The Luna’s Second Chance Mate

Kaden’s POV

The woods I’d been hunting in were now pitch blackness, even my wolf vision couldn’t help me see in this uncanny darkness. Strapping my bow tightly, I reached for the holster on my pants and drew out a pistol. The environment suddenly felt unfamiliar, followed by the noises of cackles and low grunting.

“Fucking hyenas.” I growled under my breath, gripping the pistol tightly. I knew they were foolish, but not this foolish. The sounds of cackling grew with every step that I took, until the whole woods were saturated with a mix of voices that I was only familiar with in battle. And that’s when the awful ringing my head started, coursing through my entire being like being injected with lava.

“Arghhh!”

I let go of the pistol. The thud to the ground was somewhat deafening. I reached for my ears, gripping it tightly, but the ringing only seemed to grow louder. Slowly I fell to the ground from the pain in my head and ears. I was almost certain that my ears were bleeding at this point. The ringing had amplified a thousand notches, leaving me groaning and grasping for air that was just out of reach.

The ringing only grew louder and louder until it suddenly went quiet. My eyes that were shut from the abominable pain flickered, but my eyelids remained shut. I tried to move my fingers around, but the last time I checked, they had been sitting in my ears. Now they just laid limp by my sides.

If confusion had birthed a son, then I was its offspring. Blinking as rapidly as I could, I finally fluttered my eyes open only to be met by blinding lights traveling through what I had imagined was the forest floor. But my back, although uncomfortable, felt awfully soft for this to be the forest floor. I clenched my eyes at the light intensity, only slowly opening them to meet white ceilings and realization finally set in.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

This wasn’t the forest floor, I was hallucinating. This was one of the small spare rooms in my cabin, definitely far from the grandest. Turning my head slowly, I strained to reach for the sides of the bed frame, pulling myself up with as much strength I could muster. But my actions were cut short by the sharp throbbing that shot up from my abdomen straight into my head.

I let out a low grunt at the feeling, sliding back into a lying position. It hurt like hell, what the fuck happened? The last thing I remember was Larissa strapped to a tree with a bloodied face and pleading eyes. And me lying on the couch in the living room. The more I struggled to remember her screaming, the more I saw her defeated face in the living room and the pain in my head intensified. What was she thinking? And how the fuck did I get here?

My train of thoughts were brought to a stifling halt by the smell of toast traveling through the room. My eyes flipped open almost immediately, ignoring the harsh intensity of the rays that travelled from the window and rested on any solid object in the room. By my accurate judgement, this was morning.

Letting out a soft sigh, I instinctively grabbed onto by lower abdomen and pushed the white sheets away. I pushed my feet down and rose to my feet, tightening my grip when there was a dull throb there. What the hell? I walked to the tall mirror that stood by the sides of the all white room, finally noticing the large bandage wrapped around my torso.

Tilting my head to the sides in confusion, I pulled my hands away ever so slowly and saw a patch of blood seeping through the cotton wool placed over my injury. the rest of my upper torso and arms, and every other thing that stayed bare above my grey sweatpants were littered with now purpling bruises. How long had I been out for? I ran one hand through my surprisingly fluffed out hair before ultimately deciding to leave the room. If I didn’t, my stomach would continue to grumble like a damn beast that hadn’t been fed in months. Like Dolph would have been if I hadn’t killed him first. Fuck it, I would rather have seen him die in the slowest way possible till he begged for death with the same lips he used to taunt Larissa.

I fluffed out my hair one more time before walking out of the room. The smell of toast had worsened, and so did the rumbling. I took one careful step after the other, with one hand still wrapped around my injury till I reached the foot of the short stairs. Almost immediately, I could sight Declan by the dining table in the mini kitchen. He was sipping on what looked like warm milk infused with vanilla. I felt a small smile creeping on my lips. I could barely remember the last time I noticed how he loved to drink vanilla milk. It reminded us both of the woman who’d abandoned us, but he seemed to like it regardless.

“You have milk smeared all over your lips, Declan.” I said softly, although my voice had come out raspier than I intended. He looked up with a wide grin on his face and dropped his glass; the next thing I knew, he’d climbed up the chair and latched onto my neck in a pool of giggles, with his legs wrapped around the left my torso.

