Second Chance Mates

Second Chance Mates

Copyright: Sabrina Vance

Published: April 2012
Smashwords edition

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Chapter One

"I don't want to talk about it."
Clara's words came out a lot firmer than she felt, but that was
probably due to the rage simmering inside her; a rage that only
just outweighed her desire to burst into tears and sob her heart
out. It wouldn't be the first time she'd cried publicly but
thankfully the crying fits had subsided from every breath two years
ago to only every few weeks now. Perhaps she was just all cried
out. Still, the constant barrage of opinions about her future—or
lack of—today from her family made it difficult to stay
calm.

"Well, I won't sit quietly and watch
you slowly slip away," came her mother's voice, every bit as strong
as her own. "Enough is enough. Colton's been dead two years now and
you
need
to start living."

"Mom. Enough!" Clara dropped her fork
on her plate. Rudely scraping her chair back, she got to her feet
and strode away from the table into the living room, away from her
family. Away from the people who loved her and only wanted the best
for her, a little voice in her head reminded her.

Family dinners were supposed to be warm
and assuring, reminding her she wasn't alone, but instead this
Friday night meal was apparently going to be one big lecture
courtesy of her mother; one that her sister, brother and father
were all going to let happen. What was it her mother called it? Oh
yes.
An intervention
. Like she needed one. She was perfectly
happy.

No, that was a lie.

She was miserable, absolutely miserable
without Colton, but she couldn't even comprehend happiness. It was
just too soon.

Staring out the window with her arms
crossed defensively across her chest, she barely took in the
semi-rural landscape as tears pricked her eyes. Clara couldn't even
begin to describe to her family how she felt. How she knew her
unhappiness wasn't healthy, but that to even step towards any
semblance of happiness would feel like an enormous betrayal to
Colton. Her Colton. Her husband for two years; two years too short,
and ripped away far too soon. He had been everything to
her.

She inclined her head upwards towards
the half moon rising in the inky blue-black sky. It had been a warm
summer night like tonight when her world came to a crushing end,
and now she tread the waters of existence without really
living.

Out of nowhere, the image of Colton's
brother Cade flashed into her mind. Handsome, warm, always quick
with a joke or a tease… Cade wouldn't let them speak to her like
this. He would understand. He'd lost Colton too.
And so much
more
, the annoying little voice in her mind said. Clara
squeezed her eyes shut and forced the image from her
mind.

Behind her, she caught the sound of her
father's footsteps moving towards her, first one heavy footfall,
then one lighter one, caused by a limp from a broken leg ten years
that hadn’t quite healed properly. He stopped by her side, a few
inches away, and slid a heavy arm around her shoulders, pulling her
against his side so she rested against the thick red plaid
shirt.

"You know we're only trying to do the
best for you, Clara," he murmured, his voice a low rumble. Tom was
a big man, powerfully built with lungs that spent too long exhaling
chastisements at her and her sister and brother when they were
young, and a frame that though older now still said lithe. Like
most of the men in their lycan community his tan face was yet
without lines thanks to their slower aging process. Yet, unlike
many of the 'fight first, questions later' men they knew in their
community, Tom was equally adept at knowing just when to be soft
and gentle. Like now.

"I know," Clara said, relaxing her arms
and shoulders slightly and leaning in to her dad. Of course they
had her best interests at heart. It didn't necessarily mean she
wanted to hear it. She clung to her stubbornness like a baby clung
to a security blanket.

"But your mother is right. You're not
happy and you're wasting away. You're too thin and you've got a
dead look in your eyes. Colton would not want this for
you."

"I know," she repeated, this time her
voice choked with the tears she refused to let out.

"Why don't you move back home, let us
take care of you for a while?" Tom suggested. "That's what family
is for. We're here for each other, without question."

"Thanks, Dad, but I'm fine where I am
really."

"Are you?" asked Tom and she caught a
snag of concern.

"The property still needs a lot of work
but I'm getting there. I know I'm a lot slower than Colton, but
I'll get there eventually."

"That I know," agreed Tom, who never
thought she could do anything a man couldn’t. "I still don't see
why you won't hire some help."

"Good labor isn't exactly easy to come
by," Clara pointed out. "I fired the last two guys when they
thought they could claim a full week's wage even though they spent
half their days chilling in the woods where they thought I couldn't
see them."

