The Alpha & Beta’s Regret – Chapter 60

Jack POV

He felt the calmness of Luci’s room wash over him within just a minute, all his annoyance and anger with Rafe was gone, along with the feeling of wanting to beat him one, for not listening to him. For not understanding and being so blind that he couldn’t see that something was very wrong.

He felt his anger just leave him, and now he was just standing inside Luci’s old room feeling confused as to why he’d been so very angry with Rafe. He didn’t really need to yell at the man. Had never actually yelled at him like that before. Jack felt as though a switch had just been flipped inside of him.

He looked at Rafe and wondered how he had become so fumingly mad. Even Rafe felt it, the difference, the change around them, hearing him state that something was off. Was glad that it wasn’t just him feeling it anymore. And as he stood listening to Rafe he understood now why he’d brought him to Luci’s room.

Being in here had always calmed the two of them, even after she was gone, they could come in here and feel relaxed, sleep like the dead. It was like their own personal little sanctuary within their packhouse. A place both of them went to when ticked off, with their Mates, neither one of them had access to this room.

He followed Rafe out of Luci’s room now that he was calm, down to the man’s own suite. Jack could only agree that his own attitude had been out of control and escalating at that, while in the Beta Suite. Rafe had just called it toxic, and it now certainly felt that way to Jack.

Rafe hadn’t been in his suite in years. Maria didn’t like it, neither did Melissa for that matter, so they pretty much stayed out of each other’s rooms. Just mind-linked to each other if one was in their suite instead of strolling in to chat. Like they had once used to do all the time.

‘What are we doing?’ Jack asked as he followed him.

‘Investigating the difference between your room and mine.’ Rafe told him.

Jack looked around, it was much the same as it had always been, not much had changed at all. Rafe had never let Melissa turn it all girly like Maria had to the Beta’s suite.

‘It’s still mostly you.’ Jack commented.

‘Yes, it is.’ Rafe nodded. ‘Your room, however, Maria has turned into a pink doll house.’

The tone of Rafe’s words, had annoyance rolling through Jack, it sounded as though he was insulting Maria and her taste and he didn’t much like it. ‘It’s what she wanted. I at least let my mate change it to her liking.’ He snapped at Rafe, and then shook his head, could feel himself starting to get angry, saw Rafe look right at him and raise an eyebrow.

‘Angry Jack?’

‘Annoyed at your comment.’ Jack stated because it was the honest truth, that one almost harmless comment set him on edge, and there was a need to defend his Mate.

Rafe latched on to his arm and walked him out of the suite and back into the hallway, let him go, but looked right at him ‘Maria’s taste is hideous, why would you let her do that to the Beta Suite?’

Jack stared at him ‘It’s what Mate’s do.’ He frowned, that was an even bigger insult, but he didn’t feel the need to snap at Rafe for it.

Saw Rafe’s blue eyes narrow on him and then he was pulled into Luci’s old room and the door closed. ‘I hate Maria’s taste in décor, it’s utterly hideous.’ Rafe told him.

‘Me too.’ Jack sighed ‘I hate it.’ he murmured, and then blinked at his own words.

Saw Rafe half smile and nod ‘Shall we try this again in your suite Jack?’ he asked him.

Jack sighed ‘It’s probably not wise, considering what we’re testing, I might just try and beat you one.’ He stated, now understanding just what they were doing. He was testing him, and his anger over insults to Maria. In Rafe’s room he’d felt his anger rise, in the hallway only mild annoyance. Here in Luci’s room, however, he felt nothing at all, actually agreed with the man.

‘I want to test it,’ Jack stated after only a minute of thought ‘I hate pink, really bloody hate how that room looks. You might want to duck and cover though.’ Even he had the feeling his reaction was going to be aggressive in nature.

He heard Rafe actually chuckle ‘I can handle you. Let’s go do it.’

They walked back into the Beta Suite and as much as he really hated the décor in this suite, and he did, had voiced as much just a moment ago, he turned angry the moment Rafe insulted Maria’s decorating of the suite, Jack yelled right at the man.

Rafe then went on to state point blankly that Maria’s taste sucked and suddenly Jack felt enraged, and he took a full swing at Rafe, launched himself after the man, chased him right out of the suite and into the hallway with the intent of beating the hell out of him.

Chased him all the way into Luci’s room and near sagged with relief as a calmness washed over him. ‘I’m sorry.’ He murmured and sank down on the couch. ‘I was right though.’ He muttered.

‘It does seem that way. Though in here and in our office, we are fine.’ Rafe sat next to him.

‘More than fine.’ Jack closed his eyes ‘So what now?’

