The Alpha & Beta's Regret
The Alpha & Beta’s Regret – Chapter 9

Jack POV

Jack was not convinced that the thing in the lake had killed Luci. It looked too much like her, so similar in facial features and then to see that wolf thing come out of it. Shifting to another form altogether, a double shifter if ever there was one. It was completely possible in his mind that the thing was Luci. His research told him there were double shifters out there.

So why couldn’t it be possible for Luci to be one? though it did state double shifters, shifted between forms, not combined them. Perhaps she was just special?

Yes, Luci had been a wolf, but she had gone into that lake and had never come out, according to the border patrolman that had alerted them to her being out at the lake that night. Tears pouring down her face. It had been only then that he and Rafe had realised just how badly they had f****d s**t up where she was concerned. They had hurt her.

Then the man had been yelling down the mind-link at them, that she was going to kill herself. Said she’d smiled right at him, a weird and strange looking smile, had even told him she wasn’t going to do anything silly. It had struck fear into the man like nothing he’d ever felt before.

That man had actually left his post on the border and gone into the lake after her himself. He hadn’t been able to get to her, said she was too fast. He’d dived into the water just seconds after her, had been yelling her name the whole time, to come back she’d not even seemed to register it. Was in a trance-like state.

He’d not been able to replace her in the darkened water. When he and Rafe had gotten there, he’d been sitting at the water’s edge in ankle-deep water sobbing almost uncontrollably “she didn’t come up.” was all he could say. The man had lashed out at them and nearly gone crazy when they’d tried to pick him up from the water. It had been insane.

They’d had to drag him away from the water’s edge, away from the lake and he’d been kicking and screaming all his claws out. They’d believed him to be traumatised by not being able to save her. Until Hannah and her sisters had arrived put their hands on the man. After just a few minutes, Hannah had looked up at Rafe and stated, “His mind is fractured, something has gotten inside of his mind.” she’d actually sounded worried for the first time since she’d come to the pack, usually was relatively emotionless about everything other than her Mate.

The three of them had used Magic to put the man to sleep, then they had turned to the lake. “Don’t go in there.” the three of them had stated in union “It’s dangerous out there.”

It just looked like a lake to him. “Look at the water,” Hannah had said, and then sent out a ball of witch’s light from her hand. It traversed out across the lake and sure as hell it was not a calm lake, the water was pulsing and undulating out there in the middle, like it was alive and had its own furious heartbeat. He’d not even realised that the lapping water by the edge had been in a completely rhythmic motion.

“What is it?” he and Rafe had asked them at the same time.

Jack had watched the three of them stand there and stare out over the lake, then closed their eyes after a minute to focus better. He had presumed “Death.” they had said, and urged everyone to walk away from it.

Hannah had stated “that anyone who went into that lake right now would end up as fractured as the border patrol man was himself.”

Their patrolman had, had to be put down, so fractured by being in that water that he’d been unable to make a coherent sentence. Not even Hannah and her sisters had been able to reach the man and save his mind, and they had tried. The only blessing was that the man had been un-mated.

They had lost contact with Luci that night. They had tried to reach her via the mind-link to apologise as they’d raced towards the lake, but it had been severed violently each and every time, so strong was the severing, it had actually caused the both of them pain as it was ripped away from them.

They couldn’t feel her, yet Rafe had sworn she was not severed from the pack, and he as the Alpha, felt every severing from the pack whether it be from going rogue or being initiated into another pack, or death. But he swore black and blue, she had not gone rogue or died, he just couldn’t feel her anymore. It was weird to him.

The lake had been a no-go zone, the witches had kept a very watchful eye on it. Three days it had pulsed and rippled, been a death trap of pain and agony, and they had stated that anyone going into that lake would come out as fractured as the border patrolman. They had even set up some sort of magical protection to limit the human’s going into the lake, though a few had gotten past it and ended up dead not long afterwards.

Whatever was in that lake would fracture any otherworldly creature but was certain death to a human. The lake had been completely banned to the pack after that, Luci had never come out. Gone in where only death had awaited her.

Both he and Rafe knew they were responsible for her disappearance, they had been so wrapped up in their Mate Bonds neither of them had thought to even call the woman, who they had been sharing for so long. Goddess the woman could drive them into a mating frenzy sometimes and she had craved them just as much. Had actually gone into heat with them a few weeks prior to that night. Mated the hell out of both of them for 4 solid days completely insatiable the whole time. It had actually been the best 4 days they’d ever had, even to this day. Nothing had even come close to that.

Jack pulled his mind from the thought. Part of him and his wolf still missed the girl, something about her, there always had been right from the first time she’d shifted here in this pack, just outside the packhouse dining room. They’d been told she was wolf-less and to keep their hands off of her.

