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"
Even her scent has been erased from the very
16. 16.
to burn, casting an eerie glow across the clearing. My wolves move like shadows, their movements precise and focused as
No scent, no trail, no sign of the monsters responsible for this atrocity. It's as if they
rough with emotion. "There
I know it's futile. Whoever did this was meticulous, leaving no trace of
if it's not, we
wolves are already clamoring, screaming for the streets to run crimson beneath our silver moon. A true war hasn't come to any pack in a long time.
It's real.
ICCS Devery
have already
life revolves around
we're all being led to one
Deep.
Slow.
only lead to misstep. There's no more leeway for mistakes
me
not even the wolves near
Sister Miriam. The connection I share with my beta is tight, so no others can interfere or listen
nods, knowing how much this
part of me rebels against the idea of establishing any sort of connection
to wait around for the scraps any spies
1. us.
keep getting jerked
again, I square my
now more than ever before. And I won't let them
"is everyone accounted for?"
he strides toward me. "I've already updated Vester at Blackwood, and they're on full alert. I have two groups out looking for our missing wolves There's no warmth or solace in the intense heat radiating from the funeral mounds, made of
reeling, grasping for answers that refuse
become so vulnerable? So exposed? The questions gnaw at me, bringing no answers,
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