The Biker Alpha Who Became My Second Chance Mate Chapter 212

Athena

"The plant," I said, knowing I wasn't making sense but unable to form coherent thoughts. "The dying plant in the living room. She touched it. Tristan, she touched it and it came back to life."

Silence.

All three men just stared at me.

"What?" Orion finally asked.

"The plant," I repeated, frustrated that the words weren't coming out right. "The one I've been trying to save for weeks. It was completely dead. Brown leaves, dry soil, totally gone.

And Ari crawled over to it... she crawled all the way across the room by herself, by the way, we need to talk about that... and she touched it. Just touched one of the dead leaves. And it turned green. The whole plant. In seconds. It's blooming now. It has flowers. Purple flowers that definitely weren't there before."

More silence.

Then Derek spoke, his voice careful. "Are you sure that's what you saw? Not that I'm doubting you, but babies don't usually..."

"I know what I saw," I said firmly, looking at Tristan. "I know how crazy it sounds. But I saw it. She touched the plant and it came back to life."

Tristan's expression had gone from concerned to something else. Something between wonder and fear.

"Your gift," he said slowly. "Could she have inherited your gift?"

"I thought about that," I admitted. "But my gift doesn't work that way, or doesn't it?" I asked no one in particular.

"I thought my powers was to save lives. Human lives. Like, heal minor damage. But I can't bring something back from complete death, like that. Not in seconds."

"Maybe her's is different from yours," Orion suggested, stepping closer. "Gifts can evolve through generations. Get stronger or manifest differently."

"Or maybe we're all losing our minds and misinterpreting what Athena saw," Derek said, ever the practical one. "No offense."

"None taken," I said. "I hope you're right. I hope I imagined it. But I don't think I did."

"Let's go look at the plant," Tristan decided. "All of us. We'll see if there's another explanation."

We trooped inside, Arianna still in my arms, Adrian now awake and alert in his carrier on Tristan's chest.

The babies looked at each other and Adrian reached out, making grabbing motions at his sister. They'd been doing that a lot lately—always wanting to be near each other, fussing when they were separated.

The plant was exactly where I'd left it, sitting on the bookshelf in the corner. Green and healthy and blooming with purple flowers.

Orion let out a low whistle. "That plant was definitely dead last time I saw it. Like, three days ago."

"Completely dead," I confirmed. "I was going to throw it out."

Derek moved closer, studying the plant with a critical eye. He reached out to touch one of the leaves, rubbing it between his fingers.

"It's real," he said. "Not fake. And these flowers... what kind of plant is this supposed to be?"

"It was a fern," I said. "Just a regular fern. It definitely didn't have flowers."

"Ferns don't flower," Derek said. "Ever. They reproduce through spores."

We all looked at the plant again. At the impossible purple blooms.

"So either this was never a fern to begin with," Derek continued slowly, "or something changed it at a fundamental level."

"Something like a six-month-old baby with magical plant powers," Orion said, and despite the seriousness of the situation, there was a hint of amusement in his voice.

"This isn't funny," I said, but I could feel the hysteria bubbling up in my chest. "What are we supposed to do with this information? Our daughter can apparently bring dead plants back to life and make them sprout flowers that shouldn't exist."

"First, we stay calm," Tristan said, his controlled voice coming through—the one that made people listen, that projected confidence even in chaos.

"Second, we figure out if this was a one-time thing or if it's a consistent ability. Third, we make sure she's okay. That using this gift—if that's what it is—doesn't hurt her."

"How do we test it?" I asked. "We can't just hand her dying plants and see what happens. She's a baby."

"We watch her," Orion suggested. "Carefully. See if she does anything else unusual around plants or nature. Document what we see."

"And we don't tell anyone else yet," Derek added. "Not until we understand what we're dealing with. If word gets out that one of your children has a powerful gift, it could attract the wrong kind of attention."

He was right. There were wolves who would see a child with unusual abilities as something to be exploited or feared. We had to be careful.

"What about Adrian?" The words burst out of me before I could stop them. "If Ari inherited my gift—maybe stronger than mine—what if Adrian inherited something too?"

The room went completely silent.

Everyone turned to look at Adrian, who was gnawing on his fist and drooling contentedly, completely unaware of the weight of our stares.

"You think they both might have gifts?" Sarah asked. She'd appeared in the doorway, Lily and Liam behind her, clearly having heard enough of the conversation to understand something important was happening.

"I don't know," I admitted. "But they're twins. If one has abilities, it makes sense that the other might too. Maybe different ones. Or maybe the same. I don't know how this works."

"What would Adrian have inherited?" Derek asked. "What's Tristan's gift?"

We all looked at Tristan.

His jaw was tight, his expression carefully controlled. "Enhanced strength and speed. Basic Alpha abilities but stronger than most. Nothing particularly unusual."

"And the ability to heal quickly," Orion added. "Remember when you broke your arm during that pack fight eight years ago? It healed in three days instead of three weeks."

"I'd forgotten about that," Tristan admitted.

"So if Adrian inherited enhanced healing," Derek said slowly, working through the logic, "we might not even notice it yet. He'd have to get injured for us to see it, and he's a baby. They barely do anything risky enough to get hurt."

"I'm not testing that theory," I said immediately. "We're not deliberately injuring our son to see if he heals faster than normal."

"Of course not," Derek agreed quickly. "I'm just saying we might not know for a while. Unlike Ari's gift, which is apparently very obvious."

Arianna chose that moment to reach toward the plant again, her little hand stretching toward it.

I yanked her back instinctively. "No, baby. No touching."

She made an unhappy sound, her face scrunching up like she might cry.