The Claiming by Cooper Book 3
Layan’s Return by Cooper (Jara & Mason)
Chapter 24
Mason
The day and night that Katerina went into the territory, there were a line of Alphas just at the border of the territory listening for her. Their frustration was evident on their faces, that is until they smelled the smoke and realized she was in the cave for the night.
On the morning the first group of claimants entered the territory to hunt for Katerina, Dr. Braxton returned to the territory. This time, he asked to speak to all of us.
We gather in the dining room. Now that there are much fewer men here, it’s easy to find a quiet place to talk. We left the babies with Layan and Nina. Since my Beta isn’t here, I’m pretty he’s spending this time with Layan, especially since Alpha Davis is in the claiming territory hunting Katerina. Depending on how long each of the next two claims take, Elijah will have plenty of time to spend with Layan.
“I’ve asked to speak with all of you regarding the additional tests that I did on your children, as well as on Alpha Seth, Alpha Antonio, Alpha Mason and his pup Jaxon.” Dr. Braxton says, bringing my attention back to this meeting. The council is here as well, to hear the results of this most recent round of testing.
“As true Alphas, all of you had the potential to have dormant antibodies in your system. However, Alpha Antonio and specifically Alpha Mason had already started to feel the effects of the feral-fever virus impacting them.”
Antonio and I both nod. We’re older than Seth, so we would have been feeling it more strongly.
Dr. Braxton pushes his glasses up his nose, a move I’ve become accustomed to seeing him do. “My testing did not indicate that you had dormant antibodies in your system. At least not that we could tell. You are all mated and it’s possible that any dormant antibodies were activated. However, we saw no difference in the antibodies in your system than we did in your mates’ systems.” He looks up. “There are slight variations in the antibodies allowing us to track which pack they’ve come from.”
“What does that mean?” Antonio asks, interrupting him.
He looks up and then around the table at all of us. “How to say this so it makes sense.” He looks thoughtful for a moment before continuing. “Let’s call them strains of the virus. For instance, the strain of virus that Alpha Zaire has is different than the strain of virus that Alpha Davis has. They come from different parts of the country, so that makes sense. The antibodies in your system, Councilwoman Gia, match your mate’s strain of the virus, meaning that your body specifically created an immunity to the virus that impacts your mate and your pack.”
All of us sit there stunned. “However, and this is an interesting bit of information that I’ve recently found, in the instance of Alpha Davis, his antibodies mirror those of Layan, one of his pack mates. But we also found antibodies that mirror those of each of the Lunas, most significantly, those of Luna Jara.”
“Is that because we spent time in his pack?” Jara asks.
“I believe so. That theory is also supported by the antibodies in Layan’s system. Based on our research, she has an equal number of antibodies for the strain of virus in Alpha Davis’s pack, as well as your pack Luna Jara.”
“She spent time in our pack when Jara was… unwell.” I say, not wanting to revisit that awful time. I feel her hand reach out to hold mine. I look at her and squeeze her hand, feeling grounded again.
“Yes, and Luna Nina’s system also has antibodies for her pack with Alpha Seth and also those for Alpha Mason’s pack.” Dr. Braxton says.
“So, our Lunas are creating antibodies for each strain of the virus as they come into contact with them?” Asher asks.
“That is what we believe.” Dr. Braxton answers.
“All females?” I ask, remembering again that some females don’t have as many antibodies in their system.
“A very good question, and the answer is no. Not all of the females have antibodies to more than one strain.”
“Could that be because they haven’t traveled to the other packs? Not all females move around.” Councilman Phillip asks.
“We don’t believe so. In the instance of Celeste and Juliet, the two females that came from Alpha Gunnar’s pack, relocating to Alpha Seth’s, they only have antibodies for Alpha Seth’s pack in their system.”
“But that could be because Alpha Gunnar’s pack was eliminated, and that strain of virus is gone.” Jara says. I smile at my mate. She’s so damn smart. I see her give me a side-eye look and I know, she felt my burst of pride in her.
“And that was our a*s*sumption as well Luna, until we looked more closely at the antibodies in your blood.” He pushes his glasses up his nose and I hear Antonio sigh beside me, his mate reaching out to touch him. He’s an impatient man when it comes to these meetings.