She’d been trouble, right from the moment she’d stepped out of her father’s car, she’d smiled right at him and Rafe and the moment she’d laid those brilliant green eyes on them, he’d wanted her, she was beautiful, and so against her father’s rules.

Jack shook his head to try and clear it, to stop thinking about her.

“You right Jack?”

“Mm, can’t clear my thoughts.” he admitted to Rafe. Luci was all he could think about right that minute.

“Go replace your Mate.” Rafe had stated.

His Mate! A pretty blonde, blue-eyed woman, small of stature and soft all over, didn’t like training, did the bare minimum. He knew Rafe was telling him to go and have s*x with Maria. It would take his mind off his other thoughts, but for how long? Till he was done, was the answer and he knew it.

“I’ll be fine.” Jack turned back to the paperwork he was filling out, his pen though, halted over the paper. He didn’t want to have s*x with his Mate right this minute. They’d been trying to have a pup for many years now. Apparently, it was his fault, she was fine had even gotten a fertility test when she’d gone home for a family visit, and everything was fine and normal. She went into heat once a year.

She begged him regularly to mate her and put a pup in her, and he did try, it just never happened. She blamed him. Though he to now had been tested and everything was normal, he was more than capable of getting her pregnant. Just couldn’t for some reason.

s*x with Maria, though felt good, always ended up with her gasping for him to put a pup in her, not his name anymore. Like it had once used to be, it would be going great, pleasure for him and her. Their bond intact, riled him up good and proper, though she always wanted him to slow it down, never seemed to like it with all his Beta needs in full swing, never got to really just give it to her, lose all control and pound the hell out of her. She didn’t like it rough at all.

He’d learned what she’d liked and tended to her needs, how she liked it, the s*x could be really good sometimes, until those bloody words came out of her mouth and then he just lost the drive to finish properly. And those words now were every time they had s*x.

He’d learned what she’d liked and tended to her needs, how she liked it, the s*x could be really good sometimes, until those bloody words came out of her mouth and then he just lost the drive to finish properly. And those words now were every time they had s*x.

It was only different when she was in heat. It was the only time he was allowed to Mate her like crazy, all l**t filled and uncontrollable, raw need from her during her heat, 5 days of rough I got to have it s*x from her. She was all animalistic for him and he really loved it. But still nothing, no pup.

Still told him it was his fault even though the doc said it wasn’t and it honestly made him, and his wolf Flare feel inadequate. Not that it stopped her from wanting to have s*x, she liked the s*x, told him it was amazing. But it wasn’t for Jack, he knew it could be better. If she would just let Rafe into their bed, goddess, it would be amazing, the two of them touching her, pleasing her, she’d get so damned high on pleasure she’d feel like she was seeing stars and he knew it.

His eyes moved to Rafe, to replace the man looking right at him. The damned man knew what he was thinking about, Jack could see in the expression on his face. Six and a half bloody years and not once in the same bed.

Rafe sighed. He understood “Come on let’s go for a run, I need to get out of my head to.” for although Jack had given up trying to convince his Mate. His Alpha still fought for them even all these years later. Jack had let it go, resigned to the fact she would never allow it. Caused him pain every time she screamed at him about how sick he was. ‘wanting to see another man’s d**k inside me’ were her words. She didn’t understand him. Never had and sometimes just looking at his Mate caused him pain.

“Let’s”, Jack nodded. They stepped outside and let Solar and Flare shift them, and their wolves just run into the dense woods at full speed, wherever they wanted to go. Even their wolves’ names could be joined to make one word, were close like he and Rafe were, though Flare had no interest in his wolfen Mate, had only ever Mated her once during their Marking and Mating, never since, it was odd behaviour.

Why couldn’t their Mate’s see that they actually needed this? It wasn’t a choice, it was who they were, what they longed for, needed to feel whole, to be completely happy.

Maria and Melissa were twins. He and Rafe had been very excited about that, not identical, but twins often shared Mate’s. It was perfect for them, hell the two of them had started planning how to rearrange the Alpha’s floor and remodel it to incorporate the four of them in the one bed. Goddess they’d been so excited about it. Though both had agreed to Mark and Mate their Mates as normal, no sharing until they got back to the pack. Had left it alone for the time inside the girls’ home pack. Most of their allied packs knew who they were, that they shared everything including their women. It was likely so did their Mates.

The women were so very close too, practically inseparable, that he and Rafe had not even considered that they would say no, also thought the two of them had just wanted to wait until they were back here, inside their new pack. They had always been eyeing the pair of them off and giggling about something.

But it had not gone as planned, there had been yelling and screaming almost instantly. When he and Rafe had started kissing their Mates pressing them back against each other, that part neither had seemed to care about. It had been in the Alpha’s office. They had both had their backs pressed together, and excitement had filled not just him but Rafe as well. He’d felt it, but when their hands had moved to the other Mate’s h**s, they had their hands shoved violently away and the yelling had begun.