The Claiming by Cooper

The Claiming by Cooper Book 4

The Contest by Cooper (Jaxon & Evangeline)

Chapter 14 Jaxon

I wasn’t sure I’d see Evangeline again until tomorrow, but I was thrilled when she decided to come wait with my family for Raelyn to cross the finish line.

I really had planned to walk around the pack lands, just to see what they are like, but now that Eve has decided to join me, I think I’ll take my time and the waterfalls sound romantic.

We begin traipsing through the forest and I realize just how overgrown it is.

“Have your parents ever told you about their time in the claiming?” She asks as we walk.

I laugh. “My mother loves to tell the story of how she was seconds away from getting out unclaimed when my father tackled her. My father likes to say that she was so distracted by the other Alphas, your father included, by the way, that she didn’t even see him coming.”

I look at her. “How about your parents?”

She nods. “Somewhere out here there is a cliff where my mother hid for nearly the entire time she was in the claiming. I guess it made the males in her claim nuts. They couldn’t smell her, couldn’t find her trail except her initial one near this lake and waterfall. After that, she stayed in the trees until my father accidentally stumbled across where she’d been hiding and waited for her. He’s very proud that she wanted him, and he loves to tell the story of how she exposed her neck for him to mark her.”

I look at her. “Sounds romantic.” I say, not sure if that’s where she’s going with the storv;

“You know, in theory, it has always sounded romantic.” She says distractedly, stopping and doing a full circle, looking around. “But now that I’m here and I can see what it must have been like for all of them, the romance of the story is lost on me.”

Her eyes go unfocused as she gets lost in her thoughts. I wait, hoping she’ll keep talking.

“I mean. I’ll be turning 18 in a few months. Conceivably, I would be coming here soon after my birthday to be captured by some man, someone I might not even know. I mean, what if I didn’t like them. What if we weren’t compatible.”

Her eyes refocus on me.

“Back then, it didn’t matter. It’s barbaric.” She says.

racing from the battles she said they had, the deaths that littered the

the claiming. And so many were killed. It’s crazy to think about it now. I’m 18, so I could have been in your claiming. I would not only

mine. “No chance in hell you’d have caught me, Alpha. I

enjoying this little tete-a-tete. “And I am my father’s son. I don’t lose, especially if I have my eye

I a prize to you,

you’d be a prize to anyone lucky enough to claim you as their mate. But if I had to compete for you, fight against every other male in this contest, I’d

the number of Alphas in this competition.” She says, but I can see the slight blush

doesn’t make it any less true.” I tell her. “Come on, let’s get to the lake before the sun

both of us quiet as we

clearings, but overall the forest is dense, a perfect area for a

and smelling the water. “How

it, but it’s large enough that if you were trying to get the person on the other side, they would have plenty of

not much further before we reach the tip of the lake. “Oh wow, it is large.”

at the back and see at the top? My mom said there’s a cave up there where most of the contestants stayed their

check it out.”

“Definitely.”

the water. I lean down,

up at Eve, smiling. “It’s

touch it. “Oh, are you

to go for

“Oh yeah.”

first, or swim first?” I ask

check out the

see how my mother was able to hide and not be

of the waterfall and look

one hell of a view.” I say. From up here, you can see so

on.”

here after all the

the cave. “My mom said they started signing their names to the wall in here the year she

the same.” She