The Claiming by Cooper

“That is what we believe.” Dr. Braxton answers.

“All females?” I ask, remembering again that some females don’t have as many antibodies in their system.

“A very good question, and the answer is no. Not all of the females have antibodies to more than one strain.”

“Could that be because they haven’t traveled to the other packs? Not all females move around.” Councilman Phillip asks.

“We don’t believe so. In the instance of Celeste and Juliet, the two females that came from Alpha Gunnar’s pack, relocating to Alpha Seth’s, they only have antibodies for Alpha Seth’s pack in their system.”

“But that could be because Alpha Gunnar’s pack was eliminated, and that strain of virus is gone.” Jara says. I smile at my mate. She’s so damn smart. I see her give me a side-eye look and I know. she felt my burst of pride in her.

“And that was our assumption as well Luna, until we looked more closely at the antibodies in your blood.” He pushes his glasses up his nose and I hear Antonio sigh beside me, his mate reaching out to touch him. He’s an impatient man when it comes to these meetings.

“The Lunas all have antibodies for each other’s packs. Most likely because of the time you’ve spent together. You all also have antibodies for Alpha Davis’s pack, as you’ve spent time there, but

you could have gotten those from Layan as well. However, Luna Jara, you also have another strain of antibody in your system.”

“From where?” I ask. Why would Jara have an additional strain of antibody?

“On a hunch, I compared your extra antibody to that of Alpha Typhon’s virus. Your additional antibody is specifically designed to attack that virus.”

“But he’s gone. His pack is gone.” Jara says.

“But we took in members of his pack. Remember, Jara? We took them in before your claiming. I sent them to the pack so Typhon couldn’t hurt them.” I say.

“That’s right. You have several of Typhon’s original pack

members.” Councilman Jason says. He would know, since he helped me get them out of the territory before Jara’s claim last

year.

“Yes, and those pack members have two strains of the virus in their system and two types of antibodies to fight them off.”

We all sit back. It’s a lot to take in. “So, our females are the sole reason for our immunity? Basically, their bodies create the vaccine that becomes the immunity for the pack or packs where they spend time and then they disseminate that to the pack members they have contact with?” Seth summarizes.

“Correct. And it appears, at least in the instances of you, Alpha Seth, as well as Alpha Antonio and Alpha Mason, that whether or not you had dormant antibodies before, being mated to your Lunas has created what I would call ‘super antibodies’ in your systems. Your bodies have more and stronger antibodies, unlike your other pack members and even more than other unmated Alphas. We didn’t specifically test your blood, Alpha Asher, but I would like to,

to see if you also carry this ‘super antibody. Which brings me to my next point.” He says, pushing up his glasses again.

“All of your children, every child born in the last year has a level of antibodies that are significantly higher than any other pup or person in your packs, with the exception of the pup Melinda.”

“Meaning?” Jonas asks him.

“Meaning that we are creating a new generation of children that will not, or should not be, impacted by feral-ever or the claiming haze.” Everyone at the table breathes a sigh of relief. This is the best news we’ve heard in a long time.

Dr. Braxton looks up at me and Jara. “And that brings me to your son. The first male to actually be born with antibodies in his system.” He looks down and pushes his glasses up his face. I resist the urge to growl at him.

When he looks back up, he jolts, seeing my barely contained patience. “What we saw in Alpha Jaxon’s blood is a combination of what is in your blood Alpha Mason and what is in Luna Jara’s. Basically, he has the super antibodies that you have, Alpha, with the combination of every strain that is in your mate’s system.”

“How is that different from Jordan’s antibodies?” Jara asks him.

He turns to her before looking down at his paperwork. “Jordan has all of the strains of the virus antibodies in her system that you carry, Luna. She simply doesn’t have the ‘super antibodies’ that your son has. However, being a female, I don’t think she needs them. Your son is a true Alpha. He is intended to take over your pack one day. It would make sense, genetically, that our new generation would create Alphas that have their own immunity and can help protect their packs from the virus.”

“So, we’re evolving?” Hana asks.

“Yes, which brings me the last point for today.” He looks up at all of us before continuing. “If we are evolving, and each generation is creating stronger antibodies, and we know that the virus started with our females, it stands to reason that the females that died didn’t have the antibodies in their system to survive. Genetically speaking, it is survival of the fittest at his most basic. Clear out the weaker members to create a stronger generation.”

He pauses before continuing. “However, what we, as a species did to make it worse, was hide our females away that did have antibodies, therefore, allowing the virus to spread to our males. Once that happened, our males began to die off at a rate commiserate with the death of our females before them, only now, the virus manifested differently, so we knew when our males contracted feral-fever.”

We all nod. That makes sense.

“With the onset of the aggressive behavior of our males, their inherent need to claim a mate to save themselves and our own need to protect our females, we did the worst possible thing we could do for the continuation of our species. We hid our females away, basically removing the vaccine from our males and letting the virus run rampant. This is further supported by the complete lack of feral-fever found in any pack over the last year, and every unmated male passing assessment this year. Having females back in the general population, interacting with our male pack members has allowed us to begin fighting the feral-fever virus.”

“So, what you’re saying is that this virus basically killed us off because we didn’t recognize it early enough in our females and then we pulled them out of general society to keep them safe which only killed off our male pack members faster?” I ask.

“Yes, Alpha. That’s it in a nutshell.”