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“Do we know where?”
“Not a clue.” He sighed and crossed his arms. “I got Manny driving a few of the bigger back roads to look for anything out of the ordinary. There’s so damn many small ones, it’ll take us a good week to comb through them all.”
I let out a small sound at the fact that George dragged his own kid in combing through the back roads. It wouldn’t matter. They’d never fucking find it. There was no way in hell a hunter would leave that kind of evidence around.
Leaving Michael like this in the middle of town was the fucking message.
Be afraid. No one is safe.
That was the lesson we needed to learn.
I scanned the crowds. Humans were easily discernible from wolves. The humans were curious and disgusted. Who the fuck would do such a thing in such a nice town like Cedar Harbor?
But the wolves? They fucking knew. And they knew it could’ve been one of them instead of Michael. Maybe now they’d spend more time at the pack house rather than in the woods. It was safer that way.
“I wouldn’t bother,” I told him finally. I kept my voice down and my eyes up. “This thing… it’s not leaving shit behind. This right here is all that matters.”
“What do we say?”
“Chalk it up to an out-of-town asshole.” I shrugged. “Tell them some shithead passing through did a goddamn stupid thing. It’s not a big deal—it is, but we need them to think it’s not.”
Chess pieces. That was what this was. It was all fucking chess pieces, and we were the fucking pawns to be wiped off the board. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I ran a hand over my face, exhausted as I stepped away.
While George went off doing his own thing with whatever the fuck they needed to do, I started a group chat between my brothers, the Stones, and the Ironwoods along with Isla and Cade.
Second body is Michael. Looks like he was tied up by the leg and dragged down a gravel road. He’s unidentifiable except by his leg.
SAM: Fuck.
COLE: Jesus fuck. Anyone call his family?
I’m still at the goddamn crime scene. The hunter left him in the middle of fucking Main Street.
MAVERICK: That’s fucking brutal.
Cole? Can you guys handle contacting his family?
COLE: Yeah. I’ll ride out there and handle it. I’ll take Alice with me.
FINN: What the hell are we going to do?
Lock everyone the fuck up until we kill this thing?
ISLA: While I understand that motivation, you can’t ask your pack to do that. It’s an irrational request. They can’t give up their entire lives for an unidentified period of time.
COLE: What the fuck are you? A psychiatrist?
ISLA: Board-certified psychologist with a specialty in trauma background.
AXEL: In other words, she’s smarter than your dumbass on how to handle this.
DECLAN: Then what do we do?
ISLA: At this point, you need to do damage control. The problem with the hunter is that you have nothing to offer them in the way of a solution. All you have is a way to instill more fear and irrational behavior.
We know that shit already.
ISLA: You need to smooth it over.