There was silence for several minutes before Rafe spoke ‘So, now we wait. Until they come home, see what happens. How we feel, I suppose.’

Jack sighed ‘Rafe, I always feel more connected to Maria when she gets back, doesn’t really last that long but, the first few days or weeks,’ he shook his head. ‘What if we forget about all of this, when they get home?’ it bothered him more now ‘What if they’d made us forget before, more than once now, if they have. They could do it again if they needed to, want to.’

‘A potential problem.’ Rafe nodded ‘I don’t recall anything like this before.’

‘Neither do I, but who’s to say…’ he trailed off, didn’t really want to think about his Mate having done something to him and Flare, something that always made them forget if they suspected anything.

‘Why is my room worse than yours?’ he asked sometime later.

‘You stated, you loved Luci.’ Rafe sighed heavily.

‘I know I did…’Jack closed his eyes ‘I still do, Rafe.’ He half whispered ‘Flare…love’s Kali, I feel it now.’ And he did know it to be the truth. Those two Mate’s of theirs had done something to them, still were he was willing to bet. Whatever it was, it had ruined something so perfect in his life and now he didn’t know how to fix it.

He felt Rafe’s hand touch his leg ‘If they did something to us, and you love Luci, Flare loves Kali.’ Rafe sighed ‘I suppose keeping that from you would take more effort, would it not. Perhaps you need a higher dose than I do.’

‘I guess.’ Jack sighed and stared up at the ceiling.

‘Stay here.’ Rafe told him and left the room.

Jack wasn’t going anywhere, he could well forget everything he’d learned over the past couple of days if he left that room. Didn’t want to forget Luci and how much he loved her.

Rafe came back in less than five minutes with a couple of permanent markers. He handed one to Jack but didn’t sit down.

Walked over to the far wall and wrote the date and time on it, then under it ‘Why did we forget Luci?’ ‘The Beta Suite makes Jack and I fight.’ ‘Luci’s room calms us.’ ‘we don’t fight in our office.’

Jack understood, he got up and wrote his name on the wall and right under it ‘I love Luci.’ ‘Flare loves Kali.’ ‘Maria did something to me.’ ‘There is something in the Beta Suite to keep me attracted to Maria.’ ‘Is Maria my actual Mate? I don’t feel like I’m mated to her at all right this minute’ and then put the date and time right next to it.

He saw Rafe write ‘Titan is with Melissa and Maria in Wolf Valley Pack. Question him about what goes on in their home pack’ He looked at Rafe and sighed.

Then wrote ‘Are Maria and Melissa our actual Goddess Gifted Mates?’ then he stepped back and looked at it all, “Okay, so if they do something to us, how will we know to come in here and see this if they do it again and we forget yet again.”

The pair of them stood staring at the wall, for several quiet minutes, then Rafe wrote on the wall ‘Set alarm on phone to go off, titled Luci’s room’

Jack nodded. “No, explanation with it will make us curious and come here.”

“Yes.” Rafe nodded.

“A good idea, but why write that, why not just set it now and have it go off every day?”

“Melissa or Maria might see it and dismiss it, delete the alarm even. So, we wouldn’t remember to come here. This will remind us if we come in here randomly to get away from either of them after a fight.”

Jack nodded, saw the logic in it, pulled out his phone and set an alarm for 9pm every day. Those two had a TV program they watched at 2030 so they wouldn’t even notice. He and Rafe were usually in the Alpha’s office or in the Alpha Bar with Allen and Ian having a drink at the end of the day, if there was nothing pressing in the pack that needed their attention. Neither he nor Rafe went to bed early and neither of their Mates ever asked them to.

He then wrote on the wall, ‘alarm set to go off daily.’ And dated it “So if we forget, this will tell us we did that and it was tampered with.”

Stood back once more and stared at the wall, then wrote one more thing ‘I had Titan k**s Maria, I felt nothing, no pains of betrayal.’ And dated it, looked at the message from Titan and wrote down the time it had happened.

He heard Rafe chuckle “I can top that.” He smirked at Jack and then wrote ‘I kissed the hell out of Jack, Melissa felt nothing,’ wrote the date next to it.

Jack smiled at him. “Petra sure did get an eyeful.” Then sank back down on the couch.

Rafe sat next to him. “Jack, if this all turns out to be true.”

Jack sighed heavily because his gut was telling him it was going to be true, “I know.” He nodded, they’d lost Luci and the boys to those two women and for what?

“We’ll need proof Jack.”

“I’ll just reject her.” he muttered, and he would.

“Still need proof, or you could be rejecting your Goddess Gifted Mate.”

“Who hates everything about me.”

“Surely not everything?”

