The Claiming by Cooper Book 2
The Council by Cooper (Jara & Mason)
Chapter 49
Jara
My little pup has become very active. I was so excited when I first felt her move inside me. It was wonderful. Ever since Mason could hear her heartbeat, he couldn’t wait to be close to her at night. Now that he can feel her moving around inside me, he’s always touching my stomach, hoping to feel her move. When she’s awake, she never disappoints him.
Today, after Mason and our large group of warriors leave to help Alpha Davis rebuild, I decide to go with Layan and the kids outside to play. Jace and Melinda are very active and giving them time outside to run around is a great way for them to burn off some of their energy. Since Katerina will be here tomorrow for the weekend, I wanted to spend some time with Layan today to see how she’s feeling about the visit.
I sit and watch Layan chasing the kids around the yard, playing tag and then hide and seek. When she finally comes to sit beside me, I turn to her.
“How are you feeling about tomorrow and this weekend?”
She shrugs. “I don’t want to scare her off. You, Hana, Annabel and Mignon all had good experiences. I know mine wasn’t the norm and I know that you are working to make sure it never happens to anyone again, but….” She trails off, watching the kids playing.
“But?” I prompt her.
“But that wasn’t my experience. If she asks me, I’ll tell her the truth. Things can go bad inside the claiming territory. You know that as well as I do.” She says. “Yes, I do.”
I’m just about to say something else, when the howl of warning goes up. Almost instantly, it is cut off, as if the person was attacked. I’m hoping they are okay but I don’t have time to worry about that.
I jump up as does Layan. “Jace! Melinda!”
We run to them, picking them up and turning to go inside when the scent of rotting flesh hits my nose.
I turn and see the most hideous creature I’ve ever seen running straight toward us. It’s black, its fur, if that’s what it has is matted all over its body. It looks like it has four legs, but they aren’t placed like they should be on a four-legged animal. The two in back are too close together and they are too close to what should be its front legs. Whatever it is, it isn’t natural.
I shove Melinda into Layan’s arms. “RUN! Get them into the safe room. NOW!”
“Jara!” She yells, seeing the creature behind me.
“GO!” I yell again, turning to put myself between the creature that is still coming straight for us and Layan and the pups.
She grabs a child in each arm and turns to run, yelling for help as she does. The men and wolves that were heading toward the sound of the howl immediately turn to help her. My guards, having been off to the side, giving me space to relax with Layan, come rushing up.
Just as the creature leaps at me, Lewis jumps in front of me, taking the brunt of the hit, but the force of the creature attacking pushes it and Lewis into me, knocking me to the ground.
“Luna!” I hear someone yell and the creature pins Lewis to the ground, its teeth snapping at his face.
Another guard comes over, ripping the creature off and Lewis gets up, standing in front of me. The smell is horrible, worse than anything I’ve ever smelled before.
From behind Lewis, I can see that our pack members are trying to surround the creature, but it’s so wild, and misshapen that it’s just attacking randomly. Its snarls are feral, and I finally realize that this is a feral wolf. I don’t know what’s happened to it to make it so disfigured, but it’s so far gone that it doesn’t even know that its body is so broken.
The men begin fighting and I see Elijah in wolf form come racing over, leaping over the men to fight the creature, the creature that is also a wolf, but looks nothing like one.
Elijah grabs it by the scruff of its neck and yanks it away from me. The men following, attacking the intruder as they can. It continues snapping its teeth at everyone. Even when they get a grip on the creature, he pulls away, seemingly oblivious that his body is broken.
“Luna, get up, I’m going to get you into a safe room.” Lewis says to me, never turning his back on the creature.
“What is it?” I ask. “It looks like a wolf.”
“It’s Alpha Typhon, Luna, you need to get up. Are you injured?”
“Typhon?” I exclaim, looking at the creature again. I would never have guessed that it was my sister’s mate.
“Luna, can you stand?” Lewis asks me again more urgently.
“I don’t know.” I say, and I try to stand. My side hurts, but I push myself to my feet. I stumble, not feeling steady after my fall.
