Page 91 of The Gamma's Second Chance

Guests for the mating ball mingle in the space, waiting for their turn to enter the ballroom, but I’m aware of none of them. Nothing breaks through my nail-biting trepidation—not the voices echoing or the myriad scents or the precisely arranged decorations placed throughout the hotel—as I wait for Cassandra to join me.

Wes waits with me since Haven and Cassandra are getting ready in their room, while he and I got ready in my room. After about ten minutes of me pacing, he grabs me by the shoulder and forces me to stand still. “You’re going to wear a hole in Prescott’s marble floor.”

I scoff. “He’d deserve it.”

Wesley chuckles and puts his hands in the pockets of his navy blue suit. “Are you all right?” he asks. His voice is casual but quiet, and laced with concern.

I swallow and cross my arms, looking down at my feet and widening my stance slightly, hoping it will keep me from wanting to pace again. “No. I’m not.” I rub my jaw and shake my head. “What if the high oracle was wrong? Or what if they misunderstood the reading? What if her fated mate is here in the crowd of guests, searching for her?”

“I don’t think the oracles are usually wrong. They know a lot.”

“Or what if I find my second chance mate?” I ask, giving voice to the actual issue that has me tied up in knots.

“second chance mates are—“

“Rare, but not unheard of. Selene gave Rachel one. What if she gives me one, too?”

He stares at me, his jaw working beneath his freshly trimmed beard. “You said you don’t want one. You said you’d always be questioning whether you wanted each other for real or if it was only the magic of the bond.”

I tense and nod. “That’s what happened with Kimberly.”

Memories of the first and only other mating ball we attended flicker to life in my mind, threatening to send me spiraling and drowning in a whirlpool of despair and anxiety. But the thought of my mate, the one I chose for myself, the one making her way to me at any moment—my Cassandra—squashes it all. The sparkling rays of her sunshine reach the deepest, darkest recesses of my soul and brighten them. Her smiles, her piano laugh, her sweet floral scent—it’s all a balm.

My heart clenches, and I gaze over my shoulder and up the stairs, hoping to see her gliding towards me. My arms long to hold her and my wolf whines when we don’t see her yet.

“Selene must know that. Maybe she took that into consideration and didn’t give you a second chance mate, knowing you’d always be questioning it,” Wesley says.

I whip my head towards him, a brow arched. “You mean how she took into consideration what was best for Haven when she abandoned her at a fire station as an infant? Or when she wanted to ‘gift’ her with immortality, forcing her to stay young forever as she watched all of us die and leave her alone again?”

We stand in silence. His chest heaves, his hands clenching into fists in his pockets.

“Sorry,” I say, lifting a hand in apology. “I didn’t say that to upset you. And I know she listened to Haven when she told her she didn’t want that gift. But for everything she’s done right, there seems to be more that she’s gotten wrong. I mean, why even tie me to Kimberly in the first place?”

Wesley shrugs. “You’d have to ask Selene that.”

I bark out a harsh laugh and shake my head. “No, thank you. I have no desire to speak to her.”

He laughs, too, opening his mouth to say something, but his eyes lock on something behind me. Something that renders him speechless.

I spin to find Haven walking down the stairs, dressed in a blush pink dress with a sparkling bodice and a chiffon skirt that curves over her baby bump and floats around her, the fabric fluttering and swirling with her every step. Her wild red curls are swept off to one side, the scars on her neck from the attack on her twenty-first birthday on full display. She exudes regality and confidence, with her chin held high and her eyes locked on Wesley. She’s the picture of a perfect luna—tender yet strong, self-assured, and beautifully brave.

Wesley steps around me, removing his hands from his pockets and lending one to her as she descends the last few steps. She smiles at him and shuts her eyes as he leans in to kiss her cheek before looping her arm through his.

“Luna,” I say, greeting her with a nod as they pass me.

“She’ll be down soon,” is all she says in response before Wesley leads her towards the ballroom.

My pacing begins again. Back and forth in front of the carpeted staircase. I rub my jaw, clenching it even as I massage it to relieve the tension. Panic rises once more, closing in on me from all sides, like a pack of hunters circling their prey. My vision narrows, the blood rushing from my head, and it takes every last bit of strength within me to stay upright, to not bolt for the hills.

Or the elevator.

But before I can do either, the back of my neck prickles with awareness, and the fresh scent of daisies mixed with something lighter and sweeter floats towards me from the stairs. I turn, and there she is, gliding towards me, one delicate hand sliding down the banister as she descends, her eyes glued to me.

My mouth goes dry and my lips part, my eyes widening and my heart skipping a beat as I drink her in from her head to her toes, my breath catching in my throat.

Her all black gown hugs her body, fitted all the way to her knees before the skirt flares out and trails behind her. The velvet bodice’s low neckline curves across the swell of her breasts and then dips down in a thin V all the way to her navel. Velvet floral appliques cover the full-length, sheer black sleeves and the top sheer layer of the skirt. The underskirt of the dress is nude, giving the illusion that she’s naked beneath the skirt of the dress, making me imagine that what I’m seeing is not fabric, but the skin of her gorgeous, endless legs that have teased me since that first morning in my kitchen, when she wore those short shorts I loved and yet hated.

Her green eyes twinkle as I devour her with my gaze, a coy smile on her plump lips. They’re painted with red lipstick that’s a perfect match to the red carpet under her feet.

---