The Claiming by Cooper Book 6
The Gamma Tournament by Cooper (Ezekiel & Gianna)
Chapter 14 Gianna
The morning after the elections, everyone wakes up excited. It’s time to hear who won and then decisions will be made about Emily and Bailey as well as hearing what Dr. Braxton has to say. Since he helped me when I was in labor, I have a bit of a soft spot for the nutty doctor. I’ve heard he makes some of the Alphas nuts with his slower demeaner, but for me, it was perfect. And his daughter is pretty awesome too. Even at sixteen, she’s a pretty amazing young woman.
Although we are able to look and see the winners, there is an official announcement over breakfast. The new council now consists of Aunt Jara, Luna Melinda, Alpha Antonio, Alpha Griffin and Alpha Maximus. There is a lot of discussion that Alpha Maximus beat out Alpha Aiden, his sister’s mate. But from everything I heard about Alpha Aiden, I’m glad to hear that he didn’t get elected.
The only person that didn’t get elected that I voted for was Luna Sophia. I heard it was extremely close between her and Luna Melinda. Ezekiel told me afterward that he voted for Melinda, but he also voted for Alpha Paolo who didn’t get elected. “Paolo’s a good fighter and from everything that I saw when I was in his pack, he’s a good leader,” he tells me.
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Paolo is our new Beta’s brother and I know Gabriella was hoping that he’d get elected. But again, I think it was close between him and Alpha Maximus. Griffin, having quite a bit of family and many happy pack members, had no trouble making the cut.
The announcement was broadcast during lunch that there would be a meeting of the new council members, ranked members from each pack and invited guests. I was surprised to learn that Ezekiel and I were invited guests, but less so when I heard that Emily and Bailey were also invited guests. They still look to me for guidance, although more and more, Emily is looking to Levi. Since I know that he’s her mate and Ezekiel trusts him, I trust him as well.
After dinner, we all meet in Jordan and Jace’s conference room. There are a lot of us, since Jaxon and Evangeline are still here. Taylor, Nolan, Celine and Mateo all went to Griffin’s pack and now that Ella has come of age and fully marked and mated with Griffin, she has moved there too. But here, we have Alpha Jordan, Alpha Jace, Jordan’s parents and family who are still visiting after the twins were born,
Evangeline’s family who is still visiting after her twins were born, our new Betas, and then me, Emily, Bailey, Ezekiel and Levi. In a surprise request, Desmond has been asked to join the meeting as well. The room is meant to be spacious and allow for a lot of people, but there are a lot of people in here.
There’s a video set up on one wall of the room with a camera that allows others to see all of us in the room.
Apparently, the highest voted council member becomes the spokesperson, and that person is our own Luna Jara. So, she sits at the head of the table and looks at the camera.
“Good evening everyone and welcome to the first council meeting of the year. I’d like to start by welcoming our newest council members, Luna Melinda, Alpha Griffin and Alpha Maximus,” she says and most of the packs applaud. I notice that Alpha Aiden and his ranked members do not.
“Tonight, we have a short agenda, but that does not mean that we don’t have a lot of work ahead of us. We still have rogues out there, we have packs to build, and we have a Gamma Tournament to complete.”
More applause and Luna Jara, or should I call her Councilwoman Jara, waits.
‘It’s appropriate to call them by their higher status. In this case, Councilmember is the higher status for both Alpha Antonio and Luna Jara since neither of them are currently in their roles. In the instance of the others, when they are acting in their role as Councilmembers, it is appropriate to address them as such and when they are acting as Luna or Alpha, it is appropriate to use that title,’ my mate says in our mind link. He insisted that I sit in his lap so he could rub my belly and keep Mila calm.
When the applause dies down,
Councilwoman Jara continues. “Tonight, we have Dr. Braxton with us, and he has some information on the human females, Emily and Bailey, that were kidnapped by the rogues. As everyone here knows, they were impregnated and have since lost their babies due to being thrown off of a cliff by the rogue Alpha Durai, Typhon’s son. Dr. Braxton, you have the floor,” Jara says.
“Thank you, Councilwoman Jara. Let me start by saying that I have had an opportunity to meet both of the kidnapped human females. Intriguing women. I can understand why the rogues were attracted to them. Unlike Gianna, who is actually a descendant of an Alpha werewolf, these two women, Emily and Bailey, are actually humans,” he says, and I watch as he pushes his glasses up on his nose.
I hear several sighs in the room, and I watch as Councilman Antonio rolls his eyes on camera.
“Because the women were pregnant and we needed to know if they were carrying viable fetuses, I was able to complete several tests utilizing their blood and saliva.”
He looks at the camera, then pushes his glasses up on his nose.
“What did you find out, doctor?” Alpha Antonio asks him.
“Well, it’s very interesting,” he says, smiling and looking around at the people in the room with him.
“Doc, you’re killing us. Please, we’re not medical personnel, we run the packs, we don’t heal their wounds,” Mason says.
“Well, humans, as we’ve discussed, have the ability to contract both feral fever and the claiming haze. These are derivations of rabies and distemper in canine and lupine species. In the case of distemper, a human can be a carrier and not exhibit any symptoms, but through contact with a canine or lupine, they could spread the virus,” he says and stops again.
I hear low growls in the room from the werewolves, but it’s Emily and Bailey that sit up.
“Doctor, are you telling us that we’re dangerous to the packs? That we could make all of you sick?” Emily asks, looking at Levi worriedly.
“Yes and no,” he says and before anyone else can say anything, Bailey jumps in.
“Dr. Braxton, please! We need to know if our presence in the packs is going to make any of you sick. You’ve all been so kind to us. I hate the thought that I may be making you sick just by being here,” she says and Emily nods, pulling her h*and away from Levi. He growls and snatches her h*and back.
Kyra comes into the video. “My father gets very excited when we find data like this, so you’ll have to excuse him for making you wait for the details,” she says, nudging her father over.
She looks up and winks at what must be Balor behind the camera before focusing back on the video. I hear a low growl from Balor and from the corner of my eye, I see Bailey sit up straighter.
“We’re not sure why but my father and I would hypothesize that it’s because you were pregnant with werewolf pups and survived that you now have an immunity to both feral fever and the claiming haze. Your immunity is producing antibodies that not only ensure that you do not spread these viruses within the packs, but it could also mean that if you were to mate with a supernatural, you would not pass that disease or any other of the werewolf population,” Kyra says.
I hear Levi s*uck in a breath.
“Does that mean…?” he asks turning to look at Emily, and I can tell he’s afraid to finish his sentence.
“That means, Elite Fighter Levi, that if Emily is truly your mate as you have portrayed, then from a medical standpoint, there is no problem with you completing the bond.”
“From a medical standpoint,” he clarifies. “Yes. It would be up to the council to decide if you and Emily would be able to complete your bond,” Councilwoman Jara says to him.
“And what does the council say about this?” he asks, looking like he ready to fight the council and everyone pack member he has to in order to be able to complete his bond with Emily.
Her h*and on his arm immediately calms him.
“The council will have to vote on it. We can do that later, after the general meeting is adjourned. Until then, and if there is nothing else in the matter of the human females?” Jara asks, looking at everyone in the videos.
When no one speaks up, she continues. “Then, I’d like to bring your attention to Detective Desmond. We think he’s a descendent of the one of the obliterated packs.”