“Well, then we’ll find the killer. And we’ll put that monster behind bars. And we’ll get justice for Camilla.” Hazel tried to sound optimistic and not at all how she really felt.
Because she really felt depressed. Down. Horrible. She felt like she wasn’t helping Camilla at all, and the real fear that Camilla’s brutal murderer would walk free became evident in her mind. Her bones shook within her skin as she faced the hypothetical future where Camilla would never get justice. Jerome would never be the same. Jerome was changed now, just with Camilla being gone. But if her murderer was never found?
Jerome would never recover.
“That’s easier said than done,” Matthew responded, his own doubt creeping in and mirroring her own. She needed to be the positive one of the two of them, though. She knew Matthew was never positive, even in his personal life. She needed to take one for the team and put on an optimistic face. That was the only way they would keep their hope. Their energy. Their sanity.
“It’ll happen, Matthew. I think you’re an annoying asshat, but you’re a damn good detective. That much I know. You’ll figure this out.”
When Hazel saw the slight smirk that landed on Matthew’s face as he took a long drag from his cigarette, she knew that there was still some fight left in him. She just had to keep that little form of hope alive within the detective, and everything would be okay.
If only she was as optimistic about the case and finding Camilla’s murderer as she sounded.
The last thing Hazel expected to get at four-thirty in the morning was a call from her best friend Lea asking if she was up. When Hazel replied that yes, she was indeed very much up, Lea told her to come over to her house.
Hazel drove to her friend’s house in confusion. Fear began to set in when she realized that something horrible could have happened. The last five minutes of the drive, Hazel sped around every corner until she haphazardly parked in front of Lea’s house, slamming the car door behind her as she raced up the front steps.
The worst scenarios possible were playing out in Hazel’s mind. She didn’t know if it was because there was a murderer on the loose or because she hadn’t slept in almost twenty-four hours, but she was on the verge of tears as she ran into Lea’s unlocked front door.
Only to find Lea there making coffee in her pajamas with an annoyed expression on her face.
“You’re okay?” Hazel managed to ask, forcing her adrenaline to calm down and realize the situation didn’t call for her to fight to the death or save Lea from some masked, crazy murderer.
“Yeah . . .?” Lea seemed to ask, holding her cup of coffee and staring at her best friend in confusion.
“Sorry,” Hazel said as she basically fell into Lea’s kitchen table chair. Exhaustion hit her like a car. “With everything that’s been going on lately, I just imagined the worst.”
Plus, it wasn’t that long ago that Lea actually was attacked by a crazy rogue on a lone wolf mission to destroy and bring havoc onto the Moonlight Maine community in whatever way he could. Lea managed to come out of the whole thing unscathed, thanks to her boyfriend Finn coming to her help. That didn’t make Hazel feel any better, though, as there were still rogues that tried to bring murder to Maine.
And now, it seemed like humans in Jerome were murdering in brutal fashion, as well. It just didn’t sit well with Hazel.
“I have to talk to you,” Lea said as she sat down, an unreadable look on her face. She wasn’t smiling. Hazel thought that was bad. She should be smiling. Hazel hadn’t done anything to piss her off recently, had she?
For the life of her, she really couldn’t remember.
“Is everything okay?” Hazel finally managed to ask, looking into her best friend’s blue eyes that were now full of . . . anger? Hazel still couldn’t tell, which was weird. She was normally pretty observant. She blamed the exhaustion, once again.
“Why did I have to hear from Finn, of all people, that you were sleeping with Ethan?”
Hazel stared at her best friend, in total shock. So, that was this was about? A call at four in the morning–because Lea just found out about Hazel and Ethan? Hazel stared back, sighing as she realized just how dramatic this situation was. Lea wasn’t hurt, there were no rogues or angry humans trying to kill her.
Nope. Instead, she was just questioning why, exactly, Hazel was sleeping with Ethan. And not telling Lea about it.
“Are you serious?” Hazel stared at her best friend, beyond amazed. She couldn’t believe this was happening, really. The world was so dark for her recently, and it seemed that she was always on guard. Always questioning people, even humans, because of the life she was living. But to hear her best friend question her about her sleeping partner? Well, it was a weird feeling that Hazel had rolling around in her stomach.
She reminded herself that it could’ve been worse. She would much rather take an exaggerated, dramatic questioning from her best friend than an incident that involved a murderous human or rogue.
But, still. It was four in the morning, Hazel hadn’t slept at all, and she was annoyed.
“Yes,” Lea responded, folding her arms across her chest from where she now sat across the kitchen table from Hazel. “I am serious. I tell you about everything. And to hear this from my boyfriend instead of my best friend?”
Hazel narrowed her eyes as she saw the corner of Lea’s mouth twitch, as if she was trying to hide a huge smile behind her stony expression. A sense of relief cascaded down Hazel’s body. Thank God. She had thought Lea was being serious and was actually upset about the whole thing. Really, she was just giving Hazel a hard time and having a hell of a time doing it.
“You know, you’ve done the same thing to me,” Hazel reminded her. “I believe you waited a bit before you confessed all of your carnal delights to me about you and Finn. Remember, dear?”
