Second chances and new starts

Acting cold

Raya

“You are mistaken.” I turn back to the Alpha. “So do we have your permission?”

His eyes flick back and forth between me and his son. Unsure of what to do now. He nods and I turn and start to walk out. He grabs my arm and replies “I’m not. You are my mate. The one I have been waiting for. They only one for me.” His face has a blindingly bright smile that collapses in agony as I say the words “Then I reject you. “ He whimpers in pain and grabs his chest.

She turns back to alpha and sees that he and his beta are shocked by what just happened.

“Well, considering the situation we are in now, maybe we should make a new arrangement.” Sam hesitantly says as he looks over at his son. “We have an empty cabin. It’s on the edge of our compound. It’s close to the woods and a distance away from the rest of the pack. It was mostly used as a sort of outpost. You girls can stay there.”

I know he is doing this for his son, but I harden my heart and try to focus on what is best for me and Rose. “ Only if you agree to my conditions. 1. We don’t have to socialise with your pack. 2.you cannot look into our history and 3. If anyone comes looking for us, you know nothing. Agreed?”

“What happens if I say no?”

“Then we will walk straight out of here, get in our car and drive away. Find another town. It’s all the same to us.”

Sam glances at his son as he urges him to accept the deal. “Fine.” As she turns and walks out the door, she misses the concerned and troubled look the men give each other.

Kyle drops us off at the motel and waits in his car while we check out. We follow him back to the pack house and down a dirt road to a quiet area with a cosy cabin nestled amongst some wildflowers.

I saw Rose light up as she looked around, and with her response... there would be no way I could leave.

I turn to Kyle “this is nice. Thanks.” He just gives me a nod and leaves. I start grabbing our belongings and bringing them into the cabin. I drop the bags in the living room and by the time I have picked up our last bag, Rose stops staring at the flowers and gives me a chagrin smile and jogs over to me, taking the bag from my hand. I shake my head and follow her inside. We leave the bags and explore first.

As we go from room to room, I am deeply surprised by how lovely it all looks. They made it seem like it was a survivalist type situation. I take the bedroom closest to the front of the house and Rose takes the one at the back and our rooms share a bathroom. There are 2 toilets and a sweet little kitchen. All the appliances and amenities are there and working. Electricity, hot water, WiFi.

The rest of the afternoon is spent putting away our merger belongings before Rose settles herself in the kitchen to cook.

Rose

As I look around the kitchen, I can’t help but tremble with joy. It’s so cosy! As I go through the fridge and cupboards, I find everything fully stocked. I grab a few things and get started. I love cooking, and it has been so long since I have been able to do some. I end up going a little overboard and make a cake, cookies, steak and pasta. I find myself surrounded by cooling racks and a mountain of washing up. I sigh in relief when I see there is a dish washer. The thought of doing all those dishes..... ugh.

I glance over at Raya and watch her huddled over her laptop. She bought it a few months ago to keep track of where we went, what we did, our finances. Most importantly, when and where was saw signs of wolves. “Raya", her head pops up and she looks at the chaos surrounding me with confusion. “How did you do all that in only a few minutes?” “It’s been 2 hours". Shock turns to a sheepish smile and she tilts her head to the side “So what did you make?” I start dishing up the food and we sit down to eat. We end up eating almost half of everything I made. We both lean back while caressing our stomachs. It’s been a long time since we have eaten like this. After everything that has happened today, I am just so tired. I go straight to my new bedroom and fall asleep the moment my head touches the pillow.

Raya

As I watch Rose sleepily wander to bed, I gather the dirty dishes, give them a rinse before putting the in the dish washer. I contemplate running it, but I don’t want to disturb her rest.

I hear a knock on the door and cautiously go over. The Luna Sophie is there along with another women.

“Hi Raya. This is Kyle's mate Jen. We thought we would drop by and see if there is anything you girls need?” They both have cheery smiles on their faces and it makes me feel on edge. I try to hide the suspicion in my gaze “nope. We settled in fine. Rose is having a rest at the moment. Thanks anyway. “

I then just stand there. Something I have learned in our travels is that the best way to get out of situations is uncomfortable silence. People tend to leave pretty quickly when you don’t try to ingratiate yourself to them. I have managed to shoo off quite a few busy bodies with this technique. Unfortunately, these 2 don’t seem to take the hint. As I watch them standing there, my opinion changes and I realise they know exactly what they are doing. Sigh. “Why not just tell me what you want instead of having us stand here?” Jen laughs and Sophie looks over, “I told you this wasn’t going to work. Fine. Raya sweetie. Apparently my son is your mate. However.... you don’t seem very pleased. I know I am his mother, but he is a very handsome boy. He is strong and smart and kind. Not to mention our pack's future alpha. That would mean that you girls could join our pack! “ I saw the expectant look on her face, as if I was supposed to jump up and down while clapping in excitement before joining her in running back to pack house to find him. I shake my head. “We don’t want to join any pack. And I don’t believe in mates. Bit her of them can be counted on for anything. Rose is all I have and all I need. Talk to your son, we can do a formal rejection so her can try to find his second chance mate. Maybe she will be what he wants. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish unpacking. “ I shut the door and go in my room, sit on the bed and just stare into space.