The Alpha & Beta's Regret
The Alpha & Beta’s Regret – Chapter 40

Addison POV.

Addison walked into the Black Forest Pack’s packhouse to replace Orien standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting for her, it seemed. He was looking right at her, obviously tracking her with that tether between them. She looked right at him with a raised eyebrow as she walked over towards him.

Saw him reach out both his arms as though he was going to hug her, or hold her in his arms, she simply side stepped him and his attempt to touch her. “If you think it’s going to be that easy, you’d be dead wrong.” She snapped right at him as she walked by him.

“Addi, please. Rali and I miss you.”

She stopped three steps up the staircase from him and turned to look right at him, raised her hand at him and turned it for him to see all the scaring “you caused this to happen to Fallon and I, you and your wolf. Do you think a hug will fix it?”

“Addi please, you hurt pack members.”

“I did.” She nodded, admitted to it, wasn’t going to deny it. “Tell me why I had to in the first place.” She shot at him, her anger showing. Clearly, he still thought it was all her fault.

She saw him frowning right at her now. “We should discuss that in private.” He stated flatly.

Addison stared right at him for a moment and then turned and stalked away from him up the stairs, but shot over her shoulder “Why? so no one here knows you bound your own Mate with silver.”

“Addison.” He yelled right at her anger in his tone.

“Yes, be angry.” She stated calmly “Come at me again with all your men, though I think now, you’ll have to deal with Luci instead of me or Fallon. She saw my injury this morning and asked me how I got it. My daughter didn’t look happy at all.”

“What you’re going to let her fight your battles now.” He snapped at her, and she could hear him stomping up the stairs now.

Addison stopped walking and turned on the first-floor landing to look right at him. “I just might, though with her next to me I feel much stronger, I think you felt that yesterday yourself. But you go and explain to Luci, why you wouldn’t let me, her mother, come here to help replace her, bring her back into the pack. Your selfish needs to keep her away, so Thatcher will stay as the Heir.”

“That’s not why Addison.” He muttered.

“Really, I could have her order the truth out of you. Do you think you’ll say the same thing to her, under the full weight of her power? She made you bow down. If I’d not stopped her, you’d have been on the ground bowed with head to the ground and you know it.”

“What is she, Addison?” he asked right away.

She smiled right at him “A double shifter.” She told him.

“I got that, her other side Addison?”

“My daughter.” She looked right at him “So very beautiful, so very strong, who you turned against, turned away and sent out of the pack, because of her nature…” saw him frown right at her words, they were all true and he knew it. “Is a Siren.”

Watched as his eyes go really wide, as the realisation hit him of just how powerful Luci was. She stood watching him and could almost see the wheels turning in that Alpha brain of his, about the power he had once held and then rejected “you never said.”

“No, I did not. Because you would have used her or tried to. I didn’t even know if she would be Wolf or Siren. She is magnificent, isn’t she, and you rejected her. When you promised Fallon and I a long time ago, you would raise her and love her as your own.”

“I did raise her, Addi.”

“Did you? Would a real father turn on his own child for what she did? You certainly didn’t treat Thatcher the same way, now did you?”

“That’s not fair, Addi, she was more than a handful, at the best of times.”

“Only for you. Because you antagonised her at every turn, didn’t want her to be the Heir to Nightfall. Don’t think Fallon and I don’t know this, aren’t hurt by this thought every day, our Bond is the only thing saving you right now.”

“Addi please, if you’d only told me, confided in me.”

“What would you have done?” Saw him stare at her. “Nothing good, I imagine. Other than Mate her off, oh wait! You already tried that twice, to Victor of all people.”

“He’s a good strong Alpha, would have been able to handle her.” Orien tried once more to defend his choice of a Mate for Luci. She’d never once seen him offer up anyone else, only ever Victor. Not that she was having a bar of her daughter being mated off against her will.

“Ask Rafe and Jack, who attacked this pack, what that person wanted. Ask Rafe who hurt little Jack, Luci’s son, with Beta Jack, who hurt him, uncaring that he was just a six-year-old boy and trying to protect his mother from being forcibly taken against her will. Then come and see me and tell me you think Victor is a good Alpha, would make a good Mate for Luci…I will never believe it…I will never allow it either.” She turned and walked away from him.

‘Addi we love you.’ Orien’s voice came down the mind-link to her.

‘We’ll see who you love more, your Mate or your Allied savage?’ she said softly in return and then cut the link to him.

She had absolutely no idea who he would choose, her or Victor. He’d known Victor a long time, so had she, for that matter, he was a brute and not, as far as she could tell, had a single caring bone in his body. She had no idea how he’d become an Alpha to a pack, how he had a loyal pack to him, likely she thought. They were all afraid of him, instilled fear into them so much so that they just fell into line.

She showered and changed, went to replace her son Thatcher. She’d not seen him at all yesterday afternoon or evening, likely he’d been with his Mate in their room, enjoying each other’s company. Found him in his suite, he opened the door and she looked right at him. “Your sister has been found, is a mother of two. You might want to go and say hello.”

“A mother?” he sounded completely shocked to her ear. Seems he’d either not talked to his father or Orien hadn’t yet seen fit to impart the news to him.

