Chapter 6: Ungrateful Daughter
ALPHA ETHAN ANDERSON
I had never felt such a thunderous rage build up in my chest since the day Alena—my mate—walked away from this pack without a backward glance. But today, as I stormed through the Moon Crest Packhouse, every footstep echoed with fury. My guards and Omegas quickly cleared a path, heads down, eyes averted. They knew better than to cross me when I was like this.
“Find her!” I roared, slamming my hand against the wooden frame of the entrance hall. “Find Shanella and drag her back, kicking and screaming if you have to!”
Beta Luthor stepped in carefully, his eyes flickering with unease. “We’ve searched the north and west borders. No trace. Her scent cuts off at the south ridge. We think she might’ve disguised it. There’s… there’s no trail, Alpha.”
I bared my teeth, clenching my jaw so tightly it ached. “Disguised it?” I hissed. “My daughter? That ungrateful, disobedient girl?” I swore under my breath. “Do you know what she’s done, Luthor?”
He stayed silent, his posture tense.
“She’s not just run away from me—she’s spat in the face of an alliance that would have guaranteed the strength of our pack for generations!” I barked, pacing furiously. “Alpha Terrence was ready to merge the Iron Claw Pack with Moon Crest through that marriage! Do you understand what that means?”
“Yes, Alpha. It would have doubled our territory,” he said quietly, “and solidified our standing among the eastern border packs.”
I stopped walking and slammed my fist into the nearest column, splintering the wood. “And now it’s all hanging by a thread because my own flesh and blood ran like a coward!”
I turned sharply when I heard the heavy creak of the front doors opening. One of my warriors—Derek—stood there with a grim look on his face.
“Alpha,” he announced, bowing low. “Alpha Terrence has arrived.”
I cursed under my breath. Perfect. Just perfect.
The council chamber felt colder than usual. Alpha Terrence sat in the high-backed chair across from mine, his silver hair neatly combed, his sharp, weathered face revealing nothing. His eyes—icy green—were the only things that betrayed his mood. And they burned with suspicion and growing fury.
“Where is she?” he asked plainly, his voice gravelly with age and power. “I came to finalize this union, Ethan. You promised me Shanella would be ready.”
“She was ready,” I said stiffly, trying to maintain what little control I had left. “We… encountered an issue.”
Alpha Terrence’s hand twitched slightly on the armrest. “Issue?”
“She left,” I admitted with clenched teeth. “Disappeared this morning before dawn. We believe it was planned. Possibly with help.”
Terrence’s face turned to stone. “You let your own daughter run off the day before her mating ceremony?”
“She’s young and foolish,” I said. “But she’ll be found.”
“She better be,” Terrence snapped, his calm mask finally cracking. “You made a pact with me, Ethan. My pack is not one to be trifled with. I agreed to this alliance because you gave me your word.”
“I stand by my word,” I replied quickly. “We’re tracking her now. My best trackers and warriors are scouring every inch of the territory.”
“And if she left the territory altogether?” he asked coldly.
My silence was enough of an answer.
Terrence stood, his tall frame still commanding despite his age. His Beta stood behind him, arms crossed and expression unreadable.
“Let me be very clear, Ethan Anderson,” he said slowly. “This alliance is not built on diplomacy or good intentions. It is built on need. Your pack needs power. Mine needs heirs. I agreed to this because you offered me a Luna who could bear strong sons. I could’ve chosen another, but I chose yours.”
I bristled, both at his tone and the truth in his words.
“If your daughter is not found by sundown tomorrow, this deal is off. And more than that,” he added, stepping closer to me, “I will consider this a direct insult to my honor—and to the Iron Claw Pack. Which means war.”
I stood tall, locking eyes with him. “You’ll have her back. I swear it.”
“She better still be untouched,” he growled, eyes narrowing. “If I get even a whiff of another male’s scent on her, the next time I step into your land, it won’t be for talks.”
With that, he turned and walked out, his Beta following.
I waited until the doors slammed shut before I let out the growl burning in my throat. I grabbed the nearest chair and threw it across the room, watching it splinter into pieces against the stone wall.
Luthor stood silently near the corner.
“She’s humiliated me,” I muttered, raking a hand through my hair. “That girl… I gave her everything. A name. A home. My blood. And she dares to run from her duty?”
“Alpha…” Luthor stepped forward cautiously. “What if she ran because of the mating bond? What if… she found hers?”
I whipped around to face him. “Then she should have fought it! She’s an Anderson! Her bloodline is tied to this pack. Her destiny is to serve it—just as I have. Mates or not, she should’ve obeyed.”
He said nothing.
“I want every outpost notified. Every scout and tracker sent to the towns, to the human borders, to the river valleys. I want eyes everywhere,” I ordered. “And if anyone helped her—anyone at all—they will be punished for treason.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
I stood in the now-empty council room, the shadows lengthening as afternoon crept in. My mind raced with rage, panic, and a dark kind of dread I hadn’t felt in years. I remembered when Alena vanished—how she slipped out in the middle of the night, just like Shanella. The same fire, the same stubborn eyes. Maybe it was her mother’s blood.
No. This wasn’t the same.
Alena had betrayed me as a mate. But Shanella was worse. She was my heir—my own daughter—and she had betrayed our entire bloodline.
She would pay.
And when I found her… I would make sure she never defied me again.
Even if I had to chain her to Alpha Terrence myself.