To Skin a Wolf

by A. L. Kessler

It could be a whole new bloodbath. “If Greg is dead, why are they still fighting you?”

  “Because I hold a lot of the same ideals as Greg. They don’t like that, and they don’t want to reunite. They could create a new pack and apply for registration, our area is big enough, but Luke wants to control all of us.”

  “Greedy.”

  “The bigger the pack, the safer the territory. Plus we have the alliance with Levi; he wants that. Levi won’t give it to him because he’s refusing to negotiate with me. We held the original alliance with him.”

  That made sense and Levi couldn’t tie his alliance with two wolf packs in case something like this came up where he had to choose between which pack to back. “So you continue an uneasy stalemate?”

  “I’m keeping it from being a bloodbath, but that’s the best I can do.” He stood. “Take a nap; we may have a long night ahead of us.”

  I slid out of the chair and onto a pile of pillows. “What about the pups?”

  “What about them?”

  “Will they be fighting tonight?”

  “No, I’ll have them at a safe house tonight. They don’t need to see this.”

  Part of me wanted to argue; they may have wanted to see the monster who changed them come to justice. Even if it wasn’t PIB or human justice. This was part of their new life, and they had the right to see it; however, it wasn’t my place to argue about it. “Less possible casualties. Is Travis up for fighting?”

  “Yes, and I’m sure he’ll jump at the chance to have at Zachary. He told me to tell you thank you for rescuing him. They drugged him up with something.”

  I thought about the drug Ira had given me and how helpless I felt. “I understand that. I guess we got our answer about drugging up werewolves.”

  “I guess so. Have a good nap, Abby; I’ll wake you up when I hear from Madeline.” He walked out, leaving me in the peaceful quiet of the room.

  “Abby, wake up.” Simon’s voice pulled me out of my dreamless slumber. “Madeline just called, they’re about an hour out.”

  I woke up and rubbed my eyes. “Your pack here?”

  “Yes. We’re ready. I want you to watch from the house. Only come out if we need your help.” He met my gaze. “Understood?”

  “You sound like a parent. Yes, Simon, I got it. Keep hidden until I’m needed. Trust me; I don’t want to be involved in this more than I have to.” I checked to make sure my gun was still holstered. Yep. I moved my badge to the back of my belt, hidden by my untucked shirt. “I can shoot him if things go wrong?”

  “Yes. I have to go get the pack in position.” He disappeared back out the door. I stood and stretched. I would hide in the house and watch from the window in hopes that no one noticed me, friend or foe. The young wolves couldn’t always tell the difference. I slung my bag over my shoulder and went to find the best spot to watch from where I could see most of the clearing.

  The pack moved through the main part of the house almost in waves, crashing into each other and then redirecting their attentions to Simon’s orders I assumed. They all flooded outside, leaving me alone in the living room. I pulled a stool out from the breakfast counter. Sitting just out of view in the living room window, I watched as the pack shifted and disappeared into the forest, all except for Simon and Travis standing in the center.

  Madeline and Zachary broke through the tree line, and I held my breath. Gone was the scared woman and there stood a wolf. Zachary walked next to her, and as soon as they approached Simon and Travis, Madeline ran off into the forest. There didn’t seem to be a signal to Zachary about what was getting ready to happen, but I hadn’t expected Madeline to run off. Of course, maybe she didn’t want to be there for the battle, but it ruined the illusion that she was there as mediator.

  “I sent her back to the car,” Zachary said as if reading my mind.

  “Any reason why?” Simon asked. “I thought we were here to negotiate. She was our mediator.”

  “Because I don’t like the idea that you dragged my daughter into this mess. This is between my old pack and me.”

  Travis snarled and Simon put a hand to his chest as if to calm his second-in-command. A signal that right now was not the right time. “Except some of your old pack are now my members, and therefore it has become my problem.”

  “Madeline said that you wanted to turn over the other members, to wash your hands of this.” He motioned. “Where are the other three that belong to me?”

