Chapter 6  The Second Chance

(Ryan's POV)

I was in total darkness and all I could see was two men writhing together in the distance, one of them my father. I yelled and ran as hard as I could. But no matter what, I couldn't get close to them.

"Father!!!" I shouted out to my father but he didn't reply, simply turning his head from his position on the floor and smiling half heartedly at me as the man who sat above him lifted his arm and plunged his claws straight through my fathers chest. Blood spurted out.

"NO!!" I woke up with a start, my chest heaving as the emotions of the nightmare still ran rampant inside of me.

I looked around in confusion at my surroundings but it didn't take long for me to realize that I had obviously fallen asleep in my office and the memories of that night had haunted me in my dreams once again.

I let out a long breath and ran my hands over my face as I forced my heart to slow its rapid beating in the comforting silence.

That was part of the reason that I worked so hard... to escape this feeling and to spend as little time sleeping as possible.

After all, if I didn't spend as much time asleep, then these dreams wouldn't crush me and every step I made in strengthening my pack would bring me one step closer to completing my revenge.

Ding--

The message notification sound on my phone echoed in the bare walls of my office pulling me out of my brooding thoughts abruptly.

I picked the phone up and scowled down at the screen, a delightful message entered my eyes.

[Alpha, we've picked up Luke's daughter and will be returning soon.]

A grin of pure, unadulterated happiness tore across my face and I laughed triumphantly.

I had been waiting for this day for what felt like an eternity.

After enduring years of painful memories and biding my time until the perfect moment presented itself to me, as if by magic, that moment had arrived.

I would finally have my revenge on the man who had destroyed my family and I intended to start with destroying the most precious thing he had.

I had been keeping an eye on him and his little pack over the years and little snippets of information regarding the business dealings and family situation of the Alpha of the Scarlet Pack began to filter their way toward me.

I learned that one of his most prominent companies was facing bankruptcy and his financial woes ran far deeper than just that one company.

I was also told that he had a daughter, and from what I could gather at least, she was spoiled and doted on by him to almost obscene levels. He had managed to create a monster with his unbridled generosity towards her and she had a nasty reputation for being rude and arrogant with everyone that she encountered.

The lesser-ranked wolves that had encountered her reported that she was only too happy to look down on anyone she considered beneath her and she took great delight in shaming them publicly for every little thing that she could think of.

As far as I was concerned, she was cut from the same cloth as the bastard that had murdered my father, and from the sounds of it, she was shaping up to be his mirror image in personality as well.

Armed with this information I had already decided that she would become part of my plan for revenge against her father. What greater revenge could I possibly achieve than seducing her and then letting him watch as she withered into nothing under my hands.

I wanted him to watch closely the torture and pain that she would suffer as she learned her place... I needed him to feel the same pain that I felt at losing someone that meant the world to them.

So far, everything was coming along as I had planned.

The arrogant fool had accepted the proposed marriage to cement an alliance between our packs and my Beta would be arriving any minute now with the entitled little bitch in his car.

I was positive that she would be expecting a life as easy as her father had given her, but she was in for a rude awakening.

I snorted in disgust as I turned and made my way down to the front of the house to await her arrival, my heart racing in anticipation of the chaos to come.

But as I stood there stoically as the car parked and the back door opened, my heart almost stopped.

The most incredible scent invaded my senses, stealing the breath from my lungs and as the woman stepped out of the car and her eyes snapped to mine, my wolf howled in sheer joy.

I lurched towards her, stumbling over my own feet and swearing internally, hoping desperately that this was an omega and not the bitch that I intended to destroy but as I arrived in front of her and saw no other woman present, I couldn't contain myself any longer.

I gripped hold of her arms tightly, feeling her soft flesh beneath my fingertips and instantly wanting to bury myself inside of her. As much as I wanted to throw her away from me, I inhaled deeply and my wolf surged forward growling a single word possessively as our eyes locked:

"MATE!"

My stomach sank and a wave of disgust washed over me as I fought furiously against my wolf for control.

This couldn't be fucking happening...

***

(Amber's POV)

I couldn't believe what I was hearing as Rae surged forward and eagerly repeated the same word as this man that towered above me.

"MATE!"

I could feel her excitement coursing through me and I wanted nothing more than to turn and move away from him, but my body betrayed me, and my feet stayed rooted to the ground as I blinked up at him like a moron.

"Behave yourself, Rae," I snapped testily, "There's no way this is our mate... you have to be mistaken."

"No! He is ours as much as we are his!" Rae argued back angrily, "Why aren't you excited about this?! I thought we would never have the chance to be happy again and yet here he is... in front of us! Our second chance!"

"That's not possible Rae. We were cursed by our true mate. This is just a... a fantasy. Anyone that could possibly be bonded to us will betray us... you know this..."

"No! You're wrong Amber!" she argued back, whining pitifully.

This was a contract arranged by my father for his own benefit. There was no way on this earth that he would have inadvertently set us up with a man who happened to be our second chance mate.

No.

This had to be some sort of sick ploy that either he or his twisted wife and daughter had engineered to try and make even more of a fool out of me.

I scoffed internally although my face didn't betray any hint of my internal warring emotions, and as I stared up at the rugged, handsome features of the man in front of me, a tiny part of me wavered in my initial assessment.

I could feel the pull between us and even though it was faint... it was definitely there.

But this feeling didn't last long though because, as I almost allowed myself to drown in his mesmerizing eyes, his face darkened suddenly and his eyes became wild. I felt a crushing pressure around my neck as his hands gripped me tightly and his fingers dug in, beginning to cut off my ability to breathe.

"No! What are you doing?! Let go of me!" I tried to scream, but it came out as nothing more than a hoarse wheeze.

My body fought against his restrictive hands as the pressure increased around my neck, my lungs trying desperately to pull in a breath and burning with the need for air, but it was no use.

"This can't be fucking happening! Not you! I refuse to accept it!" He hissed furiously.

I reached for his hands in a panic, clawing wildly at him as my vision began to blur. Rae pushed her strength into me, completely bewildered by his sudden aggression towards us, as we fought to remove his hands from the stranglehold he had us in.

"How can I be mated to you! Of all people! This was supposed to be an arrangement! What fucking sort of witchcrafts is this? Is this a trick? Have you had some sort of enchantment cast?! ANSWER ME?!"

It wasn't until his Beta intervened and pulled him away that we were finally free.

My knees gave way as I sank to the floor with my hands cradling the area that he had been crushing only seconds before, gulping in lungfuls of cool, fresh air as Rae's confusion rippled through me painfully.

My eyes somehow found their way back to his, but instead of the confused and bewildered gaze that he had regarded me with only moments earlier before erupting into his rage, I found nothing but hatred and disgust.

As his Beta pulled him away towards the doors of my new home he continued to yell furiously at me with nothing but disdain and disgust in his eyes.

"Alpha, calm down! You can't behave like this in public!" his Beta soothed as he yelled for help in taking Ryan back inside.

"I will never accept you as my mate! I will make you my slave and you will fucking thank me for the honor!" He roared angrily as I felt Rae's heart break for the second time.

How was this reaction possible? This was the first time that I had met him so there was no reason for him to react toward me this way.

I stared at his retreating figure in confusion as I held my hands over my neck that still stung with the force of his grip and watched silently as his Beta dragged him back into the pack house.

My second chance really didn't want to accept me and the curse really worked...