Second chance mate

chapter 7 (final draft)

She slumped against the wall when she heard the voices clearly. Tears spilled out of her eyes. She composed herself and cleaned her eyes, cleared her throat and stepped out from behind the wall. Almost instantly she was turned around and her front was slammed against the wall, her right arm twisted around her back.

Who are you? What are you doing here? The warrior growled in her ear.

If you let me turn around She trailed off.

Immediately, she was released and the man holding her staggered a few steps back. She turned around and smiled at them.

"Hello, boys." She said, her voice choked up. Her gaze roved over the faces that were present in the room. She could see Cain, TJ and Cameron. All part of her pack, and her personal guard.

"Alpha?" TJ said, his voice broken too.

"Are there more of you?" She asked them, crossing her arms over her chest.

They nodded.

"Umm, theres Nick, River, Tobias, Bill, Fred, Erik, Aiden. And four of the pups. Henry, Elliot, John and Drake."

"Who else?" She asked when Cain opened his mouth and then hesitated.

"Axel is also alive." He said softly. He knew what that guy meant to her.

She took a deep breath and nodded. "I am going to take my bag upstairs to my room and when I have freshened up, Id like to have everyone present so that we can talk." She said calmly.

"As you wish, Alpha."

She slowly descended the stairs, knowing that she had given them enough time to gather in the meeting room. It was always where she held her meetings, unless of course the whole pack had to be present. But now her pack was small enough to fit in there.

She entered from the open door and immediately all attention was on her. She walked to the head of the table and sat down, now focusing on everyone.

"Well, here we are. She began. How did you survive?" She asked them, looking at all of them.

"The pups were in the training house because they had just shifted. They were forgotten until the rest of us gathered around and started looking for survivors." Tobias said.

The newly shifted were locked in separate rooms in the training house until the warriors had trained them to control their wolves so they weren't a danger to anyone or themselves.

"And the rest of you?"

"Different ways." Axel said, gaining her attention. She finally met his eyes, she wasn't ready for it but she had to. She looked into the face of her mate's brother. The same one who looked almost exactly like him. There was sympathy in his eyes as she hid the pain that had quickly filled her heart, soul and body.

"Some of us were left for dead." Erik said.

"We were looking for you." Cain said, speaking for the ones that used to be a part of her personal guard. They were the best trained in the entire pack because without the alpha heir, there's no future of the pack. "As soon as the word of the attack reached us, we grouped and went looking for you. You weren't in the house or in the fight with your father. SO we went to him and asked. He told us to ask..." Cain broke off before saying the name.

She closed her eyes and leaned back against the chair. With her hand, she gestured him to continue.

"He told us..."

"Take his name, Cain." She interrupted. "He had a name."

Cain sighed, knowing what she was doing. He let her do it. "Alpha Adrian told us that your father had ordered you to run. HE pointed us in the direction you went last. Some stayed with him and the rest of us went looking for you. We never reached you. Only saw a pool of your blood, nothing else. We looked for hours before we came back here. Your scent had disappeared after the blood like it wasn't even there. So we came back. By then the fight was over. We looked for survivors, buried the dead and started clearing the debris."

She licked her lips and nodded.

"I did lose a lot of blood. And my scent faded because I lost my wolf there. That was when Adrian died. "Her voice shook a little. Just a small tremor but they heard it and they respected her enough to ignore it. "I was taken by a human to a human hospital. I healed and drifted from there."

She wasn't going to mention what had happened over the last two months. She needed to heal a little more, prepare them a little more before she told them anything about Zane, especially Axel.

I came here for closure of course. She rubbed a hand over her face and looked over them. "Why don't we take a couple of days to think about what next?"

"What do you mean what next?" Axel asked, finally breaking the silence that fell over them with her words. "Its obvious isn't it?"

"Is it?" She asked mildly.

"Yes!" He said, emotions causing his tone to be a little louder. He was done with pretending she hadn't just come back from the dead. That's what they were all doing. Pretending she hadn't ever died or went missing and then just come back. There were no tears or emotions. Just Practicality. Well he was done.

"Explain to me what's so obvious about it, warrior." She said, sitting forward in her chair and putting her elbows on the table.

"We are a pack. You are our alpha. We work our way back to where we used to be. We build ourselves back up."

"You see that's where you are wrong, Axel. She shook her head. You are a pack and you have no alpha. I am not your alpha."

He looked at her in shock in confusion. She was always so passionate about being alpha. SO ready.

"Smell my scent. Go on."

He did as she said and frowned.

"Exactly, I don't even have a wolf. How do you expect me to be a part of the pack or an alpha without a wolf? She isn't there anymore."

"She's dead?"

"Dead, suppressed what does it matter? She isn't here! I am merely a human."

"You are still our alpha." Cain said.

"No I am not. I haven't taken the position."

"It was passed down to you when your father died." TJ said.

"No. I am not an alpha until I take the oath and the pack submits to me. And I am not going to take the oath. Don't you realize? I can't shift, I have no wolf senses. I cant protect you, I can't make the best decisions without my wolf. I can't rule without my mate and without my wolf. You guys need more than I can give. I am sorry but me and my problems are not what you need right now."

She stood up.

"Think about it. Discuss. Ill support whatever decision you guys make. But think carefully. You don't need my problems right now."

She walked towards the door and on the way, she brushed her hand over Axels shoulders as a form of informal greeting between her and her brother in-law. She trudged up the stairs and walked inside her room. It was overwhelming being here.

It was just how she had left it last. Her clothes were scattered on the floor from when she had thrown a tantrum about her waist being bigger. Her makeup and lotions were on the dressing table. The closet door was open. The bathroom door was open too. The bed unmade, the window closed and the curtains open.

And all over the place were Adrian's mementos. His watch and wallet on the side table on his side of the bed. His jacket on the chair, his shirt on the bed. His boots beside the door. His perfume beside hers. The books he had been reading on the table in the sitting area with his glasses on top of them. The coffee cup was still there. The paperwork her dad had given him was all over the couch.

She walked to the memory wall. Adrian was a fan of photographing every moment. He would paste important one on the wall and collect the rest of them. She touched his face in the nearest picture. He was laughing in that one. He was a happy man, always smiling or laughing. She loved him for it because he made her smile even in her worst moments. But it had annoyed her during pregnancy. Why was he smiling when she was puking? Why did he get to smile through it while she cried? But it only made her love him more. He loved her when she was at her worst, was patient when she was being difficult and made her smile when all she wanted to do was cry.

Oh how she loved him.