Gone

Loose Ends

Jackson POV 

I stayed in the small office chair, staring at the empty seat that the Alpha had just previously vacated. I was told to stay in the room, that the meeting would take place in the office because the Alpha didn't want everyone to know what Trent had to do. He had a good point, our whole pack was already worried about having him around. I was sure that they feared he would sacrifice our pack the way he had sacrificed his own.  

The door opening and closing behind me caught my attention and I stood up quickly.  

"We need to talk before everyone comes in," Ethan said, moving away from the door and taking a seat in the chair that was positioned parallel to the one I was just in.  

"What about?" I asked. I sat back down in my chair and looked over at him. I could only think that he was concerned about where my head was, but he shouldn't be. I had already proven that I wasn't insane and I was the best man for the job of getting Sadie back. A wolf is at its strongest when the life of a mate is at risk. You never really know exactly how strong you are until your wolf takes over completely, and that usually happened when you were fighting for something of extreme importance. If he thought he would take that away from me he had another thing coming, 

"Look, before we go I just wanted you to know something about the hunters. I had only just found out shortly before the fire. I had planned on talking to you about it right away, but we both know what happened." Ethan let out a large breath before he continued on. "Sadie not only has a grandfather in the hunters, but she also has a brother." 

"What?" I growled.  

"Apparently so, I caught them the other night talking on the back porch after you and Sadie fought. He offered to take her away and for a moment I thought she was going to say yes, but then she declined. He left without causing a scene but not before calling her sister. I asked Sadie about it afterwards and she confirmed it to be true, but stormed off afterwards. She was too angry at me to even give me a chance." 

"There was a hunter at our house and you didn't take him down?" I yelled, standing to my feet, fists clenched at my sides. Never had I ever wanted to harm my best friend before, but he was currently walking on thin ice. "This all could have been avoided!" 

"You think I don't know that?" Ethan growled out. He stood up and got within inches of my face, "I know I messed up. I should have jumped him right then but I didn't. I'm sorry, I got sidetracked by the new information." 

"You failed, if you would have done your job none of this would have happened. Sadie would be here with us and the house would probably still be standing!" I knew I was pushing the limits, Ethan was a future Alpha and I was screaming at him, something that his wolf would not be ok with.  

"I'm not perfect Jackson! I make mistakes too. I didn't do it on purpose!" 

I was seething. Not only did I feel horrible for not getting to Sadie, but now I felt even worse knowing that it definitely could have been avoided. I felt a small amount of weight lifted off my shoulders, I wasn't the only one who messed up, and technically I hadn't even messed up that bad. I couldn't have left my one year old daughter to fend for herself and I couldn't very well pass her off onto a frantic pack member. It was my job as her father to make sure she got out perfectly safe and unharmed. My biggest mistake was getting into a meaningless fight with Sadie, but Ethan, he messed up far worse.  

He shouldn't have froze, we should have had the hunter in our cells with his little buddy. It didn't happen that way though, our future Alpha messed up and now a pack member's life was at risk. If she were to die, it would be on his head.