AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We have to go back…” she whispers, and he crouches down to hear her better. A tear rolls down her cheek and she grabs on to his arm to stop herself from falling.
I can’t hear what she says next, but when she finishes she faints and Ryder catches her and picks her up in his arms.
He turns to me, anger and worry ripping through his body. “A Silver Dawn pup has been found dead,” he announces. Ruby collapses against me, her breath hitching in her throat. I feel her mind race, recalling every pup in that pack in a flurry. “He was left for us to find…in Bob’s place.”
Chapter16
Ruby
Walking into the bar is like something out of a horror movie. A glistening blood trail leads out the front door and somewhere inside a woman is screaming. The bar, usually a place radiating peace now seems filled with a cloying sense of dread. We walk up behind Ryder, Chase scenting the air as if he’s still in his wolf form. My bare feet step in the blood of whoever is dead inside, leaving a footprint beside that of a booted foot. The booted foot is so much larger than mine, something about it makes me dizzy and I waver on my feet.
Ryder opens the door and somebody standing on the other side pukes, sending their spew into the puddle of blood still growing in the center of the room. I look up, dread shaking my very bones, but I know I have to look. I have to identify the body, I’m the only one here who can. I see the paws first, slipping in the blood, and see Bob desperately trying to hold up the body. The boy is half transformed, as I was told the other one was. His legs are that of a black wolf, but flayed along the lines of the bones. A human torso meets the animal legs, sliced and burned and parts of the flesh simply stripped away.
I scream myself when I see the face, eyes bulging in terror, hands clutching the rope around his neck. I cling to Chase and bury my face in his neck. I know this boy personally. It’s Mason, Killian’s only child. He was only ten years old… Unable to speak, I pass my memories to the pack. The young boy playing catch with his dad in front of my house, Killian mourning the passing of his wife with Mason as a baby clutched in his arms. She died during childbirth, there was nothing he could do. Killian never forgave himself, being our Doctor and unable to save his own wife? It nearly destroyed the man.
Killian’s been away in the city studying reproduction and childbirth so this never happens to any of us ever again. His research is secretive, with only chosen humans handling our DNA. Mine has been the focus of his research. I know Mother would have called him home tonight, he would have been looking forward to seeing his little boy who he left with his sister while he was away.
Chase sits me gently in a booth and Rachel comes to my side, shielding me from the sight. Her hands tremble as she touches my shoulders. Her eyes mirror the horror in mine, and neither of us know what to do or say to the other. I open my mind to her, connecting with her so neither of us has to speak. The connection feels intimate, like touching the mind of a close sibling. Rachel scoots into the booth beside me and wraps her arms around my shoulders. It’s hard to believe that not so long ago I was ready to kill this woman and now I’m crying on her shoulder.
I listen for Chase as he walks around the body, sniffing, scenting, tracking everything he can. He won't let this go, I know it. A second murder? A second child? He’ll take this personally, unable to protect yet another pup from whoever or whatever is causing all this mayhem.
Ryder growls low in his throat and I watch my new Alpha stalk through the bar. His long hair is wild around his shoulders, his beard twitching as he chews on his cheek. He won't look at the body, his eyes avoiding it, as if the mere sight of it will send him into a rage he can’t control. He goes back to the doors, holding the people firmly out of the bar. Something tells me it’s all he can do to stay sane right now.
“Let me talk to him?” I hear Cookie ask. She’s with Ryder at the back door, her tiny body dwarfed by his massive frame. She looks like a pixie next to him, her face haunted. Her voice is raw as she approaches her boss. She must have been the one screaming. “Bob, he’s gone…” she says softly, laying a hand on his shoulder.
Bob looks at her with wide eyes and a tear-stained face, but he doesn’t let go. He clings to Mason’s legs with unseeing eyes. The horror plain on his face is something I’ll never be able to forget.
“No! There’s a chance! He has to be alright! There’s no violence allowed here! No violence!” Bob screams, his body shaking from the weight of the boy on his shoulders.
Ryder and Chase have to pull him away, prying his hands off the poor kid’s legs and dragging him bodily away. They sit him on a bar stool and Chase goes to hold the body while Ryder cuts the rope that’s holding Mason to the beams of the roof. The sound of the rope cutting frays my nerves, and the soft thump as Chase lowers the body makes me shiver.
“I heard him screaming from upstairs, in my-my place… He was still kicking when I got down here…he couldn’t shift, he was stuck halfway. The screams…my god, the screams…” Bob cries loudly, leaning on Cookie’s shoulder as she pats his back gently and cries with him.
“The only tracks besides Bob’s are a wolf…and large bare feet. A man…” Chase says, following the trail of blood out the door. “A wolf dragged him here, and shifted to a man to hang him…”
“A wolf he says!” I freeze and my bones seem to shiver as I recognize Moira’s voice. “A wolf? Like you don’t know, Chase?”
“What are you talking about?” Ryder demands, standing beside Chase with his hand on his shoulder as the Silver Dawn pack arrives in droves in their fancy cars.
“The blood trail? It leads into our territory, and all I can smell is him!” Moira screeches, pointing a sharp finger at Chase.
I stand up, pushing by Rachel and running to my mate. “You’re lying! He’s been with me all night! Tell them, Ryder!”
Ryder squeezes my shoulder while Chase wraps his arms around me. His body’s trembling, and he lowers his head to my ear. “She’s trying to frame me,” he whispers fiercely. “They want to stop us from being together… It has to be someone in your pack who did this…”
“No…no no no!” I’m shaking my head violently as Killian pushes his way through the crowd. His blonde hair is shaggy now, hanging in front of his green eyes as they look up at me in disbelief. Seeing him after so long makes me want to respond with joy. I know what he’s about to see, however, and I can only sob loudly.
“Is it true?” he asks, and I reach for him and nod.
He walks slowly up the stairs as my mother and brother step out of their car. When Killian takes my hand he falls to his knees, pressing his head to my stomach, and crying so hard his whole body shakes with it. I use my body to block his view, he doesn't need to see his son like this. I don’t care that I’m covered in nothing but a bear skin, this man is my friend. He used to watch me as a child, even though he was only five years older. Chase starts to get possessive but I shake my head at him. There’s nothing sexual about this, this is mourning.
“Explain it, Dark Moon!” Moira screams, quickly growing frantic. “How is it that your tracker’s smell is mingled with that of the deceased? All the way to where the blood trail rises into the mountain? Tell me!”
“I’ve gone up and down those mountains every day since I met Ruby, it’s only natural that my scent would be all over the place there!” Chase shouts, and Ryder squeezes his shoulder tightly to silence him.
“What he says is true, all of our scents are on that mountain!” Ryder shouts over the crowd.
Both Silver Dawn and Dark Moon are going head to head, screaming at each other.
