The Alpha & Beta's Regret
The Alpha & Beta’s Regret – Chapter 122

Rafe POV

He watched as Terence headed off for the Black Haven Pack with Allen. It was 2 in the morning and the storm had finally turned to just a light rain. He was up, as was Luna Jo-anne. She’d come downstairs with Terence, and looked at him a little surprised.

Rafe had nodded to her “Luna.”

“Alpha.”

They’d both walked Terence and Allen to the training grounds, he’d provided umbrellas for all of them. He’d not asked after West. The man was likely sleeping at this hour, likely to have been lulled into a deep sleep by his Mate’s scent. Not that Rafe had ever had that happen himself.

Though when he thought about that exact thing, he did sleep like the dead with Jack next to him, and he and Jack had both slept very deeply with Luci between them. She could occasionally get out from between them, leaving them in the bed together.

No other woman had ever been able to do that, he sighed heavily, wondering, for not the first time, why Luci was not their Goddess Gifted Mate. They’d loved her for who she was, how much fun she had been, they had liked that defiant streak and stubbornness they’d seen in her the very first time they’d met her.

Not that they’d seen much of that defiant streak once she’d been here with them, she was more tormentative and teasing, than defiant. Likely she’d only been like that due to how she was raised by Orien. The man had too many rules around her, and the way he made a point of telling her not to do things, but then expect her to do them at the same time. Contradicted himself always, trying to get Luci to step out of line so he could punish her is how he’d seen it.

“Pulling a spell from you, could kill you.” Jo-anne interrupted his thoughts as they walked back towards the packhouse.

He frowned right at her, had heard her words “Can it even be done?” he asked after a moment’s thought.

“It is likely, but it took me an hour with your man Titan, and…” she sighed now herself, “He only had one spell on him. You and Jack, I dare say, have one, that is.” She stopped walking and looked up at him, her head tilted to the side, thinking about it, he thought.

“Redone or reinforced every six to eight weeks.” He muttered, “For six and a half years.” He understood it would be difficult to draw it from him or Jack.

“Yes, even I don’t know if I can remove it with you surviving it…and your Beta?” she huffed now, sounded more than annoyed.

“I’ll raise him to that of an Alpha,” Rafe told her.

“Still might not work.” She stated. “Best to get your answers, I think, from the actual source.”

“The witch in Wolf Valley Pack, you mean?”

“Hmm, likely so, if you want to keep yourself alive, I’ll talk to Hannah, see if she has a way, though if you or Jack trust me, I could use your b***d to see what you recall, though I don’t know if it will show me what happened, with that spell on you. Likely to be just as fractured as Titan’s memories or if you were unconscious and have implanted memories.”

“You’re very powerful aren’t you?” he stated,

“More so than your own witches, I believe. Not that I use it, like they do. My feelings about things are not at all like theirs.”

“Mm, they do only as they please, you” Rafe looked right at her “Are a healer and want to fix things. Help people around you, replace it difficult to stay out of things.”

“That is true, I hate people in pain.” She sighed, then put a hand on him and steered him over to the two she-wolves in question, who were soaked through and looked cold and bedraggled, from being left out in the storm without their wolves to help keep them warm. They were just like humans right that minute, cold and miserable.

“Do you want to know why it always had to be redone?” Jo-anne asked almost casually. He wasn’t exactly certain who she was talking to, him or them, but he answered.

“Yes.”

“Jack and Luci are mated to each other, it’s not a complete bond, but somewhere along the way, he mated himself to Luci.” She looked right at him and she seemed to be thinking about something, then just shook her head as if to say there was nothing more.

He sighed heavily now “I suspected that Jack had mated himself to Luci. His thoughts and actions are very much like how a Mate would react.” He stated and they were, he got agitated and distressed over her, more so than Rafe did. Didn’t like even being apart from her, something else no Mate was supposed to like, he hadn’t even liked a closed door between them with Orien here.

He could see Maria staring at him now, looking more than angry too.

“Something is blocking the Beta.” He told her “That was Jack’s love for Luci.”

“No it wasn’t.” Jo-anne stated simply “You, yourself love Luci, they got around that.”

His eyes moved to where he knew Luci was within the pack, could feel her out there in the house they had given her, thought about that statement for a minute, “The twins?”

“Yes,” Jo-anne answered him, “Your wolves were agitated a lot over the years, still had a connection to Luci, their own bloodline that she carried. So, there was still a real attachment. One that neither you, Jack nor your wolves truly understood. Because you didn’t know about them. If you had known, it’s unlikely they would have been able to do this to you at all.”

“If we’d known, we would have claimed her on the spot.” He sighed, turned and looked skyward as more thunder rolled across the sky.

“It’s not over, just a reprieve,” Jo-anne commented.

“You’re talking about the storm, right?”

Heard her chuckle softly “Yes, that witch of theirs.” He looked back at her and she hunkered down and looked right at Melissa “Yours.” She looked from one to the other and shook her head “They’re not twins, not even sisters. Lovers only but this one.” She pointed to Melissa, put a hand on her face and Rafe watched Jo-anne’s eyes go white just like a seers did.