Lea’s smirk became evident now, making Hazel smile.
Both of them began talking at the same time, in little enthusiastic bursts as they talked over each other in happiness and surprise. Hazel made sure to clarify that she didn’t mean to keep it from her best friend, she’d just been so busy with the whole human murder in pack territory thing. Lea then clarified that she wasn’t mad at Hazel. In fact, she was ecstatic, as was Finn. Both of them had been secretly trying to get Hazel and Ethan together for a while.
“Okay, all four of us have to go on a double date soon,” Lea exclaimed with a huge smile on her face. This left Hazel in a bit of a sour mood.
“I don’t know about that,” Hazel told her, shrugging.
“Why not?”
Hazel couldn’t blame her for not understanding. Hazel had just spent the last half an hour enthusing about Ethan and everything they’ve done in the past days.
But a date? Well, they hadn’t talked about dating yet, and Hazel honestly didn’t know if their relationship was up for that. She didn’t know if their relationship would ever be up for that. She hated thinking like this, but it was true. The most they’d ever done with each other was flirt and have great sex. She didn’t know if they’d ever had a truly serious talk, other than the conversation they had about the murder when Ethan asked her to find out information.
Hazel didn’t know if she ever wanted to actually date Ethan. Was she falling for him? Yes. Was she head over heels in something with him? Hell, yes. But that didn’t mean she wanted to have a serious relationship with him. And that sure as hell didn’t mean that they would be a good couple, regardless of how they felt about each other. Hazel knew that great sex didn’t necessarily mean a good, stable relationship. All she needed to do was think of Matthew and their relationship (which was great in bed and not so great out of the bedroom) for her to get cold feet regarding dating Ethan.
“I just don’t think we would be ready for something like that,” Hazel told her best friend, sighing as she played with her hands. “Not yet, at least.”
She would try to be positive about her relationship, if only for Lea’s sake.
“Well,
when you guys are ready for something like that, I’d be really happy for us all to go out. Finn and Ethan have that weird bond, and I love you more than anyone else. We would be the best couples around Maine.”
Hazel shook her head. She didn’t know about that, but she couldn’t help but laugh as Lea got that gleam in her eyes. Her friend was a hopeless romantic. Hazel . . . wasn’t.
But she couldn’t stop how her heartbeat quickened every time she even thought about Ethan.
What did she know? Maybe there was something real between them.
Chapter 10
There was a break in the case. Not from the police department, though. An anonymous letter was delivered to Hann’s house one morning, about a week after the murder had taken place. And the letter held more evidence than the human police department had.
But it didn’t make Hann or anyone else feel any better. And now, as Ethan stood in Hann’s kitchen that morning, reading the letter that was on the kitchen table, Ethan understood the grave faces that everyone in the house had.
Hann looked like he wanted to punch something, but his eyes held a sadness that Ethan had never seen before.
Hazel was beside Ethan, reading the letter with him. Hann had told Ethan to make sure he brought Hazel around so that she stayed involved in what was happening. As the only person that had a relationship with the human police department, Hazel was the most important person in that room. She could help both the shifters and the police find the killer.
But that letter definitely changed the game. And Hazel and Ethan both knew it.
“‘To the best alpha in the world,’” Ethan read aloud to the room, his voice quiet as the mood in the kitchen darkened exponentially. “‘I realize that you have all found the little present I have left you in the woods. A sacrifice of an innocent life, to you, Mr. Bellova. She wasn’t the plan, but when I stumbled upon her in the woods that fateful night, I knew that you would love the present I left you. I planned on attacking your lovely daughter, but I found the human to be so much more fun. After all, you’re the biggest human-lover around. I’m sure it just made you feel so delightful.
I do apologize, as I don’t want to give you my real identity. Just yet, that is. Am I one of your own, a bad seed hidden among you? Am I another shifter from around the world, coming to Maine and putting on a friendly face as I deceive you? Or am I just a rogue that came to destroy, only to find that playing games are so much more fun? I’m not sure–who am I, exactly? Do you know? And who will you tell? Your friendly humans over at that police department who are ready to execute you for the poor girl’s murder? What will you do with the knowledge that it was a shifter? Will you tell the police? Or will you hide this fact, letting the poor girl’s death never be solved? That lovely town of yours will just destroy itself from the inside out with grief. I can’t wait to see it.
Yours always and forever, when the moon is high or the sun is shining: A FRIEND.’”
Ethan stopped and looked around the room, chills running down his spine.
Yeah, this definitely changed things.
“It’s a shifter,” Ethan finally said as he stared at Ross and Hann in disbelief. “Or a rogue. All along, it’s been one of us.”
It seemed like no matter how hard he said it or thought about it, it was difficult to process. A shifter, a rogue, their species, had done this horrible act to Camilla Phillips. And now, that murderer was playing a game with them and getting off on the fact that Hann was in between a rock and a hard place.
Ethan’s blood boiled with rage and shame.
“Have there been any other clues that came with this?” Hazel interjected, referencing the letter that was still on the table, untouched. “Have you dusted it at all?”
