The next morning was a struggle for Hazel. She didn’t want to go to work and put on a mask to hide her true thoughts from Matthew. No matter how much she used to hate him during and after their relationship, his heart was in the right place when it came to his job. She was watching this murder investigation eat him alive. And she knew more than she was letting on. If he found out about what really happened, he would never forgive her.
She didn’t know if she would ever be able to forgive herself. She peeled herself out of bed and got herself ready for the day. She dreaded it more than anything else in her life. But she had to show up, and she had to be there for Matthew. Even if that meant watching him self-destruct as he never found out who really killed Camilla Phillips.
The rain outside soaked Hazel to the core as she ran to her car. Her mood dampened, she made it to the precinct to find Matthew waiting for her in his office with a cup of coffee and a chocolate donut, her favorite, which he hurriedly handed to her.
He wore a smile that made her stop in her tracks.
Something was wrong. And something had definitely happened to make him smile like this. She didn’t see a cigarette in sight.
“Guess who came in for an interview this morning?” he asked her before she could even say anything, shoving her down in the seat across from his desk as he handed her the coffee and donut.
Hazel glanced at him warily, wondering what the proper protocol for a mentally insane detective would be.
“Who?” she asked him, wet from the rain and glum from the whole case. “The headless horseman here to tell his final tale?”
“Nope.” Just like Matthew to ignore her dumb joke. “One Hudson Schmidt.”
Hazel yelped from surprise and from the hot cup of coffee that just burnt her tongue as she tried to sip it. She put the coffee and donut down on his desk as Matthew smiled and walked around to sit across from her in his seat. He was giddy with joy. Hazel was full of confusion.
Hudson Schmidt. The boy next door, who didn’t live next door, and who used to be a bad boy, but who evidently changed his life around when he went to boarding school for shitty kids. Also, the rumored older lover of the murder victim. He had come in earlier in the week, after days of not being interviewed, but Matthew had shoved him aside and said that he wasn’t anything to worry about.
Now, it seemed that everything had changed since Hazel last saw him. And she was just a little confused.
“Why do you have that look in your eye?” she questioned him, her heartbeat quickening in her chest as she remembered who the real killer was: a shifter. “I thought you believed he wasn’t someone who did anything? Or at least didn’t kill the girl.”
“I didn’t. That was until we found a knife with a long blade on the edge of the forest this morning, right where Lorelei James thought she saw a guy walking the night Camilla Phillips was murdered.”
Hazel held her breath as she realized just what he said to her: the murder weapon was finally found.
“You found the murder weapon?” Hazel breathlessly asked him.
“Not only did we find the murder weapon–we found prints on the murder weapon.”
Hazel felt her throat constrict. Something wasn’t right. Something really wasn’t right, but she couldn’t put her finger on what, exactly, was wrong.
“Whose?” Hazel asked, almost scared to even hear the answer.
“One Hudson Schmidt’s.”
Hazel felt like her heart dropped in her chest. Things weren’t adding up. They weren’t making sense. There was no way Hudson Schmidt’s prints should be on the knife. A shifter, or a rogue, was responsible for Camilla’s brutal death, and Hazel had the many notes to prove it. Was the knife planted? Did the shifter steal the knife from Hudson, keeping all of his prints intact?
Hazel needed to figure out what was going on. And she needed to tell Hann all about it as soon as she could.
“You’re joking,” Hazel finally managed to choke out, knowing her surprise was on full display in front of Matthew. He seemed to take it as a good form of shock, though. That meant he wouldn’t be asking her any questions about her reaction, thank God.
“Not at all,” Matthew answered, leaning back in his chair and smiling. No cigarette to be found.
“You already interviewed him last week when I wasn’t here, though, right?” Hazel asked, trying to clarify her thoughts.
“And he gave me nothing.” Matthew shrugged his shoulders. “Didn’t flip on my sensors or anything. But that didn’t mean the guy wasn’t doing some act. I now think he was.”
