Chapter 1
Rafe Crimson
The night replayed on a loop in my head. Everywhere I looked I saw Jade. I saw her broody looks and the little smiles she threw at my Guardians. I saw her green eyes in my dreams and when I woke up, she was still gone. No matter what I wanted to do, my hands were tied. I went over the night in my head again. I couldn’t stop it.
“She’s gone,” Mav shouted down our pack bond.
“Who?” I knew before his voice vibrated through my head.
“Jade!”
A roaring filled my ears. “Where is she?”
It was Knox that answered this time. “We aren’t sure. We have Pack Police on the scene but it doesn’t look good.” Even in my head he sounded strained. “It smells like rogues. Their scent is always off, but then it doesn’t. The wind will blow and another scent will replace it.”
Witches. The witches were meddling again. That was the only way to explain it. “How much damage?”
Archer sighed. “I don’t think rogues did this.”
I hopped on my motorcycle and kicked it to life. I didn’t have time to listen to this in my head. I didn’t know why I had waited so long to get there. I should have hopped on my bike immediately. I wasted enough time.
When I got to the scene my stomach dropped. Tracey’s SUV was upside down and the windows were busted out. No airbags had been deployed. Blood splattered on the light leather seats and my stomach clenched. Where was the car that had hit them? Was it a car that hit them? Based on the massive dent in the side of the car and all the damage, it had to be a big truck. I scratched my jaw and sniffed the air.
Knox had been right. The wind shifted and took the rogue scent away then there was nothing. With every breeze it was a different scent. We would be going in circles if we followed that.
Archer was at my side in seconds. Knox was still looking over Tracey’s SUV and Mav had his head in his hands. Tracey was seated on the edge of a stretcher with an ice pack pressed to her bleeding forehead. Both of her eyes were black and her arm was in a sling. With the wolfsbane in her system, she would be healing slowly.
“Who saw what happened?” My voice didn’t sound like my own. It didn’t even sound like my wolf had taken over.
Mav’s eyes rose up to meet mine. They were bloodshot and haunted. “The light was taking too long to change. We knew something wasn’t right. I saw the truck hit them. We tried to get there, but we were too far. I jumped out of the car, but I wasn’t fast enough. We were too far away. I failed you, Alpha.” Damn wolfsbane needed to be banned. We shouldn’t have been drinking tonight. We should have known the threat was too great, even if it did smell like rogues.
It was too organized to be rogues. Rogues were crazy. This was all a setup to make it look like it had been them. Everything was too planned out for a random attack. This was a bigger game, a bigger ploy. One I needed to figure out before my mate was killed… or worse.
