The One He Claimed by Cooper novel Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Wait
Hunter
I tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep knowing she’s out there. Alone. My mate.
I’ve thought through hundreds of scenarios of how to talk to her, to let her know that I won’t force my mark on her, or claim her publicly, but I have no idea how to even get close enough to her in order to have a conversation with her.
Shaw has been no help. He’s ready to hunt her down and mark her. He wants to claim his mate so no one else can. He’s been pacing in my head, asking me every 15 minutes if we have any updates on where the Alphas are hunting.
When he asks me again, I snap.
‘Shaw, it’s the middle of the f**k**g night. No one has an update on any of the Alphas!’ I bark at him.
“We should go to her, find her, protect her, make sure she’s safe.’
‘If she’s safe and we show up, especially at night, she’ll run.’
He growls at me and continues to prowl around in my head.
I sigh, sitting up. There was no use trying to get any sleep. Between me and Shaw, I won’t be sleeping tonight.
I feel like a zombie by the time I have to get dressed for warrior
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training. I trudge down the stairs and I’m almost knocked over by Lucas who is practically sk**g down the stairs.
“Good morning, Alpha!” he sings, causing me to flinch at his much too loud tone.
“What’s good about it,” I grumble.
‘It’s good because we can finally go to her,” Shaw grumbles in my head. He’s as tired as I am, both of us working off of anxious adrenaline.
“Rough night?” Lucas asks me, his tone and demeaner much more muted.
I sigh. I haven’t told anyone. I didn’t even tell Kinsley yesterday on the way home. I look around, seeing the warriors all heading out back for training.
I take Lucas’ arm and pull him into my office, closing my door. “This stays between me and you. For now, you can’t even tell Kinsley,” I say, turning to look at him. “Do I need to command you?”
He frowns at me. “When have you ever needed to command me to keep a secret, Alpha?” he asks, and I can hear the hurt in his voice.
I huff, running my fingers through my hair. “You’re right, I apologize. I’m just…” I sigh and scrub my face roughly, trying to focus. When I look back at Lucas I can see his worry.
“I smelled her. Yesterday when Kinsley and I went to the place where she leaves the food for the she-wolves on the run, I smelled my mate. She was there.
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“Oh, f**k. What did you do?”
“Nothing! I was afraid I’d scare her off. If she’s hungry or needed a safe place to sleep, I didn’t want to take that away from her, but now…”
“You didn’t sleep all night worrying about her,” he finishes for
me.
I huff out a sigh, running my hand through my hair again. “Exactly.”
He looks at me a moment. “Go. Go find her. I can take care of training this morning. Go, talk to her. But Alpha, if you mark her, if you do it in private…”
I feel Shaw push forward, feel anger at my Beta. “Would you challenge me?” I growl at him.
He frowns at me. “No, never. I understand now, more than I ever did. But others may challenge you and her as a Luna. Not just other Alphas, but also some in our pack. You need to be prepared for that.”
“If I mark her and she agrees to return with me, they will accept her or I will reject them from the pack,” Shaw snarls.
He nods. “Then go, convince her to let you mark her. Kinsley would love to have another female around.”
I’m desperate to go to her. Whether it’s Shaw’s need, mine, or both of ours, I don’t question Lucas’ ability to watch the pack while I’m gone. He’s my Beta for a reason.
I turn and before I can think too much about it, Shaw pulls the
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shift, and begins racing to where he last smelled our mate. As we run, I catch the scent of local Alphas, but we also catch the scent of other ranked wolves that aren’t local.
Shaw growls. The only reason ranked wolves would be in these woods is because they are hunting she-wolves on the run, one of those being my mate. When we cross their trail and smell the scent of only a few wolves, I know that I’m right.
Shaw pushes harder to get back to our mate before one of these Alphas finds her first. One of the problems that has arisen with the she-wolves running is that now, ranked members don’t only search for their fated mates. If they find a wolf and catch her, they claim her. So, the fact that this she-wolf is mine won’t matter to them. And if they claim her first, the mate bond, my fated mate bond, will be gone forever. I can’t let that happen.
When we get higher up into the areas where the forested mountain becomes rocky, Shaw slows, lifting his head into the air and sniffing for her scent. Since we know where the opening to the safe area is, we continue to make our way there while he searches for her scent.
It’s possible that she didn’t go inside. If she caught my scent, it could have scared her off. But I’m hoping that she needed the food and shelter more than she feared my scent.
As we get closer, I catch her scent and the scent of another she- wolf, younger than my mate. I follow it to the entrance of the hiding spot that Kinsley found and I smile. If nothing else, I know my mate has eaten recently and hopefully she slept here last night. If I’m really lucky, she’s still here.
I carefully make my way into the space where Kinsley leaves the food. I realize that I should have brought some with me. Now,
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depending on what happens with my mate, I’ll either have to come back later, or I’ll have to figure out how to get more here. I don’t want hopeful she-wolves going hungry because of my distraction with my mate. I’ve made a commitment to help. these she-wolves and I need to fulfill that. I’ll just have to figure it out once I’ve found my mate.
