Chapter 304
The iming by Cooper Book 4
The Beta Trials by Cooper (Jace & Jordan)
Chapter 31 (Jordan)
I leave Kyra and Balorto figure things out between them. They have a lot to work through, not the least
of which is arge age gap, although Jonas and Melinda have managed theirs just fine. But this is also
a mating between species. If the two of them are going to be together long-term, either Kyra would
move to the n or Balor would have to move to a pack, and I don’t see Balor moving and giving up his
n leader status.
As I go to find Dr. Braxton, I reach out and connect with Jace. Even though I broke the mate bond, I’m
still his Alpha and I still have a connection to him.
Now, something inside me is pulling me to ensure that he’s safe. If I’m being honest with myself, it’s not
the Alpha in me that’s worried. The Alpha knows that Jace is more than capable of handling this wolf
pack, especially with his family and the bears with him. It’s the woman, the mate, that’s worried. I don’t
know how he’s doing it, I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but he’s slowly working his way back into
my heart.
I shake that off as I walk up to Dr. Braxton.
“Doctor, give me some good news,” I say, looking over to where Darryl and Jasun are monitoring the
sedated bears. Brynn is staying close, but as a precaution, Darryl agreed to sedation. We don’t need
sixrge bears going berserker all at once.
He turns and looks at me, pushing his sses up on his face. “That depends on your definition of good
news, Alpha,” he says.
“Tell me you can treat these bears,” I say.
“Yes, then it’s good news. I can treat the bears.”
“I take it there’s bad news?” I ask, not wanting to know, but knowing that I need to.
“As we expected, these are strains of feral fever and the iming haze. And, as we expected, these
are strains thate fromst generation, so we can hypothesize that the banished wolves that were
sent away from the packs did, in fact, mate with humans and produce hybrid children. These children
carry the various strains of the viruses that we’ve seen before.”
“Okay, if I’m following you, none of this is unexpected, it’s what we thought, and the strains maybe
haven’t mutated? Is that right?” I ask, trying to follow along.
“Yes and no,” he says, looking at me a moment. “What do you know of your female Beta’s first
iming?” he asks.
I frown. “Layan? I know that she was attacked, that the Alpha that caught her had gone feral and the
iming haze overtook him. I know that it was…bad,” I say. It’s not a well-known story, for the obvious
reason that Layan is our Beta female, and my parents didn’t want rumors going around about her,
making her ufortable. But as the next Alpha, I was told so that I would understand the importance
of ensuring that we never again had to deal with feral fever or the iming haze. “He was put down at
the iming, but samples of his blood and tissue were sent to me. At the time, it was to create a case
against the Elder who didn’t stop her iming quickly enough. But it provided me with important
information. Now, what do you know about your mother’s attacker? Your Aunt’s mate?”
“Typhon? He went crazy too. He didn’t catch my mother in the iming, but he somehow got out of the
territory without anyone realizing and then he went on some crazy, psychotic hunt for my mother.”
“A pretty urate assessment. After his death, I was given the opportunity to also test his blood and
tissue. Both of them were Alphas. Both of them had packs that they led. Much like your ability to create
a vine, keeping your pack stable, the Alphas back then that were sick caused their packs to be
sickly. They spread the virus, a pack-specific virus, if you will.”
I look at him, not understanding what he’s trying to tell me.
“You’re going to have to spell it out to me, Dr. Braxton. I’m not Kyra.”
“The virus strains that I’m seeing are variants of the ones that came directly from Alphas Camden and
Typhon.”
He’s watching me, waiting for me to connect the dots that he feels should be easy to connect.
“Are you saying that the Alphas of these two rogue packs are the sons of Alphas Camden and Typhon?
The attackers of my Beta female and my mother?” I ask.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“But how? At least in the instance of Typhon, he wasn’t alone for more than a year before he went into
my mother’s im,” I say.
