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.

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 back a smile

to

Jordan’s head, my mind going back to the time of Typhon and his attack on Luna Jara. “Even though I was young, I remember. It was a bad time for everyone. When your mom lost her pup, she was devastated. She shut out everyone. The

I don’t know how your mother will take the news, but she will need

you still protecting your Luna,

me while I watched my mother give up on this life, she held me while I screamed for her not to leave me. She did for me what my mother couldn’t. She was there for me; she has watched over me as much as I have watched over

“Jace,” she says softly.

shake it off. I don’t Jordan’s pity.

to my l*ips. “Stop 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 the other didn’t

I don’t want to see her pity. Her hands slide up my chest, but I don’t

the subject. I expected that the change of subject would have her stepping back, but

and if so, he wants the

the Beta Trials?” I ask, trying to stay focused, but her warm body pressed against mine and her soft voice so

be my Gamma, than a Beta to another pack

never complained about it. His adopted brother got the position that his father had for 15 years, simply because my

female as your Beta?” I ask, my brain spinning with Jordan’s sweet peppermint scent. “I do. But what do you want, Jace? Do

that gives me. I don’t care if a lose my title altogether. I just want you, Jordan. I can still help you run the pack if I’m a

up, going into my hair and gripping it just enough that it sends tingles through my

my mate, Jace, but I, Jordan Stern, rescind my rejection of you, Jace