The Claiming by Cooper

Chapter 63

Chapter 63: Mason
Mason
Then next morning when I wake, everyone is moving around. No one slept well last night, since we could still here the sounds of the hunt and of killing in the night.
“What’s the plan, Alpha?” Elijah asks as we head out.
“Let’s head to the lake and check the hiding spots that we find along the way.” I tell him.
As we move through the territory, it’s quieter than it has been since this started yesterday. Those that tried to find Jara overnight, have finally settled or fallen asleep.
Elijah and I find several hiding spots, some with Jara’s scent and some without it. She found a lot of them, but not all of them. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. We also find some of the dead bodies that we heard yesterday. We pull the aside, knowing their bodies will begin to rot before the claiming ends.
When we get to the lake, we’re on the far side, away from the waterfall.
“What’s that?” Elijah asks pointing to the other side of the lake.
“Let’s go see. But keep your eyes open. It could be a trap.”
We walk around the lake. I use the time to sniff to see if I find Jara’ s scent. It isn’t until we’re close to the bodies that I smell her. When we get to them, I can see that they’re dead and have been for a while.
“Do you think she killed them?” Elijah asks, having smelled Jara’s
scent on them.
I look around, then up at the cave above us. “No. I think they were in the cave and were killed, possibly tossed into the water. Maybe Jara went to check on them and pulled them out of the water, thinking they had drowned. But either way, she was here, and I think she’s the one that pulled them out.
I shift and begin sniffing around the area where the dead bodies are lying.

‘Typhon’s Beta.” I tell Elijah through the mind link.
Elijah is looking around. He crouches down at the water’s edge. “Look at this.” He says.
I walk over and look at where he’s pointing. There is a set of footprints that walk into the water. The footprints are small, either Jara’s or an omega’s.
I look back up to the cave. ‘She was here when they were killed.’ I say, knowing I’m right.
“That’s my take. She must have done a d*mn good job of hiding. That or Typhon’s Beta was just on the hunt to kill and wasn’t paying attention.
I shift back and put my clothes back on. “I want to see the cave.” I tell him.
He nods, standing. We climb up the side of the waterfall until we get to the top. We sniff the air before walking into the cave.
“They were here because her scent is strong.” Elijah says.
“Yeah. I’m guessing she spent the first night here.” I say, turning in a full circle to look around. I’m hoping to find any clue as to where
Jara might be. As I’m looking, I see something on the wall. I walk over to have to chuckle.
“What is it?” Elijah asks, coming to stand beside me.
We read the words of the others from this year’s claiming. Then, at the bottom, Jara has left her own words.
My girls. My sisters-in-arms. We will prevail. Jara
Elijah slaps his hand on my shoulder. “One hell of a f*cking Luna.”
“Yeah. Come on. I don’t want to get caught up here and have to fight our way out. Let’s see if we can follow her trail.”
We head back down, and I have to shift back into my wolf to even find her scent. She was definitely in the water, and my guess, she was soaking wet last night. It was a cool evening. I hope she didn’t get too cold.
Elijah stays in human form and follows my wolf as I track Jara’s scent. I follow it to a tree and look up, before turning to look at Elijah.
“Another tree? Maybe we’re looking in the wrong places.” He says, smiling.
I shift back. “Let’s see if we can figure out which tree she slept in last night.” I tell him.
I follow what I think is her trail, but it’s hard to catch from this far down. I realize the trees are a good spot for her. Most of her claimants won’t expect her to be up in the trees. And most of the trees don’t look strong enough to hold someone my size. An omega might be able to manage, if they could climb that high, which is doubtful.
As we’re searching, looking up into the trees, I catch her scent. I turn, sniffing the air and find the tree she exited this morning. I look back up and to where we found her entrance and I begin retracing my steps. If she’s going to be spending a lot of her time in the trees, I need to know what her parameters are for finding a place to stop.
I walk back slowly, looking at each tree before finding the one where I think she slept last night.
“This one.” I say to Elijah.
“Why do you say that?” He asks.
“It has a large branch that juts out. She wouldn’t be visible from the ground, but she would also have room in case she started to roll off.”
“And it’s got other branches to catch her if she did actually fall off.” He adds.
I look at the tree for another moment. “So, now we know what to look for.” I say to him.
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