Lewis turns, seeing me struggling and wraps his arm around my waist. I wrap my arm protectively around my stomach and we begin making our way to the packhouse.
I hear the snarling intensify behind me and Lewis turns, releasing me and stepping in front of me just as the creature attacks him again. This time, there’s nowhere for me to go and Typhon slams Lewis into me. I fall to the ground on my back, Lewis on top of me, crushing my stomach as Typhon snaps and snarls at him, trying to get to me. His saliva, which smells like rotten fish, is dripping onto my face and body as he snarls, making me want to vomit.
Elijah rushes forward again, grabbing the back of Typhon’s leg. I can hear the crunch of bones breaking but Typhon doesn’t seem phased at all by the pain. If anything, it seems to drive him forward even more.
The others are rushing over. I can see that some of them have been bitten and others have slashes and gashes on their bodies. Even feral, Typhon is an Alpha. He may not be a strong Alpha, but as an Alpha, he’s still stronger than the warriors in our pack.
They begin shifting into wolf form coming to attack Typhon from different sides, surrounding him. Lewis is still thrashing on top of me, trying to keep Typhon away from me and I can do nothing but try to protect my daughter.
Just as Elijah gets a hold of Typhon again, he latches onto the corner of Lewis’s neck where it connects to his shoulder. Elijah, not realizing, yanks him off Lewis. The force of Typhon’s hold and Elijah pulling him off, rips Lewis’s throat open.
As the weight on top of me lessens, I feel hot blood begin rushing down my face and chest.
“Lewis!” I scream, pushing him off of me. I can hear the snaps and snarls that continue behind me, but I can’t stop to look.
“LEWIS!” I scream again. His eyes are so wide, and his mouth is opening and closing but nothing is coming out. Air bubbles begin blowing out of his throat and I realize he’s drowning in his own blood.
I roll him on his side, putting his head in my lap, hoping to keep him from aspirating. I begin rocking back and forth.
“Hold on, Lewis. Just hold on.” I say, rubbing my hand over his head
I scream for help and one of the warriors comes rushing over. He drops to his knees beside us, putting his hand over the wound, but there’s too much blood. Even I know there’s too much blood, but I don’t want to believe it. I don’t want to believe that this man who has been such a good person, a good guard to me, is dying in my arms.
I look down into his eyes, and he reaches up to touch my face. “It’s okay, Luna. Don’t cry.” He mouths to me I grab his hand, holding it to my face “Stay with me, Lewis. Just stay with me. That’s an order from your Luna”
He smiles just before I see the light leave his eyes, his hand becoming heavy in mine, the blood pumping out of his wound slowing until there is nothing
“Noooo!” I lift my head to the sky and scream.
A moment later, a bloody, n*ake*d Elijah is falling to his knees beside me, checking Lewis for a pulse. He looks at me. “I’m sorry, Luna. He’s gone.”
I hear a keening sound and it’s only when Elijah pulls me to his chest rocking me, that I realize that it’s me. Lewis gave his life to save me.
“Come on, Luna. I’ll call Alpha and have him come home right away. Let’s get you upstairs and into the shower and then to bed. You’ve had quite a scare. I want the doctor to see you.”
Elijah starts to help me up and I realize I’m sore all over, my body feeling bruised. I put my hand on my stomach just as it cramps. I stop, bending over, the pain sucking the air out of my lungs.
“Luna?” Elijah is looking terrified. “Get the doctor here NOW!” He shouts. “I’m okay, I just need to catch my breath.” I say but as soon as I try to stand, the pain shoots through my stomach again.
This time, I look up at Elijah and I know the fear on his face is mirrored in mine. He reaches down to pick me up, just as I feel a warm, sticky wetness between my legs.
“No, no, no!” Elijah yells as he scoops me up and begins running to the pack hospital. It takes me a moment longer than it took him to understand what is going on. But then I smell it. Blood. My blood.
I’m miscarrying my baby. I’m losing my little girl.