Cahoter 6. The Alpha's Regret

Chapter 5 — The Alpha's Regret

The minute the car crossed into pack territory, I was already watching from my office window. Alara was coming home, but not by choice. I sent my beta, Elias, to get her once my gamma located her on the west coast. He came back alone. She left me no other option. I informed the pack elders of her whereabouts, and they formally summoned her.

She did well for herself out there. Started a bakery and made it profitable. I learned she was opening another one on the other side of the town she lives in now. She built a life without us. Without me.

Alara hates me. I can’t blame her. I promised she would be my Luna, and on the full moon when I was meant to mark her, I stood before her, the elder council, and the pack with that bitch of a betrayer and rejected her. I saw her curl into herself as the bond severed her from me. She regained her formal posture, then stood in front of Serena and me in her ceremonial mate gown, silent. She didn’t shed a single tear. She didn’t even reject me at that moment. She simply looked down and stepped off the dais to her family waiting at the last step.

Her father, Jason—my father’s beta—looked at me with eyes that wanted my blood for the way I dishonored his daughter and the Moon Goddess.

Two weeks after I claimed that betrayer as my chosen mate, my fated mate disappeared. A sharp pain hit me as Alara crossed over and out of our territory, severing her half of our mate bond. Elias found me on my office floor, howling in pain, and carried me to the pack hospital. I nearly died from the rejection. My wolf, Drago, refused to speak to me afterward and only surfaced if the pack was in danger. My father was none too pleased with my choice in Luna. The pack split, choosing sides, and it was the beginning of our downfall.

I look up and see the car turn off onto the road that leads to the Moon Healing Temple. The place where my father nearly lost his life going after the bitch who allowed rogues to enter our pack lands and kill too many of our people—women, men, pups. Our healers are at a bare minimum now. Too many were lost trying to defend the temple.

That’s why I summoned her back.

I need her training.

I need her experience in the healing arts.

I… I need her.

But I lost her five years ago. I don’t have the right to claim her anymore.

I take a long drag from the whiskey glass in my hand, my forehead pressed against the window. I close my eyes to the destruction my choices caused.

I’m glad she’s back. The pack needs her. I just hope she stays long enough for me to earn her forgiveness.

I open my eyes to see the car pulling up to the east side entrance. She steps out.

Goddess, she is still beautiful.

She hates you, Drago says.

My shoulders sag at his comment.

“I know,” I whisper.

I watch as Alara enters the pack house to stand before the elder council, and I hate myself for making her face them. I hate myself for every choice that led us here. I hate myself for the pain I caused her. And I hate that I still want her, still need her, still feel the hollow ache where our bond used to be.

But she’s here.

And for the first time in five years, hope stirs in my chest.