Chapter 1

Asher walked down the gravel path, which led to the familiar graveyard, a bunch of red roses clutched tightly in his arms.

It was eerily calm, not even the birds or insects dared to make noise here. The trees danced lazily with the wind and the moisture it carried hinted an impending rain. No matter how many times he visited this place, he couldn’t get used to the heaviness that was pressing his heart.

Asher’s heart tightened with each step he took toward his once true love, Sienna, who rested here peacefully with no care about the world or his pain. His legs stopped when he reached her grave and his knees gave up as usual. A loud sob racked his entire body as he let go.

Every day for the past three years, he came here to meet his love with her favorite red roses. Every day he cried, but the pain did not seem to lessen and he always left the graveyard with the same feeling, only to come back the next day and cry again.

No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t let her go. He mourned for about a year before he tried to move on, going to the blind dates set by his friends. But his heart always remained void, which no women filled. He had long given up the hopes of finding love again. He didn’t think for a second there was ever a second chance for him.

Asher traced the tombstone, which held her name ‘Sienna Harlow—beloved friend, daughter, and fiancé’.

Sienna was his beloved. She said ‘yes’ to marry him. He never got to give her the ring he carried around in his pocket for a year before finally asking her that night in the cabin. The same night she has ripped away from him.

He’d put the ring on her cold fingers just before they buried her here, and she would never know that. He never got to ask her if she liked the ring, he never got to flaunt his new status as an engaged man, he never got to marry the love of his life.

If  he had walked her to the door, as usual, she’d have been alive now. They would be living happily, probably with their children.

The guilt ate him from the insides. It was his fault. If he hadn’t given so much importance to his job and taken five minutes to make sure she was safe inside her apartment, she would have been alive.

No matter how often Logan told him it wasn’t his fault, he blamed himself for her death. Taking a deep breath, Asher placed the roses over her grave and left with a heavy heart again.

***

A pair of pale hands picked up the bunch of red roses from the grave. Asher seemed oblivious to her presence and, as usual, she looked at his retreating back with a longing she did not fathom. She reached down and wiped the grave clean with an old rag she carried in her hand.

The werewolf visited this grave every day without fail and mourned for the woman buried here. She’d been watching him for so long, like clockwork, repeated every day. He’d visit every morning with a bouquet of roses, cry for a while and then leave.

The roses were the color of her lips, smelling divine. She inhaled deeper. The calming effect it had on her was imminent. She loved roses and who was she to say no to the flowers she received freely. It wasn’t like the buried woman was going to wake up and demand her to keep it back.

With a shrug, she stood and dusted off her battered dress before leaving the place. It didn’t take long before she reached her hidden cave in the woods. She placed the roses with the other roses she carefully collected over the years.

She’d run into Asher one day morning in the grave while she was hunting for lone humans to feed. Instinctually, she hid from his view and didn’t dare to approach him because he was a werewolf—her natural enemy. They hunted the vampires and other dark creatures alike. At least, from what she witnessed.

Every day Asher came with the roses, which intrigued her. The others mostly visited once a month or during important days. But he was consistent. The woman must have been very special to him.

If she didn’t know better, she’d say she was even envious of the dead woman. Every day she made sure to collect the flowers, wanting to preserve that love. Her heart ached to see his tears for some unknown reason. He was a wolf and would kill her without any preamble if he ever found her. She shouldn’t feel this way and she should stop doing this.

She sighed and lay down on the makeshift bed she had made with dry leaves and old rags, waiting patiently for the dusk.

Her eyes drooped, and she fell into a deep slumber dreaming about Asher and red roses.

***

Asher let out an inhuman growl in frustration. Last night, another human was murdered right outside his territory. There was too much blood, some even seeping through the thin, white sheet that covered the victim’s body. The familiar metallic tang in the air made his gums ache, and at the same time, scrunch his nose.

The human detective Ace Jackson approached him with a grim face. “Looks like the same MO,” he said.

“Wrap it here and meet me in office later,” he said as he turned to his guys, who shook their heads, saying there were no scent trails or clues to follow.

The murders that happened outside his territory have increased considerably over the years. They haven’t had a clue about who was the culprit.

Most murders took place during the rainy weather, which successfully washed away the evidence, and they had no hope of catching a scent. All victims had similar wounds—captured, tortured, and then their bodies ended up near the swamp with their throats slit open.

However, the victims they found so far were not innocent. They were the infamous assassins in the supernatural world. They all had a bounty on their head and Asher knew well why assassins were stalking around his territory. Someone had placed a bounty on his head and he was yet to discover who it was.

With Asher being one of the strongest alphas in the city, the prize was five million, and the assassins loved the challenge. An assassin would be a fool for not accepting the offer, but so far, no one has succeeded.

