Page 48 of A Second Chance for the Beta

I take a bite of her casserole, my eyes almost bulging by how spicy it is, and I swear the part in the middle looks uncooked.

Dante takes a massive spoonful—the poor man is so naïve—coughing once his taste buds have caught up. Ella eyes him curiously, and he shrugs. “Just got something up my nose,” he lies.

He and I exchange another gaze, and I carefully swallow another forkful of the casserole. Maybe if I don’t breathe, I won’t taste it?

“And how does it taste?” Ella asks hopefully while she loads her own plate.

I look at Dante expectantly. He is the adult here. “It’s unique,” he says. “There is so much personality in it.”

I almost die inwardly at that comment because it’s so funny. Unique!? That’s one way to put it. He bravely takes another bite of the dish while Ella watches him.

Ella looks slightly confused before tasting her food herself. She furrows her brow first, then they grow wide as saucers. She jumps up. “Why didn’t you tell me it’s inedible!?” Ella runs to the bin and spits out her spoonful. “I’m trying to poison you, and you two are sitting here like helpless little potatoes!”

Dante and I look at her with puppy eyes. “You put so much effort into it,” Dante says.

“It has potential,” I agree.

Ella rolls her eyes and grabs the whole casserole to toss it away. “I will link the cook and have her send some leftovers from dinner.”

I chew on the remainder of my food, making Ella glare at me. “Goddess, Charlie, stop eating it! You will get sick.”

“It’s kind of growing on me,” I say. “The spiciness almost burns a hole into my stomach. I think it would be cool to take this to Ty for a dare.”

Dante chuckles while Ella glares at me. “It’s half raw, girl. If you want to test Ty’s courage, have him bite into a pepperoni.”

“Good idea!”

Ella looks at me like a deer caught in the headlights. “I didn’t want to give you any more silly ideas,” she groans. “It’s not like you don’t have enough of them on your own.”

“It’s obvious you two are related,” Dante says in a matter-of-fact tone.

I laugh while Ella glares. “So that’s how it is,” she complains, but her lips tug into a smile while she does so. “You two are ganging up on me. You two better behave, or I will call Dave for backup. No one can compete with his snarkiness.”

That’s true. I laugh, thinking about how funny it would be if Dave would be here now. And the luna too. When the three of them are together it’s always the funniest. Ella told me that there are two other friends who are part of their closer circle—one being Liam’s younger brother Finn, who I haven’t met yet, and one, Celine, a fucking female alpha! She is mated to Liam’s other brother. And she is an alpha, a reigning alpha. This is so cool!

All of Ella’s friends are. I hope when I’m an adult I will have such a tight circle of friends too.

seventeen

Freedom

*ELLA*

It’supanddownevery day.

Charlie is a great kid; I love having her with me, but I can feel how torn she is. It’s like how I felt when I was her age, and I sympathize so much with her. It’s so difficult to go through all the stuff she did. I know that many things she does or says are a defense mechanism and that there is a deeply rooted sadness in her that she tries to hide with her anger.

I know that some pack members side-eye me for not putting my foot down more, but Charlie is traumatized, and she doesn’t need someone who makes her feel worse. She doesn’t need someone who locks her in, or who goes all super-helicopter-mom on her. She is almost sixteen, and this is the first time in her life where she is safe and with family.

I’m just glad that Dante is on the same page as I am. And everyone else, frankly, can fuck off.

Annie fortunately pulled a few strings so that Charlie doesn’t get suspended from school, although she needs to be careful not to lash out against someone again. I understand where she is coming from, but she can’t keep solving her problems with her fists.

Fortunately, Dante and I are invited to a casual get-together at Dave and Raffy’s house tonight, the perfect opportunity to get our minds off our troubles. They live on the pack grounds like everyone else, but Annie made sure they got one of the bigger houses that provides them with more privacy, and has a big enough yard for their monster-pet.

As if on cue, Sugar pops up and leaves his drool all over the floor, and barks excitedly. “Sugar!” Dave exclaims. “I told you not to harass our guests.”

“I got him.” A young woman chuckles. It’s Esme, Raffy’s sister.