  Simon let out a whistle and wolves flooded out of the forest. All of them in wolf form. I shrunk back from the window because I didn’t want to see how this was going to turn out. I had no desire to see them eat Zachary. But Zachary laughed, and I looked back out the window.

  “You’ve got this all wrong. Kill me, but it won’t stop all of this.”

  Simon held his hand up and dropped it. The wolves attacked, except I noticed there wasn’t a particular one there. Madeline. A crashing sound came from the back of the house, and I turned in time to see Madeline in wolf form come tearing through the hallway.

  Oh fuck. In mid-jump, she changed from wolf to wolf-woman, her massive muzzled jaw poised for my neck. I shot twice, and she fell to the ground. Relief swept through me until she stood back up on the haunches of her curved legs. Blood dripped from where the bullets had pierced her, but the wounds weren’t fazing her.

  She launched herself towards me again, and I rolled to the side. She flew out the window, glass shattering around. I jumped up and ran through the door to see her heading towards Simon. Two shots and it hadn’t taken her down, and Simon was busy helping the pack attack Zachary. Zachary was in his half form, throwing the werewolves away from him. What the hell? Were they stronger in this form? One would think that Travis would have mentioned that.

  My next bullet took Madeline in the head. My safety round was stuck somewhere in her skull, but at least she fell to the ground. Simon spun around and nodded to me, his wolf head bobbing just enough for me to know that he was thanking me. A massive paw swung around and caught him on the side of the head. Travis jumped in and took Zachary to the ground, pinning him there. A howl went through the air, and I swore it was a mourning howl, the tone I heard the night Greg had been killed. My heart jumped a beat as my mind went to Simon.

  Zachary threw Travis away and locked eyes with me. I widened my stance and dared him to come after me. Several wolves jumped on him, and he flung them across the circle like they were nothing. He moved quicker than most of the werewolves in the circle. When I saw the white in his eyes, I fired.

  Blood and fluids exploded as my bullet split his head. My eyes widened and my body shook. Ringing overtook my ears. I had just killed him at point blank, and I was covered in werewolf blood and guts. I would not cry. I would not scream. My hands shook as I lowered my gun. Two werewolves, one night. Travis shifted back to his human form and came to me. “Abigail?”

  Holy shit. I’d killed two people in the course of ten minutes. Their body count be damned. I had been prepared for the pack to kill Zachary, not for me.

  I holstered my gun and wiped blood off my face. “Simon?” I tried to push off my shock and focus on something else.

  “He’s okay. He’s going to hurt for a bit. Some of the members are already taking him to the basement for medical help. We’re moving our wounded. He was stronger than we anticipated. And we hadn’t expected Madeline to be in on it.”

  No shit. “She came after me in the house.” I blinked and tried not to panic at the sticky feeling of blood on my eyelids. “I need a shower. Like now.”

  “Head inside. I’ll have one of our women find clothes for you.”

  I hadn’t been thrown around; I had managed to avoid injury. But I was covered in blood. A shower needed to happen. I gave a numb nod and turned around to walk back into the house. My boots crunched over the broken glass as I made my way through the door. I glanced back at the bodies.

  “We’ll take care of it all.”

  I knew they would, but it didn’t mean
that I wasn’t worried.

  I showered and one of the women brought me clothes, luckily close to my size, sadly it was a bright pink shirt. I made my way downstairs to the makeshift hospital. The doctor wasn’t anywhere to be seen, so I assumed she was in a room working on one of the wolves. I peeked into one of the rooms and saw Simon laying on the bed. I snuck in and closed the door behind me. I pulled up a chair to the bed. Sitting down, I sighed.

  “Haven’t we done this before?”

  He opened one eye and smirked. “Except it was you laying in the bed. And we broke up.”

  “We’re not even together, and here you are with your entire arm and shoulder bandaged. I didn’t have nearly that amount of damage.” I scoffed.

  “No, but if I’d been human, this would have killed me.” He slowly sat up. His face pitched in pain.

