Page 2 of The Alpha's Grave Secrets

“Kato?” the name barely croaks out of my chaffed throat.

“I’m here,” he says rocking me in his arms holding me so close my feet barely touch the ground, “I’m here.”

Chapter 2

Kato

Damn, Damn, Damn.My chest tightens as I wrap my arms tighter around Elara. She trembles like a deer still in a clearing praying that the predator on the hunt does not see her. “Who did this to you?” I growl unable to contain my fury.

The way her heart rate quickens has me cursing myself for being so crass.Get your shit together Kato.

“Elara can you tell me what happened?” This time I manage to keep my voice steady. She doesn’t tear her eyes away from the mound of dirt she’s standing next too, I follow her gaze to the ghostly face of a dead young woman.Buried?

The rot, the fear, the energetic stain on this earth, and Elara’s dirt-soaked naked trembling body starts to make sense now. I sniff, trying to catch the scent of who else was here, who put Elara under the ground and left her there to die.

My fingernails bite into my palms, muscles quaking, as I force the wolf in me to stay dormant. I can’t catch the scent of anyone else- scent blockers.Whoever it is, knows exactly who and what they are going to have to deal with.It’s not like anyone can pick up scent blockers at the local drug store, they’d have to know the right types of people to contact for something like that.

My Goddess the scent of rot is overwhelming but not nearly as overwhelming as the scent of the fresh blood dripping from Elara’s mangled knees and fingertips.I will kill whoever hurt her.

I pull back from Elara, steadying her on her feet before I take my sweater off and help her slide it on over her head. She barely moves but doesn’t contest the sweater. It fits her like a dress, and she wraps her arms around herself once it is on. Her eyes still trained on that damn grave.

Wrapping my arm around her waist, I help keep her standing as her knees buckle, sliding my phone out of my pocket with my freehand and dialing my second in command, “Listen Kato, I told you once I’ll tell you again there’s no way I’m drinking any more of that shitty whiskey you have and indulging in yet another pity party. Go to the bar and commiserate with the other sad saps like a normal person.”

“Gun, while you were giving me that riveting pep talk, I sent you a location. I need medics, forensics, and the team up here right away,” I do my best not to come across as panicked as I feel. There are politics, police ‘territories and jurisdictions’, at play now and I can’t risk losing this case to another unit.

“On it,” every trace of amusement is gone from Gunnolf’s voice. He doesn’t ask any other questions nor wait around on the phone to see if I have anything else to say.

“Elara,” I say softly, tucking the love of my life into me a little closer, “help is on the way. I’m so sorry that someone hurt you.”

I don’t know what else to say. This part of the job has never been my strong suit but it’s especially impossible to find the right words to say when I’m standing in a mass graveyard with the one woman I’d been praying to see again for a decade. The one woman I’d have given anything to hold again, but now I realize I’d have given up seeing her ever again if it would have spared her from this.Whatever this is.

Finally, Elara drags her eyes away from the grave, from the young woman who lays there, and turns to face me with a hint of recognition in those sorrowful wild eyes. Her usually silky auburn hair is matted with clumps of dried mud, twigs, and bits of decaying matter. Two streaks of pale flesh glow under the moonlight where her tears have washed the dirt away from her cheeks.

The sight of her makes my stomach ache,what the hell happened to you?My Goddess I want to carry her to the nearest stream to get the crumbling mud off her, but I can’t risk losing the evidence.How long have you been out here like this? How long have you been suffering? How did I miss this?More questions I can’t bring myself to ask as I stare at her chapped and split swollen bottom lip.

Off in the distance I can hear engines roaring as my team approaches. My heart nearly skips a beat, “I know you’re in shock Elara but please listen to me very closely,” she merely blinks in recognition of my words, “I can’t let anyone know what you are to me, who you are to me. I need to stay on this case. My team, the Special Paranormal Investigative Unit, isn’t stupid or we wouldn’t be a branch of the FBI. They are going to catch on to the fact that we know each other but I can’t let them know that you’re my”, I swallow hard trying to catch my breath, “just don’t tell anyone how much you mean to me, okay?”

Slowly she nods her head yes, some semblance of understanding washing over her face regardless of the shock that keeps her from being able to speak. I swear to the Moon Goddess, I am going to hunt down the bastard that did this and make them pay. Big Time.

I’d like to rip them apart limb by limb, or maybe I will bury them in a shallow grave and let them claw their way out, except once they finally break their way to the surface, I’ll be right there. Waiting. Waiting to put them right back in that grave, over and over again, until life drains out of them, and they don’t break the surface again.

“Bloody hell,” Callie’s voice cuts through my violent thoughts.Good timing.I can’t go off the rails unless it’s completely necessary- I’ve made my vows to Elara, but I’ve also made them to the law. “What happened here?”

Callie’s eyes are wide as she sweeps them over Elara, pain taking root as she does, “Where are the medics?” I barked.

“They are on their way, we had to park on the road several paces away,” she swallows taking her eyes off Elara and bringing them to mine. “So, what happened here?”

“She was buried alive and managed to dig herself out of the grave. I was out allowing my wolf a run when I heard some awful wailing and I found her here like this- naked, mud soaked, and sobbing in a field of apparent shallow graves.”

Callie clicks her tongue as she looks at me up and down. White T-shirt, jeans, and leather boots. She knows I wasn’t on a run, but she lets it go, thank the Goddess.

“I know her, her name is Elara” I blurt, “we went to high school together. I think she’s in shock, she’s going to need medical attention right away.”

Gun comes up behind Callie and I know that he knows exactly who and what Elara is to me. He’s the only one. He was there when she ended things between us. He and I suffered together. He and I have been close for years, we served together in the service. I know he won’t let anything slip to the others about Elara and me.

“I’ll say she needs medical attention. Why don’t we get her away from here and we can wait for the ambulance to arrive on the roadside.” Gun nods at me, glancing at the graves around us and I could punch myself for not moving her out of here sooner.

“Yes,” I clear my throat, “let’s do that. One of you needs to stay here to secure the crime scene.”

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