My Second Chance
2295 Words
Freddie’s POV
Present day~
We had battled with the rogues for what felt like hours until several of the Alpha’s shifted into Lycan warriors. Everyone was in utter shock at the sight before us. Most of the battle had stopped just to watch them walk through the crowd. Several of the rogues started fights with the Lycans and all of them lost painfully.
A large number of the warriors, the rest of the Alphas and some of the Betas from other packs, started to shift back to human form and put their shorts on. I shifted then pulled my shorts on and walked through a crowd, headed toward the campsite. Something unknown was drawing me toward the area.
As I got closer to the tents, I got a whiff of the sweetest smell over all the blood and sweat in the air. It smelled of honeysuckle. I looked around for the source, looking for the plant growing on something. It was the right time of year for it to start blooming, but I didn’t see any anywhere. Thanks to Jamie I knew about plants.
That’s when I caught sight of the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my lifetime. Her tanned skin and loose dark brown hair couldn’t hide the freckles that dusted her perfect little face. Her piercing blue eyes just made her more attracitve to the eyes. I was frozen in place just staring at her beauty.
My wolf, Beau, howled in my mind, “MATE.”
By the look on her face she knew it too. Her wolf was howling in her mind for me and Beau. This was my second chance mate and I wasn’t about to lose her too. I smile and take a shaky step forward to introduce myself when I see her bolt for the woods.
My heart drops a little in my chest at her reaction. Then I shake my head, shake off the nerves and chase after her. She’s the last chance I get to be happy and whole. I won't let this slip through my fingers. As I start to catch up to her she shifts into a small Omega wolf with dark brown fur. Because she has shifted she has started to run faster than before and gains ground getting away from me.
I quickly shift, letting Beau out to catch our little mate. My Beta wolf takes long strides trying to catch up to her. She’s fast and nimble where Beau is considerably larger ,but still fast. I might not be able to be gentle about catching her, which worries me.
When I get close to her I urge Beau to tackle her. He does and it works without any yelping. We have her on the ground beneath us and to my surprise we haven’t hurt her at all. I can feel her fighting to get away from me and she’s also shaking in fear. We let her up hoping she won't run again. I don’t want my mate to be terrified of me. To my surprise, she tucks her tail beneath her and crouches near the base of a tree close by. I stand there looking at her wondering what she is afraid of.
I mind-link one of the Trinity Forest warriors, “I’m in the woods about a mile North away from the campsite. I need a pair of shorts and a large shirt.”
“Yes, Beta Freddie. We will be right there.”
Not long and a warrior shows up with the clothing items I asked for. I shift back and put the shorts on then dismiss the warrior.
I then hold out the large shirt to my mate and ask, “will you shift and talk with me? I’ll turn my back so I wont see you.”
She nodded her head and her wolf took the shirt in its mouth while staring at me. I did as I said I would and turned my back to her. I heard moving around behind me but didn’t hear any running.
“Ok. What do you want to talk about,” she asks.
She had the sweetest honey covered voice. I turned to look at her. She was gorgeous even in just a shirt. My mind wandered to ways of exploring that small body of hers and I had to fight the urge to let my eyes look her over.
“I know you know we are mates, so why did you run,” I asked softly.
She looks down at the ground messing with the hem of the shirt with her finger tips. She’s very submissive and I know from this I will have to be as gentle as possible with her at all times.
“I was scared,” she said, still not looking up at me.
That’s when I noticed some scars on her arms and legs. If she was afraid I was going to hurt her. I would never do that. I knew what it was like to be hurt and that’s the last thing I would do to anyone else. All I wanted to do was love her already. It broke my heart to see such a creature like this.
“I won't hurt you. I promise you have nothing to fear from me,” I reassure her.
She looks up into my eyes and nods her head. I’m not one hundred percent sure she trusts those words though. I could see she was tormented.
“My name is Freddie by the way. What’s yours little one?” I ask her.
She gives me a small smile, “Willow.”
I smile and take a small step toward her where she is almost in arms reach. She stays where she is this time. That’s a relief.
“It’s nice to meet you Willow. Can I ask why you're a rogue?”
“I was born a rogue. I joined this group trying to flee some other rogues. I didn’t think trying to join a pack would be possible,” she answers.
Everything seemed to tumble out of her at once. I wanted to wrap her in my arms and tell her she was safe now. She didn’t need to run anymore. I’m not sure how she would take to being hugged or even touched.
“Would you like to come join me at my pack,” I ask her, holding her gaze.
She shifts her weight and I tense up getting ready to have to chase her yet again. I didn’t mean to tense up and show any aggression. She immediately looked down in submission. I felt bad instantly. I was doing everything wrong for her already.
