My Second Chance

Chapter4

Got to my room thankfully, with just a few distances between us, meaning I have little time.

“Where is it?” Going through my clothes looking for his jacket, Zacks jacket, I found it. Quickly I wrapped his jacket around me, immediately masking my scent.

I could hear footsteps approaching my door, but it stopped. I bet he is trying to sniff me out, “please just go away”, I begged silently.

The wait felt like ages, but I could finally hear his footsteps receding.

I sighed, letting out a breath I didn't know I was holding. I sat on the floor to get myself, that was when the reality of things hit me hard. “ I have a mate, a second mate!! And in the span of 24hts at that”

What is going on? I need to leave this place. I gather my things in my box, not that I have much but it makes things easier for me. In less than 10 minutes, I was done and out the door.

Trying to leave the pack house felt like walking on eggshells. Halfway through the pack house, I felt a glimmer of hope. “Maybe I'll actually leave the house without being noticed”, I thought .

“Where are you going in such a rush, Amanda?” Audrey asks

To think I was going to leave this pack house in one piece. Audrey stood in front of me with her smug face, blocking me from the pack house entrance.

“I'm talking to you Amanda, or have you gone deaf” Audrey waves her hand in front of my face, which brings me back to my senses.

“On my way out, why? Do you need something from me?” I asked.

“Oh nothing love, Zack is asking for you”, Audrey replies

“Zack, looking for me? That can't be, I'm just coming from his office”, I reply, giving Audrey a discerning look.

“Look Audrey, I'm in a rush, so if you don't mind can you move” I brushed past Audrey, not giving her a listening ear

Audrey seemed adamant on getting me to Zack's office, so much so that she grabbed my hand and pulled me back.

“What is your problem Audrey, let go of__” , Audrey puts her hand in front of my face, and cut me off.

“ Zack wants to see you before you leave” Audrey replied.

“I should believe you why??” I replied this time giving her a suspicious look.

“ On a normal day, I won't be caught mingling with the likes of you, but it was an order from Zack, my alpha, and MATE”

Hearing the word MATE from Audrey's mouth, made my stomach churn, and not in a good way. I look at my wrist to check the time, it's 5p.m. I just need to wrap up things with Zack and then leave.

Audrey signals to follow her, and we walk towards Zack's office. On getting to Zack's office, Audrey takes a different turn, one that leads in the opposite direction.

I stop in my tracks and ask “ where are we going Audrey? Zack's office is the other way.” I reply while pointing in the opposite direction.

“Zack's drawing room, can you please Keep moving”. Audrey replies

Something about this seems off, I thought.

We got to the room and there was no Zack, where is zack?

“Audrey I don't see Zack here, what's your deal? What do you want from me?” I ask Audrey, giving her a judging look.

“Calm down, he probably stepped out for a moment.” She says.

A moment, really??

She walks over to the bar section of the office to pour herself a drink, trying to make small talk, but I ain't listening. I just need to see Zack for whatever it is and leave.

“Take a seat, Zack should be here any minute, want a drink?” She asks, pouring who knows what in a glass.

“Thank you, but no thank you”, I politely declined. I don't know what it is, but the whole situation screamed suspicious.

“Come on, It's just one drink, I'm not going to kill you.” She stretches out her hand still offering me the drink.

Still not accepting it, “look Audrey, I know we haven't been the best of pals, but now that you are leaving the pack there's no reason for me to hate you, at least not anymore”, she squats to my feet, with her hands on my lap, looks straight into my eyes.

“Men make us do the craziest of things, and Zack does that to me. You understand right?” She asks again, this time squeezing my laps, hard.

“What are you doing?” I ask, squinting my eyes, evident of the pain she is causing. Audrey is strong for a she wolf, and even stronger since she is an alpha. It will take her no little effort to crush my bones if she wanted to.

“ I thought you wanted to make amends” I ask, whimpering from her grip.

She tilts her hear to the side with a smile on her face, “of course I want to make amends, but you refusing my kind gesture doesn't sit well with me Audrey”

“so a drink?” She asks again, and I nod, accepting her kind gesture.

“Good, since you don't take alcohol, what will it be. Mango orange or raspberry?” she asks as she walks over to the counter.

“ Raspberry” I replied. Running my laps, trying to spot the pain.

She walk over and hand me the drink, I hold the glass in my hand skeptical of drinking it. She sits there, sipping her bourbon, acting like nothing happened.

I take the courage to ask, “ is zack not done with his meeting?”

She says nothing, just silently drinking her bourbon. As time passes the sky gets darker and darker, and indicator of how late into the night it's getting.

“If he isn't, I can come back to the pack house if it's really important”. I ask again.

Audrey looks up from her glass of bourbon, straight into my eyes. “He will be here, so just drink up, it's rude to drink alone you know.”

Raising her glass towards me “cheers?”

I just need to get through this “cheers”

I drink it all up in one swoop, dropping my glass on the side table.

“That's more like it, now we can talk” Audrey says smiling ear to ear. “Why do you want to leave the pack so suddenly? And please don't tell me it's because he rejected you.”

I look at her, wondering where she is going with this, “I really don't know what to tell you”

“Really? Nothing, nothing at all” Audrey stands up from her seat, walk towards me slowly. “Audrey darling, let me tell you why I think you are leaving, even though your 20 years too late”.

The tone in her voice changed, and so did the atmosphere in the room. She circles around me and puts her hands on my shoulder.

“You have always known that you did not belong here, given that you're an orphan and packless”

She continues, this time inches away from my ear, “you hates the pity looks, the degrading looks you got from other wolves, just because you didn't know who you are, all you know is your first name, Amanda”

I tried to stand up, but with her hands on my shoulders, she pushes me back down, roughly.

“You needed some sort of validation, and your only route to that was finding your mate, and just when you thought you had it, I snatched it”, her fingers trailing my face.

“what is wrong in wanting validation, in wanting respect. I should be respected equally as a wolf, packless or not, orphan or not”, hot tears blurred my vision as I struggle to keep it in.

“What makes you think you are worthy of validation Audrey, because you think you're an asset to the pack?”

Her question was upsetting, what does she mean by think. “I don't think I'm an asset, I know I am. I have some more for this pack than you ever have. I know it's people, I know what they want and need. It's thanks to my ideas, quick thinking, and strategies that the pack is what it is today”.

I turn to Audrey, looking her straight in the face, “I will say it again Audrey, don't think you can go far with borrowed ideas”.

She scoffs, “hmmm, now I remember why I don't like you, you never know your place”, saying that she pushes me with such force, crashing me iinto the center glass table.

Upon impact the table shatters into pieces, glass piercing my skin, blood seeping out, the pain was agonizing.

She walks towards me, squats down and grabs my chin with her fingers, forcing me to look at her. “I don't trust you will stay away from Zack, after all you do love him even without the mate bond. This is why I should get rid of you, permanently.”

Permanently? What does she mea__, immediately my head starts to spin, ache at the back of my spine, vision more blurry than it already is, that's when I realized, “she drugged me”.

With a raspy voice, “what have you done”.

“What have I done? Honey, what I should have done a long time ago. I just wonder what has been holding me back all these years” says Audrey, laughing at my predicament.

She squats down to touch my face, her fingers tracing it, drawing blood, “if only you have known your place Audrey, none of this would be happening”.

“Please…. Audrey ... .the antidote”, my temperature rising, my body feeling feverish, there is no need guessing what she drugged me with, CANACAINE.

CANACAINE, an aphrodisiac for wolves, heaven to alphas, deadly to lower wolves. To help a lower wolf induced with canacaine, is to have s*x or take the antidote. When neither is done they convulse and die.