6

JUSTIN

“Bro are you going to tell me what the hell is going on?” Jonah persisted as we both made our way to the locker room.

He'd been pestering me since we left Astrid, demanding to know what I'd been doing with her. Honestly he was already getting on my nerves. It hurt me and made me hate myself enough that I'd married the evil bitch and couldn't tell my friends, but Jonah who was supposed to be my best friend and beta, refusing to understand when to drop something was making me feel all the more worse and annoyed.

We arrived at the locker room and continuing to ignore him, I made my way to my locker and opened it against his face which he'd decided to plant on the other side.

“The fuck?” He sputtered, punching my arm and coming to stand on my other side. The corner of my mouth rose in amusement. He'd deserved it anyway.

“Fine. I don't care what you were doing with the traitor, why haven't you been picking up or returning my calls the past few days?”

I bit down a sigh. I'd completely forgotten about that as well. Pulling out my gear from the locker, I realised that Astrid's return had really taken a bad toll on me. It was like just when I'd started to possibly get better she'd arrived and it was as though I'd began mourning Audrey and Kris all over again. I couldn't tell Jonah that. What would I say? That I was such a weakling that after two years I still hadn't gotten over the death of two women? Granted they were my mate and sister, but still. And then there was the issue of the marriage and the coronation that I definitely could not tell him.

Goddess…

Astrid was really a plague. Just because of the utter evilness of one person, dozens of lives were being affected.

“Justin?” Jonah demanded again, his eyebrows raised.

I'm sorry I have to keep this from you bro. It's for all our good.

“I've just been preoccupied.” I mutter, trying to shrug him off and hoping he'll leave it alone.

“Justin I'm supposed to be your beta. I know you better than to believe such a vague reply.”

What the hell was wrong with him today? Why was he being so persistent?

“If you know me that well then you should know to leave well enough alone when I say you should.” I stated deadpan, pausing what I was doing and looking him dead in the eye.

Before he could say anything to that, the other guys stormed their way into the locker room.

“Uh oh looks like we have the ultimate Alpha-Beta showdown.” Alden sang as he and Ryder walked up to Jonah and I.

I sighed and shut my locker, moving past them to the door that led to the field.

“Man, you should know better than the rest of us that once Jus says he wants to be left alone, you leave it.” Ryder patted Jonah on the back conspiratorially, and moved to follow me outside. I couldn't be more grateful to him.

He and Alden had already set up everything for our training and had most likely been waiting for us.

Every morning we had a ‘goodluck’ training ritual. It was something that had started since we were in highschool and we hadn't let go of it. The schools believed it made our team better and that was why we continued to win championship after championship so they let us adjust our schedules and have the training.

“Well, I don't know whatever it was Jon was railing you about but since we helped you get out of it, the least you could do is tell us what you did on the night of the championship. You left immediately and didn't come by for the party after.”

I snorted. Party. Party indeed. In a way I envied how they could still have some degree of humanity in them to still be able to enjoy something. For me it was like since Audrey's death, all colour had been completely drained from my life. I couldn't find pleasure in anything. My world was filled with bitterness, anger and mourning.

I threw down some of my gear and faced all three of them squarely.

“What I've been doing for the past two years: mourning my mate.”

And hating the evil that is Astrid.

That seemed to shut them up.

They gave resigned nods and we proceeded to put on our gear and get to work. It might make me seem like a weakling later, but for now, it made them give me my space.

After nearly an hour of training, I slowed to a stop during one of our laps around the field. I decided that physical strain wasn't going to get my mind the relief that it needed. For some reason, I wasn't really into the training session.

“You guys continue.” I let out a breath, waving them on. “I'm not really feeling up to training right now, I'll catch up with you guys after school.”

They all exchanged a look but didn't try to pry any further and I walked off the field back to the locker room.

I took a light shower and decided to head to a class. I was supposed to be in the batch that had the class in the afternoon but I decided that since I'd ditched physical training I should try my hand at mental training.

