The Luna’s Second Chance Mate

Larrissa

I watched him enjoy seeing me cry. It wasn’t even worth it, yet I watched him. With the despair etched on my face, he finally stepped back and his eyes returned to their enchanting color. I hated the fact that despite his unfounded hatred for me, my wolf still found him attractive. It took more than sheer willpower to bring myself to realize the situation at hand again. He was kicking me out without an option to ask for forgiveness.

The familiar dark haired man began to shift in his position, sighing and clenching his jaw softly. He looked like words would fall off his lips but nothing happened, and he drew back. The redhead on the other hand took two quick steps forward, pulling on the alpha’s suit.

“My Lord, please temper justice with mercy.” He began to talk, only for this sweet chocolate haired alpha to shake his head vehemently and whip around sharply. I couldn’t see his face from where I stood, but it was certain that he was shooting daggers at him.

“Don’t you fucking interfere, Hunter. There is only so much I can tolerate from you.”

“I know it’s not in my place…”

“Then fucking stay put, Jackson!”© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

That was his name…Jackson. The man flinched slowly and stepped back, watching the alpha turn around sharply. He glared at me one last time, but I cowered away. He would’ve see me cry more tears. I felt his glare strike small sparks of flames on my skin before he shoved both hands in his pockets and started for the stairs.

There were sighs from the two men in front of me. I finally raised my head to see the one called Hunter through me what I assumed was a pitiful look. Jackson’s expression was somewhat blank, I couldn’t tell his thoughts. They spun around and left the living room, along with a number of feet that had come to see what the ruckus was about.

I wanted to just fall at his feet and cry and ask for mercy, he’d stopped me from doing even that much. I heard my wolf whimper, bringing all the emotions I felt together and dumping it on my head. Wiping my eyes quickly, I dragged my feet to the kitchen where Gwendoline stood idly by the fire, giving me sorry glances.

She wouldn’t say even a word to me, how desperately I wanted to hear it. Instead, she picked up a dish she had served and muttered something incoherent about meeting Declan before leaving me to my thoughts. My stomach refused the usual growl at the sight of food, but I made a dish for myself nonetheless and brought it to the dining in the kitchen.

I stabbed at the porridge with a fork, finally letting the tears of my misery fall. The last time I’d had a beautiful roundtable meal was with my parents. Did they worry about me? Did they wonder what Stefan had done with me? Were they suffering because they believe I was dead? I stabbed at the porridge again and pushed it away, falling to the table in tears that must have wetted my hair severely.

*

I fluttered my eyes open as soon as I could, after having tossed repeatedly on the bed. When did I even get here? I was so sure I’d fallen asleep on the kitchen dining. Stretching, I shook my head at the feeling. The alpha didn’t know I was still in the house, which was a risk one too many on its own. But regardless of what he said, Declan was more important than his anger. I’ve seen him nearly claw his head off whenever he would cry, so I was certain that he cared about the toddler too much to hurt him.

I ran one hand through my hair and rolled off the comfortable bed before taking a quick shower and dressed up in a yellow dress that matched up with my hair to an extent. I finally looked through the window that was open just a tad bit to see that it was fairly dark. Confused, I glanced at the wall clock. It was still 5am. Why was I up so early? But then, it would be for the best, I thought.

I wanted to smile at myself, but my lips were unwilling. The fear of being kicked out wouldn’t let me. I heaved a sharp sigh instead, and walked down the stairs in the relatively cold morning to check on Gwendoline. She was in the kitchen like I expected, warming up some milk. She looked at me as soon as she’d felt my presence, and soon let out a giggle.

“You look like a Panda, Larissa.” She said with a small smile before shifting her eyes back to the milk. I forced myself to smile back, my thoughts drifting off to last night. I half expected her to ask me questions or scold me for leaving him at kindergarten like the alpha did, yet she did none of those. Instead, she asked “You good?”

“I’m fine, thanks.” I muttered back. “Um, Gwendoline?”

“Gwen’s fine, Larissa.”

“Oh… Gwen?”

“Yes, please?”

Her answers were funny. I found her grace odd sometimes, but I was used to it at this point. She was looking at me now, lips drawn almost flat but her friendly eyes said otherwise.

“Would you mind preparing Declan for school? I’d like to make a meal for him.”

She was blank faced for a few seconds, then smiled gently.

“The alpha also likes toast and bacon. No eggs, he hates that. But Declan likes them.”

My eyes narrowed slightly at the information. I said I wanted to make breakfast for Declan, not the Alpha, so what was she rambling on about? As if on cue, the corners of her small lips curled up in a smile.

