Page 98 of A Second Chance for the Beta

Oh wow, awesome, Livia, way to make an impression.

Richard looks at me shortly, but to my surprise, he catches on instantly. “I… I wanted to belong,” he says quietly. “And she promised me a home. I thought I could finally show my worth.”

I swear,my wolf growls.He better not simp for that creepy bitch who groomed him.

“She just used me,” he says.

“You knew?” I ask, sitting down at the edge of his bed.

“I had a feeling,” he admits.

“And you never decided to act on said feelings?” I ask.

He looks down at his hands. “Have you ever felt that urge inside you that you need to prove your worth? That no one ever looks at you and seesyou.”

My thoughts go back to my high school years and how I was bullied there. The thought still terrifies me. Fear used to fill me back then, and it slowly got replaced by anger later on. But back in the day, I would have done everything to belong. “I do,” I admit. “I know how it feels.” I pause. “They caught her,” I say. “Your girlfriend.”

“Ex-girlfriend,” he emphasizes, although he looks sad when he says it. There is a hint of bitterness and anger in his tone too. “I’m not that stupid and certainly not pathetic enough to still want her. Imogen… She wanted to kill an innocent child. And who knows who she has already killed throughout the past years.” He pauses. “She probably planned on killing me too. Well,” he says bitterly. “I’m an idiot. If it weren’t for Alpha Liam and Dave, I would have probably never realized what was going on.”

Okay, he stopped simping,my wolf says in relief.I don’t need to kill someone to get them out of the way.

Goddess, can you stop sounding so creepy?

What.She frowns.Don’t tell me you weren’t thinking about doing that too.

I ignore her but secretly feel relieved that he isn’t defending Imogen and her crew. “She used you,” I say quietly.

“That’s no excuse for falling for all of her schemes. Just because she was nice to me.”

Oddly enough, I can sympathize with him. I know how it feels not to have anyone in your corner and to fend for yourself, and believe you are at fault for all the bad things happening to you. I believed something was wrong with me because everyone bullied me in school. I thought it was on me and not on them.

Luna Annalise helped me change schools, and my dad encouraged me to join the warrior training. I had family and my pack members helping me.

He apparently had no one.

We both stay silent for a while before I gesture towards his notebook. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh.” He smiles and suddenly turns much livelier. “Alpha Liam was so kind to let me do some work here. I do photography as a hobby and wanted to work on some pictures.”

“That’s a pretty cool hobby.”

“I can show you some of my work,” he offers.

I nod my agreement. I don’t want to feel too much for this guy, but I can’t help my heart fluttering slightly when he suddenly turns from gloomy to bubbly. Richie shows me the pictures he is working on. He even made some out of the window of his room, reassuring me that it was all approved. I’m pretty sure Beta Dante has spyware on this notebook, so I don’t question him. To my surprise he seems to be very good at what he is doing.

“These are beautiful,” I say in awe when he shows me how he is editing them.

“I wish I had a person to pose for me,” he says before he eyes me. “Someone like you.”

“What!?” I exclaim. “I’m not model material.”

“I think you’re perfect,” he hurries to say, suddenly getting into his idea. “I don’t know what it is, but I feel almost connected to you. Like I’ve known you for a long while already. I know exactly how I would photograph you.”

“I would probably look ugly,” I mutter, though part of me feels happy he feels the mate bond. He probably doesn’t know what it is, but he does feel it. I’m still not sure if I want to get into this. The alpha was right; he isn’t a bad guy, not at all. He was just an unfortunate victim. But he is a human and was hurt so much already. I’m not sure if I want to help him.

You are not sure if you can,my wolf tells me, glaring at me.Not if you want.

That’s the same,I say.