Though the MO was similar, Asher doubted they were after the same suspect. Because their murderer never hunted criminals. Their previous victims were all innocent, unsuspecting humans.

“It seems like you have a mysterious protector out there,” Logan commented once they were alone.

“Who are they and why are they even doing this?” Asher let out a sigh, running his long fingers through his thick, bronze hair. He tried his best to discover this mysterious person, but so far, no luck. They somehow knew of the cameras around his territory and evaded every single camera successfully.

Logan lowered his voice, looking at around his surroundings. “I have installed a few cameras outside the territory, all the latest models. They won’t even know it’s even there.”

“You sure this will work?” Asher asked after a few moments.

“I’m one hundred percent sure. I got this stuff from a dealer in the supernatural black market. It has a motion sensor and camouflage mechanism. Whoever it is, they will never expect this from us,” Logan mused enthusiastically.

Logan always had a thing for new technology; be it security systems or weapons he purchased them and stocked it, much to the dismay of the Sheriff.

The supernaturals had come out a century ago when the vampires had started a war on the human race, wanting to take over them. Other supernatural who did not agree with them sided with humans.

Humans won the war, helped by supernaturals. Though the humans were hostile at first, they accepted them later on and the supernaturals continued to live among the humans.

Fifty years later, the human government recruited the supernaturals to aid them with the crimes committed by psychotic supernaturals. The supernaturals had come together to form an agency called Shadow Crawlers, where all the supernaturals required to register. That way, they kept a tab on who was doing what.

They had their own rules and regulations. Even the supernaturals arrested by the human officials were handed over to them. The Shadow Crawlers monitored the criminals and sometimes eliminated them to keep up peace between the races.

Though the numbers of the supernaturals were less when compared to the human population, their strength compensated for what they lacked in numbers. A werewolf’s heightened senses came in handy in solving many crimes. Asher had assisted the local Sheriff with supernatural crimes since his younger years.

As the alpha of one of the packs in the city, the Shadow Crawlers had tried to recruit him several times, only for him to refuse their offer and working as a freelancer, assisting them when he was needed.

It was after Sienna’s death he joined Shadow Crawlers full-time, hoping to find her killer and hunting down the vile criminals.

He donned his glasses, adjusting them over the bridge of his nose. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

***

Asher was once again in the graveyard with red roses. He glanced around, scanning the surroundings as he eyed the shining black marble that was clean as usual.

He always wondered who cleaned Sienna’s grave every day. Initially, he thought it must be the caretaker, but for the past few weeks, he noticed that the caretaker was not around and the other graves nearby still had dead flowers.

Sienna’s grave always seemed too clean, the roses taken and someone had wiped down the dark marble. It looked spotless every single day. Brushing the suspicion aside, he placed the set of roses on her grave and mourned for a while before leaving the place with a heavy heart.

Upon reaching the car, he realized his keys were missing. He got a call on the way back to his car and the key must have fallen down somewhere in the gravesite while he pulled his phone out. Asher found the key halfway through the path and heard a shuffling few yards ahead when he bent down to take the key.

His senses heightened as he looked around for the noise and found the roses on Sienna’s grave were missing. The surprised werewolf ran toward the grave. Everything appeared calm and undisturbed as usual. There wasn’t a sound. His dark eyes scanned the area for any sign of movement as he inhaled deeply to catch a scent.

His heartbeat quickened as a faint scent of lilacs drifted through this nose. “It can’t be,” he whispered in disbelief and sprinted toward the direction of the wind, stopping abruptly when he lost it. The wolf within him howled and clawed his chest from the inside.

Only one possessed that enticing scent of Lilacs and that one lied six feet beneath the ground. He reached the grave once again. The marble still had the water droplets that had fallen from the flowers and the mild fragrance of the roses still lingered faintly in the air.

Shaking his head, he hurried toward his car. He needed to speak to Logan immediately. Logan might think Asher had gone crazy, but he had to speak to him.

***

A pair of ocean blue eyes watched Asher as he exited the restaurant.

She hated the blond girl dangling from his arms. The unknown girl pressed herself more at Asher’s side, smiled seductively at him, though he didn’t seem to bother.

She didn’t know why seeing him with other women hurt her so much. It was not like she could be with him that way. He hated and hunted down her kind. He would kill her if he ever discovered her.

If anything, Asher would be happier to hunt her down for the crimes she had committed, though it was for a reason.

She wiped the tears that stained her cheeks and left her hiding spot. She didn’t want to follow him anymore. For one, she couldn’t get any closer to him. Two, she didn’t want to know what happened between them. Her heart clenched painfully.

The fresh set of roses sat in its usual spot in the cave when she returned. She curled around the roses, staring at the far wall and unbothered to wipe off her falling tears she willed herself to sleep.