The Claiming by Cooper Book 5
The Beta Trials by Cooper (Jace & Jordan)
Chapter 52 (Jordan)
I like Gianna, and I think she likes me. She’s honest, tough, and caring. It’s a shame she’s a human, she’d make a good wolf.
She steps into the water and shivers. “Damn, it’s cold. I was hoping to bathe. I can still smell that man on me,” she says and this time her shiver has nothing to with the cold water.
She turns and looks behind her. “Not that I’d strip with your guard watching anyway,” she says.
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“I can send him away or tell him to give us some privacy. I’ll keep watch, and I can have Jace go get some soap,” I tell her.
She chuckles mirthlessly. “There’s not enough soap in the world for me to feel clean. I’d prefer scalding hot water, but I’ll take anything I can get in order to get his stench off of me.”
I look at Jace who goes jogging back up to get the soap.
She watches him go and then looks around. “Do you think it’s safe to strip and get in?” she asks me.
“Yes, like I said, I’ll keep watch and hopefully Jace will think to bring you a towel and some fresh clothes,” I say, opening the mind link so Jace can hear me.
‘Got it,’ he says.
“So, what’s up with you two?” she asks as she removes the clothes that Brynn gave her and steps back into the water.
“Jace and I?” I ask.
“Yeah, he’s no guard and if he is, what does that make you? Some sort of royalty?” she asks me.
I snort. “I’m no royal. Royals live a much more lavish lifestyle than we do, I’m sure.”
“So what?” she says, stepping into the water and even though goosebumps spread all over her b*ody, she doesn’t stop until the water is at the bottom of her belly bump.
“Do you think the cold will hurt the baby?” she asks.
“No, but I think it’ll wake them up a bit,” I say, hoping that an active wolf-hybrid won’t be too much for this woman to bring to term. I really need her to agree to come home with me so our doctors can monitor her and keep her alive.
“So, if you’re not royalty, then what’s the deal?” she asks as I hear Jace coming back.
“Jace is my….boyfriend,” I say, having heard the term on a TV show years ago. It seemed odd to me to call a guy friend something that meant more than the words implied, but then, humans are weird about a lot of things.
“Jordan!” Jace calls loudly.
“Coming,” I say and jog up to where he’s stopped, having brought some of my clothes, a towel, and soap.
“Thanks,” I say, k*issing him.
“That’s what boyfriends are for, right?” he says smirking.
I roll my eyes and head back.
“And he’s a good boyfriend. He brought you fresh clothes and a towel,” I tell her.
“Whose clothes are those?” she asks. “Mine, but he brought you a stretchy long- sleeve shirt, so it should fit,” I tell her.
I walk the soap out to her, tossing it to her when the water gets up to my shorts. She catches it and begins scrubbing it over her b*ody. She stops, sniffing it. “What is that? Rosemary and lavender?”
“Yes, I think they make it here with what they find in the forest,” I say, knowing that’s exactly what they do. It’s what we do as well.
She looks at it for a moment before beginning to scrub her b*ody. “I can make soap,” she says.
“You planning to move out here?” I ask her.
She looks at me as she scrubs. “Would you let me?”
I smile at her. “Well, in truth, I was hoping to convince you to stay through your pregnancy so my doctors back in my… community could watch over you and make sure you don’t have any on-going issues. We’ll know more when Dr. Braxton tests your blood, but you and your fetus are most likely at risk.”
She begins to rub the soap over her stomach much more gently than she did over her arms, c*hest and n*eck. “I’ll stay, at least until my baby is born. After that, well, well see. Is that okay?”
“That’s a start and I’ll take it,” I tell her. “Good. So, will you tell me why all of those guys up there defer to you?”
I look at her a long moment. Honest, tough, caring, and now I’ll add observant. She’d have made a damn fine wolf.
“I’m what you’d call the leader of my community,” I tell her.
“What I’d call you? What do you, or what do they call you?” she asks, astutely. “I’m not sure I’m ready to tell you that,” I say honestly.
“Well, I’m trusting you with my life and my child’s life. I think the least you could do is give me your true title. What are you, like a shaman or something?”
I look at her and she stops bathing, waiting me out.
‘Jace?’ I ask him for his thoughts on being honest.
‘You’re a better judge of character than I am, Jordan, but she seems like the real thing to me. She’s been through a lot but she’s not running and screaming.’
When I look back, her brows are furrowed. “Are you a cult? Because I’ll tell you now, if you plan to try to sacrifice me or my child to some weird god, I won’t go down without a fight,” she says, and the fear is back. She needs to know the truth, even if she won’t know what to do with it. “We’re not a cult, although I’m sure some might think we are, and I have no intention of hurting you or your child.”
We stare at each other a few more moments.
“My title is Alpha,” I finally tell her.
I see her shoulders relax a bit, but the frown stays firmly in place until she turns and squats down in the water.
“Alpha?” she asks, and I can see her scrubbing between her l*egs h*ard enough that it must burn, but she doesn’t stop. “Like in a wolf pack?”
“Yes, in a hierarchy, Alphas are the leaders.”
I let her digest that, watching as she thinks through what I’ve told her as she bathes.
“They called their leader Alpha. Those men who kept us in captivity.”
“Many of us out here in the wild do that. It identifies those of us that lead our communities.”
“Do you have Betas too?” she asks sarcastically.
“Yes. Jace is my Beta. Darryl is the Beta of his community,” I say.
Her head whips around as if she didn’t expect me to give her that information. She dunks underwater, getting her hair w*et before using the soap to wash her hair.
“So, you’re in charge and your boyfriend is your Beta, or second in command?”
“Yes.”
“Anyone else?”
“Our communities also have Gammas. Victor isn’t here, he’s overseeing our community while Jace and I are here.”
“What about a government? You live off the grid, but it sounds like there are a lot of your ‘communities’ out here,” she says lifting her hands to make air quotes when she says communities.
“We have a council. They are what you would call our government.”
She begins to step out of the water, her l*ips have turned blue, and I walk over and grab the towel Jace brought, handing it to her.
I give her some space while she dries off and puts on my clothes. She’s shorter than I am, but not by much. Her h*ips are wider, so it’s good that Jace brought stretchy p*ants and the shirt is stretchy enough that it fits over her stomach.
When she walks out, she has the towel wrapped around her hair and her arms wrapped around her mid-section.
“You’re not cold?” she asks me.
“I didn’t bathe like you did,” I say, trying to give her a plausible explanation.
She’s quiet as we walk back, only looking up when Jace steps out and falls into step behind us.
“A wolf’s gestation is only a couple of months, similar to a dog’s,” she says, looking at me.
“Yes, I believe you’re correct,” I say.
Because we are part human and part wolf, our gestation is in between that of a wolf and a human, five months. She’s trying to figure it out, but she doesn’t have all the information. She’s too damn smart though. If she does stay with my pack for the next three months, I have no doubt that she’ll figure out what we are.
And if she does, I can only hope that she’ll be willing to keep our secret.