Chapter 2: Jaxon's POV

The pack was in absolute turmoil as evident by that bunch of forms, spreadsheets, and bank statements on my desk. I initially thought that pack members wanted a swift and seamless transitioning when they’d called and begged me to return after my father’s death. 

I didn't know they were in desperate need for a new alpha that could bring them out from the huge debt they're drowning in because my old man has somehow gotten the pack into a massive amount of debt. There was barely enough money left to keep things going smoothly. Numerous accounts were in the negative and the investments and stocks my father had bought over the years had been cashed out.

None of this made any sense since I came back home three months ago, and I was still no closer to figuring out what he’d done with the money now than I was when I had just arrived. There were no suspicious purchases or investments. I had thought about this for months and may be it's now time to ask for the input of those who had worked with my father for the pass fourteen years that I've been away.

My father kept an address book that contain the numbers of his pack betas and enforcers in his safe. People I’d known since birth, and are now suspiciously absent from Moonridge. I’d asked about them, but all the other pack members said they had no clue where they’d gone or why, all of which I don't seem to believe. Arnold Orion had been Dad’s right-hand man. The fact that he no longer lived here baffled me the most. I found his number on the first page of the address book and gave him a call.

The phone rang non stop yet no one was picking up, as I was about to hang up he finally answered. “Hello? Who’s this?” “Arnold Orion?” I asked, hopeful I’d found the right man. “That’s me. Who am I talking to? You sound familiar.” “This is Jaxon Blackwood, Arnold.” There was a long pause before he finally spoke. “Well, damn, boy. I haven’t heard from you in a while. How are you?” “Honestly? 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 pack members? What the hell is going on with this pack? I’ve been back for about three months, and not a single thing is in place.” “Are you taking over for Silas?” Arnold asked. “Is that what this call is about?” “Most likely. I’m trying to get all the pack finance in order, but nothing is adding up.” I sighed.

“Please, can you explain to me what happened?” I pleaded. “I guess you wouldn’t have heard about what happened in the past year.” “Heard what?” I asked, trying to keep the frustration from my voice. “It started about six or seven months ago. Silas started behaving strange. He wouldn’t talk to any of us, nor his advisors or pack elders. He isolated himself?” This was new to me because I hadn’t spoken to my father in years.

The last time I’d a conversation with the man was when I finally walked out the door after years of living under his roof. Yet, it was strange to hear that he’d pushed his most trusted people away because the man I knew respected his pack members. “We did some digging,” Arnold went on. “Found out the finances weren’t adding up. Probably the same thing you discovered. You remember the pack enforcer, Axel?— he was the first one to bring it up. Your dad lost it and went berserk on him. The rest of us stood up for him, told Silas he needed to come clean about whatever problems the pack was having. Well, to put it lightly, he didn’t like that and demoted all of us that stood up to him a few days later” He told us he no longer needed us if all we were going to do.is challenge his every move. He took Axel's own up a notch by banishing him from the pack.”

“He banished him?” “Yeah,” Arnold said, his voice low and grim. “ He has never done anything like that. He ran the rest of us off a few weeks later and we all went out different ways to packs that are willing to take us in”.

“And you guys never figured out what the hell was going on?” I exclaimed. “No. He bundled us out before we could even dig up anything tangible. Jaxon, I owe it to you to be honest to you especially if you're picking off from where you father left things, I really think something weird was going on. The last year or two, your dad was acting strange.” “Alright, thanks for the information and your time Arnold.” “No problem. Any time.”

“Hey, Arnold?” “Yeah?” “I know things ended badly with you guys and Dad, but I’m in charge now. You all ever want to come on back home, I will welcome you back with open arms. I won’t turn my back on old friends like my father did. All right?” Arnold chuckled softly and replied “That sounds great, Jaxon. I appreciate it. I’ll talk to the others. Most of us have settled in our new packs, but there's no place like home”. “Yeah,I’ll talk to you later.” I said on a final note. “Goodbye, Jaxon.”

I glared at the piles of papers, thinking about what exactly it is that Dad had done to get the pack into this situation.