The Claiming By Cooper

The Claiming by Cooper Book 4

The Beta Trials by Cooper (Jace & Jordan)

Chapter 32 (Jace)

I go back to the room and while I wait for Jordan, I get clothes and go bathe in the nearby lake. I’m just getting back when she walks in, looking thoughtful. “Everything okay?” I ask her.

“Yeah, how was today? Did you find anything?”

“We found some well-used trails, hunting trails we think. Their scent is way off, Jordan. They smell unclean, like they never bathe after taking down game and the blood and guts are just on their bodies, rotting. It’s disgusting.

Apollo and the other bears had it worse than we did with their enhanced sense of smell. But at least I know what I’m looking for now. I’ll recognize that stench from now on. Dad wanted to keep hunting, but I told him you ordered us home,” he says, looking at me.

I didn’t actually order them, but Jace was right to use that if needed to get his dad home. Luke hasn’t seen the wolves in action yet and while we’re all pack hunters, they attack when they have no business attacking, like with the bears.

“What about the doc. It looked like he was able to get a vaccine started,” I ask her as she looks through her limited clothing.

“Yes, and I called to get us rooms at the hotel for the next couple of days. Your family will help patrol the clan’s borders while we go figure everything out with the Elders,” she says, and I watch as her head drops.

“Is this about the Alpha that Dr. Braxton thinks is Alpha Typhon’s son?” I ask her.

“I don’t know if I should give my mother a head’s up or not. I’m not even sure she’s not out hunting the wolf pack with the others,” she says.

Jordan? Would you want to find out ahead of time?” I ask her, moving to her and tucking her hair behind her ear, letting my finger trail down her n*eck. I hold

Either way, it’s going to be a kick in the gut for her,” she

young, I remember. It was a bad time for everyone. When your mom lost her pup, she was devastated. She shut out everyone.

at her, seeing her watching me closely. “You need to have your father on the phone as well. I don’t know how your mother will take the news, but she will need him

into me. “Are you still

this life, she held me while I screamed for her not to

“Jace,” she says softly.

don’t Jordan’s pity. “It’s

downplaying the effect that that moment has had on your life, Jace. Nothing good has come from you doing that. You need to recognize that your mother leaving you wasn’t about you not being good enough, Jace. It was about her own heartbreak, and you have every right to be angry at her for that. She wasn’t thinking of you in that moment. Most likely she wasn’t thinking of anything other than the pain and emptiness of losing her mate. I don’t know how that feels, but I do know that if something happened to either of my parents, the other would follow right behind them. They wouldn’t want to live in a world where

pity. Her hands slide up my chest, but I don’t want her because she thinks I need her. I want

did Victor have to say?” I ask, changing the subject. I expected that the change of subject would have her stepping back, but she doesn’t. She stays pressed up against

if I was going to make you my Beta, and if so, he wants the Gamma position,” she says,

Trials?” I ask, trying to stay focused, but her warm body pressed against mine and her soft voice so close to me is sending

that too. He said he would rather be my

at that. Victor was given a raw deal, but he never complained about it. His adopted brother got the position that his father had for 15 years, simply because my father

wanted an Alpha female as your Beta?” I ask, my brain spinning with Jordan’s sweet peppermint scent. “I do. But what do

to be your partner, your mate. I don’t care what title that gives me. I don’t care if a lose my title altogether. I just want you, Jordan. I can still help you run

my hair and gripping it just

to accept you as my mate,