Cameron couldn't get enough of her. The more she relaxed, the more her scent enveloped him in comfort and they were able to talk with ease and flirt a little without it overpowering them.

He dreaded their parting, holding tight to her hand and urging the conversation forward, never giving her a chance to glance at the time.

When she checked the time, she looked regretful but they both knew the evening had to come to a close. She had to get back to Chloe and he had to get back to Sam and the pack.

He walked her out and all the way to her car in the apartment complex she had parked in—hand in hand.

He kissed her, lingering longer than intended as he knew it would be hard to pull away. Even more so when she leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She moaned when his hands slid down to her voluptuous ass, making him hard as a rock, but he forced himself to release her and drag himself away.

Goddess, it was torture. Pure, sweet, agonizing torture.

"Call me, whenever you're free," he rasped, kissing her lips chastely once more.

"Okay," she whispered, slipping free from his hold. Her face flushed with warmth. The sweet, tantalizing aroma of her own need swirled around her and he couldn't help but wonder if she could smell his own too.

What were her human senses like? Could she smell him? Smell his hunger for her seeping out of his pores like an aphrodisiac? Could she hear his heart thundering in his chest? His deep inhalations in to fill breathless lungs and pump blood to his racing heart?

He opened her door for her and waited for her to climb in, start her car, and back out. Watched her drive away from him and disappear around the corner.

Then, the crushing pain of loneliness seeped into his bones. The ache of missing her, needing her, was crippling until he took a few deep breaths to refresh his senses. Her scent faded before him. The last thing she left him with.

One step before the other carried him back to his motorcycle parked in a narrow lot. A heavy hazy set in and pressed down on his shoulders that had nothing to do with the gray clouds overhead. He started up his motorcycle and set out for the apartment. Fat raindrops splattered down for a few minutes before he pulled into the apartment's underground parking. By the time he got up to his unit, it was pouring rain outside and Sam looked less than amused by both Cameron's lateness and the rain.

Once they had all their things packed, the rain had let up, though it looked as though it could resume at any time. Darkness was descending and it would take them an hour and a half to reach the main packhouse outside the city.

Pain still filled his soul at Olivia's departure, but he knew it had to be this way for now.

It didn't rain again until he had settled into bed in his cabin on the pack lands. Forest surrounded him in a welcome embrace as the symphony of falling rain lightly struck each leaf and tumbled over his roof.

He had a missed call from her fifteen minutes before he and Sam pulled their motorcycles up to the main packhouse and returned the bikes.

Since it was almost midnight, he sent her a text, apologizing for missing her call and that he was afraid to wake her if he called back. He bid her goodnight and that he'd talk to her tomorrow if she didn't call back.

She didn't and he struggled to fall asleep. He tossed and turned from one cold spot on the bed to the next, longing for her presence, her touch, and her warmth.

The next morning, he hauled his sorry-ass out of bed and went for a quick run to wake up before meeting with Alpha and Luna about his duties. They agreed to give him daytime patrol so his evenings were free to talk with Olivia on the phone if she called.

He knew she would and sure enough, she did later that night around ten in the evening.

They talked for an hour before he drifted off to sleep to the sound of her voice.

The next few days fell in a similar pattern. He'd text her in the morning to wish her a good day and express his hopes of talking to her in the evening. After an hour of training in the morning, followed by his patrol duties, and an hour of weight-lifting in the gym, he came home to find a few messages from her. His heart leaped and a smile spread across his face when he opened them.

Speaking with Olivia and communicating with her through text messages were the highlights of his days. With danger lurking at the edges of their land, he was busy like every other trained adult in the pack.

Foreign scents trailed along the borders but there were no breaches. He didn't see any rogues while others had, and although they kept their distance for now, they still refused to leave.

Alpha Noodin was stressed about it, fearing another repeated attack like the one they had five years ago that killed dozens of packmates in a single night. With his mate weakened in her pregnancy, he worried about her safety and the pup's as well.

Sam was not yet ready to join the ranks and patrol the borders, but he trained hard in hopes of serving and protecting his pack as soon as possible.

On Thursday, Cameron came home to find only a single message from Olivia informing him that her Saturday open house had canceled and that she'd talk with him later.

He could hardly wait for her to call him in a couple hours and instead called her immediately. He wanted to spend the whole day with her and Chloe if possible and he wasn't about to let the opportunity escape him.

The phone rang only once before she answered. "Hello, Cameron."

"Hey, so you're free this Saturday?" He jumped the gun.

She chuckled lightly. "Hold on a second."

There was a clunk, as if she put the phone down, before he heard Chloe's voice in the background.

"Is that Daddy?"

Daddy? Emotion struck him as a lump formed in the back of his throat and he opened his mouth but couldn't speak.

"Yes, that's him. Chin up. Close your eyes."

"Can I talk to him?"

"Sure, after your bath, okay? Close your eyes."

"I'm here," he said, in case she had put him on speaker, but got no reply as the sound of water tinkled in the background.

He waited, hearing them murmur back and forth as he imagined Olivia rinsing shampoo out of Chloe's hair. A few minutes later, Olivia picked her phone back up and asked if she could call him later. "Do you have Skype or FaceTime?"

"Sure do."

"Okay. I need a few minutes to dry her off, dress her, brush her teeth and get her to bed."

"I wanna talk to Daddy!"

"And you will. I promise."

They hung up and he went ahead and took a quick shower himself. He was in the middle of brushing his teeth when his phone chimed and he answered with the toothbrush clamped between his teeth.

Chloe's face took up the entire screen and she giggled before the screen tilted up to the ceiling. "He's brushing his teeth too, Mommy."

"I see that."

He set the phone down and spat the toothpaste from his mouth and rinsed before picking the phone back up again.

