Chapter Thirteen

Regan’s POV

If I had been avoiding Jasmine before, now I was completely ignoring her existence.

And with good reason.

Ever since our encounter in the woods with Rage, I was determined to not be anywhere close to her.

Not that I was complaining, but the fragile she-wolf had turned my killer wolf with a deadly reputation and terrible temperament into a purring pup.

I had never seen Rage act that way before.

He had always been wary of interacting and always kept to himself, only coming out when I wanted him to.

Whenever he did come out, he left destruction in his wake.

I had felt a little guilty about how I had spoken to her in her room the last time.

But I needed her to understand the kind of danger she could have been in.

Not that I thought Rage would hurt her now after he had acted like a needy pup.

But what scared me more than anything was that during that time in the forest, I had had absolutely no control over Rage.

He had never taken complete control before.

Perhaps never having a reason to.

But this time he had.

And despite the fact that I was relieved that he hadn’t harmed her in any way, I also considered the possibility that if he had chosen to harm her, there was nothing I could have done to stop him.

That left a rotten taste in my mouth.

The possibility that I could not have stopped Rage if he had decided to harm her.

It caused an emotion similar to fear that I refused to acknowledge.

Harming her had been the last thing on Rage’s mind though.

I should know since I felt his emotions keenly.

For the first time since I had gotten Rage, the emotion I had gotten from him was very similar to peaceful and happiness.

I had felt his delight when rather than run away, she had come closer to him.

And I had felt his satisfaction when she had run her hands through his fur and petted him like he was a pet.

The fact that she somehow had such control over my wolf made me very uncomfortable.

Speaking of my wolf, he had been unbearable since our encounter with her in the woods.

He would randomly bring up memories of our encounter with her.

It was worse whenever he caught a hint of her scent. He would suddenly become restless and would try to get me to go and see her.

Each time I refused, he would growl angrily and ignore me, only bringing more images of her to my mind.

I never even knew my wolf could be such a child.

The knowledge of what she had already turned my wolf into with just one meeting made me wonder what would become of Rage if we continued to spend time with her.

I didn’t even want to imagine it.

I needed Rage to remain deadly and feared, not some pup.

Rage’s frustration at me denying him the chance to see her grew as the days went. I had bigger things to deal with than my wolf obsessing over a possible playmate.

Like Blackmoon pack’s audacity to kill one of my wolves simply because he had come near their border.

It was not even a lawful reason to kill the young were wolf since had not crossed the border and he was not a rogue.

The laws were in favor of me taking revenge in threefold and I was going to see that I did.

The reason that blasted pack still stood was because of the law.

Wiping out that pathetic pack was no big feat for me. Rage alone could handle half the pack.

That wasn’t what stopped me.

What stopped me was the fact that wiping out their pack -like they almost did to mine- would make the rest of the werewolves packs shun us.

We were already divided for centuries, we did not need anything more to divide us.

After their attack on my pack years ago, the Blackmoon pack was shunned by most of the other packs in the East, even extending to the few packs in the West.

Most of their pack members comprised of rogues who were banished from their own packs.

Only few packs without honor still interacted with Blackmoon pack, mostly for trade purposes.

I did not want to make a decision that bring such disgrace to my pack, revenge or not.

That was why we launched little attacks, pushing but never breaking the law.

I had just returned from a run to calm my wolf and was heading towards my cabin when I suddenly caught three familiar scents.

I had been a little distracted by Rage and had not noticed them sooner.

Before I could hide, they had already become aware of my presence. I came to a stop, staring at the three she-wolves who stood a short distance away watching me.

Pulling my face into its habitual frown, I walked towards them to the house and tried to walk past them when Nana’s angry voice greeted my ears.

“Regan Cross!” She screeched in anger, her hazel eye beginning to turn green, showing that her wolf was in the surface.

I flinched and came to a stop, slowly turning to face her.

“You have some nerve!” She said, bringing a finger to wag in front of my face.

I expected Rage to growl at the gesture but he was strangely calm.

“You should be ashamed of yourself!” She went on. “You have been ignoring this poor old woman who has been nothing but good to you since you were a child”, she scolded and I knew she was trying to make me feel guilty.

And it was working.

“After everything we have gone through together, you shut me out”, she said. “You avoid me like I have the plague and go ahead to humiliate me before the entire pack”, she said, the anger leaving her voice to be replaced with sadness.

“You had your guards send me away”, she said and I stared in shock as her eyes began to glisten with tears.

