Holden's Mate

by Meg Ripley

  Oh well, I wasn’t going to try to butter him up. I didn’t mix business with pleasure, anyway.

  “And you are?” Knox asked, raising an eyebrow. He obviously wasn’t going to start talking about anything until I introduced myself. Knox was wary, but he had friendly eyes and I could tell he was going to be as cooperative as I needed him to be. I got the same vibe from Sophia, but I knew Trent was going to be a piece of work.

  “Blanca Gianni, FBI. I’m the agent assigned to this case.” I showed my badge to all three of them, and they each examined it and nodded, accepting its legitimacy. Trent seemed to inspect it more closely than the other two, his brow furrowing, which I tried especially hard not to roll my eyes at.

  Of course, he would do that.

  I’m here, and there’s nothing you can do about it until this case is solved. So, lose the attitude and get with the program, I thought, getting a bit annoyed that I was going to have to deal with him for the entirety of the investigation, most likely. I, of course, didn’t say those words out loud, but made a mental note to remember them in case he needed his ego checked sometime in the next few days.

  “This is Alex and Gerard; they are here to assist with my investigation.” I motioned to the guys behind me who also showed their badges. “Now, please fill me in. Where was the body found? Who found her? Who examined her? I need as many details as possible.”

  “Why don’t we fill you in once we take you to see the body? Seeing it might answer some questions on its own. It’s less than a ten-minute walk and you can draw your own conclusions. We tried to leave the body where it was in case it would help you get some clues for the investigation. If you will just follow us,” Knox started walking off, with Sophia and Trent right behind him.

  “Stay close.” I whispered to Alex and Gerard. I didn’t like the fact that they didn’t answer my questions initially. They seemed legit, but I didn’t quite trust them just yet. I needed to see the body first; until then, I wasn’t going to take any chances.

  With Alex and Gerard following closely, we trailed after the three rangers to Danielle’s body.

  3

  Trent

  You’ve got to be kidding me…

  The feds could have sent anyone in their entire agency, and they chose her?

  I watched as she examined the body silently, moving around it slowly, taking in every detail as she jotted notes down on a small pad. She was about five feet tall, a foot shorter than me. She looked younger than me, mid-twenties, but her height made her seem even more adolescent in my eyes. She had jet black hair tied tightly in a bun, but there were a few wavy strands loose from the wind. On top of being short, she was pear shaped, thinner on top, with wide hips and thick thighs.

  Those hips look perfectly built for bearing children…I rolled my eyes at my inner bear’s primal thoughts and pushed back the surge of heat that began to spread through my body. There was no way I was looking at her like that. She was here to tell me what to do; to take over my job. I just wanted her out of here. Hopefully, she summed this up to a bear attack and not an actual murder; then, we could conduct our own investigation to find the shifter who was responsible.

  Once she was done examining the body, she walked back up to Knox, Sophia, and I, who were standing together off to the side, trying our best to stay out of her way.

  “Now that I’ve seen the body, are you going to answer my questions?” she asked bluntly, her pen at the ready.

  She doesn’t waste any time, does she? I clenched my jaw and looked at Knox to see how he would respond.

  “Well, I’m sure seeing the body has answered where it was found. It was discovered by Trent here, who contacted Sophia immediately to confirm the victim’s death. If she’d been alive, Sophia would have provided medical attention immediately. She’s our medic as well as our search and rescue specialist,” Knox said, nodding to Sophia who returned his gesture.

  But Blanca wasn’t looking at them.

  Her eyes were on me.

  “So, it was you who found the body, huh?”

  “Yes.” My response was clipped. I was ordered to be cooperative, but that didn’t mean I had to be friendly. I felt Knox studying me.

  Blanca continued her line of questioning, “Were there signs of anyone around when you came upon the body?”

  “No.” I tried to remove any trace of irritation from my voice as to not anger Knox, but the lady was pushing it. Obviously, I did my job and scoped out the perimeter.

