Page 41 of The Careless Alpha
"Alpha Kane," he said, rising from his chair as I entered the conference room. "Thank you for seeing me."
"Tell me you have something," I said without preamble.
"I do." He opened a leather portfolio and extracted several photographs. "But first, I need to ask you something. How far east was your mate willing to travel?"
"As far as she needed to go to get away from me," I said bitterly.
Pierce studied my face for a moment, then nodded. "That's what I thought." He spread the photographs across the table. "These are from a bus station in Portland, Maine, taken two months ago."
My heart stopped. The images were grainy, black and white security footage, but there was no mistaking the figure climbing off a Greyhound bus. Annalise, looking thin and exhausted, carrying a single duffel bag that contained everything she owned in the world.
No, it didn’t contain everything she owned in the world. It contained everything she had been willing to take.
I knew because I had searched her room in the Alpha house after she fled, a desperate, half-mad hope driving me. The room had been neat, almost untouched, except for the gaping emptiness in the closet and the bare top of her dresser. She had left behind the expensive leather jacket I’d bought for her seventeenth birthday, the delicate necklace from the year before. She’d left every single thing I, or my parents, had ever given her.
The realization had hit me then, standing in the silent room. I had bought her a leather jacket because Scarlett loved leather. I’d bought her a necklace because Veronica had commented on how beautiful it was. I had never once stopped to ask Annalise what she liked, what colors she preferred, what her style was. I had just bought her things, generic symbols of affection for a girl I hadn't truly seen.
The duffel bag in the grainy photograph contained only the things that were truly hers: a few changes of worn clothes, the photo of her parents she kept on her nightstand, and the fadedteddy bear she slept with when she originally moved into the Alpha house. She had walked away with nothing but her past and her pain, refusing to carry any part of me with her beyond our pup.
"Maine," I breathed.
"The trail goes cold after Portland, but I've narrowed the search to three possible destinations along the coast. Small towns where a pregnant girl might find work and a place to disappear."
I stared at the photographs, drinking in every detail. She looked so young, so vulnerable, clutching that duffel bag like a lifeline. The urge to reach through the image and protect her was overwhelming.
Our mate,Ranger said with fierce longing.She's so far away.
"What's the plan?" I asked.
"I'm heading to Maine tomorrow to follow up on these leads personally. I'll start with the most likely locations and work my way down the coast." Pierce's expression grew serious. "Alpha Kane, I have to ask—what are your intentions when we find her?"
"To bring her home," I said without hesitation. "She's my mate, and she's carrying my heir. She'll want to come home once she realizes I'm looking for her, that I’m sorry for what I said."
Pierce and Jackson exchanged glances, and I saw something that looked like concern pass between them.
"If she doesn't want to come?" Pierce asked carefully.
The question caught me off guard. "Why wouldn't she want to come home? She's been living among humans for two months. She'll be grateful to return to the pack."
"Marshall," Jackson said quietly, "you called her a whore, severed the mate bond, banished her, and threatened to setwarriors on her, all in front of the entire pack. She might not be as eager to see you as you think."
"That was a mistake," I said dismissively. "She'll understand once I explain what happened, once I apologize. I’ll explain that I was always planning to be completely devoted to her after her eighteenth birthday. She's my mate—she'll forgive me."
"Will she?" Pierce's voice was carefully neutral. "From what your Beta has told me, this girl has been through significant trauma. She might have built a new life, found stability. Showing up unannounced could destroy all of that. Demanding she return with you is unlikely to achieve your desired outcome."
"She's carrying my pup," I said, my voice growing harder. "That's my heir she's carrying. I have rights."
"Actually," Pierce said bluntly, "you don't. You formally rejected her as your mate in front of witnesses. Legally, you have no claim to her or the pup."
The words hit like a physical blow. "That's not—"
"It is. You severed the bond, banished her from pack territory, and renounced any claim to her. In human courts, you'd have no standing whatsoever." Pierce's expression grew more serious. "However, the Alpha Council might take a different view regarding your heir. They could potentially argue that an Alpha's heir belongs with the pack regardless of the mother's wishes."
Mention of the Alpha Council sent a chill down my spine. The governing body of all North American wolf shifter packs had the power to make decisions that superseded individual pack law. If they decided my son belonged with the pack...
"You think they'd force her to give up the pup?" I asked.
"I think they'd consider the needs of the pack over the desires of a rejected mate," Pierce said honestly. "But that's a last resort, and it would destroy any chance you have of reconciliation."