The One He Claimed by Cooper

Chapter 125: Zahn's Request

Hunter

"Is his mate even able to travel?" Sophie asks.

It's the same question I had and one that I asked Alpha Zahn myself.

"He said he would take it slow to get here. He's willing to stay as long as she wants," I tell her.

She turns and looks at me. "As long as SHE wants?"

"That's what he said."

"What does HE want?" she asks astutely.

I lean in, nuzzling my mate. As agitated as I was after my phone call with Alpha Zahn, just seeing Sophie and feeling our pup moving around inside her, has settled me. Nothing in the world feels better than having my entire family in my arms, like right now. The icing on that fantastic cake is that my mate is smart and intuitive. Her train of thought is the same as mine.

"He said, and I quote, 'I want what you have, Alpha Hunter'. To which I snarled, thinking he meant you," I tell her, nipping her neck gently. "Mine," I say softly, needing to say it after having yet another Alpha say something that felt like a threat to take my mate from me.

"Yes, I am. And I always will be," Sophie says, snuggling into me. "So what does he really want?" she asks. "Because I'm taken;

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marked, mated, and forever yours."

Shaw begins to growl possessively in our chest. It feels good to have Sophie so willingly express her desire to be ours.

"So what does he want?" she asks.

"When I nearly hung up on him, he clarified that he wants what WE have. He wants this, Sophie," I say, nuzzling her and feeling grateful yet again that I took the stand that I did so that I can have moments like this with my mate.

This time when she looks at me, there's a frown on her face. "His mate jumped off a cliff to get away from him, Hunter. What is he hoping to achieve?"

I start to reply but feel a wave of guilt coming from my mate.

"What is that? What do you feel guilty about?"

I feel my mate pulling into herself, as if she's trying to make herself smaller on my lap.

"Hey, I'm right here. What's going on?"

"Do you remember when we were at the Committee of Alphas, and I was asking about who each of the Alphas was? Do you remember me asking about him?"

I think back to that time. I had a lot on my mind, mostly preparing myself to fight my way out of the committee to keep Sophie safe if needed.

Then I remember. "You said you saw him catch his mate. That he was the reason you ran and that's how you ended up back here."

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She nods. "I saw him, Hunter. I saw what he did to her. I saw how brutal he was to her, and I did nothing. I just ran away. I left her there to suffer and she tried to kill herself. If I had

intervened..."

I snarl before I can catch myself. "If you had intervened, Sophie, there is no doubt that you would have been forcibly marked as well. I'm assuming that Zahn had a hunting party with him?" She nods and I feel her guilt weighing on her. "Some legend, huh? I see someone in trouble, and I run."

"Now, you listen to me, Sophie Reynolds. You were in a very different position then. You weren't a Luna, and you didn't have a mate or your family to support you. You were alone and any number of she- wolves on the run have done the same thing."

"Nikki didn't. Nikki rushed in and protected Allison. She didn't run and hide like I did. She could have, but she didn't."

"Nikki came on the scene when Allison was fighting, and Allison had Letti fighting with her. There were three of them, Sophie."

I can tell my words aren't making an impact on my mate and I want her to realize that she didn't let Zahn's mate down. She did what she had to do to protect herself.

"What was happening when you found them? Was she fighting against the group?" I ask.

She shakes her head. "No, he had already caught her."

"He had her pinned down?" I ask, trying to understand what she walked into. I know whatever she saw was traumatizing enough that she had run, and she's been carrying this guilt with her all

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this time.

She closes her eyes and turns in my lap, needing to be close to me. I wrap my arms around her protectively.

"He was mating her, and the others were watching and cheering. She was crying and he yanked her head up and told her never to run from him again before he marked her hard. He was angry and the whole thing was so horrifying, so violent," she says, her body starting to shake.

"Okay. Shhhh. You're safe. I just needed to understand. You're safe, Sophie."

She presses her face up against my throat, breathing in my scent. Shaw begins purring at her, calming her.

'What the fuck does Alpha Zahn think we're going to do for him?' Shaw asks me.

'I have no clue. If Sophie is this upset having witnessed it, I can't imagine what his mate feels having gone through it. And then, waking up, still in her own personal hell, after trying to kill herself. I have no idea what he thinks coming here will achieve for him.'

I stroke Sophie's hair in the way I know she likes. I can almost feel Hedda starting to purr at the sensation.

"Do you want me to tell him no, Soph. I will. We don't have to help him," I say, but she sits up and looks at me.

"No, but we do have to help her. That's what we do, right? We protect those who need protection. She needs our protection,

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Hunter. She needs to be protected from him. I don't know what that means, or what it looks like, and I swear Hunter, if he comes here and tries to hurt any of women under our protection, I'll kill him myself. But if she's here, we can help her. She will be among other women who are healing like Kinsley and Brooklyn. I may not understand what it's like for her, but I can give her a safe place to be with others who do. We could even put her in the survivor center while she's here."

"I don't know if Zahn will go for that," I tell her.

"He won't have a choice. If he wants our help, if he wants MY help, then he'll do what we tell him to do, or he can shove his mate bond up his ass."

1 fight hard, really hard not to smile at my mate's anger. She's being very serious, and I know she means everything that she's saying, but damn she's cute when she's fired up.

"You want him to shove his mate bond up his ass?" I ask.

She pulls back and sees me fighting my laughter. Her eyes narrow, but then I see her lips twitch. "It's a fractured mate bond. It would hurt like hell if we shoved it up his ass," she says, and I burst out laughing. I pull her to me, both of us needing this bit of levity.

"Oh, goddess, Sophie. I love you so much."

"How much do you love me, Hunter? I think you should show me," she says seductively.

I spend the next hour showing my mate just how much I love and adore her.

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