Page 5 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

“That’s fine, Farrah, but you can bet I’m still going to try to contact Lance. You can let him know, or you can let it be a surprise. Up to you,” I said, and turned away from her, pushing my cart harder than was necessary and slamming it into a display of pretzels. The packets crashed to the floor.

“Mom?” Ashton said. “Am I related to this lady?—”

“Ashton Carlisle, get your butt over here,” I barked.

We grabbed a few more items, then hurried to the register. I did not want to see Farrah again. Thankfully, Ashton stayed silent as well, though I could see the hundreds of questions he wanted to ask in his eyes.

I drove away from the grocery store more tired than I’d ever been in my entire life. All I wanted was a nap—and maybe a quick do-over of the last fifteen years. A time machine might be better, though. Then I could go back to before Cole left town and tell him the truth. To this day, I thought that if I’d told Cole to his face, he’d have believed me. He’d have stayed. That was probably childish, wishful thinking. His family had told him he had a child, yet he’d never even tried to make contact with me.

That told me all I needed to know about Cole Garrett.

2

COLE

Stacks of forms, spreadsheets, and bank statements sat on the desk before me. It all told me the same thing. The pack was in absolute turmoil. When they’d called and begged me to return after my father died, part of me thought they wanted a quick and easy succession plan. No reason to go through the chaos of figuring out who to make the new alpha when you had one in the bloodline already. This showed me that not only did they want an easy change-over of power, but they weredesperatefor help.

Somehow, my father had gotten the pack into a massive amount of debt. There was barely enough money left to keep them afloat. A couple accounts were in the negative—even the investments and stocks my father had bought over the years had been cashed out. Everything was gone.

I tossed a spreadsheet aside, and the sheet of paper spun in the air like a frisbee before fluttering to the ground. None of this made any sense. I’d come home almost two months ago, and in all that time, I couldn’t figure out what he’d done with the money. There were no outlandish purchases on anyof the receipts he had filed away. I hadn’t found any exotic cars or deeds to vacation houses. The only thing the itemized statements showed was cash withdrawals rather than wire transfers or purchases. None of them outlandish, though. What thehellhad he done? It made me anxious every time I sat down to figure it out.

It was time to do something I’d been putting off since coming back. My detective skills had been all used up. The only way to figure out what had happened was by asking someone who hadn’t been away for fifteen years.

I’d found an address book in my father’s desk. It had the numbers of his pack betas and enforcers. Men I’d known since birth, who were mysteriously absent from Harbor Mills. I’d asked about them, but all the other pack members clammed up and acted like they had no clue where they’d gone or why.

Ricky Danvers had been Dad’s right-hand man. The fact that he no longer lived in Harbor Mills was what confused me most. I found his number on the first page of the address book and gave him a call.

The phone rang and rang. I was about to give up and end the call when he finally answered.

“Hello? Who’s this?”

“Ricky Danvers?” I asked, hopeful I’d found the right man.

“That’s me. Who am I talking to? You sound familiar.”

“This is Cole Garrett, Ricky.”

There was a long pause before he finally spoke. “Well, damn, boy. I haven’t heard from you in a bit. How are you?”

“Honestly, Ricky? I’ve been better. You heard Dad died, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” he said with a sigh. “I did.”

I frowned and rested my elbow on the desk. “Why didn’t you come to the funeral? Why didn’t any of you? All the old betas and folks? What the hell is going on with this pack? I’ve been back for about eight weeks, and every damn thing is in disarray.”

“Are you taking over for Lance?” Ricky asked. “Is that what this call is about?”

“Most likely. I’m trying to get all the pack financials in order, but nothing is adding up.” I sighed, a weary and exhausted sound even to my own ears. “What happened?”

“I guess you wouldn’t have heard. Being out of touch with the pack for so long.”

“Heard what?” I asked, trying to keep the exasperation from my voice.

“It started about six or seven months ago. Lance started gettingrealstrange. Wouldn’t talk to any of us, none of his advisors or pack elders. Isolated himself, you know?”

I didn’t know. I hadn’t spoken to my father in years. In fact, the last time I’d talked to him was when I finally walked out the door after years of living under his roof. Yet, that didn’t sound anything like Dad. Even at his worst, he’d always had a soft spot for the familial aspect of the pack. It was strange that he’d pushed his most trusted people away.

“We did some digging,” Ricky went on. “Found out the finances weren’t adding up. Probably the same thing you discovered. Chris—you remember the pack enforcer?—was the first one tobring it up. Your dad lost it. Started cursing him out, screaming at him to mind his own business. The rest of us stood up for him, told Lance he needed to be honest about whatever problems the pack was having. Well, to put it lightly, he didn’t like that. Kinda freaked out about it, to be honest.”

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