THE LYCAN KING’S SECOND CHANCE MATE

ASHANTI'S POV.

"Ryan, what are you doing here so early in the morning?" I ask Ryan when I step out of the bathroom after freshening up. He's standing by my door with a perplexed look on his face.

“Did Alpha Reagan say anything about sending servants over?"

"No." My brows crease.

"Did you hire a chef already?"

“Uh... no. Why am I undergoing an interrogation from you at seven am in the morning?" I ask, frowning. He points at the closed door behind him.

"There's a girl cooking in our kitchen downstairs."

"What girl?"

"I do not know, that's why I was asking you those questions. She's not wearing a maid's uniform, neither is she wearing the white cloaks chefs always put on. She has on regular clothes and she's cooking in our kitchen."

My silly attempt to hold in my laughter fails woefully! I throw my head back as the fat laughter bubble in my throat tears out of my lips and my entire frame shakes as my loud voice fills the entire room. Ryan doesn't look amused at all.

“Excuse me, did I say something funny?" He's frowning as he poses that question. A few drops of tears leak down out of my eyes as I stare at him, still dying in fits of laughter.

"Sorry..." I wheeze. "I... I... I'm so sorry, I just..." I try to control the laughter by pressing my lips in a thin line and holding my palms against my mouth, but the next magma of laughter boiling in my chest is stronger than the first and it erupts out of my mouth, forcing my hand off my lips.

"Right!" Ryan exclaims, throwing his hands in the air in irritation. “Thank you for being so helpful." I rush over to him and hold his hand so he doesn't walk out of my bedroom.

"I'm sorry.” I take in three deep breaths to calm my nerves and my shaky body. "It's over. I'm not going to laugh again."

"What the hell did I even say that was so funny."

"Chef do not wear white cloaks, dummy! You could have just said chef uniform. You had to crack my ribs by making me imagine a sixty-year old woman dragging a white cloak around the kitchen as she cooks.” I purse my lips tight and look up at the ceiling as I try to control and prevent myself from bursting into another fit of laughter that's going to further enrage him.

"You are an idiot. A very big idiot."

"I know." I look back at him and breathe out shakily. "And I'm sorry. About the girl, I have a question."

"As long as it's not a stupid one."

"Is she still cooking downstairs?"Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

"Yes."

"What?" Now all the laughter has gone back into my stomach and my entire body is alarmed. "You found some random girl cooking in our kitchen and you didn't confront her, you just left her there?"

"Uh... yeah."

“What if she's a spy that was sent to cook us food with poison and force us both to eat it, or worse still hypnotise us into eating the poisoned food. Ryan, I have a lot of enemies in this pack."

"Trust me, she's not here to do that. She looks too pretty and hot to be a killer." I fold my arms over my breasts and shoot him a furious glare. "You've got to be kidding me."

"No I'm not. You've got to see this girl. She's hot! And she has this bad girl vibe going on... I'll take her number before she leaves."

"You know what?..." I push him away

from the door. "I'm gonna go see for

myself" I turn back to face him and point my index finger at him while wearing a serious look. "And you better not be lying!" I start marching along the hallway and he follows me still dishing out compliments about the girl cooking in the kitchen. My anxiety levels peak with each step intake towards the staircase that leads to downstairs.

I descend the flight of stairs at the speed of light and take the hallway on my right before the foyer that introduces the living room. I pass by the dinning and soon I'm at the

kitchen door, ready to fire et

at the girl, but the moment Set my eyes on her, I freeze in my tracks and so does Ryan.

She's pretty, alright? Just like Ryan had described, but that doesn't surprise me because I've known that for years now. She seems to have е sensed my presence because she stops chopping the ingredients on

the chopping board and tur

to

face me. My heart lurches when her

face breaks into a wide smile.

"I told you her beauty is out of this world, but you didn't believe me, now you are completely mesmerised." Ryan whispers in my ears and I roll my eyes internally.

It's not the beauty of the girl that has got me speechless.

It's the girl herself.

She's Tessa. The only true friend I had when I was still a Harem girl at the castle. My best friend whom I abandoned two years ago.

"Tessa..." I whisper, broken.

This is not how I had imagined we'd meet again.