The One He Claimed by Cooper

Chapter 50

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Chapter 50: Reasons Hunter

| trust Kayce not to do anything rash. He, like me, has always wanted to find his mate. If we had been at Allison's

birthday party, he would have handled it like Calvin did with Amelia, giving her as much tto get to know him

as possible. So, I'm not worried about what he will do over dinner or even at the after party. However, | do

wonder how he will handle it if she doesn't want to sleep with him tonight or if he refuses to claim her privately.

| guide Sophie into the room | had set up for us to have dinner, mind linking the kitchen staff to let them know

we need dinner for seven, not four.

Luna already let us know, Alpha,' the kitchen omegas reply.

Of course she did. | smile down at my mate. | can feel her nervousness at having Kayce and Robin around these

she- wolves, but she once again madefeel like a fucking king when she looked tofor my opinion. The

trust that she has in me, after only such a short amount of time, is incredible and | only want it to grow. A mate

bond, created the way it was meant to be created, between two people. When we get to the room, Sophie

watches to see how the women will sit. Kayce pulls a chair out for Allison, and she sits, blushing shyly while he

sits beside her. Nikki sits on her other side, as if she's ready to pull Allison away from Kayce if he does anything

wrong. Robin, sits directly across from Nikki, wiggling

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his eyebrows at her. That means either can't sit beside Sophie or Letti will have to sit beside either Kayce or

Robin. Not surprisingly, Letti leaves an empty seat between her and Robin, sitting across from Kayce.

| look at Sophie. Part of why | wanted the two of them here is so they can see the difference in my mate bond

compared to everyone else's.

'How would you feel about sitting in my lap?’ | ask her in the mind link.

She looks at me, then at the table.

'Okay,' she says, but | can tell she's not comfortable with the idea.

'Do you trust me? | ask her.

‘Absolutely,’ she says with no hesitation.

| smile, sitting at the head of the table in between Letti and

Kayce. | scoot the chair back and tapping my lap. My mate not only sits in my lap, but she wraps her arms

around my neck, kissing my cheek.

As expected, both Kayce and Robin frown at the interaction.

"Forgive me, | didn't want to be seated away from my mate," | say. "I think it's important for both of you to see

the difference between what | have with Sophie versus every other mate bond you've ever seen with a mated

ranked couple."

"You could be commanding her to do this," Kayce says. | notice that his hand is twitching to touch Allison. She

looks almost as

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desperate for his touch.

| look at Sophie. "Am | commanding you? Be honest." | say, putting the full force of my command behind it. | see

Letti's chin go up in submission, Allison's as well, making Kayce growl. "No," Sophie says, and | release my aura.

I look at Kayce, waiting for him to acknowledge my mate's response.

"Okay, fine. | want to ask Sophie squestions," he says.

"As do I," Robin says, leaning onto the table, with his hands clasped together.

"Go ahead," she says.

"Why did you run? Two years ago, why did you run?" Kayce asks her.

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"You were there that night, at my sister's party," she says and Kayce nods. "I'm sure you knew what was going to

happen, just as Hunter did, but | didn't. | was sent to my room, but | didn't. stay there. | cback out and saw

what happened. The warrior who tookto my room that night toldwhat was going to happen and that was

why | had to go to my room. | didn't believe her. You see, we, as females, aren't told what was going to happen

to us, until our 18th birthday, which has apparently changed since | left.

She takes a deep breath. "I was horrified," she says, and | can feel her emotions flgoding into her, overwhelming

her.

“Shhh. You're safe," | say quietly, wrapping my arms around her.

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She snuggles into me, accepting the comfort I'm offering.

"I watched my sister beg Alpha Calvin not to do it, but he did and all those men, they cheered as my sister wept.

| refused to allow that to happen to me. So, while everyone was busy watching the big event, | wrote a note to

my family, packed a small bag and | ran." Her eyes are lost in the memory, and | can feel her sadness, sharp as if

it's happening again. | lean in, kissing the side of her head. "You're safe," | say again, just for her to hear.

She nods, taking another deep breath.

"How did Hunter get you to agree to let him mark you?" Alpha Robin asks her.-

She smiles and looks atout of the corner of her eye. "Can | tell them the whole story."

| shrug. "That's why they're here."

She smiles, snuggling intosmore and putting her hands over mine as if she's afraid her words will make

angry.

"I didn't accept him at first. | rejected him, sort of, then | ran."

"What do you mean, sort of," Kayce asks her.

"He didn't know who | was at first. He just knew | was his mate. | was afraid that if | rejected him properly, using

my full name, he would chasedown because | am an Alpha female." "Did it hurt?" Robin asks me.

"It hurt my pride," | say, nuzzling Sophie's hair.

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She smiles and continues. "I ran and was almost caught by Alpha Owen. | thought | was doomed. He shifted

when he

couldn't commandto do so, then his wolf had Hedda pinned to the ground."

She begins breathing heavily, her heart rate increasing. | look and see the other girls in the room clasping their

hands tightly in their laps, looking down so we can't see the emotions on their faces. I'm sure Sophie is telling

their worst nightmare.

"Luckily the rejection didn't work, and | heard Owen's howl of the hunt," | continue while my mate collects

herself. "Since Sophie is my mate, there was no way | was letting anyone, least of all him, have her. | got there in

tand ripped him off of her."

She turns and looks at me. "Then Hunter found me. | was..."

"Stressed," | finish for her.

She laughs humorlessly. "That's one word for it." She smiles again.

"It was Shaw who wonover, actually," she says, and my wolf begins purring at her, making her smile even

brighter.