  “Well, they’re both dead now.” I leaned back in the chair. “I’ll leave you to clean up the mess.”

  He raised a brow. “You’re not moving from that chair.”

  “I’m waiting until I’m sure your pack has disposed of both bodies. I don’t want to see the carnage.” I closed my eyes. “I had to shoot Zachary at point blank.”

  Simon reached out with his good hand and put it on my knee. He didn’t say anything. He just kept his hand there. I finally sighed and stood. “I don’t know what I’m doing down here. You need to rest.”

  “You just told me what you were doing down here. You’re avoiding reality. It’s okay; you don’t have to rush off.”

  I squeezed his hand. “No, I should head back to the city and let Merick know I’m alive. Prepare for tomorrow night.”

  “I’ll see you soon.”

  It was an odd way to end the conversation, but it was better than the last time we had parted here. “Yeah, when things settle down.” We both gave a half-hearted laugh as I walked out the door.

  When I walked outside the cabin, there were no signs of the bodies or the pack. My circle sat undisturbed around the land, telling me that all was well once more. I walked along the path to the parking lot, enjoying the breeze that moved through the trees. The leaves rustled and the gravel crunched as I walked, calming me with each step. I took a deep breath as the world of the wolves felt further and further away.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  I walked into my house, and Merick ran out of the kitchen. He looked relieved to see me. “A long night?”

  “Two dead wolves, a crime scene that burnt down, and I have a lot of paperwork to do in the morning.”

  “I spoke to your uncle.”

  That wasn’t exactly what I expected him to say in response. “Can you tell him to back off the spies?”

  “Don’t worry, he and I have come to an agreement on that. He filled me in on what you two are doing tomorrow night.” He walked out of the entryway, leading us into the living room. I sat on the couch and leaned my head against the back. “You need to make sure you keep your magic under control, your uncle’s magic is not like yours. It does not lean towards protection.”

  “It leans towards black magic.”

  “Well, at the very least, more of a gray area, yes. But he may not be as willing as I was to let you take over a circle completely.”

  I rolled my head to the side to look at him. “To be fair, we were doing magic on a full moon, and it was just after Nick was killed.”

  “I can’t promise what you’ll see, so I can’t promise that your emotions will stay in check.” Merick shook his head. “I know you’ve been practicing here and there with little things, but this is big. Just like the house.”

  He wasn’t saying anything that I hadn’t thought about earlier. “I’ll be careful. I don’t think Oliver will let me lose control. He’ll likely end the spell if he thinks that will happen.”

  “Hopefully.” Merick walked out of the room, and I didn’t bother calling him back for further discussion. I was exhausted despite my long nap. Idle chatting wasn’t something I wanted to do and being told repeatedly that I needed to be careful wasn’t helpful either. I stood up and swore I heard the basement door close. I had the key though, and Merick never had a chance to make a copy of it because it was on me at all times. I went to my room, and on my bed was a picture of my parents. Happy and smiling, framed with a sticky note on the glass.

  ‘Found this in your dad’s office, thought you might want it. -Merick’

  Made me wonder what he was looking for in there. I hadn’t started poking around more. Levi had moved all the important books and research to his mansion after my parents died and left the rest. Simon and I had found hidden research on the runes of the Cult. I wasn’t sure what Merick would be looking for other than that.

  I put the picture on my nightstand and unholstered my gun, placing it on the nightstand as well. Tomorrow, I’d go to PIB and fill out the paperwork on the wolf case and how we lost our key evidence and our prime suspect due to a fire at the crime scene. Mason could sign off on the crime scene being destroyed, and after no other wolves popped up dead, the case would move to a cold case. Since Zachary was truly dead now, there was no way the case was going to come back. I laid down on the bed and sighed. If I closed my eyes, I was going to see Zachary’s face exploding over and over. Sleep wasn’t going to be solid tonight, but that was the curse of the job. Nightmares.

