Page 147 of A Second Chance for the Beta

When I glance inside the room, I can see an empty bed. Dario is nowhere to be seen. The doctor seems to instantly be on alert, but to my surprise, it’s Elden who remains calm this time. “Don’t worry, I know where he is.”

Elden and Liam lead us towards the secluded segment of the hospital with the intensive care patients. One of the rooms is guarded, a heavy indication that Felix is in it. We don’t go inside, but when I glance through the window, I can see Felix’s pale frame, sleeping in his hospital bed, and his brother curled up on his other side. Flora is inside, carefully spreading a blanket over them.

I decide to give the family some privacy now. Charlie and I overstayed our welcome anyway, and my goal was only for Charlie to see that her friends were on the path to recovery.

forty-seven

The Last Cook Standing

*DANTE*

Afewdayslater,we are all settled into a new routine. Felix and Dario have been transported back to Silverlake to get their treatment there. Felix woke up, and like Liam predicted, after the initial shock and sad breakdown, he was eager to work and remobilize his body.

The boy is so strong.

Meanwhile, Charlie is back at school, without a guard this time. But I can’t help but feel anxious whenever she leaves. I know we dealt with the threat; I know it’s safe for her now; I know she needs to be able to live a normal life; I know she has longed so much for a sense of normality, but I’m just so worried.

“I’m just going for a walk,” she says when she wants to head out after lunch.

“Where to?” I want to know.

“Just around the park,” she explains. “My therapist said I should go for a walk regularly to lose my fear of it.”

I look at her, not sure how to react. If she is alone outside, things will happen. The last time she was out on pack grounds, she should have been safe, yet someone came and abducted her. They hurt her.

“Don’t you trust me to stay on the pack grounds?” she asks.

“Well, the last time I checked, you and the others were coming and going off the pack grounds however you liked,” I admit.

She looks flustered, guilty, but at the same time also completely fed up. “This is so unfair,” she blurts out. “We can’t go anywhere now anyway, not before Alpha Liam has the talk with us. Ty is still grounded, anyway. Gisela and I just want to walk around the park.”

I low-key wish I could put a tracker on her just to know she won’t be stolen away again, but I assume suggesting it might make her blow up at me. “I just want to know exactly where you are going,” I say, trying to make her understand. It doesn’t look like she does, though.

Before either of us can say any more, I feel a presence behind me. Charlie has noticed it, too, because she raises her gaze, looking at the person behind me.

“Why don’t you go now, Charlie, before it’s too late? Be back in time for dinner.”

Charlie nods, looking relieved, before she dashes out of the room.

“But—” I mutter.

Ella takes my hand. “We need to have a talk,” she says quietly. “Why don’t we have a glass of wine on the balcony?”

I sigh, but as usual whenever she is close, Sylvan completely forgets what else he is worrying about and instead wants to make her happy. “Okay,” I say.

I walk ahead, waiting for Ella to follow me with a bottle of wine and two glasses. She chose red wine, a fancy brand we got from the elite warriors a while ago as a thank you for the training.

“I get you,” she says. “I really do, D. Whenever she leaves the pack to go to school, I’m terrified. I always think about how she was dragged to that dungeon, how they tried to assault her, how terrified she must have been.”

“I’m so worried sometimes,” I admit, “that I forget how to breathe. When she was gone, I knew I had to keep it together. But now that she is back, I just… can’t lose her.”

“Why don’t you tell her that?” Ella says. “Because honestly, the way you go about it makes it sound like you are mad at her, not worried. She went through major trauma, and not just once. You heard her therapist: now is the time we need to build her up and help her be confident.”

“I know,” I groan. “I just don’t know how to tell her. And when I see her, I’m in panic mode. Instantly.”

Ella stays quiet for a while, and when she looks at me again, I know I won’t like what she has to say. “She isn’t responsible for your trauma, Dante,” she says. “I… I don’t want to hurt you by saying that. I love you. But she isn’t the child you lost. She is her own person.”

My chest churns at her words.