Page 49 of Claimed By the Alpha Wolves

We lost him, I say.

Not yet, Cayson says back.

You’re never going to get him, buddy, Ezra says, coming to sit beside me, letting his tail brush mine.

But Cayson is like a puppy, going around in circles, digging and digging for way longer than he should, which just fills me with amusement. Cayson really is fun to be around.

Damn, he’s gone, Cayson finally mutters, kicking dirt at the hole, as Ezra and I look on, trying not to laugh.

Our amusement fades when Cayson sniffs the air suspiciously. Suddenly, I smell it, too. The acrid scent of blood.

What is that?Cayson asks.

Ezra sounds uncertain.Are shifters allowed to hunt out here?

Even if shifters were allowed to hunt out here, nobody would kill something and just leave it. Not on the castle grounds. It would be beyond bad manners.

We’ll check it out, Ezra says firmly.Faye, stay here.

That’s silly, I tell him.It’s probably nothing.

She’s right,Cayson says without hesitation.Let’s just find the scent and then go back to having fun. Someone leaving their kill out here is hardly our problem. We can just inform the staff to clean it up.

I get the feeling Ezra isn’t happy with this idea, but he starts moving, and we follow, hyper-aware of the scent with each step we take. As we get closer to the smell, we all realize at once that this isn’t the scent of an animal. It’s the scent of another shifter.

Gods, Ezra sends to us, as we round the corner and find the body there, dead on the ground.

Serra.

The breath leaves my body.

Cayson moves in front of me to block me from the scene, but it’s too late. I’ve already seen her lying there in the dirt, her head bent at an awkward angle, a single dark boot print on her throat. Her eyes, lifeless and empty, stare out across the forest.

I know immediately, with every cell in my body, that this was Kurt’s doing. Panic courses through me and I turn, runningthrough the forest, ignoring the sounds Cayson and Ezra make to try and get me to slow down and wait for them.

When I come to a stuttering halt, my legs buckle under me. I shift back to my human form and fall to the ground, panting, images flashing through my head faster than I can stop them. My heartbeat races and my breathing speeds up to the point of hyperventilating.

What did Serra do to him? Or was she just an easy target?I hate to think about what might have happened to her before her last moments. The fear she must have felt.

She was just here like the rest of us. To find a mate. To try and secure a good future for herself. And instead, she’s lost everything and had her body left here to rot.

Was this intentional? Did Kurt leave her here for me to find? Did he know Cayson and I were going to be out here?

Ezra comes over and nuzzles his head next to mine. My heart starts to slow a bit, his scent and the warmth of his body calming me slightly. I wrap myself around him, digging my hands into his fur and letting my tears fall onto him.

Cayson comes onto my other side, and then I’m clinging to both of them, trying to get my breathing under control. Trying to stop the images from circling in my mind. It’s all the same. The bootprint. The dead body. Kurt.

Cayson and Ezra shift back after a moment, kneeling beside me, getting their nice clothes dirty and not seeming to care. I keep clinging to them. Their faces press into my throat, and I breathe in their calming scents over and over, wondering why their scents seem to push the images away. Wondering how I went from fearing every alpha to trusting these two.

“Are you okay?” Ezra finally manages.

I don’t know how to explain it, how to get them to understand what’s happening to me without telling them the truth.I have to tell them the truth.

“I’ve seen that before,” I confess, wiping tears from my face. “It’s the exact same way Kurt killed my brother.”

“Shit,” Ezra murmurs.

My stomach turns as realization dawns on me. “I-I think I have to tell the ultimas.”I think it’s my responsibility, but I also don't think I can go through that again.

---