The Claiming by Cooper

The Contest by Cooper (Jaxon & Evangeline)

Chapter 67 (Evangeline)

I didn’t sleep well. Or, I should say, I wouldn’t have slept well if it weren’t for Jaxon purring everytime he realized I was awake. So, I wake much more rested that I expected to be and after a good breakfast, I’m feeling ready for today’s challenge.

I’m third in the queue, meaning I have about two and a half hours before it’s my turn. Caleb is first up this morning, so we go outside to stand with Maggie while her mate runs through the course.

“I hope he does better than I did,” she says after the gun goes off and he races into the territory.

“It’ll be fine Maggie,” I tell her. And when he emerges, I’m proven right. Caleb exits the territory with eight flags.

Maggie runs into his arms, and he swings her around. It’s very likely that Caleb just made it through to the final round with that many flags.

I begin getting nervous as the second contestant enters the territory. I begin to fidget and move around, I’m getting myself really worked up when Jaxon wraps his arms around my waist, putting his h*ands on my stomach. “Relax, Eve. You’ve got this. Your senses are so much stronger right now.”

“I know, but…”

“Shhhh, close your eyes.”

“Jaxon…”

my ear. “Close your eyes,”

as

back against me,” he says as he

close to my ear that I can feel his breath as it

to my ear. He pulls his head back, so I can continue

is a sound of a growling mountain lion. It’s on a loop, running

mountain lion, it’s on repeat and once I’ve heard it several times, I recognize that the sound repeats

off to the right, I hear the rustling of a mole, or some other animal burrowing into the earth. Just like the

my nose, quickly finding the deer. That one must be close. No deer would come

come racing out of the territory, running from a giant bear, I’m pretty sure that’s

off in this territory, the scent of sunflowers in a place where sunflowers don’t grow, so I’m pretty sure

finally, I catch a faint scent of blood. I’m really hopeful that it’s just a small amount of blood, because in my current

is nearly up and I’m feeling calm

I’m up and the gun goes off, I don’t hesitate. I take off, heading for the deer scent first. I snatch my blue flag and keep going, following the sound of the mountain lion. On the way, I see the squirrel. He’s sitting on log, just looking

over to it, not sure what it is, and then I realize that it’s a dead squirrel that has been stuffed by a taxidermist. I look around and find the flag before continuing on my way. I’m not as fast as I would be if I wasn’t three months pregnant, but I’m still able to get to all of the stations for scent and sound before the gun goes off letting

with seven flags. Since we’re about halfway into the contest, it’s becoming clearer that anyone under seven is out, anyone over seven is in and those who have seven

and he emerges with eight

she’s out of the competition. Jaxon, while still making sure to t*ouch me, is distracted and I know tonight