The Alpha & Beta's Regret
The Alpha & Beta’s Regret – Chapter 124

Jack POV

He’d woken this morning to replace Rafe’s dark blue eyes looking right at him, even knew what that man was thinking, smiled right at him, “Morning Alpha.” He drawled softly, had seen the man react to those very words every time Luci had used them, was going to try it out himself.

“Don’t call me that, it turns me on Jack.” He’d said right back, his voice a little on the rough side.

Which only made Jack chuckle “Still looking to have your way with me, I see.”

“Yes…I want to talk to you about that.” He’d nodded slowly, but his eyes had moved to Jack’s mouth, which had only made Jack smirk, which in turn elicited a deep growl from Rafe himself. Oh yes, he could play with his Alpha as much as Luci had been able to, it seemed. That could be a lot of fun.

“I’ll be good, if you are.” Jack taunted the man, his tone all teasing, slid a hand along the man’s bare chest, his fingers soft on his skin. Had burst out laughing and stretched himself out in the bed when Rafe shoved himself out of the bed and snapped at him to “Stop it.”

“Awe why, you know you like it.” Jack had teased him even further, ran a hand down his own chest, down his abdomen and stroked his own v-line all slow like, drawing Rafe’s eyes to him, to the action of it. Just couldn’t it seem help himself, was and he knew it, trying to incite his own friend, his own Alpha into mating him.

He was just laying there watching Rafe struggle with it, even. He did really want to, it seemed, saw him shake his head and take a step back “Jack, please enough. Luci must come first.”

Jack’s eyes met his and stared right at him for a moment, then he pulled himself up into a sitting position, sighed “Why?” Had been his only question. Jack didn’t think that Luci would honestly care, likely just stated, ‘About time.’

“Because I want to watch you Mark her, have you watch me Mark her, have her Mark us back and then you and I can Mark each other, in front of her. That’s how I always thought it would go. Her to watch us.”

“I don’t think Luci will really care which order it happens in Rafe. Do you recall her trying to get us to mate each other?”

“Yes.” Rafe nodded. “But Jack…I want Luci to come first, for us to show her we love her, want her and can hold our own needs back until she has hers sorted out.”

“Really? And just how do you think that’s going to happen…the moment we claim her, mating her, marking her, both of us are going to be fighting to be in control, we’re very dominant, she knows this, is going to be between us, taking us both and you know it.”

“Then perhaps we should Mark and Mate separately, and then together.” Rafe sighed.

Jack watched him run a hand through his hair was himself, it seemed, not certain of how it would go. Jack knew it was going to be a full free for all, likely Luci would just hold one of them down in the end. She was stronger than the two of them now.

“Rafe, Luci has been between us before, knows what we are like. If we hold anything back, she’ll know it. Think something is wrong, maybe even think one of us doesn’t want to Mark and Mate her, that is only doing it because the other one wants it.”

“Its not what it is though.”

“She might not see it that way.” Jack got up and out of bed, walked over to him. “Together, is how it’s supposed to be, it’s what you want, what I want, likely if we can get Luci to forgive us and understand. What she will want.”

“I don’t want to screw it up,” Rafe huffed.

“We won’t…you just need to contain yourself, if you want to Mark Luci first,” Jack smiled at him. Watched the man huff now, he had new needs that he wanted to sate, it seemed, ones that were filtering to Jack himself.

Rafe’s needs, it seemed, were higher than Jack’s in that department, and it just made him smile, he’d not deny the man. Jack knew that, but honestly he himself was more interested in Mating Luci, and still happy to play with Rafe.

“That hurts Jack.” Rafe muttered.

“Sorry, I can’t help how I feel.”

Rafe looked right at him and then just nodded “I do understand, come on, get dressed now, we’ve got to take the boys to school with Luci, and we both need to be in control when seeing her. Contain ourselves, you, more so.” The man muttered. Then just pulled him in and kissed him long and slow, growled a little and stalked off to get dressed a minute later.

Jack shook his head, the man might want Luci to come first, but whether she would or not was another thing altogether. Wondered if they could Mate without Marking, if that would solve the angst in his Alpha.

Saw that man look right at him, “It won’t.” he’d muttered.

They’d gotten dressed and gone downstairs to get breakfast, school here inside the pack didn’t start until 8am and they were going to walk the boys with Luci. He was happy about that. Spending anytime with her was good, keeping his feelings to himself was another matter.

He’d stopped and looked at the new entries on the wall in the living area before leaving Luci’s room and then looked at Rafe “Luna Jo-anne, used her seer ability on Melissa, after we saw Terence off, in the wee hours of the morning.”

“Got some answers.” He’d sighed “I’d be willing to bet that having our office and Luci’s room spell free hindered them and their plans as well. Gave us two places to go and just be ourselves, feel normal.”

“Possibly.”

“When is Terence due back?”

“Terence estimated three and a half hours each way, depending on the weather, and he has to stop and refuel in Helena, so 9 or 10 I guess.”

“Alright, that gives us plenty of time to walk Luci and the boys down to the school.”

“It does. I know our parents are joining us as well, shame Addi isn’t here, could have done it as one big family unit.” Rafe smiled. “I’d like that.”

“So would I, and I can see us doing that all the time, you and I, Luci, walking our sons to school every day.”

Rafe smiled at him. “I think that would be nice.”

