A Warrior's Second Chance (Faye and Alexander) novel Chapter 233

Chapter 233

FAYE

Alexander arrived to a house that looked… normal.

By the time his car pulled into the driveway, Helen had already had the mess upstairs handled.

Whatever chaos had torn through her bedroom earlier had been erased–blood cleaned, glass swept away, furniture restored or removed entirely.

Nothing downstairs hinted at what had happened, and that was intentional. Helen didn’t like such energy around her, and she didn’t like panic. At least, that was what she said.

I was standing in the living room when the door opened.

The moment Alexander stepped inside, his eyes went straight to me.

He didn’t pause. He didn’t ask questions…didn’t even fully close the door behind him before he crossed the space between us. His arms came around me fast and hard, pulling me into his chest like he needed to feel me breathing before anything else mattered.

I melted into him…I needed the hug more than I thought.

He didn’t say anything. Just held me. His heartbeat was loud under my ear–too fast for someone who was pretending to be calm. I wrapped my arms around his waist, pressing my face into his jacket, inhaling him like that alone could finish steadying me.

When he finally pulled back, it wasn’t far.

His hands were already on my shoulders, sliding down my arms, checking. His eyes scanned my face, my neck, my torso, restrained panic fashing in his eyes.

“Are you hurt?” he asked again.

I smiled a little to ease his tension. “No, Alexander,” I said. “I’m fine.”

He didn’t answer right away. His gaze lingered, searching for something I wasn’t saying.

“I’m fine,” I repeated more gently. I lost count of how many times I had to repeat that to him in one day. “Really.”

Only then did his shoulders loosen–just a fraction. He nodded once, then pulled me back into his arms again, this time slower, tighter, like the reality of me being okay had finally reached him.

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I rested my cheek against his chest.

“You scared me,” he murmured.

“I know,” I whispered back.

+25 Points

He pulled away again, this time glancing around the living room, confusion briefly crossing

his face.

“Where’s Mom?” he asked.

“She’s upstairs,” I said. “She’ll come down.”

Almost on cue, footsteps sounded from above.

Helen appeared at the top of the stairs, composed as ever, descending like nothing out of the ordinary had occurred in her home today. She looked calm and collected.

The shallow cut on her arm had been treated and wrapped, barely noticeable now.

Alexander straightened immediately.

“Mom.”

He moved toward her, then hesitated.

The pause was brief, but I caught it. The awkward space that always seemed to form between them in moments that required… softness. They were good at strategy, command, authority. Emotion had always been harder. As always, I could relate…that was kinda like me and my mother.”

Helen stopped a few steps from him.

“I’m fine,” she said before he could even ask.

He nodded, clearly unsure what to do next, then stepped closer and reached out, his hand hovering before finally settling on her shoulder.

“You sure?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “I’ve had worse.”

That earned her a look. The kind that said he hated that answer but expected nothing else.

After another second of uncertainty, Alexander leaned in and hugged her.

It wasn’t long. It wasn’t clumsy either. Just firm enough to mean something.

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+25 Points

Helen stiffened for half a heartbeat… then hugged him back.

Something warm bloomed in my chest as I watched them. I smiled without realizing it.

When they pulled apart, Alexander cleared his throat and shifted back into alpha mode like a switch had been flipped.

“What happened to them?” he asked. “The attackers.”

Helen didn’t miss a beat.

“All dead, and I didn’t expect you to arrive quickly,” she said calmly. “So I had one of my people take care of it.”

Alexander’s jaw tightened. “You moved the bodies?”

“Yes.”

“Mom-”

“I took samples first,” she continued smoothly. “Hair. Enough to trace pack origin. Whoever sent them made a mistake.”

Alexander exhaled through his nose. “You still shouldn’t have touched the scene. I already called Derek.”

That made her glance at him.

“When?”

“On my way here,” he said. “He’s Blood Crescent. He can run a private investigation, but it still needs to be clean. Police will have to be involved.”