“I mean you no harm little one. It’s completely up to you if you want to come with me. I would like you to,” I say softly.
I was afraid I would scare her off, but to my surprise she looked up at me again.
“Will your Alpha allow me to join the pack?”
“Yes. Duncan is an amazing Alpha and my best friend.”
“I take it you’re his Beta then,” she says looking away yet again.
It's like she is nervous, but I don’t know why. All I want to do is keep her eyes on me. I want her to trust me and come back home with me.
“Yes. It means I can keep you safe,” I tell her confidently.
As I say that she looks up at me with hopeful eyes and nods her head slightly. I hold my hand out to her wondering if she will even take it. She cautiously reaches her hand out and lightly places her small hand in my large one.
I immediately feel the intense sparks of the mate bond from our hands touching. I didn’t notice we were both staring at our hands until I looked up at her and she was looking at our hands in wonder. When I looked into her eyes I saw tears forming in her amazing blue eyes. As one spilled over her eyelids I brought my free hand up to her face and thumbed the tear away.
“Why are you crying, little one?” I asked softly.
She took her eyes off our hands and looked up into my eyes saying, “I never thought I would find my mate. I thought I would forever be a lost rogue.”
I nod my head and say, “I’ve found you now, so it’s alright.”
She gave me a weak smile in response. I brought her hand up to my mouth and placed a small kiss to the back of it. I hear her sigh in contentedness and butterflies erupt in the pit of my stomach.
Pulling her hand away from my lips I say, “Let’s go meet Duncan and then go home.”
“Alright,” she softly says.
We walk through the woods back toward the campsite so I can meet with Duncan. Then I can take my mate home. My heart is beating faster and stronger than ever. My excitement for the future has been renewed with my second chance.
Once we get back to the campsite, the Trinity Forest Pack has started to come back together in an area near the river. When we arrive I look for Duncan but don’t see him anywhere.
I stop one of our captains and ask, “have you seen Duncan?”
“Yeah he’s up the hill in an Alpha’s meeting. I don’t think it will take long. They’ve finally beat Calvin and Jamie had her pup up under the trees,” he tells me.
I shake my head, “A lot has happened today.”
He nods then walks off. I hold my mate's hand while we wait for Duncan. I can feel her getting uneasy and she starts to look around as if trouble is coming.
“What is it, little one?” I ask in her ear.
She whispers back, “I just don’t want to be here longer than I have to be.”
I nod. She’s holding back something from me. I know now isn’t the time to ask since she doesn’t trust me yet. I will have to ask why she keeps looking over her shoulder as if someone is after her though.
Not much longer and I see Duncan making his way down the hill toward us with a witch to portal us back home.
He sees Willow holding onto my hand and smiles wide then asks, “And who do you have, Freddie?”
“My mate, Willow. Willow, this is Alpha Duncan of Trinity Forest,” I introduce them.
Duncan holds his hand out to shake hers but she shrinks behind me to hide. He takes his hand back and straightens up.
“I assure you that I mean you no harm, Willow. I’m glad Freddie has found you,” he says.
She steps out from behind me and looks at Duncan and then puts her hand out to shake his hand. He takes it with a soft smile and shakes her hand.
“When can we go home,” I ask him.
“The witches will be helping with rogues that want to join packs. We might be going home with several new members so we have to wait a little while,” he tells me looking around.
It takes several more minutes and we start to see new members walking towards our pack.
Our witch casts a spell on each of them and then asks, “Why are you a rogue?”
So many of them were born rogues and some ran away from their packs. Willow drops my hand and then walks up to the witch that is helping our pack. She lets her cast the spell on her.
“Why are you a rogue?”
“I was born a rogue,” Willow answers.
The witch nods her head and welcomes Willow towards our pack. I was glad to know that she hadn’t lied to me about being born a rogue. I honestly didn’t think she would lie though. She seemed to be too pure for that.
At the end of the interrogation from the witches, all the rogues had packs or had run off. We officially had twenty-five new members, including Willow. Before the portal was opened for us to go home Duncan welcomed the new members into the pack, giving them access to the pack link.
The amount of happy faces was amazing. Our Alpha was an amazing man and I would be in charge of making sure none of the new members got into trouble, found their place in the pack and had a smooth transition. I had a lot of work ahead of me.
Finally it was time for us to go home. Our witch opened the portal to Trinity Forest. Our warriors stepped through first, then the new members, the captains, then me and Willow followed by Duncan.
It would be good to have my mate with me, though I had a feeling we had a long road ahead of us.
- Writer
