Chapter 4: My Second Chance Mate

Amanda's POV 

I began to run without needing to be told. With all the men walking toward Duncan’s room, I knew that staying in the pack would be my undoing. Every step felt heavy with urgency, my heart hammering in my chest as adrenaline burned through my veins.

“Because I kept you by my side all these years? Is that why you’ve become disrespectful to me, despite me being the reason you’re who you are today?” Duncan’s voice echoed from the floor.

It was surprising how he was on the floor, yet still commanding and issuing threats with the authority of a king.

“It’s not easy to find someone else who will accept you after being rejected by an Alpha. Return now, Amanda, while I still have the will! You’ll die lonely if you don’t!” he roared, each word dripping with rage and desperation.

Kattie merely stood to the side, silent and impassive. She couldn’t even help me escape, after all, if I left, she would benefit the most. She looked confused, shocked, as I was, by the intensity of Duncan’s anger. He was so consumed by me leaving, so desperate that it terrified me even more.

I kept running, my legs carrying me as fast as they could through the long hallway. The left wing was empty, quiet except for the distant shuffle of guards in pursuit. 

The guards raced after me, their heavy boots echoing against the floor. Duncan forced himself to run too, hellbent on not letting me escape. I could feel his presence and anger like fire closing in on me, relentless and suffocating.

“Stop, Amanda! If you only stop now, the punishment I’ll give you will be lesser!” Duncan shouted, his words laced with both threat and a twisted sort of pleading. But I didn’t falter.

I had been naive enough in the past to believe his empty threats. Not this time. A “lesser punishment” for him meant withholding food for a few days, a harsher one meant more days and added beatings. Yes, Duncan was that cruel and monstrous but I had always hidden it because of how much I loved him.

I kept running until I reached a dead end. More guards approached from the other side, cutting off any escape. Duncan and the rest of them were closing in, the walls of the hallway pressing down on me.

I stopped, my breath ragged, panic clawing at my chest. Only a window was beside me, but it was too high. I had no wolf to shift into, no strength beyond my human limits. Duncan’s room was on the last floor of the pack’s territory. If I jumped, it would be fatal.

“Oh, Moon Goddess…” I whispered, my voice breaking as I muttered a prayer, shaky and desperate.

I needed my wolf. She had been silent for years and I have been patient in her slumber. But now, more than ever, I needed her. My survival depended on it.

“Where can you run to now, Amanda?” Duncan mocked, his voice cold and triumphant. “I told you to stop running! I told you I would lessen your punishment if you only listened! But no… you never listened!” His words came faster, more jagged with rage.

“Have her locked in the deepest dungeons! Anyone who secretly meets her or brings her food will have to answer to me!” He ordered his men, the anger rolling off him in waves. 

I bit the inside of my cheek. I couldn’t be locked away, especially not in the deepest dungeons where the prisoners before me had died, their bodies left to rot in the darkness.

The guards advanced, their shadows stretching long across the hall. I felt my chest tighten, fear threatening to consume me but I refused. I couldn’t surrender.

Without thinking or hesitating, I rushed toward the window. 

An arrow flew toward me, but before it could hit, I felt my muscles begin to swell and ache, a fire coursing through every fiber of my being.

When I opened my eyes again, I saw Duncan sprawled on the floor alongside Kattie, their faces frozen in shock.

“I thought she was supposed to be wolfless? How is this possible?” Duncan spat, his gaze fixed on me, though he addressed no one in particular.

I didn’t waste a second looking down at myself or wondering what form I had taken. With one leap, I jumped out of the window, soaring into the air until I crossed the pack’s gates. My guards shifted into their wolves, howling and bounding after me.

While running, I couldn’t help but think in awe and confusion. How was this possible? How had I shifted, not into some ordinary wolf, but into a white wolf? White wolves were sacred, almost mythical, found only in royal lines. And I, just an omega, how could I be one of them?

My mind spun with questions even as my body ached, my wolf growing weaker with every bound and leap. Yet I pressed on, racing, jumping and weaving through trees, refusing to be caught.

I stopped suddenly at the edge of a cliff. Below, a roaring river stretched wide. No one could survive a jump into it, and no one could escape from it either. Yet at the same time, I heard Duncan and his men closing in, the sound of their pursuit echoing off the cliffs.

Without thinking, I leaped. Desperation lent me wings. I aimed for the riverbank, hoping to grab onto the steel railing, but my paws slipped as I shifted back into human form mid-air. I fell into the icy water with a splash that knocked the wind out of me.

I paddled frantically, trying to keep the river from swallowing me whole, but every stroke felt hopeless against the current. My lungs burned, my arms ached, and the water seemed determined to claim me.

When my eyes opened again, I found myself washed onto solid ground in my human form. But before me stood Duncan and his men, circling like predators closing in on their prey. His face was triumphant, a cruel smile twisting his features, as though he had waited years for the river to wash me right into his hands.

I scrambled to my feet, but escape was impossible. The pack had me surrounded.

“Hello, sweet Amanda,” Duncan sneered, his voice dripping with mockery as he stepped closer, his eyes glittering with dominance and cruel amusement.

Before he could reach me, a guttural growl tore through the trees. Birds erupted into the air, their wings slicing the sky in frantic panic.

A massive brown wolf appeared, its fur bristling like storm clouds, before shifting seamlessly into the silhouette of a young man. He exuded power, authority, and something utterly unyielding.

“Who are you?” Duncan barked, wary and bristling, ready to attack, sensing a challenge to his dominance.

“The question isn’t who I am,” the man said, his voice cold and unwavering, each word like steel.  “The question is why you are after my mate.” He stepped forward from the shadows, his presence pushing back the darkness itself.

When he reached me, he had turned back into his human form. He took my hand. Before everyone’s eyes, a glowing mark appeared on our wrists, binding us together in an undeniable mate bond.

I blinked and looked at the man beside me, my eyes widening when I realized who he was. 

The Alpha King. 

He was my second chance mate.