The Claiming by Cooper Book 5
The Beta Trials by Cooper (Jace & Jordan)
Chapter 49 (Jordan)
We’re just pulling into Balor’s lands when my phone rings. It has rung multiple times, but I was busy enjoying the taste of my mate, several times, so I ignored it. Jace had just let me know we were turning off past the gas station we stopped at last time, and I just finished licking him clean as the phone began to ring.
I pull off of him, wiping my m*outh and loving the way he grabs my hair and pulls me to him for a filthy, hot k*iss.
“Just wait until I get my hands on you, Jordan,” he says as I reach to get the phone.
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I put it on speaker and as soon as Luke begins to speak, all the enjoyment of the last few hours fades, and I get serious again. Jace pulls his p*ants up and puts himself together before we get to the clan lands.
When we get there, Jace turns off the car, but we wait to get out, finishing the conversation first. Everything just got so much worse. If these females are sick, infected by the rogues, it means they have some version of rabies or distemper, and it will kill them if we can’t get to them.
I hang up as Darryl comes walking over. “Alpha, Beta,” he says as we exit the car. “I just got off the phone with Gamma Luke. He filled me in and I’m guessing you know what’s going on as well?” I ask him.
“Yes. Follow me, I’m assuming you’ll want to see the female right away. Ever since Brynn left, none of us have been able to approach her. She’s tried to escape several times, but we keep corralling her back into the cave where we’re holding her,” he says.
“Okay,” I say following him.
“Oh, and we put you back in the same cave you were in before,” he says. “Thanks, I’ll put our stuff in there and give you some space, Jordan. Let me know what you need from me,” Jace says as he turns and goes to get our bags.
I know which cave it is before Darryl points it out. There are several female bear shifters sitting around the outside and I can hear scrambling around inside. “What’s she doing?” I ask.
“Trying to find a way out, I think,” he says.
“Is there one?”
“No, but she’s also considerably smaller than any of us, even pregnant,” he says. “I’ve got a couple guys keeping their noses in the air, just in case she finds some way out that we didn’t know about.”
“Thanks,” I say as I step up to the front of the cave.
“Does anyone know her name?”
“No, she refused to tell Brynn or anyone,” he says.
I nod, taking a deep breath and walking inside. The female doesn’t seem to hear me as she keeps scraping at hole she’s created.
“Hello,” I call, when I see her. I don’t want to startle her, and I have to remember that her senses aren’t nearly as good as mine.
She whips around and I can see that her stomach is protruding quite a bit. “Who are you?” she asks. She has something in her fist, and I have to assume it’s some sort of weapon, or something she considers a weapon. Nothing that small would hurt me, unless it’s silver.
“My name is Jordan. My friends asked me to come to see you and talk to you about what happened and how you ended up here.”
“I told that other woman that I was raped and held captive and now, here I am again being held captive. I want to leave. I want to go home!”
“I understand that, and I want to do everything that I can to help you, but part of that help has to do with something you aren’t aware of. The men who raped you are sick,” I begin.
“No f*ucking s*hit, they’re sick! There’s a bunch of them and they are holding several women. If you want to help, let me go. I’ll tell the police about them and then they can come and hunt them down. Those women need help too,” she says, racing over to me and grabbing my arms. “Please! Please let me go,” she begs, and while tears stream down her face, her voice never wavers. She’s a tough woman.
I gently reach out and take her arms. “Listen to me. If you let me explain what is going on, and why you need to stay with me, and then you decide you still want to go, knowing the risks, I’ll let you go,” I tell her and I will, the council be damned.
She looks into my eyes for a long moment, evaluating whether or not she can trust me. When she nods, I blow out a breath.
“Let’s sit. First, tell me your name,” I say, guiding her to a place where we can sit. I let her keep her weapon. Maybe it will make her feel safe enough to speak with me.
“Gianna.”
“Gianna, are you hungry?”
“I won’t trust any food you give me,” she snaps at me.
“Okay, how about some water. If it makes you feel better, I’ll drink from it first and then when you feel comfortable that it’s not poisoned or drugged, you can have the rest.”
She nods and I’m about to mind link Jace when I realize that I can’t, not in front of her anyway.
I get up and go to the cave entrance. “Can we get some water and some food, please,” I holler.
‘You don’t have to yell so loud, Jordan, we can hear you,” Jace says in my head.
‘Yes, but I need to know that she can hear me too. I have no idea how much she can or can’t hear. I’ve never been around humans.’
‘Got it. I’ll bring up the water and will yell when I’m at the entrance.’
‘Thanks,’ I say before turning back to Gianna.
“Okay, while we’re waiting for the water and food, which I have coming in case you change your mind, why don’t you tell me how you were captured by those men,” I say.
“I was hiking. I like to come out here on the weekends to hike alone. It helps me to clear my head. I heard some wolves howling but I didn’t think much of it. Wolves are known to live in these mountains. Perhaps I should have taken that as a sign to leave. It wasn’t long after that they the first man showed up. I had been walking uphill and I was huffing a bit in the thinner air. When I looked up, he was standing there, above me at the crest of the trail.”
I watch as her eyes go unfocused with her memory.
‘I have your water, Jordan. Do you want me to announce it? It sounds like she’s talking.’
‘Give me a minute,’ I tell Jace.
“I waved at him, a little concerned about being alone with a strange man, but I carry pepper spray, so I wrapped one h*and around my pepper spray and stopped, watching him. He said something like, ‘What’s a pretty girl like you doing out here all alone?’ I told him I was hiking, but I was about done and ready to head back. He told me I needed to see the view from the top, that it was fantastic. Since that had been my plan anyway, and because I had my pepper spray, I went against my gut instinct, and I continued to the top. He stepped back, giving me space when I got there and he was right, the view was spectacular.”
She refocuses and turns back to me. “He offered to take me to his cabin, but I refused, telling him that I have people waiting for me back home and that I needed to get going. That’s when the others stepped out and I realized that I was surrounded.”
“How many?” I ask her.
She shrugs. “Ten maybe. Too many for me to fight off, but I had to try anyway, you know? So, I took off running, back down the hill. When I got there, they weren’t behind me, so I thought maybe I had gotten away, or they were just getting their kicks by scaring me. I headed back towards my car and that’s when I realized that he and his group had somehow gotten in front of me. I lifted my pepper spray and told them to stay back, but they just laughed at me. I sprayed a couple of them before they got it away from me, but like I said, there were too many for me to fight off.”