  I woke the next morning to knocking on the door. No, not knocking. Pounding. What the hell? I went downstairs, thankful to still be in my clothes from the night before. I opened the door without checking who was there first. Mason stood there, his hand poised to bang on the door again.

  “It’s seven a.m., what the hell?” I snapped.

  “The fingerprints came back on your car.”

  “And that warrants you coming and banging on my door?” I snapped. “I assumed it was Zachary that had done it.”

  “Nick’s prints were on your car.”

  I paused. “Nick never liked to ride with me because my cars always get destroyed. His prints shouldn’t have been on my car. Especially my new one. I got that one after he died.” Some small spark of hope formed in my chest. “Are we sure that the prints match?”

  “It was a complete match.”

  My mind spun. Had he been trying to send me some kind of message? First the key-pass and now his prints on the car. What would those have to do with each other? “Did you file that in the report?”

  “That we found a dead man’s fingerprints on your car, which is physically impossible since he was cremated?”

  So Mason wasn’t in on the disappearing body. “Yeah, that sounds crazy, glad you left it out. Thanks for telling me. You still could have just given me a phone call.”

  “I wanted to see the look on your face when I told you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I think there is something going on and I thought maybe you knew. Any time that case comes up in conversation, Jason basically shuts down. That means he’s hiding something. I know my nephew well enough to know how he reacts.”

  I opened the door further. “Come in. I don’t want to talk about this standing in the doorway.”

  “Don’t you have to swear me to silence?”

  I snorted. “That’s coming. Maybe a blood oath or two.”

  “Two? I think that might be pushing it.”

  I walked into the kitchen to find coffee already started. Merick must have heard us talking. I got out two coffee cups. “You still take your coffee black?” Mason nodded, and I poured him a mug. I added plenty of creamer and sugar to mine before sitting down with him. “You can’t tell anyone, Jason was told to lie about what happened, and I haven’t told anyone. Nick’s body disappeared from the morgue the night Jason called me down to say goodbye. When I left the morgue, I swore I saw Nick walking down the road.”

  Mason sat there and considered me for a moment. “And neither of you thought to tell me?”

  “Jason is worried about his job, and honestly, I thought I was going crazy.” I sipped my coffee. “There’s no more th
an that to tell.”

  “And now Nick’s fingerprints are showing up on your stolen and crunched car.”

  I nodded. “Do you think insurance covers that?”

  “I think you may want to get a bicycle next time. Seriously though, Abby, what is going on here?”

  “I wish I knew.” I watched the light brown liquid in my cup, studying the still surface of it and the way the light reflected off it. “This gives me hope that I wasn’t crazy though.”

  “Why would Nick fake his own death? Does PIB know?”

  “If they do, then they are part of the coverup. They have him labeled as deceased in all the systems.” I cupped my coffee in my hands. “I really thought I was losing my mind.”

  “If you want help figuring this out, let me know. You know I’d help you with anything.”

  He would, as long as it didn’t put his career in jeopardy. “Thank you. I’ll let you know if I need help. Right now, I don’t have much to go off of.”

  “Just let me know. I need to go finish my paperwork on the fire.” He stood, leaving his coffee untouched.

  “Yeah, I need to do my paperwork as well. Sorry that we don’t have the evidence to bring Zachary in…even if we could find him.”

  “Occasionally there’s a case that gets away. This is one of them. I’ll see you later.”

  I smirked. “Hopefully not too soon, I’ve had my fair share of cases lately.”

  I stood and disarmed the alarm and he laughed as he let himself out of the house. I heard the door click shut by the time I got back to the kitchen. What the hell was Nick trying to tell me? Why would he destroy my car? Unless it was some sort of sick joke.

  “That wasn’t what I was expecting to happen to your car.” Merick walked into the kitchen from the living room. “Nick’s leading you to something, any ideas what it would be?”

  “No. Any chance this is Cult related? He was studying you guys.”

  He shook his head. “There hasn’t been anything about this situation that screams Cult, and there’s no order out to kill him. Nothing came up when I asked around.”