The Warrior's Second Chance Mate

Chapter Six: Brighter Days

Cassian

The sound of my alarm clock woke me up from my deep slumber and the nice dream I had about a mystery beauty, even though I couldn’t see her face, I knew she was stunning. Her long wavy auburn red hair was cascading down her back and the wind was blowing them in the direction of its flow. I didn’t understand what was happening to me. I had never dreamt about any woman, well not since the day I rejected my ex-mate.

The sour taste was still in my mouth as I thought about that ungrateful and ugly human being. It was already two years since that fateful night when she slept with me and then told me that she wanted to reject me, but I was quicker.

The pain and agony it brought me I would never forget. The constant doubts and dark thoughts, the depression and withdrawal from my wolf as he mourned the loss of our mate as if she were dead.

Well, she wasn’t.

Not only was she healthy and alive, but she was also still living inside our pack. That was the hardest, seeing her almost every day, every time I went to the pack meeting or ate at the diner or went to the hospital where she worked as a pack nurse.

The most torturous was the finding that while I was gone on the pack business before we even met, she had already managed to sleep with my best friend and Alpha, Trey. I knew Trey was a man-w***e and that he didn’t wait for his mate. I was okay with it, but knowing that he slept with my intended mate, even though he didn’t know, and we hadn’t met yet, was still making me so angry and disappointed. I didn’t speak with him for days.

I actually didn’t speak with anyone for days. I just locked myself inside my room and was wallowing in self-pity. I was depressed, physically hurt by the broken mate bond, lonely without my wolf who needed to heal himself, ashamed that my own mate didn’t find me good enough for her, angry that the Moon Goddess did this to me, scared of other people´s reaction when they found out.

I felt breathless, empty, numb and alone.

My friends were concerned about me, together with my parents, when I didn’t come out of my room for a few days, but I told them I was sick, which, of course, was total bullshit. Werewolves didn’t get sick, like ever. But they let me be and I was thankful. I just hoped that she was suffering the same way as I was.

In the end, I realised that my anger was not aimed at Trey, it was all her fault. She even tried to seduce him again and again, but Trey never slept with one she-wolf more than once.

It was a sickening satisfaction to see her being rejected by him over and over again. I didn’t tell Trey, because I knew if I did, he would probably kill her, or at least banish her out of the pack, making her rogue, and there was still a small part of me that wanted her to be safe and sound.

Maybe I was stupid, maybe it made me weak, but I didn’t want to have her death on my conscience.

The time passed slowly, as if it was some kind of out of body experience. The brain and mind screamed to move and do something, but the muscles did not respond. The emptiness and pain in my heart grew faster than I would have imagined.

When I finally opened my eyes, it was a new day and the events from before were a memory, a painful and shameful memory. Eventually, the brighter days came when I accepted the pain and ache inside my heart and enveloped it as a new friend.

Cade returned from his mourning period stronger and more resilient than ever, making me finally stand up from bed and walk out of the room. Nobody asked questions and I was thankful. They probably knew I wouldn’t tell them anything. My healing started, slow and steady.

First, I needed to avoid her, it was hard to be in her presence, to smell her apple cinnamon scent and to see her cold brown eyes looking at me.

Second, I started to take long lonely walks that helped me to clear my mind and find my inner peace. The fresh air, scents of the forest, the birds singing took away my anger and frustration. Then the walks turned into runs, long and fast, aimless and tiresome. I ran miles and miles away, the territory no longer enough for me. Waking up in the middle of the woods naked and dirty a few times as we ran until we couldn’t anymore.

By the end of the first month, I felt better, stronger and the pain lessened tremendously. The betrayal and hurt turned into hatred. I hated her with passion, everything was repulsing me, the things I once found beautiful and innocent were now ugly and evil.

That day changed me, made me harder, stronger, more resilient and also harsher and stricter. A few months later, Trey and the rest of us overtook after our fathers and I became the Head Warrior, training my men with an iron fist and making them follow strict rules.

Our warriors had become the strongest in the region thanks to my intense training. At first, everyone was a little concerned about the amount of work and training I was putting the warriors through, but when the results came, they stopped and let me carry on with my intentions.

