The Claiming by Cooper

The Claiming by Cooper Book 3

Layan’s Return by Cooper (Jara & Mason)

Chapter 38

Mason

Almost everyone leaves the next day. I made arrangements with Davis to get Layan’s things. I’m sure Elijah will want to go with her to collect them.

“Just let me know once she’s settled and ready to come get her belongings.” He says, his arm wrapped tightly around McKenna’s waist.

“I’ll see you soon, I’m sure, Luna.” McKenna says to Jara.

“Call me Jara, McKenna. You’re one of the Lunas now. We’ll be inviting you to attend our monthly meetings and we’ re having our first annual Luna council meeting this year. That will be in about a month at the same time that the Alphas have their meeting.”

She looks at Davis, almost as if she’s asking his permission. He raises his eyebrow at her, not saying a word.

She blinks, frowns for a moment then turns to Jara, the frown disappearing. “I’d love to. I can’t wait.”

“Good. We’ll be having a call before the in-person meeting to decide on our agenda. Last year it was two days, so we’re expecting the same. This year, however, most of us have young pups, so we’ll need to add in a lot of breaks for nursing and….” Jara’s voice trailing as they walk. She has hooked her arm into McKenna’s and is walking her to the car.

Davis watches them walk away.

“It’s amazing being mated.” He says quietly.

“It really is.” I say.

Davis frowns. “Do you think….”

“What?” I ask turning to him.

He turns to me. “I think we need to talk to Dr. Braxton or maybe Councilman Jason about the possibility that fated mate bonds are still out there. We just haven’t had enough she-wolves to really focus on it. But, after the last two claimings, after feeling the pull to McKenna that I did, and that she felt toward me, almost instantly, I think it’s worthwhile to start looking into that again.”

“I think that’s an excellent agenda item for our Alpha conference. And I think you may be right. Plus, now that we’re already adding to the female population, things will change. Not overnight, obviously, but just with the group of mated pairs from last year, we’ve already added seven females to our numbers. That’s just one year. Not that I expect our Lunas to single handedly repopulate our species. But, who knows, next year at this time, we may have even more to add to that, now that McKenna and Katerina are in the mix.” I say.

I hope she will be able to have pups, too. She’s

that if there is any concern that a pregnancy will cause Layan to have problems, possibly risking

amount time.” He says, and we begin

year, the next two years.” I say as we

McKenna.”

Davis.” I say shaking hands with him before he gets his mate

back into the main packhouse. We’re spending the days here so she

video. What about

too. You’re ‘free time’ just turned

look after my pups.” I tell her. “Is your mother

you know when she drops

before she brings the babies in. I take a moment to say goodbye to Nina and Phillip, thanking them for helping with our

to give them one more kiss. We say our goodbyes and then the packhouse returns to its

I ask Jara. “Not yet. I’m going to go make

am.” I say, just as Jordan

her against my chest with a bottle as I sit back down and continue working on

isn’t long before I begin to smell the delicious scents of dinner. I look down at Jaxon

in her little carrier when she fell back to sleep. “Smells like steak and something sweet. Your mommy is making me hungry.”

her head into the office. “All good? I just want to take this up to Elijah in case Layan wakes

time.” I tell her, looking down to see Jaxon is asleep now too.

she wheels in a cart of food, setting it up on the table in the room as

I tell her. She sets aside dessert and we eat, enjoying the quiet and our alone time

we finish, she hands me the

this?” I ask

cupcake.” She

at the cupcake and then at

“I did.”

ask, looking at the bare,

the

my finger at her, and when she’s close

get her settled and look at the cupcake again, picking it up and setting the plate