Outback Love

Second Chances

Trigger Warning: Infant loss (Historical)

Blane lay back on the rock, his stomach full. He had eaten in some of the best restaurants in America but the meal he had just eaten was something else. Beef stew with a kind of bread that Blane had never had before. Mira had made cooking it look so easy.

As they stared at the stars Blane saw movement. It was a shooting star.

“Make a wish!” He cried out as he closed his eyes and made his wish. Mira clapped happily. Blane watched her with a smile. There was none of the angry bitterness towards life he often felt in Mira. Just a beautiful innocence. He was fast learning why she was so well loved.

Mira stood and went to the car. She returned with some children’s books and held them up for Blane to see. He put his hand out and she handed him the books to look at. By the light of the fire, he read the books out loud. They were Aboriginal Dreamtime stories about the stars.

“This is amazing.” Blane breathed as he looked in the sky for the constellations they talked about in the books.

“Every culture has their own stories about the stars.” He began to point out the different constellations of the star signs.

Mira sat up and looked at him. She pointed to Blane and then above his shoulder. Blane shook his head, trying to decipher what she was trying to say.

“Father?” He asked.

Mira nodded.

“Did my father teach me that?” Blane asked.

Mira smiled and nodded.

Blane shook his head sadly. “My father taught me about hostile take overs, he taught me anything could be bought with the right amount of money. He taught me sentimentality was for poor people and there was no place for it in business. He told me he was teaching me to be strong, but he was in fact teaching me to be cold and brutal like him.”

Mira put her hand on Blanes' thigh.

“All this doesn’t matter to my father or my mother. They are addicted to wealth and power. My father has made me monetarily rich but sorely lacking in morals and ethics. In one day, you have taught me more than he has in 28 years.”

Mira shook her head sadly.

“I am the Alpha of my pack and yet I haven’t made a single decision on my own since I took over from my father. He doesn’t trust me because he feels I might try to do things my way and he wants things to stay the same. It is worse for my sister. He is already lining up wealthy and influential potential husbands, even though she has a mate. She doesn’t know it yet, but my second in business and Beta of my pack is her mate. He has known for quite some time. She is 2 days off finding out for herself.” He smiled, wishing he could be there for Emily’s birthday. “It scares me that I could return to find she has been forcefully married off to an older man my parents chose.”

Mira looked at him sadly, nodding her head. She stood up and held out her hand. Blane stood up and took it. Mira shifted into her dingo form and Blane let Blaze take over. He followed her out into the dark night.

Blane found the bush to be a different place at night. Different animals scuttered around creating different scents. On his pack lands the ground had a rich, soil smell but here it was different. Everything about this land was intoxicating to him, particularly the freedom it seemed to offer.

Mira had moved into a full run, and he was able to easily keep pace with her. Even though in their human forms they were close to the same height, in their animal forms Blane was almost double Mira’s size.

Eventually, they came to a hollow tree where Mira stopped and shifted back to her human form. She knelt down at the opening and pointed inside. It was dark, but with his night vision he was able to see a small pile of stones. Blane looked at Mira with questioning eyes.

Mira put her hands on her stomach and then reached out and put her hands on the stones. “Your baby?” Blane whispered.

Tears slid down Mira’s face as she nodded her head.

“Yours and Jacks baby?” Blane asked.

Again Mira nodded her head.

“Oh Mira, I am so, so sorry.” Blane whispered as he pulled her into him. She sat in his lap sobbing silently, both of them mourning the loss of the child neither of them got to meet. He felt no jealousy towards her relationship with Jack. He felt content that he was her second chance mate. Her second chance to love and be loved in return.

Eventually, Mira stood up and wiped the tears away.

“Mira, is this on the mining site?” Blane asked. Mira nodded her head sadly.

Blane let out a long sigh. He knew in his heart he could not let the mining contracts go ahead. He couldn’t desecrate this land.

Mira shifted and Blane followed as they returned to their camp site.

It was late when they arrived back at the car. Mira shifted back to her human form and began to unpack the swags. When she put her hands up to get the second one off the roof rack of the car, Blane stilled her hand.

“One will do.” He winked.

Mira smiled, nodding her head. She had been worried about sharing her secret with Blane, but she felt he needed to know. There was a lot she needed to share with him, but she still struggled with finding the words.

After the accident that had killed her parents, Mira had retreated into a silent world. When people spoke to her, she could think of a million things to say but something inside seemed to hold her tongue. Eventually, she had just gotten used to not speaking.

When she had met Jack, it all changed. Slowly, as she let down her guard and allowed him in, the words had just returned. A few to start with, but eventually they could hold full conversations. They had laughed together so much. He had been her first mate, also a dingo shifter. He had inherited it on his mother’s side.

The day he died, she had lost her voice again. It had been her fault, she knew that. Had he not been trying to help her they wouldn’t have even been there. After witnessing his death, she had run off into the wilderness and found the hollow tree. She had stayed there that night and in the early hours of the morning their child had arrived sleeping. She lived with this every day. For 3 years she had felt like she didn’t deserve happiness. Now the spirits had given her a second chance.

Mira moved towards the waterhole to freshen up. This time she used a towel to dry herself and took an elastic off her wrist to tie her wet hair back.

Blane had set up the swag and was lying in it. He held the side open, and she smiled as she crawled in. He lay behind her as her body melted into his and he held her. He gently kissed the back of her neck as he snuggled into her.

Mira sighed in contentment. It may not be the wild night she had been expecting but she had learned a lot about Blane today. She felt in every fibre of her being that he was the man she needed in her life. The man she wanted in her life. Her mate.