Chapter 13: Regrets

Back at the campsite, after the guards had taken all the things belonging to the royal siblings, Jay could only stand there and watch as the fancy carriage and guards vanished over the hill from his sight before turning to Cole with an angry glare. This was not how things were supposed to happen and the beta cat hybrid was going to fix this.

"Cole what are you doing?! You're letting them getaway!" He called and ran to catch up with the alpha bear hybrid, but Cole didn't stop walking away.

"So what?" He snapped when Jay suddenly ran in front of the bigger hybrid.

"Listen Cole there's something that you don't know about Kai!" He cried desperately. "I talked to him last night-"

"Yeah, I know you talked to him and Nya last night! Your great pals aren't you?!" He roared, sorrow, and pain as clear as crystal on his face. "If you three are such good friends you can follow them home!" He snarled but his voice cracked slightly as tears welled up in his eyes.

"But I wanna go with you," Jay said softly.

"I ALREADY TOLD YOU! YOU AIN'T COMING HOME WITH ME!" Cole shouted and stomped away, leaving a poor sad, and confused cat hybrid behind...

After hours of walking, Cole finally arrived at his lair in the middle of the forest. Without Jay nagging in his ear and slowing him down, he'd gotten home a lot sooner than he thought. He saw that the clearing outside his home was slightly trashed with empty tents, old campfires, some still smoking, and a few items scattered around, suggesting everyone who was staying here left in a hurry. Cole was relieved, however, to find most of his stuff was how he left it.

There wasn't a single hybrid or human to be seen, just like King Nadakhan had promised.

The bear hybrid sighed heavily and began to clean up the mess. While he was cleaning up he noticed that one of his mirrors was smashed and the pieces were scattered on the floor. When he went to clean the shards up he noticed a poorly drawn picture lying on the floor near the pile of mirror pieces. It was a nice, brightly colored drawing of him and Jay and on the bottom, it said: 'To my best friend ever, Cole! From Jay'. Cole sighed sadly as memories of his last words to the younger hybrid played over again in his mind.

The alpha didn't mean any of those harsh things he said, he was just upset and angry.

It was too late now, though. Jay had left Cole's life forever and probably would not come back after the way Cole had treated him. Just like everyone else in his life. After Cole had cleaned most of the lair and the surrounding area it was close to noon and he was starving. It was then Cole realized he hadn't had anything to eat since last night. He decided to cook some quick lunch. When he got to the small dining room table, however, he saw that one of the hybrids had put a small vase on the dining room table.

Inside the vase were five beautiful, sweet-smelling red roses.

They were the same kind of roses Cole had picked for Kai. The alpha bear hybrid picked up one of the roses and smiled as memories of his time with Kai filled his brain. Sadly, that loving smile he had quickly vanished when he remembered what he heard Kai, Nya, and Jay said that night. What they had said about Cole. He took one last look at the flower in his hand before throwing it on the newly lit fireplace in anger, yet there was deep sorrow in his green eyes as he watched the flower blacken and burn...

Jay sniffed and blinked away the few tears as he walked under the shade of towering forest trees above. After Cole had shouted at him and left, leaving Jay alone as the royal siblings were long gone by the time the beta returned to the campsite. Jay had been walking through the woods aimlessly. He didn't understand why this had happened. He thought everything in his life was going perfectly for once. One minute Cole and Kai are practically drooling over each other.

The next thing Jay knew, Kai and Nya are being whisked away in a carriage with that monster King Nadakhan, and Cole was screaming and shouting at Kai and Jay for some unknown reason.

Occasionally, Jay would look over his shoulder and he had hoped to see any of his three friends looking for him, begging him to come back. When he saw nothing as always, he would sigh and continue on his way with his head down. It was around noon and Jay felt his stomach grumbling in hunger. Due to all the confusion, Jay hadn't been able to get any breakfast and when he was gathering his things, Jay hadn't found any food at the campsite.

Jay decided to stop by a river to get a drink, hoping the water would fill his empty stomach.

However, a sudden low, sad grumbling filled his ears and Jay froze in fear. When the freckled boy slowly turned his head to look further down the river he nearly had a heart attack there and then. He saw Flame, the monstrous dragon who kept had Kai and Nya trapped in that terrible tower in the middle of the fiery volcano. The giant red dragon still had the rusty, old chandelier around his neck and he looked miserable. Jay felt his fear slowly fade away when he saw the defeated look in the dragon's glowing eyes.

He knew deep down that Flame wasn't a bad dragon.

He was just doing his job and he did seem to care about Kai and Nya. Now he was all alone in that horrible place and Jay felt terrible for leaving the dragon alone in that castle. The beta cat hybrid took a deep breath and walked over to the large dragon. When Flame saw Jay, his sad expression turned into one of pure anger and he bared his teeth at the beta male...

Back in the kingdom of Djinjago, Nya couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt tug at her heart as she sat on the bed, watching her brother getting fitted for his wedding dress. Kai had almost pleaded for his soon-to-be husband to allow him to wear a tux, but King Nadakhan refused to even consider it. He had made it clear that Kai was his now and the omega would do everything he said. Kai didn't hate dresses, in fact, many omegas wore dresses, regardless of their genders.

Kai remembered when they were still at the tower and he would sometimes wear some of his sister's dresses and put on a fashion show for her.

He just didn't want to wear a dress in public, let alone in front of an entire kingdom. Nya wanted to slap Nadakhan for talking to her brother like that but knew it would only lead to more trouble. She knew Kai would be married to this king in only a few hours and then his curse would finally be broken. That was the only thing that stopped her from grabbing her brother and running away from this place. Kai wasn't doing much better. He was staring stoically into the giant mirror as the tailors sorted out his wedding dress.

This was the only time King Nadakhan had left him alone, not wanting to see the wedding dress until Kai was walking down the aisle.

Nadakhan had made it clear, however, that after the wedding Kai would have to share a room and bed with the alpha king. If King Nadakhan had it his way, Kai would be joined by his side every second of every day, for the rest of their lives. Kai couldn't help but shudder in disgust at that thought. When he, Nya, and Nadakhan arrived at the castle it was already close to noon. The siblings and Nadakhan talked over some lunch. The prince had quickly learned that they both had nothing in common.

After lunch, Kai and Nya went to her room and soon the siblings saw two servants and a tailor waiting so they could make his wedding dress.

The wedding dress was a lovely silvery-white, with a glittery top half but the skirt puffed out, a bit like a ball gown. It had gold designs running down the middle with long sleeves and small blue flowers around the edges of the skirt. He also wore a white veil that went down to his elbows and there was a bit that went over his face. At the top was a silver headband that separated the front and back of the veil and on this headband were small flowers that were five different shades of blue.

He was also given a gorgeous flower bouquet made of white roses and blue lisianthus.

Kai really did love weddings and had often dreamed about his own and this was close to what he imagined. All his life everyone had been telling him a powerful, royal alpha would marry him and that painted a specific picture in his mind about a royal wedding. Despite this, Kai didn't feel even a glimmer of happiness. He just wished it was Cole that he was marrying, with Jay and Nya there to celebrate their day with them. After the two servants and tailor had left Nya walked over and gave her brother a comforting hug.

She could clearly sense the pain and sadness in the brunette's aching soul.

Kai tried to hold it in, but he couldn't stop the tears from coming as his mind began going through all his memories of Cole, both good and bad...