The One He Claimed by Cooper

Chapter 28: Pack's Reaction Sophie

As | walk hand in hand with Hunter, | can't help but feel nervous. | trust him. Everything he has toldup until

now, everything that has happened, has proven tothat he's the real deal. He cares about me, and he refuses

to sharewith anyone. But, I'm still walking into his pack on faith alone. Faith in him.

| notice that Kinsley doesn't take Lucas' hand as easily and readily as | take Hunter's and | think about what

Hunter toldabout their struggles. | feel the mate bond so strongly, the pull to Hunter is almost impossible to

resist, | can't imagine how. frustrating or upsetting it would be to have your mate and not be able to trust them.

Or, on Lucas' side, to have your mate but they distrust you so much that they don't even want you to touch

them.

I'll admit, | tensed a moment when Hunter bent down to kissin front of the two of them, but that's all it was.

A kiss. He was showing his love and adoration ofto his Betas. He has no problem expressing his love for me

in front of others, and | know that it won't take long before | don't tense up and | just accept his public displays of

affection, knowing that's as far as it will ever go. He toldso, that he has no problem letting others see our

love, but he will never sharewith anyone, never share our intimacy with anyone.

Kinsley's response, however, was telling. | heard her gasp, heard her heart rate increase as Hunter reached down

to kiss me. She still struggles with what happened to her. | don't know if there is Chapter 28 Pack's Reaction

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anything that | can do to help her get past that, but | will try, not only as her Luna, but also, hopefully, as her

friend.

The patrols hear us first, howling their hello for the return of their Alpha. Perhaps it's my scent that has the

patrols continuing to head our way rather than continuing their patrol, but | can't be sure. When they arrive at

the border, the leader shifts, but the others stay in wolf form.

The leader looks at me, quickly noticing that I'm wearing his Alpha's clothing.

"Alpha, welchome. We smelled a new scent, and | just wanted to check to see who it was," he says, his eyes

continuing to glance at me.

"Nathan, letintroduce you, all of you, to your new Luna. This is Luna Sophie," Hunter says to him and the

other wolves. They shuffle around and just based on their body language, | feel pretty confident that | can tell

which ones are for and which are against the public claimings. The ones who are acting excited think they're

going to watchget claimed tonight.

“Alpha Hunter will be making an announcement to the pack, isn't that right, Alpha?" Beta Lucas says, stepping

up.

"That is correct, and we will be having our Luna ceremony tonight. I'm going to make an announcement in a few

moments, make sure you hear it," he says, causing the patrols to howl! their excitement. I'm pretty sure they

think this means that the public -claim onwill occur tonight, but they couldn't be farther from

the truth.

However, their howls alert the pack and as Hunter leadsfarther into the pack lands, the pack begins

congregating our

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way, surrounding us and murmuring about me.

| feel Hunter squeeze my hand and look down at me, smiling his encouragement. | smile back at him, pulling on

all my strength and training as an Alpha not to crumble at the pressure that | feel building within the pack.

"Do my eyes deceive me, or has our Alpha captured our Luna?" a man with dark hair says, sauntering out of the

packhouse.

"You would be correct, Ga**a Koden, although 'capture' may not be the correct word," Hunter says.

The man's eyes look over my body hungrily. I'm thankful for the bagginess of Hunter's clothing which allows this

man to see -nothing ofor my body.

Hunter growls a warning growl at his Ga**a. The man lifts his chin in submission, but it's almost a placating

gesture, not a true submission.

"And do we get the nof our Luna?" he asks, his neck still raised. Hunter hasn't released him yet.

"Your new Luna is Sophie Reynolds."

"Sophie.... You mean our Alpha has captured Sophie Meyers? Well done, Alpha. It's about time. Now we can put

this so-called revolution to bed," Koden says. His neck is still bent in submission, and he doesn't seem to realize

that he's only making Hunter more and more angry with every word.

Hunter releases my hand and steps up to him, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him off the ground.

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"Now, why would you say that, Koden?"

He frowns, finally turning his attention away fromand focusing on Hunter.

"Well, you'll claim her properly now that you've got her back to the pack, I'm sure. Once that's done, the ranked

she-wolves on the run will no longer have their martyr. They can all return hback to life as usual," he chokes

out,

8 nap no

Hunter pulls Koden's face close to his. "Do you really think that my stance on public claimings will change now

that I've found my mate?"

“It has to Alpha. It's the law. If you don't claim her properly, we can't accept her as our Luna,” he sputters.

