The Claiming by Cooper Book 4
The Contest by Cooper (Jaxon & Evangeline)
Chapter 25 (Evangeline)
When I get off the phone, Maggie looks at me.
“Are you really going to do this?” she asks.
“He’s not giving me any other choice.” I walk to her, taking her hands in mine. “Will you do me a favor?”
“Of course, anything Evie.”
“Don’t say anything to them on the way home.”
“Mom’s going to freak out when she realizes.”
I shrug, walking into the bathroom and stripping off my clothes. I set Jaxon’s jacket aside, knowing I may not see him now until the next competition. I hope I will, but we’ll have to see what happens.
I shower and get ready, packing my things and heading downstairs. Most everyone will be staying for breakfast, but my father is rushing us out of here.
“Why are we leaving so early?” Makayla complains, stomping down the stairs with her bags over her shoulder.
I don’t say anything. I can’t. I’m so angry, so hurt, that if I say a word, the tears will start to fall. How could the best night of my life turn into the worst morning so quickly?
My dad pulls the car around and we all begin to load our bags and get in. Alejandro frowns at me and I just shake my head at him.
“Eve!” I hear behind me. I turn and see Jaxon jogging toward me, a huge smile on his face.
As soon as he sees mine, the smile drops. “Eve?”
I shake my head at him before climbing into the car, the tears a moment from falling.
My father hits the gas as soon as my door is shut.
“Eve!” Jaxon says, running toward the car. I put my hand up against the window, my own way of saying goodbye as I watch him chase the car before he stops and watches us drive away.
When I turn back the car is eerily silent.
I don’t say a word.
We haven’t driven long when my mother speaks.
“Does someone want to tell me what’s going on?”
Neither my father nor I say a word. Maggie reaches out and takes my hand.
“Okaayyy,” my mother drags out the word.
I look back out the window. I can feel the tension in the car getting heavier as everyone tries to figure out what is going on between myself and my father. “Evangeline, you’re being uncharacteristically quiet,” my mother tries again.
I turn and look at her, seeing worry flash in her eyes before she looks at my father. Without saying a word, I turn and look back outside the window.
No one says another word the rest of the drive. When we pull up, I see my grandmother standing outside the packhouse.
I climb out of the car, going to get my bags.
“Mother, what are you doing here?” my mother asks my grandmother as she gets out.
“Evangeline asked me to come pick her up.” She says, looking at me and opening her arms.
I walk to her and let her wrap me in her embrace.
“No.” My father says behind us.
“Luke? What is going on?” My mother asks, but I don’t wait for him to answer her. I turn on him, my anger bubbling to the surface.
“You may be my Alpha, but that can change. Don’t make me reject you and this pack, father, because I will.”
My mother and my family all s*uck in air at my statement, but I mean every word. I see the hurt flash in my father’s eyes, but I don’t care. It’s about time he realizes how hurt I am with what he’s done.
“Now, now. Let’s not say things in anger or do things that will be h*ard to undo later. Alpha Luke, I don’t see any reason that your daughter can’t come stay with me for a while,” my grandmother says, placatingly.
“You need to stay here,” my father says to me, his stubborn Alpha side coming out.
I lift my chin, ready to reject him when my mother cuts me off.
“Let her go, Luke.” He turns to look at her, but she’s looking at me.
“Go spend some time with your grandmother. I’ll be calling you later. I expect you to take my call.”
I nod, part of me relieved that I won’t have to reject my father or this pack. I love my pack, I love my family and even though I’ m so angry I could scream at my father, I love him too. It would hurt me as much as it would hurt him if I rejected him as my Alpha.
Maggie grabs me in a hug. “Call me when you want to talk,” she whispers in my ear. I nod, hugging her.
Then, Alejandro is there, pulling me into a hug. “I’ll talk to him. I’ll find out what’s going on. I’ll make it right,” he says making my lips tremble.
