Page 35 of A Second Chance for the Beta

“Fuck,” he curses, swiftly gathering the rest of his warriors. “To the infirmary. We need to protect them.”

I feel my senses returning, turning around swiftly and shifting, before I chase wherever my senses lead me. I allow my lycan to take over as he can take up her scent. I can feel Liam and a few of our warriors short on my heels. Oh please, let her be alright.

My fear makes me run faster than usual, making me reach the infirmary within minutes. I can see it already, rogues surrounding the place and some of our nurses and doctors fighting for our patients’ lives. They are no warriors, but they are giving their best.

I can spot Maria, a nasty wound on her shoulder and fear in her eyes. “MARIA,” I yell through the mind link. “Get out of there. I’m coming!”

She spins around, trying to find a way out, when I can see her pause.

It all happens so fast.

There is a little child surrounded by our enemies; Maria hurries towards it and pulls it into her arms, trying to save it and take it with her while she runs.

Her screams pierce my heart when a rogue lunges at her.

I lunge towards the wolf who attacked her, ripping his head off his shoulders. Liam gains control of the situation fast, easily overpowering the attacking rogues with his magnificent beast. I shift back to my human form, hurrying to Maria.

“Dante,” one of the nurses says quietly. She has been checking on her since I freed her from her attacker.

No, please don’t take her from me. Please. I kneel next to her, cradling her in my arms. Please, Moon Goddess, don’t take her and my baby from me.

The light in her eyes is dimmed when she looks at me. She reaches out her hand to touch my cheek. “It’s alright,” I try to reassure her. “You’re going to be alright.”

Her gaze shifts from me to something behind me.

“No, keep looking at me.” I grasp her hand while a doctor tries to stop her wound from bleeding.

She smiles distantly. “I love you, Dante,” she says quietly.

For a few seconds, I hear nothing; my ears seem to be ringing before I feel the bond break. It’s like the air leaves my lungs, a silver knife stabbing me all over. The world around me fades into black.

A day later, I find out I would have had a girl. The baby would have been a girl. I lost her before I could even meet her.

I wake up with a gasp, my breathing rapid, my heart is beating so fast I’m scared it will jump out of my chest. It takes a while for me to realize where I am. The gentle blue-colored walls of my bedroom surround me, and a sweet yet fresh scent of oranges fills my nostrils. I can feel my heartbeat calming down.

The lycan beast inside me stirs.

Ella moves in my arms. Oh no, I woke her up. She is going to see the mess I am in. She is going to see it all. Again.

“It’s okay,” Ella whispers soothingly, reaching out her hand to gently touch my shoulder. My mind goes blank as I realize she indeed noticed and is aware of what happened.

We are okay,Sylvan reassures us.We are fine. Mate is here with us.

This is the first time that Sylvan has been able to reach out to me after a nightmare. Normally we are both so shaken afterwards that we aren’t able to communicate with each other for hours.

“Stay here with me,” Ella says, keeping me from spiraling downwards and into an actual panic attack. She grabs my face between her hands and says nothing. Just pulls me closer into a hug until I feel my head safely nestled against her chest.

I wrap my arms around her to pull her even closer against my body. For years I’ve been cursing the goddess as to why she didn’t take me away instead of Maria. Why did she need to take my mate and unborn child from me?

I still don’t understand. I still can’t fully accept it, but day by day, it’s getting easier to let it go, to allow Maria to become a gentle and cherished memory instead of having her live on in my nightmares.

Ella brought the light back into my life, and I can slowly feel the darkness around me subsiding.

“I’m sorry,” I say to Ella once I can feel my panic lessening and my mind and heart going back to normal. I used to dream of this every night, but now I’m only haunted by it occasionally. Ella is my new light, my new life. To me, she brought back my reason to fight to overcome the darkness. I stand up every day, looking forward to seeing her. Even imagining losing her makes my heart stop beating in fear. Sometimes I’m scared I will wake up and she’ll be gone. I won’t survive such a loss a second time. I try not to be too overbearing, not too overprotective, because I’m scared of suffocating her. And I talk to Liam a lot about it, whenever I feel like I’m not being good enough for Ella.

My sweet Ella got a broken mate when she deserves so much better.

Ella shakes her head. “Don’t be sorry,” she says quietly while I nuzzle my nose into her neck to take a lungful of her sweet scent. “I love you,” she says into the silence. For a long while, I believed I would never hear these words again. “I love you.”