Hunter continues to hold him off the ground as he looks at the pack members who have surrounded us. | notice

that Kinsley and Lucas move to stand on either side of me, ready to protect their Luna if a fight breaks out. They

don't seem to understand that I'm the other Alpha wolf here. It's my job to protect them.

'We should kill the a**hole. I'd be happy to, except my mate looks so s**y snarling at him," Hedda says

admiringly.

"You all know me. You know my stance on public claimings. | have forbidden them in this pack for over a year. My

belief that the public claimings are wrong and should be outlawed hasn't changed because | found my mate.

You're all werewolves. You can smell my scent on Sophie. She is already claimed."

He turns and looks at me. "Show them, my love," he says, and | pull his shirt away from my neck, turning in a

circle so everyone can see his mark on my neck. Chapter 28:Pack's Reaction

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"There will be no public claiming. will never share my mate with anyone, law or no. You have until tonight to

decide if you will give your allegiance toand to Sophie as your Luna. If you do not, you are free to pack your

bags and leave this pack before. sundown when her Luna ceremony will occur. If you choose to stay, you will

swear your allegiance toand to Sophie and any disrespect to her after that will result in your death. | am

giving you the choice, the choice that our ranked she-wolves do not have. If you decide to leave now, there will

be no penalty, other than you will need to find another pack to live in. Questions?"

He still hasn't released his G**a who has begun turning blue and is flailing around, scratching at Hunter's hand.

Hunter acts as if he doesn't even feel it, as if holding a full-grown man off the ground is simple. 'For him it seems

to be, Hedda purrs in my head.

‘Focus, Hedda.'

"Alpha, how can we possibly find a new pack in less than a day?"

"You knew my stance long before now. You know me. Have | ever wavered in my decisions? If you didn't agree

withbefore, you should have left sooner," he says, resolutely.

"What about the pack? The other packs will shun us at best, declare war on us at worst," someone says.

"Yes, | expect a war," Hunter says. "The war has been coming for a long time, long before Sophie ran two years

ago," he says, holding his arm out to me. | immediately walk into his embrace. He holdstightly to one side,

still holding a flailing Koden by the throat in his other hand away from his body. "But, | don't

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believe it will be us against everyone. | believe that there are others who will stand beside us. Sophie and | know

that we have a tough road ahead of us..." "Tough? Try impossible," someone says.

"I don't believe it's impossible. Change only happens when people make a stand. Well, it's tto make a stand,

past treally. Our she-wolves have been making a stand for two years. Shonand shon us for not

making a stand with them sooner," he says.

"I've seen my share of public claimings," an older woman says, stepping forward. "Most of us have, at one time

or another." She turns and looks at me. "Tellthe last tyou saw a new Luna walk into the arms of her mate

so willingly? When's the last tyou saw an Alpha or any ranked member's mate look at him with love in her

eyes like our Luna's doing with our Alpha, no offense Betas," she says, glancing at them, then back at me. "I

don't think we have to worry about our Luna jumpin’ off a cliff any tsoon, do we Luna?" she asks me. She has

a slight accent, as if her family descended from a European country.

"No ma'am. You don't, and | won't, ever. | absolutely love your Alpha, my Alpha now too," | say, smiling up at

him. "As you all know, I've been away for two years and honestly, | had no idea what was going on in the packs.

But now that | do, now that I'm back, | intend to stand beside Alpha Hunter and fight this injustice, not just for

me, but for all the ranked she-wolves out there. They deserve to find the happiness that I've already found with

my mate. | want to stop these senseless deaths. | want everyone to have what I've found with my mate."

| pause, looking at all of them. "I saw my sister's claiming. | saw

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the horror on her face and the tears

: n [1

in her eyes." | look up at Hunter. "The

tears that | cried last night were the

tears of love, so strong that it made

my heart hurt. There ke) i partiof

the night here was raid, or

ekabiarrassed. We sealed our bond,

given to us by our Moon Goddess,

and he claimedunder the

moonlight honoring and thanking her

for this gift. We both did. This is what

it should be like to be claimed. It

should feel like this, like nothing in

the world can cclose to

comparing to your love for your mate,

that nothing is more important than

n H

your mate." The content is on

novelenglish.net! Read the latest

chapter there!

Hunter drops Koden on the ground

and slides his hand into my hair. His

lips cto mine and he kisses me,

his tongue requestin jr tomy

mouth, high ea ve him. |

Kho ['can trust him, and | feel his

pride at my words, his need to show