I spotted some of Kris' course mates and immediately remembered Astrid, my body tensing. But then I remembered that it was all good; I'd gotten her to take her ring off so there would be no unnecessary questions. My eyes unwittingly searched for her in the throng of students that were pouring out of their lecture hall but she wasn't among them. It wasn't like I cared anyway. As long as she wasn't causing any more trouble for me or the pack, for now I could focus on destroying her for the wrong she'd already done.

I'd barely stepped foot into the lecture hall when my ears began ringing. I flinched and stepped back. Someone was activating the pack mind link. It'd been awhile since anyone had tried to communicate with me through the pack link so I'd been a bit thrown off guard but I regained my bearings immediately and listened to what the line feed was saying. It was a grade one emergency: death.

My entire body stiffened and in a second I was already sprinting back towards the field.

I flagged the guys down and seeing the expression on my face they hurried over.

“There’s been a grade one emergency near one of the borders, we need to go check it out.” I stated, already on the move.

Without a word, their expressions grim, they began sprinting alongside me to the location.

We arrived in no time and met a couple of the patrollers there, their expressions grave and their bodies tense.

“Who is it?” I demanded, my chest tightening as my mind flashed the image of Audrey… dead.

“They, actually.” Benson, the lead patrol responded in his gravelly voice, leading us directly to the bodies which they'd already covered with a tarp. “Two females were attacked and killed.” He lifted up the tarp for us to look at them.

My throat went dry and I clenched my jaw. But I forced myself to bend over and inspect them. Jonah and the others were flagged around me, bending over as well, their faces ashen.

“It appears they were strangled.” Benson murmured.

He was right. Their necks were already beginning to bruise purple. But that wasn't all. I bent closer and turned the head of one of the girls to the side. There was a bite mark in the curve of her neck between her shoulder and back. It was deep. A chill swept over me and I turned the head of the other to reveal a similar bite pattern.

I didn't recognise the girls but they were definitely members of our pack.

Shutting my eyes tight and clenching and unclenching my fists, I blew out a breath.

What the hell was this? What is going on?

“Justin.” Jonah called from above me.

I opened my eyes to stare up at him in response.

“This might be the work of a serial killer.” He pointed at the girls’ hair. “They're both blondes. Almost exactly the same shade. They're built the same way, same height…”

He was right. I noticed it just then as he pointed it out.

I nodded and rose to my feet.

“Locate their families and break the news as best you can to them. And take the bodies in for further investigation.” I ordered Jonah and the others. “I'll report it to my father.”

I found my way home and with a single rap on the door I invited myself into my father's study. My eyes narrowed as it settled on Astrid's father who was there with him.

“We received the message.” My father explained. “Tell me.” He gestured for me to come in.

After I explained to him, and informed him that the bodies had been taken in for testing to see if we could glean any more information off their bodies, he nodded and said we should meet later in the evening to discuss whatever information was gotten and the way forward.

I bowed and made to leave.

“Justin?” Astrid's father stopped me.

I felt anger hum in my blood but I stopped and turned to look at him.

“Do you know if Astrid is okay? With the –”

“I don't know. I don't care. I didn't marry her to become her guard dog. I didn't even want to marry her.” I scoffed, “And if she met her end like those girls, even you should agree that it would be fitting.”

He went pale at that.

“Justin –” my father tried to reprimand me but I was out of the room immediately. It was harsh to the point of cruelty but it was well deserved. I didn't care if she was his daughter and he possessed some sort of fatherly love for her, she was a murderer and her disregard for life should be meted out on her life as well.

I hadn't walked two steps when I felt my phone ring.

“Justin.” I responded tersely without looking at the caller ID.

“I can't believe you would do this Justin. Getting married to that bitch after what she did? You're an even worse betrayer!”

My blood ran cold.

It was Asta. Audrey's sister.

Of course only the one true bitch would have let this information get to her: Astrid.

I was so going to make her pay.