Stood and watched on, saw Melissa gag and heave five minutes later, as Jo-anne stepped back. “Wouldn’t be between you and Jack on her own? So her father bled that one to himself and then the pair of them to each other to make it that they were sisters. Were best friends, still are.”

Rafe looked down at her “Why’d you do it?” he grated out.

Jo-anne took his arm and walked him away, “I can answer that. Leave them be. Your girl, Luci, is likely going to kill them when she hears the truth. I know you and Jack want to, but speaking from experience, let her do it. It will help her get all that pent-up anger out, and with her not yet in control of her witch’s powers, it could get well out of hand if she has no release for it. She’ll come back to normal afterwards.”

They walked inside and he closed the umbrella he’d been carrying, put it in the rack with many others, ‘Why’d they do it?” he asked.

“To take over your pack.”

“A very drawn out way of doing it.” he frowned at her now.

“They had to ingrain themselves here. It’s likely that your pack members see Melissa as a good Luna. When you died, she would have taken over, as is a Luna’s right, if you died of natural causes without an heir. But if she killed you herself, harmed you in anyway, it would be treason and they’d have the whole pack hunting them. They had to appear like they weren’t the ones harming you, to keep the pack attached to them.”

“You know this how?” he asked.

“I got it from Melissa just now. Her mind is simple, easy to read, her only goal to get rid of you and Jack, if one of you dies, the other would as well. She was to have her father step in and take over. She’d stay as the Luna, of course, but then changed that plan to suit herself, and doesn’t want her father here.”

Rafe shook his head. “Very long and drawn out.”

“It had to be for it to work. Though I’d have to get my hands on her father to get his thoughts on the matter. Why he decided to do this?”

Rafe sighed and nodded, “I’ll give you the address if you like?”

Saw her nod, “I might.”

“If Jack is mated to Luci, why is there no bond?” he asked.

“Like I said, it’s not complete.”

“No marking?”

“It could be all that is needed.” Jo-anne nodded. “But that girl is a Triune, it could be that she actually needed all three parts of her alive or…realised to actually bond to someone, Hanna would know more about that, being a Triune herself, I suppose.”

“Hannah and her sisters are not forthcoming,” he muttered.

“They have their own agenda.” Jo-anne nodded. “Though my knowledge is that they let this happen because otherwise Luci would only be a wolf, is all. She would never tap into her Siren or Witch bloodline, it was needed for that to happen.”

“From bad comes good.”

“From darkness comes light.” Jo-anne nodded. “Everyone here got hurt Rafe, don’t think that I don’t see your pain. Which you hide from all, even Jack. You’re very good at it, but pain is something no one can hide from me.” She sighed heavily “Pain is something I understand all too well, it has its own aura, you, my friend, are as surrounded by it as both Jack and Luci are.”

He saw her eyes move to the stairs. “West is looking for me. I’d better go. Rafe…try not to worry too much, all things are coming into the light now.”

“Thank you Jo-anne.” he watched her walk towards the stairs. “Oh wait, Piper?”

“I don’t know anything about that.” She shook her head and walked off up the stairs.

Rafe returned to Luci’s room, it’s where he had left Jack sleeping in her bed, smiled to himself as he leaned in the doorway to the bedroom and just watched him sleep, ‘Ours.’ Solar told him.

‘Yes.’ Rafe nodded, the man was theirs, he’d nearly lost control earlier in their office, likely would have marked and mated Jack right there if they’d not been interrupted. Turned and went back to the living area. He would and he knew it, but he did want to wait and sort Luci out first. He and Jack could wait. They’d never been together before.

Though he’d known when he and Jack marked the same Mate, they’d have marked each other and likely mated each other as well. Wondered if that was all that it would take for them to come together. Did they need to have a Mate between them first? They had never been together like that, had always been close though.

Always had what appeared to be a Mate Bond between them, even though they were never together. Their attraction right at this minute was so very strong to each other, wondered if that was because they were so very close to having one Mate between them, that Jack was half mated to Luci and it was drawing them together.

He stood and wondered if Luci had Mated herself to Jack, to both of them, for that matter, it was completely possible. He sank down on the lounge and thought about that. With Jack partially mated to Luci, that would definitely affect him as well at times, kind of just bleed through their bond from Jack to him.

He got up and wrote on the wall what Jo-anne had told him about Melissa and Maria, Alpha Colby. Their reason for doing this, to take over the pack, to draw out their deaths, knew as he wrote those very words, it was why they were always trying to keep he and Jack apart, to help with killing them.

Put that on the wall as well, stood back and sighed heavily, Addi had said they were dying. He’d been feeling hollowed out for years, didn’t even know how much more he could take himself. Though as he stood there, thinking about that, no more did he feel all hollowed out, he was reconnected to Jack, and he believed their bond was even stronger than it had once been.

That hollow place inside of him, was now where Luci and the boys were. Likely having her removed from him and his memories was actually what caused him to become hollowed out. Sighed and turned away from the wall, went back to bed. Curled his arms around Jack and pulled that man right into him. No more would they ever sleep apart.