The Claiming by Cooper

The Claiming by Cooper Book 4

The Beta Trials by Cooper (Jace & Jordan)

Chapter 23 (Jace)

Jordan and I got up early the next morning and after grabbing something to eat and some coffee, we get our bags and head out. We packed for a week, not sure how long we’d be gone, but knowing we need to stay long enough to do damage control with the bears and try to create an alliance between us. Worst case scenario, we need to recreate peace between the packs and the bears. We do not need or want a war with the bears.

I convinced Jordan to let me drive and as we leave our pack lands, I roll down the windows, letting the early morning air blow in the car.

“Jace, what are you doing?”

“Jordan, when’s the last time you rolled the windows down and sang along to the songs on the radio?” I ask her, raising my voice over the sounds of the wind.

“We need to create a gameplan on the way, not play,” she says.

“We have a four-hour drive, Jordan. I’m pretty sure we have time for both. You used to love singing songs in the car when you were younger,” I say to her. “How do you know?” I ask him.

He raises his eyebrow at me. “How many of the trips with your family did I NOT go on, Jordan? I have been protecting your mother for a very long time. Once I became Gamma, it became official, but since I was sixteen, your father has been bringing me on trips with your family so I could watch over your mother. You and Jaxon were only ten, and I used to love watching the two of you try to sing over top of the other one,” I tell her.

I connect my phone into the Bluetooth and start the playlist that I took hours to make last night. Since it’s early, I start with a song I know Alpha Mason and Luna Jara used to play and I know Jordan likes the song. It’s been remade recently, so I added the Luke Combs version of Fast Car.

I was careful not to put any songs about lost love, nothing too sappy or sad, mostly just happy songs that are easy to blast in the car and sing to. So, after Fast Car, I put on I’m Good by David Guetta and Bebe Rexha. And I watch as Jordan begins to create waves in the air with her hand outside the window as her body starts to move and she begins to sing.

I know I did the right thing when she leans her head back, closes her eyes, and just sings song after song. I begin singing along, not that either of us can hear the other, the air is in our ears and the music is loud, but the road is long and mostly vacant, and we drive singing together for a few hours.

When we finally stop before getting off the main road and heading into bear country, I pull into a gas station.

the car. “I never knew you had such a nice voice, Jace,”

snort. “I’m pretty sure that was

of the car, moving to p*ump gas

she says softly. “No chance that I didn’t hear you singing. You have a lovely voice. Maybe you’ll

be listening, but her words, the darkness of her eyes, and the low breathiness

the car, and taking a chance, I begin to sing a Daughtry song

I begin to sing. I hadn’t planned to sing more than a couple bars of the song, or at least nothing past the first chorus, but she doesn’t move, and she looks like she’s

gas p*umps pops, letting me know the tank is full,

“What about now?

What about today?

all that

if our love never

it’s lost behind words we could

What about now?”

until I get to the end of the song. Then, she does something I never would have expected. She leans up on her toes and k*isses me. I don’t hesitate, I wrap one arm around her waist, the other sliding

ain’t nothin’ good. They got themselves a hotel up the street if you need that, otherwise, you two better put out those flames before

I lift my nose into the air slightly and around the gas and oil smell, I smell the scent of human. “Sorry, sir. I got carried away,”

you got yourself

s*uck in his

food, and I’ll finish up here,” I say to

looks to be a wee bit younger than you.

man. He doesn’t know us at all, but he’s

but thank

Beautiful, classy girls like her don’t come along very often,”

as Jordan begins

“That’s the plan, sir.”