1. Second Chances

It's deep in the night when I wake up, instantly noticing the lack of presence next to me. With a frown, I check the clock: 1:00 a.m. Dante and I never sleep with our blinds down; we like the natural light illuminating our bedroom, which is why the room is lit by the moon right now, so, even without my wolf senses, I would have easily made out his absence.

I try to reach him through our mind link, but he has blocked it. A year ago, this would have made me feel insecure, but now I know my mate better. He'd never do anything to hurt me.

Nefeli? I mutter tiredly, trying to call out to my wolf. Wake up.

What happened, Ella? she grumbles, popping up in my mind with her eyes a bit drowsy and her fur not with its usual perfect shine. She has a beautiful, rare sand-colored coat; it's on the lighter side, almost going into yellow.

Do you know where our mate is? Dante has blocked the mind link.

Nefeli is on alert instantly. They always do this, she whines. So annoying!

Can you reach his wolf?

Sylvan doesn't respond to me either, Nefeli says, stretching her front legs and getting up. She walks around in my mind, clearly restless. I can push through the blockade. Do you want me to?

Blockades to our mind link don't work on her and me. Even our alpha needs extra precaution to block us out on the rare occasions he doesn't want me to reach him. It's the gift Nefeli and I were blessed with from the goddess and the reason neither of us lost our mind and succumbed to the loneliness when we grew up as a lone wolf.

Back then, as a teen and young adult, I never thought about it. I didn't know that we were a lone wolf. It never struck me that this is what I was because we were technically part of a pack. But my old alpha shunned me and pushed me aside, so my wolf was dormant. The moment we were welcomed in a real pack, we instantly reconnected and regained our mental strength.

It was then that I learned it shouldn't have been that easy for my wolf to remain sane despite never knowing the safety of a pack.

Ella? Nefeli nudges me. Stop dozing off.

Sorry. I sigh, getting out of the bed and grabbing a jacket. I slip it over my pajamas and put on my sneakers. You don't need to push through the blockade. I know where to find him.

Most of the pack members are deeply asleep, aside from the guards. They nod politely at me when I leave the packhouse and walk past them. My feet carry me to one of our training grounds, the one for the small group of elite warriors, as it's more secluded and further away from the center of the pack. The elites like to train without prying eyes and without too much buzzing around them, as they train hard and need to be focused and concentrated.

His scent reaches me even before I see him. Dante is in the middle of the training ground, a box sack in front of him. He keeps hitting it over and over again. I climb onto the fence surrounding the place, sit down, and dangle my feet while I watch him take out his emotions on the box sack.

"It's not on me to correct you, Beta Dante," I say. "But your posture could use some work."

Upon hearing my voice, Dante, my usually so graceful mate, bumps headfirst into the box sack, proof of how far away he was with his thoughts, or he would have certainly smelled me.

I jump off the fence and hurry to him. "Did you get hurt!?"

"No," he groans while rubbing his forehead.

Nefeli rolls her eyes. Her emotions are all over the place. She is upset at her mate for putting a block up to the mind link and worried at the same time.

"Let me take a look at it," I offer.

"It's really nothing," he says but lets me grab his face and pull him down to check on it. I can feel his arms being wrapped around me, making me smile. I hug him back, snuggling against him.

"I woke you," he says, sounding miserable. "I tried to keep my feelings numb and be quiet."

"That's the point of the mate bond," I say. "It's not always that simple."

"I had a nightmare," he growls. "It's been a while, and I thought they were gone entirely. Fuck, I feel like this is belittling you."

"The fact that nightmares about the death of your first mate haunt you is not belittling me," I emphasize. "Maybe next time, just don't sneak away," I say, deciding to tread carefully. The first few times when it happened, I was pissed and lashed out at him, making him feel even more guilty. I understand much better where he is coming from now.

"You deserve someone less broken," he says, as usual when he has one of his episodes.

Nefeli pushes to the surface now. "I swear," she growls. "Your nightmares about the loss of your first mate aren't belittling me. But this here is!"

He blinks at me, his lips curling slightly. "Hello, my beautiful wolf mate."

"Don't sweet-talk me," she grumbles.

"You are right," he says, taking our face between his hands. "I apologize. You and Ella are everything I wished for; you made me complete again."