I got up from bed and felt something hard against my stomach. I glanced down at my c*ck seeing it erected.

Great, now I was going hard on just from a dream about a girl with auburn red hair that I probably didn´t even exist. She could very well just be a beautiful dream, an unreal fantasy.

Just perfect.

I shook my head, annoyed with my own body as I made my way to the shower, j*********f like an adolescent wolf over an image of a girl with her back to me. I didn´t even see her front!

What the hell was wrong with me?

I probably needed to get laid.

Yeah, that was it.

I haven’t had s*x in weeks, as we had a lot of work with pack business and the training. The rogues´ attacks increased over the last few weeks and we didn’t know why. We needed to be prepared for anything that was coming our way.

Usually, the guys and I would go to the nearby town close to the university where a few pack members lived and worked in the local shops and establishments that the pack owned there, like the construction company or advertising agency. Pack members and leaders also owned a few flats in the town where we usually stayed during our trip. We visited the local pubs to find some willing human women to have a casual one-night stand to release our pent-up tension and satisfy our needs. Werewolves were highly s****l creatures, especially after a good fight or in the new moon phase, which was making the unmated wolves go crazy with the need to have s*x.

Since the rejection, I hadn't slept with any other she-wolf, I had been sticking with humans knowing it was always just a one night thing. A fling. Nothing serious.

Trey´s younger sister, Josephine, lived there in the flat with some human that I didn’t know. She was studying at university and wanted to be a pack teacher. I hadn’t seen her for a long time and she had just recently turned twenty-one and was able to find her mate. To my knowledge, she hadn’t yet. I just hoped whomever it would be, that he would be a good person and would love her as a mate should. Otherwise, I would be tempted to visit him and break a couple of his bones and tear some limbs. Although she wasn´t related to me by any means, we all grew up together like one family and I had always considered her my sister too, and no one f*cked with my family.

The warm water was cascading down my body as I washed my body with soap, seeing my still hard and erected c**k precum already pooling from the tip as my hand snooped down taking it. My vision filled with the image of a stranger with long shiny auburn red hair. I imagined it was her hand that was stroking my c**k as I went faster. A groan escaped my lips, the soap slipping from my other hand as I put it on the wall to support my body.

My hips moved in sync with my stroking, which was getting harder and faster. I groaned roughly and bit my lips to keep it down as I squeezed the head of my leaking c*ck, my hips moving pushing into my hand that was stroking fast as I was nearing the finish line.

It felt so damn good.

“F*ck!” I gasped as I erupted, coating the shower wall with my seed, before the water flowing down washed it into the drain.

I shuddered from the incredible release, still breathing harshly as I came down from my height.

I finished my shower feeling better as I looked at myself in the mirror. My dark brown hair was reaching my shoulders as I let it grow through the two years as part of a new me, the change I wanted to have after the rejection. My hazel eyes were shining after the pleasant release, with a few flecks of gold and green around my irises. My face a little flushed from the shower with a beard that needed to be trimmed, my body muscular and shoulders broad.

I walked out of the bathroom and inside my closet. Right after taking over from our fathers, we moved into a house of high-ranked wolves. We were all still unmated, so we were living together as bachelors. I put on black training shorts and a dark blue t-shirt with black sneakers as I made my way downstairs for breakfast.

Turning the coffee maker on, I waited for the water to heat up and then made my first cup. I glanced at the clock, seeing it was half seven, so it was just the time to wake up my friends. I opened my mind-link and shouted through to get their arses out of beds and down the stairs. I heard a few colourful responses before the links closed as I waited. There was a knock on the door, and I went to open it. The omega was standing there holding a bag of freshly baked goods as I thanked her and took it.

I returned to the kitchen and sat down on the stool opening the package and taking out the freshly baked bread as I cut it and spread a heavy layer of Nutella on the deliciously smelling bread. I devoured three pieces of bread and drank two cups of coffee before my friends started to come down and joined me for breakfast.

We chatted about the work that needed to be done today after the training, the business and financials we had to go through. I was listening with one ear as my mind was still returning to the weird dream about a girl with long wavy auburn red hair that for some reason was making my heart pound a little faster.

Who was she?

Why was she in my dream?

And most importantly, why did I want her?