The Claiming by Cooper

Jara

Contestants? They call us contestants as if we chose to be here. As if this is some beauty pageant that we applied to participate in.

I don’t bother to pay any attention to the ones that are pulled for my “social gathering”. I have no interest in getting to know any of these assholes.

They pack us back into our SUVs and we return to our temporary housing. Mignon, Layan and Annabel arrived before us, and they are already inside chittering about the events of today.

“Hey, do you know who that man was that stood up for you today?” Hana asks as we walk inside.

I throw myself on the couch in the living area. “You mean Seth? He’ s my brother.”

“You have a brother in the claiming?” Mignon says, coming to sit beside me.

“He would be eligible for any of our claimings, wouldn’t he?” Annabel asks.

I look at them. “Yes, he is.” I say, looking at Hana, who comes to sit with us. “But I’m pretty sure he’s chosen to be in Hana’s claim.” I say, giving her a ‘sorry’ look.

She looks at me a moment. “Is he a good man?”

“He’s a great Alpha, a better brother and I’m guessing an even better mate. You heard him today. He doesn’t think of us as objects. And he loves my spirit.”

Hana thinks this over a minute. “Maybe you could introduce me after dinner tonight?”

I smirk at her. “That would make his night.”

“So, who got pulled for your social gathering tonight?” Mignon asks and the omegas begin chittering again about tonight’s event. First, there will be a social gathering. Then there will be a dinner where we will sit with a different group of males, forced to interact. And finally, there will be free time where we are expected to interact with all the claimants. There will be dancing and socializing, but all of us will have an assigned guard as well as a full entourage of guards at the event.

that I’m hoping I can deny all of them my time. And in an effort to push the wolves into a testosterone induced fight, I’m wearing a practically sheer black lace dress. The dress is off the shoulder but has sleeves that go to my wrists with a piece that hooks over my middle finger, holding it in place. The dress falls just below my knees but has a slit on the right side that

lipstick and dark makeup to my eyes. I finish the look with fat dangly earrings and black

I step out of my room to head to the waiting cars, I see that Hana has a similar idea. I can’t help but smile as I see her. Her dress is a daring red, also off the shoulder with

the same length as mine with a slit high enough to have the males slobbering over themselves. She’s finished her look with red heels similar in design to mine and a red chocker that will definitely cause chaos among

she sees me. “If we don’t cause mayhem tonight, then we’ve definitely done something wrong.” She says, linking her

dresses are considerably different than ours. They aren’t planning to incite a riot and I have a moment of guilt before I push it away. These omegas are excited about finding their mates. I wish I could share their joy and excitement, but I’ve seen the darker side of this process.

pink, sequined, spaghetti strap dress that is floor length but has a slit up to her thigh. Layan, on the other hand, has a pure white dress with spaghetti straps that falls in layers to

of the evening. I turn to Luke, the guard specifically assigned to me tonight. “Can I get

twitch. ‘No, Alpha. There is no

depressing.” Hana says.

her an evil grin. “I guess we’ll just have

going to ignore them?”

“I

She asks Hana.

that Hana feels guilty about spoiling their fun as well. “We’ll see who’s in

we arrive, we are taken to the rooms with our “social males”.

you ready, Alpha?” Luke asks me.

be with me all night,

“Yes, Alpha.”

time talking to you than to anyone else.” His lips twitch again as he opens

into the room, my head held high. I intend to look at all of them with disdain and then proceed to ignore them, but the Beta from this morning catches my eye.

him. “What is

holds out his hand. “I’m Beta

in his and he pulls it to his lips, kissing it. His eyes