The Biker Alpha Who Became My Second Chance Mate Chapter 69

Tristan's POV

"Athena, I think he likes you."

The words hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest. There was no need to ask for details. We all knew exactly who Leah was talking about. The pretty boy with his perfect smile and his homemade cookies.

I raised an eyebrow, trying to look casual while my insides twisted into knots. He liked her. After knowing her for all of five minutes, this stranger had decided he was interested in my...

In Athena. Not my anything. Just Athena.

"She's beautiful. I'm not surprised," my wolf said unhelpfully in the back of my mind.

Thanks for that. Really what I needed to hear right now.

"What are you talking about?" Orion asked, his eyebrow raised and his tone sharp.

I felt a surge of gratitude toward him. At least one of us was sensible enough to be suspicious of some random guy showing up with baked goods and movie-star looks.

Even though it shouldn't matter to me what Athena did or didn't do, at least Orion would keep her safe.

"Don't mind Leah," Athena said quickly, and I felt some of the tension in my shoulders ease. "I'm sure she's just messing with you."

She doesn't like him. The relief that flooded through me was so intense I had to take a careful breath to keep it from showing on my face.

"What do you mean, don't mind me?" Leah protested with a grin that made me want to strangle her. "You're single, so if he asks you out, would you really say no?"

I felt like my head was going to explode. This was exactly why I'd regretted pushing Orion to get Athena an assistant. Leah was doing more harm than good, stirring up trouble where none needed to exist.

My blood was actually boiling, heat rising up my neck as I waited for Athena's response.

She shrugged, not looking at any of us. "Like you said, I'm single. I can't just automatically say no. I'd have to think about it first."

My eyes snapped to her face so fast I probably almost shifted my eyes socket. She wasn't looking at me, but I was one hundred percent sure she could feel the weight of my stare burning into the side of her head.

This was the moment. This was when Orion needed to step in and be the overprotective brother, tell her she needed to be careful, remind her that she barely knew this guy.

"You're right," he said, and for a split second I thought he was going to say something reasonable.

"But I need you to be careful when you decide to give yourself another chance at love. I want you to find someone who'll love you and choose you first."

The words felt like a knife sliding between my ribs, twisting as they sank in. Each one was aimed directly at me, a reminder of every way I'd failed her over the years.

I'd always hurt her. Always pushed her away when she was at her most vulnerable. Always chosen something else, someone else, over her.

I knew Orion was right. I knew I wasn't the kind of man Athena deserved, wasn't the kind of man I'd want for her if I could think objectively.

I was someone who still held onto his dead mate's memory like a lifeline, someone who would probably always end up hurting her in the end.

I knew all of that. So why did hearing it out loud feel like someone was ripping my heart out of my chest with their bare hands?

We spent the rest of the afternoon helping her arrange furniture and unpack boxes, all of us carefully avoiding any mention of the handsome neighbor. But he hung over everything like a shadow, this threat I couldn't fight because I had no right to.

When it came time to leave, I assumed Athena would come home with me like she had every night for the past month. It was automatic, natural, the way we'd fallen into this routine of sharing space and meals and quiet conversations.

But she didn't move toward my bike.

"I think I'm going to stay here tonight," she said, not quite meeting my eyes. "Start getting used to the place, you know?"

I felt like the ground had opened up beneath my feet.

"Are you sure?" I asked, hating how desperate I sounded. "It's your first night. What if something goes wrong? What if you need something?"

"I'll be fine, Tristan. It's just one night."

Just one night. The first of many nights where she wouldn't be in the room next to mine, where I wouldn't be able to hear her moving around or know that she was safe.

I thought Orion would back me up, insist she come stay with him at least until she was more settled. But he didn't.

"That's probably a good idea," he said, kissing her forehead. "Start making it feel like home."

Another betrayal, even though I knew it wasn't intentional. Orion was being supportive, encouraging her independence. He was being a good brother.

I was just being selfish.

The four of us walked outside together, and I caught myself automatically heading toward my motorcycle, waiting for the familiar sound of Athena's footsteps behind me.

When I reached my bike and turned around, she was still standing by the building entrance with Sarah and Leah.

That's when it really hit me.

Athena had left me.

Not dramatically, not with tears or accusations or slamming doors. She'd just quietly, calmly created a life that didn't include me at the center of it.

I wouldn't carry her on my bike anymore. She wouldn't wrap her arms around my waist or rest her head against my back during long rides. She wouldn't be there when I got home from work or when I woke up in the morning.

She'd moved on.

"See you tomorrow," I said to everyone, my voice coming out rougher than I'd intended.

The ride home felt endless. Every mile that stretched between my bike and her new apartment felt like another piece of my chest being carved away. By the time I pulled into my driveway, I could barely breathe.

When I opened my front door, the silence hit me like a physical force.

My house had never felt this empty. Not even right after I'd lost Jess, when grief had made everything feel hollow and meaningless.

This was different. This was the emptiness of something that had been there and was now gone.

I walked through the rooms like a ghost, touching surfaces that still held traces of her presence. The kitchen counter where we'd made breakfast together, where I'd lifted her up and kissed her and eaten her up until we both forgot everything else.

The dining room where she'd insisted we eat meals together, slowly breaking down the walls I'd built around myself.

Her room was the last place I went. I sat on the edge of her bed, still unmade from her last night here, and let the faint scent of her shampoo wash over me.

This was what I'd wanted, wasn't it? Space. Distance. A return to the carefully controlled life I'd built around my grief and guilt.

So why did it feel like I was dying inside?

"You pushed her away," my wolf said, his voice cutting through my misery like a blade.

I didn't want to hear this. Not tonight. Not when the house felt so empty I could hear my own heartbeat echoing off the walls.

"Five years ago too," he continued, relentless.

"Now isn't the time," I growled internally, but he wasn't finished.

"When is the time, Tristan? You let our mate go five years ago."

The words I'd been dreading for years, the truth I'd buried so deep I'd almost convinced myself it wasn't real.

"You felt it too, didn't you?" my wolf pressed. "That night at her eighteenth birthday party, when she shifted for the first time. You felt the bond snap into place."

I had felt it. God help me, I had felt it. The moment her wolf had emerged, beautiful and fierce and unmistakably mine, something deep in my chest had recognized her. Had claimed her.

But I'd killed it immediately, told myself it was lust and she wasn't and couldn't be my mate. I needed someone safer, someone who wouldn't complicate my life or make me feel things I shouldn't feel.

Told myself she was my little sister, my little sister can't be my mate.

"You knew," my wolf said, his voice heavy with years of accumulated pain. "You knew she was ours, and you rejected her without a word. Then five years ago, you let her think she wasn't good enough, that she wasn't worthy of being loved. And that was why she ended in the harms of that good for nothing Alpha."

"Stop," I whispered aloud, but the words kept coming.

"You've broken her heart multiple times. And then you did it five night ago too."

I buried my face in my hands, breathing in the lingering scent of Athena's presence and feeling like I was suffocating.

"She's better off without me," I said finally, the words scraping my throat raw.

"She deserves the truth," my wolf shot back.

"There's no truth. Jess was, and is my chosen mate."