Astrid Cielo (12 page)

"Follow
me."

"Anywhere."
 

She
giggled again and he followed watching the enticing sway of her ass.
 
Strong and powerful legs that he couldn't
wait to feel around his waist as he pounded into her aching and wet core only
made her more desirable.
 
She would be
sweet.
 
She was the perfect mix of siren
and innocence.

"Here
we are.
 
Would you like to hear our
specials?"

"Unless
you're on the menu, Charisma, then I
don't
think
anything will compare."

Charisma
smiled and blushed again.
 
It was so
insane how easy it was to lure them in.

"If you'll give me a moment,
please."

Charisma
nodded and walked away, her grey eyes turning back for one more look.
 
She would definitely be fun.

Three
days of searching and still Skylar wasn't any closer to finding the responsible
party.
 
The first rays of sunlight were cresting
over the horizon and he felt the time away from Xavier and Aspen deep in his
bones.
 
Skylar stretched and allowed the
change to take him replacing the form of a man into that of a wolf.
 
He suppressed his wolf's need to howl and ran
the morning air cascading through his fur.
 
The need to be with his mates after barely seeing them for the past
three days beckoned his wolf to run faster.
 

The
scent of blood stopped his wolf in its tracks.
 
He looked around his mind finally assimilating he was near the clearing
where he and Xavier had made love in what seemed like so many nights ago.
 
Could it have really been only three?
 

His
wolf stopped and set his nose to the ground.
 
He walked slowly towards the scent and it became closer the more he
moved toward the bubbling creek that only added to the beauty of the small
opening within the forest.
 
His wolf
howled and Skylar allowed it.
 
The body
of the young female was too much of a shock for him to stop his wolf's
cry.
 
He shifted back into a human and
knelt to feel for a pulse on her neck.
 
One that he knew wouldn't be there as evidence by the bluish tinge of
her lips.
 
Claw marks marred what was
once possibly a beautiful face and knife wounds too numerous to count marred
her
body,
the water that surrounded her was stained
red with her blood.
 

Skylar
hated to leave her, but good sense overtook his need to protect that which
needed protection no longer.
 
He allowed
the change to take him once more and he raced to Aspen's home.
 
Hopefully his own home when he solved this
case making it safe again for her.
 
Because despite the killer's fondness for human females, Skylar couldn't
help but remember seeing Aspen's lifeless face in his dream.
 
His wolf growled at that image and Skylar
focused his mind on the task at hand.
 
He
barely gave thought to the change when he stepped on the porch and through the
front door.
 
His fingers were dialing
before he could even assimilate what he was doing.

"This
is Wesley."

"Wesley,
I need you at the pride immediately.
 
I've found another body."

"I'm
on my way.
 
Just for your information,
Daphne will be joining us."

He
didn't even get a chance to ask who Daphne was before Wesley hung up.

His
need to see his mates took him to their now shared bedroom.
 
They'd shared the same space with less than a
kiss here and there for the past few days.
 
What little time he spent with them ensured Skylar's continued sanity.

Skylar
released his breath when he found them cuddled together on the bed.
 
Aspen's dark hair spilled lovingly over the
pillow and her face nuzzled into Xavier's chest.
 
They were safe from harm.

Aspen
sighed and her body stretched.
 
As much
as he wanted to stay and see her expose every inch of her beautiful body, he
couldn't risk what he'd do.
 
The thought
of losing her--losing either one of them was almost more than he could
bear.
 
He wanted them, wanted to take
them both.
 
He needed to know they still
lived.
 
But, she wasn't ready for
that.
 
He shook his head and forced
himself to walk away.
 
He had a crime
scene to process.

He
quickly slipped on a pair of sweats and walked to Caleb's house.
 
This was pride lands and Caleb deserved to
know that something of this nature had happened so close.
 
Despite not belonging to a pack or a pride
during his life, Skylar understood that Caleb's job was important.
 
Caleb was responsible for all the members of
his pride, and should the roles have been reversed he'd want to know had
something so terrible happened.

A
disheveled Miranda answered the door, her curly brown hair mussed from
sleep.
 
Her brown eyes softened and she
smiled when she looked at him.

"Hi, Skylar."

Her
smile died and her eyes turned worried.
 
He hated making a pregnant female worry.

"What's
wrong, Skylar?
 
Is it Aspen?"

Skylar's
wolf howled inside his mind at the thought of something happening to
Aspen.
 

"No,
she's still sleeping with Xavier.
 
I need
to speak with Caleb."

Miranda
sighed and nodded.
 
She stepped back and
waved him in.

"Miranda,
who's at the door?"

Caleb
walked into the living room and his eyebrows rose.

"I'm
sorry to disturb you two, but we have a situation."

Caleb
nodded and walked to his wife.
 
"Sweetheart, why don't you go and take a shower.
 
I'll handle this."

Miranda's
cute and innocent face turned almost feral--if a mouse could be feral--and she
actually hissed.

"Caleb
Anderson I may be pregnant but that doesn't mean-"

Miranda
clasped her hands over her mouth, her reddened face paling.
 
She took off at a run and Caleb shook his
head.

"Never thought I'd be grateful for
morning sickness.
 
Now, what were you saying?"

Skylar
looked down the hall and cringed at the sound of retching.
 
He watched as a look of indecision crossed
Caleb's face, his need to be with his mate while she suffered, yet protect her from
whatever it was Skylar had to say warred within the male.

