The Claiming By Cooper

The Claiming by Cooper Book 4

The Contest by Cooper (Jaxon & Evangeline)

Chapter 67 (Evangeline)

I didn’t sleep well. Or, I should say, I wouldn’t have slept well if it weren’t for Jaxon purring everytime he realized I was awake. So, I wake much more rested that I expected to be and after a good breakfast, I’m feeling ready for today’s challenge.

I’m third in the queue, meaning I have about two and a half hours before it’s my turn. Caleb is first up this morning, so we go outside to stand with Maggie while her mate runs through the course.

“I hope he does better than I did,” she says after the gun goes off and he races into the territory.

“It’ll be fine Maggie,” I tell her. And when he emerges, I’m proven right. Caleb exits the territory with eight flags.

Maggie runs into his arms, and he swings her around. It’s very likely that Caleb just made it through to the final round with that many flags.

I begin getting nervous as the second contestant enters the territory. I begin to fidget and move around, I’m getting myself really worked up when Jaxon wraps his arms around my waist, putting his h*ands on my stomach. “Relax, Eve. You’ve got this. Your senses are so much stronger right now.”

“I know, but…”

“Shhhh, close your eyes.”

“Jaxon…”

my ear.

do as he

me,” he says

his l*ips so close to my ear that I can feel his breath as

up my senses, focusing first on my hearing. I lean away from Jaxon, so he’s not right next to my ear. He pulls his head back, so I can continue to

the left, there is a sound of a growling mountain lion. It’s on a loop, running for a few seconds every 30

of it, but like the mountain lion, it’s on repeat and once I’ve heard it several times, I recognize

other animal burrowing into the earth.

open up my nose, quickly finding the deer. That one must be close. No deer would come this close to this many predatory

of the territory, running from a giant bear, I’m pretty sure that’s one of

territory, the scent of sunflowers in a place where sunflowers don’t grow, so I’m pretty sure

really hopeful that it’s just a small amount of blood, because in my current pregnant state,

the time I’m done, the hour is nearly up and

up and the gun goes off, I don’t hesitate. I take off, heading for the deer scent first. I snatch my blue flag and keep

around and find the flag before continuing on my way. I’m not as fast as I would be if I wasn’t three months pregnant, but I’m still able to get to all of the stations for scent and sound before the gun goes off letting me know that my hour is up. I jog out of the territory, Jaxon waiting for me. I drop off

then Enzo is up. He comes out with seven flags. Since we’re about halfway into the contest, it’s becoming clearer that anyone under seven is out, anyone over seven is in and those who have seven flags are at risk of having

group today and he emerges with eight flags as well. We

is consoling Maggie, since she’s pretty confident that she’s out of the competition. Jaxon, while still making sure to t*ouch me, is distracted and