Chapter 23

“Christopher!” I yelled, but he didn’t respond.

“Christopher!” I tried again, but still no reaction. He seemed lost in his own world.

“Alpha!” At this, he finally turned to face me, snapping out of his trance.

I reached out and took his hands, examining the damage on his knuckles. I saw the raw, open wounds, the blood seeping out, and the potential for more serious injury. If we were in a hospital, I would have ordered an x-ray, suspecting a broken metacarpal.

“Christopher, what are you doing?” I asked, trying to make sense of his actions. Only then did I look up at his face and see the tears streaming down his cheeks.

Christopher was crying.

The tough-as-nails alpha was crying.

“I can’t,” he choked out, another tear slipping down his face. “I can’t lose everything again.”

That’s when I understood his despair, saw the fear in his eyes. He had already lost a mate and a child, and now the threats to our unborn child were pushing him to the edge.

“I can’t lose another child and another mate; I couldn’t bear it,” he confessed, his voice heavy with emotion. His words were choked, filled with pain and raw emotion.

He reached up to touch my face, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “The moment I saw you at the hospital treating Marquardt, I knew you were my second chance mate. I felt it deep in my soul. And then I saw you again at the ball, in that stunning navy-blue dress. You were there with Brisa and Karen, your hair tied up, and I felt alive again for the first time in years. You can’t imagine how I felt when I saw that you had found your mate at the ball. The hardest thing I’ve ever done was wish you both happiness.”

His words left me stunned.

Christopher leaned his forehead against the wall he had just punched, continuing to speak. “My heart broke, piece by piece, when I saw you leave the room with him. In that moment, I was certain I wouldn’t have another mate, that it was you and I had lost you. I tried to push you out of my mind. I didn’t pursue you because I thought you would be happy with your mate, the one the moon chose for you. I felt something for you, but I convinced myself it didn’t make sense. Why would the Moon Goddess choose someone else for you? I tried to forget you, but I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I was waiting to be treated at the hospital and the doctor was the girl I was already in love with.”

He looked at me with such intensity. “But I still thought it was just fate showing me what I had lost. I thought it was just a coincidence, and that everything I felt was my mind playing tricks on me. Until I saw you, lying on the floor, in despair because the idiot who was supposed to be your mate had betrayed you. For a moment, I was angry at the moon’s choice. How could she let you suffer like that?” he said, shaking his head.

“But then I remembered that I wasn’t supposed to be out that night. I was at home, on my balcony, staring at the still-full moon, when something told me I needed to go out, as if it were calling me. I went to the Tylers’ and found you there. I swear I didn’t know what was going to happen. I thought it was too good to be true, but everything with you is so natural, so easy, so simple. It feels like destiny, like the moon wants it this way. I’ve loved you since I first saw you, Scarlett, but I was willing to step aside if it meant seeing you happy.”

He turned to face me. I had always felt a deep connection with him, as if we had known each other in another life. It had always felt more natural with him than with my moon-destined mate. Hearing him explain it was both intense and incredibly real. With him, everything was so real, so simple, so natural.

“I feel the same way,” I admitted, and his gaze intensified, his blue eyes locked onto mine. It was as if he was trying to read my soul, searching for answers within me. Then he furrowed his eyebrows before breaking into a smile.

“Do you?” he asked. In that moment, I had no doubts. I knew he was my second chance. I didn’t just know it; I felt it in my bones.

“Yes. Everything felt so right with you, from the very beginning. It was as if my soul recognized its other half,” I confessed. “I just don’t understand why. Why would the Moon Goddess do that? Why would she let me go through that with Mathew, only to then lead me to you?”

Christopher exhaled deeply, holding me by the arms.

“I don’t know either, but sometimes the Moon Goddess works in mysterious ways. We may not always understand her plans, but everything is part of a bigger picture,” Christopher said. He tried to pull me closer, but I stopped him.

