The Alpha & Beta's Regret
The Alpha & Beta’s Regret – Chapter 105

Jo-anne POV

Jo-anne stepped inside of the cabin where her Aunts, she now knew them to be. Lived, it was pretty simple and very clean, neat and tidy. The whole place was open planned. To her right was a large kitchen; she could smell something delicious cooking, preparing dinner, she supposed.

Here, where she had walked into the cabin, was the living area. There was a nice comfortable dark grey lounge with a large grey and white rug on the floor, which she noted was all wooden floorboards. On the wall behind their couch was a picture of their Mate, Allen the packs Gamma. And next to him in that picture was obviously his wolf, a large grey and white beast. It had its head tilted to the side and, surprisingly, its tongue was partially out, kind of looked cheeky to her.

She couldn’t help but smile at it, realised that it was that way on purpose, the way the man’s Beast looked at his Mates, teasingly so, pointed at it. The three of them turned and looked at it. “His wolf, Cosmos, is naughty with us.” Giannah chuckled softly. “So that’s how I portrayed him.”

“It’s a good likeness, I imagine.” Jo-anne nodded, though she did believe she could do a better job, it was filled with love.

To her left was what she could only think of as their potion room. There was a large fireplace on the far wall and the room was lined with shelves which were filled with bottles and jars of all sizes. Containing flowers, seeds, herbs, soil, a few had what she thought were bones of animals, and fur and feathers, leaves and some thick sticky looking substances, perhaps tree saps, she thought absently.

One entire shelf seemed to be filled with crystals and gem stones, of all shapes and sizes, some polished up and looking pristine and perfect and others raw and jagged as though just dug out of the ground.

In the middle of that room was a large circle carved into the floor, inlaid with gold and then three more circles inside of it all overlapping each other inlaid with silver. In the very centre where those three circles overlapped, were the celestial moons, small and neat, each one a different colour. Blue, Red, Yellow, Green and White, elemental colours she thought to herself.

These women were steeped in magic, she could feel it more inside this cabin than she could outside in the garden, “What happened when I stepped into the centre of the garden?” Jo-anne asked, turning back to them.

“It reacted to you, is tailored to our bloodline, which you are.” Was the answer.

“Why did he go from dark to light?” she asked, returning her attention to the rest of the cabin. She knew that they would understand her question. Could see a single door between the kitchen and living, likely their bedroom, where she knew the three of them would sleep together with their one Mate between them. Nothing unusual about that when there were multiple mates involved.

“Got his heart broken. His fated Mate would not accept him. She was a wolf, and at the time. Wolves and Witches did not get along. Rejected him and it turned him sour at first and then when she’d moved on and mated herself to another, a wolf, and he heard she was with that wolfs pup…’ the three of them sighed heavily “lost him to the darkness. He cursed the woman’s child, to punish her fro rejecting him, very sad.”

Jo-anne frowned, “you can’t always have what you want.”

“That is true, but he was to be the next King. Royalty of the light witches, he would have loved his Mate, treated her kindly and given her the world. She, however, did not care for her Mate to be a witch.”

“Sometimes you just need to let go of the things that are unobtainable to you. Move on and create a better life for yourself.”

“As we did.” They nodded “Lost our own Mates to our brother. He killed them all long ago. He punished us, himself, for replaceing wolfen mates that not only accepted us, but loved us. Something he didn’t get.” There was silence in the cabin now.

“Allen?” she enquired after a moment of silence, looking at his portrait.

“Second Chance Mate. He came to us in a vision after your mother did what we could not. He is everything to us and he’ll not be killed so easily as our last.”

That gained her attention. “Explain that.”

“Not the right question.”

Jo-anne frowned now, didn’t really understand that, thought about Allen himself, what had been said today in the war meeting as well, “What spell protects him?”

“One of our own making,” Hannah told her simply.

“Not my place to know?”

“It’s b***d magic.” Hannah told her. “You yourself could likely do it, if you wanted to, your b***d…”

“Enough,” Jo-anne snapped, cutting her off. “I don’t want to talk about my b***d and what it can do to others. Be used for, I don’t care to hear it.”

