The Claiming by Cooper Book 5
The Beta Trials by Cooper (Jace & Jordan)
Chapter 69 (Balor)
After separating from the group, I take my little wolf to the table where her father is sitting.
“If you need anything, you call out to me. If anything scares you, if anyone tries to hurt you, you yell for me. Okay?” I say to her.
“Yes, my big teddy bear,” she says and damn if she isn’t the cutest female I’ve ever met in my life. I don’t even care that she calls me teddy bear. From her, I like it.
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“Dr. Braxton,” I say, moving to shake his h*and. We’re in a weird dance of getting along. He hasn’t kept Kyra away from me, which is good, but I know he’s uncomfortable with our age difference, especially now. I am respectful of his role as her father, and he knows that I will wait for her to become an adult before anything s*exual happens between us. I’ve given my word as a bear, and I take that very seriously. It doesn’t mean that I don’t hate it and don’t spend an inordinate amount of time with my d*ick in my h*and, but my sweet little mate is worth every minute I have to wait for her.
I k*iss the top of her head before moving away and beginning a perimeter check. There are a lot of scents mixed together with all of these wolves here. I begin sifting through them, making sure I know where Alpha Jordan and Beta Chase are, along with Jusan and his mate Emily. Yeah, I’m not at all jealous that he found his mate and has marked and mated with her in a matter of hours.
Two years and three months, two years and three months, I begin chanting in my head as I make a circuit around my part of the perimeter. Kyra says my scent and the bond will only get stronger as she gets older. Hopefully, that means that she’ll want to mark me on her birthday. I never thought I’d be excited to wear the bite mark of another shifter, but that little wolf stole my heart right away. She can bite me anywhere she wants….in two years and three months.
The wind shifts and I catch a scent of something rotten. I stop, standing up as straight as I can, to try and catch the scent again. There is food cooking behind me and wolves coming in from different directions, so it’s making it h*ard to focus in on any particular scent, except Kyra’s. I could find my mate in a pack of millions of other wolves. She smells like honey, straight from a bees’ honeycomb. That little wolf makes me feel like a f*ucking teenager rather than a grown a*ss man.
I’ve just turned to begin moving back toward Kyra when the wind shifts again. This time, the scent of rotting flesh is strong. I whip my head around, ready to roar a warning just as the howls of the patrols goes up and all hell breaks loose.
Wolves begin coming out of the forest from all sides. Fear, like nothing I’ve ever felt before, floods my system and all I can think about is if any one of these wolves hurts my mate, I will tear them limb from limb.
I leap, shifting as I race back to her. As I’ m running, I see wolves coming up from my right, hearthem coming in from behind me. I have to trust that the wolves can take care of themselves, but my little wolf is still a pup, she needs protection.
The sounds of fighting and teeth snapping fills the night as a wolf makes the mistake of trying to take me on. I swipe it with my long claws, nearly ripping it in half. He cries out in pain, falling to the ground but I don’t stop.
I’ve just laid eyes on her when I see Kyra shift, leaping at a wolf that is coming at her. I push h*arder, roaring loud. The wolf turns toward me and Kyra bites down on its n*eck. It snarls and turns on her, but I’m not having it. I run right at the wolf, ripping it out of Kyra’s m*outh, grabbing part of its nasty tasting b*ody in my m*outh as my claws rip it in half.
I turn, growling at her to get behind me just as three more wolves come our way. I leap at the one in the middle, snapping at its n*eck as the other two leap onto my back. I feel the teeth of one sink into the muscle on my hind l*eg and the other scratches deep gashes onto my back.
I roar again, snarling at these three wolves who dare to come for my mate. I turn, grabbing one wolf by his l*eg and snapping it in my jaws before sending it flying. I turn back to the one in front of me and just as he leaps, I lift up, letting him hit my c*hest before slamming my huge b*ody down on top of him, listening to the satisfying sound of the bones in his c*hest snapping and breaking as I crush him under my feet.
Two more wolves leap at me, as I try to move myself back in front of Kyra, protecting her. I hear her snarling behind me and then I feel her paws as she leaps over my back to get to one of the wolves that is trying to attack me. I want her to stay behind me, but my fierce little mate refuses to let me fight alone.