"Good for you, honey. But why you don't
get shifters to help you? They won't rip you off and they’ll work
twice as hard. McLuskey’s sons are in need of work, or so I
hear."

Clara huffed. Sure, they wouldn't rip
her off, not if they had any care for their position in their
society, but they would also sniff around her and maybe even try
and claim her as a mate and that wasn't going to happen. She
already bore Colton's mating mark, with pride—had for years, even
prior to their marriage—but everyone knew she was a widow and
apparently that made her fair game again for all the unmated males,
especially as she was unencumbered, in their eyes, with children.
Little did they know how much she longed for them, how she and
Colton had been trying for their own when he was cruelly taken from
her.

No. Truth was, she couldn't be bothered
with fending off the advances of interested males. She had too much
to do to finish the sanctuary that her farm would eventually
become, and besides how could anyone ever match up to her
husband?

Only Cade had been his
match.

At the thought of her husband's
brother, her breath caught and she shook her head, as if she could
rid her mind of his unbidden image that easily. She hadn't seen him
since Colton's funeral, when she'd barely been able to see straight
for crying, and except for the occasional terse email checking in
on her, she hadn't heard from him since. She understood, of course.
Things had been fraught for years between them and it was all down
to her.

From the moment she met Cade, shortly
after she and Colton started dating in her senior year, she knew
Colton wasn't the only one destined to be her mate. No, fate had
determined that Cade was too, only she had rejected him, preferring
to mate with only one male, and not the multiple she could claim as
her right as a lycan female.

Eventually Colton had dragged it out of
her and, surprising, insisted he was fine, that he could cope with
sharing, especially given that fate had given her brothers, and
close ones at that, but she had argued time and again, that she
only wanted him, even if her inner wolf pleaded with her,
howled
, to take them both and not only the times when she
had wondered what it would be like to be thoroughly loved by two
men. Two handsome, strong men who adored her.

Cade had offered himself again to her,
just one once more, after the funeral, telling her he loved her,
and would wait for her and she could always rely on him to be there
for her. That he hated to see her so sad. She remembered hitting
his chest with her fists and screaming at him to go
away.

And he had.

And now she was alone.

"I'll think about it," she
said.

Her father gave her a reassuring
squeeze. "Sure you will," he agreed, but they both knew she
wouldn't. She was too stubborn.

"No, she won't. She's too stubborn."
Her mother heaved a sigh as she voiced everyone's thoughts and they
both turned to look at the diminutive woman who crept up on them
and now stood there, hands on hips. "It's time to stop this
indulgent nonsense. Clara, if you insist on staying at that damned
farm, you need to accept you need help. And if you won't take help,
maybe you should reconsider the offer you got for the place and
move into town."

"Over my dead body!" growled Clara as
she whipped around.

Her mother squared up to her, her chin
thrust upwards, her mouth in a determined line. "It might just come
to that, young lady!"

"Don't young lady me!"

"Then listen to me. Colton is gone and
he's never coming back. You need to get a life because you damn
well deserve happiness and I won't stand by and see you slip away
because you're so miserable you’re driving yourself into an early
grave!"

"Then don't watch," snapped Clara, the
anger seeping unbidden into her voice, even though her own chin
wobbled slightly at her mother’s sharp truth.

"Grow up, girl! Go into town with you
girl friends, whom, by the way, I know you've been
avoiding."

"Have not!" Except, Clara thought with
an internal grimace, she probably was. Her small circle had been
fast friends since school but now she couldn't face seeing them
while her insides wilted every time she laughed or allowed herself
an ounce of happiness. Robyn and Lauren and all her friends had
never experienced loss like this, didn't know how to deal with her
crying fits and maudlin attitude. She couldn’t blame them. Not
really.

"Yes you have! And for that matter, why
don't you go out on a date with a nice man? I know Matthew Harris
asked you out only last week and you shot him down. Not too
politely either from what I hear. Since when did one of my children
lose her manners?"

"I said no, and he wouldn't let up,"
Clara protested. Matthew had been perfectly understanding about it
too when he asked her out right after he helped her load groceries
into her truck, which sort of made how rude she'd been even worse.
She’d felt bad about it sure, but not enough to apologize. Matthew
would probably take it as a hint that she liked him after all and
she didn’t want to give that impression.