The Claiming by Cooper Book 5
The Beta Trials by Cooper (Jace & Jordan)
Chapter 68 (Gianna)
I walk with Jordan into an open field where hundreds of people are milling around. No, not people. Every person here is a werewolf.
Aunt Jara comes up on the other side of me and puts her arm through mine. “No one will hurt you. You’ll be safe with us. You’re safe here,” she says.
Jaxon, who I met the other day, turns to look at us. “I’ll be back to check on you later Gianna, but Eve and I need to go talk to some of these folks. Not only are many of them going to be at the Beta Trials, but some want to join our pack,” he says.
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“Same, but we’ll periodically check on you, Gianna,” Rowan and Raelyn say, all of them walking into the assembly with their mates.
The bear, Balor, looks at Jusan. “You take the west side, I’ll take the east. Kyra and her father have a table there in case anyone wants to talk about the virus. I want to be close to her,” he says, before turning and carrying her off to her table.
I look at Jordan.
She looks at me, but when I don’t say anything, she smiles. “You can ask me anything.”
“Okay, I know I was raised in the human world and all, but it’s kind of creepy for a grown man to be mated to teenage girl. At least where I come from.”
“It’s weird for us too. But the mate bond doesn’t care about age or species it seems,” Aunt Jara says, just as Uncle Seth comes walking over. He’s eyeing Balor.
“Who’s the big guy?” he asks, taking my hands and k*issing my cheeks. “How are you, Gianna?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
“Your heart rate is very fast,” he says. It’s so odd that they can hear my heartbeat. “There’s more people here than I was expecting and, well, I’m sort of the odd woman out.”
“No, you’re not. You have just as much right to be here as anyone else. Maybe more,” he says fiercely.
“The big guy is Balor, the bear, and that one is Jusan. He found his mate this afternoon,” Aunt Jara tells him.
“A wolf?” he asks, frowning.
“Yep, one of my warriors, Emily,” Jordan says as I look around.
“So, what is this gathering for exactly?”
“We’ve had ten pack lands that have been idle for nearly twenty years. We held a competition for those that weren’t in line to inherit a pack, like Jaxon, to compete in several events to win a pack. The top ten individuals now have pack lands that are vacant and run down. So, this gathering is to let individuals who might be interested in leaving their packs or trying something new like building something from the ground up, meet the different Alphas, their mates, and talk to them about their plans for developing a new pack.”
“Personally, I’ve had a lifetime of rebuilding something, only for it to fall apart and having to start again. For me, that’s what foster care was all about. Every new home was about starting over, rebuilding a life that then crumbled around me. If it were me, I’d rather be somewhere established, somewhere that I had a place, a position, a job, whatever you want to call it,” I tell her.
Aunt Jara pulls me into a hug. “This family will never fall apart. Never. We will always be here for you. That’s what being a member of a pack and this family is all about,” she says.
I wrap my arms around her. “Thank you, Aunt Jara.”
I’m just about to tell her how much I appreciate her and all of them when a bunch of howls go up nearby and suddenly, the air around me is full of energy and people are turning into wolves, their clothes shredding and floating in the air before falling to the ground.
“Stay here!” Uncle Seth says, and I feel pressure from his words to hold still as he turns and leaps into the air, shifting into a giant black wolf. Uncle Mason is right beside him as a large number of wolves race into the gathering and fighting breaks out all around me. “Get behind me!” Aunt Jara says, stepping up in front of me. She gets into a crouch and the growl that comes from her is anything but human.
“Jordan, watch out!” I hear Jace yell, just as he too leaps and shifts, racing toward another wolf and biting onto his l*eg. They begin fighting in a horrible, visceral fight, snarling and ripping at each other with teeth and claws.
I watch, with equal parts horror and fascination as Jordan’s hands become elongated claws and she slices into the wolf that is attacking Jace. Then another wolf leaps, throwing her to the ground.
Aunt Jara bumps into me bringing my attention back to her as yet another wolf is snapping at her. She snarls a deep, guttural snarl before leaping and shifting into her own black wolf and attacking the wolf that was coming for her.
I want to run, I want to hide, but all around me wolves are fighting, going after each other and periodically, going after me. Each time a wolf comes for me, another wolf jumps at them, knocking them away from me. I recognize Uncle Seth’s wolf and Aunt Jara’s but other than those two, I can no longer tell which wolves are good and which ones are bad.
Everywhere I look, there are wolves fighting.
I’m trying to find a way out of here, when suddenly, one of the wolves shifts and the man who turned my life into a daily horror movie begins walking toward me.
“Hey baby. I’ve missed you and my pup,” he says lasciviously, looking at my stomach. “I’m glad to see my little one is still doing well.”
I can’t breathe, I can’t move. This horrible man who raped me repeatedly is here and everyone is fighting these wolves. There’s no one to help me. It occurs to me that this is why they are here. They came for me.
“JORDAN!” I scream as the man lunges for me.
Suddenly, the most delicious scent of freshly baked p*umpkin pie hits my nose and I feel something brush across the top of my head. I duck, then look up to see a tall, muscular wolf land in front of me, before leaping again and tackling my rapist to the ground.
I watch in horror as my rapist shifts back into a wolf and the two of them begin their fight to the death. I can’t look away from the grey wolf. He’s the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen in my life, lithe and graceful in his deadly dance. I know there is fighting going on all around me, but my focus is solely on the wolf that came to help me. I watch as he expertly fights against this wolf, snapping first one l*eg, then another. When he finally has him in the position he wants him, he lunges and snaps his teeth into the throat of my rapist. I watch the wolf’s eyes go wide as blood squirts from his throat. The grey wolf doesn’t let go and when my rapist begins to stumble, the grey wolf thrashes his head back and forth until he rips the throat out of my rapist’s wolf before spitting it on the ground.
The violence that I’ve witnessed makes me feel nauseous, but at the same time, I feel like this wolf was protecting me. Maybe it’s one of my family, but I don’t remember any of them smelling like p*umpkin pie.
The grey wolf looks around, then turns, looking at me. I step back, wrapping my arms around my stomach protectively, seeing the evidence of his violence on his face as he stalks towards me.
When he shifts, he is p*anting heavily and he stands in front of me, n*aked, blood all over his face and c*hest. His eyes are still intense with his recent kill, but when he looks at me, I can’t look away. “Mate,” he says, then looks down at my pregnant stomach.
The growl that leaves his m*outh has me taking another step back.