The Claiming by Cooper Book 4
The Contest by Cooper (Jaxon & Evangeline)
Chapter 37 (Evangeline)
I’m already doubting that my father will behave this week, but he did agree to have Jaxon join us for dinner.
“It’ll be fine, Eve. He’s your father. Yes, he’s being a bit overprotective, but that’s his job. You’re his first-born child, he’s going to be more strict with you and I.”
“How are you so calm about this?”
“I’m calm because he’s not actively trying to keep me away from you. If that changes, so will my attitude. I’m just saying, if he’s trying, let’s give him a chance. And….I may have called in the big guns.”
“Big guns? What do you mean?” I ask him as we walk into the dining room together. “I asked my mother to sit with us,” he says smugly.
“Why, Alpha Jaxon, how very conniving of you,” I say to him, already seeing Luna Jara seated at our table talking to my parents.
As we get closer, Luna Jara stands. “Jaxon, sweetheart, you didn’t even come say hello to me when you arrived home.”
“Sorry mom, Eve and I went outside to show everyone what we learned from Ezekiel last week.”
“I heard it was impressive,” she says, turning to me. “Alpha Evangeline, how lovely to see you. I look forward to getting to know you better this week. I hope you’ll enjoy your time in our pack.”
“I’m sure I will, Luna, thank you.”
I nod at my parents and siblings before sitting down in between Luna Jara and Jaxon. I know he seated me here on purpose. It’s a way for Luna Jara to say she supports our relationship.
“I do want to hear all about Ezekiel, but first, how are Jonas and Melinda doing? I miss Melinda now that she refuses to visit.”
I’m not sure if the conversation is intentional, or if Luna Jara really does miss Melinda since she originally came from this pack.
“She’s good. She’s pregnant with her third child.”
Luna Jara’s eyes go wide. “That’s wonderful. I’ll have to let Brynn know. Such a shame that there is a rift between Melinda and her mother. I hope they can work it out some day. Melinda is a special woman,” she says looking at me.
“Did you know, Evangeline, that I lost a sister?”
“Jaxon told me. He said one of the territories in the contest was the pack land where she was Luna,” I say.
“That’s right. She died without ever having a child,” Luna Jara smiles sadly. “And then, I lost my first child, a girl.”
I turn looking at Jaxon, but he’s watching his mother. I turn back to her. “I didn’t know that.” I say to her.
“Why would you? At the time, your father hadn’t even claimed your mother yet. But a young Melinda came to me in my darkest hour. She told me that my sister had come to her in a dream and wanted her to thank me for giving her the child she never had. Melinda was maybe two or three at the time, young as I said. She insisted that Brynn allow her to tell me what she needed to say because my sister came to her in a dream and wanted her to give me the message.” Luna Jara’s eyes are far away, remembering the time.
“So, you can see why I feel close to Melinda. I’ll definitely have to go see her soon. I haven’t even met her little girl yet,” she says.
“Molly,” I say. “Grandma Isabella adores her.”
“She’s really cute,” Jaxon says. “Looks just like Melinda. They both do with their blond, curly hair.”
Luna Jara smiles. “Now, I’m sure we all want to hear more about Ezekiel. Your sister has him coming here soon.”
“I guess we’ll see if Norman is right about making Ezekiel look like a weakling or if that is a bunch of bravado and good-natured ribbing, but last week was pretty intense,” Jaxon says as our food arrives.
“Their fighting styles are different, so I expect that if you found last week to be difficult, you’ll find this week to be equally as difficult. The difference is that both of you have a bit of an advantage over the rest of us, having started your intensity training a week early,” Lazio says.
“I didn’t realize that it was having such an impact. Truly, it was so exhausting that it was all we could to get through the days. At night, we’d just collapse and fall asleep, waking up in time to do it again. Eat, fight, sleep, repeat,” I tell them.
“That sounds like the schedule that Jordan has planned for this week. She has morning training with the pack and afternoon training with anyone who would like to attend, which I’m assuming is everyone still in the contest.”
“I’ll be joining both as well,” Al says. “I should hope so,” I tease him.
“I believe Jordan plans to do the same, as do Mason and I. I’d like to see if I can still keep up with these young ones.”
My mother starts laughing. “That’s pretty much what I said to Evangeline.”
Maggie rolls her eyes. “Like either of you won’t be able to keep up. I mean, I can’t exactly speak for you, Luna Jara, but I know my mother has never stopped training and you look like you’re still in pretty good fighting shape yourself. I know I’m hoping to be able to keep up with both of you,” she says.
