Alpha Trent's Regret

Back To Moonstone

Eva’s POV

“I don’t think I am the one doing this,” I told myself, shoving another shirt into the pack and snapping the clasp shut before it could be flung wide open for how tightly packed it was.

“You don’t have to,” Marge said softly behind me. “No one is holding a gun to your head. It is not mandatory that go”

I stood still, my fingers around the handle of the bag tightening. “I know,” I whispered, trying not to meet her eyes. “But he is dead. I have to go. Not for him, but for me.”

“And Nathan?” She took a step closer, concern written on her face. “Have you thought about what will happen to him if Trent sees him?”

“He will not see him,” I interrupted, turning. “He did not give a damn about us then. He won’t start to care about us now.”

She stood there, not saying a word, just staring at me for a second. “What if he is a changed man now?”

I snorted. “Men like him don’t ever get to change. They regret. They chase, but they don’t change.”

The soft noise of a little pair of feet crossed the doorway.

“Mama?” Nathan’s little voice inquired. “Are we going on a trip?”

I crossed over the room, bending down to his level. “Yes, baby. We are. But it’s just for a little while.”

His eyes sparkled. “Are we going to see Grandpa?”

I did not move. Marge squirmed. I attempted to smile.

“No, sweetheart… Grandpa has gone to meet the moon goddess.”

He furrowed his brow. “Like. Gone gone?”

I nodded. “Gone gone, for good.”

He fell quiet for a moment before growling, “Okay. But you are not leaving me behind, will?”

“Of course I will not leave you behind.” I kissed his forehead and stood up. “Now go fetch Dale to pack your stuff, okay?”

Nathan nodded and left.

Marge sighed. “Are you certain you don’t want Dale to go with you? Or at least have a bodyguard go with you ?”

I shook my head. “No. If I’m going to face my past, I want to do it alone. Just my son and me.”

Her lips pursed. “Then promise me something.”

“What?”

“If it at any point don’t feel right, you come back. No excuse. No apology. No second times.”

“I promise.”

The homecoming ride from there to Moonstone was longer than I had remembered.

Or perhaps because five years had intervened. Or because I had quit that country in tatters and crimson. Or possibly because, for the first time, I was returning not as a daughter, nor even as a member of the pack, but a stranger.

Nathan slept beside me in the truck Dale had rented for the road trip. So innocent, so unaware of what lay ahead.

I ran my fingers through his smooth curls. “You don’t deserve any of this,” I whispered. “You did not ask for any of it. But I swear to you, I’ll protect you with everything with everything else me. No matter what.”

Athena within me awakened. “He might know the boy.”

I know,” I growled. “But we will lie. We deny. As he did in the first place.”

And what if he tries to push us?

“Then we push back.”

Trees surrounded me. Ground was more comforting. Pine scent, moss scent, and home, if home were something that could be said to still be here, wrapped themselves around me like an unwelcome blanket.

“We have arrived the outer walls of Moonstone,” the driver told me.

I rose up, my chest aching with excitement.

Nathan rolled over and opened his eyes. “Are we there?”

“Almost,” I whispered, covering him up with his blanket.

The truck came to a stop.

“They will need to see identification,” the driver said. “You want me to handle it?”

“No. I will handle it.”

I ran out, my boots crunching softly on gravel. In front of me stood the gates, black, ominous, being held by two of the warriors I had not seen. The moment they realized who I was, one of them stepped forward.

“what is your name and purpose,” he snarled.

“In Eva Garcia,” I said quietly. “I was invited by Alpha Trent Prescote about the death of Elder Dale Garcia.”

His eyes widened by a fraction, recognition splintering. He backed up and flipped the switch on the wall. The huge gates screamed apart.

“You are welcome to come in.”

I nodded, climbed into the truck again, and hugged Nathan close to me as we moved forward.

The terrain did not change.

Nothing else did change either.

It was not until Nathan and I were driving to the pack house that I saw them, shifters lining the way, muttering, staring.

“She is back.”

“Is that her pup?”.

“I heard he’s Alpha Trent’s”

“Did she actually get rejected and still have his pup?”

I gritted my teeth and kept my head high. Nathan’s hand on my arm tightened.

“Mama?”

“Yes?”

“Why are they staring at us like that?”

“Because they are not used to looking at humans as special as you.”

He blinked, then stared stupidly.

The truck pulled up in front of the pack house stairs.

I stepped out slowly, Nathan cradled in my arms. The whispers grew to a loud hum.

Then quiet.

He was standing there.

Alpha Trent Prescote.

Standing beside the pillar, arms folded over his chest, eyes on me.

More mature. Broader. Just as ruinous as last time.

His eyes darted to Nathan and held a fraction of a beat too long.

Then he opened his mouth.

“You came.”

I swallowed. “I did not come for you.”

“I didn’t ask.”

Nathan looked between the two of us, his forehead creased. “Mama? Who is that?”

“No one important,” I improvised on the spot.

But Trent hesitated approaching.

Nathan looked. Then c****d his head.

“You look s

o much like me,” he stated with an open face.

Trent’s entire body tensed.

My heart stopped.

Nathan took another step closer. “Are you my daddy?”