Twenty minutes into the trip, they’d gotten far enough out of the forest that anyone looking at them wouldn’t notice where they’d come from. As long as they kept going, too-curious humans wouldn’t happen upon the wards. Of course, if those humans did notice, the wards and magic would push them away, their memories wiped, keeping the den safe.
“I need coffee,” Liam grumbled.
Neither of them had said a word since they’d started the trek, and apparently, Liam’s unholy need for coffee was going to be the thing that broke the ice.
“We just left my place,” Alec said in a tone that he hoped was devoid of emotion. “You could have just asked for coffee there.” He dared to look over at the other man who constantly invaded his thoughts.
Liam had his fingers around the steering wheel, much like Alec had earlier, the whites of his flexed knuckles prominent against the tan of his skin.
“I thought we needed to head out and find this rogue,” the other man bit out. “I just wanted to get out of the den and get on our way. I don’t know where the hell we’re going. Hence, coffee.”
“Hence?” Alec said with a snort. “Since when do you say hence?”
Liam pulled his eyes off the road for a brief moment, a familiar grin sliding over his perfect face for an instant before the other man must have thought better of it.
“Becca is teaching me the big words now.”
Alec snorted. “I thought Becca only taught us the curse words.”
“Truth, man, truth.”
They drove a bit longer before Liam pulled over and swore. “I have no idea where we’re going. How the hell are we going to find this rogue and make sure the Pack is safe when I don’t even know where to point the damn car?”
Alec sighed. “You’re going the right way. I figured we’d head to where the latest attack happened and see if we can catch a scent trail. You just happened to be going the right way as soon as we left the den, so I didn’t comment on it.”
Liam glared at him out of the corner of his eye. “Of course, you didn’t comment on it. Why would you say anything?”
Alec gave him a sharp look and then forced himself to relax. They needed to get through this. Get over this. And they weren’t going to do that if they didn’t talk about it. However, going at it right off the bat probably wasn’t the best way to start, especially since Liam needed coffee. Alec wanted to keep his head on his shoulders, thank you very much.
“Did Hunter give you any info on what we’re going into?” Liam asked after another few minutes of deep silence.
“The rogue killed a college-aged girl on her way home from work one night.”
Liam cursed while Alec’s wolf clawed at him. Their wolves might want blood, but they didn’t kill innocents. That was the difference between a rogue and a shifter in control of their animal. The way they controlled themselves might be different than other shifters in how they calmed themselves and even how they sometimes gave in to the wolf for their hunts. All shifters ruled by control.
It was the only way to keep their souls safe—as well as the rest of the realms.
“Who found her?”
“One of us.” Alec let out a breath, calming his wolf. They would track, and they would hunt, and they would kill this rogue. That promise was the only way to keep his wolf sane at the moment since they didn’t have a scent yet. “A pixie and her boyfriend found her.”
“The pixie we know?” Liam asked as they turned the corner.
“No, Faith wasn’t near this, though it’s close to Dante’s Circle.” Dante’s Circle was the bar where Hunter had met his mate. It was a familiar place to the Pack.
“Dante isn’t handling this?”
“No, the dragon is letting us since it’s a wolf. He said he’d be on standby if needed. Same with his mates and the rest of them.”
“This is a wolf matter, so we’ll handle it.”
“That’s the plan.” A breath. “Turn off here. We’re almost there.” He directed Liam towards where the body had been found. Sweepers had come in to clean up the evidence, though they’d done their best to preserve the scent trails.
They got out of the car in silence, Alec’s wolf at full attention. He inhaled, trying to untangle the mess of scents surrounding the scene. He could smell the burgers from the fast-food restaurant across the street, and pine from the trees surrounding the small grassy area where Kelly Martin had died.
No, died wasn’t a good enough word.
She’d been gutted, pawed at, mauled, and left bleeding out with her entrails wrapped around her neck and her heart missing.
The fucking rogue had eaten the organ according to Hunter, and they only knew that because there had been saliva near her chest cavity. Licking for scraps, for blood.
No, the rogue wasn’t human. Wasn’t shifter. Wasn’t even merely animal.
It was worse.
It was an anathema. The absence of life. Of hope. Of death. Of sorrow. It was the worst of all creation.
And now, Alec and Liam would be the ones to destroy it.
“Got anything?” Liam asked, and Alec shook his head.
“I need to untangle first.”
Liam gave him a tight nod. “Same. Let’s find this son of a bitch.”
Alec pulled his gaze from Liam—something easier to do when blood ran hotly between them because of death and not lust or whatever the hell they hid behind—and went back to searching. The two of them moved around as one, each taking in scents and trying to get beneath the top layers of the trail and into what they really needed.
The rogue.
Alec could still smell Kelly’s blood and tucked that away for future tracking. The rogue could still have her blood on its fur or skin since, in that mindset, it wouldn’t be thinking of DNA and scents and safety measures.
Alec stalked down the path, leaving Liam in the clearing. He ducked under a tree, following Kelly’s scent. Underneath that was a layer he didn’t recognize until he laid eyes on it.
“Damn it,” he growled, looking down at the mangled corpse of a raccoon. He knelt down near the furry body and sniffed, his muscles going as taut as a bow. No. That couldn’t be right. That couldn’t be the scent.
He lowered his nose and inhaled again, his wolf howling deep inside as he caught the familiar musk beneath the gore, rot, and insanity.
He knew that scent. Had grown up with that smell. It couldn’t be the truth.
“Alec?” Liam asked from behind him, and Alec almost jumped. It was only the fact that he always knew when Liam was near that he’d been able to sense him at the last moment. Not a safe thing when they were on the hunt. He needed to be on top of things, be better aware of his surroundings. Fuck. This couldn’t be right.
“It’s Charlie,” he rasped, and Liam froze behind him.
Alec couldn’t breathe, couldn’t focus. It couldn’t be Charlie. He knew that scent, even under the horror, he knew it like the back of his hand.
Liam put his hand on Alec’s shoulder. He didn’t react. He couldn’t. Not when it was all he could do not to shift and throw his head back, howling at the world, at the irony of the injustice.
“It’s Charlie,” Alec said again. “It’s my brother. The rogue is my brother.”