by Stacey Mewse
The news was not welcome. There had been another murder, not ten miles from the scene of the first and equally as brutal. Eve’s eyes widened as she listened, taking in each horrible detail. It was Varulv, there was no question of that.
Hurriedly turning off the engine she leapt out of the car and rushed through the gate into Hunter’s garden. Fumbling in her pocket and suddenly realising she had no key she used her shoulder to barge open the door and dashed into the building. Taking little notice of her surroundings she rushed into his bedroom and gathered up an armful of clothes, not bothering to follow his instructions of what he needed. Knowing she had to hurry, that he would need this news, she crossed the hall into the bathroom and grabbed a toothbrush, a can of deodorant and a bottle of bubble bath.
That would have to do, she jogged out of the building with her arms overflowing with things that suddenly seemed utterly superfluous, and threw them onto the passenger seat of her car. Jumping into the drivers seat she threw the car into reverse and sped back up the track. It took her barely ten minutes to get back to the cottage she had left him at, though she didn’t once look at the speed of the vehicle she knew she was pushing 80 miles an hour. Luckily the country back roads were always quiet.
Pulling up at the end of the road where the little cottage was hidden away she grabbed up his things and dashed along the grassy verge. Swinging open the front door she threw his clothes onto the floor by the door and slammed it shut behind her, running full pelt back to the car and tearing off down the roads back towards the pack house.
*****
Hunter heard the approach of the female beta through the window of the bathroom, and knew from that way she moved that she was in a hurry. Sitting upright in his bath he looked toward the door and listened for her entry, wondering what had happened and concerned that it was something to do with his bail.
He did not get a chance to ask her as he heard her drop something, and then slam the door behind her before he could so much as call her name to get her attention.
Scowling he pushed himself up out of the water and stepped out of the tub, grabbing up one of the towels he had picked earlier that day and wrapping it tightly around his waist. Water dripped down his body but he did nothing to dry it. He was more concerned with catching up with her, and so he dashed down the corridor to the top of the stairway. Peering down her saw his clothes and a couple of toiletries littered on the floor by the door and his frown deepened. He jogged down the stairs, swiping his wet hair back out of his face with one hand as he went. He swung open the front door and peered out, but he was too late and there was no sign of her but for the footprints she had left in the sodden grass on the verge along the edge of the road.
Sighing with exasperation he turned and began picking up his things. Realising too late that he had been standing over his jeans and they were sodden with the water that was dripping from him. Snatching them up he threw all the items on the sofa in the lounge and whipped the towel off his waist. He scrubbed himself dry roughly, the harsh fabric of the long un-used item scraping uncomfortably across the scar tissue which he was so covered in. Rubbing at his wet hair he shook his head to clear any residual droplets before wrapping the towel round himself once more. Not to cover his modesty, but to get it out of the way so he could carry his clothes without getting them even more damp.
He folded each item carefully, noticing as he did so that he had only two pairs of jeans, three t-shirts and for some reason seven pairs of pants but no socks. Sighing to himself he picked up the stack of freshly folded clothes from the sofa seat and took them up to his room, placing them all into one drawer.
Returning to the bathroom he removed the towel from his hips and draped it over the radiator that squatted below the window on the far side of the room. He then took himself back to the bedroom and sat naked upon the edge of the bed. It was fairly warm and he had no desire to be clothed if there was no reason to be. Slumping back onto the bedspread he closed his eyes for a moment and tried to empty his mind of worry… Eventually deciding this was impossible and sitting back upright with a loud sigh.
Re-opening the lone drawer he had utilised he picked out a pair of jockey shorts in case Eve should return unexpectedly and pulled them on. Standing and rearranging his uncomfortably encased genitalia; he ambled back down the corridor and descended the stairs. He flicked on the kettle in the grubby little kitchen and watched it disinterestedly as it began to boil. He wished he knew what was going on. He was certain she wouldn’t have left so quickly without good reason and it irked him feeling left in the dark yet again.
*****
Eve knew that Hunter would be confused and probably agitated by her sudden departure, but it had struck her as she had sped back to the cottage that Alfred would need to know what she had heard. There was a good chance that they would not have been listening to the radio station that she had settled on back at he pack house.
She knew that she should perhaps have at least shouted out to him to let him know that she would be back, but she had been too set on getting back to the pack at the time and it was too late to undo that. She hoped he had the sense to realise something big must have happened. He seemed to have displayed a reasonable amount of intelligence thus far, so it was not an unreasonable assumption to make of him.
There was little time to worry about it then, so she focussed instead on the road and getting home as fast as possible. Surprising herself with the speed at which she completed the journey. She screeched into the car park and slammed on the breaks, leaping out of the car and running inside and up the stairs to the library where she knew her alpha would be. The sound of her heavy footfalls echoing throughout the house as she went.
