Page 5 of The Alpha's Grave Secrets

“We’ll be back,” I say eyes trained on Elara’s pained face. The rattling of her breath filling the space between us. A tired smile is all she spares for me before the coldness returns to her eyes.

On the way back to the office to check in with the rest of the team, Callie doesn’t say a word and I don’t either. The silence between us speaking volumes. She might know there was once something between Elara and me, more than just being high school friends, but only Gun knows we’ve been mated.

It’s not something I want to talk about, especially not with Callie even though I know she’s loyal enough not to tell the higher ups. It’s just that Callie… she’s a bit sensitive when it comes to these things. She’s been broken-hearted for years. I’m not sure there will come a time in her life when she is not heartbroken.

Not after her mate cruelly rejected her. Not after she was exiled from her pride, left to wander off on her own and find her own family.I can only hope that she feels she’s found a new family with us.

“We need to head to the crime scene. Gun and Hati aren’t at the office, and Bruce has nothing for us yet.” Callie glances up from her phone. I nod in response. “Besides, I’d like to get a better look at it, while the sun is shining, myself.”

I sigh, watching the road for a place to turn around. We are heading in the exact opposite direction of Eagle Creek Park. The SPIU agent in me wants to check out the crime scene again, too, but the mate of the woman who nearly died there doesn’t... My stomach twists in uneasy knots. The closer we move toward the woods, the sicker I become.

I should have known something was wrong long before I did. I should have tracked her down the moment she was kidnapped. Why hadn’t I picked up on her panic sooner? As my mate, I can tell when she is stressed.

I already know the answer, even though I don’t like it.

Whiskey.

She was right to leave me. I am pathetic.

Since Elara left me, I’ve done everything I could do emotionally, physically, legally to dampen the connection between Elara and me. A bond that’s always there, pulling me toward her, twisting my thoughts and emotions; even when I’m obliterated with alcohol, I can’t stop my wolf’s desire to be with her, my desire to be with her.

The whiskey isn’t perfect, but it helps. When I’m sober, my Goddess, it’s like she’s beside me. I can hardly stand it.

Especially when I can feel her succumbing to pleasure brought on her by another man. The wolf in me is the hardest to contain in those moments. How he fights to break free to find the man who is taking what’s his and rip out his throat.

I hate that part of me, but I hate it even more because I feel the same way as my wolf- we are both insane when it comes to our mate.

“Red light!” Callie calls out, snapping my attention back to the road with just enough time for my instincts to kick in. I swerve out of the way of an SUV about to T-Bone the passenger side of the vehicle. Callie exhales, releasing her clawed grip on the passenger door. “The road Blackwood or I’m driving.”

“Right, sorry.”

She grins, raising an eyebrow, but a hint of panic is still etched on her face.

I kept my eyes locked on the road for the rest of the drive. My heart rate doesn’t lessen. I almost let Elara die because of my recklessness, and now I nearly got Callie killed, obsessing over that same recklessness. I can’t be a shitty mate and a lousy team leader. My ego, my wolf, can’t take that. We’re an unusually strong Alpha wolf shifter and leader of an FBI special unit after all. It’s time I started acting like the Alpha I am.

The makeshift graveyard is almost more ominous in the light of day. The juxtaposition between the cheerful chirping of the birds and the excavated graves makes my skin crawl. A place that was once a twisted killer sanctuary is now emptied and littered with bright yellow caution tape.

“Creepy,” Callie says, stepping up beside me, “the killer is not going to be happy about this.”

“No, he’s not,” Gunnolf says, stepping out of a thicket of trees. “Look at how much care he took to clean up the excess debris, to cut through tree roots, and to line up the graves.”

“Is that what you were doing in the thicket Gun? Looking for debris?” Callie asks, smirking.

“The trees here are less dense than around the perimeter, but they aren’t nonexistent,” he nods, “the killer played caretaker for his private cemetery.”

I nod, taking in the equidistant graves. He may not have put headstones on the graves or left bouquets behind, but this place was special to him—holy even—and now it’s been destroyed. All his efforts have been undone, and his ‘collection’ has been hauled away.

“He’ll be looking for a new place to bury his victims now,” Gunnolf says as if reading my thoughts.

“There are nearly 4,000 acres of forest here. He could set up anywhere, and it’s unlikely that we would find it, especially since he’s taking precautions not to be found.”

Scent-blockers, and who knows what else.

The look in Callie’s eyes churns my stomach. I know what she’s thinking and I’m not ready to talk about it.

“I guess he’s unlucky that I came out here to let my wolf out for a while last night.” I mumble.

“Unlucky indeed,” Gunnolf says, the corner of his lips lifting.

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