The Claiming by Cooper Book 5
The Beta Trials by Cooper (Jace & Jordan)
Chapter 79 (Carter)
I’ve been trying to find a way to get Mathias and Durai to stop focusing on Ella. It’s amazing to me how many times I’ve been dragged back outside my old pack lands trying to look for her. Since I know what I’m looking for, I’ve seen her, but I haven’t told them.
They’re about to drag me back over there, trying to find her so Durai can show Mathias the ‘mate’ he found for her, when I have an idea.
“You know, there are three other Alpha females that haven’t found their mates yet, or at least, they hadn’t found them when I left,” I say.
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Both men look at me. “You’re just now thinking to tell us this?” Mathias growls. “They don’t have their own pack. You wanted female Alphas who had a pack. Taylor still fits that standard, but there are three more that didn’t find mates and didn’t win a pack. Celine, Gabriella and Haley.”
“And where might these Alpha females be?” Durai says. Where Mathias snarls and growls, Durai is quietly menacing. It’s much scarier than I could have imagined. “They’re in three different packs, but they are all scheduled to be part of The Beta Trials.”
“That group of games you were talking about?” Mathias scoffs.
“Yes, they have to earn their positions in the packs. As Alpha females, they are the top contenders in the trials.”
“Earn their positions, so my future mate will be there?” Durai asks, referencing Taylor.
“Yes, she’ll be one that needs a Beta,” I say. I’ve been having second thoughts about all of this now that I know these men better. There’s something not quite right about them. Where they allow their packs to fight and squabble with each other, they backhand me if I say the wrong thing. They make no sense. “And when are these games supposed to be held?” Durai asks me.
“What day is it?” I ask and they both give me a look that tells me that knowing the day of the week or month is too much of a menial task for them.
“Well, it’s got to be coming up. I could go to the pack where they are setting up and get a feel for how close it is to the time of the trials,” I say, thinking I might be able to get a message to my mother to keep my sister away from the trials.
“We’ll all go,” Durai says, watching me closely. “If that’s where all three females are going to be, then we’ll go get set up and begin planning our attack. How many people will be at this event?”
“I’m not sure how many have signed up now, but all of the contestants, as well as the Alphas, and probably their Lunas who need Betas, so roughly 150.”
Mathias and Durai look at each other. “Yes, we’ll need a plan to take on that many,” Mathias says.
“Hopefully we’ll have time to make some preparations, something that will give us the upper h*and and allow us to escape after we have our mates in h*and,” Durai says, looking at Mathias.
“I have some ideas,” Mathias says.
“Like what?” I ask, earning me a backhand.
“Watch your m*outh,” Mathias snarls at me.
“What do you want to do with the pregnant humans?” Durai asks. “How many are left? They keep dying,” Mathias replies.
“I think there are still three. We need to bring them with us.”
The others that had given birth had died during childbirth, the babies dying with them. These idiots have no idea how to assist during pregnancy, shoving cloths into the women’s m*ouths when they scream in pain. I tried to help them, but Durai and Mathias wouldn’t allow me to take the cloths out of their m*ouths and I think they suffocated. Now, I’m haunted by the fear in their eyes as they suffered at the hands of these men who are nothing more than a pack of wolves. I cannot let them get their hands on my sister.
“Pretty boy can carry one. We’ll get the others to carry the other two,” Mathias sneers at me. I’m ‘pretty boy’.
“Get your s*hit, let’s go,” Durai says as the two of them walk away.
I watch as their pack members look at me, wanting to jump me, but Durai told them they have to leave me alone.
But I wonder what happens when they have their mates, and they no longer need me.
(Jordan POV)
It took several days for Balor to heal completely. I hadn’t realized that he’d taken on so many wolves at once, trying to protect Kyra and Dr. Braxton, but he fought them all off, to his detriment. Kyra stayed with him until he was healed. Jusan and Emily left the day after the battle, heading home to let the others know what was going on and to show Emily the clan lands.
The council has decided that it is too dangerous to have another gathering and decided to pool their resources for the Beta Trials. They are coming up in a couple of weeks. But still, the council has put out sign-up sheets for those who wish to help out in the new packs or wish move to a new pack altogether. All existing packs have to allow members to join new packs if they choose to. The only one still grumbling about this is Alpha Aiden.
I had asked my father about it after our last meeting, and he said he thinks it’s because Alpha Aiden has one of the smallest packs. He’s a good Alpha but losing any pack members when your pack is just over 100 pack members is a loss felt by the entire pack. Add to that the she-wolves that are leaving to live in the packs with their mates and it could cut his pack in half. Since Alpha Aiden and Alpha Tarik live in the north, separated from the other packs, it makes it more impactful if they were to be attacked.
Jace walks into my office, and I stand to greet him. He k*isses me, before pulling me into his lap as he sits in my seat. “What are you working on?” he asks, looking over my shoulder.
“Assessing any impact to the small number of pack members that have requested to leave the pack. Some of those that had agreed to help establish the other packs have backed out, choosing to stay in case I’m pregnant, or maybe just wanting to protect our pack after the attack at the gathering. What are you working on?”