  “No footprints?” She looked at me suspiciously with her crystalline blue eyes.

  Oh shit… My eyes widened slightly. I hadn’t even thought to check for footprints. I had been so quick to call Sophia to see if there was any chance of saving the body, and when I had looked around initially, I didn’t see anything. I would have noticed if there had been footprints.

  “I don’t remember seeing any footprints when I scoped the area,” I admitted. It was the truth; I hadn’t noticed any. I spotted Knox’s brow furrow in my peripheral vision.

  Did you check for footprints, Trent? I heard Knox’s voice echo in my head. I sighed, not wanting to lie to him, but also not wanting to have to deal with his reaction.

  Not exactly. I didn’t see anything when I looked around, but I also didn’t actively search for them. I was so focused on getting Sophia here to examine the body… I winced at the angry look Knox was giving me.

  As soon as her initial inspection is over, you are to scout the area and look for footprints that might lead us to the shifter, understood? There was that Alpha authority again, pushing down on me and making me nod quickly. Knox usually didn’t have to impose his leadership ability often, but having the FBI there must have had him on edge.

  You’re not the only one stressed… I thought, then shifted my gaze to Blanca, who was looking back and forth between me and Knox. Shit, this chick is observant.

  “I’m sorry, did I miss something?” she asked. I could hear the interest in her voice as she studied us.

  “Nope,” I shrugged, trying to hide the slight panic I felt. There was no way she could know about our intra-clan telepathy, but it made me uneasy that she could possibly guess anything close to it. The way her eyes looked at—no, through—me was more than a little bit uncanny.

  It looked like she either accepted that nothing just happened, or she decided to let it go because she began to jot down some notes before moving on to Sophia.

  “Upon initial inspection of the body, what did you discover?”

  Now listen closely, you two. We’re playing this off as a bear attack. We want her out of here as quickly as possible and that’s the only way of doing it. I heard Knox’s order ring out quickly and sternly.

  “When I approached her, I noticed her bones were broken in several different places.” Sophia walked up to the corpse with Blanca following her; Knox and I were close behind. “Her neck, arms and legs appear to be broken based on their angles. I checked for a pulse at both the neck and wrist, but found none. I attempted CPR and noticed that the lacerations on her chest and abdomen had gone deep enough to puncture her lungs. They were filled with blood and I pronounced her dead at 9:23 this morning.” Sophia seemed quite proud of herself to be spouting off to the agent. Knox gave her a nod.

  If only everyone’s reports could be as detailed… I stiffened when I heard Knox’s mental mutter.

  “And what did you make of these lacerations?” Blanca asked after jotting down a few more notes.

  “Usually when things like this happen, it’s an animal attack. We have a lot of people who bother the local fauna, thinking they are used to interacting with humans, when they are not. The lacerations look like they came from bear claws to me. I surmise that Danielle must have been with her camera crew, because I doubt she’d be out here alone with a microphone, and they probably spotted a bear and tried to approach it. Surely, the bear felt threatened and chased them through the woods, and she ended up here. I imagine this deep laceration along her chest was the final blow
. She must have bled out and died.” Sophia shrugged at the end to indicate there was nothing more to it in her opinion.

  “If there was a camera crew, where are they?” Blanca asked, scanning the area.

  “I just assumed they must have run in a different direction when the bear came after them,” Sophia stated.

  “We don’t make assumptions. Someone will have to find them if they are lost in the woods.” Blanca gave the woman a hard look before her eyes returned to the battered body of Danielle, seemingly deep in thought. “Do you have a sign at the entrance of the park indicating that animals should not be disturbed?”

  “Yes, we do. If you drove in, you would have seen it. I’d be happy to show it to you if you’d like,” Knox replied in a friendly manner, but I could tell that he didn’t like being questioned.

  “We find that not everyone reads the signs or listens to the warnings when it comes to the animals. This is a clear example of that.” I said, backing up my Alpha.

