Page 33 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

I didn’t want to clue him in. Instead, I simply nodded in the direction of the woodpecker. “Over there.”

Ashton sighed and nodded. “You mean the chainsaw?”

Frowning, I glanced in that direction and strained to hear. Below the woodpecker taps, barely audible even to me, was the incessant whine of a saw. Holy shit. I turned and gaped at Ashton.

“Damn. You heard that?”

He nodded, toeing a piece of gravel on the court. “I heard it as soon as we got out of the truck. Kind of annoying.”

His senses were already stronger than mine. He was going to be a powerful alpha, no doubt.

“It is,” I said. “You can control it, you know.”

“How?” His young face was lined with desperation. “Sometimes I can’t concentrate. The smells and sounds and everything gets to be too much.”

I walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “It happens to all of us. It’ll get easier after your first shift. When your inner wolf appears, he’ll help you control it. Until then, deep breathing helps, almost like meditating. Really let your mind take in the sound or scent, then push it aside. Your brain is a powerful tool.Once you get used to it, you can not only turn it off and on, but control your senses with what I can only explain as a sort of dial. Up and down, stronger and fainter, all that. Wanna try?”

“Okay,” he said, but I could see he wasn’t convinced.

“Close your eyes. Let’s try some breathing exercises.”

Fifteen minutes later, Ashton was sitting cross-legged on the court and smiling up at me.

“It really worked,” he said. “It’s duller. Like, not as grating, you know?”

I held out my hand to help him to his feet. “It’ll take time to master it, and again, when your inner wolf finally comes forward, it’ll get even easier.”

Ashton let out a sigh of relief. “This is great, Cole. I’ve wanted a way to turn it down.” He glanced at me, a dark and embarrassed look in his eyes, then glanced away. “Some nights, Mom cries in bed, and I wish I couldn’t hear it.”

Icy-cold fingers dug into my guts at his words. Crying because of me? Her ex? Having been a single parent for fifteen years with no one to help her? Regardless of the reason, it hurt my soul to know that Avery spent her nights crying. My wolf whined in agony at the thought of our mate hurting and us not being there to hold her and calm the tears.

“Uh, I’m sorry to hear that. Does that—” I cleared my throat “—happen a lot? The crying?”

He shrugged in the way only a teenager could—a twitch of the shoulders that they thought said more than a whole sentence. Not wanting to push things, I changed the subject before the whole afternoon went sideways.

“Hey, whose shot is it?”

His eyes brightened, and relief flooded his face. “Mine,” he said, yanking the ball from my hands. He turned and tossed the ball up behind his back, over his head. The orange orb flew through the air and swished into the net.

I shook my head in disbelief as he tossed me the ball. “Well, damn.”

Doing my best to mimic the shot from the spot where he stood, I shocked myself by actually making it. Ashton nodded approvingly at me.

“Old guy has game.”

“Old guy?” I echoed. “Very funny.”

Ashton tossed the ball back to me. “Your shot.”

As we continued to play, we talked about random things. Sports, comic books, movies, music. Eventually, I decided to ask the question that weighed most heavily on my mind.

“So, do you know how long you guys are gonna be in town?” I tried to play it off as an off-the-cuff remark.

“Not sure,” Ashton said, laying the ball up with his nondominant hand. “We’ll be here for the rest of summer for sure. I don’t know if Mom wants to head back home. Lots of bad memories there, you know? But she doesn’t seem very happy here, either.” He gave me a pointed look at that.

So, her ex had made her new home a place full of bad memories, which was exactly what I’d done with Harbor Mills. She was stuck in limbo with nowhere to turn without seeing the face of a man who’d done something to ruin her life. The shame I feltwasn’t nearly as bad as the disappointment radiating from my wolf. The first few years after I ran from Harbor Mills had been hell, with my wolf sending memory after memory through my mind every night until I’d had to get prescription sleeping pills to get any rest at all. Now, I saw I’d done the exact same to her. I’d been the initial catalyst for the pain she felt now.

I glanced down at the ball in my hand and came up with an idea. “Hey, do you want to meet the pack?”

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