It continues like that for the rest of dinner. My father doesn’t say much, but that’s not unusual when there are a bunch of us at the table. He listens and pays attention.
As dinner begins to wind down, Jordan goes to the front of the dining room, whistling loudly to get everyone’s attention.
“Hey everyone!” she says as the room quiets down. “As all of you know, this week we have Nolan, one of the best warriors of our time here to train us on the art of kickboxing this week. Nolan will be having two training sessions a day for the next seven days. The first one will be open to everyone in the morning from 5am – 7am. Then there will be another one in the evening from 5pm – 7pm. This one is available for everyone but will be more intense than the morning class and will be specifically geared toward those individuals participating in the contest. I recommend that all warriors plan to attend the morning sessions, and anyone wanting to have their butts kicked, join the evening classes as well. That’s all, see you in the morning!” she says, before the chatter of the room begins again.
When we’re done, Jaxon and I stand.
Although I wanted to have some alone time with him before this next grueling week starts, I also know that my siblings will probably be as excited as I am to see another pack lands.
“Jaxon was going to show me around the pack lands. Does anyone want to join us?” I ask.
Makayla jumps up. “I do!”
“I’d like to as well,” Al says.
“I’m coming too,” Maggie says.
They all stand, including Lazio. “I’m going to check and see if Nolan and Jordan want to join us. I’ll be right back,” Jaxon says, kissing me quickly before stepping away.
My father grits his teeth but says nothing.
Luna Jara stands. “Thank you for letting me join you for dinner. It was nice to catch up, Katerina, Luke. If you or your family need anything at all while you’re here, please don’ t hesitate to let me know,” Luna Jara says before turning to me.
“And you let me know if you need anything from me,” she says before kissing my cheek. I’m not sure if she means because I’m her son’s mate, or because my father is giving us a hard time. But either way, the message was clear. She is supportive of our relationship.
Jaxon comes back with Jordan and Nolan in tow, taking my hand and looking at everyone.
“Ready?”
We all walk out of the packhouse, and Jordan and Jaxon spend the next hour walking us around their pack lands. The packhouse is seated at the foot of a mountain range. It’s absolutely gorgeous, surrounded by lush forests. They show us the housing that has been built, where families with young children prefer to live. “It wasn’t always this way, these houses have all been built in our generation,” Jordan says as we pass what looks like a main street with storefronts.
“Even as recently as your parents’ generation, females were extremely rare. It’s why they used to have the claiming. And even then, sometimes there was only one female from all the packs that had come of age. Things have definitely changed, for the better, in the last two decades,” Nolan adds.
Makayla snorts. “I’ll say. Now there are almost too many females,” she says.
“On the contrary, the females of the pack, while rarely given the opportunity that Alpha Jordan has been given as the leader of her pack, have always held all the power. It was generations of arrogance that forgot the value and importance of the females in our species that nearly caused our annihilation. No one should ever forget that it is the females who give us the next generation. Without you,” Nolan says, turning to Makayla, “we don’t exist.”
Makayla blushes at the attention.
“But we’re more than just baby making machines,” Maggie says to him.
“Indeed. Some could argue that you are the stronger of the genders. While, physically, men are stronger, women have a tolerance to pain that we do not. For instance, if the fate of our species depended on men giving birth, I fear we’d die out in one generation.”
All of the girls laugh at that.
“Our father said that our mother broke his hand each time she gave birth. He said that was as much pain as he could take. I can only imagine how much pain my mother was in to literally break his hand,” Jaxon says.
“Our mother was the same, according to our father,” I tell him.
As we walk, I notice that Jordan seems quite taken with Nolan. Honestly, he’s not what I expected. I didn’t spend any extra time with Ezekiel, so maybe I’d have liked him too, but Nolan is just personable and kind.
“Why did you decide to focus your training on kickboxing, Nolan?” Alejandro asks him. “Ahh, a good question. You’d expect that, like my competitors, that I’d focus on a male dominant fighting style. However, as I explained to Jordan earlier, kickboxing is the great equalizer.”
I look at Jaxon and realize that he caught the same thing I did. Nolan called Alpha Jordan by her name, and she didn’t even flinch. She’s already given him permission to drop her title. Interesting.
I feel Jaxon tensing up beside me and I squeeze his hand. “Don’t be a hypocrite,” I whisper to him.
He frowns, looking at me.
“Your sister is an adult. She’s obviously given Nolan permission to be familiar with her. Let it go,” I say to him.
He looks at Nolan before looking back at me and nodding in agreement.