The Lycan King’s Second Chance Mate by Sumi

ASHANTI'S POV.

The moment the guard is out of sight, my eyes travel back to the tray sitting on the floor below. My stomach rumbles at the side of the dishes. I am famished, but there's no way I'm putting any of that into my mouth. My mind travels to Alpha Reagan and I curse him again for not markingyet. I would've been able to report all that's happening toin here through mindlink, but now I can't. I groan in frustration as I turn away from the door.

With every second that passes, my hope of ever getting out of here dwindles and I'm beginning to wonder if Alpha Reagan is even trying to getout of here like he promised he would. All the "what if" questions attack my mind and I go weak in my knees.

What if he's tired ofand all the problems associated with being withand has decided to letrot in here and go on living his life with Alina as his mate? What if the elders and subjects have threatened to strip him of his title as suprAlpha if he doesn't forget aboutand he has decided to yield to their demands so as to protect his throne and title? What if he doesn't loveanymore? "Don't be ridiculous, Ashanti!" My wolf, Lena scoldswithin. She doesn't sound impressed by my thoughts. "You're that man's true born mate, there's no way he can just stop loving you. I'm sure he's doing al he can to get us out of here. You need to exercise patience!" She cautions and I heave out a heavy sigh of exasperation. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but it's taking so much time.

I'm famished and parched and exhausted and freezing to death here. I just want to get out. I hate it here. The sound of footsteps fill my ears again, makingturn swiftly to the cell door as I wait for whoever it is to arrive. The footsteps however, are not as loud and powerful as those of the warden whenever he's approaching, rather, they are calm and quiet and I can only hear them because of our heightened hearing abilities as werewolves. Soon, a familiar smell hits my nostrils and my brain starts shuffling as I try to put a face on to smell. I nearly vomit my heart out when Tessa appears beforewith the most melancholic look on her face. "Tessa!" I call in total disbelief, at the top of my voice. Tears burn at the back of my eyelids as I skip over to the cell door and intertwine my fingers with hers through the bars. "Oh my God Tess, you are here." The tears in my eyes break loose and do a free fall down my face. Her face is equally wet as her hold on my hands tighten like she never wants to letgo.

God, I've missed her so much and I hate that these bars are hinderingfrom giving her the tightest hug in the world right now.

"Ashanti." She calls within sobs. "I'm so sorry this is happening to you right now. How are you doing? Are you okay?" I shake my head vigorously as more tears pool down my cheeks.

"No... no... not at all." My voice is a crying mess. I swallow the painful knot in my throat and sniffle tears. "It's terrible here and the warden in charge of guardingwon't stop bullying me. I wanna get out of here." "You will. You will get out of here soon, I promise. We're all doing all we can to make that possible." "I didn't do it. I know nothing about the wolfsbane. I swear I didn't do it." "I know you didn't do it. We all know this was a plan orchestrated by Alina to put you in a bad spot, that's why she's our target in this whole issue. We are looking to expose her for this and every other bad thing she has done." "What about the baby? Did she lose it?" "Unfortunately, she did." A sad sigh follows her statement. I feel sad that Alina lost her pregnancy, but I'm confused.

"Wait... I don't understand. Why would Alina poison herself just to setup? Why would she do something to harm her baby with Alpha Reagan just to makelook bad?" "Because the baby wasn't Alpha Reagan's to begin with." "What?" I ask, aghast. Goosebumps scatter down my spine as her words settle in my brain.

Alina lied about being pregnant with Alpha Reagan's baby? "Yes." Tessa says, nodding. "Kyle and I stayed up almost all night discussing the issue. Alina got impregnanted by someone else and pinned it on Alpha Reagan just so she could cause trouble in your relationship with him and try to find her way into his home." "But she was already succeeding? Why kill the child?"

"Ash, you don't think Alpha Reagan is that stupid, do you. Alina knew a DNA test would be carried out the om moment that child would be born and NO if that happened, she would be exposed. That's why she had to kill the child and make it look like you did so Alpha Reagan can take pity on her, get furious at you, send you away and be with her. Brilliant plan, isn't it?" "Wow!" There are dynamites exploding in my head as I try to reason out everything that had just been said.

Alina is indeed a master planner. She deserves a round of applause fam this. With a standing ovation. She's good at what she does. "That's... that's brilliant!"

"But her plan backfired. Right now we're all looking for evidence to prove that the baby she was carrying wasn't Alpha Reagan's, evidence that she poisoned herself and tried to Ο fryou and any other thing we O.

can find against her. Ashanti..." She takes my hands in hers and givesa confident look. "You're not going to be in here for long. We are all working to get you out. Alpha Reagan, Beta Ronald, Delta Kyle and myself are busting our brains to bring Alina to justice." Her confident words are supposed to rekindle my dying hope. I'm supposed to be happy after hearing all that, but I'm not. And there's a reason why. X