“The Lunas all have antibodies for each other’s packs. Most likely because of the time you’ve spent together. You all also have antibodies for Alpha Davis’s pack, as you’ve spent time there, but you could have gotten those from Layan as well. However, Luna Jara, you also have another strain of antibody in your system.”
“From where?” I ask. Why would Jara have an additional strain of antibody? “On a hunch, I compared your extra antibody to that of Alpha Typhon’s virus. Your additional antibody is specifically designed to attack that virus.”
“But he’s gone. His pack is gone.” Jara says.
“But we took in members of his pack. Remember, Jara? We took them in before your claiming. I sent them to the pack so Typhon couldn’t hurt them.” I say. “That’s right. You have several of Typhon’s original pack members.” Councilman Jason says. He would know, since he helped me get them out of the territory before Jara’s claim last year.
“Yes, and those pack members have two strains of the virus in their system and two types of antibodies to fight them off.”
We all sit back. It’s a lot to take in. “So, our females are the sole reason for our immunity? Basically, their bodies create the vaccine that becomes the immunity for the pack or packs where they spend time and then they disseminate that to the pack members they have contact with?” Seth summarizes.
“Correct. And it appears, at least in the instances of you, Alpha Seth, as well as Alpha Antonio and Alpha Mason, that whether or not you had dormant antibodies before, being mated to your Lunas has created what I would call ‘super antibodies’ in your systems. Your bodies have more and stronger antibodies, unlike your other pack members and even more than other unmated Alphas. We didn’t specifically test your blood, Alpha Asher, but I would like to, to see if you also carry this ‘super antibody. Which brings me to my next point.” He says, pushing up his glasses again.
“All of your children, every child born in the last year has a level of antibodies that are significantly higher than any other pup or person in your packs, with the exception of the pup Melinda.”
“Meaning?” Jonas asks him.
“Meaning that we are creating a new generation of children that will not, or should not be, impacted by feral-ever or the claiming haze.” Everyone at the table breathes a sigh of relief. This is the best news we’ve heard in a long time.
Dr. Braxton looks up at me and Jara. “And that brings me to your son. The first male to actually be born with antibodies in his system.” He looks down and pushes his glasses up his face. I resist the urge to growl at him.
When he looks back up, he jolts, seeing my barely contained patience. “What we saw in Alpha Jaxon’s blood is a combination of what is in your blood Alpha Mason and what is in Luna Jara’s. Basically, he has the super antibodies that you have, Alpha, with the combination of every strain that is in your mate’s system.”
“How is that different from Jordan’s antibodies?” Jara asks him.
He turns to her before looking down at his paperwork. “Jordan has all of the strains of the virus antibodies in her system that you carry, Luna. She simply doesn’t have the ‘super antibodies’ that your son has. However, being a female, I don’t think she needs them. Your son is a true Alpha. He is intended to take over your pack one day. It would make sense, genetically, that our new generation would create Alphas that have their own immunity and can help protect their packs from the virus.”
“So, we’re evolving?” Hana asks.
“Yes, which brings me the last point for today.” He looks up at all of us before continuing. “If we are evolving, and each generation is creating stronger antibodies, and we know that the virus started with our females, it stands to reason that the females that died didn’t have the antibodies in their system to survive. Genetically speaking, it is survival of the fittest at his most basic. Clear out the weaker members to create a stronger generation.”
He pauses before continuing. “However, what we, as a species did to make it worse, was hide our females away that did have antibodies, therefore, allowing the virus to spread to our males. Once that happened, our males began to die off at a rate commiserate with the death of our females before them, only now, the virus manifested differently, so we knew when our males contracted feral-fever.”
We all nod. That makes sense.
“With the onset of the aggressive behavior of our males, their inherent need to claim a mate to save themselves and our own need to protect our females, we did the worst possible thing we could do for the continuation of our species. We hid our females away, basically removing the vaccine from our males and letting the virus run rampant. This is further supported by the complete lack of feral-fever found in any pack over the last year, and every unmated male passing a*s*sessment this year. Having females back in the general population, interacting with our male pack members has allowed us to begin fighting the feral-fever virus.”
“So, what you’re saying is that this virus basically killed us off because we didn’t recognize it early enough in our females and then we pulled them out of general society to keep them safe which only killed off our male pack members faster?” I ask.
“Yes, Alpha. That’s it in a nutshell.”