“Nolan and Ezekiel asked to go searching for the rogues. They wanted to see if they could eliminate the threat before we’re attacked again, be proactive. You were on the call with the council, so I told them they could go, and I contacted Finn, Griffin’s Beta. We sent warriors from our pack and theirs along with them. Taylor insisted that she goes as well and so did Jaxon, just so you know.”
I turn and look at him. “My brother went?”
“He has a lot to protect in his new pack lands,” he says, k*issing my nose. “I’m just beginning to understand that level of protectiveness. Which, after today, may be much worse. Are you ready to head to the pack hospital, Jordan. I’ve been working h*ard to give you that pup you requested, and I swear your scent is getting stronger. I think that means you have a little she-wolf growing in there.”
I look down, not meeting Jace’s eyes. I hadn’t told him that I was shifting every morning to see if I could. Yesterday was the first day that I wasn’t able to shift, and I wasn’t able to today either. “Jordan?” he asks, tilting my head up. “Are you keeping secrets from me?”
“Not exactly. It’s just, well…. I can’t shift.” The words are barely out of my m*outh before Jace has me up, carrying me out of my office.
“Jace!” I say, laughing.
“Victor, you’re in charge. Jordan and I have a date with a doctor,” he calls as we step out of the office.
Victor rushes to his door. “Is everything okay?” he asks, worry in his voice. “I can’t shift,” I say, as Jace continues to walk down the hallway.
I watch Victor lift his head. “No howling until we know for sure!” I scold him. “Yes, Alpha, but I want to know right away!” he says excitedly.
Victor, being the incredible man that he is, had decided that he was perfectly fine being our Gamma and so Jace and I will be attending the Beta Trials to choose our Beta. He and I have been talking more and more about the three Alpha females, their strengths and what they could bring to our pack to make it stronger. Jace is really good at seeing the holes in our pack’s overall strength and finding ways to fill those by adding others that have those strengths. He isn’t intimidated in the least about bringing on a female that has strengths that he and I don’t have. On the contrary, my incredible mate is once again showing that he puts the pack first. I nuzzle my nose on his n*eck, k*issing his throat as we walk.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks me, lifting his n*eck, giving me more access.
“How incredible you are,” I tell him. “Mmmm, tell me what I did, so I can do it again,” he says, making me chuckle. “You’re just you, my love,” I tell him. “Maybe you could be more specific, because I really like this response in you, my mate,” he says.
“I love how you put the pack first, how you don’t have to try and make it seem like you are perfect but you’re able to talk about bringing in a Beta that fills the voids that you and I have in our strengths,” I tell him, tucking my face against his n*eck.
I feel him shrug. “Why wouldn’t we want to make our pack stronger?”
I sit up, looking at him as he walks into the pack hospital. “Not everyone would be confident enough in themselves to do that, Jace. It’s just one more thing that makes you special, to me and the pack.”
He leans in, k*issing me. I wrap my arms around him, deepening the k*iss until I hear a gentle cough beside us.
I pull back, looking around.
“Alphas, how can I help you today?” Cora, our pack member, asks me.
“Cora, we need to see Dr. Teresa. It’s time for my mate to have her ultrasound and see if I did my job properly,” Jace tells her, smiling.
Her eyes go wide with excitement. “Right this way, Alphas,” she says, turning and moving us down the hall.
She gets us set up in a room, with a gown, and I pee in a cup. I change into the gown and Jace lifts me onto the table, putting his hands on either side of me as he nuzzles my n*eck.
“Boy or girl?” he asks me.
“Doesn’t matter to me,” I tell him, running my f*ingers through his hair.
“No, I mean, what do you think we’re having? I don’t care either, but I’m guessing girl. Your delicious peppermint scent has gotten stronger recently,” he says as Dr. Teresa comes in. “Well, I’m not sure we’ll have that answer for you today, it’s a bit early, but we should at least be able to see if you have a little one in there,” she says, pulling in a machine behind her.
She gets me set up on the bed. “I want you to know that it’s possible that it’s too early to tell if you’re pregnant with an ultrasound. The urine sample will tell us if you’re far enough along, but I’m going to do an internal ultrasound since we’re talking about our future Alpha and everyone will want to know for sure if you are pregnant,” she says.
Cora walks in just as Dr. Teresa is about to start. Her smile tells me everything I need to know, but she hands the paperwork to Dr. Teresa and steps back. “Well, it’s official, Alphas. You are officially pregnant,” she says, and I look at Jace, seeing so many emotions fly across his face, as he clasps my hands t*ightly.
“Let’s see if we can get any kind of image on your little one. Most likely we won’t be able to tell gender yet, it has only been a couple of weeks, but we’ll confirm what your urine test and your inability to shift are already telling us,” Dr. Teresa says.
She inserts the ultrasound as Jace and I watch the monitor. We watch the blobs on the screen and Dr. Teresa moves the ultrasound wand around inside me. Her head tilts to the side and she clicks the screen.
Cora comes up behind her, looking over her shoulder.
“Is that…?”
“Yes,” Dr. Teresa says, turning to look at us.
“Congratulations, it looks like you’re having twins.”