The One He Claimed by Cooper

Chapter 104: Truly Understanding

Sophie

When Hunter left, | felt the shift in the pack. They feel safe with Hunter here. They know that they are protected.

With him gone and war pending, it makes them nervous.

Kinsley and | spent the better part of the afternoon checking with pack members. We still worked on the safe

rooms, but we needed to make sure the pack was calm and relaxed. Nervous wolves do spontaneous things, like

start fights.

Lucas was great as | knew he would be. He was out with the patrols, making sure they saw his face, that they

knew that he was in charge and was confident in that role. He's truly an incredible Beta. | put my own fear and

worry aside and focus on the pack. The day goes by very quickly, but after dinner, when | go to our room alone,

tbegins to slow to a snail's pace. | look at the clock every five minutes, unable to sleep, worrying about my

mate.

Every once in a while, I'll hear a wolf howl in the distance. Sometimes Hedda would feel the pull and other times

she wouldn't. | knew that Hunter and the other Alphas were letting us, their pack and family, know that they

were okay. | was glad for it, but | wanted him home.

I'm not sure when | finally fell asleep, or when | felt the warmth of my mate slide into bed behind me, but | felt a

peace flow throughwhen he did.

Chapin M. Try Understanding

"You're home," | say, my voice heavy with sleep as start to turn to curl up with him.

Instead, he pulls my body against his, curling up around me, cocooningin the protection of his arms and

body, burying his face in my hair.

"I missed you," he mumbles and within a minute, he's sound asleep. | snuggle closer to my mate, feeling his

arms tighten aroundin his sleep before falling back to sleep with him.

The next morning, | wake up, still happily snuggled against my mate: As much as | just want to stay here and

enjoy this moment, | know that he needs more sleep and | have work to do to get ready.

| carefully disengage myself from his arms, and quietly walk to the closet to get dressed. When | cout, he's

lying on his back, rubbing his eyes. "Where are you going?" he asks, his voice thick with sleep. "I was going to let

you sleep. Why are you awake?" | ask, walking over and sitting on the edge of the bed. | reach out and stroke his

hair, cupping his cheek as he opens his eyes and looks at me.

"The bed got cold without you in it," he says, smiling up at me.

"How did it go last night?"

He sighs, leaving one hand on my thigh as he unconsciously strokes my leg, the other he pulls behind his head.

"It's a mess, Soph. The one pack we didn't smell was Zahn's. The others seem to be planning a targeted attack

not only on

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us, but probably Robin and Dutton as well,"

"Nikki and the twins?" | ask, feeling a sick sense of dread.

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"That's what we think. | know Joshua is after Margot, but we all agree that he'd want to punish her, and | have a

terrible feeling that his punishment would be something along the lines of killingand taking you as his mate.

We know Aiden wants the twins and we know that Alaric's Beta wants Nikki."

"What about Alaric?" I ask.

"I'm not sure where he falls in all of this except that he doesn't want us to win. But their numbers are weakened.

We do have a problem with Owen's old pack though. Ezra said the scouts. have really been watching that pack.

He thinks they want to use it as their staging area for their attack on us."

"Do we have tto get everyone out of there?" | ask.

"That very much depends on when they attack. They still have a lot of women and children who are suffering the

broken mate bonds from when they attacked us. We can't afford to put any of our warriors in that pack because

we're planning for a three-pronged attack."

"You think they'll all attack at once?" | ask.

"Not at once. We think they'll attack us first, and when we call Kayce and your father to chelp, the second

wave will attack Robin and Dutton's pack, making the support they receive weaker." "What are we going to do?" |

ask.

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"We developed a plan, but the biggest issue is getting the families out of Owen's old pack. We're going to try and

split them between us, Kayce, and Robin, so we don't overwhelm our safe rooms. But you need to plan to have

close to fifty more. women and children in our safe rooms, Sophie."

"FIFTY!" | exclaim. Kinsley and | would have probably said we could handle twenty, but not fifty.

"Kayce and Robin's packs are smaller than ours, so | offered to take the most. We need to look at our injured and

see who might be able to fight rather than go into a safe room. Syoung mothers may be willing to fight if we

have a plan to watch their pups."

"I hate that idea, Hunter. What if something happens to them and we end up with parentless pups?"

"This is war, Sophie. If you weren't pregnant, I'd have to accept that you'd be on that battlefield as well. We can't

lose this fight, Soph. | know that means that we'll lose swolves and | hate that as much as you do. But we

can't go back to how things. were. We need to make a stand. We have to fight for what we believe in and that

tto fight has come. There is always a price to pay for that, and it makessick to think that something

could happen to you, but the alternative isn't the life that | promised you and like you said before, I've always

kept my promises to you. We have to fight Sophie and we have to win. Our future, the future of our pups,

depends on us winning this war."

The weight of what my mate is saying, of what we have to do, falls heavily on my shoulders. | knew war was

coming, | knew we'd have a battle, just like we did with Owen, but this is bigger, Chapter 104. Truly

Understanding

this feels like a turning point in our lives. We either win now, or things go back to the way they were and that's

not an option.

I lay down beside my mate, his arm coming around me, my head on his chest, listening to the sound of his heart,

strong and sure.

"I didn't truly understand until this moment, Hunter. | didn't realize what this would truly mean, but | do now." |

pause, letting my tears chere, in the privacy of our room with only my mate to see. "I'm scared, Hunter."

He kisses the top of my head, wrapping his arm aroundmore tightly. "I am too. But | would rather die fighting

for what | believe in, fighting for a better future for our pups, than to do nothing at all. We may not survive this

Sophie, others that we're close to may not survive this, but we have to fight."

We lay there, just holding each other until the sun begins to rise.

My mate rolls overand makes love to me, slow and beautiful, his eyes never leaving mine as he slides in and

out of me. | gasp, holding on to him tightly as he bringsup and over before finally allowing himself to release

inside me.

He holdswhile we both cdown and this, more than anything makesrealize how much we have to

lose, how much | have to lose. My mate is willing to give his life to win this battle. I'm not sure that | can say the

same. I'm carrying his pup and I'm not willing to give up what could be the last piece of him. that | will ever

have.

"I'm going to shower," he says, finally sliding out ofand kissingonce more before he heads to the

bathroom. | watch him, thinking about everything that he said, thinking about everything that I'm feeling from

him through the bond.

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04. Truly Understanding

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When I sit up, | know what | have to do.

I'm the f**g Legend and it's about t| started acting like it.