She watched as the three of them just nodded and said no more. She took a calming breath and tried not to think about it. West didn’t care about her witch’s bloodline, had not once in the past three and half years asked her to use it for anything. He only cared about her being happy. Though she knew he’d seen something when Marking her, he had kept it to himself.

When she’d asked him, he’d simply stated what he’d seen had made him happy and then he’d seen something she did that was completely funny, that had come from a moment of pure annoyance from her. But that was it, nothing more.

The day he’d seen Ella get her first shiver from Terence he’d simply smiled and looked at her a little knowingly. She thought perhaps that something funny was her giving shivers to her mother and Ella.

“Why did you allow your Alpha and his Beta to be affected by magic? Why didn’t you warn them or do something about it?” She posed the question that she was actually here to get answers to.

Watched as she was waved to a chair, she sank down. “First, your highness.”

“Stop calling me that, Jo-anne or Luna is fine. No-one knows who I am outside of a very select few. I’d like to keep it that way.”

“Yes, Luna.” The three of them stated “We’ll serve dinner to you and chat while we eat.” She watched as Aayliah dished up dinner and handed it out, tasted amazing when she took her first bite. It was a simple looking stew with freshly baked bread.

“We simply can not interfere.” She was told by Hannah “What happened, needed to happen for a reason.”

“Explain that further.”

“If Rafe and Jack didn’t break Luci’s heart she would never have become a true Triune.”

“There was no other way?” she huffed more than a little annoyed. “That girl is still suffering.”

“No, she nearly became Triune once before, but both Rafe and Jack interfered and took her sadness and anger, devastation away from her. Those two always wanted to see her happy and smiling, right from the day they met her. Wanted deep down inside to make the girl happy. Their need to make her happy rendered her unable to become her true self. They can always make her happy. She’d been 18 then, and we realised she would never be what she was meant to be, with them by her side. So, when it came time once more for her to feel that way, we knew no interference must be had.”

“So, you always knew what she was going to be.”

“Should be, whether or not it was going to be was a different matter. That girl had many paths, many difficulties, her linage.” Hannah shook her head. “Not even we foresaw what she would be till she shifted to her wolf, felt it that day, she was something unusual to us. Met her that day but was not allowed to touch her. We’ve never touched her as per her mother’s wishes.”

“Mm, as a witch you don’t touch another witch’s child without permission.”

“Correct.” They all stated together.

“It will work itself out, Luna. The Alpha and Beta have now realised most of the truth of what has happened to them. You yourself must let it play out.”

Jo-anne sighed now, she didn’t like the sound of that.

“For all to be revealed, you must leave it alone. If you fix it, others will remain affected, but if you let Rafe and Jack sort it out in their own way, there is still another to be seen and felt by you. Revealed to you. One who truly needs your help, help only you yourself can give.”

“Who is the other?” she asked now.

She watched Hanna shake her head now, indicating ‘no’ “You must let it play out Luna, only then can you help them. If you make the right choice, many from other packs will be blessed and granted freedom, without even having to ask for it.”

Jo-anne stared at the woman long and hard now, then just huffed in plain old annoyance. Why was it always a choice for her to make? A choice that if she got wrong affected others in a detrimental way. But that if she got it right helped many others.

These three witches, her own flesh and b***d, practically just stated what Selena the moon Goddess had told her when she’d died. Sat there staring at them, for a long quiet minute, wondering just what pathways they saw and how accurate they were at that. Did they have real celestial guidance? Did Selena herself come to these women and talk to them, guide them in the things they did? They spoke as cryptically as Selena had that day.

None of them said anything either, all four of them just sitting there in the room quietly watching each other. She knew they were just waiting for her next question, would likely only speak if they so chose to. It was a witches way. She’d read up on witches, done her research. Had to considering what she was.

“Victor?” she asked, changing the subject.

“Not our problem at this time.”

“What is in that pack that stops you from sending your mate to do recon?”

“A siren.”

Jo-anne frowned “Explain further.”

“No-one can physically harm Allen, or magically, for that matter. But a Siren doesn’t need to touch him, so he can be hurt or killed by one’s call.”