“When are you going to question him?” Hazel knew that she needed to see this go down. She needed to see how Hudson reacted.
“Right now. Care to join?”
“In the interrogation room?” Matthew couldn’t possibly be letting her in on the questioning, up close and personal? It seemed like his good mood was making him much nicer to her.
“Where all the action is.”
Hazel smiled and got up from her seat. Her insides seemed to be boiling with fear and confusion, and no matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t figure out what was going on. She couldn’t make sense of it. It just didn’t make sense.
A shifter killed Camilla Phillips. So, why the hell did the murder weapon have Hudson’s prints on it? Was this the shifter, playing with her and the pack yet again?
“Also, Hudson doesn’t know that we have the murder weapon,” Matthew informed her as they walked out of his office and started to walk toward the interrogation room. “We just got the results a few minutes before you walked in. We get to surprise him.”
“Oh, this is going to be interesting,” Hazel managed to say, her eyes blinking rapidly as her brain went into overdrive.
She didn’t know what to do, other than fall into step behind Matthew and walk into the interrogation room where Hudson Schmidt sat waiting for them.
“Thank you for coming in on such short notice,” Matthew told Hudson, who was sitting there as if he didn’t just murder an innocent girl a few days ago. Hazel shook her head. Something wasn’t adding up, and she couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
Hazel saw Hudson do a double-take when she sat down next to Matthew. Hazel narrowed her eyes, which just made Hudson avert his gaze back to Matthew, his expression neutral. What was that all about? Hazel didn’t know Hudson . . . did she?
“I’d do anything to find the monster that did this to Cammie,” Hudson replied to Matthew, now not looking at Hazel at all.
That was interesting.
Matthew leaned back in his chair, his stereotypical pose when he questioned people. Or really when he did anything. Matthew had something on Hudson, and Hudson didn’t even know it. Hazel also wanted to know why Hudson was being so odd toward her. What in the world was going on?
“It is a shame about what happened to her.” Matthew nodded, leaving his cigarettes away, safe in his pocket. “You guys ever get into fights?”
“No,” Hudson said, his eyes narrowing in confusion from the sudden change in questioning.
“Really? Cause your next-door neighbor seems to think you guys used to fight a lot. Something about how Camilla wanted to go public with your relationship, and you didn’t want to. Any ideas?”
“Camilla and I only dated for a few weeks.” Hudson shook his head. “And that was about a year ago. I hadn’t seen her, or even talked to her as a friend, in a year. We just went our separate ways, which is pretty normal, I think.”
“Any unresolved fights between you two? Or did you end on good terms?”
Hazel just watched the two men talk, her eyes going back and forth. She tried to gauge Hudson’s emotions, but he kept a neutral expression on his face which made it a bit hard for her to figure out what he was thinking.
“Cammie was pretty upset when I broke up with her.” Hudson shrugged, running his hands through his hair as if he was finally nervous. “I tried to smooth things over with her a few weeks after we broke up, but she didn’t want to hear i
t. We just stopped talking after that, but I don’t think there was anything unresolved. I think that the year apart helped both of us see clearly.”
And then, right as he said the word clearly, Hudson turned his eyes slightly to glance at Hazel for a second before swerving his eyes back to Matthew.
Hazel narrowed her eyes yet again. That was weird. Definitely weird.
“Own any knives?” Matthew asked, changing the subject quickly yet again.
“Knives? No, I can’t say that I do.”
“Really? So, do you care to explain why the murder weapon was found with your prints all over it?” Matthew pulled out a picture of the murder weapon, a long knife with dried blood on every inch of it.
Hudson’s face closed up. He stared at Matthew before quietly turning to stare at Hazel. Hazel felt chills run up and down her spine in a sense of unease. Something was definitely wrong.
“I'm not saying anything else until my lawyer is present,” Hudson stated, as a matter of fact, leading to Matthew arresting him for the murder of Camilla Phillips, handcuffing him and leading him out of the room to wait in the jail cell.
