by Tegan Maher
The first few pictures made me gasp. They were of me. Leaning over the body, talking to Zach. There were a couple of me and Zach eating pizza at my house, and one of us walking up the trail after he'd almost caught me, then the last one of us was the one in the gazebo.
Then others were of Zach alone, taking aim at me, in my wolf form. That picture was clear as a bell, and I was thankful yet again that I looked more similar to a standard wolf rather than my brothers, who were all humongous.
Then there were pictures of Tabbie's body, and from the way the light was still a little gray, I'd have bet my bottom dollar that they were taken immediately after she was killed. I did my best to shield them from Billy, but I looked over and his jaw and fists were clenched, and tears were streaming down his face. "She didn't deserve that," he growled. "Nobody deserves that."
A few more pictures were of Roy and Maryellen James, smiling. A few more in, Roy didn't look so happy anymore. Though Maryellen's face still smiled openly from the pictures, Roy's smile looked forced.
The next several were of The date on the happy pictures was right after the first murder, then the later ones were after Gabbie was killed, right before the ones of me and Zach.
"They don't make any sense," Alex said. "Pictures of you and Zach, and Maryellen and Roy, all on the same phone?"
It was starting to make sense to me, though. I was fairly sure I knew who the phone belonged to. The only thing I couldn't figure out was the why. My suspicions were confirmed when I scrolled down a few more picture and came to a single, long distance one of Maryellen and the man calling himself Aaron Shepard. They were candids and fuzzy, as if they'd been taken in a hurry. In one, they were throwing horseshoes, and the man's face was in profile. The other was a straight-on shot, though it was still fuzzy. Still though, why?
"Lemme see that," Billy said, snatching the phone from me. He zoomed in on the picture and the blood drained from his face.
"I know who that is. His name is Erik, and he's my uncle. My dad's brother."
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
EVERYTHING FELL INTO place. My mother's warnings that pack politics were tenuous, the lies that Billy—the heir to the only remaining isolationist pack—had been told about us. The pictures of me, the regional leader, with a Tracker.
It had takeover written all over it.
They, or at least he, was trying to set me up as incompetent, or a traitor. No matter what pack you were from, or how high or low on the totem pole, consorting with a Tracker would be treason. These pictures would have discredited me and made the area ripe for takeover, especially given that many local families weren't gung-ho to have such a young leader.
I fell backward into my chair, barely feeling the pain of my injury.
They'd set out to discredit me, and disgrace me. Not only was I unable to protect the citizens of the region, I was in cahoots with a Tracker.
Maryellen's words drifted back to me. Maybe you didn't have as much control over the region as you claimed to. It stuck in his craw, and mine too. They'd already been set to believe the worst about me.
Something else occurred to me and I felt as if somebody'd dumped a bucket of ice water over me.
"Zach," I said. "He's with Zach. And we just pulled their permits. Zach is of no more use to him. He already has the pics."
"Call him," Alex said. "Tell him to meet you to—whatever. Talk about the cases, get naked. Whatever it takes to get him here so we can end this."
"Before we do anything, I need to call Mom." Words I never thought say. "If this goes south, she needs to know what's going on."
Billy pulled out his phone. "I better call mine, too. My dad's too sick to do much. I'm surprised he's lasted this long, to be honest. Mom's stepped up. As beta, she needs to know what's going on." His face paled. "Oh, God. What if she already knows?"
Alex put his hand on his shoulder. "Then better you find out now. You're the heir. When your dad passes, it's going to be your job to make the tough decisions. And building a relationship with our pack—or not—will be up to you."
I dialed Zach's number, and waited. It rang several times, then went straight to voicemail. He was either ignoring me, or unable to answer. Chances were about fifty-fifty either direction.
He'd said he was staying at his old homestead, so I grabbed Alex by the arm. "Let's go. I know where he's staying, and I hope he's there alone."
Maryellen's face popped into my head. She was a loose end. I started to call Sam, but there was no way I was putting him in the path of a vengeful werewolf. Instead, I grabbed the keys to one of the county cruisers.
"What are you doing?" Alex asked.
"You two've gotta go pick up Maryellen," I said. I'd gotten her contact info before I left, and I scribbled Zach's address on it, too. I shoved the paper into his hand. "My guess is she's his next target. If he hasn't gotten her already, there's a good chance you'll run into him there. Here's her number and address, and the one where I'll be is on the bottom. I'll get Zach, then meet you back here."
Billy had stepped out of my office to make his call, and I was counting on his integrity. At that point, I had to trust him, and I was betting that he wanted revenge even worse than I did because of Tabbie.
"She didn't know anything about it," he said. "She's put out a watch and will report back if he shows up there. But we know he won't. He's gonna see this through to the end."
"And what happens if he dies? He's your father's brother."
Billy shook his head. "Not anymore, he's not. Dad said to use lethal force if necessary. If not, and he's turned back over to our pack, he'll get a death sentence, anyway." He looked at his feet. "I think it would be merciful if we did it here. My dad's sick. I don't want his last order to have to be the death of his brother."
I nodded once. "Go!" Pushing out of my office, I tried Zach's phone again on the way to the car. No answer. His old place was on the outskirts of town, so I had almost as long a drive as Alex and Billy did.
