The Claiming by Cooper

The Contest by Cooper (Jaxon & Evangeline)

Chapter 69 (Jace)

Jordan immediately steps out of my grasp. F*uc*king Nolan, this is twice he’s interrupted a conversation I was having with Jordan.

“Nolan, what are you doing here?” she asks him.

“I came to see if I could pry you away from your work and take you to dinner,” he says, eyeing me.

“Yes, absolutely,” she says, turning to me.

“We’ll talk later, Jace.”

I take a step back. “Remember what I said, Jordan,” I say, holding her gaze until she nods.

I walk past Nolan, nodding my head in greeting before walking out. As I get to the end of the hall, I hear him. “So, he’s the mate, huh?”

So, Jordan told him about me, or at least that she has a mate. I’m guessing that he also knows that she rejected me.

I walk downstairs, going to the kitchen to grab something quick to eat before heading back upstairs to my room. On my way out of the kitchen, I hear his voice.

should accept her rejection

face him. “You mean move on with

bond, and her. She needs someone that will stand by her side, support her

aren’t what Jordan needs. She needs someone who understands how to help her run a pack, someone who is here to have her back, who understands the difficulties she faces on a daily basis and runs interference on those difficulties, so she doesn’t have to fight for herself and her position every f*uc*king day. You know nothing about what Jordan needs. And what do think will happen if she accepts you as her mate? That you would just continue to go off and train people around the world? Leaving her here to run and pack AND raise her pups? What kind of life is that for Jordan? I’ll tell you. It isn’t one

nothing about me or my intentions, pup,” he says condescendingly, getting in

enough to know that you have no idea how to live in a pack. When’s the last time you spent more than a week or two in any pack, much less your own? You’re a wanderer, a lone wolf. Leave my Alpha

is sharp. I take a step back, my eyes

I

Evangeline POV

not sure what I was expecting, but the complete disarray of these pack lands wasn’t it. They are a disaster and all I can think about is, where

we went to, the packhouse had already started crumbling to the ground, literally falling apart in front of us. The second one had vines and trees growing

no one is going to move to any of these pack lands while they are in this state. Why would you

as dilapidated as the first one was. Jaxon comes up

like when we’ve made this place our home,” he says, making me turn

the first time he’s said

the pack lands. Personally, I think it was foolish to put the packhouse way out here. I much prefer having it like it is in Jordan’s pack, closer to the mountains. So, rather than rebuilding what is falling apart, we start fresh, new, making these pack lands something better than they ever

space differently as I listen to Jaxon, seeing

put a small town where we could have pack members open their own shops, making it easier to get things that we

and I love you. So, do you agree, we can put this one on our list?” he