Helen’s expression hardened.

“I’m not relying on the police for this,” she said flatly. “Someone was bold enough to come for my son’s pregnant mate in my home. I’m handling this the old fashioned way.”

Alexander opened his mouth to argue-

But footsteps interrupted them.

Two men appeared at the top of the stairs, carrying cleaning supplies. They moved with confidence, clearly comfortable in the space. When they reached the living room, they nodded respectfully toward Alexander.

“We’re done,” one of them said to Helen… smiling.

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“Thank you,” Helen replied warmly. “Drive safe.”

They nodded again and left without another word.

Alexander watched them go, his expression shifting to something… puzzled.

“Who are they?” he asked carefully.

I understood the question beneath the question.

I’d noticed it earlier too–one of the men had been far too familiar with Helen. Too

comfortable. Not inappropriate, but… close.

Helen waved it off. “Friends. People I trust.”

+25 Points

Alexander looked like he wanted to say more, but he didn’t. He simply stared at the door as if wanting to see the men again.

I stepped closer to him before the moment stretched too thin..

“Can we go home?” I asked softly.

He turned to me immediately. “Of course.”

He took my hand, threading his fingers through mine.

As we walked toward the door, I glanced back once more at Helen. She gave me a small nod.

The drive home was quiet.

Alexander kept one hand on the steering wheel and the other firmly wrapped around mine, his grip steady. His eyes stayed on the road, jaw set, brows drawn slightly together like he was piecing something apart in his head.

I watched him for a moment. Whenever Alexander went quiet like this, it meant something was bothering him deeply.

“What’s on your mind?” I asked softly.

He didn’t hesitate. Didn’t deflect. Didn’t pretend everything was fine.

“My mother is hiding something,” he said.

I blinked and turned fully toward him. “What?”

He exhaled through his nose, eyes still forward. “I don’t know exactly what yet. But

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something’s off.”

I frowned. “Alexander, what are you talking about?”

“She wouldn’t do that,” he continued, voice calm. “Not like that.”

“Do what?”

“Tamper with a crime scene before I arrived.”

His fingers tightened slightly around mine.

+25 Points

“My mother is careful,” he said. “Painfully so. She knows better than anyone how important evidence is especially when it involves wolves bold enough to make such move. She wouldn’t have rushed to clean everything up unless there was something she didn’t want me

to see.”

I tried to process that.

“She told you why she did it,” I said gently. “She said she didn’t think you’d arrive quickly.”

“That’s not enough,” he replied immediately.

“And she wouldn’t trust just anyone to handle something like that. Not ‘friends.‘ Not with something this serious.”

His jaw clenched.

“The whole thing was too clean. Too fast.”

I leaned back against the seat, my confusion growing. “Maybe she was just angry, and overreacted,” I suggested.

“That anger would make her more thorough, not reckless,” he said. “She erased the entire scene before I could see it. That’s not her usual way.”

I stayed quiet for a moment, letting his words settle.

A different thought crept in. Maybe he was overthinking it.

I remembered the men who’d cleaned up upstairs again–the way one of them had been… comfortable around Helen. It was obvious they had chemistry. Maybe Alexander didn’t quite know how to process the idea of his mother being involved with someone he didn’t approve of.

I didn’t say that out loud.

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Instead, I asked carefully, “Are you sure you’re not reading too much into it?”

He shook his head once.

“I know my mother,” he said. “I know when she’s being weird.”

“I’m going to investigate those two wolves she’s messing with,” he added.

That snapped my attention back fully.

“The two wolves?” I repeated. “What do they have to do with this?”

He glanced at me briefly, then back to the road. “That’s what I’d like to find out.”

I stared at him, completely lost now.

+25 Points

“What does the attack–and her cleaning up the evidence–have to do with those men?” I asked. “Alexander, you’re not making sense.’

”

His thumb brushed over the back of my hand in a slow, absent motion, but his expression had closed off, the way it did when he’d already decided something and didn’t want to debate