"Get
on with it Skylar," Caleb snapped.

Skylar
forced his wolf to not take offence.
 
The
man was obviously torn between his decisions.

"There's
been a murder.
 
A
female, young, possibly mid to early twenties in the clearing within the woods
on pride land.
 
I've contacted
Wesley and they should be here soon.
 
I
need to go process the scene, so if you could direct Wesley when he gets
here."

Caleb
nodded.
 
"I understand.
 
Was it-"

"It
was a human, but all the signs that it was a shifter killing are there."

Caleb's
mouth pressed into a grim line.
 
Skylar
turned and left.
 
He needed to get to the
bottom of this.

***

Skylar
didn't want to go back to the body.
 
Instead he wanted to crawl into bed beside his mates, but the vision of
Aspen lying dead, her lifeless grey eyes staring at him and accusing him of
failing her forced his feet to keep moving.
 
All too soon he stood at the edge of the clearing.
 

He
didn't understand why this crime scene was so different.
 
He'd processed hundreds, possibly thousands
without batting an eye.
 
Hell, he'd been
trained to do so from childhood.
 
Sure
he'd always suffered ill effects from taking a life when that person was deemed
guilty in the Council's eyes, but nothing a couple days off the grid couldn't
handle.
 
Other agents reported the same
feelings and they were assured that this was normal and when killing no longer
became an emotional ordeal then it was time to quit.

Skylar
sighed and transformed back into his wolf form allowing his wolf's senses to
take in the crime scene.
 
He forced his
human side to allow his wolf free reign.
 
His wolf scented the body first, the scent of blood overwhelming.
 
Then the scents separated and filtered his
wolf whining at the scent of female and the lingering scent of fear.
 
Her fear.
 

His
wolf growled when the odor of arousal filtered through his nostrils.
 
The sick fuck had enjoyed, on an entirely
disgusting level, his victim's torture.
 
Skylar faded deeper into the background of his wolf's mind, becoming
nothing more than the operator of a wolf's body.
 
He had to distance himself.
 
He couldn't dwell on the dark hair that
floated in the bubbling water of the creek, or the lifeless grey eyes that
stared at nothing.
 
Moments of a dream--no,
a nightmare--best forgotten flashed through his mind.
 
Skylar stamped them down and fought for
control.
 
He had a crime scene to
process.

Time
ceased to exist as he allowed his wolf to go over every inch of the scene.
 
No blade of grass missed his nose as he
spread his focus from the body to the outlying areas.
 
He paused his wolf growling as a familiar
scent caught his attention.
 
It couldn't
be.

"Well,
I'll be damned.
 
This pride just keeps
getting weirder and weirder."

Skylar
lifted his head and growled at the red-haired female who stood regarding him
with barely concealed amusement.

"This
is Daphne," Wesley said when he came behind the red-haired female.

Daphne.
 
He sniffed her direction then went back to
sorting through the crime scene.
 
She was
a wolf.

Silence
reigned until he was finished and changed back into his human form.
 
Wesley offered him the sweat pants he'd left
at the edge of the clearing and he took them gratefully.

"What'd
you sniff out?"
 
Wesley asked.

Daphne
turned and pointed to the body.
 
"She looks oddly familiar."

Skylar
chose to ignore Daphne and turned to Wesley.
 

"We
are definitely dealing with a serial killer, but the biggest problem is that
this serial killer is a shifter who is targeting humans."

"And
quite the sick son-of-a-bitch," Daphne said when she knelt beside the
body.
 
Despite her tone of nonchalance
her face told a different story.
 
Disgust
was etched on her features.

"How
are we going to do this?
 
I mean, she's human
and we'll have to report that we found the body.
 
But how do we keep it secret?"

Wesley
and Daphne both stared at him.
 
He hated
this part.
 

"We
collect as much evidence as we can--off the human record--then alter the
evidence so that it appears she was the unfortunate victim of a rabid animal or
an unfortunate accident."
 

Daphne
gasped.

"That's
so not right."

Skylar
growled his hard earned control slipping.
 
Did she think this easy?
 
Day in
and day out meting justice to those who would maim, torture, and kill for no
reason took its toll on a man.
 

"Can
you think of any other way?"

Daphne
took a step back and Wesley stepped forward.
 
"Calm yourself."

Skylar
shook his head.
 
Caleb and Zackary walked
into the clearing.
 
Skylar needed to calm
down before he lost control.
 
It was what
had happened last time he'd been forced to kill.
 
He was starting to believe he liked it.
 

"Skylar,
I believe you've met Zackary," Caleb said.

Skylar
nodded.

"I
need Xavier," he barked out.

Zackary
regarded him with hazel eyes that seemed to search his soul.

"I'll
go get him," he volunteered.

Skylar
nodded.
 
Memories and the nightmare he'd
had swirled in his mind.
 
How was it
possible that this man was alive?
 
He'd
killed him.
 
Ripped out
his throat.
 
He'd tracked him for months
and when he arrived too late, the female already dead he'd done his job.
 
He’d killed the one who'd cruelly ended
another life.
 
But who was he to judge?
 
What gave him that right?

His
vision blurred and he turned to keep any present from knowing he had a
weakness.
 
The past swirled in his mind,
his guardian teaching him ways to hunt, ways to kill, and ways to protect the
mate he'd eventually have.