The One He Claimed by Cooper

Chapter 9: Food and Water

Sophie

"What are you talking about? I didn't start anything," I say to Penny.

"You may not have meant to, but you did. Word of you running, of your father standing up to the Alphas and refusing to track you down, spread like wildfire. Our mothers and sisters began to realize that we didn't have to a**e by the laws that we don't agree with, that we have a choice. Granted, it's not a great choice, being on the run, but it's better than being forced into something that you can't live with. She reaches out, taking my hands. "Some of the Alphas are on our side. Some of them agree that we need to stop this process."

"But not all of them," I tell her, remembering the girl in the woods. "Some Alphas are still out hunting, otherwise we wouldn't have to run."

"You're right, and some Alphas have put so many restrictions on their ranked females that they're not even allowed to leave the packhouses. Ranked she-wolves have started taking extreme measures, some of them taking their own lives to get away from this process.

"What? Why? Why would they kill themselves?" I ask shocked. "They would rather die than live with the embarrassment of

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Chapter 9. Food and Water

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having been claimed publicly. For some, it's not worth it."

I scrub my hands over my face. This is why there are so many she-wolves on the run now. When I first ran, there weren't any. It was just me, and it was easy to hide. Now it seems I'm going to have to be much smarter about hiding.

"Where are you going? I ask Penny.

"There are rumors of a place, a pack that is leaving food and water for those of us on the run. I never learned to hunt in my wolf form, and it's been a really long time since I've eaten. So, I'm heading there in the hopes of getting food."

a trap, you know," I

the food and water that have been

start staking the place out. If I were an Alpha hunting a ranked she-wolf, that's what I would do," I tell her. "Maybe, maybe not. I don't know, but like I said, I'm hungry and I

granola bars that I stuffed into it when I left. "Here, eat these," I say, tossing them

bottles of water, giving her one. "Make it last.

9 Food and

you so much. I don't remember the last

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You said my father stood up to the

was that the

I ask, terrified that my family

me.

war broke out.

is one of the Alphas that stood beside your father, I believe. I don't know much about your sister, but in cases like this, no news is good news, right? It means she hasn't tried to kill

feel terrible, having had no idea that I was

return home,"

nothing. You are the reason that it's working. You were the reason that there's a possibility that things might change. Please don't go back." "But my

going on, they've managed to get by this long. You going back would change everything. Please, you have to continue."

I'm not being held prisoner in my pack, waiting until the day I turn 18, so that some man who calls himself my mate can claim me in front of my pack. How

exactly what she means. That's why I ran. As a Ga**a, she has the potential to be a Ga**a, Beta, or a Luna. But for me as an Alpha female, I know that an Alpha will want me. The thought of having to lead a pack who had seen me in such a personal state still makes me sick to

place? This place where they provide free food and water to the

it isn't him and my mother leaving this food and water out. Even if it's not for me, they are

and check this place out too,"

don't take this the wrong way. I'm thrilled to

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you. But if the two of us stay together for too long, the possibility of both of us getting captured is higher, do you know what I mean? I think it's better

too, and we could at least get there to see if it's safe, before we split up. If they only provide food once a day, you could take the