Rayne's POVThings were no longer meant to be taken easily. The attacks on our kind were getting bolder, and it wasn't fair that we were the ones that had to show restraint.I went over my investigation notes again, trying to piece together the little things I had found. The suspect I had for now was Jacob, but he had started acting too weird for me to even keep a close eye on him. The AA’s efforts could have been blamed, but I didn't see any clear link connecting them to those deaths. They just appeared like simple figureheads covering up something deeper and darker. The body found at Mysticrock's borders had undoubtedly been one of our own pack members living in the city. He had been a middle-aged man who lived alone with his dog. Once, he had been married, but somehow the marriage didn't work out, and he was left all alone.I thought about wht hisnlast moments must have been like. If he felt fear or simply wanted everything to be done and over with. The marks on his body suggested
Rayne's POVI blinked multiple times to clear my head. The images remained, plaguing me each and every passing minute. Jacob's brother had been killed by a werewolf indeed, but it wasn't the young werewolf I had seen in the vision. What killed him had been a much more mature wolf, and feminine from the shape of its body. It had ripped into Jacob's brother's neck so quickly that he was dead before he even touched the ground.The gruesome imagery unsettled me so deeply. I had never gotten used to violence, and I never would. The mere sight of blood rushing out of that guy's neck like a river . . .“What are you doing here?” The voice triggered the tiny hairs on my neck, and I whirled around. Jacob stood there, looking at me with a suspicious look on his face. I wanted to ask him the same question, but I noticed that I was stepping very close to something sticking out of the ground. I had missed it earlier when I walked in there, but now looking at it, I wondered how I had not even see
Rayne's POVDays later, I went over to the coroner's place. The building had definitely been in existence for a very long time, and reeked of preservatives used for human flesh. I used Jacob's directions and descriptions to find the man in particular that told him about how his brother's death had been the work of a bloodthirsty werewolf.What did the man know about werewolves that gave him the boldness to make such utterances about them?Everything about my plan seemed easy enough when I sat in the comfort of my room, scheming. But after stepping into the building that had seen so many corpses, I momentarily blanked out.I wrapped my jacket tighter around myself and shook myself slightly to get my blood flowing. Kaiden didn't know how I had been taking risks by putting myself into this whole situation, and I didn't intend on telling him anything until I found something tangible.The coroner, known as Mr. Gerald, greeted me warmly, another unexpected behavior from one I experienced to
Rayne's POVKaiden's hug when I got back home was warm and long enough to chase away some of the fatigue eating away at me. I could sense the worry in the tightness of his embrace, and the way he didn't release a breath until he had fully caught hold of me. I had missed him so much, and I didn't know the extent of it until I felt his warmth against me. He still had the same sturdy muscles that got me excited when we were alone together. Whatever the Moon Goddess had been doing when she was making him, was definitely the best decision she couldn have made. My hand landed on his chest and took a little time touching his warm flesh. He pressed me closer to him with a light groan and kissed me, the way he always did when we had been apart for much too long. Our breaths mingled together, and I didn't mind breathing in his air because it made my head feel so light. I held on to him for dear life, drinking him in.At last, we finally came up for hair. When we saw the flushed look on each o
Rayne's POV“Who is it?” I asked. The news brought relief and anxiety at the same time. Relief because at least one of the two people I had in mind would be absolved of suspicion, and anxiety because what did that mean for the other?“Crest.”“What?” I nearly rose to my feet. He wasn't the one I had been expecting, given that he had been so clear about his hatred for werewolves. “But . . . He hates us.”Kaiden shook his head. “I know about what happened to his brother, and of course, he doesn't exactly love us as a race, but he is dedicated to protecting both sides, rather than eradicating one.”“No. No. But he told me himself that we deserved what was happening to us—the murders, everything. Why would he say all that if he was an ally?”He looked at me seriously. “That is strange, but so far, he hasn't given us any reason to doubt him. His sheer will alone led him to us. He's a bloodhound.”“What do you mean?”“We all deal with grief in different ways. For him, dealing with it was by
Rayne's POVAnother day at the Lakeside campus had me rolling my eyes in tiredness. Wednesdays were particularly packed with non-stop classes. And on this day, the lecturers had chosen it as the best for dropping assignments and mini projects.Celine groaned beside me as we finally walked out of the large halls, dragging her feet over the ground like a zombie. She made a show of being unsteady on her feet and bumped into me, but instead of throwing me.off balance and on to the ground, she wrapped an arm around me.“I'm so tired!” she moaned, making fake crying sounds.“I am too. I barely have any strength to keep myself upright. So if you know you don't want to kiss the ground, you'd better stop leaning on me.”“But what use is a friend if not for leaning on, hmm?” She held on even tighter. “You smell like chocolates and you're so delightfully warm.”Luckily for her, I could, as a matter of fact, still carry her weight without falling over. So I kept walking with her practically attac
Rayne's POVMy mouth tasted like ash and sand. It didn't feel good. As I opened my eyes, a sharp throbbing headache started, causing me to squint and groan softly. I touched my head, cradling it gently. The pains continued, making it hard for me to even focus on a single thought.When I looked around my surroundings, I realized one thing very quickly. This wasn't my room. In haste, I rushed to pull myself into a sitting position and realized that my hands were bound together by some kind of leather belt. The harsh material dug into my flesh painfully making the skin there red and sore. I tried to move, but I saw that my feet were suffering from the same treatment as well.A lump formed in my throat as I remembered the last few minutes I had spent awake in my home before waking up in a dingy shack with little ventilation and light. I told myself to not panic, but the more I remained on the squishy foam I sat on, the more annoyed I got about everything. The peeling walls disgusted me,
Rayne's POV“You're insane. And you always have been,” I spat viciously. “You can try as hard as you want to, but you will always remain so; a broken, crazy doll—”She backhanded me across the face so savagely that I almost fell backwards on the bed since I had nothing to support me sitting upright. Her nostrils were flared as she glared at me, and her chest went up and down forcefully with anger.I spat out the blood that pooled in my mouth, but still smiled at her. “Does the truth hurt?”She clutched the sides of her dress with shaking hands. It was obvious that she wanted nothing more than to wrap them around my neck and squeeze my flesh until I could no longer speak or breathe, and turned blue from lack of air.“Were you the one who asked Celine to capture me?” “Celine brought you here because she suspected that you were a werewolf.” She pulled Celine to her by the hand, a gesture too affectionate for someone like Savannah. I had never seen her being so gentle with anyone. “Unlik