The Claiming by Cooper

The Claiming by Cooper Book 4

The Beta Trials by Cooper (Jace & Jordan) Chapter 19 (Jordan)

I let Jace walk Dr. Braxton and Kyra over to the pack hospital to make sure that the space that Elijah has found for them is sufficient. Then, I walk back inside, getting everything ready for our meeting today and pulling Jaxon aside. "Are you sure you're okay being my interim Alpha?" I ask him. "You know you insult me when you ask things like that, right?" he asks in return.

I smile and look at his very pregnant mate. "How's Evangeline?"

"Very pregnant. Very ready to have Jaxon Jr."

"What did the doctor say?" I ask.

"He wants to see her every day until she delivers, but now, I'm worried. What if those in quarantine in the hospital have contaminated the space there?" he asks.

"The quarantine is a precaution. Even if they did catch some sort of virus, Evangeline and the rest of us here should be able to negate the effects, but we'll know more when Dr. Braxton begins his tests." He nods, watching as Evangeline talks to her siblings. "Do you know what they are going to do?" I ask, nodding at Magdalena and Lazio.

"Maggie and Caleb are going to Alejandro's pack. Lazio and Phoebe are going to Maximus' pack. At least for now. Which reminds me, have you spoken to our sisters? I believe they all want to stay here." "That's fine. Their rooms are still open. They are welcome here as long as they like," I tell him.

"Good, because as your future interim Alpha, I already told them they could stay here," he says, smirking at me.

I snort as Jace returns with Dr. Braxton, Kyra and Elijah in tow. I make sure they've eaten breakfast and we all begin to make our way into the conference room. I'm somewhat surprised when Taylor shows up with Griffin.

She walks right up to me. "Is he here?"

"No, he left. He went to get his car and told me to give you his number. He said he'd stay within an hour radius of my pack in case you wanted to meet face to face."

I pull my phone out of my back pocket and quickly send Nolan's contact information to her.

"Thanks," she says before heading inside. Since the entire situation seems like a massive cluster f*uck, I don't say anything more to her. I go inside and sit. Today, rather than having Elijah and Jace standing and acting as sentinels, I have them both sitting at the table.

As soon as I sit, Jace moves to sit beside me.

"Hello everyone, and welcome back. After the events of yesterday, which we'll go into shortly, we have invited Dr. Braxton and his daughter Kyra here today. Many of you may remember Dr. Braxton from our days of the claiming. It was he who finally realized that feral fever and the claiming haze were viruses that mirrored the symptoms of rabies and distemper. He was also the doctor that determined that it was ou females that have created the immunity that all of us enjoy today and have begun passing to the next generation. However, we do not know if these rogues have the same immunity that we, in the existing packs, have," Councilman Jason begins.

He stops, looking at all of us. "For those of you who do not know, several of Alpha Jordan's patrols were bitten or scratched during the attack yesterday. Those individuals have been placed into quarantine until Dr. Braxton can assure us that we are not at risk of spreading this virus."

"Jordan, do you have enough patrols? I can send more over here if needed," Griffin says.

"Thanks, Griff. I'm good. It was only six of my patrols, but of course, we want to make sure that they did not contract any type of virus from these rogues. According to my patrols, there were no females that attacked, only males," I say to the group.

The impact to the older generation is instant. Not everyone in the younger generation, my generation, seems to understand the impact of what I'm saying.

Councilman Jason looks like he's about to say something, when Dr. Braxton jumps in.

"If I may, Councilman, I'd like to make sure everyone in the room understands what we're talking about. In the past, feral fever and the claiming haze were viruses that started with our females. It is what killed them off in the beginning, only we didn't realize that this was why they were unable to carry their children to term or why they were dying in childbirth. It wasn't until enough of the female population died off that we started to see the effects of the disease in the male population. Once we did, we had to begin killing our kind when they became feral or the claiming haze took them. That is, until we realized that the females that survived had developed an immunity, an immunity that they passed to their mates and if they were strong enough, to their pack members. Therefore, the lack of known females in the rogue population is concerning, especially if these rogues are second generation werewolves birthed by human mothers with fathers carrying one or both of the diseases. It is the females that carry the immunity, not the males. We are dependent upon our females to ensure that our generation continues, not only by birthing our next generation, but also by creating and spreading the vaccine that our bodies need to survive."

Kyra reaches out and touches her father's arm. "I think what my father is trying to say is that we need to test these injured patrol members to make sure that they are not showing any signs of the feral fever or claiming haze viruses. If they are, we have two possible issues. The first is that it's a different strain that none of us have been exposed to before and we would have to determine if the female antibodies can create a natural immunity to the virus. The second possibility is that this is the same strain

from the previous generation, in which case, we all have the immunity already and we just need to make sure that the virus or viruses are effectively neutralized in the patrols' bodies. However, I will note that humans have been known to be carriers of the distemper virus and pass it from one canine to another. If that's the case, we don't know how this may have impacted the currently generation of rogues. My father and I plan to begin our tests this afternoon, but I would add that it would be helpful if we could obtain some blood samples from both male and female volunteers."

"Oh yes!" Dr. Braxton says excitedly. "It would be great if we could get some blood samples from the new generation. I'd love to see how the immunity is progressing years later."

"And on that note, I'd like to request that members of the older generation let me know if you are willing to volunteer to hunt for these rogues," Councilman Jason says.

Instantly, every Alpha in the room from my father's generation agrees to going on the hunt.

"They are a threat to our children, Councilman, you really didn't have to ask," Alpha Davis says.

We break for lunch, agreeing to reconvene in a couple of hours. Dr. Braxton and Kyra head back to the hospital to begin their experiments. I talked with Kyra before they left to set up a time when volunteers could come in to give them the blood samples that they need.

I head out of the conference room, wanting to check on the rooms for Dr. Braxton and Kyra when I see Nolan standing in doorway of the dining room, looking unusually fidgety.

"Nolan, what are you doing here?"

"Jordan, Taylor texted me. She said she wanted to talk, so I came right away. Do you know where she is?" he asks. At that moment, I hear a feral snarl behind me. I whip around to see Taylor standing there, her chest heaving as she looks at me.

"Get away from my mate!" she snarls. All the hair on the back of my neck goes up.

"This is MY pack, Taylor and you will respect that and me. Stand down!" I snarl back at her, taking a defensive stance against my cousin as she takes an aggressive stance against me.