The Claiming by Cooper Book 5
The Beta Trials by Cooper (Jace & Jordan)
Chapter 85 Griffin
As soon as the howl went up, I knew I needed to find Ella. She and her mom were helping set up for today and I hadn’t seen them return yet. I felt better knowing that Aunt Jara was with them, until I saw her leaping and shifting, rushing into the fight.
I begin running, trying to find Ella, my heart racing. I know Ella’s strong, Elijah has been training her for years, but she’s unmarked and she’s nearly 18. If they get to her, take her and mark her before I can…. I can’t even think about that.
It’s chaos with everyone shifting and running around, wolves fighting and attacking, mates trying to find each other, pregnant she-wolves, young mothers and the elderly trying to make their way inside to the packhouse to get to the safe rooms, but since most of us don’t live here, not everyone knows where to go.
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I’m moving around wolves that are going in every direction. As an Alpha, I’m tall in my wolf form, but with all the leaping and fighting going on around me, I can’t see anything.
I shift back, looking around, trying to figure out where Layan and Ella would be right now. As a rogue comes rushing past me, being chased by several other wolves, I reach out, extending my claws and ripping it’s throat out.
The wolves in pursuit woof at me before turning to find another rogue to attack.
I shake the blood from my h*and as my claws retract and I’ve just looked up when I see Ella’s wolf racing toward me.
“Ella!” I shout, pushing through the throng of wolves to get to my mate. Her wolf hears me and turns, leaping over some of the wolves fighting between us.
When she’s closer she shifts, racing into my arms.
“Griffin, the rogues attacked. The Alpha, he came for me. You have to help my mom. She told me to run so I did, but he attacked her. She’s strong, but….”
Just then we hear a howl, a horrible, mournful sound and I see Elijah’s wolf race past me.
“Help the others, I’ll help your mom,” I tell her, k*issing her quickly, watching a moment to make sure she isn’t attacked as she heads inside, before I leap and shift, racing after Elijah.
Elijah’s call did not go unnoticed, and several wolves begin racing to follow us. I’ ve just reached the clearing when I hear Carter tell his mother to run, then I watch as the rogue Alpha rips his throat out, Layan’s keen of sorrow and pain worse than Elijah’s a moment ago.
Elijah races to his mate, but I take off after the Alpha. He’s injured, but he’s still fast. Carter, I’m assuming it was Carter, was able to at least injure this Alpha before he died. It makes me wonder, briefly, where the other rogue Alpha is.
As I’m chasing this Alpha down, I hear other paws coming up behind me. I’m not sure who it is, but at the pace I’m keeping, it must be Alphas.
The rogue lifts his head, calling for a retreat, but I have no intention of letting him get past me. He came for my mate. He came for what is mine.
I snarl as the thoughts fuel my anger, my adrenaline pushing me to go faster. The rogue must feel me getting closer as he ducks, cutting left and away from me as I come up on his right side.
The sounds of fighting begin to fade as I race away from the battle, continuing my chase of this Alpha. His turn set me back a couple of paces, but I quickly adjust and follow, seeing that it’s Jaxon and Caleb that are chasing behind me. Both of their mates are pregnant, so they have nearly as much reason to want this Alpha as I do.
I smell them before I see them, and I know what this Alpha is planning to do to get away from us. I snarl, pushing h*arder to reach him. I’m nearly at his flank when he leaps and begins crawling up a cliff face. I follow right behind him, snapping at his heels, trying to grab a paw so I can rip him from the cliff wall.
He scrambles to the top and I can hear the screams and cries of the females, human and pregnant, that he’s keep hostage up here.
He shifts quickly and I’m right behind him. Jaxon and Caleb scramble up behind me and shift as the women beginning screaming in fright. They are huddled together, holding on to each other as they sob, their fear so pungent that you can taste it in the air.
“Isn’t this perfect,” he says, grabbing the sobbing women and putting them in front of himself, the coward.
“Three little piggies for three big bad wolves,” he says, leaning into the scared women, speaking in their ear while his eyes remain focused on us.
“Will they huff and puff, or will they blow your houses down,” he snarls before launching the three women off the cliff.
None of us hesitate, we each leap, grabbing a woman mid-air as they scream, twisting our bodies so that they land on top of us at the bottom of the cliff.
Ezekiel POV
I’m thankful that Gianna is with Jordan, and I saw Evangeline heading toward them. The pregnant she-wolves will stick together and even though Gianna can’t shift, I know that having two Alpha females with her makes her safer.
With that in mind, I begin tearing through the rogues that entered into this side of the territory. When the howls went up, they went up around the area, so I knew that the rogues were attacking on all sides at once, hoping to get the advantage by surrounding us. However, our numbers are at least 3 to 1 wolves to rogues, and these rogues aren’t fighters. Add to that we have three bears that can take on multiple wolves at once and we have six fighters that can take on at least three wolves at once, so it gives us a significant advantage.
I begin moving around, taking on rogues, helping other wolves that aren’t as skilled at fighting to get the upper h*and, taking out as many as I can before moving on. I hear the howl of wolf in distress, someone’s mate is in trouble, and I see the rush of wolves heading to the back end of the fighting where the bears went.
I stay put, knowing we have our own wolves to fight here, plus it keeps me closer to the packhouse, closer to Gianna.
I’m not sure how long I’ve been fighting when I catch the scent of a rogue Alpha. I growl, knowing that he’s going after Gianna. I rip out the stomach of the rogue I’m fighting with before turning and following his scent.
I follow it back to the packhouse, finding the place where he must have hidden while the fighting was going on. He was smart to wait here, knowing the safe room would be inside the packhouse.
I lift my nose and follow his scent, which leads me to his shredded b*ody. I sniff the chunks of his b*ody and smell three pregnant Alpha she-wolves. Then I sniff around some more and catch Gianna’s scent behind them. He attacked the four of them, but it looks like they took him out.
I hear the howl of retreat, just as I head into the packhouse. I need to know that Gianna is okay. I don’t know how she will have handled this level of violence and I need to make sure that the rogue Alpha didn’t scratch or bite her. I won’t risk her getting sick, even though it’s unlikely with her being an Alpha female. I’d rather be safe than sorry.
I follow Gianna’s scent, mixed with hundreds of other scents in the air. There is some fear, but none that I smell is mixed with her scent. I find the safe room where her scent is strongest but rather than opening the door, I wait, hoping to hear the sound of the all-clear quickly. As much as I want to make sure my mate is safe, I won’t risk them opening the door before the rogues are gone.
When Luna Jara comes rushing in with several others behind her, she nods at me. “It’s safe to open the door,” she says.
I knock, calling out that it’s me and it’s safe to open the door now.