Chapter 96


    The iming by Cooper Book 2


    The Council by Cooper (Jara & Mason)


    Mason


    At the announcement of Mignon’s pregnancy, the girls all give that high pitch squeal again. While they


    hug and congratte Mignon, we congratte Asher. He was the first in the iming to catch his mate.


    There was ag of nearly two weeks after that between Mignon and Annabel because of the issues


    with Layan and her iming.


    Title of the document


    “How about you?” Asher says to Antonio. “You two should be getting close too.” Antonio looks at


    Annabel. “She wanted to wait. She wanted to get to know each other a bit before bringing a baby into


    the mix. I don’t mind. Getting to know my mate has been amazing.” He looks at Asher. “But we’ll see if


    spending time with your mate changes her mind.” He smiles.


    “Hana is the same. I made a deal with her that while I would mark her when I caught her,” we all


    recognize that there was never a question that he would catch her, “that she could decide when she


    wanted to mark me.”


    We all look more closely at his neck. Hadn’t I seen a mark there?


    He pulls his cor away from his neck, proudly showing off his mate mark. “Once she made me hers,


    then everything changed. But that’s only been a couple of weeks. We’ll have to wait and see what


    happens.”


    They all turn to me. “And you?” Asher asks.


    I shrug. “We’ve only been out of the iming territory for a week. But…” I shrug again.


    Seth looks at me. “Seriously? My sister wanted to start having a baby right away?” I can tell he’s


    surprised, but also a little cautious wanting to know that this is also her decision. Their entire family still


    has residual concerns based on their experience with M, and I can’t me them.


    “Seth, I only tell you this because I know your questiones from a ce of concern, and just know


    that we will never discuss my s*e*x life with your sister again, but she insisted on taking my knot before


    I thought her body was ready. I wanted to give her body more time to adjust, and your sister wasn’t


    having it.” Seth gives me a pained look. “Yeah, lets never speak of it again.” He looks thoughtful for a


    moment. “But thanks. I’m d to know that everything that happened with M isn’t keeping her from


    having the life she deserves.”


    We all get a drink and move off to the side of the room, watching our mates. “Okay, I need to ask a


    question.” Antonio takes arge gulp of his drink before looking at all of us. “I’m terrified of knotting


    Annabel. I’m so afraid that I’ll hurt her, tear her… I mean, we all saw the condition Layan was in when


    she came out of the iming territory. If I ever did that to my mate….” He stops, gulping down the rest


    of his drink.


    “I wasn’t there, obviously, so maybe it’s different for me. But Mignon was an omega too, so maybe it’s


    more simr to me than these guys, I don’t know. For me, it was about making sure she was ready and


    willing. Almost like, if she was mentally ready to ept it, her body was too. That’s not to say she didn’t


    bleed the first couple of times, but she loves the closeness and my purr helped to ease her difort.


    And now, it’s no problem.”


    “I would echo what Asher said. You need to expect the bleeding the first couple of times. Nothing like


    what we saw with Layan, but she will bleed. And it’s the closeness afterward, caring for her and being


    together that makes it easier for Jara. That, and depending on the position, I will rub her stomach or her


    back to help ease her body’s need to expand. That seems to help as well.”


    “Warm bath, before and after. The heat helps rx her before and helps to soothe her aching muscles


    afterward.” Seth adds.


    Asher clinks his ss to Seth’s. “That’s a damn good idea.” He says.


    “Is this a private party, or can I join?” Alpha Luke says, walking up.


    “Hey, Alpha Luke, do you know everyone here?” I ask, bringing him. into our group. “I know Alpha Seth,


    but I’ve never officially met you two.” He nods to Asher and Antonio.


    I give introductions. “Asher was Beta Asher when he was in the iming. His Alpha was also killed in


    this year’s im.”


    Asher looks at Luke. “Wait, you were the one who’s Alpha went feral during the second round of


    a*s*sessments, right?”


    “Yes, that was me. Alpha Cameron was too close to going feral and the a*s*sessments pushed him


    over.”


    “I’m sorry about that. Cameron was a good man.” Antonio says.


    “Thank you. I hope I can live up to his expectations.”


    He looks at where our mates are still huddled together,ughing and talking. “I hope the Elders realize


    what they are in for. Your mates are going to give them a lot of problems. Four Lunas, all friends and all


    with very strong personalities.”N?velDrama.Org exclusive content.


    “They have no idea, and it’s something I wanted to talk to you about. All of you actually. Seth, Jara,


    Hana and I have put together a petition to change the iming. We’d like to get all of your support


    because we know that it will be a fight with the Elders and some of the other Alphas.” “What kind of


    changes.” Antonio asks, and Seth and Iy it out for them.


    “So, three of those are directly rted to Layan and M?” Luke asks.


    “And another one is about keeping them healthy while in the im. Thest two are about trying to


    keep our numbers from diminishing so drastically. Between the loss of our females and the ma*s*sive


    reduction of our males in years like this one, we’ll be downsizing our packs every year until we go


    extinct.” Seth says.


    “Does anyone know how many females we have among the packs? And how many of those are still


    young enough to reproduce?” Asher asks.


    “Thest I heard there were only 50 females left. Some, like Seth’s mom are too old to have pups. And


    there are some that are underage still. If I had to guess, I’d say we only have 15-20 in adulthood and


    still in child birthing years.” I say.


    “It’s not enough. Even if they were willing to have two pups a year, that’s only 30- 40 pups every year, if


    they are all born healthy and have no problems during pregnancy. And they can’t sustain that for long,


    no matter how well we take care of them.” Antonio says.


    “I know. Elder Jason told me our numbers are around 1500. Fifteen hundred total werewolves, and of


    those, only about 50 females, with less than half in childbearing years.” I say.


    “We have to start doing a better job of protecting our females. Things like what happened to Layan and


    M cannot continue to happen.” Seth says.


    “We need more than a petition to change the iming.” Luke says. “We need to change thews.”


    “We need a new council.” I say, looking at where the Elders are sitting together. “It’s time for a change


    in our governing body.”