“Luci?”

“Is of no threat to our Mate.”

She thought about that, “Why haven’t you told him the real reason? Or Rafe and Jack?”

“They will all have concerns over Luci’s Siren. Alari is very aggressive in the defence of Luci and Kali. Ticking that one off, is not wise and if they are on edge around her, become stressed or agitated around Alari, she will not be the only one to feel it. That could see them leave the pack altogether and…” she trailed off.

“And?”

“Luci needs to be here to make that spell on them dwindle to nothing at all. Luci needs to be here, for it to be sorted out. See it for herself and…” the three of them sighed heavily now.

“And?” Jo-anne prompted them yet again.

“Use that knowledge to come into her full powers, it’s not going to be pretty when it happens, and we’re not at this time certain if it will come to light. But there are currently only two paths for Luci right at this minute. The contributing factor has not been seen by us yet.”

“Right.” Jo-anne sighed “So I have to choose between Luci’s happiness and many others’ happiness.” She really did hate that. “Luci’s path? It is unknown to you as of yet,”

“But you’re betting on what exactly?”

“Everything working out the right way. The goddess smiles on Triunes. Though only after heartache. She has suffered as much as we have…Have faith, Luna, that Selena is watching over the girl in her own way.”

Then, to her complete shock, the three of them just chuckled softly into the room. “We’ve already seen the boys happy here, all grown up and mated to one that loves them. Life is good for the twins.”

Jo-anne shook her head. “You speak too cryptically, do you know that?”

“Yes.” They all smiled at her. “It’s our nature, amuses us to make others’ brains tick.”

“Is that all this is to you? a big game?”

“We are very old, and have seen a lot. Not much amuses us anymore, so we have to amuse ourselves.”

Jo-anne shook her head. “The war with Victor?”

“There is time yet…I would like you, however, to ask your brother a favour, it will help with the war when it comes. Though…” she paused in thought.

“Though?” Jo-anne asked, not liking the sound of the woman’s voice.

“From bad sprouts good.”

“What?”

“Sometimes, from evil and darkness comes goodness and light. Like yourself, like Addison. Both of you were conceived evilly, but both of you are all light and goodness.”

Jo-anne sighed now, she had the feeling she was now just going around in circles with these women. “What is the favour?”

“That Addison is taken home by your brother, flight will be the safest option for her to get to her home.”

“Safest option?”

“Yes, fly right over Victors men. She can call him to be retrieved when she needs it.”

“I guess that depends on if we are still here, when she calls.”

“Perhaps.”

Jo-anne left that cabin just as annoyed as she’d been going there, she had to stay out of what was going on here, had to let it play out as Rafe and Jack needed it to. So she could help others without them even asking her too.

She really didn’t like it, could see that Luci was in pain, her wolf was in pain and her Siren was closed off to all bar her children and mother. She wanted nothing more than to fix it, to stop the three of them hurting so much. To see them all happy and with those she was meant to be with.

West and T.J. were waiting for her at the packhouse. It was late, she’d not realised how long she had been gone but had learned a lot about herself in that time. She was a royal-blooded witch. That likely would or could if she wanted to lay claim to a throne.

Sighed as she sank down in their suite, knew that both West and T.J. wanted to know what had gone on out there. She couldn’t tell them half of it. That would be considered interfering in all likelihood. Couldn’t tell them anything about Rafe and Jack or Luci, not there so-called Mates even, couldn’t even bring up Victor having a Siren.

She looked from West to T.J. and told them the answer to their most likely pressing question, “They are my aunts.”

“What?” they both asked, shocked.

“My biological father’s triplet sisters. He was the King of the light witches, turned evil.”

“Sweet Goddess,” West murmured. “A Queen, not a princess. Your birthright, your father is dead.” He sighed heavily “My beautiful Luna, a freaking Queen.” She could hear the worry in him now, he was always worried about someone replaceing out what she was. Protecting her was all he wanted and she knew his brain was now ticking on how to keep that a secret. Saw his eyes move to the robes and then her. He knew what they were even.