“Everything.” Jack sighed and he knew he was right. “Do you realise Rafe, that with no pains of betrayal. They could be over there in the Wolf Valley Pack, f*****g anyone they want, for as long as they like and we’d never know about it.”

He heard Rafe sigh “I guess they could be.”

“I’m betting on it.” Jack muttered “Now that I know this, the way she is with me, never initiates s*x, tells me she wants to have s*x but never actively touches me first.” He scrubbed a hand over his face “They’re probably back in their father’s pack laughing at us. Doing as they please. Likely why they go home.”

“They might not know Jack, might not risk it either.”

“Who the hell knows?” he muttered, the way Maria was with him, he was willing to bet that she was not faithful, had someone back in that pack she actually wanted. All he knew was that she didn’t want him at all.

Sat there and recalled how he met her, how standoffish Maria had been even after scenting him out, she’d not been all loved up and smitten, she stood there with her sister all dressed up in a nicely fitted dress, had make-up on, had actually been holding her sisters hand as she stared right at him. She hadn’t even smiled at him, it had taken them a few days to get to know them and then Mark and Mate them. They had been in that pack for two weeks.

“Rafe, do you recall how many rogue attacks we defended the Wolf Valley Pack from, after they called for assistance?” he asked, now realising it was only one. Then the moon had set and there had been nothing after that, that seemed odd to him.

“Um, one, maybe two. Why?”

“Nothing after the full moon though, right?”

“No.” Rafe frowned at him “What are you thinking?”

“That if they did have some sort of plan, they needed us in their pack over the full moon to pull it off, then we were distracted, so to speak, by them. To notice that suddenly there were no more attacks on that pack. No need for us to be there and protect them, it all just ended.”

“It is odd. Seeing as Colby stated, he needed assistance with constant rogue attacks to his pack…I don’t recall that there were even that many rogues attacking them. Now I’m thinking about it. A handful only, nothing Colby and his men couldn’t have handled.”

“What if everything is a lie?” Jack sighed heavily “Luci, she got hurt for nothing, and we lost her, lost the boys all for nothing.”

He heard Rafe sigh now as well. “Alari, wouldn’t be with her if this didn’t happen. Brought out by her heartbreak.”

“This is a nightmare, Rafe.”

“It is, but we need to be smart about this. Find the truth. Figure it all out.”

“I don’t want to lose Luci again.” He closed his eyes “What if I forget what I know?”

They were both quiet. “I don’t think you will, Jack.” Rafe told him, “you only really started pushing back against Maria when you saw Alari in the lake, thought it was Luci. Became consumed by your need to find her. Perhaps having her here in the pack is what is loosening whatever hold on you Maria has.”

Jack nodded. That could actually make perfect sense “Then, I need to be around Luci more.”

“We still need to work on that, Jack. She’s not comfortable yet.”

“I want to be with her.” Jack stated flatly.

“Honestly, Jack. I wouldn’t even trust you with her right now.”

Jack turned and stared at the man. “Why?”

“You’ll rip her clothes off, is why, try and have your way with her or more.”

Jack smiled now, “Hmm, maybe.” He’d never been able to keep his hands off the girl, and even now, Flare wanted to be with Kali, Alari even. It might very well get out of hand on his end.

“Maybe! You were always worse than I was, even before she was here, you itched to go down to Nightfall, for no reason other than to get her alone.”

Jack laughed now “What can I say, she enjoyed me as much as I did her.”

“Enjoyed sneaking out, without her father knowing you mean, to slip into our room, or to taunt us, into hunting her in her father’s pack.”

Jack burst out laughing, “Oh my Goddess she really was a handful for that man.”

“She was, until she was here.” Rafe nodded “No rules here to confine her and as much of either of us as she liked, wanted, seemed to solve the issue. Luci was never a handful for either of us.”

“Well, not in that sense.” Jack chuckled.

Rafe shoved him a little. “Get your head out of the gutter.”

“Nope.” Jack smiled at him, and he really didn’t want to. He liked thinking back on their time with Luci. Loved all their moments together, loved that she’d been their concubine, not that, that was how he or Rafe actually thought of her. But she did like to use that word when talking to her mother over the phone.

He could only put it down to Orien, had likely been in the room or walked into the room her mother had been in while they were talking. He’d heard her state on more than one occasion “Oh my Goddess, mother. I love being a concubine, having s*x every day.”

He’d heard her state once as she’d looked right at Jack as he’d stood with a raised eyebrow at hearing her comment “Gotta go mum, duty calls for Beta Jack.” and she’d chuckled right before hanging up.

“So cheeky she was, I want that again, Rafe.” Jack sighed. “To see that cheeky side, that naughty little smile of hers.”