I take out two more wolves before I can finally turn to make sure that she has killed the one that she was fighting. Then, I see that Dr. Braxton, who is an incredible doctor, is not an incredible fighter. He is struggling with the wolf that he’s fighting.
I use my giant paw to swipe Kyra behind me, wanting to smile when I hear her cute little growl. Then I move, pouncing on top of the wolf as he is about to leap at Dr. Braxton.
I feel his skull crush underneath me. Then I turn, hearing a howl from a single wolf. I watch as the rogues retreat, then I make sure there are no more alive near us before I turn to Kyra.
I shift and race to her wolf, running my f*ingers through fur. “Is any of this blood yours? Are you hurt? Are you injured in any way?” I ask her.
Dr. Braxton comes over, his hair going every which way and looking more like a crazy scientist than a doctor.
“Kyra, are you okay? Are you hurt?” he asks, echoing my questions.
She shifts, and I grab her arms, holding them out and looking her over before turning her around to check her back. “I’m fine, Balor, but you are not. Look at you,” she says, and I see tears in her eyes as she turns around. “Dad!”
“Hey, I’m fine,” I say, reaching out to stroke her cheek as a tear drips down. “Actually, you’re not, Balor. You’re a f*ucking mess,” Dr. Braxton says startling me. He never curses.
I frown looking at him.
“Stand up, Balor,” he says to me.
“Really, Dr. Braxton, I’m fine. I’m a bear, I’ll heal,” I say, while standing.
He looks up at me. “You just saved my life and my daughter’s life. Call me Charles and come over here so I can evaluate you,” he says before looking at Kyra.
“Find some clothes. There will be a lot of injured and we’ll need to give the vaccination to everyone who was scratched or bitten and if you go anywhere near a male n*aked as you are, your mate might decimate our entire pack.”
Kyra runs over to me, k*issing my cheek. “I’ll be right back. Please do whatever my father tells you to do.”
I take her face in my hands. “Baby girl, I’m okay, really.”
“You’re not,” she says. “You can’t feel it because your adrenaline is p*umping in your b*ody, but you kept putting yourself in front of me and taking on too many wolves,” she says, gasping like she can’t catch her breath.
“Hey, hey, hey. Come here,” I say, pulling her against me and purring loudly at her.
She beats her fists against my sides. “You’re….still….taking….care of ….me,” she hiccups around her sobs.
I pull back and look at her, wiping the tears that are streaming down her face now.
“Yes I am. I will always take care of you. That’s my job as your mate. I love you and I will never, ever let anyone hurt you,” I say, looking at her intently so she knows that I’m very, very serious.
She gently punches my arm that is still holding her face. “What about me? Maybe I want to take care of you too.”
“Go get dressed and depending on what your father says is wrong, you can take care of me. Deal?”
She sniffs, then throws herself in my arms. “Don’t you die on me,” she says, her face buried in my n*eck.
I stroke her back until she calms down. “Go get dressed. I’ll be right here when you get back.”
I watch her as she jogs off, making sure no one bothers my n*aked mate while she goes to get clothes.
“Kyra’s right, you’re a mess.”
“Is that your clinical impression, doctor?” I ask, turning to smile at him.
“I hope you’re still smiling when the adrenaline wears off, because you’re going to be in pain.”
“Is it anything that you can’t fix or won’t heal?” I ask him.
“I don’t know yet. But I’m going to take blood, give you a gallon of antibiotics and I’m going to let my daughter stitch you up, one because it’ll make her feel better and two, it’ll give her some time with you. She needs to calm down and your scent will help her.”
He reaches out, putting his h*and on my arm. “I know it’s awkward between us with my daughter, your mate, being so young. But I can never thank you enough for protecting her like you did.”
“I love your daughter. Her life is worth more than mine,” I say, and he snorts. “You don’t believe me?” I ask him. “I believe you think so. I’m laughing because I can’t wait to see what my daughter does to you when you tell her that. Come on, let’s start getting you cleaned up before the others start to arrive,” he says and as I take my first step to follow him, I suddenly realize how right my mate and her father were.
I turn to look at my h*ip and I see that a huge chunk of my a*ss has been ripped out. Then I look down, seeing the gaping wounds in my c*hest and stomach.
No wonder Kyra was so upset. I am a f*ucking mess.