wanted to keep hunting, but I told him you ordered us home,” he says, looking at me.

I didn’t actually order them, but Jace was right to use that if needed to get his dad home. Luke hasn’t seen the wolves in action yet and while we’re all pack hunters, they attack when they have no business attacking, like with the bears.

“What about the doc. It looked like he was able to get a vaccine started,” I ask her as she looks through her limited clothing.

“Yes, and I called to get us rooms at the hotel for the next couple of days. Your family will help patrol the clan’s borders while we go figure everything out with the Elders,” she says, and I watch as her head drops.

“Is this about the Alpha that Dr. Braxton thinks is Alpha Typhon’s son?” I ask her.

“I don’t know if I should give my mother a head’s up or not. I’m not even sure she’s not out hunting the wolf pack with the others,” she says.

“She’s not. You know Councilman Jason called them all back. What would you want if it was you, Jordan? Would you want to find out ahead of time?” I ask her, moving to her and tucking her hair behind her ear, letting my finger trail down her n*eck. I hold back a smile when her body shivers at my t*ouch.

“Yeah, I guess I would. Either way, it’s going to be a kick in the gut for her,” she says.

I look over Jordan’s head, my mind going back to the time of Typhon and his attack on Luna Jara. “Even though I was young, I remember. It was a bad time for everyone. When your mom lost her pup, she was devastated. She shut out everyone. The entire pack suffered for the loss of their Alpha heir.”

I refocus and look down at her, seeing her watching me closely. “You need to have your father on the phone as well. I don’t know how your mother will take the news, but she will need him there with her, she will need his support,” I say.

She leans into me. “Are you still protecting your Luna, Jace?”

“Your mother will always hold a special place in my heart, Jordan,” I say, feeling my t*hroat closing up at the memory. “She held me while I watched my mother give up on this life, she held me while I screamed for her not to leave me. She did for me what my mother couldn’t. She was there for me; she has watched over me as much as I have watched over her all these years.”

“Jace,” she says softly.

I shake it off. I don’t Jordan’s pity. “It’s okay, it’s…”

Her finger comes up to my l*ips. “Stop downplaying the effect that that moment has had on your life, Jace. Nothing good has come from you doing that. You need to recognize that your mother leaving you wasn’t about you not being good enough, Jace. It was about her own heartbreak, and you have every right to be angry at her for that. She wasn’t thinking of you in that moment. Most likely she wasn’t thinking of anything other than the pain and emptiness of losing her mate. I don’t know how that feels, but I do know that if something happened to either of my parents, the other would follow right behind them. They wouldn’t want to live in a world where the other didn’t exist.”