I let out a chuckle of my own at that, balancing his weight on one hand and the other on my covered wound. “Daddy’s a little hurt, son.”

“What does it mean?” He questioned with wide eyes and I laughed lightly. If anything, his eyes only grew as if I’d just added to his confusion.

“Declan dear,” Another voice called out. That tone was unmistakable. I whipped my head around, sighting the blonde haired woman emerging from the kitchen with a tray full of toast and porridge. She walked right past me to where the dining table stood, setting down the tray before walking back to where I stood.

“My Lord, if you don’t mind, I’d love to take it from here.”

My Lord? My Lord? Whenever has she called me that? My lips had curled up into an annoyed smirk at this point, but I let her take my son back to his seat. What was she pulling now? She’d called me by my name that day, even screaming it like I was going to die, so why was she being fucking weird?

I hissed under my breath and walked to my seat at the head of the table. The throbbing in my head had lost its momentum already, but the pain in my abdomen had become worse. I let out another low grunt, holding onto the table for mild support. Soon I heard footsteps shuffling and Larissa was by my side, pulling the seat out for me. Her small fingers were careful to only touch the bandages.

“Let me help you.” She said dryly, pulling me down to the chair ever so gently. Without even sparing me a glance, she walked back to the kitchen. I was annoyed at this point. If this were a few months back, I’d have been seething and might have even locked her up again. But for some reason, this time was different. No matter how much I wanted to snap at her, I couldn’t bring myself to do so.

All too quickly, she returned with another bowl of porridge and a plate of bacon and set it in front of me. Straight-faced, she pulled out another seat and sat down. “I’m sitting here to watch over Declan, if that’s okay with you.”

“Do what you want.” I replied with a stiff nod and picked up a spoon. The amount of bacon on my plate was outrageous. I only had a small injury, I wasn’t near death for fuck’s sake. Why this amount that could feed half my pack members?

But on second thought, I was pretty hungry. I dug into the porridge while she helped Declan eat his porridge bare. Her smiles looked forced and her skin was paler than before. I could tell she looked tired beneath her gentle cooing and indifferent attitude. Her eyes gave it all away. She turned to look at me sharply as if she’d known I was looking at her. I stared right back, boring holes into her dark chocolate eyes and she looked away with flickering eyes. Good.

“Uh…would you like some ointment and a new dressing?” She drawled out a little dryly and with a straight face, but there was a twang of embarrassment in her tone. It was almost unnoticeable, but it was still there. Did she not realize who I was? I let out a small chuckle at that. My wounds still hurt, but they were healing at an exceeding rate and didn’t need a dress change.

“Yes. Yes, of course. It would be disastrous for my wound to get infected when my housekeeper’s here, no?” I answered with a smirk, half expecting a snarky comeback from her.

Contrary to my elevated expectations, there was none. Instead she nodded and returned to eating her porridge while wiping the spills on Declan’s lips. What was going on? Was she hurt that I’d called her my housekeeper? But that was who she was.

Well, I’d never have expected to see this level of dumb from you, Kaden. You’re such an idiot. I heard Peter’s annoyed tone. If he had taken over I was more than certain that he’d smack me harshly in the face. She’s avoiding your stupid ass. She’s creating distance between you two because you’re such a retard when it comes to your own mate. Now she’s closed off, what would you do?

“I know for fuck’s sake, could you shut up and cut me some slack?” I muttered back in irritation, returning to glance at Larissa’s blank expression.

She’d been crying that day. She looked genuinely scared and hurt when she’d asked me not to do things like that for her anymore if I didn’t want anything to do with her. She’d looked so vulnerable and I’d just done what I never should have done. I’d just fueled her dislike for me by calling her my housekeeper. It wasn’t supposed to. I wasn’t supposed to let this happen, but fuck, it hurt like hell seeing her look dead inside.

I picked up my fork again and stabbed at the bacon, hoping that it would get her attention. Her flinch and rapid blinking told me I did, but she refused to look up. Instead, she turned to Declan with a smile and picked him up, walking straight out of the dining room.