CHAPTER THIRTY
I GOT INTO THE CAR, grateful that my injuries were feeling better already. Thank you, werewolf healing!
I drove the few miles to where Zach's old homestead was, almost missing the driveway because it had been years since I'd been there, and it was overgrown with weeds. I was surprised he'd kept it. It was a beautiful place, a little two-story farmhouse nestled among oaks.
An old tire swing still hung in the yard, though the rope was black with rot. I could see Zach had been doing some work to the place. The grass was cut, and fresh lumber shone bright where he'd replaced a couple of the steps. There was cardboard over a couple of the windows, but fresh panes leaned against the outside of the house beneath them.
His mom had always kept a garden off to the side of the house, but it was overrun with weeds. Still, some of the wildflowers she kept were still growing, taking away some of the abandoned look.
There was only one car there—the one Zach had been driving—but that didn't mean anything. The one time I'd seen them together, they'd been in the same car. That didn't mean Erik didn't have his own vehicle, but if he did, it wasn't there. I tossed a little prayer to whatever beings were listening that Alex and Billy got to Maryellen before he did.
I stopped my car and shut off the engine. Stepping out of the vehicle, I took the time to look all around, watching for movement in the shadows. I opened my witch senses up, too. They weren't strong, but I could often sense the presence of other people. Someone was there, but I didn't know whether it was Zach, Eric, or both, then I heard a noise behind me.
Heart pounding, I spun around, but it was just the rope on the tire swing, creaking as it swayed in the breeze.
Taking a deep breath, I made my way to the house, keeping an ear out for any sound as I climbed the five steps that lead up to the wraparound. I tiptoed to the closest window and peered in. There was a new couch sitting in front of a flat-screen, and a couple of milk crates overturned with soda cans sitting on them. The place was spartan, but clean. I w
ondered if he was planning on staying, or if he was fixing it up to sell.
I knocked, hoping it was Zach who answered, and that he was alone. I flicked the trigger strap open on my holster as footsteps sounded. Zach was coming down the stairs, smiling until he saw it was me.
Pulling the door open, he said, "What do you want, Cori?"
Huffing out a breath, I said, "Look, Zach. I don't wanna be on bad terms with you. I had my reasons for doin' things the way I did. I couldn't have you traipsin' out in the woods after dark when something was killing people. Let's lay our cards on the table, shall we?"
I studied me through slitted eyes for a minute, then stepped back from the door. "C'mon in."
Stepping inside, I looked through to the kitchen. He was doing more work in there and I asked the question I'd been wondering about outside. "Are you moving back, or getting it ready to sell?"
Sighing, he said, "Not that it matters now, since you seem to be with Alex and think I'm a crackpot, but I had planned to move back. I wanted to see if we could work things out."
"Oh," I said, feeling awkward. Truthfully, when I'd seen him, and when we'd eaten pizza in my kitchen that night, I'd wondered the same thing, but that had kinda flown out the window, what with the whole Tracker thing. It was tough enough to maintain a relationship under average circumstances, but when your man would rather shoot your relatives than go to a family reunion with them, well, I didn't see that working out at all.
I smiled at the thought, though it really wasn't funny.
"Alex and I aren't actually seeing each other, though I do have to admit I'm a little concerned about the werewolf thing."
When his body went rigid, I said, "Though not for the reasons you may think." I don't know why I added that, and hoped he didn't ask me to explain. Luck was with me, because he didn't.
"So what got you into that job to begin with?" I asked, feeling the urgency to leave, but not sure how to get him to go.
He snorted. "What do you care? You think I'm crazy, anyway."
I lifted a shoulder. "Maybe I want to understand." That was the truth. How does a person just become a Tracker?
I knew it was often handed down from father to son—or daughter, I supposed—but I wondered what kept the tradition fed. From all accounts, they weren't that successful. Most of us had integrated into society and were just as law-abiding as the next person. More so in most cases.
We didn't want the hassle of dealing with either pack police or Trackers. Neither tended to be particularly kind to rule breakers. There was a reason crime rates were so low with shifters. Our laws were harsher than human ones.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said.
"Why don't you try me? Let's go to Mocha and grab a cup of coffee. I'd like to know the story."
He looked at me like I was crazy. "Mocha's is all the way in town. I have coffee here, if you want a cup."
"I have a better idea," Erik said from the top of the stairs. "Why don't you show her your trophy book?"
"Trophy book?" I asked, raising my brows.
Erik grinned. "It's lovely. Kinda slim, because there's only only one picture in it, and it was his father's, but still. It's enough to make him believe."
Zach pressed his mouth into a firm line. "Now you're going to tell me you don't really believe, either? Even though you're in the same business I am?"
"Oh, no," I said, deciding to go for broke. If necessary, I could always get Kat to work some of her charm on his memory later. "He definitely believes. Because he sees proof of it every morning when he looks in the mirror, don't you Erik."
Erik laughed. "So I do," he said, "But I'm not the only one, am I, Cori?"
Zach was looking back and forth between the two of us, trying to figure out what was going on. "Why did you call him Erik?"