"Good, now that you realize you have been an ass," Nefeli starts before tugging his face closer. "We can make up." She jumps him and wraps her legs around him. Dante's strong arms easily catch us. My strong lycan mate. The prouder I am that I can hold myself against him as a regular werewolf. Dante and I have the same rank; he is Red Claw's beta and mostly serves the alpha, while I am the luna's beta.

Lycan alphas usually have more than one beta. Alpha Liam himself has two, but it also went without question that his luna would need a beta for extra protection. Annie has been my best friend since school, and I was beyond happy she chose me. I had to work my ass off to live up to the rank, but it was worth it.

"Before we do anything fun," I grin, shoving Nefeli back before she can ravish our mate right here. "Let's go for a run."

I jump down again and race off, chuckling when I hear Dante groan. He hates cardio training, while I as a female beta learned to train all my assets to make up for the lack of strength I inevitably have against very strong ranked lycan males.

I turn around, running backwards while waving at my mate. "Come on, faster! If you can keep up with me, you get the main prize."

Dante raises one of his eyebrows, his eyes flashing, indicating that his lycan is on the surface. My hot boy, Sylvan. He and Dante had a few rocky years in which they weren't able to communicate much, but Sylvan has become so healthy now.

Dante is my rock in the wild ocean, while Sylvan is my crazy, possessive furball.

I set an ambitious pace and run through the forest with my mate hot on my heels. Credit where credit is due… he really gives it his all to keep up with me. I allow my wolf to come to the surface to scan the area, having our mind carefully touch on the warriors' who are currently guarding our borders and on patrol.

No one is close to us now. I slow down once I reach my favorite little clearing. Annie and I discovered it during one of our training sessions. As the luna, she wants to stay fit and asked me to help her get into shape. On one of our jogging routes, we found this place here, and I later returned to it to have the grass cut and a bench placed here.

I can hear Dante catching up to me while I get rid of my sweaty pajama top. His strong arms suddenly wrap around me from behind, his callused hands cupping one of my breasts instantly. "This is worth the run," he breathes into my neck. "When you wait for me like that."

"Naked and willing?" I tease.

"You are not fully naked yet," he says.

"Well, are you going to do something about that?" I ask.

His deft fingers work fast, pushing past my training pants and into my panties. I shouldn't be turned on already, but it's like the whole run was a foreplay. Dante knows me well by now after being mated to me for two years, his fingers rubbing and teasing me until I decide to speed things up myself. I turn around to open the buttons of Dante's pants and push them down. His cock springs towards me, half erect already, and I swiftly stroke him to full hardness.

"Better hurry," I whisper. "Patrols are scheduled to come by in twenty minutes."

Dante growls, turns me over, and presses me against a tree. I balance myself against it, allowing him to take control. I moan when he enters me, feeling the familiar slight burn at the beginning. He is quite big, and we would normally engage in more foreplay. But I like it fast and dirty right now, the slight burn soon passing and making space for a different kind of ache. My walls clench around him as he pushes into me with fast and strong thrusts while one of his hands keeps squeezing my nipples, and his other finds its way between my legs.

His rough thumb brushes my clit, before I can feel myself being stretched further as he pushes a finger inside me as well. I scream at the sensation, not able to hold back my moans. Dante reacts fast, clasping his free hand over my mouth. "Technically, I wouldn't mind you attracting an audience," he whispers hoarsely. "But I don't want anyone to see you like that."

He keeps fucking me with his finger inside me, while his thumb keeps playing with my clit roughly, until I can feel my orgasm hitting me. A hot wave of lust washes over me as my walls clench around him, and my legs seem to give in. He groans, biting down on my marking spot while he empties his seed inside me.

We stay like that for a few minutes, with Dante still inside me and me pressed against the tree until I regain my composure.

Dante pulls out of me carefully. "Are you okay?" he asks when he turns me over to check on me. There are a few leaves and pieces of bark stuck to me, and he helps brush them off my body. My core aches slightly, but Nefeli is already working her magic to heal me. My girl wants a second round; I know it.

While Dante dresses himself, I look at him. "See? So next time you battle something, you will come to me directly, alright?"

His lips curl into a smile. "You mean so that you can race me through the forest?"

"Did you forget the naked and willing part?" I tease.

He takes my hand. "No, definitely not." He pauses. "You are right, Ella. I'm still trying to learn how to deal with my trauma in a constructive way."

"It's the same for me," I say quietly.

"We are quite the pair," he says, kissing me affectionately. "Let's go back," he offers. "I have a feeling we won't get much sleep tonight."