"All done. See?" He smiled wide at Chloe to show his teeth. "Let's see yours."

Tittering, she flashed her own teeth at him. "I have a loose tooth too." She wiggled one of her top eye teeth with a finger.

"Already? Stop growing, kiddo."

"I can't!"

Emotion filled him. The pain and guilt for not being there in her life and missing so much of it already fought over his pleasure at making her laugh and smile so brightly.

How could he miss out on the magic that Chloe brought into the world?

"We're going to read a few bedtime stories together, right Chloe?" Olivia said.

Chloe nodded vigorously before the screen whirled around as Olivia took the phone from their daughter and held it away from her side, angling it toward them. She fiddled with it for a moment, as if trying to get it to stand upright properly.

He could see them sitting together on Chloe's bed. A big picture book was held open between them.

Setting a pillow up against the headboard of his bed, Cameron slipped under the covers and made himself comfortable as he listened to Olivia read aloud. Her voice took on different tones and pitches, shifting from narration to different characters speaking in the story.

He didn't listen to the story itself, but rather contented himself with watching them in this moment and allowing the sound of Olivia's voice to fill his head and smooth the tension from his well-worked muscles. He watched Chloe's reactions and how Olivia's face contorted when the evil witch cast a spell on the little heroine.

How could he miss out on moments like this?

The story was over in five minutes and Chloe was already demanding another.

Olivia handed her the phone as she looked for another one on a shelf next to the bed.

"Did you like the story, Daddy?"

"I sure did."

"Which one do you want, Chloe? This one or this one?" Olivia asked in the background.

Her face scrunched up and the screen tilted to a lovely angle up Chloe's nose. "That one."

"What's next, Chloe-bear?" Cameron asked her.

She chortled. "I'm not a bear!"

"No?" he asked. "You're not cuddly like a teddy bear?"

She shook her head, a shy smile creeping onto her face as the screen tilted and half her face disappeared off the side.

"You are too, Chloe," Olivia teased. "You spoil Mommy with lots of hugs and kisses every day. Especially at bedtime."

More cherubic giggles played on his heart as the screen shifted and half of Olivia's face appeared before she took the phone and set it back up where it once stood a couple minutes ago.

She held a smaller picture book this time, about the size of her hands and Chloe leaned closer to it to see the pictures better.

Again, he leaned back and watched them, wishing he could be there in person, holding Chloe in his arms while Olivia read to them. For now, he was grateful for this much. To be able to not only see them but to be able to share this moment with them.

When this story finished, Chloe was leaning against Olivia's arm, her head resting against her as her eyelids drooped. Chloe yawned as Olivia got up again and handed her the phone.

"You getting sleepy, Chloe-bear?" he asked.

"No." She shot him a mischievous grin.

He perked an eyebrow at her. "Liar liar. Pants on fire."

"No, they aren't!"

"You sure? I think I see smoke."

"No!"

Her cute snickering protests danced on his heart and he wished time would stop and he'd never have to say goodnight to her.

Olivia joined them with another book in her hand and explained to him that this book and another one were always the last books before bedtime.

It was a straight-up bedtime story and it made sense to him that she would finish with it. It was short, no more than two or three minutes, but he watched as Chloe's head drooped. Her eyes struggled to stay open as she rested against her mother.

It was a moment in time he wanted to imprint in his mind forever.

When the story was done, Olivia got up and tucked Chloe in and held the phone up for Chloe to say goodnight.

"Goodnight Daddy," had never sounded so bittersweet.

He wished he could kiss her forehead like Olivia before she disappeared from his screen and Olivia slipped out, leaving a pale nightlight on at the foot of her bed.

When Olivia's face reappeared on the screen, he couldn't find the words to express himself beyond a simple "Thank you."

She smiled, tucking a lock of auburn hair behind an ear. "You're welcome. I thought you might like that. Of course, when you called and she heard it was you, she wanted to talk to you too."

"I miss her," he confessed, his voice whispering the ache and longing within. "I miss you both. Can we do this together every night?"

A shy smile greeted him and her eyes danced around before looking back at him. "Sure."

"I don't think you realize how much that meant to me. I wish I could be there now."

"You do?"

"Yes, I do."

A blush rose to her cheeks. "Okay, well, I have a few things to do before I call it a night. Mind if I call you back in thirty to forty minutes?"

"Sure."

"Okay, because I still have to tell you about Saturday..." She chewed on her bottom lip.

He nodded. "Right, you mentioned that."

"Okay, I'll call you back."

"I'll be waiting."

They ended the call and he set his phone next to him, wondering what to do to pass the time. He wasn't interested in watching TV or Netflix. He opted to lean back, close his eyes, and replay images of Olivia reading to Chloe instead.

He started when his phone rang next to him a minute later but in fact was almost an hour later.

Shit, I fell asleep. He shook his head as he answered the call and lifted the phone to his ear. "Hey, darling."

"Cameron? You sound tired. Did I wake you?"

He grinned to himself. "Yeah, but it's okay. Just fell asleep for a minute."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to take so long." Regret laced her voice.

"It's okay. Don't apologize. You're welcome to wake me up any time of the night."

"Okay." She sounded hesitant, and indeed she did hum for a minute before she finally came out with what was on her mind. "So, um, Saturday... My clients ended up pulling out all of a sudden due to circumstances I can't get into, but I don't have any other open houses planned for the day and my Sunday open house is from two till four, so I was thinking..."

She trailed off and when he prompted her to continue, he was surprised by what she offered and couldn't wipe the shit-eating grin from his face.

"That sounds awesome. I can't wait to see you on Saturday."

This was it. His second chance.

----

Dedicated to HeartStone Packmate: Danibigbang 

Copyright Jo Lee Hunt ( Joflower ) 2018