  “Hmm…possibly...” Blanca looked deep in thought as she continued to stare at the body.

  Knox, Sophia, and I exchanged concerned expressions.

  “What are you implying?” Knox asked sternly after a beat.

  Blanca didn’t address him and instead, looked up at Sophia. “Could these injuries have been caused by a human?”

  “What? What makes you think that?” Sophia looked completely perplexed by the question; perhaps overly so. Goodness knew the woman wasn’t going to get nominated for an Academy Award anytime soon.

  “Is it possible?” Blanca asked sternly. “Please answer the question.”

  Sophia looked at Knox, her lips firmly pressed together. Knox gave a curt nod.

  “I mean…yes, it’s possible. A human couldn’t deal this kind of damage with just his or her hands alone. The suspect would need a weapon of some sort.”

  “A weapon like what?” Blanca’s expression grew much more interested and I felt a rumble of foreboding travel through me.

  “I don’t know. Maybe a large fishing hook if used the right way, like a kind used for deep sea fishing? Or those ones with multiple points, treble hooks? There aren’t many things that could cause the type of damage we’re seeing, honestly.”

  “But if the person was trying to make it look like a bear attack, they would pay special attention to something like that…” Blanca’s face was still clouded over by her intense thinking. I could practically see theories as they dashed across her mind.

  What the hell? Is this chick crazy? Sophia’s voice echoed.

  Come on Knox, now she’s just making stuff up. We know this was a shifter in bear form. There’s no way a human did this! I was on the same page as Sophia, for once.

  “You’ve all gone quiet, so I guess you think I’m insane or something, but this is my job: to speculate. So, until more evidence is found and this is confirmed by me to be a bear attack, I will continue to speculate that this could possibly be a murder. I’ll be conducting a week-long investigation here, and if nothing points to a murderer in that time, I’ll leave. If something does turn up that could indicate anything else—anything at all—then that’s what I’ll pursue in my investigation.” Blanca looked at each of us, and lingered on me especially, narrowing her eyes.

  Why does she keep looking at me like that? I squinted my eyes in return.

  “I expect everyone’s full cooperation during my investigation. If any other information about the case turns up, you are to report directly to me, including you, Mr. Bernard.”

  I took a broad step forward, bristling. “Who the hell do you think you—”

  “Stand down, Trent!” Knox glared at me, holding an arm out in front of me to prevent my advance. My blood was boiling. I wasn’t about to let this lady step onto our territory and take over. I only answered to Knox, period.

  “You will have our full cooperation, I assure you.” Knox addressed Blanca directly, who was glaring at me intensely. Our gazes pierced through each other’s and my anger rose. I felt my body start to shake, threatening to explode with energy at any moment.

  Knox grabbed my arm tight enough that would hurt a normal human, but was just enough to snap me out of my thoughts. I said to stand down.

  I took a deep breath and swallowed, hoping my anger would dissipate.

  “I have rounds to do,” I growled before I turned to leave.

  “If someone is found responsible, I’ll need you to show me the holding quarters for criminals,” I heard Blanca’s voice call out as I started to walk away, but I didn’t turn around to acknowledge her.

  “I can help you with that,” Knox replied; I heard the smile in his voice and it made the fire in me burn that much hotter.

  Who was he kidding? I knew he wasn’t happy, but whatever; he could put on a show for the feds if he wanted to. That wasn’t in my job description and way above my pay grade. He asked me to be cooperative and I was. I told her everything I knew about finding the body.

  Except the footprints…

  I hope you’re going out to catch this guy, whoever he is, so we can keep him out of sight until she is gone. Knox didn’t seem angry at me for walking away, just adamant about what I should be spending my time doing.

  I’m on it.

  I really hoped this guy was stupid and just carelessly left a trail of his footprints out in the open for me to follow straight to him. But once I found him, maybe I would get really lucky and he would put up a fight.

