The Claiming by Cooper

The Claiming by Cooper Book 4

The Contest by Cooper (Jaxon & Evangeline) Chapter 46 (Evangeline)

Jaxon and I spent the evening laughing and dancing together, celebrating his sister becoming the pack's Alpha. It felt a lot like we were already a mated couple. No one else asked me to dance, not that Jaxon gave them the chance, but there were no jealous she- wolves hovering around us either, clamoring for a chance to dance with Jaxon. It was a great night and now, I'm heading to my room to shower and change before I sneak up to Jaxon's room for the night.

When I get out of the shower, Maggie is just walking in.

"Hey Maggie, did you have a good time tonight."

"Hey, Evie, yeah I did," she says distractedly, going to her bed.

"You okay?" I ask her.

"Yeah, I'm good. You headed to Jaxon's room?"

My sister and I have been best friends our entire lives. We know everything about each other and right now, I know something is bothering my sister.

I finish getting dressed in my pajama shorts and top and I sit on my bed. "Spill," I say.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Well, I mean, you're not like Makayla and bouncy all the damn time, but you' re usually more upbeat than this, especially when we've just come from such a fun night."

She begins chewing on the inside of her mouth. A sure sign that something is bothering her.

"I found him, Evie."

I wait, thinking there's more. She doesn't say any more, she just looks at me.

"Found who?"

"Him. My mate."

I jump up, pulling her into a hug. "Maggie, that's wonderful!" I say, before stopping and pulling back.

"Wait, why aren't you more excited?"

"Dad, obviously."

"Oh shit."

"Yeah, oh shit. If he's struggling this much with you, imagine how he's going to act with me. I'm six months younger than you are."

"How old is your mate? WHO is your mate?" I ask, watching as a smile spreads across her face.

"Jaxon's cousin, Caleb. And we're the same age."

"Caleb," I say thinking. "Griffin is the oldest male, right? He just took over as Alpha. And that would make Caleb

Taylor and Harper's brother too, right?" I ask, making sure I understand the family tree. I need to know, not only because I'm Jaxon's mate, but now my sister is going to be mated to one of them. "Yeah, Caleb is the youngest and there's another sister, Brooke, but she already found her mate. She's your age, not quite 18, but her parents let her go spend time in her mate's pack and let him come to visit theirs. I guess they are splitting the time going to where the trainers are best since they are both in the contest."

"So, Caleb is in the contest too, right?"

"He is. I saw him at the race, and I felt the pull, but things were so crazy with dad that I didn't approach him, and he didn't approach me, or he didn't have a chance since dad rushed us out of there so fast on the last day. But Evie, now I want to spend time with him, I want to get to know him. I could do what you're doing with Jaxon. We could split our time between the packs and decide which trainers we want to

train with while still getting to know each other. I know that, unlike you and Jaxon, I won't be 18 before the next competition, but that doesn't mean there aren't other reasons for us to spend time together that still include prepping for the contest."

"What do you want to do?" I ask her. "I'll support you in any way you want, Maggie. If you want to come with me to grandmother Isabella's pack, I'll support you. If Alpha Jonas won't take both of us, then we'll contact Aunt

Sophia, and if that doesn't work, we'll either come stay here with Jaxon and his family or we'll go find our own place to live until we're adults."

She raises an eyebrow at me. "You've really thought this through, haven't you?"

"I have no intention of letting dad or anyone keep me from Jaxon. And

Jaxon agrees. If Alpha Griffin agrees, maybe you could even stay there if mom and dad try to keep you apart. Did you talk to Caleb about this, about Dad?" "Yeah," she looks at me, a sheepish smile spreading across her face. "He's actually coming here tonight so we can talk."

I snort. "Yeah, Jaxon and I did a lot of 'talking' that first night," I say using air quotes.

She and I are still giggling together when there's a quiet knock on the door.

I open the door and Caleb's eyes go wide. "Oh, uh..."

"Come in, Caleb. I'm Evangeline. I'm mated to your cousin, Jaxon."

