The Claiming by Cooper novel Chapter 67

Chapter 67 Jara
While I ripped the throat out of the one, the wolf I landed on begins bucking, trying to throw me off. He swings around, giving me a chance to take a swipe at another wolf. This time, I slash across his face, blinding him in one eye.
His howl of pain echos in the forest. Luke begins to fight the remaining three that are still attacking him. As the wolf I’m riding swings around again, I’m able to slash the hind leg of one of the wolves attacking Luke, causing him to turn around to me.
His howl of victory goes up as he leaps at me. I duck against the wolf I’m riding, and he leaps over top of both of us. I turn, slashing at him again. This time, I catch his throat. He begins coughing up blood, but I don’t have a chance to see if it will kill him. The wolf I’ m riding bucks and I go flying over his head. He’s on top of me in an instant, his teeth snapping against my neck.
“You can’t claim me in your wolf form, a*shole.” I say and slam th claws on my right hand into his stomach, ripping out his insides. They spill over my legs, covering me in his blood. I use my left hand to push him off me, just as another wolf jumps at me.
Alpha Luke, bloodied and with large gaping slash marks across h entire body, grabs him by the neck in mid-air, snapping his neck i two before dropping him to the ground.
He looks at me and I’m caught. There’s nowhere for me to go. B instead of claiming me, Luke collapses to his knees before sittin down hard.
“Luke? Are you okay?” I don’t want to be caught, but I also want make sure he’s okay. I did jump down here to make sure he didr die.
“You’re bleeding.” He says to me, and his voice is much too soft He nods at my shoulder, and I realize that the wolf that was
snapping his teeth at me actually did bite my shoulder. In the throes of the fighting, I hadn’t felt it.
I turn and look back at him. “So are you.”
I squat down in front of him. He scoots back, putting his back against a large fallen tree limb, propping himself up while he waits for his body to start healing.
“Why didn’t they stop?” I ask him, looking at the dead who are now in various stages of shifting back into their human form.
“Claiming haze. By tomorrow night, all of us will be in the haze. It will only make things more dangerous for you, Jara.” He nods up at the limb I slept on last night. “Your hiding spot is a good one. You should keep that up.”
I can’t help but smile at that. “And of course, that way, you’ll be the only one that knows where I’m hiding?”
He looks at me a moment, a small smile on his face. “Would that be so bad? If I was the one to claim you?”
I move to him. I can see the pain on his face. His injuries are deep and will take some time to heal. He’s not claiming me in his current condition. He’d be no match for me, and we both know it.
“No, Luke. I’d be proud to stand by your side as your Luna.” I say, but I can’t quite look him in the eye.
“But?” He asks.
I look at him, wanting to be completely honest. “But my heart belongs to another.”
He nods. “Mason.” He doesn’t need me to confirm it. “I see you’re wearing his shirt. How did that happen if he hasn’t claimed you
yet.”
“Typhon and his Beta caught me yesterday. I shifted, shredding my clothes trying to get away. He and Elijah helped me escape. He somehow knew where to find me, and he left his shirt for me, after washing it out.” I look down. “Which I’ll have to do again.”
He looks at me a long moment. I can see his wounds, the shallower g*shes, are already starting to heal. At that moment, my stomach makes a loud grumbling sound.
He reaches into his pocket and pull out some strips of meat. “Here.” He hands me the meat and I can’t help but moan as I devour it.
“Thank you.” I say as the meat sates my aching stomach for the moment.
“Mason isn’t the only one that can take care of you.” He says, still looking at me with sadness in his eyes.
“As much as I would love to have you as my Luna, Jara, I wouldn’t always want to wonder if I measured up to a man like Mason in your mind. He’s a good man and a good Alpha. But you know that won’t matter once the haze kicks in. More than half of the wolves in here are in the claiming haze already. The rest of us will be in it by tomorrow night. I can let you walk away right now because I know you want to be claimed by another, but once the haze takes me, it won’t be that way. You understand?”
I nod. “Yes.” I say, and I do. The haze is the worst part of the claiming.
“Good, now get out of here before I heal and decide to claim you anyway.”
I can’t help but chuckle. Luke is a good man and will make a good
Alpha too.
“If it is you, Luke, I won’t be disappointed.” I tell him before standing.
We hear the sounds of crashing at the same time.
“Go!” He mouths to me.
“Will you be okay?” I ask quietly, looking behind me at where the sounds are coming from.
“Yes, they are coming to see if you were claimed. Go, quickly!”
“Thank you.” I say and once again, I’m running as if my life depends on it.
I hear more crashing in front of me and I divert to the left. My legs are sticky from the blood covering them. I realize I’m leaving a trail of blood all over the forest undergrowth.
When I hear more crashing nearby, I find one of the hiding spots. and dive into it. It’s not ideal, but it’s small enough that only an omega could probably fit in the opening.
I watch from my hole as I see men and wolves come rushing through. Some of them, what I assume are ranked members, stop and begin sniffing the air and then the plants around me. Between Mason’s shirt and the wolf’s blood, they don’t seem to catch my scent and move on quickly.
I stay like this for most of the rest of the day. I feel somewhat safe in this hiding spot, especially since multiple wolves have sniffed around nearby and haven’t caught my scent.
When I finally can’t take the scent of blood on me any longer, I climb out of my hole. It’s nearly dusk again, and I make my way to
the lake. Once again, I dip under the waterfall and wash off the battle of this morning.
When I’m done, I carefully climb out, making my way toward the front where I was able to climb the tree and watch the entrance of the claiming.
I don’t want to sleep above the rotting corpses of the bodies I helped to kill earlier today. Tomorrow, I’ll have to find another tree, because I’ll be taking Luke’s advice. I’ll be staying in the trees as long as possible.