Brad and Cooper were already downstairs for breakfast. “Any news?” Jack asked as he sat down. It was 7am and had been 5 hours since Terence had left with Allen.

“Yes, Piper is with Terence and Allen, there was a bit of an argument, Eddie is very unhappy, Harry stepped in, even Izzy had to come and calm him down.” Bradley sighed “She’s actually really upset and I haven’t seen her like this in a long time. All I know is Eddie, doesn’t want to leave her side, she’s his job and a distressed Piper, freaks him out completely.”

“I’m sure Allen can handle it.”

Brad had said nothing, just sighed once more.

“Eddie and Piper have a unique bond.” Cooper had stated. The man looked no happier than Brad himself.

Jack didn’t push it and neither did Rafe. They both knew that Piper had left, and been gone for many years, and hadn’t been in a good state when they found her. Likely her own Gamma had his own needs where their Luna was concerned, and not being able to do anything all those years she was missing, bothered him more than he let on.

He wondered briefly if Eddie was concerned that Piper would once again run away, and he’d not be able to stop her. He didn’t have all the facts on Brad and Piper, the man was tight-lipped on his Mate.

All that Jack knew was that Piper travelled all over the world, still held a very public human life, and that Brad and Eddie often went with her. No real surprise there. Also knew that when Brad couldn’t go, Piper had a full detail of all female elite warriors, 20 of them if Jack recalled correctly. It was one hell of an entourage, as the humans would call it, for his Luna.

Wondered as he realised that The Piper; of Piper Harper, Goddess Gowns, was going to be here in the pack, if he could talk to her about a dress for Luci, explain the situation to her and maybe have her agree to come back here and talk to Luci about the kind of Luna Gown she would want for her Luna Ceremony when it happened.

Then realised he was getting way ahead of himself, but it was going to happen. Both he and Rafe loved her, they knew this and they were under way in replaceing out all of the truth. Well, up on that wall was the actual reason for it, they could take it to her now, he guessed.

He and Rafe were going to have to sit and talk about that, also now knew Alpha Colby was completely in on it, they could start planning taking war to that man for doing this to them, to Luci. The only question was could they do it with the threat of Victor coming at them. He was watching them.

He would know the moment they left the pack, to take war to the Wolf Valley Pack, and then Victor could descend on their pack, though time wise, they were only two hours from Alpha Colby and his pack, so getting there, having a battle and then coming back, should be able to be done, before Victor even got here.

Thought about it. Would the man risk it? He wouldn’t know why they were leaving or where they were going, so he’d have to weigh up the odds. He might even think it was a trap to draw him to them. That thought stopped him. Could they plan it that way, draw that man to them, so they could come at him from behind as well as in front.

Trap him and take him down outside of his pack. Surprise him. It wasn’t their style, both he and Rafe did like a direct attack when having to go to war. It lessened the risks if you knew exactly where the enemy was at all times.

Drawing someone to you opened up more risks. What if they retreated? Back-tracked before falling into the trap. Then those men coming in from behind were surprised themselves, and the front plan of attack wasn’t there to back them up. It could get them all killed. He would have to think more on that. Bring it up at today’s meeting.

Though he already knew that both their fathers and the previous Alpha Unit were also going to be in that meeting, any meeting from now on, had already stated as much, and they had plenty of war planning experience under their belts.

There was no war talk this morning, everyone was doing as they pleased, until after Terence got back, so they all had the morning to themselves. He and Rafe excused themselves to go and head off to Luci’s to meet up to take the boys to school, they drove down. It was not raining but the ground was a soggy muddy mess in places. And he and Rafe thought it might be better to offer to drive them to the school.

They pulled up in the driveway and got out to replace their parents already here, but none of them were smiling at all, “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Luci’s not here.” Diana sighed.

“What?” both he and Rafe frowned. Jack pulled on her tether. He didn’t or hadn’t kept track of her last night. She seemed to have settled here in this house, had been happy yesterday, playing with the boys in the morning, gone out swimming in the lake and came back of her own free will.

“They’re already on their way to the school.” He frowned, could feel all three of them moving away from them, heard Rafe sigh heavily.

“I’ll replace out.” Jack stated and mind-linked right to Luci.

‘Luci, where are you?’ he asked.

‘Taking the boys to school.’ Her tone was flat and bored, sounding to him.

He frowned instantly at the tone, felt annoyance roll right off of her, ‘I thought we were.’

‘I changed my mind.’ She shot at him, cutting him off, ‘Just like others do.’ And then the link was severed, he hissed in pain at the tearing feeling it caused in him, had yanked it violently closed and he knew it. Could see everyone looking at him now.

“Ticked off about something.” He sighed “Severed that link from me like Alari would, though I don’t think it was Alari.”

“Ticked off about what?” Rafe asked.

“I don’t know, only stated she changed her mind like others do.” Everyone was just staring at him now, “She’s about halfway there, and I don’t think she wants company. Might replace ourselves face to face with Alari.” He didn’t like it, something had happened last night that he didn’t know about.

Mind-linked right to her guards for the night and asked them if anything out of the ordinary had happened. Though he doubted it, they would have reported it right away, so he knew there had been no actual threats to her.

None in this pack would stand for an attack on this house. They didn’t know what she was to them yet, but they all knew the packs heir’s lived here with her.