Page 35 of The Careless Alpha

The pack council meeting was brutal. Twelve senior pack members, their faces ranging from disappointed to disgusted to coldly calculating. They wanted answers I didn't have, solutions to problems I'd created.

"The pack needs leadership," Elder Theron said bluntly. His words were not surprising since he served as my father’s beta before becoming an elder when Jackson and I took over leadership of the pack. "Not an Alpha who hides in his office for weeks at a time."

"We need a Luna," added Sarah Mills, one of Scarlett's supporters. "A real Luna who can handle the position."

"We had a Luna," snapped Elder Maeve. "A good one, who this Alpha threw away in a fit of prideful rage."

The room erupted into arguments, pack members taking sides based on their opinion of Annalise and my treatment of her. I sat at the head of the table, listening to them tear each other apart over my mistakes.

"ENOUGH!" I finally roared, my Alpha command silencing the room. "You want to know what I'm going to do? I'm going to find her. I'm going to bring my mate and my son home. And then I'm going to spend the rest of my life making up for what I did."

"You think she'll come back?" sneered Cole Webb, another Scarlett supporter. "After you called her a whore in front of the entire pack?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "But I'm going to fix it."

"What if she refuses to return?" Elder Samuel asked quietly.

"Then I'll make sure she's safe. That she and my son are somewhere where they are safe and cared for."

Our son,Ranger corrected fiercely.Say it right.

"Our son," I said aloud, and some of the tension in my chest eased slightly.

The meeting ended with no real resolution, just more division and more pressure. But for the first time in two weeks, I felt like I had a purpose beyond wallowing in guilt.

That evening, I finally went to see my mother.

Her quarters were dark, the curtains drawn against the setting sun. She sat in her favorite chair by the fireplace, staring into the cold ashes with empty eyes.

"Mom?"

She looked up at me, and I was shocked by how much she'd aged since I saw her last. Her face was drawn, her usually perfect hair disheveled, her clothes wrinkled as if she'd slept in them.

"Marshall," she said quietly. "I was wondering when you'd come."

"I'm sorry," I said, the words feeling inadequate. "I'm sorry for all of it."

"Being sorry doesn't bring her back. It doesn't undo the damage you've done to that sweet girl."

I sank into the chair across from her, feeling like a child again. "I know I can't undo it. But I'm going to fix it."

"How?"

"I'm going to find her. Hire investigators, use pack resources, whatever it takes."

Mom was quiet for a long moment. "Do you know what she said to me the night before you banished her?"

I shook my head, not trusting my voice.

"She asked if I thought you'd ever love her the way she loved you. She was so hopeful, so sure that once the baby came, you'd realize what you had." Mom's voice broke slightly. "I told her that love couldn't be forced, but that you were a good man underneath all the pride and fear."

My head snapped up. "The night before? You knew she was pregnant then?"

Mom nodded, her eyes filled with a deep, weary sadness. "I knew, Marshall. That's my grandpup. Of course, I knew."

"Why didn't you say anything?" The question came out as a raw accusation, a desperate attempt to shift even a fraction of the blame, although I knew it was all my fault. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"It wasn't my news to share," she said, her voice sharp with a mother's disappointment. "It was Annalise's. Neither of you had said a word about being together, and you were still parading Scarlett around the pack house. I assumed you were both keeping it quiet, waiting for the right time to announce it. I thought you were trying to be respectful of tradition, waiting until she was eighteen. It never occurred to me that you were simply too blind to see what was right in front of you."