I turn to say goodbye to Makayla and see that she is crying. “Bye, Evie. I love you,” she says, and I pull her into a hug. “I love you too, Makkie.”
I turn and hug Lazio. He says something similar to what Alejandro said.
Finally, I turn to my mother, who wraps her arms around me. “I love you. I’ll talk to your father, and we’ll figure this out. I’ll be in t*ouch later,” she says, pulling back and looking at me, tucking my hair out of my face.
She looks up at my grandmother. “Take care of my daughter.”
“Of course, I will. You’re all acting as if she’s going to her death. She’s coming to visit her old grandmother to make me feel young again,” Grandmother Isabella scolds them.
“Ready?” she asks, turning me toward her car.
I turn and head to her car without looking at my father or saying goodbye to him.
As soon as we get off the pack lands, my grandmother turns to me.
“Now, what’s this all about?”
Katerina POV
I watch my daughter drive away, before turning to my other children.
“Everyone go get unpacked. We’ve been away for nearly a week. Time to get back to normal.”
Rather than the usual moans and groans, they all quietly move inside.
I turn to look at my mate. “Our room or your office?” I ask, not giving him any opportunity to evade me.
“Can we talk about this later, Kat?” he asks, and he sounds exhausted.
“Our daughter nearly rejected you and this pack. No, we will not discuss this later. We will discuss it now. But I would prefer to have this conversation in private, not out here where anyone in our pack can hear it.”
He sighs, and nods, before heading inside. I follow him, pulling my bag off his shoulder and carrying it up the stairs to our bedroom.
When we get there, he drops the bags and goes to sit on the love seat, putting his head in his hands.
“I screwed up, Kat.”
“That much I figured out. Tell me what happened.”
He clenches his teeth. “I went to check on her and Maggie last night. Evie wasn’t in their room. Maggie tried to make some excuse, but I could tell she didn’t know where Evangeline was either. I tried to mind link her and she had the link blocked. So, I waited.”
He looks up at me and I can see that his eyes are bloodshot with fatigue. “And waited. And waited, getting angrier with each passing second. When she finally came strutting down the hall, her shoes in her hand and his jacket on over her dress that was sandy and grass stained, she smelled so strongly of Alpha Jaxon that I lost it. I told her she couldn’t see him again.”
He puts his head in his hands again and I sit beside him, putting my arm around him.
“You know she’s almost an adult, Luke.”
“But she’s not an adult, Katerina. She’s my child,” he says.
“She’s your daughter, but she’s not a child any longer, Luke. You can’t protect her or treat her like a little girl. She’s competing to be an Alpha of her own pack. A competition that she is only competing in because you chose to give the pack to Alejandro. As Alpha, that was your choice. But that doesn’t mean that she isn’t more than capable of running her own pack. She’s an Alpha wolf, Luke and she’ll be an adult in a few short months.
She is most likely feeling the pull to her mate already. And if she’s not, then she’s experimenting.”
He gives me a look like he’s about to argue with me.
“I understand you don’t want to think of your little girl as being all grown up, of no longer needing your protection, but honey, you’re not being fair. And rather than keeping her safe, you’ve pushed her away. If she feels that Alpha Jaxon is her mate and she plans to accept him, then anything you do to keep them apart will only cause a rift between you and her.”
“I didn’t want to push her away, Kat.” He sighs heavily. “When did she grow up? It feels like it was just yesterday that we welcomed her into this world, that I held her in my arms for the first time.”
“I know, baby. It does seem like only yesterday. Our life has been good, and time has flown by.” I lean forward, hugging my mate.
“Get some rest. You’re exhausted and not thinking straight. Alejandro and I can handle anything that comes up.”
“What about Evie?” he asks.
“Give her some space. You both need to cool off. I’ll talk to her, and we’ll go from there.”
He reaches out, cupping my face. “You are the best thing that ever happened to me, you know that?”
“I do,” I say, smirking.
“And you were the best thing that ever happened to me, too, Luke.”