Alfred looked up from his book sharply, startled by the sudden intrusion into his peaceful solitude. Eve stopped in front of his desk and apologised profusely for the sudden activity.
‘I’m so sorry Alfred; I didn’t mean to startle you. I wouldn’t barge in on you like this under normal circumstances but this is very important.’
Alfred smiled tightly, unhappy at the disturbance but knowing that what she said was true, she never bothered him unless it was absolutely necessary. That was a large part of her job as beta. ‘I understand. What seems to be the problem?’
‘He’s done it again.’ Eve panted, still short of breath from her mad dash up the stairway.
‘Sorry?’ Alfred questioned. ‘Who? Who has done what?’
Eve licked her lips and averted her eyes, her lupine self taking over her human body’s actions. ‘Varulv. He has killed again, just over ten miles from where he killed Hunter’s friend.’
Alfred’s face dropped ‘so soon… This is much sooner than I anticipated Eve. This is serious, we must find him and quickly.’
Eve nodded ‘I know alpha, I know we must. But in the meantime what does this mean for Hunter, it was only just reported but it must have happened this at some point today. The report didn’t specify but it must have been some time this afternoon… If it had occurred this morning and been discovered then Hunter would have been released earlier in the day as an innocent man.’
Alfred nodded ‘mmm… Well no doubt he will be receiving a call from the station very soon… Now we need to get Audra back and ready to travel to the station with him if need be, it will look very strange if he does not have a solicitor.’
‘I can find them’ Eve offered ‘but would you like to hear the details of the crime before I leave?’
Alfred shook his head, ‘they are unimportant for now, there will be plenty of time to recount details when you return.’
Eve nodded ‘all right. Which way did they head on their departure?’
‘Back towards the abandoned barn’ Alfred answered. ‘Now hurry or they will move on before you arrive.’
Eve nodded, turned on her heels and sprinted back down the stairs, there was no time to waste.
Chapter 24
Tobias and Audra had travelled to the scene of the murder in a deep, uncom
fortable silence. Neither particularly liked the other and Tobias knew that any efforts to try and perk Audra up would fail miserably. She was not his idea of the ideal travelling companion, but he couldn’t go against his alpha’s wishes and so he would have to put up with her.
Audra viewed the male beta as a waste of space, a lupine joke. He was far too easy going for his position in the pack as far as she was concerned, and his joking attitude was hardly appropriate for the situation they were in. She also knew that he did not like her, which made the situation even more uncomfortable for the both of them. Each was equally aware of the others disdain, and neither wanted to draw attention to the mismatch by making awkward idle chitchat.
Eventually they had reached the old deserted barn and the silence was broken by the grating sound of the handbrake being applied. Audra snapped out of her stubborn silence and glanced at the beta who had driven them to the area, waiting to be given an order.
Tobias opened the drivers side door and stepped out of the car, instructing her as he did so ‘out you get Audra, we need to have a good look around and we’ll get it done faster if you help.’
Audra complied and got out of the vehicle, looking unhappy about the decision though, she questioned him ‘I thought perhaps you might have wanted me to stay here and keep watch in case of police?’
Tobias curled his lip at her, not happy about her verbal response even though physically she had done what he had asked and gotten out of the car. ‘No. We will hear any approaching cars long before they get here, unless your hearing is failing you…?’
She shook her head ‘no, I suppose you’re right… Where do we start?’
Tobias motioned towards the barn. ‘I’ll go inside, you start round the back and have a look at the outside of the building.’
She nodded ‘ok’ and began to walk towards the building, followed closely by the beta male who entered the gloom of the building without checking to see if she was following what he had said. He could hear her moving off to the right so there was no point in visually affirming her actions.
Tobias slunk into the barn in silence, the shadows of the dilapidated buildings interior swallowing him like a starving animal. His blue eyes roamed the inside of the wooden structure, searching for any signs of change since his last visit. For a moment he toyed with the idea of turning on the lighting system Varulv had installed but quickly decided against it. His eyesight was sufficient that he didn’t need the help really. As well as which he had no desire to leave fingerprints at the scene of the crime. Even though the initial investigation had obviously already taken place if they were to do another sweep they would certainly be dusting the light switch.
It was obvious that an investigation of the scene had been carried out. Besides the police tape outside the building there was also white tape on the floor, and the place reeked of humanity. On top of the smells of fear and pain and death were layers of interest, concern, nausea and confusion. Lifting his head a little, Tobias swept his dirty blonde hair out of his eyes and sniffed delicately at the stagnant air. He could smell Varulv, his victim and at least 5 other people. It had been busy there in their brief absence, as evidenced by the footprints that littered the floor.
