The Claiming by Cooper

The Claiming by Cooper Book 4

The Beta Trials by Cooper (Jace & Jordan)

Chapter 32 (Jace)

I go back to the room and while I wait for Jordan, I get clothes and go bathe in the nearby lake. I’m just getting back when she walks in, looking thoughtful. “Everything okay?” I ask her.

“Yeah, how was today? Did you find anything?”

“We found some well-used trails, hunting trails we think. Their scent is way off, Jordan. They smell unclean, like they never bathe after taking down game and the blood and guts are just on their bodies, rotting. It’s disgusting.

Apollo and the other bears had it worse than we did with their enhanced sense of smell. But at least I know what I’m looking for now. I’ll recognize that stench from now on. Dad wanted to keep hunting, but I told him you ordered us home,” he says, looking at me.

I didn’t actually order them, but Jace was right to use that if needed to get his dad home. Luke hasn’t seen the wolves in action yet and while we’re all pack hunters, they attack when they have no business attacking, like with the bears.

“What about the doc. It looked like he was able to get a vaccine started,” I ask her as she looks through her limited clothing.

“Yes, and I called to get us rooms at the hotel for the next couple of days. Your family will help patrol the clan’s borders while we go figure everything out with the Elders,” she says, and I watch as her head drops.

“Is this about the Alpha that Dr. Braxton thinks is Alpha Typhon’s son?” I ask her.

my mother a head’s up or not. I’m

I ask her, moving to her and tucking her hair behind her ear,

Either way, it’s going to

though I was young, I remember. It was a bad time for everyone. When your mom lost her pup, she was devastated. She shut out everyone. The entire pack suffered

well. I don’t know how your mother will take the news, but she will need

“Are you still protecting

my mother give up on this life, she held me while I screamed for her not to leave me. She did for me what my mother couldn’t. She was there for me; she has watched over me as much as

“Jace,” she says softly.

off. I don’t Jordan’s

Nothing good has come from you doing that. You need to recognize that your mother leaving you wasn’t about you not being good enough, Jace. It was about her own heartbreak, and you have every right to be angry at her for that. She wasn’t thinking of you in that moment. Most likely she wasn’t thinking of anything other than the pain and emptiness of losing her mate. I don’t know how that feels, but I do know that if something happened to either of my parents, the other

Her hands slide up my chest, but I

ask, changing the subject. I expected that the change

going to make you my Beta, and if so, he wants the Gamma position,” she says, her

pressed against mine and her soft voice so close to me is sending my

said he would rather be my Gamma, than a Beta to

a raw deal, but he never complained about it. His adopted brother got the position

with Jordan’s sweet peppermint scent. “I do. But what do you want, Jace? Do you want to

be your partner, your mate. I don’t care what title that gives me. I don’t care if a lose my

into my hair and gripping it just enough that

not sure that I’m ready to accept you as my mate, Jace, but I, Jordan Stern, rescind my rejection of you,