“Yes, twin boys. Are Rafe and Jack’s. She is and always was a pack member. She never even went that far, just stayed out of sight was all. Due to them both having Mates.”

Saw her own son sigh at this, he understood why “Is she well at least?” he asked.

“Go and see for yourself. Oh, and Thatcher, she is no threat to your prize as the Heir to Nightfall. You won that years ago, before she even left.” Saw him frown at her words, ignored it and went on “I won’t have her go back to Nightfall. To be treated like she was back there, once more. As your father always did, you might also want to tell your Mate about your father’s stupid rules where women are concerned.”

“Mum.”

“Don’t you mum me, you’re no better. Happy to hear that Luci was found, but then ticked off by the thought I was going to bring her home and that would threaten your position as the Heir.”

Saw him sigh again more on the heavy side this time, “I worked hard to be the Heir.”

“And Luci didn’t? He kicked her out at twenty, Thatcher, because she would not Mate off to Victor against her will.”

“I know.” He nodded.

“She trained till then, all that time. So, she trained just as hard as you have. Technically longer than you and he still found a reason to toss her out, Thatcher. Just so he could instate you as the Heir, instead of her.”

“Mum, that’s not true.”

“Yes it is. She’s not his daughter.”

“W…What?” Thatcher stared at her now.

“Not his, I had a Mate before your father, was pregnant when your father met me…you saw how he was with her. Think about it…I don’t want you to become like him, in that way.”

Thatcher was just standing there staring at her now, he didn’t seem to know what to say at all. “We’ll see who he chooses, me or Victor.” She stated flatly and then just turned and walked away from the suite. He had a lot to absorb. Let’s just see what he would do with that information. Will he dismiss everything or would he question everything, try to replace answers?

A good Alpha would try to replace the answers, not just take the side of their Alpha father, because they were to inherit the pack someday. Addison truly hoped that he would sit and think about it, about everything his whole life around Luci and his father. She was his half-sister, and she did know that Thatcher loved her. He had been more than sad and then just ticked off about what had happened to her here in the Black Forest Pack.

A good Alpha would try to replace the answers, not just take the side of their Alpha father, because they were to inherit the pack someday. Addison truly hoped that he would sit and think about it, about everything his whole life around Luci and his father. She was his half-sister, and she did know that Thatcher loved her. He had been more than sad and then just ticked off about what had happened to her here in the Black Forest Pack.

He hadn’t talked to Alpha Rafe or Beta Jack since Luci went missing, Orien didn’t seem to have cared all that much, had simply shaken his head and that had been it. But Thatcher had understood she’d left them when they’d come home, walked in with their Mates. He also knew that neither of them had bothered to prewarn his sister, that she was not going to be theirs anymore, had been there for that conversation, heard them apologise for their own behaviour.

She left out that Luci was now a double shifter, he did not need to know that right this minute, though it was highly likely that Orien would come and tell him. They, as the Alpha and his Heir to the pack, would need to sit down and discuss it at length. How they were going to deal with her?

What neither of them knew or understood at all, was that Alari would only do as she pleased, what she wanted to do, no one could make her do anything, not even Rafe and Jack would be able to make Alari do what they wanted. She had not been born inside this pack but out there in that lake, outside of the pack territory, likely didn’t consider this pack her home at all.

She wondered if Alari had the knowledge of how Sirens got Goddess Gifted Mates, they were unlike other creatures. It was not as easy for them as just scenting out one’s Mate. Was going to have to sit down and talk to Luci. Though Addison had only knowledge of Kali and presumed she’d replace a Wolfen Mate, now…didn’t know herself how it was going to work.

She herself only had the knowledge that Lucian had once told her, though Luci was different still. So, it could well not be the same for her as it was for her father. She might never have a mate, wolfen or otherwise. Sighed to herself as she made her way back to Luci’s cottage.

She didn’t see Orien, his Beta or Gamma on her way through the packhouse, though she did notice that Alpha Rafe’s office door was now closed, whereas when she’d come here earlier it had been open.

It was possible that Orien had requested a meeting with Rafe to discuss what she’d told him about Victor. He was not a stupid man, he understood her meaning. Would he side with Luci, about the injury to her boy and the fact that Victor had tried to take her against her will? or blip over it?

Addison could only hope so, if not? If he chose Victor over her daughter, it was going to break what remained of their fragile bond and she knew it. She had also implied as much to him before severing that mind-link to him.

She wondered if Orien thought siding with her and Luci was going to bring Luci back into his pack. All Alpha’s wanted power and the strength to defend their packs. Luci was raw power and he would likely want that back now. Would likely try to use herself to sway Luci into coming home if she would go at her request. Addison was, however, going to decline it.

Luci was no longer a Nightfall pack member, hadn’t been since she was twenty, was now 27, she had been initiated into the Black Forest pack at 20. The moment Rafe and Jack had brought her here after Orien had kicked her from Nightfall.

She only ever called home to talk to herself and Thatcher. After that, had not once spoken to Orien since the day she’d left. Had thought that her own father cared nothing for her, so no longer cared for him at all either, rejected that man as much as he had her.