“I checked it for fingerprints, or other DNA, when it first came in,” Ross told her, shaking his head. “Nothing was on it, other than Hann’s from when he first opened the letter. No other clues have come to light.”
Hazel nodded along with Ethan. Ross was the best detective and law and order shifter the pack had. As the lead bodyguard of Hann, he dealt with a lot of the crimes that happened with the pack. He was a pro and could find anything. If he couldn’t find a shred of a clue in that letter, no one could. Which just made the whole situation that much more frustrating.
“Has the detective come across any weird clues that don’t make sense to his eyes?” Hann asked, staring at Hazel. His eyes were sad, though his voice was full of anger. Raw anger that scared the hell out of Ethan and Hazel.
“Not at all,” Hazel responded, her voice quiet as she avoided looking Hann in the face for fear that the raw anger he was putting out into the universe would somehow be directed at her.
“In fact, we have had absolutely nothing to go off of, which makes all the sense in the world now. I’m surprised I didn’t think of this earlier.”
“Shifters don’t do something like this,” Ethan interjected. “Rogues don’t either, for the most part. Killing humans, species that really can’t protect themselves from the strength and magic of a shifter, is considered the lowest thing a shifter or rogue could do. I don’t think any of us thought this could have happened.”
Ethan couldn’t understand it. He just couldn’t. This wasn’t something that shifters did–or rogues. He couldn’t wrap his head around how the situation had changed so drastically. So horribly.
Ethan saw Ross look over at Hann for just a quick second before turning back to the two. Ethan saw it, as did Hazel. What, exactly, was that look?
“Did you guys think this was at the hand of a shifter, or a rogue, before?” Hazel asked the two, confused.
“I mentioned it when we first found the body,” Ross confessed, sighing in regret and sadness. “It was just a theory, but both Hann and I quickly dismissed the idea because she was stabbed with a knife. We assumed that if a shifter did this, he or she wouldn’t have needed a weapon. All they needed was their claws or their teeth.”
“Which means this shifter killed her while still in human form,” Hann stated. That statement alone tore each and every shifter in that room apart. This wasn’t right. Camilla Phillips never should’ve died like that, caught as an innocent bystander in a war that she didn’t even know about.
Ethan heard Hazel take in a shaky breath. He was barely able to understand, either. But it was slowly becoming reality as he sat down in one of the chairs in Hann’s kitchen.
“I didn’t want to believe it,” Hann added, shaking his head. “I prayed that the weird feelings I had would be put to rest when the police found out what happened. Now, it seems those horrible thoughts Ross and I were having were actually correct.”
Ethan found himself desperately missing Hann’s easy-going smile that was always present on the alpha’s face. It wasn’t there. It was nowhere to be found.
“This is terrible,” Hazel exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air in frustration. “What are we going to do? What am I going to tell Matthew?”
“Nothing right now,” Ross told her. “We need to do our own search through the woods. See if we can find something that the police missed. It’s very possible, now that we know the murderer is a shifter. We can do a much deeper and thorough search. We know what we’re looking for.”
The group nodded collectively as they all silently realized they would have to find the murderer from here on out. There was no way Matthew would find the killer, no matter how good a detective he was.
“Do you . . . do you think it’s a rogue? Or . . . not?” Ethan had to voice his concern. He had to voice the idea that was running around in his head. Chills crawled down his spine as he began to think the worst.
“I sure as hell hope it’s a rogue just playing with us,” Hann told him, that sadness growing with each word he spoke. “I pray. It’s horrible, and it’s already one of the worst situations we will all face. But if it’s someone from the pack? Or someone living among us? That would tear us all apart, much like the town of Jerome is tearing each other apart as we speak
. We need to find out who did this to that innocent girl–for us, and for the people of Jerome. We have to.”
“I think it’s safe to say that this needs to stay between us,” Ross told the group, becoming the leader of the investigation right then and there. “The rest of the pack doesn’t need to know . . . right now, at least. It will just start chaos that we won’t be able to control. I’ll tell Kato, Britta, Annie, and Lukas–and that’s it. Keep this between us.”
“Of course,” Ethan responded, nodding. Now that Ross had that determined look in his eye, he felt a bit better. He felt like maybe they could find out who did this.
Maybe. Hopefully before it destroyed the whole pack.
“Let’s find this bastard,” Hazel added, nodding with the glimmer of hope in her eyes.
Ethan felt better with Hazel by his side. They would find whoever did this. And they would bring justice for Camilla Phillips.
Chapter 11
Hazel met with Matthew later on in the day, but she was still shaken to the core over the new evidence that Hann had brought to light. No matter what she did, the letter was always in the back of her mind. When she was doing laundry that morning, she thought about it. When she called Lea to let her know that she couldn’t hang out later, she was thinking of it. When she was making lunch, popping a frozen meal into her microwave, she was thinking about it.
She was thinking about it. And she couldn’t stop.
And now that she was face to face with Matthew, who was smoking and gesturing to his board of suspects, which had neither grown nor shrunk, she didn’t know if she could keep it in any longer. She couldn’t stop thinking about it.
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