Page 4 of Banishing Regrets

“Heath Lennox Dillion. it’s a bit of a mouthful, but Ethern is like Selene’s father. He gave her life. We wanted to call our son after him as well, and his surname is perfect as a middle name.”

“Ethern will be so happy, and I know your father will be looking down on you proudly as well.” Jane sobbed. She managed to find some strength in her legs, and pushing to her feet, she handed Heath back to his daddy.

“I better go and tell the rest of the pack the news. They’ll be waiting.”

Brayden nodded. “Mom, are you okay?”

“I’m the happiest grandma in the world.” She kissed her son on the cheek before leaving the room with one final glance at him cradling his son in his arms.

Jane shut the door behind her and inhaled a deep breath to calm her racing mind. It didn’t work, though, and tears started to stream down her cheeks again. She was an absolute mess and had never felt so alone, despite the fact she was surrounded by people who loved her. She missed her husband, but her heart also ached for Kas, especially since the kiss they’d shared.

“Is everything all right?” Kas’ deep voice interrupted her distress. She could sense the fear in him.

“Yes, these are tears of happiness. Selene has had a little boy. Mother and baby are both doing fine. They’ve named him Heath.”

Kas was beside her in an instant, and she was pulled against his chest so he could comfort her. “How do you feel about that?”

“I’m happy, but Heath should be celebrating being a grandfather today. I miss him. Yet, at the same time, I feel angry at myself.” She paused and inhaled Kas’ woody scent—it comforted her.

“Angry, why?”

“Being in there today, knowing I’m a grandma, it made me realize I’m not even forty—I feel young and still full of life, but I also feel like I’ve wasted so much time. I’ve not truly lived since Heath died, and I need to change that.” It took all the strength she had to pull away from Kas. She knew he was devoted to his pack, and that would never change. She had to stop living in the past and fight for her own future because no one else would. Kas stood there silent. “I need to spend some time alone, Kas. It’s been a long night. Would you mind telling the rest of the pack about the birth?”

Without looking back this time, Jane walked away from Kas and headed to her bedroom. Today she would reflect, but tomorrow she would start to live again and grow, and the first way she’d do that would be to learn about the magic hidden inside her. She knew the moment Heath died she’d turned from human to supernatural, but she’d suppressed her powers in favor of her human side. Maybe it was time to find out what she could do and who she really was.

Who was she kidding? In the end, she knew she’d run away from her future, just as she always had.

Two

Kas watchedas his twin brother ran around happily with the other members of his pack. Nuka was lucky. He didn’t have the responsibilities Kas did as the older brother, even if he was the eldest by only a few minutes. Kas was to take over as the alpha of their pack, and he needed to learn how to be the perfect ruler. He’d thought he might be able to have a little bit of a carefree life, but when their father died, all hope of that was destroyed.

“Stop daydreaming and concentrate. This is important,” his grandfather admonished, and Kas quickly turned his attention back to the reams of paper in front of him. The figures were all beginning to blur together, and he was so tired. They’d been discussing these accounts for four hours now.

“Sorry, Grandfather,” Kas replied and started to add the figures up again. “So, I need to make sure I collect the rent once a month?”

“Yes, every tenant contributes to the upkeep of the community areas.”

Kas flipped the page, back and forth, between the money coming in from the tenants and the money going out. The former was a lot more than the latter, almost three times.

“Why is there such a difference between the income and the costs?” Kas questioned.

His grandfather laughed.

“Clever boy. You are paying attention, I see. This mansion costs a lot of money to run. We are providing a service as well. We might as well be rewarded for it.”

“But can everyone afford these rents?” Kas looked at some of the amounts being charged. It was a lot.

“If they can’t, they can leave.” His grandfather picked up another book and threw it at him. Kas picked it up and noticed a long list of people’s names.

“What’s this?” he questioned.

“It’s a list of people who want to join our pack. So if people can’t pay, you can see from this there are plenty of others who can.”

“That doesn’t sound very honest or fair.”

The way his grandfather was running the pack didn’t settle very well with Kas. He definitely didn’t want profit to be the overriding factor of his time as alpha.

“I don’t need to be honest or fair. I’m the alpha. I’m securing our pack's future the best way I can,” his grandfather snapped back.

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