Hazel sat there in the empty interrogation room, unease and dread slowly filling every inch of her body. Things weren’t adding up, and no matter how she worked the situation or changed it to fit the new evidence, it wasn’t making any sense in her head. If only Matthew knew about the shifter and the letters he was sending. Matthew would be able to figure it out in no time.
Hudson’s reaction toward her and the arrest also was weird. If Hudson was innocent, and if the shifter just, somehow, planted Hudson’s prints on the murder weapon, then he would be pleading and saying he really was innocent. But Hudson didn’t do that. Hudson lawyered up and closed his mouth, as if he really was guilty.
Maybe the shifter was just playing with everyone? Maybe he really didn’t kill Camilla, and it was Hudson all along?
Hazel didn’t know, but she needed to find Hann and tell him what just happened. Immediately.
“What’s wrong?”
Hazel turned in her chair to see Matthew standing there in the open doorway, watching her with confusion in his eyes. She stood up, sighing and giving him a quick smile. She hadn’t even heard him come in, which was bad considering her senses were much higher than the average human’s.
“Nothing,” Hazel told him, readjusting her shirt so she had something to do with her nervous hands. Matthew picked up on this, so she stopped.
“Nothing?” Matthew repeated, narrowing his eyes as he walked closer to her. “We just arrested the man who killed Camilla Phillips, and you’re sitting in here with the craziest expression on your face. You wanna explain?”
“I guess I’m just shocked it was Hudson, is all.” No way in hell Hazel was gonna break and reveal to Matthew that she was a shifter and that there was a whole bunch of people who could shift into wolves at any given moment they so desired. Matthew would call her nuts. And plus, that just wasn’t a smart thing to do.
“When you decide to tell me the truth, I’ll be here,” Matthew told her, giving her one more look before leaving her alone in the interrogation room with nothing but thoughts of murder and death swirling around in her head.
Chapter 14
Ethan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. And from the looks of it, neither could Hann or Ross.
Hazel was explaining everything that had just happened at work and how Hudson Schmidt was arrested, and looking pretty guilty, for the murder of Camilla Phillips. Which, to everyone in the room, just didn’t make any sense at all. They all knew who really killed Camilla: a shifter. Not Hudson.
But this wasn’t just a mistake the police department was making. His prints were all over the murder weapon. He didn’t deny or plead for his innocence when he was first arrested. In fact, it was a few hours later, and he still wasn’t talking to Matthew or anyone.
Plus, Hazel told them that he kept looking at her in the weirdest way . . . which was, well, weird. He didn’t know Hazel, and Hazel said that she had never met him. Never even in passing. So, why was Hudson acting so weird around her?
And who really killed Camilla Phillips?
“Something is wrong,” Hann stated, speaking for everyone in the room thinking the exact same thing.
“I agree,” Hazel told her alpha, her brow furrowed. “I just don’t know what it is. I can’t explain it, and I can’t find the real solution.”
“We will all be on alert tonight,” Hann told the room, looking at everyone in the eyes. “If the real killer finds out that someone is going down for his murder, he may feel free to act again. We all need to find out what the hell is going on, and fast.”
Hann left the room then, dismissing Ethan and Hazel without so much as a glance. Ethan wanted to follow the alpha and talk to him, knowing that his stress level was astronomical. He wanted to be there for him, but one look from Ross told him that he should just leave. Ross knew him better than anyone, other than maybe his daughter, Annie. If anyone could calm the alpha down, it would be Ross.
Ethan just hoped they all figured out what the hell was going on.
“Are you okay?” Ethan asked as he drove Hazel home from Hann’s. She had a disturbing look on her face, and Ethan knew she was having a hard time with the case. She couldn’t figure out what really happened, and the threat of another murder still hung in the air. Who knew what the shifter would do? Who knew if he or she would strike again?