  Because hell, I was certainly in the mood for one.

  4

  Trent

  After about half an hour, I picked up on a trail of footprints. They were oddly arranged, however, with uneven weight distribution and sporadic gait length. It looked like the person had tried to retrace their steps backwards a few times, but had wobbled and lost their place more than once. Then, the prints grew deep, like the shifter had been running as quickly as he or she could.

  I considered changing into my bear form to find the assailant more quickly, but decided against it; I wasn’t sure if Blanca had Alex and Gerard doing their own patrolling and I didn’t need them thinking I was the culprit.

  I continued to follow the footprints as best I could through the woodlands and then, I saw it.

  A huge puddle of blood.

  I looked around quickly, trying to find the source, and I spotted drops of crimson liquid heading west. I started walking slowly, following the trail, and moments later, my boot collided with something. I had been so deep in thought that I nearly gave myself a heart attack. Looking down, I saw what I had stubbed my foot on and heaved the mightiest sigh I had ever uttered.

  Two men were sprawled out in front of me, still and lifeless. One was a skinny guy with shoulder-length blonde hair; the other was a chubby ginger. Cuts and bites were apparent all over their bodies, staining the ground with a sticky pool of their blood. They didn’t seem to have as many broken bones as Danielle did, but they obviously hadn’t needed a grand, dramatic fall to end their lives.

  Dammit, the shifter had struck again.

  I examined the corpses to see if I could figure out who they were. I noticed a tripod and camera lying in the dirt a few feet from the bodies, as well as a boom mic, so I assumed they were Danielle’s camera crew.

  In that moment, I realized why I was having so much trouble following the footprints: I was following two pairs of human feet coupled with the shifter’s, and they were all scrambled together from the chase that had taken place.

  “Who the fuck is doing this shit?” I growled out loud. It had become personal. Whoever the shifter was, he was making more trouble for me.

  Knox, we’ve got two more by Eagle Lake. Looks like Sophia was right: the camera guys ran, and the shifter went after them, too. They’re both dead.

  You’ve got to me kidding me! Knox seemed as fed up with the situation as I was. I’m with the agent now, so I need you to call me to deliver the news. Pretend like you didn’t tell me because I have a feeling she’ll be listening very close
ly. I can take her to the bodies and hopefully that will stall her long enough for you to be able to find this asshole! We need to catch him before this gets even more out of hand.

  I whipped out my cellphone and pressed 1.

  “Bernard,” Knox answered apathetically.

  “Hey Knox, it’s Trent. I think I found the bodies of Danielle’s camera crew. You might want to come take a look with the agent.”

  “What? More bodies? This is getting ridiculous. Where did you find them?”

  “Out here on Eagle Lake. Should I wait here for you two to arrive?” I really didn’t want to have another encounter with Blanca if I didn’t have to, so I was really hoping he was going to say no to that last part.

  “No, you don’t have to stay there. Call Sophia and have her come examine the bodies so Agent Gianni here can have some more information by the time she gets there.”

  Phew.

  “Will do sir.”

  I hung up the phone and started walking again, reaching out to Sophia.

  Hey Soph, I left a present for you on the western part of Eagle Lake. Follow the blood trail and you can’t miss it.

  More bodies? I could sense her excitement. She really enjoyed her job, as gruesome as it could be. We didn’t see dead bodies often, so three in one day must have been like a party for her—a macabre, headache of a party that threatened our entire clan.

  Your favorite, I snorted.

  I’ll be right there!

  Just try to get here before the agent does. You know she’s going to want information. She didn’t answer me, but I figured she was on her way to the location.

  During the conversation, I’d been looking around the bodies for either bear or human prints that could have lead me to the shifter, but it proved extremely difficult to see beyond the blood to sort out anything that could have been mixed in with the footprints of the camera guys. I knew the shifter’s tracks were there, though, so I kept going.