I Don't Want to Fall

Chapter 13: Second Chances

Carter seemed as if he was going to ask something, but suddenly Papaw came in with three young children in tow, one of them in tears. Emmeline looked quite pitiful with her eyes glassy and puffy faced. Tears streamed down her cheeks she looked as if her world was falling apart. Papaw looked at me defeated.

Emerson looked like a miniature man in a navy five piece suit finished off with shiny brown dress shoes. His brown hair was slicked back neatly, not a hair out of place. He tried to calm his sister down, but she shook her head from side to side in despair. She looked like a sad little china doll in a matching navy lace dress with a silk bow around the waist and brown dress shoes that also matched his. She had a ribbon twisted in her hands as she looked up at me with the saddest round puppy dog eyes that could melt the coldest of hearts.

"Emmie? What is wrong, sweetheart?" I asked softly. Carter watched silently from the side.

"I have to have my hair done before my father gets here, or he will be so angry." She hiccuped, "Mommy always does it, but she can't, and I don't know what to do. No one can do my hair for me now."

More tears broke loose and ran down her face in silent streams. What kind of man could have his daughter this upset because she wasn't dressed to his standards? Just looking at this tiny doll like girl could break your heart.

"I can fix your hair, honey. Don't worry." I softly comforted her.

"You can?" she sniffed out, rubbing her nose and cheeks.

"Yes, I do Cassidy's hair for school all the time. Cass, will you run and get the hair brush?" She nodded and in no time was back with it in hand.

I sat down in a kitchen chair and pulled Emmeline to stand in front of me. Surprisingly to everyone in the room, I pulled her hair into a perfect french braid. Being a single dad, I had to learn to do this for Cass and had it pretty well down pat by now. I tied the end with her blue ribbon making a bow. Then I turned her around to face me and wiped the remaining tears from her cheeks.

"There, perfect."

I picked her up to show her in the mirror hanging in the front hall. She beamed brightly at the finished product and tightly wrapped her arms around my neck in a hug.

"Thank you so much!" she exclaimed.

"You are very welcome, Em. Now, why don't you kids go out and play on the porch until it's time to meet your father." They quickly rushed out in excitement the earlier fret already forgotten.

Carter stared at me intensely as if trying to figure me out.

"What?" I asked in confusion with his odd behavior.

"This woman must be something very special." he replied.

"What are you going on about?" I asked as if he had lost his mind, but he only smiled knowingly at me.

"She is just Papaw's neighbor, and she needed some help." I tried to brush him off.

Papaw smiled from ear to ear and shook his head before following the children out on the porch to sit in his rocker.

"Carson, you are one of my best friends, and I have known you my entire life. You are no bleeding heart. In fact, some may consider you cold-hearted, especially as closed off as you have been these last few years." He responded.

"Your point?"

"My point, my friend, is you never ask for help no matter how much you might need it, but today you call me for a favor to help this woman out of a bind? You are not a knight in shining armor by nature. In fact, normally, you would consider her issues none of your business." He studied me before continuing. "I have also never seen you be so gentle with a child before other than your own daughter. I don't think I've ever seen you interact with the other children in the pack, and most of them are intimidated and scared of you. What is it about this woman and her children that seem to soften you?"

I rolled my eyes. "That is not true. I revamped that dance studio for Claire, and she always had tons of little girls around her."

"Exactly, they were around Claire, not you. You only provided the manual labor to put the place together. The only thing you were good at teaching was defense and fighting techniques, but you haven't had the patience to even train our warriors since before Cassidy was born."

I shook my head. He had a point. It was always Claire with the children, not me. Truthfully, the kids of the pack were still terrified of me, which is why Cassidy didn't much have to worry about bullies or mistreatment from her peers. The one time they had had an issue, he had quickly put an end to it.

"Carson, what is going on? you have this woman lying in your childhood bedroom at your Papaw’s house with the best pack doctor attending to her, and you look like you are about to go to war with her ex." Carter asked softly.

I looked towards the window. I knew I could tell him, and he would understand more than anyone. Carter had also lost his mate to rogues, but they had never had a child. I also knew my Papaw was sitting right outside the window in his rocker and that with his wolf hearing, he could hear the whole conversation. I stood up and walked out of the room. Carter understood and followed me down the hall. I led us to Papaw’s home office, which was soundproof, just like my brother's office at the pack house.

After sitting down and the door had been firmly closed, I took a deep breath and answered him defeated.

"She is my mate." I didn't look up from the desk, and the silence was deafening. Finally, I got the courage to look at my friend who was staring at me contemplating.

"Your second chance, mate?" He softly asked.

"Yes," I looked away guiltily.

"And let me guess you are having trouble accepting her because of Claire." I didn't answer or look back at him. After a moment, he continued. "Claire wouldn't want you and Cassidy to be alone if you had the chance to be happy and move forward with your life, Carson. I know you know that. I can understand your hesitation and resistance because of your love for Claire, but you have to remember she is gone. This is not the life she wanted for you."

I turned and looked at him. I know he is right, and I know deep down I can't deny the pull between myself and Elle.

"I'm just not ready."

Carter reached out his hand and gently touched mine in concern. "You seem scared, which is a very rare emotion for you that you seem to save for those you truly care about. What is wrong with her? What is she sick with?"

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, "She is a wolf, but she doesn't know it. He has been giving her small doses of wolfsbane to keep her wolf too weak to surface in order to control her more easily."

He gasped. Poisoning another wolf with wolfsbane was a serious offense and unheard of due to the severeness of it. He knew all her personal details, including how old she was.

"How has she survived this long?"

"We don't know."

"Wait, Ellowyn Slade as in..."

"Yes." I answered, knowing his question. "Erik Slade's daughter of the Blue Ridgeline Pack."

"I'm going to do some more research on her. Until then, Gavin Maxwell is no small adversary. I'm pretty sure he is hiding the fact that he is also a wolf and his lineage. I think most of the influential members of that town are also werewolves under his direction."

"That is also what I suspect. We are having him watched."

Carter nodded. "Carson, don't be afraid to open your heart again. If I was given a second chance at happiness, I wouldn't hesitate. Our mates may no longer be with us, but they wouldn't want grief to hold us back from living our lives."