THE LYCAN KING’S SECOND CHANCE MATE

ASHANTI'S POV.

"Alpha Reagan." My voice comes out as a miserable whisper. Tears well up in my eyes as I turn to face him fully.

He's here.

It's seven am in the morning and he's here.

“Ashanti.” His voice is almost inaudible. He looks so sad, so broken. The devastation in his tone is almost palpable. Just the sight of him has triggered my tearglands to start producing tears.

God, I hate that he has the power to make me so emotional.

"Good morning, Alpha Reagan." Tessa's quiet greeting breaks the awkward silence in the kitchen.

"Good morning, Tessa." He returns her greetings.

Tessa bows to him before turning to face me again.

"I'll give you two some privacy." I start shaking my head and holding her back.

"No." I whisper with a shaky voice. "I don't want to be left in here alone with him. Please don't go.

י

"I have to." She gives a gentle pat on my hands. "You two have to talk. I'll be right outside." I try to hold her back, but she peels my hands off her arm and walks out of the kitchen, leaving just Alpha Reagan, me and my ragged breaths.

I don't know why I'm so nervous, but God I'm nervous. I run haphazard fingers through my hair. It's useless. I'm standing there like a lump of nonsense. I flush a glance at him. I'd like to die a little. My heart jumps in my chest when he darts towards me. Soon, we are standing barely inches apart, facing each other. My heart is pounding in my ears. My knees are about to break.

“Ashanti.” His baritone voice utters the letters of my name again. I feel oddly warm and numb at the same time.

This is a man I know inside out. I have slept with him. Spent good times with him. We've had our ups and downs in our past relationships. The last thing he is to me is a stranger and I should not be feeling all these things I'm feeling now, but I am anyway.

I clear my throat. Give him a stern look and pray in my heart for my facial muscles not to betray me and keep that serious look.

"What are you doing here?" I try but fail to keep my voice firm and serious. It comes out like a nervous, pathetic sound that mocks my efforts to keep it stern with this man standing before me.

"I came to see you..." His voice is low. His usual powerful and domineering demeanour is nowhere to be found. He looks broken... devastated and there is something lurking in his deep brown eyes. Some emotion I cannot even begin to identify. "To know how you're faring."

"As you can see, I'm doing alright. You can leave now."

"I am not going to leave, Ashanti."

"But you should. Go be with Selena. She surely needs you." At the mention of the name Selena, he exhales so hard I feel his breath fan my face. "Ashanti..."

"Don't you see..." My pitch rises and so do my shoulders. "This is a sign."

"There is no sign. We're still carrying out an investigation on the issue."

"I'm not fit to be your Luna. I have caused you nothing but problems, I even left you at a very crucial time. I went out of sight for two good years. That certainly angered the Moon goddess. It got her to understand that I was not a good match for you, that's why she brought back your first mate. You have to go back to Selena. She's the one for you."

"Ashanti no. You're wrong. That's not how this whole mate thing works... I..." His words are interrupted by the sound of his ringtone. He shoots a glance at his jacket where the sound is coming from and waves and looks away, ignoring it.

"That's not important."

"You don't know that. Answer it."

"Ashanti it's not..."

"I said answer the fucking call!" My lungs nearly collapse from that scream. The poor guy quickly retrieves the phone from his pocket and answers the call. I know I

shouldn't pay attention to

but I do

and my mood turns even more sour when I hear the person on the line say;

“Selena is awake and she's crying again. Nothing we do or say to her has succeeded in getting her to calm down. You need to come over right away. We are out of options."

Alpha Reagan quickly ends the call and looks at me. His expression is like someone who's about to burst into tears.

"She needs you." Those words slice my heart in two halves as they burrow their way out of my chest.

She needs you.

That sounds ridiculous!

"I don't want to go and see her!"

'I don't want you to either, Sir!'

"But you have to. She's your mate and you have obligations towards her. Go fulfil them, lest you anger the Moon goddess."

"Ashanti please..."

"Leave." I don't dare to meet his gaze as I say that word. I couldn't. It hurts too much to say that to him.

"That's not what you want."

"What I want isn't important right now. Just go. Please." My eyes are filling with tears and I'm blinking them back and I'm feeling the burn in my throat and everything hurts.

Stupid heart. Stupid tears. Stupid Selena!

Stupid life!

"Alright then..." His deep voice breaks the miserable silence. My heart lurches. I look at him without meaning to. "I'll go, but I'll be back. Soon."Belongs to NôvelDrama.Org - All rights reserved.

“I'd rather you don't come back here." I lie.

want

"We both know that's a lie, Ashanti." His voice is dangerously husky. His words tingle on my skin. "You me to come back and I will." My entire body goes stiff when he takes two steps closer. Now, our bodies are almost touching. I stare up at his face.

His handsome, perfectly sculpted face.

His deep, charming brown eyes are staring down at me and oh, how I want to reach out with my fingers and trace the perfectly sculpted lines of his face that's nothing but muscle.

Perfect.

That's what he is.

He leans forward, his face inching closer and closer to mine, his lips aiming for my forehead where they leave a gentle kiss on it. A kiss that drugs me into a delirium I never want to escape.

"You are my life, Ashanti. Telling me to give up on you is like asking me to give up on my life. I can never do that. I promise to make this work."

And with

that he swivels and makes

a majestic exit from the kitchen. I stand there, perplexed,

dumbfounded with my heart racing

through my blood and spinning

O

everything into a cyclone of intensity.

What the hell was that?

And why does it make me so happy?