Alpha's Second Chance (Second Chance Book 2)

10

Slowly, I felt Dean move, his arms coming down from his chest and wrapping around me. He buried his own face in my shoulder and stayed silent for several moments.

I barely caught the sounds of the three other occupants leaving the room, dispersing the crowd as they left before closing the door. The room was bathed in silence, save for the sounds of our labored breathing. Dean was finally starting to gain his breath again, and I was still in tears.

"E...Evan..." Dean's voice was raspy and hoarse, cracking as he spoke my name. I was struggling to believe the man in my arms was the same strong alpha who could have caused such harm to his last Mate. The difference was like night and day.

"I'm here, Dean," I whispered. I ran one hand through his messy hair in hopes to calm him down, while my other rubbed his back. His hands gripped the back of my shirt desperately.

"E...Evan... Don't... Don't leave me..." His words just about broke me. This could not be the same man I had spoken to not two day ago. This was not the same man who carried me from the side of the road. Who was this man? Did I break him?

"Dean, I won't leave you. Not in a million years." My shirt was growing damp, and I knew he was crying. It hurt to know I had caused him to suffer so much.

"was this worth it?" Jasper asked, feeling just as guilty. "All you wanted was to have him show how much he truly cared for you, how much he's changed since he rejected his first Mate. But is this the outcome you wanted?"

I couldn't even give Jasper a response, because he knew the answer. I didn't want this. He didn't eat breakfast with us this morning, and I doubt he had anything at all yesterday. In fact, when was the last time he ate? Has he been starving himself because of me?

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... I didn't mean it... I've loved you... since I held your dying form... Please..." Dean whispered.

My eyes watered yet again. Why didn't I let him finish speaking last time? If I had just stayed silent, none of this would've happened. Neither of us would be suffering because he would have gotten through the whole story up to the point when he saw me and how he got me back here.

This whole mess was my fault... I clung to Dean tighter and we both cried.

Finally, when there were no more tears left to shed, we stayed in each other's arms, not daring to part lest we ruin something else. It was several minutes later that we felt stable enough to separate.

We looked into each other's watery eyes and smiled, love shining between the two of us. I brought my hands and dried his cheeks with my thumbs at the same time he did the same to me.

It wasn't long before we found ourselves lying down in his bed, my head on his chest and his hand playing with my fiery red hair. It was peaceful for a long while, before I decided to speak up.

"Could you possibly tell me about your nightmare?" I asked. I guessed it was probably pretty bad to make such a strong Alpha wolf like him break so completely like that.

"I...I'm not sure if I can..." he stammered quietly. He was silent for a few moments before he took a deep breath and began to tell me anyway. "I had been wondering about the possibility that you were simply keeping the hyacinth out of some bizarre sense of duty to me or something, just before I lay down to rest my eyes, not expecting to actually fall asleep. I guess that's why it felt so real.

"The next thing I know, there's a knock on my door. I get up to answer it, surprised to find you there, holding the vase with the two flowers in it. I tried acting casual, not wanting to give away my fear, when you said the exact words I'd feared. You gave the flowers and vase to me so hard it knocked the breath out of me before you started to..." he cut himself off before he could finish, but I understood. "I then found myself lying in my bed again, and being shaken awake by Angel, with you crying over me, yet my first thought was, why are you sad when you were just about to..." he cut himself off again before he could say the word. "When you said to come back, I didn't understand because I thought you were the one leaving..."

I sat up and looked at him, his eyes closed as fresh tears fell to his ears. I wiped the streaks away and kissed his eyelids lightly.

It didn't take long before he fell asleep, and I stayed with him until I knew he was sound asleep, and then I left the room, closing the door behind me softly. I decided the best thing I needed to do was respond to his flower messages with my own, in order to assure him of my feelings and intentions.

With that plan in mind, I headed to my room to look through my book of flowers to find the one that meant what I wanted to say, and when I found it, I wrote down the name on a scrap of paper and took it with me. I quickly left the "den" and set off for the nearby town, hoping to find the flower I was looking for.

I walked inside and was bombarded with the fragrance of many different flowers. They were all so pretty and smelled so nice, I considered getting a seed packet to start a garden for the "den", but decided against it for the moment, wanting to focus on my present task before thinking of future endeavors.

I walked up to the old woman at the counter who was helping another customer, and waited my turn. When they were done, the woman smiled at me gently and I returned it.

"Hello there, dear, is there something I can get for you?" she asked.

I was a little nervous since this was my first time wanting to get a flower for someone in order to speak the language.

"Hello, I need a single flower today, ma'am," I said, rubbing my arm slightly. The second I said it, her eyes lit up and a big grin split her face.

"You're him!" she exclaimed excitedly. I was confused. "You're the one that sweet boy was coming here for!"

My eyes widened. "Dean?"

"Yes! And I have his next flower waiting for him now. What are you doing here, dearie?"

I was now extremely nervous, because once I told her about the scare I gave him, she won't be as sweet to me.

"Um, I kind of messed something up. I didn't respond to his flowers and he got the wrong idea, so now he's suffering." I bowed my head in shame.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and when I looked up, I was met with the kind face of the sweet old lady. She smiled sadly before removing her hand and nodding at me.

"Alright, dearie. What kind of flower do you need? Are you looking for a purple hyacinth as well? Or something else entirely?"

"Actually, I'm looking for a Jonquil. And I think maybe a purple hyacinth might not be a bad addition."

The woman turned and headed into the back of the shop, where she returned quickly with the two requested flowers. She tied them together with a piece of light blue ribbon and handed them to me with a smile.

I reached into my pocket to pull out my wallet, only to realize I left my wallet on my bedside table in my rush to get here!

"Don't worry about payment, dearie," the woman told me. "As I told Dean, after hearing your story I am rooting for you. I won't make you pay for any flowers you receive here, unless they don't work."

My jaw dropped. Was she serious? "Thank you,..."

"My name is Glinda, dearie," she supplied.

"Like the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz?" I asked, laughing a little.

She looked at me without responding and I immediately stopped laughing. I simply took the flowers and left.

When I returned to the "den" I quickly headed into Dean's room, silently opening and closing the door to not wake him. He was still asleep in the same position as when I'd left. It made me smile slightly to see him resting so peacefully after the terrifying fiasco.

I walked over to his bedside table, and rested the two flowers in front of his alarm clock, so he'd have to move them in order to see the time.

Satisfied with that, I returned to the same side of the bed I had previously been lying on, and curled up against Dean, resting my head on his chest to hear the beating of his heart, letting it pull me into dream land.

"That was the best thing you could've done, you know,' Jasper said, reassuring me of my choice. "Hopefully he won't think that purple hyacinth is the one he bought for you, though,"

That was the last thing I heard as I drifted off, snuggled up with my Mate.