182
182
182 Lucas: Ghoulish Discovery
LUCAS =
Who the fuck steals burning bodies of the dead?
The motive is completely unfathomable.
Angry flames lick at the night sky, smoldering remnants of what should have been a sacred night, with souls returned to the embrace of the Moon Goddess.
Instead, there are eighteen disturbed mounds, with no bodies to
be found.
Nude after my shift, my bare feet sink into the sodden earth as I move closer, mud squelching between my toes.
י
"Alpha." Kellan's voice cuts through the haze of my thoughts. He holds out a bundle of clothes, emergency spares we keep on hand
for situations like this.
Grabbing only a pair of jeans, I pull them on with a vicious yank, fury boiling just beneath my skin. The breeze, cool and oblivious to the undercurrents of the night, is almost soothing against my heated skin. Around me, my wolves move through the clearing, noses to the ground as they try to parse out any lingering scents. But there's nothing. The air is too clean, too pure. It's as if someone took a giant eraser and before us.
"I don't understand," I mutter, more to myself than anyone else.
"How can there be no scent? It's like the area's been sanitized."
Kellan frowns, his brow furrowed in concentration. "It's not just the scents of the offackers that are missing. I can't even catch a whiff of Ava"
been erased from the very air
16. 16.
glow across the clearing. My wolves move like shadows, their
No scent, no trail, no sign of the
searching I order, my voice rough with
the words leave my lips, I know it's futile. Whoever did this was meticulous, leaving
not, we risk a
war hasn't come to any
It's real.
ICCS Devery
many have already died, but for
much as my life revolves around her,
else. It feels like we're all being led to one conclusion, like sheep to slaughter, Closing my
Deep.
Slow.
only lead to misstep. There's no more leeway for mistakes and second
rely on me for their safety,
you think?" Kellan asks, his voice so soft not even the wolves near us would be
The connection I share with my beta is tight, so no others can interfere or
how much this
of me rebels against the idea of establishing any sort of connection with those
time to wait around for
1. us.
can't keep getting
again, I square
They're looking to me for guidance now more
"is everyone accounted for?"
Blackwood, and they're on full alert. I have two groups out looking for our missing wolves
grasping for answers that refuse
happen? How did we let ourselves become so vulnerable? So exposed? The questions gnaw at me,
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