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, closing

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,

“What’s up, Rowe?”

on her bed that she’s sitting on before taking a d*eep breath and looking up at me. “How

eyes at my sister.

but I’m not sure. He’s younger than I am, almost a whole year. But he’s in the competition.” She says, looking down before looking back up at me. “How

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 on my mate. “And then she made eye contact with me, and it was like

her and that being

too young to

you talk

up at me. “No,

Alejandro are pretty sure that they are

“Teagan is

Teagan is about to turn 18, Alejandro is still

if he can sense

hasn’t told Jordan that he knows that they are mates, because he thinks she deserves someone stronger. Although, it hasn’t escaped me that

your strength in the competition

then I deserve better. And I doubt it anyway,

it?” I

debating

tell anyone. You know

looks at me another moment. “It’s Alpha Enzo. Alpha Antonio

minute. “You beat him in the race, didn’t

think that could be why? Because

off the death-trap chair and going to stand beside my sister. “If that’s the reason, you’re right, he doesn’t deserve you. He’s an Alpha and I

finished the race because of

because she dug d*eep inside herself, just like you and everyone else that finished had

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

forward, wrapping her arms around my neck and laying her head on my

her a moment before pulling

this competition because of him. You fight

at me. “Yes,

for what you want, I’ll see you

going to make it?” she asks me, like the bratty sister she

sis, nothing is getting in the way

Jordan POV

the evening training even h*arder than the morning and nearly as h*ard as

already feeling stronger, and

knock at my door. I