Second Chance Mate

Chapter 1

~Timber POV~

Like any other spring day in the Colorado countryside,. the sun was shining bright and the sky was the clearest blue as if the ocean were transplanted from its slumber and placed in a new home and blanketed with just the right amount of clouds to act as its covering.

There was a slight breeze in the air which, every so often, would kiss my face causing my dark black hair to dance in its touch. I would close me silver blue eyes with its tender kiss as it left me wanting more of its tender caress and with the sense of belonging.

Sitting there staring out across the large green meadow perfectly landscaped with its many rows of different colored flowers perfectly set on both sides of a tan swirled copper stoned pathway leading towards a veranda to the left of the house, and nothing but an open field on the right reaching out for a covered vegetable garden, which seems to have been taken very good care of as if someone has poured their love into. The garden had a large variety of different types of fruits and vegetables resting in their perfectly manicured spaces.

I was sitting on a porch attached to the back of the house with a shaded covering over a beautifully handcrafted iron bench that looks like it was made in the 1800’s while the table and chairs, which matched to perfection, was gracefully placed just right for sitting and communing. I sat there dreaming as if asleep about when, or better yet if, I would find love and be mated, even if it was not with my true mate.

Still unmated at 19; I have given up hope that it was a possibility for me because I had found my mate when I turned 17, but he was in love with another. When he found out I was to be his mate, his girlfriend of four years became so jealous she told him to reject me or she would leave him forever.

Now, I know that was a harsh ultimatum for anyone to give another person, but she did… and so. He did. In his rejection I felt as if my heart had broken into a thousand pieces all while my last breath felt as it had left my body, when I heard those words; I, Mark Mathers, reject you, Timber James as my mate.

Being rejected from your mate is like dying a plethora of deaths at once and then doing it over and over again. Your head throbs from the rush of thoughts that flood it, your chest pulses, and pounds like you have been impaled by a million knives all at once. All the while your breath had been stolen from you during an exhale not allowing for a return.

The bond in which you feel becomes broken and a thousand deaths become the new reality. Even if it is only actually felt for a short while you feel its eternal mark. The death leaves a whole in your heart to the point where an emptiness takes over the dwelling where your heart used to be, leaving you feeling like a black hole has inserted itself in its place. Never. To. Leave.

Being unmated at my age is not common and has caused my last home to become unbearable to live in from the taunting and segregated abuse from the pack. My previous Alpha, Alpha Marcus, thought it was best for me to join the nearby pack in hopes to start anew. Alpha Marcus had not met his own Luna until he was much older, and he said he related with my pain for the missing part of myself.

Alpha Marcus had made a deal with the neighboring pack for me to live there in exchange for peace, since there had been rumors of wolves crossing over into the others land without permission causing trouble.

This peace would allow for our protection and assistance from them if, or should I say when rogues come through. They also agreed to release some of the prisoners who were caught; to their respective pack for dealing with. I was nervous about going because the neighboring pack was the strongest pack in Colorado, and they do not take kindly to outsiders.

Now it was not uncommon for packs to trade pack members for such and other things, but me? Why me. I was a nobody, not of royal blood, not a daughter of an Alpha or even a Beta, but they agreed to trade me? A nobody… less than a nobody… an orphan Alpha Marcus found. I was lucky to even be considered an omega at that.

It was said I was found by the river as a rather small child, not old enough for my first shift, barely even able to crawl let alone walk or run or defend myself. When he and his men found me, they wanted to kill me thinking I was a human child who wondered or was abandoned into their territory, but the packs Luna said no and gave me to a she-wolf whose mate died in battle before she bore him a child.

As I sat on the bench in the back of the pack house daydreaming, waiting for the Alpha of the Graves pack to give me my place in the pack, a loud noise, or should I say commotion came from the other side of the house. Well it was more like an angry furious growl. I am not unaccustomed to growls, but this one was earth shaking with its fierceness.

I’ve never heard such authority and power coming from anyone before. Not even Alpha Marcus. I had actually thought we were having an earthquake the way everything started shaking and sputtering about. My heart skipped a beat while I gasped for air, not realizing I held my breath for a short moment.

I heard a man growl, “I don’t have time to see about the likes of her! Just put her to work with the others! Everyone works in this pack, She’s no exception. I don’t care who she is.” “Yes, Alpha Jonathan” I heard, whom I assumed was the pack Beta said in return.

The packs Beta was Andrew. He was six foot four, really built well with abs to go on for a mile or more, with amber eyes and shoulder length brown hair with the bangs pulled back into a ponytail. He had a roughness about his features as his face was covered with a neat stubble across his chiseled jawline.

He seemed well enough, but I could tell he was all business and did exactly as he was told. To the T. Without reservations to the point that makes me think one time he didn’t and felt Alpha Jonathon’s wrath because of it.

Betas are the right hand of the Alpha. They are not only the second in command, but they are also one of the Alpha’s generals and typically they are best friends because they depend on the other with their lives. This is going to be an interesting start to a new life for sure. Goddess… help me, I sighed.