"She's fine." She was all mated up and happy. It was nice to see. Cade would look after her. I could see in the way he looked at her, she was the center of his world and he would do everything he could to keep her protected.
"I still can't believe you had a sister no one knew about," he murmured as he bent down to examine the blood still painted on the blades of grass.
I had known even though I had only met her for the first time a few weeks ago. My parents had run away to keep our pack safe. My mom had been pregnant at the time, and through the years my uncle and I had kept in touch with my parents and kept an eye on her from a distance. It was strange to think of her as my sister and I didn't even know what her favorite color was. But I was determined once I found Crystal, I would find the time to concentrate on getting to know my sister better.
"I know," I murmured as I bent down beside him to take a closer look.
There was nothing. We had been combing through the scene for the last hour and there were no new clues. I stood over the dark stain of blood in the grass that hadn't been washed away with rain yet. I felt the presence of James beside me.
"What do we do next?" he asked, looking around the scene, looking for anything we might have missed.
I was unable to pull my eyes from the place where the rogue werewolf had lost its life.
"I have no idea," I replied in a heavy voice.
I felt helpless and it wasn't a feeling I liked. Unfortunately by the time any of the murder scenes had been found only the scent of the dead werewolf had been left.
I had hoped by combing through the scene we would find something that could have been dropped by the person responsible. If we found a fresh murder scene we would have a chance to gather more clues to help us. Rubbing the back of my neck, I let out a heavy sigh.
"Do you think there's any point in trying to go through the other scenes?" James asked.
I dropped my shoulders in a dismissive shrug. I wanted to be able to do something instead of standing on the sidelines hoping we would figure out who it was, but wasting time going through every scene wasn't something I wanted to do either. Every moment I didn't know where Crystal was increased my fear for her safety.
The thought of possibly never finding her wasn't something I could think about. The heaviness in my chest made it nearly impossible to take a breath. I pushed the thought away, refusing even to consider it.
"No," I replied, taking a step backward.
My beta was watching me, his arms crossed.
"I don't know if there's much more we can do other than keeping our pack safe in the compound."
But Crystal wasn't at the compound. If I had known before that she would escape after the last battle with the rogues, I would have confronted her.But what if it wouldn't have been enough?nagged in the back of my mind.
Crystal
I was fixed to the spot as I watched the stranger hold the rogue, who had just attacked me, up against the tree with a strong vice-like grip of his hand around its neck. The werewolf growled, baring its sharp knife-like teeth. The stranger didn't tremble with fear; instead, he leaned closer, a look of disgust on his face as his eyes ran over the face of the werewolf.
It was impossible for a human man to do what this man in front of me was.
"Attacking a defenseless female human is the sign of a coward," he spat.
My heart thumped so hard in my chest it felt like it was going to explode.
Run, my mind screamed at me but I couldn't move. My eyes took in the stranger. He was tall and intimidating. All of his clothes were black. Jeans, shirt and leather jacket. His midnight-black hair hung straight to his jaw. It wasn't his outward appearance of power that was frightening. There was something in his slow and purposeful movements that scared me to my core.
Get up and run, I urged myself, hoping to break my panicked immobility.
The stranger swung his gaze back to mine. The breath in my lungs froze. His eyes were so dark they were black and depthless. I had to smother the urge to stumble to my feet and run blindly through the forest in the opposite direction.
His eyes scanned me from head to toe before he turned back to his captive, who was starting to struggle.
The werewolf started to fight back with more determination as if sensing the thick foreboding that was to come hanging in the air.
"Do you have any last words?" the man asked with a steeliness in his voice. There would be no relenting.
The rogue began to try and kick its way free.
"Then so be it."
