The Claiming by Cooper novel Chapter 179

Layan’s Hetum Chapter 24. 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.

On the morning the first group of claimants 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 place 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 claiming territory hunting Katerina. Depending on how long each of the next two claims 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 glasses up his nose, a move I’ve become accustomed to seeing him do. “My testing did not indicate that

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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’ve come 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. They come 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.

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“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 they come 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.”

“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.