The Alpha & Beta's Regret
The Alpha & Beta’s Regret – Chapter 21

Rafe POV

Rafe was sitting in his office with Jack, they were waiting on Addison to turn up. He had his doubts that she was going to, after the yelling match that had occurred on the first floor of his packhouse; after Addison had left his office earlier in the afternoon.

Orien had decided it was time to try and pull his Luna into line, about her attitude and the disrespect she had shown towards him, in front of another Alpha and his Beta. Out the front of the packhouse for all to see.

The two of them clearly were not getting along at all. Had both rolled their Alpha Aura’s at each other right there in the hallway, he’d seen Orien’s head bow to his own Luna, she was much stronger than he was. Having watched Addison’s Gamma, Chad try to intervene on his Alpha’s behalf to calm her down. Stepped right in front of his own Alpha to shield him from Addison.

Then Rafe’s own Gamma Allen had turned up on the floor to try to intervene between all of them and calm things down. Only to have Addison’s wolf Fallon surface and snarl at them all.

Fallon had dared either of them to touch her, specifically looked right at her own Gamma Chad, and the man had backed off very quickly. She’d then demanded to have her own room. Allen had got the distinct impression that something had already gone down between the Luna and her own Gamma. Couldn’t pick up on what but likely a fight of some sort with the way he’d backed off.

Allen himself wouldn’t actively touch the woman in a fight, she’d be obliterated by his Mates protective charm, and he didn’t want that, neither did Rafe, for that matter. He’d stood by, near Addison and offered his help was all, though a slight drawl had come out of him, and she’d not appreciated it.

Rafe had given her a room of her own as requested by her and to his surprise she opted for a room all the way down the other end of the hall, very far away from her own Mate. Orien had been extremely unhappy about it; the man had prowled around in the corridor outside her room. Trying to get her to come to her senses, Rafe had heard the man yell at her once. Not that it would work, seeing as the rooms were sound proofed.

Clearly, Addison was blocking his attempts to mind-link her, and he had resorted to yelling, likely out of pure frustration and nothing more. He’d stayed out of it, had told his unit to stay out of it, looked pointedly at Allen, he could see the man wanted to help, it was his nature as a Gamma. Something was clearly going on between them. Jack had already informed him of what Beta Milton had stated that tensions were high inside Nightfall.

Dinner came and he’d seen a deadly quiet fall over the dining room as Addison had sat with him and Jack, just like Luci had once done. Right between them, she had gotten glared at by her own Mate, not that Addison had seemed to care about it, at all. Just ignored the man.

Orien had death stared him and then Jack, like it was their fault for not telling her to go and sit with him and her family. They’d already agreed to just stay out of anything to do with the two of them. Though he could now see exactly where Luci got her defiant streak from.

Luci had never had a problem challenging her father and it was likely due to the fact that neither did her mother. Addison ate in silence, as did everyone else at the table. Thatcher looked more than annoyed by his mother’s behaviour. Cathy his Mate just looked plain uncomfortable. She had no idea what was going on within her new pack, it seemed.

Wondered if the girl was having second thoughts about being within the Nightfall Pack. She wouldn’t look at Orien or Addison at all and only spoke quietly when spoken to. He’d watched Thatcher smile at her and state reassuring words to her, and she’d smiled at him but nervously so.

Likely, everything had been fine within the Nightfall Pack prior to Addison and Orien not agreeing on Addison being allowed to come here ahead of him. Rafe had offered to send a full escort for her. Even with that offer on the table, Orien had declined to allow her to come here without him.

Rafe wondered if Orien had put Addison off, in coming here to help search for Luci, because he knew that Luci was the eldest. That Addison would want to take her back to Nightfall, and once again reinstate her as the next in line to take over. The Pack’s Heir once more.

He knew Orien had never wanted that, he’d told him as much that first visit Luci had been here. Though he had always played at Luci being the Heir right up until he’d sent her to live with them, found a way to rid himself of the girl. Now Orien had allowed a full week to go by before Addison could come and help, maybe thinking it would likely give them a lesser chance of catching Luci and returning her to his pack.

It was possible this was his reasoning, and Rafe knew Addison would hate this. It would cause the rift he was seeing between the two of them now. They’d always seemed to be a little on the volatile side, especially with Luci being the intensifying factor.

Addison walked into his office just after midnight. She closed the door which had stood open for her arrival when she was ready to come and talk to them. She looked tired, and not just from her long day, he knew that separation from one’s Mate takes its toll on you. He knew, had to suffer it all the time, though Melissa never looked like she suffered anything at all while she was away from him, always looked healthy and never looked tired when she returned from her family visits.

Addison did look tired, worn out in fact. If her and Orien’s fighting had been going on all week, and he supposed it had been. This would account for her looking this way, likely didn’t help with the continued fighting here in his pack either.

She sat herself down across from the two of them and looked from one to the other, then just sighed “My apologies for the fight with Orien earlier.” She murmured.

Rafe nodded “The tension is high between the two of you. May I ask why? What actually started it?”

