Page 56 of Pack Baby for the Silver Foxes

The old wound. The old demand. Choose me, because she didn’t.

Hudson stood. “Being your father doesn’t mean excusing you.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“No,” Hudson said. “It isn’t. Being an alpha doesn’t give you rights, and if you think it does—“

“Lincoln,” Hudson warned.

I couldn’t stay in that room much longer.

“We’ll have dinner tomorrow,” Hudson said. “When we’re all calmer.”

Damien’s head lifted. “You’re leaving already?”

“For now.”

“You just got here.”

“And we’ve heard enough for one conversation.”

He looked from Hudson to me. “Is this because you’re disappointed?”

“Yes, and as usual it’s someone else’s fault. You never take responsibility for your actions.”

Hudson gave me another look so I softened my voice because I did love him, even when I wanted to shake him until sense fell out. “We love you. We’re disappointed too. Both can be true.”

Damien swallowed and for a moment, I saw the boy again.

“Yeah,” he said. “See you tomorrow.”

We left him there with the room, the mess, and the scarf neither of us had touched.

Outside, the cold hit my face hard enough to clear some of the scent from my head.

Hudson walked to the car without speaking. I followed him because if I didn’t, I would turn down every street in Boston until I found her.

He stopped beside the driver’s door.

“Say it,” he said.

“We need to find her. Did she say she was in the dorms or a house share?”

His jaw tightened. “I’m not sure what she said. And she never texted her number.”

“I’m thinking our son hurt her, and she wanted to stay away from us too. But she’s our scent-match and that’s not part of the plan. But why did she walk past his fraternity house, and did she see us or change her mind about something?”

“That’s a lot of thinking.”

I smiled. “What I know for sure is if we leave Boston without knowing she’s safe, I’ll lose my bloody mind.”

Hudson stared across the roof of the car. “Me too.”

“And I’m scared,” I said, quieter now, “that finding her might hurt him.”

“Yes.”

“He’ll see it as betrayal.”