When I finally get inside, my heart drops. While I can smell her scent and the scent of the other she-wolf, neither of them are here. I lift my nose, sniffing the air. Her orchid scent is filling the small space and the small bit of air blowing around in here is wafting her scent around me.
I can see that the food that Kinsley and I left yesterday is gone. It also looks like both women slept here last night. I walk around sniffing the ground until I find the spot where my mate slept. Her scent is strong. I touch the ground and realize that it is still warmer than the earth around where she was sleeping. She hasn’t been gone long. Then I see the bag. I reach out and take the bag, bringing it to my nose. This is my mate’s bag. It’s possible that she forgot it, but most likely, she’s coming back.
I begin looking around. I hadn’t looked for the secret exit yesterday when Kinsley told me about it, but that must be how they got out. Otherwise, I would have seen them. I see the card sitting on the stone table and s**h it up. I find where the back exit is and I walk over to it, sniffing the walls and catching her
scent.
I feel Shaw perk up in my mind and I open my senses, letting him guide me to whatever caught his attention.
“Be careful, Penny. If you go that way, there are several packs. that are close together. You have to be very careful not to cross
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onto their pack lands,” my mate instructs. I know it’s my mate by the fluttering my heart makes at the sound of her voice.
“Which way do you think is safer?” the girl, Penny, asks.
It’s quiet for a moment while my mate ponders her answer. Is she staying or are they going their separate ways now?
“If we hadn’t heard the sounds of wolves nearby last night, I’d say go the other way, but since we did, I think you should head toward the packs. See the one in the middle there? That one is safe, and you are probably safe to go between their pack and the one to the left of them. There’s about a mile between the pack borders, but you’ll have to be fast. I don’t know if that pack is hunting she-wolves, so skirt closer to the one on the right.”
I think about where my mate is directing the younger she-wolf. The middle pack that she’d see from up here would be Alpha Carter’s pack. I wonder how she knows that his pack is safe. Alpha Dutton’s pack is on the left of theirs from this perspective and it’s also safe, although Dutton hasn’t found his mate yet. I know he’s not out hunting for a mate, but I also don’t know that he wouldn’t let an opportunity like that pass him by if one landed, at his front door. So, my mate’s instructions are perfect for this she-wolf.
I hear Penny say something quietly to my mate, but I don’t hear what she says.
“Yes,” my mate responds.
“It must be hard to be this close.”
“Yes, it is,” my mate says sadly.
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This close to what?
I hear the rustling of clothing and then the snapping of bones as Penny shifts.
“Be safe, and I hope our paths cross again,” my mate says.
Penny lets out a soft bark and then I hear her paws running off in the direction of Alpha Carter’s pack.
I wait, listening, until I hear my mate sigh and then I hear the tell- tale scratching of skin and clothing against the rocky surface of what must be the exit. She’s coming back.
I move, not wanting to startle her and cause her to hurt herself. The fa**t place I can move in this small space is over by the main entrance. As I feel her getting closer, I take a deep breath of her scent.
The moment she steps back into the space she stops. Her eyes go wide, and she immediately starts to turn back.
“Wait!” I say, putting my hands up. “I could have captured you, but that’s not the type of man I am. Please, I just want to talk to you,” I say to her.
“The type of Alpha you are, you mean?” she asks, not moving away from the exit.
“Please, I just want to talk to you.
“How did you even get in here?” she asks, looking around.
“It’s my Beta female who is leaving the food. I caught your scent yesterday when I came here with her, and I couldn’t sleep all night, worrying about you, out here alone.”
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“I wasn’t alone,” she says.
“That juvenile she-wolf doesn’t count. I’m sure you were providing more protection to her than she was to you.”
“How did you…” she begins, but I tap my nose. “I caught her scent as well.”
She looks at me warily. “What do you want to talk about?”
I look at her a moment. I know she must sense the mate bond, but since she’s also on the run, I know it’s probably scaring her right now.
“What’s your name?”
She looks at me for a long moment. “Josephine.”
Josephine? It’s not a name, I know and now that I’m closer to her, I can smell that she’s an Alpha. I’ve been given a rare gift from the Moon Goddess, an Alpha she-wolf for a mate. Given how long it took her to respond, I’m guessing it’s a fake name. I can understand why she’s scared. But I want her to know that she can trust me.
“My name is…”
“I know who you are, Alpha Hunter,” she says.
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“I wasn’t alone,” she says.
“That juvenile she-wolf doesn’t count. I’m sure you were providing more protection to her than she was to you.”
“How did you…” she begins, but I tap my nose. “I caught her scent as well.”
She-looks at me warily. “What do you want to talk about?”
I look at her a moment. I know she must sense the mate bond, but since she’s also on the run, I know it’s probably scaring her right now.
“What’s your name?”
She looks at me for a long moment. “Josephine.”
Josephine? It’s not a name, I know and now that I’m closer to her, I can smell that she’s an Alpha. I’ve been given a rare gift from the Moon Goddess, an Alpha she-wolf for a mate. Given how long it took her to respond, I’m guessing it’s a fake name. I can understand why she’s scared. But I want her to know that she can trust me.
“My name is…”
“I know who you are, Alpha Hunter,” she says.