“I just need to check your hand,” I said, pulling his hand closer to examine the wound. Thankfully, it now looked like just a scratch.

“I just know I couldn’t bear to lose you,” he confessed while I was still examining his hand.

“You won’t lose me. We will always be here with you,” I reassured him, placing his hand on my belly.

Christopher took a deep breath and smiled, a tear escaping from the corner of his eye. He used his other hand to wipe his face.

“I love you, Scarlett,” he said, wrapping his free arm around my neck.

“I love you too, Christopher,” I replied before pressing my lips to his.

“Ahem,” Hensen interrupted. We quickly pulled ourselves back to reality.

“We’re ready, sir,” Hensen informed us.

“Of course,” Christopher replied.

He gave me a quick kiss before heading to the triad office to announce our arrival. We then went straight to the apartment.

It was much smaller than Christopher’s place at the pack house, but it was enough for us. It had a small pantry, a bedroom, a sofa, and a small dining table. Despite being on council property, he didn’t trust Joshua being so close to us, so guards took turns standing watch at our door.

Christopher ventured out to fetch our dinner, and we enjoyed our meal within the confines of our apartment. The journey had left me drained, and after we ate, I decided to take a shower while Christopher stayed behind to wrap up some phone calls.

I was in the midst of my shower, lathering soap onto my skin, when I sensed a presence and spotted a figure entering the bathroom. His distinctive scent filled my nostrils like a potent narcotic, and I felt myself dissolving internally.

Before I had the chance to pivot, his warm hands seized my ass and ascended leisurely—almost too leisurely—causing my skin to erupt in goosebumps.

When his hands reached my neck, one tangled itself in my hair, gripping it firmly, asserting control and dominating me, tilting my head to the side, leaving my neck vulnerable to him.

I had always been in control in every aspect of my life. But with Christopher, I let it slide. I permitted it, and I yearned for him to seize it from me.

With my neck bared, he indulged himself by kissing, sucking, nibbling, and teasing me, while his other hand journeyed down my soapy body, over my breasts, tantalizing my hardened nipples, sensitive to his touch. Each contact set my skin ablaze.

His hand ventured farther down, causing me to bite my lips in anticipation, eager for what was to come. But he bypassed my core when he moved to my thighs, ascending the inside, caressing, teasing, on one leg, and then he repeated it on the other.

I quivered with longing to be touched, envisioning what would follow. Christopher then leisurely traced his fingers over my slit, parting my lips, leaving me on the brink of pleading, then he finally slipped a finger inside me, causing all the remaining reason in me to flee simultaneously with a moan escaping my lips.

“So wet, Scarlett,” he murmured in a voice thick with desire, stimulating my most sensitive area, my bundle of nerves, yearning for his touch, as if I had been waiting for this my entire life. As he made circular motions with his thumb on my clit, my mind went blank, and I could only whimper in response to his touch.

The pleasure was mounting with each passing second, and I pushed my hips back as I felt my climax nearing. I felt his hardness against my ass, and a guttural, primal growl erupted from his chest.

“Please,” I pleaded in a strangled voice.

I leaned forward and used one hand to guide him to my entrance. He teased me by just brushing the tip, sliding it through my arousal, causing me to simmer internally, and then he entered me slowly, controlling every inch, every movement.

My hands found the bathroom wall, and his found my hips, and he resumed his attention to my swollen clitoris, waiting. While he thrust agonizingly slowly, he stimulated me equally slowly, to the point that I felt my senses spiraling out of control. I couldn’t bear it any longer.

“More,” I requested again, and his voice reverberated deep in my ear.

“Mine,” he declared and quickened the pace until I was overtaken by an orgasm, convulsing in spasms while I heard his moan as he reached his climax too, and then I collapsed into his arms. I drifted off to sleep in his arms afterward.

My mate, my second chance mate.

In his arms, I felt as though I could conquer the world, and I realized that given the current circumstances, perhaps that’s exactly what we needed to do.