I didn't take my eyes off the guy who tried to frame me, and was likely going to try to kill me. "Because that's his name. Erik Arrington. He tried to discredit me. He killed those people, and the last one was one of his best friends."
"That's where you're wrong," Erik said. "Roy was my cousin. He'd moved to Kentucky when he married that girl, and got himself ex-communicated. It's why he moved into your territory and not ours. He reached out a few months ago, complaining about how incompetent you are."
"What?" Zach was trying to connect the pieces, but his brain just wouldn't pull the pieces together. My guess was that some part of his brain hadn't really believed in werewolves. More likely, that little piece thought he was hunting plain old wolves.
Erik's gaze snapped to him. "Wake up, idiot. I'm not your partner. Good ole Shep died so I could take his place. I knew you had ties to Castle's Bluff and that it wouldn't take much to get you to come back here."
"Go on," I said, egging him on. "Tell him how you killed those girls, just because you wanted to start a war."
"I didn't want to start a war, you naive twit. I wanted to avoid a war. If your pack took you out of here, a takeover wouldn't have been that hard."
I snorted. "You underestimate the Sloanes, then. They would have just replaced me with somebody else."
"Then I would have gone public with the pictures and made this scorched earth. If nothing else, it would have put distance between your territory and ours, and would have gotten you off our backs."
He drew a gun from his waistband.
"Really, Erik? A gun?" I raised my brow, then stood from the table and walked into the living room, drawing his attention away from Zach. "I have my own gun, if that's how you want to play it."
He put his hand in his pocket. "You caught me. It isn't how I want to play it at all. Because this will never work if he dies from a gunshot wound. He dropped the gun and my witchy senses warned me a split second before he lunged. I leapt toward him, changing in midair, and was shocked when something pierced my skin.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I YELPED AS MY BODY began to go numb in sections, and I crashed to the stairs, rolling down them as I struggled to remain conscious. I landed facing Zach, and the look of horror on his face was heartbreaking. I didn't love him anymore, but I didn't want him to die, either.
Erik skipped the last few steps toward me, shaking his head. "I really thought you would be a lot harder to land then this. I'm disappointed, Cori; you walked right into it."
I growled as my heart beat wildly. I could feel my body, but I couldn't move. I saw an empty needle lying on the floor a few feet from my face.
"Lucky for you that I don't want you dead just yet."
I growled and tried to shift back. The paralytic had me trapped as a wolf and I couldn't even summon my magic.
Zach, for his part, was terrified. I could see it on his face, and he reached for his hip. He wasn't wearing his gun—of course he wasn't. He was at home.
"But why?" he asked.
"Why, what?" Erik asked. "Why kill the girls?"
Zach shook his head. "No. Why stay here, now that they know who you are?"
"Who's they? She's way too independent to have told anybody, and even if she did, they'd have to out themselves if they wanted to defend her. They won't start a war either, because they're already on shaky ground with the northern packs."
He kicked me in the ribs. "So, what's going to happen is that I'm going to kill you, as a wolf of course, then she's going to disappear. Four wolf killings in this span? The place will be crawling with Trackers."
I tried to move my left rear leg—the one underneath me that he couldn't see— and found that, though it was a little tingly, I had almost full use of it.That was good. My metabolism was burning off the drug. I growled. Just a few more seconds and I could probably put an end to all of this.
The front door creaked open, and the last person on the planet I expected to find was Sean Castle. He cocked a brow and looked at me.
"Really, Cori? I'm gonna have to work with you on some impulse control. You werewolves are horrible with that."
I rolled my shoulders when Erik looked away from me t
oward Sean. I finally had full use of my limbs, and I concentrated on shifting. Within a matter of a few seconds, I was in human form again. Erik's back was still to me and I grinned at Sean, whose mouth twitched a little in return, though he kept Erik's attention on him.
"You know what your mistake was, Erik? Well, your biggest one?"
"What's that?" Erik said. "Please, I love critique from a mere human."
Oh, snap. He'd just mistaken one of the most powerful vampires in the world for a human. Sean's pupils went wide, and I knew he'd just whammied Erik with persuasion. I had a minute to gain control of myself, because it was sure thing that Erik wasn't going anywhere until Sean released his hold.
"Well, I was going to say you failed to think things through and take her other strengths into consideration, but I've changed my mind. You're just dumb as a rock all the way around. And I trust Cori will choose an apt punishment."
I focused my magic, trying to think of what I should do with him, then smiled when it occurred to me. I shot a blast toward him that froze him in place, just like he'd frozen me, except mine wasn't temporary.
I turned him to stone.
Sean laughed, delighted. "Well done, my girl. And all without bloodshed. Your father would be proud. Your mother, maybe not so much, because she has a bit of a wicked streak, but I approve!"
For his part, Zach sat immobilized. He had no idea what to do. I was standing there buck naked after changing from a human to a werewolf and back again, some strange guy had waltzed into his place as if the whole thing entertained him—which, to be fair, it did—then I'd turned his sort-of partner into statuary that would do wonders for keeping the birds out if his mom's old garden.
Sean walked toward him, a kind smile on his face. "I know this is difficult for you."