The One He Claimed by Cooper

Chapter 17: More Questions Hunter

I watch as my mate stares at me in disbelief. I'm beyond thrilled that she's at least talking to me. She no longer looks like she's ready to run at any minute. It seems as if she's truly interested in what I'm saying. I'm hoping that I've cleared up whatever memory she has of me from the night of her sister's birthday. Looking at it from her perspective, it may have looked like I was watching her possessively. 'We probably were. I was pulled to her even then,' Shaw says, and I can feel him blaming himself.

'Neither of us knew. How could we. But we're here now. We need to make this work, make her see that we mean it.'

"Did you have any other questions for me?" I ask her.

She shakes her head, and I see a ghost of a smile before she answers. "No, but I reserve the right to change my mind."

"I was serious about you asking me anything. I will never lie to you. I will share everything with you, my mate."

I see her frowning again. Hopefully, it's good that I'm surprising her. I really do mean what I'm saying.

"Can I ask you my questions now?" I ask.

She nods, looking hesitant.

"Where did you go?" I ask. While I didn't know she was my mate, I've often thought of Sophie over the past two years, wondering if she was safe, if she had been captured.

"I found a human town. It's a small place, in an area with a bunch of cattle ranchers."

I raise my eyebrow at that. Cattle ranchers don't think much of wolves running around their areas. It's actually a very smart and probably one of the safest choices she could have made to settle down. "How did you survive?"

"I got a job at a diner as a waitress. Sometimes, lone wolves. would travel through, and they'd all ask if I was okay,

recognizing that I was a juvenile. But they'd continue on their way, and I stayed."

"What happened that you finally left? You didn't go straight home, so it's not that," I say and now I understand the conversation between Sophie and Penny earlier. Penny knew that Sophie's pack was close by. That's what she meant when she said it must be hard to be this close.

"Some of the she-wolves on the run started coming through the area. The Alphas and other ranked wolves eventually followed. On the night I left, I saw a woman captured, being mated in front of the Alpha's pack members. I had run back to my apartment and seen another group of ranked wolves at the diner. I knew they'd catch my scent and find me. Hedda and I ran with just a small bag, but the last bus of the night wasn't leaving for another hour, and I knew I didn't have that much

More Questions

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bus station and hopped a bus there. At the first stop, I got off and asked the driver where the next closest bus station was. I wanted to make it hard for the hunters to find me. He seemed to realize that I needed

as she remembers that night. Her jaw has tightened, and no tears have spilled over, but I can smell the saltiness of them, along with the heightened fear that the memories are bringing

to comfort her, pull her into my arms and hold her, but I know that's not an option. Not yet

was another girl there, another she-wolf running from the claiming process,"

ask and her head snaps up

that?" she asks, and her body tenses as if she's ready to

up my hands. "I was waiting for you to return to the space inside the mountain,

"Penny was there. She's an underaged G**a and unlike me, she hadn't found a place to settle. She'd been running

"Food pantry?"

21-16

"It's free food,

guess," I

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looks down at her hands again. "That's a good thing that you do. I didn't know if we could trust it. I was actually thinking, or hoping really,

unmated Alphas still watch your

says, and I

asks, frowning

Little Sophie Meyers," I say,

that little girl is

striking really You

words, Alpha?" she asks, but I can see her blush, even though she tries

aren't just pretty words, they are words from my heart." I shrug. "Maybe it's the mate bond. I don't know and

what I've said, and an

us.

www

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the last time you ate?" I ask her, not wanting her to leave. I quickly glance over her body, seeing that even though she's been settled and in one place,

of the food

was hers and not yours.

was hungrier than I was, so I told her she could eat and leave first, and I'd stay for the next day's meal. But there was a lot of food and she practically

I'll make sure Kinsley knows that