Second Chance Luna: His Rejected Mate is the Golden Wolf

A House by the Lake

Paris’ POV

Eve forgot all about the topic of transformation and, as the boat carried us along the shoreline, she began pointing out every place we passed: a crafts workshop, the pack’s cultural center, the house where the woman who baked the best pastries lived, the home of a composer and renowned singer, another place where the pack’s young people gathered to train, a passage that led to the gardens Conlan had commissioned. She pointed to everything with enthusiasm, pausing at each detail, telling me stories—and a bit of gossip—connected to every spot: the hiding place some young people used to steal kisses, or the place most recommended for sealing a love. She spoke as if she were in a hurry to show me everything at once, as though she wanted me to know every detail of Hope Moon as quickly as possible.

“I’m sorry,” she said when she tangled herself up in her own words. “Am I talking too much, Luna? I haven’t even let you ask a single question.”

I smiled kindly and told her that, for the moment, I didn’t have any.

“You’ve been so specific with every detail, Eve, that you’re answering my questions before I can even think to ask them.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Luna. Sometimes I just get carried away and keep talking and talking.”

“There’s no problem, Eve. I like listening to you.”

She looked flattered and resumed her tour-guide monologue when I noticed she seemed to focus on something else. I recognized the gesture—I’d seen it before in those fortunate enough to have a wolf.

“It’s Felix,” Eve announced. “He’s asking where we are.”

I turned to look for Conlan’s boat, which had been following us until moments before, but it was no longer there.

“I can use the phone Conlan gave me and contact him,” I suggested.

“Oh no, Luna, it’s not necessary. Felix is just teasing. Sometimes he does—or rather, he’s always doing it.”

“Teasing you, I assume.”

I noticed the way her cheeks flushed.

“He knows we’re not far, and since he can contact me through my wolf, he can also tell where I am, so I just ignore him.”

I didn’t know how to respond—I didn’t understand how the bond between wolves worked, and I preferred not to broach the subject—so I was grateful that Eve ignored it and went on talking about Felix.

“I don’t know why he likes teasing me so much,” she said before letting out a long sigh.

I felt a flicker of envy for what she was experiencing with the young Gamma. It was obvious she liked that he teased her, that she was the center of his attention and that he was always aware of where she was. I was about to say something about it when I saw Conlan’s boat reappear. He gestured for us to come closer to shore.

We stopped at a small dock, and this time I saw Eve slip away the very instant Conlan extended his hand to help me disembark.

“I saw you were quite entertained with your assistant,” he said once we were alone.

“I feel like I already belong here,” I replied with genuine conviction. “Everything looks so peaceful, harmonious, and joyful all at once—especially the lake. I never imagined there would be so much activity around it, and so many stories too. It’s a wonderful place.”

“It was everything my father dreamed of when he had that old swamp drained,” Conlan said. “He transformed the entire life of the pack, which now revolves around this place.”

My eyes remained fixed on the gentle movement of the water, and I knew it was that steady rhythm that was giving me a sense of peace I thought I had lost forever—but was now beginning to recover.

It would be so lovely to wake up in a place like this, and fall asleep lulled by the sound of the water, I thought, without realizing I’d spoken aloud until Conlan asked me about it.

“Is that what you want, Paris? Do you truly wish it?”

“Oh—sorry. I was just thinking out loud…”

“It’s one of the effects this lake has,” he said with a smile. “It’s happened to me too. I start voicing my thoughts when the water captures my attention.”

“I don’t believe you. You’re just saying that to be kind to me,” I teased.

“In any case, Paris, this lake makes me want to dream—and to dream with you—so I can listen to you and know what you’re thinking while you feel the peace it brings. Would you like to live here? For us to build a house together in this place?”

I didn’t know whether he was serious or testing me.

“A house? What are you talking about?”

Conlan slid his hand over my hip and drew me closer to him.

“What I mean is that I promise I’ll build you a house here, Paris—so you can wake up looking out over the lake and fall asleep to the water’s lullaby. Nothing would make me happier than knowing you are happy.”

“Conlan, that would be wonderful,” I said, smiling in a way that didn’t quite do justice to how I truly felt. “Can you imagine? Living in this peace every single day?”

I felt him leaning in to capture my lips for what would have been our first kiss, and my heart began to race even faster—when a loud sound interrupted the moment. It was a tuba, followed by lively music, and before we realized how it happened, a crowd was sweeping us toward a dance hall.

“Come on, Alpha,” a woman said as she recognized whose arm she had taken. “I’d ask you to grant me the first dance, but I see you’re very well accompanied.”

I liked the spontaneous, casual way the people of Hope Moon treated even a figure like their Alpha—something unheard of in Moon’s Bright, where such behavior would have been completely unacceptable. I smiled and let myself be carried along by the crowd, by people I was already beginning to feel as though I’d known all my life.

Conlan took my hand, and we headed into the hall, where the crowd parted to give us the center of the floor.

“I hope your shoes aren’t uncomfortable—and that it’s true your wound is feeling better,” he said, “because this is a fast dance.”

I still couldn’t believe my change of fortune—how, in less than a single day, I’d gone from being the pariah of my family to the center of attention of an entire pack. I only hoped that the fragile house of cards forming around me wouldn’t collapse at any moment, that this wasn’t just an illusion destined to vanish as quickly as it had appeared—because I wasn’t willing to return to Moon’s Bright.