“Orien is not at all interested in Luci coming home. He has Thatcher as his heir now. That is all he cares about.” She told him flatly “denied me my right to come here at every turn. Locked me up in the Alpha suite, he even had the hide to put a silver cuff on me, a special silver cuff that only he had the key too.” Sounded very angry about this, sounded like she had the right to be. Who chained up their own Mate with silver?

Rafe was just sitting staring at her a little on the speechless side, then he shook his head, “I’m sorry Addison.” And he was, couldn’t understand why anyone would keep a mother from her child.

“I just want my daughter now, nothing and no-one will be stopping me from getting my daughter back.”

“We will do our best, Addi.” He told her and Rafe did really mean that they were going to get Luci back and not just for Addison, but for them as well.

“I know you have been…” sighed heavily “Luci, won’t be easy to bring in though, not now.”

“Why not?” it was Jack.

“Because of what she is,” Addison answered him simply.

“And what is she?” Rafe asked himself.

“I know you have questions. Ask them now. But whatever I choose to answer or say, does not leave this room. Stays between the three of us. You will never breathe a word of it if we cannot bring her in.”

Rafe nodded, this just meant that Orien had no idea what Addison was about to tell them. She’d obviously never told him a lot about their daughter. “How about we tell you about Victor attacking us? What happened that day. How we managed to win, and we were not going to. Victor is vicious and the men he brought with him were highly trained, in a particular way that was hammering us.”

“Ah, he used his mini units on you then. How many men did he bring?” she asked, clearly understanding Victor’s tactics.

“At least a hundred. There could have been more, I didn’t exactly have time to stop and count.” Rafe answered her question.

Saw Addison frown, Victor’s tactics were likely why he was such a good ally to have for their small pack.

“A Siren hybrid came out of the lake.” It was Jack. “We didn’t know what it was at first. It took research to figure that out. But it could mind-link to Rafe, called him Alpha and saved us.”

“Right, what did it look like?” Addison asked, didn’t sound at all surprised to hear this news.

“Like Luci, in Siren form, just…” Jack again.

“Right.” Addison nodded.

“Is it Luci?” Rafe asked outright. Jack had cut to the chase, his need to know if it was Luci was outweighing everything.

“Likely so. It’s also the reason you can’t replace her…She is not Orien’s daughter.”

“Whose daughter, is she?” Rafe asked her. This was one of the questions they wanted an answer to.

“My first Mate’s. His name was Lucian, he was an Alpha Siren. Died before Luci was born.” Heard the pain and sorrow in her words “I named my daughter after him, to always remember him.”

“Does Luci know this?” Jack asked quietly.

“Does now, didn’t then…Tell me what really happened the day she ran away? I know you have kept something from me now.”

Rafe sighed “She went into the lake and never came out. The lake was a no-go zone. Hannah and her sisters stated it was a death trap full of pain. We lost one wolf to a fractured mind and several humans died after going swimming in the water. The lake seemed…alive, I guess.”

Addison took a long breath in and looked from one to the other. “That would have been the birth of her Siren. It would have called to Luci, during her most heartbroken moment. Half-breed Sirens only emerge through tragedy or utter heartbreak.” Sighed sadly “She loved the both of you, I know this.”

Rafe sighed himself, both he and Jack also knew this too. It was why she’d never been with anyone else. Never needed anyone else to sate her needs. It was also why she ran away.

“How do we get her back?” He asked.

“I don’t know…” Addison shook her head “I can call for her Siren. Know how to do that, though it’s been a while since I have had to use it. Lucian did teach me how to. So, I could reach him when he was in the lake, he lived in. But I don’t know her Siren or if she will respond to it either.”

“But you will try?” it was Jack. “To get her to surface even?”

“I will try Jack. It is possible, though I doubt anyone of us could control her Siren, it would be very much a creature of its own will at this point.”

“I have read up on them.” Again, it was Jack “Deadly creatures.”

Addison just nodded, “Very hard to kill one, unless you know how, and even then,” she shook her head, “that’s still a deadly game to be played, you’d lose a lot of men in the process.”

“Her father then?” Rafe asked, curious about how that man had died if he was an Alpha Siren and they were hard to kill. He could only imagine that an Alpha one would be even harder.

“Lucian’s pack was small, only two dozen or so, and they were outnumbered twenty to one, maybe even more, I don’t know. He made me run away to protect our daughter; I was pregnant with her at the time.” Heard her sigh sadly “I didn’t actually know if Luci would be a wolf or a Siren. Though…Lucian always said our daughter would be special…she’s a double shifter now, so he was right.”

“Hannah told me the thing in the lake is a Triune.” Jack commented.

Rafe saw Addison frown deeply now, looked right at Jack with a knitted brow “I need to think on that.”

“Do you know what a Triune is?” Jack asked right away.

“Yes, I do, though only witches use that term.” She nodded “let me get back to you on it. I’ll want to go to the lake tomorrow, try and call her Siren to me…” Looked at Jack and then Rafe for a long time, then stated, “Your Mate’s are denying you…You’re dying slowly.” Then she just got up and walked out of their office closing the door behind her.