The Claiming By Cooper

The Claiming by Cooper (Jara & Mason)

Chapter 69

Jara

On the morning of Day 4, I wake up hungry again. Perhaps today I can find a food source that won’t require me to eat raw meat. There have to be nuts and berries around here somewhere. Just as I think it, I see a chipmunk running through a tree a couple over from where I am. Even from here, I can see his cheeks are full of some sort of food.

Good.

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I begin to carefully make my way through the trees moving toward the back of the territory. From up here, I can see most of what is going on below me. I periodically have to stop when wolves or men come crashing through the forest. Sometimes I hear the sounds of fighting, sometimes I hear howling, as if someone has caught my scent and sometimes, I hear the sounds of dying.

Occasionally, those beneath me actually do catch my scent and I have to stay absolutely still until they give up and move on.

It’s mid-afternoon before I finally get to a spot I haven’t been before. On the first day, I passed several of these small cliff faces without taking the time to climb them. Today, I find myself close to one that I haven’t been on top of yet.

when Elijah climbs over the side of the cliff, pulling himself to the top. I couldn’t see him from where I am crouched on my tree limb, and I couldn’t smell him. If he’d have come up five

He’s patient, like Mason, surveying the landscape below us. I see him smile and I wonder if he sees Mason, or maybe one of his pack mates. I wonder where

know you’re close. When the wind shifts, I can smell you.” He says,

for me being

Beta quietly climb over the top of the cliff behind Elijah. Elijah is

attack, I shout

Typhon’s Beta’s surprise at my outburst.

a fight to the death. Both of them have their claws and canines out snarling and snapping at the other. As I watch, the Beta pins Elijah

the Beta in the face, the force causing them to roll. Elijah takes advantage and gets on top of the Beta. He begins punching and clawing at the Beta like a man possessed. The Beta, however, is strong and manages to throw Elijah off of him, nearly

making it slippery on the stony surface. When Elijah loses his footing, the Beta

jumped and as I land, my right arm wraps around the Beta’s neck, while my left hand punches into his back. As I wrap my hand around his still beating heart, he stops, startled at having been attacked and now

forward putting my lips to his ear. “How do you like this

of his pending death. Before his heart finishes its last beat, I rip it from his

back,

watch Elijah push his body off of

at me a moment before putting his head