The Claiming by Cooper

The Claiming by Cooper Book 4

The Beta Trials by Cooper (Jace & Jordan)

Chapter 36 (Mason)

I will kill anyone who comes after my family. I've done it before; I'll do it again.

I hold my mate until she gets control of herself. I know she hates to feel weak, but this knocked the wind out of her. "Promise me he will die, Mason. Promise me that man and his family won't take anything more from us."

"I promise, Jara. He will not get to Jordan. I'll let Seth know, he can watch over Taylor, and we can make sure that Nolan stays close to her as well."

She nods, leaning into me.

When she pulls back, I take her face in my hands and look at her.

"That was very unexpected," she says, looking embarrassed for having fallen apart. I can feel it through out bond too.

"Jara, that man hunted you, burned down Davis's packhouse to get to you, and is the reason we lost our first child and your guard. You have no reason to feel embarrassed by your emotions. I'm furious. I want to kill him, and I don't even know this kid. But if he's Typhon's son with a human, then he's even worse than his father was," I tell her.

She leans in and kisses me, taking a deep breath of my scent. I push my anger down, giving my mate what she needs to feel strong again. We're about to go into a room with other Alphas and Lunas and she needs to feel in control of her emotions.

"I'm going to go wash my face and then I'll be ready," she says.

I lean in, gently k*issing her lips. "Take your time, my love."

When she goes into the bathroom, I mind link Elijah. Of everyone, he's the one that will need to hear this just as much as we do. Him and Seth.

'Alpha, what do you need?' he asks in the mind link.

'Meet me downstairs in ten minutes,' I say.

'Is everything okay, Alpha?'

'No. This is important. I need you in this Alpha meeting this morning, but I need to speak to you first.'

'I'll be waiting for you,' he says.

I give Jara the time she needs to get calm her nerves and collect herself. When she walks out of the bathroom, no one would know that she's was falling apart a few minutes ago. "How do I look?" she asks.

"Perfect as always," I tell her, taking her hand and walking to the door.

"I linked Elijah to meet me downstairs. He needs to know too," I tell her as we make our way downstairs.

She nods. "He does."

When we get to the bottom of the stairs, Elijah is waiting.

Jara turns and kisses me, then walks up and hugs Elijah, taking his hand in hers and squeezing it.

"You're scaring me, Luna," he says, looking from her to me.

"I'll see you inside, Elijah," she says and heads to the room where we are meeting to have the conference call.

I watch Jara walk away and when I look back, Elijah looks like I'm about to hit him.

"Tell me," he says with no preamble.

I look around and nod my head, not wanting an audience for this. I find a private area and turn to him.

"Jordan called us this morning."

"Is she alright?" he asks, instantly on alert.

"Yeah, you know about the second wolf pack attack and the bears getting bitten?" I ask him.

"I do."

"Dr. Braxton found two strains of virus, both from our generation, Elijah. One of the Alphas is apparently Typhon's son," I tell him.

Elijah is the one that killed Typhon. He protected Jara when I was away, so I'm not surprised when he snarls loud enough to have the walls rattling. "How is that possible?" he asks. "I don't know. We may find out on the call today."

He begins pacing. Then he stops and looks at me. "We'll hunt him down. We'll kill him. You and me, we end this."

And this is just one of the many reasons that Elijah has always been my best friend.

"I may take you up on that, but there's something else you need to know," I say.

He stops and looks at me. "Worse than that?"

I nod. "It seems that the second strain of virus is from Alpha Camden."

He frowns. "Why do I know that name?"

I reach out, putting my hand on Elijah's shoulder. "He's the Alpha that mauled Layan in her claiming."

It takes a moment and I'm about to check if he's in shock when he turns and punches a hole in the wall behind him.

Fur sprouts on this arms and n*eck and his breathing becomes labored, rapid.

I hear light footsteps, running in our direction. Layan.

He turns to me, just before she gets to us.

"Do not tell her," he says.

"I won't."

"Elijah!" Layan says, racing into the room where we are.

She turns and looks at me, slowing slightly. "Alpha," she says, looking confused as she turns back to Elijah. "What's happened?" she asks him.

He'll have to figure out how to tell her. "I'll see you in the meeting," I say, turning and walking out of the room. This is a private matter between them.

As I walk to the meeting room, I hear another snarl that shakes the packhouse. I recognize the snarl as Seth's. Jara must have told him about Typhon's son and that this is who is after Taylor. "Dad, what's going on?" Jaxon asks, jogging up behind me.

"The past has come back to haunt us, Jaxon," I tell him as we walk into the meeting room.

When we're all settled, we turn on the video conference call and see Jordan, Jace and Dr. Braxton in what looks like a hotel room.

As Dr. Braxton begins, I wrap my arm around Jara. She leans into me, and I see that Hana has moved to sit in Seth's lap. Elijah comes in to sit beside me, Layan right beside him. Since there isn't another chair, Elijah pulls her into his lap.

As Dr. Braxton talks through the viruses that he's found in the blood samples of the bears, all of the older Alphas turn to look at Seth and Jara, and then to Elijah and Layan. Not many people in the younger generation know about what happened to Layan, but everyone in our generation does.

"How? How is this possible? Both Camden and Typhon were crazed at the end. How could they have children?" Davis asks on the phone. He and his pack were impacted by Typhon, and Layan was from his pack before she chose Elijah as her mate.

"The packs that have currently been taken over by Alphas Jaxon and Tobias were once the pack lands of Typhon and Camden. I could hypothesize that they worked together, covering for each other to produce heirs. We know that they didn't particularly care about consent in their mating practices and their pack lands are remote enough that it would have been easy to capture hikers, rape them and then hide them away until they birthed their young."

Everyone is quiet a moment as they consider this.

"Doctor, do we know yet if our Luna's antibodies can counteract these viruses?" Quinton asks.

"Actually, we've been using Alpha Jaxon and Alpha Jordan's blood to test, since Luna Jara was the only one with antibodies that would have counteracted Typhon's virus. Their blood is already making a difference in the bears and from what I have heard from the pack hospital, the warriors that were bitten or scratched in the battle have suffered no ill effects. We provided them with a vaccine, but whether that worked for them, or they already had the antibodies, I can't be sure yet. What I do know is that the extreme reaction in the bears has already started to lessen."

"So what now?" Jaxon asks.

"Now we hunt," I snarl. "I will not allow the descendent of my child's killer to walk this earth."

"And I will not allow the child of the man who harmed my mate to walk this earth, so I will join the hunt," Elijah.

"I will not allow the descendent of the man who murdered my sister to walk this earth, so I will join the hunt," Seth says.

One by one, the older Alphas state their intention to join the hunt for the wolf packs.

"That's fine and I understand your desire to kill them but weren't you all out hunting them recently and you didn't get anywhere," Jaxon says.

"But now, we have a scent trail," Jace says. "My father, brother and I followed their trail until Jordan called us back. If anyone wants their scent, let us know and we'll take you to it. My father will be happy to continue the hunt."

I look over and see Taylor chewing on her lower I*ip. It's a tell she's had since she was a child. She's nervous and I can't blame her.

"If I may suggest, the two female Alphas should not be left alone until these wolves are captured. You Alphas Jordan and Taylor are too much at risk and even if you can fight off the virus, that doesn't mean that you wouldn't be forced into a mate bond," Dr. Braxton says.

I watch the television monitor as Jordan looks at Jace.

"I'm not going anywhere," he says to her and I'm not sure he realizes that everyone can hear him.

I turn to Jara and smile. As usual, my mate was right. We just needed to give them some time to figure it out for themselves.