The Claiming By Cooper

The Claiming by Cooper Book 4

The Contest by Cooper (Jaxon & Evangeline)

Chapter 11 Evangeline

I’m exhausted and everything hurts, but I’m actually enjoying myself. Jaxon is funny, intelligent and he never breaks the pace. He sets it and sticks with it. He’s a great running partner. I had thought that I might need to shift into my wolf, but at this rate, I think I can do the entire run in my human form. I’d be willing to push it anyway, just to continue talking to Jaxon.

When we hit the last rest stop, I ask again what time it is. It feels like the night is only about halfway done when they tell me it’s 5am. I’ve been running 23 hours straight. Ten miles to go, three to four hours left, and I’ve done it. I’ve passed the first cut.

“Who’s ahead of us?” Jaxon asks as we pass through.

This time it’s Alpha Paolo, Alpha Asher and Luna Mignon’s oldest son who is stationed at the rest stop.

“Tobias is a few minutes ahead of you, and Taylor is only about a minute ahead of you. She’s out of steam. I was surprised she didn’t stop.”

“Not her style.” Jaxon says as we run through.

As we run back out into the darkness, I look at Jaxon. “Almost there “

“Almost! We can do this.”

“Definitely.” I say.

“Okay, when you’re ready, it’s your turn to ask first.” He says to me.

I’d been thinking about it, so I’m ready. “If you win…”

“When I win.” He corrects me.

I stress the ‘when’, “how will you choose your Beta? Are you planning to go with the family lines or choose from those competing

a while. There is obvious benefit to choosing family to be your Beta and Gamma, but there are also many out there that would be really great at it. Not only that, if I take a Beta and Gamma from another family, I’ve just strengthened my alliances with those packs. For me. I’ll already have an alliance with Jordan, then, let’s say your brother Lazio doesn’t win in this tournament. If he were to compete in the Beta trials and I chose him as my Beta, well, now

well now I’ve also created an alliance with your cousin Nathaniel when he takes

pack being the fourth.” I say. It’s not necessarily needed, but in wolf packs, it’s always good to have allies and it’s actually a

allied to a quarter of the packs. And that doesn’t include if Taylor gets a pack and

just said, the one sticking in my head is Jaxon being mated to Noelle. “She’s not your type.” I blurt

dawning light of morning, I see a

you say

“She’s that uppity Alpha female

she’s okay, I barely know her, but I just don’t like the idea of him with

nearly 18 and I saw them huddled together the night before the race. I think he and Griffin are the same age, so he’ll be 18 in the next couple of months. If

feel a lot better knowing Noelle isn’t an option for

a bend in the path when we see Taylor standing on

“Taylor,

She says, leaning over and sucking

but she shakes her head.

the same no matter what form you cross the finish line.” He

of you have.”

He’s been my pacer almost the entire time. He’s a great running partner.” I

Go on you two. We’re all so close I can taste it. I just

back and he picks up our pace again, back

feel my

doing points for

they are giving points in groups of ten. Top ten group to finish gets 100 points, next group gets 90 and so on until the last group gets

coming in this early has it’s benefit?” I ask, knowing that the points are

“Exactly. “

come up enough that I can actually see the finish line ahead of us. I can’t believe we’re almost there. I find myself speeding