The Dragon's Second Chance: The Past

Chapter 1: ONE MONTH Part 1

Aidan sat in the living room looking at family and friends gathered. Today marked a month since the loss of his mate, Odette. He searched the crowd to locate the most precious person to him, the one of two who could understand his pain and probably was even more inconsolable than him. Not being able to spot her in the crowd, which was now growing bigger, he headed over to his sister-in-law Natalie, the other who could understand their agony. "Nat, Where is Kora? I have not seen her for a while now. Did she tell you anything?".

Aidan knew that Natalie was the best person to ask because even though the relationship between Kora and Natalie was that of aunt and niece, they were the best of friends.  

Natalie - Odette - Kora... The band of three... Always together... And now a member of the trio was missing. Thinking about it, made him worry about Kora even more.

Natalie could see how being a weredragon and a CEO did not make a difference to how Aidan reacted to loss and how he worried about his daughter. Knowing where Kora was, Natalie nodded and traced her steps back to the indoor garden, a place where they had spent plenty of time before the inevitable happened.

She found Kora there, with a photo album looking through photographs of her mother, since childhood till the most recent picture with Kora, Aidan, and Natalie huddled together near Odette. On reaching Kora, Natalie realized they both had tears running down their cheeks. She did not need to make her presence known to Kora, the moment Natalie reached her, Kora raised her hand and entwined her fingers with Natalie's, a few moments passed and Kora looked up to her aunt "Dad's looking for me."

It was not a question, she knew her father as good as she knew herself, but Natalie nodded. This past month had been very difficult for them, but they were helping each other. The presence of the other was the moral support they needed.

Kora stood up, kept the photo album on the coffee table, the same place it had been kept for the past few months now, ever ready for the addition of more photographs. They both wiped the tears away and they went back down to the living room.

The moment Aidan saw Kora with Natalie, he knew that Kora had been crying, but seeing her made him look more like himself. Kora went straight to Aidan and hugged him, "Dad". They held each other for a few seconds and then they moved to address the people gathered, to honour and remember Odette together.