My Brother’s Mate
Chapter 7

Two months later: Emily's POV

I wake up early to meet Mike at the training field. I've actually gotten pretty good at fighting and it's helping me so much to deal with everything that's going on. Mike is being the sweetest and is with me every step of the way. I get up and get dressed and head out my door. I am met with the strong smell of rosewood and salt. It is nice. I look up and see Mike looking at me. I've never really smelled Mike like this before. I try to push it out of my mind. "Hey ready for training?" I say with a smile. It took him a minute to respond.

"Oh yeah sorry." He says looking a little upset. We walk down stairs and out the door. The sun hasn't come up yet and everyone is still sleeping. This is my favorite time. When we get to the training area I could still smell Mike it is so weird, like when I could smell Liam for the first time. But my wolf wasn't saying anything, not like she did for Liam.

"Do you want to spar first and then run?" I ask.

"Sure. You think you'll finally beat me?" Mike says with a smirk.

"I've beaten you before." I spit back.

"You mean you cheated before." He says with a chuckle.

We circle each other and I let him make the first move. He misses and I punch his side. He takes a step back. He changes direction and comes in slower this time. He swings I move and swing, he grabs my arm and then I feel it. It radiates through my body and I freeze. Mike freezes too. He has to feel it. The tingles of the mate bond. I take a step back from him.

"What was that?" He asks

"That's....that's the mate bond" I say. I felt another ping in my heart. What is going on? How can I feel the mate bond with Mike. I walk over and touch his arm. Tingles. Definitely tingles. I look up in his eyes. But the overwhelming urge to run takes over me and I run. I run back to the pack house.

"EMILY!" I hear Mike yelling behind me but I can't stop. I burst through the front door and Luna Jackie and Alpha James are standing in the kitchen, they whip their heads to me.

"How can I feel the mate bond with Mike?" I ask as Mike comes up behind me. They look and me and then him and then at each other. Luna Jackie comes over to me and grabs my hands. She pulls me to the couch to sit down. The Alpha and Mike stand near us. "Well dear there is something called second chance mates. It's very rare but does happen." The Luna explains.

"What?!" I exclaim. "Second chance mates?"

"Yes dear. The Moon Goddess can give you a second chance at love." She goes on.

"But I've been with Mike everyday for 3 months since Liam died. How come I can feel it now?" I ask.

"Well because it's so rare we don't know too much about it. It could be because you weren't ready, it could be because the moon goddess thought it the right time." She said rubbing my shoulder.

"But I'm not ready. It's too soon." I say as I stand up and back away from them.

"Honey, I know this is overwhelming. And nothing has to happen right now." The Luna is trying to calm me down. But I just don't know what's going on and I don't know how I feel about it. I can't have another mate and if something happened to Mike I would be completely alone. I wouldn't survive another one.

"I need to be alone." I say and run upstairs to my room. I close the door and crawl back into bed. What the hell am I going to do now? I lay in bed the rest of the day. Thankfully no one bothers me. I must have dozed off, because when I woke up the sun is down. I sit up in my bed. I feel so lost. I look at the clock and it is 9 pm.

"Mom are you still up?" I ask.

"Yes hun, did you want to come over?" She asks.

"I'm coming." I get up and head out of my room, down the stairs, and out the front door. Thankfully I don't run into anyone. I get to my parents home and open the door. My mom is waiting for me in the living room.

"Honey." She stands and hugs me tight. I cry a bit.

"Honey tell me what's going on." She sits me down. I tell her everything that happened today and what the Luna said. She takes it all in and waits for me to be done.

"I see. Can I ask, what scares you the most. Mike being your mate or having another mate in general?" She asks.

"Well having another mate in general I guess." I answer

"Ok. And between having another mate or losing another mate?" She asks. I know she knows the answer.

"Losing another one." I say.

"Honey what happened to you and Liam was tragic. Not a lot of wolves go through what you had to and at such a young age. I wish I could protect you from the pain of life. And I wish I could guarantee it won't happen again. But sweetie no one can. Life is going to unfold how it wishes, and you can run and hide from it, or you can stand up everytime and become stronger." She rubs my shoulder and a tear falls from my eye.

"I don't know if I will survive another one mom." I say as more tears fall.

"Oh honey, don't let fear steal your happiness." She says with tears in her eyes.

"Mike is a good man. In fact just last year you were so worried he wouldn't be your mate you didn't even want to have your birthday. Maybe the Moon Goddess knew what she was doing from the beginning." My mom says. And I never even thought of it like that. I mean now I'm back to being the packs next Luna again like I had been training. Mike is my best friend and I loved him and he loved me. He's been by my side everyday. Was I really going to be so afraid of losing him that I miss out on what I wanted? I still need time to process everything though.

"Thanks mom. I feel better now," I admit. I hug my mom and head back to the pack house. I head inside, upstairs and into my room, but a moment later I hear a knock on my door. I open it and see Mike standing there.

"Hey sorry I saw you come back and I just wanted to check on you. I know you said you wanted space, and I'll totally leave I just haven't seen you all day. I just wanted to make sure you were alright." He was rambling. I giggle and it made him stop. "Mike I'm fine. I just went to go talk to my mom. I still want to be alone tonight, but can we have lunch tomorrow?" I ask. He perks up at my invitation.

"Yeah sure whatever you want." He says taking a step back.

"Goodnight Mike." I say

"Goodnight Em." He says and I close my door. I crawl into bed.

"Sam?" She has been weirdly quiet through this whole thing.

"Yes Emily."

"You've been quiet."

"Something doesn't feel quite right to me."

"What do you mean?"

"It doesn't feel like it did with Liam." She whispers, she doesn't want to upset me.

"Maybe because it's a second chance. I don't know how any of this is supposed to feel Sam. But it's definitely different." I say

"It is different than before with him. And I feel what you feel towards him. I just can't fight this feeling though. Like with Liam he made us whole. I don't feel that with Mike. Like the smallest part of us is still missing." Sam said. I knew what she meant. Like there was something somewhere but just out of reach. Like a ghost. I've felt it since I woke up. But I've always thought it was apart of grieving or sadness. "We'll figure it out Sam. Together." I say. She seems more at ease and we fall asleep.

Dream.

I am running through the woods. I don't recognize the land or the trees. Sam was having fun feeling the earth beneath her paws. Then a familiar scent hits her nose but can't place it. So she runs towards it. Then she sees a wolf, and he sees her. We just stare at each other. It was Liams wolf. He came closer and circles us, almost predatorily but not threatening. Then he lunges at us and I wake up breathing heavily. I look around my room and calm myself down. What a strange dream. I lay back down and eventually fall back asleep.