"lI was in a lake, scrubbing off the feeling of Alpha Owen on my body, and | was freezing. Shaw offered to warm

had a naked Hunter wrapped around me."

"I can't imagine that went over well," Kayce says.

She shrugs. "He could have markedat any point while | was asleep, but he didn't. He just askedto give

him tto talk,

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to get to know him, and to belleve him that he had no intention of claimingpublicly. So I did."

"And you believed him?" Robin asks.

"We had a lot of talone and the mate bond if hard to resist," she says, looking at Kayce and Allison.

Allison blushes and looks down, but Kayce scrubs his face with his hands. "Yeah, it really is."

"How did you do it? How did you hold off for so long in marking her. Rodion is making my head hurt he's being so

loud," Kayce says, looking at me.

“I had a vested interest in making sure Sophie believedand trusted me. | knew she was mine and I'd never

let anyone else have her, but | needed her to agree to be mine. She did," | say, smiling at my mate.

My mate, who may never stop surprising me, leans in and kissesgently, putting her hand against my cheek.

She doesn't deepen the kiss, so | don't either, knowing she's already a bit uncomfortable. When she pulls back,

her eyes stay on mine. "It was the best night of my life."

"Mine too," | tell her.

| hear a chair scraping and look to see that Robin is standing and is now pacing.

"You're tellingthat this," he says, waving his hand atand Sophie, "is for real?"

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"It is for real," Allison says. "We've been watching them for a couple of days. What you're seeing now is mild."

"| agree. Allison and | have witnessed the love and trust between Alpha Hunter and Luna Sophie, multiple times,"

Letti adds, looking from Allison to us to the two Alphas.

"You saw it earlier, Alpha Robin. You saw how Luna Sophie asked her mate if she could trust the two of you. Have

you ever seen a Luna who has that much trust and faith in their mate. A Luna who has been mated less than a

week from what | understand," Nikki says, watching Robin closely.

He stops and looks at her.

"Have you? Because | know | haven't," she asks him again.

"No, I haven't," he concedes.

"So, you're saying that all this trust, all this love, is simply because Hunter didn't claim you publicly?" Kayce asks

Sophie.

It's Nikki who responds. "Letask you something, Alpha Kayce. As an Alpha, | feel a deep desire to protect

those around me, my pack, my friends, and maybe, someday, my mate. What part of taking your crying mate,

who is begging you not to claim her publicly, would be considered protecting her? How can she ever trust that

you would protect her after that? How could she believe that you truly love her after you mistreated her that

way?"

He looks at Nikki a moment, then at Allison. "Is the idea of being claimed publicly really that horrible to you?

That you would never trustor believe that | loved you again?"

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THE

"Yes, Allison whispers. Why

It's not the sfor us as it is for you. Alpha. We are raised differently, women and men in packs, particularly

ranked she wolves. We're given the lies of what a beautiful relationship we'll have with our mates, how loving

and caring they will be, and all the while, we are told to keep ourselves pure, not to let other men see what we

are to give to you on our claiming night. Even in the packs, even as an Alpha, | was rarely allowed to be naked in

front of the pack members. | would never, ever have wanted my first tto be in front of a room full of men

whistling and howling | can't even imagine the embarrassment that | would have felt, the horror | know that

sometimes that gap can be overcome, as with my sister and Alpha Calvin, but not always. We only need to

remember Alpha Ezra and Hunter's sister to know that," Sophie says.

"That is why we've run. That is why we choose a life alone rather than risk being claimed," Allison says to him,

"So, it's about being mated in public, not being marked in public?" Kayce clarifies. | look at Sophie, wondering if

it's both or just the mating.

She turns and looks at me. "Well,) mean, it would be

uncomfortable to be marked in public because, well, there are a lot of strong emotions that cwhen you're

marked, but... guess for me, it was about the mating, although the two generally happen together, because of

those strong emotions," she says, and now she's blushing

"But the law isn't about the marking, is it?" Nikki says again and we all focus on her. "The she wolf rarely marks

her mate during

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the public claiming, does she?"

I look at Kayce and then at Robin, both have the sconfused looks on their faces. "Honestly, I've excused

myself from them for so many years, | wouldn't know," | say.

"I have as well, but | don't remember ever seeing the she-wolf mark her mate. You're right, little Alpha," Robin

says.

She gives him a look. "I'm not that little, you know."

Rather than answering, he just smiles and winks at her, making her huff, but | can see her hide her smile and

based on Robin's smile, he sees it too.

Instead, he turns to Letti. "How about you, little G**a. You've been very quiet during this conversation which |

feel isn't your norm." "I've never seen a marking. All | know is what my mother told me," she says.

"Which is?" Kayce asks.

"Which is that it's terrible, painful, mortifying, and not worth finding your mate," she says, watching the two

visiting Alphas carefully.

"My mother basically said the same," Allison says, glancing at Kayce.

"So, | will ask you," | say, as the food comes in. "Why are we mistreating our Lunas this way? What is the

purpose? What could it possible matter if their claiming is public. Can both of you not smell my scent on Sophie

and her on me?" | ask, getting

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to the crux of the issue.

"We're wolves, after all. What good are our advanced senses if we don't use them. And what good are we as

Alphas if we don't protect those we are sworn to protect, those who are most. precious to us," | say, leaning

forward to nuzzle Sophie and smiling as she leans into my touch.

"What are we even doing if we aren't first protecting our mates," | say and see Kayce glancing at Allison beside «

him, as Robin looks between Nikki and Letti.

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The One He Claimed by Cooper

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