Talk About the Direct Approach...

Chapter Forty-Nine: Back and Forth

*Macy's POV*

Cayton in hand, I pull him off to the side as I wait for Carter to enter the room. Carter hesitates at first, but I wave him in and shut the door securely behind him.

Dropping Cayton's hand, I stand facing both of them with my hands on my hips, feeling like I'm about to pull out my inner mother.

"Well?" I ask. They both stare at me as if they don't have a clue what I've brought them in for. I stare at them a bit longer, hoping that I don't have to actually say out loud that they're idiots.

When no one says anything, and it starts feeling more tense than before, I huff and cross my arms, trying to do what I've seen Cayton do so many times and go into "Alpha mode" or whatever.

"Tell me what is wrong with you two," I demand. "Both of you obviously have some tension going on, and considering everything was all hunky dory when I saw you last I'm going to need someone to start talking."

They both look at me, and then at each other. Cayton crosses his arms and stares Carter down with a steely look that would make me uncomfortable. Carter looks down at his feet and takes a deep breath before his eyes meet mine, and I'm immediately shocked at the amount of sadness and remorse in them.

"I'm sorry," he says, pausing for a good thirty seconds after. "I...said some things I didn't mean in the heat of the moment." I hear Cayton scoff, and we both turn our eyes to him. He looks, well, pissed.

"Tell her what you said," Cayton demands.

I start feeling a bit uneasy, unsure if I want to know or not. I mean, how bad could it be? I try to tell myself it can't be so bad, but then again I can feel a burning, red hot anger in my chest that doesn't feel like my own. But I don't need to feel it to know Cayton is fuming, it's clear on his face.

"Carter?" I ask, almost meekly, when he doesn't say anything. He's looking down at his feet, and before I know it he's on his knees, head in his hand. The whole scenario is so bizarre I have to look around to make sure I'm not being pranked.

Shaking his head, Cayton turns to me. "Here, let me tell you all about it." He relays everything to me, from the second they heard about the crash to now. Carter losing his mind over Bethany, the fight with Cayton, and everything he said that led up to it.

When he finishes, Carter's shoulders are shaking with emotion. I take a second to process everything.

On the one hand, I do feel a tinge of hurt at everything he said. I mean, I couldn't imagine saying anything like that about him, especially not to Bethany, his mate.

But, on the other hand, if the mess on the floor right now doesn't indicate genuine remorse--something, mind you, I never expected to see from Carter--then I don't know what would. Tensions were high, emotions were high, and frankly I would have expected Cayton to react in a similar way given his track record.

But above all, I'm tired of being a key piece in causing his failing relationships. First it was with his dad Warren, and now his relationship with his best friend and Beta is being threatened. However unintentional on my part it is, I'm putting my foot down.

With that in mind, I kneel down in front of Carter and shake his shoulder until he looks up at me. His eyes are a bit watery, but luckily he hasn't been crying. I might have lost it if he had been.

"Hey, it's ok," I say. He looks at me, baffled for a second, and then hesitantly looks up to Cayton.

"I'm sorry," he repeats, speaking directly to Cayton this time. I look up at him and he has a mix of emotions on his face, trying to hide behind that cold mask of his.