The Alpha & Beta's Regret
The Alpha & Beta’s Regret – Chapter 116

Jo-anne POV

Titan introduced himself to her and she shook his hand, “Thank you for helping me. I really do appreciate this, Luna.”

“You’re willing to have me pry through your mind?” she asked.

“Yes.” He smiled right at her, “It’s a mess in there, just so you know. I can’t keep a straight timeline. I don’t understand what happened or if it even happened. How or when things changed.” He shook his head and sighed a little on the heavy side, “It’s painful to not only think about, but I can’t talk to anyone here about it either. I had an order put on me not to. Though that now confuses me too.”

“Why?” she asked and motioned for him to sit down.

“Well, last night, I watched on as my Alpha rejected his Mate, but nothing happened. He felt nothing, there was no severing from the Luna, she didn’t accept it either. I don’t understand that.” He shook his head as he sank down. “It’s odd, I know this, I’ve seen rejections before. Even just voicing it is painful. Before it’s accepted even, hurts the one stating it.”

“I do hear that.” She nodded, though she’d not felt the pain when rejecting West that first time. Wondered if that was simply because of how she’d felt at the time. Likely because that last order he’d given her had been it for her, her decision had truly been made that day.

Perhaps the pain she’d felt that day while in T.J.’s lap had not just been the order, but herself severing her side of their bond. But she’d just not voiced it, because she knew she couldn’t until she was 18 or he’d get into trouble with the Wolfen Council for something neither of them understood.

She had been in a lot of pain that day, had cried for hours in T.J.’s lap and then had just sat there and taken comfort from him for who knew how long. Maybe she did suffer it just not at the time she should have.

Shook off the memory of her and West’s past, her Alpha’s Orders, and focused on the here and now. “I’d like you to tell me what you can, take your time, don’t concern yourself with an order to your memories. Or trying to even sort them out, I only want to know so that I know what I’m looking for is all, what to latch onto, so to speak.

“Alright.” Titan nodded at her and began his tale.

Jo-anne sat there and listened to the man tell her what he thought had happened to him. It took a long time and he rubbed his temples a few times. She knew that it was causing him pain. A headache she knew, just thinking about it, likely some part of the spell, she thought, to stop them from thinking about it, a little deterrent. No one wanted to be in pain.

Both West and T.J. had taken up seats across from her and Titan. T.J, had even brought a glass of cold water from the bar cart that sat up against the wall between Rafe and Jacks’ desks.

Jo-anne watched the man take a drink and let him take a moment to try and relax, though it didn’t seem to really help. She reached out and put both her hands on his head and relieved him of that headache herself. Her healing abilities were good and strong. She liked being a healer, if she was honest with herself.

It was also what Heath had told her he’d seen when being b***d-bonded to her when she was a baby. He’d told her he’d received many images that day of her healing, not just animals when she was young, but pack children and others when she’d grown up. He’d told her it was who she truly was, a healer.

He likely wasn’t wrong at all. She hated seeing people in pain now that she could do something about it. Liked being in the pack hospital to help heal the little ones that had fallen down and got not only scraped knees and elbows, but broken bones from falling out of trees or off the playground equipment.

It didn’t even take that much out of her, barely anything at all. Just had to put a hand on them and want them to heal up was all, then they would just start to heal. Saw Titan blink right at her “You’re a healer!”

“Mm, among other things.” She smiled at him, knew he was feeling better. “Now have you ever had a seer inside of your mind before?”

“No, I’ve never had cause to go to the kingdom.”

“Lucky.” Terence and West both muttered.

Jo-anne smiled, they had to attend the annual Alpha meeting within the Kingdom. Though from what she’d heard, the seers pretty much left the two of them alone. Christian had vetoed it after their first visit. Told his seers there was no need to ever pry into Prince Terence or Alpha Westley’s minds. They were to be considered completely loyal to the Royal family. Had protected his sister and her children from threats against them.

So just once had they had the pleasure of a seer in their minds since Christian had taken over as King. Apparently, he’d even apologised for it to both West and T.J. He’d been in a meeting himself when they had arrived, and was unable to greet them and stop his seers.

Never once since that day had it ever happened again. She and T.J. had renounced their claims to Wolfen Royalty but Christian wouldn’t hear of it. He had told her and T.J. you are my kin, I will always protect you, he had smiled right at her and welcomed her to his side of the family, even apologised for the behaviour of the former King and Queen, himself.

He’d come right to their pack after his ascension to the throne and celebrations had died down. To present himself and meet his niece, who everyone had protected, he was, she knew, a good king. He was compassionate but strict, he’d even offered her his own b***d, had pricked his finger right in front of her and said, “Please princess, check my intentions.”

