An Unwanted Second Chance (JB Tirado) novel Chapter 56

Someone gave Riley a pair of shorts and a shirt before leading her to the room where Kent was laying on the

table, covered in blood.

“Don’t go further,” the woman warned. “You don’t have shoes on. Just stand here. I’ll ask someone to find you

some shoes.”

She watched as they worked over him, packing wounds and starting an IV. A burly man was barking out

orders as others rushed around.

“He needs surgery,” the man was yelling, throwing bloody gauze onto the floor. Riley felt panic welling up in

her chest as the doctor cursed, blood dripping from the table onto the floor.

She felt gentle hands curl around her shoulders. “Come away,” Max whispered in her ear. “You have to let

them work. He’s going to need surgery. You can’t follow him there.”

“No,” she said forcefully, shrugging his hands off. “Go back and help the others.”

She took a step towards the room and the doctor glanced up, his eyes widening slightly as he realized she

was there.”

“Beta,” the doctor barked, “you two need to get out of here. I’ll let you know once he’s out of surgery.”

“Come on,” Max said to Riley, again tugging on her shoulder. “The rogues have been driven back. Pat, Wes

and Leo are checking the border right now. I’ll stay with you.”

She pulled away and he sighed, stepping in front of her to block her view. She tried to move around him but he wrapped his arms around her, forcefully hugging her to his solid chest. She tried to get away, but her whole body was weak and trembling. After a moment she gave up, burying her face into his chest as she

started to cry.

“It’s ok,” he whispered, stroking her hair gently. “They’ll do everything they can. That’s their alpha. Just come

with me, please.”

She reluctantly nodded into his chest and allowed herself to be led into a small waiting room.

Max sat her down in a chair and then sat beside her, taking her hand for comfort. She gripped his fingers

hard, resting her head on his shoulder. At some point, a young woman brought in a blanket and shoes. Max covered Riley with the blanket before sitting back, letting her rest her head on his shoulder again.

As the time ticked on, Riley’s head hurt and her chest started to ache. She found herself wondering what would happen with her illness if Kent died, but quickly pushed the thoughts out of her head. He had to be ok. There wasn’t another option.

“This is all my fault,” Max whispered after a while.

“Why do you say that?” Riley murmured, her eyes closed.

“You’re going to be so angry with me,” he said, his voice hoarse.

She sat up, leaning away from him so she could see his face. She could tell he had been crying as she gently let go of his hand. He bit his lip, staring at the floor.

“Because you know what the rogues are after?” she whispered.

Chapter 56

He nodded.

“You’re the reason Kent won’t tell me.” Max’s head jerked towards her at those words. “He said he was

protecting you.”

Max’s eyes widened. “What has he told you?”

“Nothing at first. But I overheard you the day Kent left for New Dawn, when you were outside his bedroom. I had woken up when you guys were talking. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but you said that whatever the rogues are after effects you more than anyone else. You and Penny. I tried to get him to tell me, but he insists that he has to protect you.”

Max stared at her for a long moment. “He thinks the rogues are after my son, Evan.”

“What?” Riley exclaimed. “Why would the rogues be after a child?”

Max sighed, rubbing his hands over his face. “You know that he is adopted, but there is so much more to his story. Did Kent ever tell you what exactly happened with the rogues in the forest four years ago? The ones we

hunted down after Lily died.”

“He said that he killed them all himself,” she said slowly. “He said you and Pat just watched. That some of the rogues were defenseless.”

“Yeah.” Max nodded, swallowing hard. “It was like that. Kent lost his mind after Lily died. The scouts had tracked the rogues involved to that small camp. Pat and I went with him, but no one else from the pack

came.

“Once we got there, though, we couldn’t stop him.” Max’s face twisted at the memory. “He ran into that camp like he was rabid. He started killing everyone. We could only watch. It didn’t even take that long. When he was done, his fur was matted in blood and he looked absolutely feral. But then…” He trailed off, looking at his

hands.

“What happened?” Riley prompted.

Max swallowed hard again. “We heard this crying. Pax walked into a tent but Kent walked out. He was carrying this baby, a pup who was about a year old. We didn’t know what to do. We didn’t know which of the rogues the boy belonged to. We took him back to the pack. He was so small and undernourished. The doctor said he hadn’t been cared for properly in quite some time. He had marks on him, bruises, like someone had been hitting him. He had old, healed fractures they found on X–rays. There was one in his arm that didn’t heal properly and it had to be rebroken and reset.”

“That’s awful,” Riley whispered.

“It was,” Max agreed. “He was just a baby and he had already suffered so much. We debated for weeks about what to do. Since I was the only one with a kid at the time, he just became my responsibility. I already had clothes that fit him and a space prepared for children so it just made sense at first. We were worried that if we reached out to the council that they would question the attack. We worried that they might question Kent’s state of mind and his ability to lead, so we just didn’t say anything.”

Riley frowned, her forehead furrowing. “But what did you do about the baby? You have to declare a rogue orphan before one can be legally adopted. How did you end up adopting Evan?”

He shrugged. “We just told people that Penny and I had taken in an orphan from a neighboring pack. No one really questioned it.”

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“You never formally adopted him?” she whispered. “You have an undeclared orphan in your care?”

He nodded, biting his lip again.

વાયું એની તક તે

“You have to declare orphans so that bloodlines can be traced,” Riley exclaimed. “You can’t just keep a baby. It’s not a f*****g dog. He could have family out there. Family that could take care of him.”

“I am his family,” Max snapped, his eyes darkening. “I take care of him. I have for years.”

She shook her head, pressing on her temples to clear the pain. “I didn’t mean it like that, Max.I know you love him. I know that you are good to him. I just meant that blood family is always the first goal with an orphan. Not declaring him is illegal. You could get in trouble. The Council can take him away from you.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” he spit out, his face red. “We knew the risk we were taking, but we never thought someone from the Council would find out. We’d never had Council involvement in our pack. We had no reason to think we ever would.”

“s**t,” she whispered, looking up at the ceiling for a moment. “What makes you think these attacks are related to him?”

“We captured a rogue about two months ago during an attack,” Max said softly. “We only had some Council warriors at the time and a head warrior, but it wasn’t Leo. It was the other guy, Doug the prick. We didn’t tell him we had a prisoner. He kept screwing s**t up and he was a real pain in the ass so Kent didn’t want him involved. We interrogated the rogue without him knowing.”

Riley shook her head. “Do you guys follow any rules?”

“The rogue told us about the woman leading the rogues,” Max continued, pretending that Riley hadn’t spoken. “He told us that she was searching for her child, a child that was stolen by this pack. We knew immediately that he meant Evan.”

“So you’ve had this information for over two months and you’ve chosen not to share it,” she exclaimed. “Do you realize that you’ve been putting this entire pack in danger?”

“I’ve been protecting my son,” he cried, standing up. “I had to do what was best for him.”

“Fuck.”