The Claiming by Cooper

The Claiming by Cooper Book 4

The Contest by Cooper (Jaxon & Evangeline)

Chapter 40 (Jaxon)

It took me a couple of hours to recover from the morning training session, but by lunch time, I was mostly back to normal.

“Are you gonna make it, Super Hotty?” Eve teases me over lunch.

“If you had asked me a couple of hours ago, I’d have said no, but at least now I feel like I can walk.”

“That was brutal,” Alejandro says, having come to sit with us.

“If you think that was brutal, just wait. If he is anything like Ezekiel, we’ll all be barely standing by the end of the week,” Eve says.

“Yeah, it was about two days before we were all struggling to get through both classes each day and by the end of the week, none of us were able to hold our heads up to eat dinner.” I tell him, enjoying my lunch while my body still can.

“Was it really that brutal?” Magdalena asks.

“Yes,” both Eve and I say together.

After lunch, Eve looks at me. “I was going to spend some time with Maggie this afternoon.”

“Perfect, I wanted to speak to Rowen. She mentioned wanting to talk to me while I’ m here.”

Eve comes over, wrapping her arms around my neck and looking up at me. “See you for afternoon training?”

My arms rest perfectly around her waist, pulling her against my body. “I’ll see you there.”

Her lips start twitching and I raise my eyebrow.

“I’m sure it will get easier for you,” she says, a full-on smile spreading across her face.

“You,” I say, pecking her lips, “are lucky I love you.”

“Every minute of every day,” she says, before leaning in for a d*eeper k*iss. This one lingers until someone, presumably her father, loudly clears their throat. I pull away. No since kicking over the beehive.

Eve shoots a glare at her father before heading out with Maggie. I turn and go in search of Rowen. I follow her scent to her room, where I knock.

“Come in,” she says from inside her room. I open the door to see her sitting on her bed looking out the window.

“Oh, hey Jax.”

I say,

move to one of the chairs in her room. By chair, I mean bean bag blob on the floor. I hate the things. Once I’m in, it feels practically impossible to get out of it. But I’m here to see my sister, who said she wanted to talk to me, so I flop down into the

“What’s up, Rowe?”

a d*eep breath and looking up at

my sister. “Did you find your

year. But he’s in

I picked her scent out of every other one that first day of the contest. She was like nothing I’ve ever smelled before,” I say, smiling as I remember honing in

that moment on, I knew she was mine. I knew I had to have her and that being away from her was going to be

he’s too young to feel it,” she

you talk

looking up at me.

Alejandro are pretty sure

wide at that. “Teagan is

But while Teagan is about to turn 18, Alejandro is

smell me, if he can sense the mate bond, then why didn’t he approach me?” she

deserves someone stronger. Although, it hasn’t escaped me that he hasn’t rejected her either, so maybe

know, Rowe. Maybe your

that’s the case, then I deserve

is it?” I

me, debating if she

You know

“It’s Alpha Enzo. Alpha Antonio

beat him in the race, didn’t

nods. “Do you think that could be why? Because

reason, you’re right, he doesn’t deserve you. He’s an Alpha and I can tell you, as a mate,

she only finished the

she dug d*eep inside herself, just like you and everyone else

don’t know Enzo very well, but I’ll pay more attention in the next round. If you want, I’ll give you my impressions. Plus, he’ll be older. If he wasn’t sure he was feeling the pull of the mate bond then, he’ll have

forward, wrapping her arms around my neck and laying

her a moment before

this competition because of him. You fight for what you want.

at me. “Yes, big brother, I hear

fighting for what you want,

snorts. “Are YOU going to make it?” she asks me, like

little sis, nothing is getting in the way of me getting my

Jordan POV

morning and nearly as h*ard as my

already feeling stronger, and I have

my door. I look up to see