“Nana…” I said, talking a step towards her to comfort her but she held up a hand to stop me.

“I do not wish to hear it anymore”, she said, wiping at her tears angrily. “You wish to be alone?” She said staring at me in disappointment. “Then be alone”, she finished and turned away from me to continue walking to the house.

I had been so focused on Nana that I had not noticed the surprised faces of the two younger she-wolves as they had watched our exchange.

“Come along!”, I heard Nana call, possibly to the girls since Lena walked past me after shooting me a look of pity.

Jasmine however, stopped briefly beside me as she was walking past.

“She is just hurt”, she said, looking down at the ground. “She missed you terribly”, she added before lifting those blue eyes to mine.

My heart strangely began to beat faster and I heard Rage give a howl happily.

“They both did”, she said before walking away to join them.

I stood there, wondering why even though she had clearly said ‘They both did’, my mind was interpreting her words as ‘We all did’ from the look in her eyes.

I turned to watch as the three made their way into the house and the door shut after them.

I groaned in frustration and ran my hands through my head.

I had upset Nana, and Lena.

By the Goddess, I had made Nana cry.

Another groan escaped me as an image of her face flashed before my eyes.

There was no use asking Rage for advice, he was worse than me.

So I turned around to go in search of the only person I knew who could help me out of the messy situation I had found myself in.

I found Luke in the training grounds, watching and instructing the warriors as they trained.

On seeing me, his lips curved into an amused smile and he made his way away from the activities and came to a stop before me.

“Judging from the look on your face, I would say Nana finally found you”, he said, coming to stand beside me to look out at the training warriors.

“Worse”, I said.

“She screamed your ears off?” He asked, looking thoroughly amusing as if he was imagining it.

“Worse”, I repeated, letting out a sigh.

“Worse?” He asked, surprise kicking into his voice and the amusement dying down. “How much worse?” He asked, watching me.

I flinched on remembering.

“She cried”, I said, my voice coming out low.

“What?!” He asked, surprise and anger clear as day. “You made Nana cry?” He asked, shooting me a glare.

I expected Rage to start getting annoyed but he seemed to be napping.

I was glad he wasn’t responding though, it meant he would not make things worse.

“I did not intend to”, I said, my voice filled with remorse even to my ears.

“You never do”, he replied, making me frown.

“I truly did not think my actions would upset her enough to make her cry”, I snapped at him.

“Well, they did”, he said simply, annoyance clear in his tone as he turned back to the look over the training grounds.

I bit my tongue to keep from snapping at him again.

If there was anyone who had the right to be snappy, it was him. After all, it was me who had made his grandmother cry.

“What am I to do?” I asked after a while of silence.

I saw his shoulder lift in a shrug but he said nothing.

“Nana hates me”, I said, sure that those words would get a response from him.

It worked.

“Nana would not hate you even if you were stuck in your wolf form with that terrible temper”, he said, causing Rage to react with a growl.

I, on the other hand, smiled.

“How can I get her to forgive me?” I asked. “What can I do?”

He was thoughtful for a moment before he spoke again.

“You cannot win Nana over with gifts”, he said. “That eye of hers would see through it immediately”, he added.

“Then what can I do?” I repeated in frustration.

He was about to give a shrug when he suddenly paused and I knew he had found a way.

I turned to him eagerly.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Well”, he drawled. “You could just tell her the truth”, he said simply.

I stared at him for a second before my stare turned into a glare.

“Are you daft?” I asked him.

“She would know if you are lying”, he reminded. “So tell her the truth and apologize for everything”, he advised. “Nana loves you, sometimes I think more than she loves me”, he jested. “She will forgive you anything”, he said

I thought about what he said knowing he was right but hating to admit it.

Because of what she was and how well she knew me, Nana would be able to tell if I was lying or being honest with her.

It was not going to be easy but it was the only solution to getting her to forgive me.

“What about Lena?” I asked on remembering I had one more forgiveness to earn.

“Lena is not a problem”, he said, waving it off. “Get her a pretty dress and some pearls and apologize, and all will be right as rain with Lena”, he said before adding upon remembering. “You might as well get Nana that jade stone she always wanted. A gift will go a long way to make your apology more appealing”.

I groaned in frustration again.

“I hate apologizing”, I grumbled.

He laughed at that. “Then stop doing things you would have to apologize for”, he said and bumped his shoulder into mine.

Against my wish, I smiled, glad that I could always count on Luke for help.