The Claiming by Cooper
Chapter 169

Mason

The twins are uncomfortable in this new environment. They are more fussy than normal, but they settle as long of Jara or I am holding them. When we got back to our room last night, Nina said they had slept most of the time we were at dinner and dancing. Which meant, they were up most of the night with us.

I'm exhausted, but today is a big day. They will announce the order in which the females will enter the claiming and they will allow them to identify if they have any claimants that they have already decided that they want in their claiming

However, we have a council meeting this morning, before the claiming events start. This morning, Katerina agreed to watch over our twins while we join Councilman Phillip in the main packhouse. I have asked Elijah to join us and when we arrive, I see that Jonas has asked Jared to join us as well.

We are using a space in the dining room that has been sectioned off for this purpose. Since all of the councilmen and women are here at this year's claiming, and Seth is still with Hana and their newest baby, we don't need a video call, so I'm surprised when one is set up.

On the screen at the end of the table is Dr. Braxton. I'm guessing we're about to discuss the next set of data from his research.

Once everyone has arrived and found a seat, Dr. Braxton begins.

"Hello everyone. I have been invited to your council meeting to discuss the latest round of research that we conducted over the past couple of months. If you remember, we had the original data from our current Lunas, Luna Nina as well as Isabella. That data had indicated that they had an immunity to the viruses that cause feral-fever and the claiming

Vouchers

haze. It was also believed that this immunity served as a vaccination of sorts to the males in their packs when they were in contact with them, specifically bodily fluids of any kind."

He stops, looking at the camera and pushing up his glasses. "It was also questioned as to whether this immunity or vaccination was consistent among the she-wolves. I believe it was you, Alpha Mason, that used your previous Gamma, Stella, as an example of a she-wolf that impacted her mate, but had no real impact on her pack."

"Yes, that's correct." I confirm.

"Based on this speculation, we did go to each pack and were able to obtain samples from nearly all of the she-wolves. There were very few instances where the parents declined our request, but there were a few. However, based on our sample size, I feel that we are able to discuss our conclusions at this time."

We all wait, holding our breath.

"Seriously, doc, spit it out!" It's Antonio who pushes him to respond again.

"Well, Alpha Mason's speculations were correct. The immunity and vaccination effect is different in each female. However, we were not able to specifically say that this is based on rank. While most of the ranked she-wolves did have a higher level of the antibody which causes the immunity to the viruses, some lower ranked she-wolves also had high levels of antibodies."

Dr. Braxton looks down at his notes. "For instance, the Lunas Mignon and Annabel, both were omegas prior to becoming Lunas. Each of them has a very high level of immunity in their system, as does the omega Layan. But, in some of the other packs, omegas had a much lower level of antibodies in their system."

Dr. Braxton looks at the camera again. "Even more interesting to me, as a

Layan's Retum Chapter 14: Mason

researcher, is the pup Melinda. While both of her parents are of Beta blood and we would expect that her antibodies are high, hers were literally off the charts. Her antibodies are higher than any other she-wolf with the exception of Alpha Jara and now her pups, which I would expect since she and her pups are both true Alphas."

"Excuse me? What did you say about my pups?" Jara says and I feel her go rigid beside me. We're both extremely protective of our twins.

"If you remember, Luna, I said that I would ask the doctor to send samples based on the samples they already take when babies are born. I did receive those a couple weeks ago and I can confirm that your children have a higher level of antibody than even you have, Luna. That high antibody count is only seen in one other pup, Melinda."

"You don't see that in our pups?" Antonio asks.

Dr. Braxton pushes his glasses up on his nose again. I'm beginning to think this is his way of collecting his thoughts.

"In truth, Alpha, you and Alpha Asher only allowed us to take saliva samples. While we've seen the vaccine effect in the saliva, the antibodies. are best seen in the blood, so I couldn't say for sure about your pups, or those of Alpha Asher and Luna Mignon."

I watch Antonio and Asher look at each other. Neither of them wants to have blood drawn from their babies, but they also want to know if their children's antibodies are stronger than our generation's. Antonio looks at Annabel, who nods. "I'll allow it." He tells Dr. Braxton. "And you can collect whatever sample you need when this one is born."

Asher looks at Mignon. "I will allow it, too." He says, when she agrees.

"Excellent. I am getting samples from Alpha Seth's and Luna Hana's pup as well. It will be good to know if the next generation of pups has a higher immunity and therefore vaccination effect for the packs." "So, there are other she-wolves whose immunity isn't as high as ours?" I

ask.

"That is correct Alpha and it brings me to the next item of business that I wanted to discuss. While we were researching this, we realized that every she-wolf that we took samples from has the feral-fever virus in their system."

I hear the Lunas around me gasp.

"In addition, the she-wolves that have been into the claiming territory, including the omega Layan, all have the claiming haze virus in their system."

"What are you saying doctor?" Davis asks him.

"I need to do more research. And I may need more blood samples to test my theory. But what I'm saying is that, every she-wolf who is currently alive has the feral-fever virus in their system. They just have the antibodies to fight it off."

"For some reason, I feel like there's more to this." Councilman Phillip

says.

Dr, Braxton takes a deep breath before looking straight into the camera.

"It means that it's possible that the she-wolves were the first ones that contracted feral-fever. It could have manifested differently than it does now, in our male population."

He stops a moment, letting that sink in before dropping the bomb.

"It means, I think it's possible that our female population has died out because not all of them had the antibodies to fight off the virus. It's possible it made them weaker than normal and potentially made them incapable of delivering full-term babies and caused them and their pups to die in childbirth."

Layan's Retum Chapter 14 Mason

He pushes his glasses up again.

10

"If I'm right, feral-fever is the cause of the decimation of our species. We just didn't know that it started with our females."

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