“I know you’re sorry for what you did yesterday, and Alpha Kaden can be ruthless when it comes to his son. You might want to try getting on his good side by preparing an apology meal for starters.” She finished without sparing me a glance. She leaned up to a top cabinet and reached for a loaf of bread, placing them on the kitchen table. She looked at me with the small smile still on her face and cleaned her hands on the apron.

“Your choice, Larissa.”

And she walked out of the kitchen, leaving me to my thoughts. The plan was to remain as resilient as the last time until he let me stay with whatever punishment he would come up with. But an apology meal?

Thinking better of it, I decided to make a meal for Declan and one for the Alpha. Maybe, just maybe it would work. With little effort, I set up the dining table and waited there for a minute for Gwendoline and Declan. The thud of wood drew my attention to the stairs, where one of the toddler’s wooden knives was tumbling to the foot of the stairs. I picked it up and soon, the boy was running down with a half panicked Gwendoline running after him.

“There, there, Declan.” I cooed, pulling him in to stop his running. “What did I say about running down the stairs?”

The boy was staring at me like an intriguing piece of drawing paper before sticking his tiny thumb in his ear. I chuckled at that, he did that everytime he thought I was nagging him. There was a heaving Gwen beside him in a moment clicking her tongue in frustration.

“For the love of all things, Declan, stop running down the stairs!” She hurled, breathing harshly with both hands resting on her hips. The toddler couldn’t be bothered, instead he shook himself away from me and went to take a seat on the table. He looked confused for a full minute before picking up the tall glass of milk and sipping at it.

The way he scrunched his nose before nibbling on the eggs was heartwarming. He always refused to eat my dishes, and his milk had to be vanilla flavored for him to drink it. But here he was, muching on the eggs giddily and completely abandoning his toast. Typical Declan.

“What the fuck is going on here?!”

Shit. I’d completely forgotten about the fact that the alpha was still in the house. I whipped my head around immediately to see him glaring angrily at me. The flames in his eyes matched his dark orange suit and his tousled hair, I wished he would stop looking at me like that. Dawn had begun to rise already, further fueling the sinister look in his eyes.

“Fuck you, Larissa! I asked you to leave while I’m being nice, are you that dense?!”

I flinched at his tone, stepping back till I felt my spine hit the edge of the square table. I heard Declan repeat his father’s words and bile rose at the back of my throat.

“I’m very sorry for what happened yesterday, Alpha Kaden. I swear on my life and on your mercy that it would never happen again.” I pleaded, biting back the part where I wanted to tell him to refrain from cursing in front of the boy.

He laughed. He laughed harshly instead. “Why? So you can make a fool out of me? The alpha?” He closed the space between us, pushing my chin up to look at me. My breath hitched at that. The proximity was too close, way too close for comfort. I felt his angry breaths on my forehead and a small grunt escape him.

“I gave you one task -”

“Declan’s eating.” I cut in quietly, struggling to steady my breaths. “Please, don’t do this in front of your son.” I forced myself to look away from him before he finally let me go harshly.

“To hell with you!” He yelled again, startling everybody at the table. He ran his hands frantically through his messy hair and glanced at the boy at the table, who was now looking at him with the blankest stare.

He walked up to where the boy was while I struggled to straighten myself and calm my rapid breathing. Why did he always lose his cool with me? I hadn’t done a lot of wrong to him, at least not enough for him to want to kill me everytime he saw me. I patted my heaving chest, telling myself to calm down. He wouldn’t hurt me. Declan’s here. He wouldn’t hurt me.

He glared at me once more before sitting beside the toddler. “You have one month. Make a stupid move in that month and you wouldn’t even get to leave this pack. I would make sure you die a very painless death.” He growled out and turned his attention to his son when the French doors were pushed open.

It was the redhead, Hunter. I didn’t know what kind of relationship he had with the alpha yet, but I could guess a closeness. Professional or personal, that was what I wasn’t sure of.

Hunter wasn’t smiling as he approached the dining table. He had a small envelope in his hand as he walked, cooing at Declan and nodding lightly at me before returning to his stoic expression.

“Why the face, Hunter?” Alpha Kaden questioned, running fingers through his son’s hair. He didn’t even look at the meal in front of him. He must really hate me then.

Hunter dropped the envelope in front of the Alpha, stepping back and bowing at a small angle.

“It’s another letter.”

His expression shifted to understanding and then annoyance before he tore open the envelope. I found myself wondering what was in it before I saw something flicker in his beautiful eyes.

Beautiful eyes, my foot, Larissa. Get your shit together.

He shot up from his seat immediately, motioning for Gwendoline to take Declan away before looking at Hunter. If I thought he looked at me with hate in his eyes, the way he looked at Hunter was with death ringing a bell.

“Tell the Gemini to meet me three days from now. We have a loose cunt on our tail.”