“I’m just tired,” Hazel responded. She looked over at Ethan and gave him the hint of a smile. That, alone, made his heartbeat quicken. Just a simple look from her made him crazy, and the thought of pulling the car over and pulling her on top of him was fresh in his mind.
He always wanted her. Always.
Ethan gently grabbed her hand and interlaced his fingers with hers, their interlocked hands laying in between them on the seat. Ethan glanced over at Hazel again and saw her staring at him, that seductive look he loved slowly overtaking her features.
He smirked at her and averted his gaze back to the road. It was dark out, and if he looked at her for too much longer, he would crash the car. Ethan glanced over at her when he felt her move closer to him, unbuckling her seat belt in the process. Under any other circumstance, he would’ve advised her to buckle back up, him being a safe driver. But the expression in her eyes made his rationale go haywire.
When she pulled her interlaced fingers from his and began to slowly caress the lower half of his body, his hands gripped the steering wheel tight. He was scared he would break it. She felt his desire through his jeans, and he was instantly hard and turned on from her touch. He looked over at her and saw the seduction and lust had completely overtaken her eyes.
There was no going back now. No way in hell was he waiting until they got to her place. Not when she was looking at him like that.
“You’re mine,” she whispered into his ear.
That was the breaking point.
Ethan swerved the car to the side of the road, not even caring where he parked it in the middle of the grass by the dense woods. He wanted her, and he wanted her now.
Ethan pulled her to him, ripping her shirt in the process. He was barely holding it together, and the more she touched him, the more he felt like he was going to lose it right then and there.
Somehow, they made it to the backseat of Ethan’s car. They were pretty cramped, but they didn’t care. Ethan was lost in the desire, as was Hazel. Ethan just needed her to make him feel better, and one look at her wicked smile told him that he would be pleased soon.
In the next few seconds, they were both naked with their shattered clothes in pieces around them. Ethan was to blame for Hazel’s shattered clothes. He wanted her naked body below him to feel and caress and love. Hazel, though, was just as impatient as him, shredding his clothes off with her strength in no time. When she saw his hard desire for her, her eyes widened in lust.
He almost lost it then and there, yet again.
“God, you’re
so big,” she murmured as she twitched underneath him, her hands playing with his hard desire. He moaned in her ear from the bliss she was giving him, incomparable to anyone else.
Hazel was right. He was hers. And she was his, no doubt.
“You’re mine,” Ethan repeated her words, his eyes glimmering with lust. She smiled that wicked smile at him, and slowly turned around so that she was now on her hands and knees in front of him.
“Baby, don’t I know it,” Hazel said to him, whipping her head so that she could look back at him, her eyes glistening. Her mouth was wet and she bit her lip as he grabbed her hips.
God, she was the most seductive woman he had ever met.
And she was his.
Hazel managed to position herself somehow in that small car, moaning loudly and arching her back in pleasure as Ethan first entered her. The windows were fogging up in no time, and Ethan didn’t even care that anyone could look into the clear windows and see them, naked and having sex.
Hazel didn’t mind, either, from the way she was arching her back and crying out in pleasure. Even in the cramped backseat of his car, she was still able to please him like never before. Each time they had sex was better than the last. They learned what each other liked and what drove them wild. They aimed to tease and please each other, keeping things new.
So, when Ethan flipped Hazel around so that her back was on the car seats when she was nearing her finish, the surprise hit her eyes slightly, hidden somewhat behind the pleasure.
“I want to see you,” he told her gruffly, quickening his thrusts as she understood.
That smirk was back, yet wiped away when she clutched the seat in pleasure, her eyes half slits.
When the orgasm racked her body, she moaned out his name as she gasped, leading to his immediate finish. She always did that. Every time he heard his name on her lips in her final gasps, he exploded, unable to stop himself.
She had him under her control. And he had her under his.
Ethan fell on top of her, his lips meeting her greedy ones instantly as her arms wrapped around his waist, pulling him to her. They managed to lay together on the back seat of his car, both of them breathing heavily as they caressed each other slowly with their hands.
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