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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for the hunters to find me. He seemed to realize that I needed to get away quickly and he suggested the train. You don't have to pay for the train, you find an empty car and you jump into it,

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

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

I jumped in the car, there was another girl there, another

and her head snaps

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

the mountain, but I could hear the two of you

over her face. "Penny was there. She's an underaged G**a and unlike me, she hadn't found a place to settle. She'd been running and apparently word of your little food pantry

"Food pantry?"

21-16

"It's

guess," I

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know if we could trust it. I was actually thinking, or hoping really, that it was my family who

Alphas still

that. "F**king vultures," she says, and

she asks,

Little Sophie Meyers,"

you, that little girl

woman, striking really You were beautiful when

asks, but I can see her blush, even though she tries to hide

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

tell she doesn't know how to respond to what I've said, and an uncomfortable silence begins

us.

www

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I ask her, not wanting her to leave. I quickly glance over her body, seeing that even

some of the food

frown. "You make it sound like it was hers and not yours. It was

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 fell into a food

"I'm glad there's enough food. I'll make sure