The Second Chance Wolf Chapter 08

The Second Chance Wolf Chapter 08

[Hope, Mom and Dad are so sorry.]

[We won’t disturb your life anymore.]

[If you ever need anything, come home. Our home will always be your safe haven.]

I held the thin note tightly as my fingers slowly curled around it.

There was no warmth in my heart. Only an endless emptiness.

Perhaps they truly regretted what they had done.

But the words safe haven felt painfully ironic.

I didn’t need one anymore.

Over the next four years, I completely cut ties with my old pack and devoted myself to becoming a warrior.

The physique and strength that Jake, the former head of the pack’s warriors, had once dismissed steadily

grew stronger.

My combat skills, already solid, improved even more through the academy’s training.

From earning first place in the freshman assessment to sweeping every major warrior competition at Royal Fang Academy…

I won them all.

My name appeared at the top of the academy’s honor roll again and again.

I was awarded the Alpha King’s Special Scholarship.

The instructors often praised me in front of the entire academy, calling me the most remarkable dark horse Royal Fang Academy had seen in years, the hardest-working student, and the one with the greatest potential.

In the end, I graduated at the top of my class.

I was named an Outstanding Graduate.

That same year, Royal Fang Academy held the second-round auditions for its Department of Dance.

Four years had passed.

Anna had repeated the entrance exam for four straight years.

For those four years, our parents poured everything they had into her.

They paid for another year of school again and again, hired the best tutors they could find, and spent

whatever money it took to clear a path for her.

Perhaps trying to make up for the guilt they carried toward me, they invested every hope in Anna instead

But on the day the admission results were posted…

I had just finished my graduation paperwork and happened to pass the academy’s bulletin board.

I scanned the long list of accepted applicants from top to bottom.

Anna Rosales’s name wasn’t there.

Not this year either.

After graduation, I officially became one of the Alpha King’s Royal Warriors.

On Thanksgiving Day, a phone number that had been silent for four years suddenly appeared on my screen.

I hesitated for only a second before answering.

It was Mom.

Her voice sounded much older than I remembered.

“Hope… it’s Thanksgiving. You haven’t come back to the pack in four whole years.”

“We know you’ve done so well. You graduated. You even became one of the Alpha King’s favorite Royal

Warriors. You must be very busy.”

She paused before speaking again, her voice carrying a quiet humility I had never heard before.

“Would you… come home for Thanksgiving this year? Your father and I miss you so much. We just want to have one family dinner together.”

I stood alone in the quiet forest, my phone resting against my ear.

The breeze lifted my hair.

Beside me, Rue let out a low, contented rumble.

Four years…

It had already been four years.

After a long silence, I finally answered, “Okay.”

I booked a flight for Thanksgiving Day.

Four years after leaving, I returned to the small town where I had been born and raised.

The pack hadn’t changed.

The greenery in the packhouse courtyard was still lush and vibrant.

Only the warm lights glowing inside the house felt strangely unfamiliar.

The moment I opened the door, Mom and Dad hurried toward me.

Their eyes never left me. There was carefulness in their gaze now.

Even a hint of pleading.

They had aged considerably over the past four years. Gray hair lined their temples.

The Alpha authority they once carried had long since faded.

Anna sat quietly on the sofa.

Four years of failure had worn away all of her pride.

When I looked at the dinner table, I noticed something else.

For the first time… there wasn’t a single seafood dish.

Mom awkwardly placed food onto my plate, “Hope, we remembered you’re allergic. We’ll never cook seafood

at home again.”

I looked down at the food without any emotion.

After four years of living alone, thousands of miles away, my tastes had quietly changed.

I was no longer the girl who longed for a dinner that wouldn’t make her break out in hives.

I sat there quietly. I barely touched my food. Almost nothing was said.

After a long, uncomfortable silence, Dad was the first to speak, breaking the fragile peace hanging over the

dinner table.