The One He Claimed by Cooper

Chapter 154: Choices

Zahn

I’m furious. I’ve never, ever known an Alpha who defers to his mate. For anything. I thought for sure that Hunter was just letting Sophie feel like she was in control of the situation. However, I was sorely mistaken. How dare they think they can keep me from my mate. She’s MY mate!

Adding insult to injury, I wasn’t even given a guestroom fitting my station as an Alpha? And they are giving Jocelyn the choice to see me or not? No f**king way. I’ll never see her again!

‘I’m pretty sure that’s what she’s hoping for,’ Kortan, my wolf, says in my head.

‘Can’t you do something?’ I ask him, not for the first time.

‘What is it you want me to do? She hates both of us. Even Cassidy hates us. She wanted her mate. We weren’t her fated mates. I don’t know that she’ll ever forgive us.’

‘We need a Luna,’ I grumble.

‘Maybe that’s your problem,’ he says.

‘What’s that?’

‘You want a Luna. You don’t care if it’s Jocelyn or not. She does.’

‘We need an heir, Kortan.’

“Short of raping her, Zahn, we’re not getting one. Maybe we should accept her rejection and let her go,’ he says sadly.

Not for the first time, I think back to my mate, my fated mate, Caralyn. Why did she have to kill herself?

Kortan whines in my head. I loved that woman, loved her with everything in me. But she never returned that love, never trusted me to be a good mate to her.

I can feel Kortan questioning the claiming process again. The public claimings. They were standard, everyone did them, it was the law. But my mate wasn’t the only one to kill herself after being claimed. Alpha Ezra’s mate had killed herself too. And there were others, others who lost their mates and either went into isolation or began hunting for a new mate, like I did.

‘We should have waited for our second chance mate,’ Kortan says. This is an old argument; one we’ve had many times.

‘We didn’t and now we have a mate. We need her to accept us.’

much as it

are you talking

her to accept us as we are, we need to consider changing

do that?’

women hadn’t flinched away or snarled at them. And I’m pretty sure that all three of them were pregnant. They had seemed…happy. I can feel Kortan’s desire to make his mate happy. We care about Jocelyn. Not like we did for Caralyn, but I don’t want her to die. She’s a Beta, she’d be a good Luna, but I’ll admit my own flash of jealousy at how the three women interacted with their mates. I want that. I want my mate to seek me out, to seek out my affection, my touch. I wish I’d had it with Caralyn, but

the other Alphas suggested. We may not like their ways, we may not agree with them, but they have what we want. I think we need to see how it is that they achieved

They have Lunas who obviously love them, and they have their pups in their mates’ bellies. All of these Alphas will

Jocelyn POV

Jocelyn. I have good news and bad news,”

“Good news first.”

going to recommend some vitamins for some deficiencies you have. You don’t have any

I was unconscious for a

the bad news,” he says and puts up several x-ray images. “Whoever set your bones either didn’t know what they were doing, or they were overwhelmed with the large number of bones that were broken. Without your wolf, it would have

walk, and I

way to remove the scarring. When your wolf returns, because I think she will, she can

call it what it is, doctor. I tried to

process will be long and slow. You’ll have to heal at

part of your body, and you can heal before we move to the

I ask, having attached to the biggest concern of everything he

here as long as you’d like. If you decide to stay, I’d

do you say that?” I

“This pack

what your mate said.” I watch as a huge smile spreads across his

“Brooklyn would know.”

have to be

ask. If there’s an option to get my body

it looks like you landed on your right side. There’s more damage there,” he says, drawing a line with his finger from the hip bone to the toes.

ask. Breathing is still painful,

wait and see if your wolf returns. A three-day recovery is a lot easier than a two-

let’s do it,” I

for a couple of days,” he stops, focusing on me. “I understand you may not want to see your mate. If that’s the case, you may want to speak with Luna Sophie about having guards placed on you. In my experience, Alphas don’t appreciate being told what they can’t do

scoff at that. “Protect me.