As he looked around and followed the scent of the old shape-shifter he had been sent to track, he took in all the details he had missed on his first visit. There was a lot of blood on the floor now that the water which had previously swum about had sunk into the earth. More blood than he had thought. Much more. It stained the ground so completely that it looked as though somebody had planned to paint the floor with it. The equipment which had been rigged to hold Varulv’s victim still stood ominously in the centre of the building. The chain that hung from the rafters swinging slightly in the winds which blew through the barn. The metal plate in the ground still covered in the drying blood, and the ankle cuffs hanging limp and looking broken and grotesque.
Tobias followed his nose to the grisly structure, being drawn to it by Varulv’s scent, which was heavily concentrated there. He did not wish to scrutinise it but he had to follow the scent as it aged. He moved around the chains and cuffs without looking at them, following only his sense of smell and even closing his eyes to focus himself. The old beast had circled the poor girl for hours, and had done unspeakable things to her. The musky scent of semen clouded the air and mixed with the sharp tang of blood. There was no evidence that he had violated her in any traditional sense of the word… No heavy scent of the female sex organs lingered in the air. There was just blood. Blood and semen. Tobias shuddered; he did not wish to imagine what the poor girl had endured.
Still following his nose the male beta moved away from the spot where the murder had taken place. He followed his nose through the deeper shadows at the edge of the building and found Varulv’s hiding spots. Again he could smell semen and the old monster’s excitement. He had enjoyed watching and allowing the poor woman’s fear to escalate before he had begun his attack. This drew a snarl to Tobias’ lips. He had never felt so much hate for a single being as he did for Varulv.
*****
Outside the building Audra paced quietly along the edge of the wooden wall, her nostrils flaring as she went. She was careful to avoid stepping in the taller grass, not wishing to sink into the earth as she was still wearing heels. She could clearly hear Tobias moving about inside the building and for some reason the sound of his footfalls irritated her. She told herself it was because he should have been more mindful to be quiet in case Varulv had re-visited the area… But in actual fact it was more likely to be down to her resentment of his even being with her in the first place. She wanted to be dealing with the endeavour herself and was less than thrilled that Tobias was accompanying her. At least if she’d been sent with Courtney she could have used her superior rank to her advantage. There was nothing she hated more than feeling below the others in the pack and Tobias was quick to use his status as Beta to put her in her place. That didn’t sit well with her despite the fact there was nothing she could do about it.
Trying to re-focus herself she stopped for a moment and took a deep breath, followed by a long draw of air into her nostrils. She carefully dissected the olfactory information she received for a moment. The first thing that hit her was the rich smell of blood from inside the barn, mixed with the evidence of Varulv’s excitement at his crimes. Then the undertones of the human officers who had been sent to investigate the crime scene, and the fading smells of all the emotions which had been inside the wooden building in the past 48 hours. Unsatisfied with this limited information she took another deep inhale and found something that surprised her. Varulv had returned but he had not entered the building. She followed this fresh new trail of scent to its source, rounding the back of the barn where she found a patch of disturbance in the foliage. This spot had been carefully tended to in order to attempt to eradicate the evidence that somebody had recently been there, but there was no fooling the nose of a werewolf. The grass was flattened here and there and the bushes leading up to the side of the building were dotted with small broken twigs. As well as all this there was a partial footprint in the earth, partly hidden by the mud and clearly that of a werewolf. She scuffed it away prissily with the shiny toe of one of her expensive heels. She could not leave it there to be discovered, but she loathed dirtying her shoes.
Varulv’s scent was very dense there, and as she looked around, Audra’s rich brown eyes even picked up some small catches of fur snagged on a nearby bush. He had been back, and he had been rather careless. She was surprised that he had risked returning in his lupine form. But then supposed perhaps he could have passed off as a stray dog… If he had taken his fully lupine form and not one of his more monstrous ones.
Without any thought for Tobias she began to follow the trail that the old werewolf had left, carefully picking her way between thorny bushes and low-slung tree branches as she went. She frowned as her heels dug into the earth but continued on her way regardless, following her nose. The trail was n
ot old, he had returned some time in the small hours of the morning. She suspected he must have come back to re-live his enjoyment of Lucy’s murder.
A smile cracked Audra’s lips as she moved further and further away from the barn. Varulv’s scent was getting stronger and stronger the further away she moved, and she smelled no evidence of a vehicle. He must have padded there on his own four paws, which meant that she would easily be able to follow his scent to its source. For a while she followed him in human form, musing to herself as to what he would look like when she eventually found him. She had heard so much of him across her lifetime; about all the trouble he had caused her kind and the murders he had committed. She could not help but be curious as to what the infamous Nikolai Varulv would look like. She could not deny that he smelled attractive even if he was a monster. He was in peak physical fitness and he smelled so strongly alpha that it had her inner wolf swooning like a love-struck schoolgirl.