Page 12 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

“If you can figure out how to work that ancient thing, sure,” I replied. “I’m gonna talk to the technician. I swear to God, he better have the water on.”

Ashton sat on his knees in front of the television, gaping at the knobs and dials. The thing had been there since I’d been a kid, and even then, I’d thought it looked like something from the ’60s. The first thing I did was walk into the kitchen and lift the lever on the kitchen sink. Cool, clear water poured out of it.

“Hallelujah,” I muttered.

A moment later, there was a knock on the door.

As I walked to the door, I did my best to talk myself down. A stern talking-to would be enough. I didn’t need to lose my shit unless absolutely necessary. I opened the door and nearly fainted.

Standing there, a somewhat bashful grin on his face, was Cole Garrett. The world tilted, and for a moment, I thought I might stumble backward as my past slammed into my present. This was more an earth-shattering revelation than a simple surprise.

“Hey, Aves. Been a while,” Cole said.

From the look on his face, he was less shocked to see me than I was to see him. His button-up shirt had an embroidered logo on it:Harbor Mills Water Utility.A vague and distant memory resurfaced. His father had something to do with one of the service companies in town. We’d never gotten into specifics. Cole and I had been too wrapped up in each other, desperate to learn about all our deepest wants, desires, hopes, and dreams to worry about what his father did for a living. Now it made sense why he was here.

The initial surprise burned away in an instant under the intense heat of my anger.

“Hey, Aves?” I snarled, keeping my voice low, all too aware of Ashton in the living room. I stepped out and jammed a finger into his chest, his eyes widening in surprise. “You disappear on me fifteenfuckingyears ago, and all you have to say to me isHey, Aves?”

I’d liked the cute little nickname he’d used on me back then. Now it made my blood boil.

“Easy,” Cole said, holding his hands up in surrender as I pushed him out onto the front porch, farther from Ashton’s ears. “I’m sorry. I came to tell you I was sorry. That’s why?—”

“Bullshit, you asshole,” I hissed. “You didn’t apologize back then. You walked out, leaving me heartbroken and alone.” Tears threatened to form in my eyes, and that fact pissed me off evenmore. I didnotwant to cry in front of this man. Jabbing my finger into his chest again, I said, “No letter. No call. No text. Nothing. Not even a fuck you.”

Cole’s face fell, and there was real, heartrending regret there, but I had no time or patience for that. He wasn’t the one who was raising a son—a shifter, no less—by himself. Cole wasn’t the one navigating life and a career, all while figuring out daycare, doctors’ appointments, sports practices—all of it alone. No support. I clenched my eyes shut, willing the tears away.

“All I ever got was that bullshit you told Farrah,” I hissed. “Telling me to forget you? What pathetic cowardly crap was that?”

“Farrah?” He frowned at me, confusion in his eyes. “What?—”

“Mom?” Ashton’s voice came from the foyer.

My stomach sank, twisting into knots. When I turned to look at him, I wanted to throw up. He was gazing at Cole in surprise. I turned a bitter glance toward Cole, and what I saw there stopped me dead in my tracks.

Cole, undoubtedly seeing the uncanny resemblance, stood there, arms slack, jaw open, left eye twitching. That was not the look of a man seeing his son for the first time after knowing about him for years. It was the face of a man seeing the son henever knew he had.

“Ashton, go to your room,” I said.

“But Mom?—”

“Go to your room now, dammit,” I growled, barely keeping my words from turning into a shout.

Ashton sighed in the pissed-off way only teenagers could manage. He turned and grumbled under his breath. “This is bullshit.”

I let that go, too concerned with dealing with Cole to chastise him for language. When I turned back to Cole, he was still staring at the spot where Ashton had stood a few seconds ago.

“Why were you looking at my son like you’ve seen a ghost?” I said in a low, quavering voice.

My words snapped him out of whatever trance he’d been in, and he turned his eyes to me, the shock giving way to anger and confusion.

“Avery? What the fuck is going on? Who’s that kid?”

“You know who he is,” I snapped. “You’ve always known.” I waswillingit to be true, unwilling to accept what I was beginning to realize.

“I’ve known? Known what?”

“Your father and sister told you. I told Farrah I was pregnant, Cole,” I said, my voice rising in desperation. “I told her to contact you, so you’d come back. She told me you said you didn’t want anything to do with a baby, that you wanted me to forget you.”

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