Chapter 180
The iming by Cooper Book 3
Layan’s Return by Cooper (Jara & Mason)
Mason
The day and night that Katerina went into the territory, there were a line of Alphas just at the border of
the territory listening for her. Their frustration was evident on their faces, that is until they smelled the
smoke and realized she was in the cave for the night.
Title of the document
On the morning the first group of imants entered the territory to hunt for Katerina, Dr. Braxton
returned to the territory. This time, he asked to speak to all of us.
We gather in the dining room. Now that there are much fewer men here, it’s easy to find a quiet ce
to talk. We left the babies with Layan and Nina. Since my Beta isn’t here, I’m pretty he’s spending this
time with Layan, especially since Alpha Davis is in the iming territory hunting Katerina. Depending
on how long each of the next two ims take, Elijah will have plenty of time to spend with Layan.
“I’ve asked to speak with all of you regarding the additional tests that I did on your children, as well as
on Alpha Seth, Alpha Antonio, Alpha Mason and his pup Jaxon.” Dr. Braxton says, bringing my
attention back to this meeting. The council is here as well, to hear the results of this most recent round
of testing.
“As true Alphas, all of you had the potential to have dormant antibodies in your system. However, Alpha
Antonio and specifically Alpha Mason had already started to feel the effects of the feral-fever virus
impacting them.”
Antonio and I both nod. We’re older than Seth, so we would have been feeling it more strongly.
Dr. Braxton pushes his sses up his nose, a move I’ve be ustomed to seeing him do. “My
testing did not indicate that you had dormant antibodies in your system. At least not that we could tell.
You are all mated and it’s possible that any dormant antibodies were activated. However, we saw no
difference in the antibodies in your system than we did in your mates’ systems.” He looks up. “There
are slight variations in the antibodies allowing us to track which pack they’vee from.”
“What does that mean?” Antonio asks, interrupting him.
He looks up and then around the table at all of us. “How to say this so it makes sense.” He looks
thoughtful for a moment before continuing. “Let’s call them strains of the virus. For instance, the strain
of virus that Alpha Zaire has is different than the strain of virus that Alpha Davis has. Theye from
different parts of the country, so that makes sense. The antibodies in your system, Councilwoman Gia,
match your mate’s strain of the virus, meaning that your body specifically created an immunity to the
virus that impacts your mate and your pack.”
All of us sit there stunned. “However, and this is an interesting bit of information that I’ve recently found,
in the instance of Alpha Davis, his antibodies mirror those of Layan, one of his pack mates. But we also
found antibodies that mirror those of each of the Lunas, most significantly, those of Luna Jara.”
“Is that because we spent time in his pack?” Jara asks.
“I believe so. That theory is also supported by the antibodies in Layan’s system. Based on our
research, she has an equal number of antibodies for the strain of virus in Alpha Davis’s pack, as well
as your pack Luna Jara.”
“She spent time in our pack when Jara was… unwell.” I say, not wanting to revisit that awful time. I feel
her hand reach out to hold mine. I look at her and squeeze her hand, feeling grounded again.
“Yes, and Luna Nina’s system also has antibodies for her pack with Alpha Seth and also those for
Alpha Mason’s pack.” Dr. Braxton says.
“So, our Lunas are creating antibodies for each strain of the virus as theye into contact with
them?” Asher asks.
“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.”
From N?velDrama.Org.
“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 a*s*sumption as well Luna, until we looked more closely at the antibodies in your
blood.” He pushes his sses up his nose and I hear Antonio sigh beside me, his mate reaching out to
touch him. He’s an impatient man when ites 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, Ipared
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 iming. 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 imst 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 vine that bes 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 sses again.
“All of your children, every child born in thest 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 iming 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 sses 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 abination 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 thebination 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, gically, 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 thest 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. Gically 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 ratemiserate 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 im 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 vine from our
males and letting the virus run rampant. This is further supported by thepleteck of feral-fever
found in any pack over thest year, and every unmated male passing a*s*sessment this year. Having
females back in the general poption, 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.”