Page 1 of A Second Chance for the Beta

one

Second Chances

*ELLA*

It’sdeepinthenight when I wake up, instantly noticing the lack of presence next to me. With a frown, I check the clock: 1:00 a.m. Dante and I never sleep with our blinds down; we like the natural light illuminating our bedroom, which is why the room is lit by the moon right now, so, even without my wolf senses, I would have easily made out his absence.

I try to reach him through our mind link, but he has blocked it. A year ago, this would have made me feel insecure, but now I know my mate better. He’d never do anything to hurt me.

Nefeli?I mutter tiredly, trying to call out to my wolf.Wake up.

What happened, Ella?she grumbles, popping up in my mind with her eyes a bit drowsy and her fur not with its usual perfect shine. She has a beautiful, rare sand-colored coat; it’s on the lighter side, almost going into yellow.

Do you know where our mate is? Dante has blocked the mind link.

Nefeli is on alert instantly.They always do this,she whines.So annoying!

Can you reach his wolf?

Sylvan doesn’t respond to me either,Nefeli says, stretching her front legs and getting up. She walks around in my mind, clearly restless.I can push through the blockade. Do you want me to?

Blockades to our mind link don’t work on her and me. Even our alpha needs extra precaution to block us out on the rare occasions he doesn’t want me to reach him. It’s the gift Nefeli and I were blessed with from the goddess and the reason neither of us lost our mind and succumbed to the loneliness when we grew up as a lone wolf.

Back then, as a teen and young adult, I never thought about it. I didn’t know that we were a lone wolf. It never struck me that this is what I was because we were technically part of a pack. But my old alpha shunned me and pushed me aside, so my wolf was dormant. The moment we were welcomed in a real pack, we instantly reconnected and regained our mental strength.

It was then that I learned it shouldn’t have been that easy for my wolf to remain sane despite never knowing the safety of a pack.

Ella?Nefeli nudges me.Stop dozing off.

Sorry.I sigh, getting out of the bed and grabbing a jacket. I slip it over my pajamas and put on my sneakers.You don’t need to push through the blockade. I know where to find him.

Most of the pack members are deeply asleep, aside from the guards. They nod politely at me when I leave the packhouse and walk past them. My feet carry me to one of our training grounds, the one for the small group of elite warriors, as it’s more secluded and further away from the center of the pack. The elites like to train without prying eyes and without too much buzzing around them, as they train hard and need to be focused and concentrated.

His scent reaches me even before I see him. Dante is in the middle of the training ground, a box sack in front of him. He keeps hitting it over and over again. I climb onto the fence surrounding the place, sit down, and dangle my feet while I watch him take out his emotions on the box sack.

“It’s not on me to correct you, Beta Dante,” I say. “But your posture could use some work.”

Upon hearing my voice, Dante, my usually so graceful mate, bumps headfirst into the box sack, proof of how far away he was with his thoughts, or he would have certainly smelled me.

I jump off the fence and hurry to him. “Did you get hurt!?”

“No,” he groans while rubbing his forehead.

Nefeli rolls her eyes. Her emotions are all over the place. She is upset at her mate for putting a block up to the mind link and worried at the same time.

“Let me take a look at it,” I offer.

“It’s really nothing,” he says but lets me grab his face and pull him down to check on it. I can feel his arms being wrapped around me, making me smile. I hug him back, snuggling against him.

“I woke you,” he says, sounding miserable. “I tried to keep my feelings numb and be quiet.”

“That’s the point of the mate bond,” I say. “It’s not always that simple.”

“I had a nightmare,” he growls. “It’s been a while, and I thought they were gone entirely. Fuck, I feel like this is belittling you.”

“The fact that nightmares about the death of your first mate haunt you is not belittling me,” I emphasize. “Maybe next time, just don’t sneak away,” I say, deciding to tread carefully. The first few times when it happened, I was pissed and lashed out at him, making him feel even more guilty. I understand much better where he is coming from now.

“You deserve someone less broken,” he says, as usual when he has one of his episodes.