“I was just out for a run.”
Abraham’s eyes narrowed as they darted between the two of us. I knew if he dug too deep, he’d find something to harp on and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with his nonsense. A subject change was in order and I had just the thing.
“What’s going on here, Abey? You don’t seem surprised to find a dead woman in our woods.”
He winced and glanced at the ground before just barely meeting my eyes. “This doesn’t concern you, Callie. You should go back to the lodge and let us handle this.”
I snorted and planted my feet more firmly on the ground. “Not going to happen. Tell me what this is all about.”
“It’s an enforcer matter.”
My tail went stiff and my hackles rose as I bared my teeth at my brother. “Abraham McCoy, I am a part of this pack and deserve to know what’s going on. If there’s someone killing women in our woods, I should know about it.”
He sighed and dropped his head. “The fewer who know about this the better. I don’t want to start panic in the pack.”
“Well, one more in the know won’t hurt. Now spill.”
He sighed again, this time longer and louder, but I didn’t care. He might have been the boss of this pack, but he was not the boss of me, and he’d better remember that.
“It started seven months ago.”
“SEVEN MONTHS AGO?! Why am I just hearing about it now?”
He grit his teeth and growled softly. “Do you want to hear this or do you want to yell at me?”
I dipped my head and he continued.
“We don’t know who it is, but he kills every few months and the women always look the same. Dark hair, dark eyes, and partially shifted. That’s about all I know.” He grunted that last line and I could tell he wasn’t happy about it.
“This one smells old,” Clyde piped up.
Abraham nodded his big wolf head. “At least a few weeks I’d say.”
“It’s closer though. We’re only a few miles from the lodge,” Huxley added.
Abraham growled softly. “He’s getting bolder.”
“We need to search the scene and then have Paul get out here with a few other police officers,” Beatrice said.
Abraham shook his head. “This isn’t good for us. We don’t need the human police poking around our woods. We’re lucky we have Paul on the inside, but that’s only going to help for so long.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Callie, I need you to get back to the lodge. Wyatt will go with you.”
I was just about to argue when Wyatt beat me to it. “Actually, Alpha, Callie had some insight about this murder you should probably hear.”
Abraham turned to look at me, his blue eyes equal parts weary and determined. It was clear the murders were wearing on him. I felt a twinge of guilt for giving him a hard time, but it passed as soon as I remembered he shouldn’t have kept this secret from me to begin with.
“What is it, Callie?”
“I think the werewolf doing this is using store-bought wolf urine to mask his scent.”
“How do you know that?” Calvin piped up for the first time. He’d been hanging around the back of the pack of enforcers, and I’d assumed it was because he didn’t want to be any closer to the body. My cousin, although one of Abraham’s enforcers, was still just as sensitive as always.
“I recognized the smell.”
“That’s great information, Callie. Thanks,” Abraham said.
I raised a brow as I stared him down. “If you’d confided in me sooner, you’d have had this information sooner.”
He sighed loudly. “Not now, Callista.”
I was inclined to argue some more, but the slump of his shoulders stopped me. My brother was a good guy and a great alpha, he just needed a reminder once in a while that he had more resources than just his enforcers. And that he didn’t need to protect his sisters from every bad thing out there. We were stronger than he gave us credit for.
“All right,” I conceded. “I’ll head back. But just know that we’re having a chat soon. All of us. It’s time you stopped keeping secrets in this family.”
His only response was a grumble about how much easier brothers would have been, but I ignored him. With one last look at the poor woman left in our woods like trash, I turned around to head back toward the lodge.
I knew Wyatt was close behind because, even in wolf form, I could feel him deep inside me. Somehow, it was even more intense than it usually was. Like he was an organ I’d been missing my whole life. Something integral to my survival.
I wish I knew what it meant, but there were other things occupying my thoughts right then.
“I wonder who she was.”
Wyatt fell in step with me. “I wonder who she left behind.”
“She might have a family waiting for her to come home. A husband or kids that’ll never see her alive again.” The thought sent a wave of emotion coursing through me.
“Yeah, she might, or she might not. Either way, she’s got a mom somewhere worried about her, and that’s what gets me the most. I couldn’t imagine how my mom would react if she lost one of us. It was bad enough when my dad died, but no mother should have to bury their child.”
I turned to study his wolf’s profile, noticing how somber his caramel eyes were. “You’re really close with your mom, huh?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Some people grow up and grow apart from their parents.”
“Not me.”
“I see that.”