"Hey, Evangeline. I heard about you."

"Good things, I hope."

"The beautiful woman that stole Jaxon's heart," he says, turning to Maggie. "I guess it runs in the family, since your gorgeous sister has stolen my heart, too."

I shake my head, smiling. "I'll see you in the morning. Keep your ears out for dad. We'll figure things out."

"Thanks, Evie."

"Tell Jax, I said hi." Caleb says. "Will do."

I sneak upstairs, and I've just lifted my fist to knock when the door swings open and Jaxon pulls me into his room and into his arms, closing the door behind me. "What took you so long?" he asks me. "I was getting good gossip."

"Care to share?"

"My sister is mated to your cousin," I tell him.

He frowns. "Griffin?"

"Caleb. He was just arriving as I was leaving."

"How is your father going to take that?"

"Not sure, but Maggie and I will have to talk more this weekend. You and I may have a plus two from now on."

"As long as I have you, I don't care how many more there are. We'll figure it out."

He leans in and kisses me and that's the last I think of Maggie, Caleb or my parents for the rest of the night.

Jace POV

I watch as Jordan walks out of the room. Taylor rushes to me, wrapping her arm around my shoulder.

"Jace, what happened?"

This isn't how I planned to tell Taylor. Well, I guess I never really figured out how to tell her that Jordan was my mate. I guess I figured Jordan would reject me early on and it would never come up. But she didn't.

"Jordan rejected me." Better to just say it.

"She rejected you as her Gamma?"

I look at Taylor. "As her mate."

Taylor looks like I slapped her across the face.

"Jordan is your mate?"

"Yeah."

"And you knew? All this time?"

"Yeah."

Her hand goes to her mouth. "Oh goddess, did she feel it when we'd kiss, when we made out?"

"I didn't know she could feel it. I just found out last week when... when she kissed someone."

"Jace, what the f*uc*k were thinking? I'm her cousin!"

"I wasn't thinking, Tay. Well, I thought she would reject me, you know, before now, and that would be it. But she didn't."

She sits back, giving me a calculated look.

"This is why you're in the contest isn't it? I never understood it. You loved being Uncle Mason's Gamma." She looks at me, her eyes narrowing. "You don't think you're good enough for her, do you?" "She's an Alpha, she needs an Alpha for a mate."

"I'm an Alpha, asshole."

"But you're not taking over your pack, Taylor."

"I will be when I win it, idiot. Or..."

She tilts her head looking at me. "You never intended for us to stay together, did you?"

"Honestly, I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. I thought you'd find your mate and that would be it. You didn't, Jordan didn't reject me and here we are."

I look at her. "You know I care about you, Taylor. Truly I do, but you and I both know that we're not in love with each other. We both know that this has been convenient for both of us."

"Why me?" she asks.

"You didn't want to take our relationship any farther than I did. I knew I couldn't have any kind of a real relationship until Jordan rejected me anyway. It was mutually beneficial. You weren't pursued relentlessly

by guys wanting to be with an Alpha female, and I got to love my mate from afar."

She looks at me for a long moment. "You've made a real f*uc*king mess of this, Jace."

"I know."

"So, did you accept the rejection?"

"No."

She raises her eyebrow. "She finally gave you what you wanted, and you refuse to accept it."

I look at her. "It's not what I want anymore. I want her. And if I have to win this competition to prove that I'm worthy of being her mate, then I will."

"Oh Jace. You never had to prove yourself to Jordan. The only person who doesn't know that you deserve your mate, is you."

She stands, extending her hand. "Come on, I'll help you up."

I take her hand and she helps me to my feet. "Just so you know, when you're healthy again, I'm going to kick your ass for all of this. No wonder Jordan and I have such a crappy relationship."

"Don't blame that on me. You and I both know you've been jealous for years that she's taking over her pack. You're just lucky that you have a chance to win yours."

She shrugs. Taylor and I may not be in love with each other, but we've become really good friends over the years. "Thanks Tay."

She nods and I limp back to my room, the pain of rejection still a dull ache throughout my body.