She had declined, the offer was good enough and she could see the way he was with her own mother, his youngest sister. He loved her a lot and it was clear that there was a healthy bond between the two of them. If her mother trusted him, then so could she.

“Titan, I’d like to remove the spell from you if I can, that is. As well as the Luna’s Order. Before I try and see into your mind.”

He nodded, didn’t seem all that worried to her, she smiled at him and reached out, took his head in her hands once more and closed her eyes. Thought about what she wanted, to remove anything, whether it be a wolfen order or witchcraft of some sort, that affected the man’s mind.

Heard him gasp in pain and gripped his head a little tighter when he instinctively tried to pull away from her, saw the pain and latched right onto it as it rapidly spread throughout his mind, made him feel and she knew it, like his brain was on fire.

She could feel it, all the spindly tendrils of the spell used on him as it weaved and moved about inside of his mind, attaching itself to memories all over the place. Kept those tendrils in her mind’s eye, could feel her moons glowing and hot down her back. Also felt her eyes were glowing too. She had them closed to keep focus, but could feel them hot under her eyelids. It was something she’d gotten used to. The heat that came with using her magic.

She gathered all those tiny tendrils one by one and then pulled them from him, removed them as painlessly as she could, though she still heard him gasping and then crying out in pain. Felt the moment she had them all.

Titan passed out completely, his whole body just flopped onto the lounge, and she opened her eyes to see that there was a ball of black wriggling tendrils between her two hands in front of her. Just floating there almost like a ball of witch’s light, but black and ugly.

Stared right at it now, it was hideous to her, an ugly darkness. She closed her fingers around it, touched it herself and saw a woman turn and stare right at her. She looked more than shocked to Jo-anne.

Jo-anne realised it was not a memory, this was the here and now, what she was seeing was the very witch that had created the spell, was an old woman with markings across her forehead, coven markings, she thought absently as she looked right at the woman. Who now knew her spell had been broken and was looking at the one who had done it. They could see each other.

“No more from you.” Jo-anne told the woman simply and meant it.

“Who are you, to tell me what to do?” was the angry retort she got back.

“Queen of the Celestial Witch’s, and you have harmed more than one of mine.” Jo-anne stated and shot an image of herself at the woman, her markings, down through this link she now had to the other witch. Then she closed her fist and the ball of black tendrils evaporated in an instant. The spell was removed and broken to nothing.

She sighed and focused on the room once more, looked to Titan, he was still out. Looked at West and T.J. they were just sitting and watching her, hadn’t, she realised, heard her statement to that witch, their conversation it seemed, had been a completely private one.

“How long was I gone?” she asked.

“Gone?” they both asked, sounding a bit confused.

“Yes, you don’t look surprised about anything that just happened.”

“You didn’t go anywhere, JoJo.”

“What did you see?” West asked her. “We didn’t see anything at all, just watched Titan pass out is all.”

Odd, she thought to herself, so only she had seen that ball of magically induced memories. “How long did it take?” she asked instead, it had felt like many hours to her.

“An hour,” West told her, after checking his watch.

Time moved differently for her, it seemed, or it was just one of those moments where things seemed to take forever, drag out and you felt time moved slower than normal.

“We’ll have to wait for him to wake up, to get his memories. I think the poor man has had enough.”

“Are you alright?” West asked her.

“Yes, I’m fine.” She nodded and she was. “Though that other witch not so much.” She smiled to herself, that woman was going to replace herself powerless from now on. Just a simple human, old and likely alone and afraid, she had registered fear on the woman’s face right before she’d severed the link to her.

Didn’t even know how she’d been able to connect with her, only that looking at that horrid ball of black tendrils, she’d wanted to know who had done it. Where the spell had come from, and then was just connected to the woman, had shocked that woman completely.

She reached out and took a drink from the water and sat to wait for Titan to wake up, didn’t want to hurt the man twice over. Ripping that spell from him had caused him plenty of pain, though he was breathing and seemed fine to her. Likely just met his pain threshold was all.

If she had to do this to Rafe and Jack, they would be in for a world of pain. The two of them had years of messed-up memories, she realised, wondered if it was even a good idea at all, if this was just a few memories for Titan over a few days, would it kill the Alpha and Beta to try and extract 6 and half years of memories from them. Wondered if they could recover them on their own, it did seem they were doing that. They had found something vital to them that broke the spell they were under. Likely Luci or the boys themselves being right in front of them was all it had taken.