“I don’t know the age of Alpha Typhon’s son, but it’s possible that he was with a human before he
imed your Aunt, or possibly that he was with a human when your Aunt couldn’t conceive. It was a
time when many were afraid of losing their humanity and not having an heir to leave for their pack.
Many Alphas were desperate. Alpha Camden’ s packnds are the ones that Alpha Tobias is taking
over. It’s very possible that he and Alpha Typhon were close and decided to mate with humans to
conceive, keeping each other’s secrets.”
I think about what he’s saying. I know that my Aunt didn’t have a lot of contact with her family once
Typhon took her to his pack. They never saw her again and only rarely spoke to her on the phone, so,
it’s possible.
“So, it’s possible that the females survived as well? The humans? Maybe after the Alphas were killed,
they were able to get away?” I ask.
“I don’t think so, Alpha. My guess is that they would have been infected with the feral fever or iming
haze viruses. The iming haze is a variant of distemper and while not necessarily deadly to humans
in the distemper form, we don’t know how they would have reacted to this strain of the virus. The feral
fever, on the other hand, descended from rabies and would have been deadly to the human females.
That, of course, is also dependent upon whether they survived the birth of their children and possibly,
once they saw that they had sons, the Alphas could have killed them to keep their secret,” he says.
“You’re describing a bad horror movie, doc.”
“I know, but it’s all very possible and would exin how these two men have be Alphas of their
packs,” he says.
I nod, looking out to where Jace and the others are hunting for this pack. “They’re descended from
Alphas,” I say quietly.
“Yes, Alpha.”
I reach out to Jace in the mind link.
‘Jordan?’
‘Come back, Jace. Bring the others. We need to reconvene and talk to the Elders before we continue
this hunt.’
It’s quiet a moment, then he’s back. ‘We’re headed back now.’
I turn back to Dr. Braxton. “We need a council meeting. There’s a hotel not far from here. I’ll get us
some rooms so we can set up a conference call. My parents and the others in their generation need to
know what we’re dealing with. But doc, you said you can heal these bears, right?”
“Yes, Alpha. As it happens, your mother had the antibodies in her blood for these particr strains of
virus. You and your brother both inherited them from her. I’m using that and will be giving the bears
their first vination tonight.”
“Thank you, doctor.”
When Jace and the others return, I fill them in on the status of what’s going on and that we need to
have a conference with the others.
“Brynn, Victor and I will stay here, Alpha, if that’s okay with you and the bears. I’d like to set up a
perimeter patrol, even if it is only the three of us. These wolves are our problem, and we should help
protect the bears from further attacks,” Luke says.
“Thank you, Gamma,” I say.
I wait until Dr. Braxton injects all of the bears with the vine, including Balor, before heading to the
cave where I’m ready to copse.
“Alpha, may I speak with you a moment?” Victor asks me.
I’m exhausted, but an Alpha’s work is never done.
“Of course, Victor.”
“I won’t keep you. I can see that you’re tired. I just wanted you to know that now, without Carter, I don’t
know what you n to do with the Beta position. But, if you were thinking of moving Gamma Jace into
that position, I’d be honored to take on the Gamma position. That is if you feel that would be
appropriate,” he says.
“Victor, aren’t you in the Beta Trials?”
“I am, I have entered. I’d like to be a ranked member, especially knowing that I descend from Beta
blood. But I love our pack and I respect you as an Alpha. I would be honored to remain in our pack as
the Gamma.”
“You wouldn’t rather have a chance to be a Beta?” I ask.
“If the choices are to have a ce as a Gamma in your pack, or possibly win a Beta position in another
pack, I’d rather take the Gamma position in our pack, Alpha,” he says to me.
It’s the exact opposite of Carter, and it’ s so refreshing. I hadn’t considered moving Jace to a Beta, but
maybe I should. Or…maybe, I should consider what it would mean if I rescind my rejection.
“You’ve given me a lot to think about, Victor. I’ll consider it.”
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He smiles. “Thank you, Alpha.”