4. Fated to meet

Celine

The car drops me off and I trudge towards the pack territory with a heavy heart. I felt better this morning, way before I claimed a male that didn’t claim me. Now it feels like something in me is yawning open and my entire being is reaching for something but ending in a free-fall. I feel lost and incomplete.

“Celine!” Sandra hurries forward, her face pale with worry.

“Hey.” I take my mind off my forlorn feeling. “What’s up?”

“Oh my Goddess where have you been? I didn’t see you at the club after the... you know. And you weren’t home when I got back.”

“I was still at the club, I was held up by... something.” I don’t want to tell her yet. I’m not finished processing the entire evening myself.

“Thank goodness you’re okay.” She says and throws her arms around me.

I pull back with a frown. “Why wouldn’t I be?” It’s not like her to be so mushy.

She shakes her head, her expression pinched.

“What is it?! You’re scaring me Sandra.” I say, looking behind her. The packhorse is eerily quiet. Werewolves are always rowdy and unruly and I would have noticed that there is something wrong immediately if I wasn’t lost in my head. What can get worse than being rejected by my mate?

She steps forward and drops her voice to a whisper.

“A body was found in the woods.” She says and I eye her in confusion.

“A human?”

“No, one of ours. It’s awful Celine, the body is all dried up and husky.”

My jaw drops in disbelief.

“The desiccated wolf case?” I ask in horror. She nods rigorously.

“Yes. That’s what your father called it.”

My feet are pounding on the asphalt as I round the house and run for the woods. She joins me a moment later and together, we crash into the clearing. Dread coils my stomach tight, and I push to the front slowly, wondering whether it will be someone I know, someone I’m close to.

It is.

“Hart!” I yell in denial as I stumble forward. He is one of my closest friends in the pack. He is a calm introverted male and I was his only friend.

“Hart!!”

He’s barely recognisable. His body has blackened and dried up like old wood, or rotten lugs. He is stiff and his eyes are open and sightless, his expression frozen in extreme pain.

Hands grab me and hold me back and I fight to throw them off.

“Let go of me!”

Shawn, my father’s beta and Sandra’s father holds me back.

“Come to your senses Celine.” He snarls.

“Let go! No, Lor! Wake him up!”

My denial has crumbled under the weight of the truth. Hart is dead, the latest victim in the gruesome series of murders via desiccation.

“No.” I turn into his shoulder and cry, my heart breaking for the second time in only so many hours.

“Sorry Celine, you may not touch him.” My father says, staring at the body gravely. “We don’t know if that can be contacted with touch.”

Everyone is standing a good distance from the body because death is usually a very abstract concept for immortals. Now they haven seen one come so close to touch and they won’t admit it but they are afraid it could be communicable. Well I’ve not felt much like an immortal all my life. I straighten and step away from Shawn.

“I’ll bring him in.”

“You will do no such thing.” My father commands, stilling my movements. “The body will be transported soon.”

“Father.” My eyes plead with him. “It’s Hart, not some ‘body’. I can’t let him stay on the grass like that. Please let me bring him in.”

His eyes soften. “I understand you, Celine.” Then his voice grows hard. “But Hart is dead, and I will not watch you end up the same.”

I groan in frustration but his word is final and I can only watch, my body shivering from sudden cold as the transporters finally come and cart him away.

Sandra wraps her arms around me and I try harder to restrain my tears. There’s a limit to how weak I can look as the Alpha’s daughter.

“Shawn. Gather the people, there is an emergency meeting.” My father says.

“Yes Alpha.” Shawn says and is on his way.

“Father.” I step forward as everyone else disperses. “I want to attend the meeting.”

His instant reply is a no. It hovers on his lips.

“Please Father.”

He considers it and sighs.

“You are old enough to attend if you so will.” He says and leaves.

“Sorry about your loss.” Sandra says and I hug her.

“Thank you.”

Thirty minutes later, the meeting room is full, every male and female looking at my father  with concern. He clears his throat.

“As you must all have heard, a body was found in the woods today, a young wolf that was a member of this pack. The nature of his corpse leads me to believe this was a strike from The desiccated wolf hunter.”

The confirmation sends a ripple of shock down the table. We have all heard about the bodies being found randomly in woods, each one rotten and desiccated, dried as a husk. This is the first time that our pack is being struck.

“This is serious.” Merry, one of the females at the table says. “Not only were they able to cross into our territory undetected, they murdered one of ours and escaped, all without detection.“

“That is one of my major concerns.” My father says. “If an intruder crossed my territory borders, I would have sensed it immediately. And I sensed nothing.”

“Could it be someone from the inside then?” Harlow asks, looking around like he could possibly identify the spy with a sign on their foreheads. “One of ours?”

“We cannot discard the possibility entirely.” Shawn says, brows furrowed with worry.

“For the time being, it will be enforced that everyone move in at least groups of two.” My father says. “Children must be supervised at all times. I’ve never heard of the same pack being struck twice consecutively but we must not let down our guard.”

Everyone nods in acquiescence.

“So what do we know about the desiccated cases? What is the cause?” I ask and my older sister glances at me sharply. Most of the time, the younger ones are here to listen and learn and not to contribute. I ignore her.

I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t care much or pay too much attention to the reports of desiccated cases before. I had a lot on my mind.

“Good question, and the reason why we are gathered here today.” Father says and Shawn hands him a sheet of paper.

“Here is a list of all the packs that have been victim to the desiccated wolf hunter. I will be sending representatives to every pack here. We need all of the information they have gathered on the corpses and the cause of their death. We cannot solve this alone and you’ll make sure to remind them of that. In the meantime, our wolves will start conducting tests on it to see what we can find.”

My stomach twists with something horrible at Hart being referred to as ‘it’. Everyone nods in agreement and my father starts reading out the name of each pack and someone volunteers to go. I zone out, wondering at the strangeness of death. The last time I talked to Hart he was telling me about his plans to explore the world and now I’m to believe he’s just gone? Poof, like dust on the wind? My mind cannot comprehend the concept.

“I’m sorry about your friend.” Annika, my older sister says in a low voice. “He was a sweet male.”

I glance at her, surprised she even knows we were friends. She gives me a small smile and turns back to Father.

“Thank you.” I mutter. Me and Annika are far from close.

“And the last pack, Blood-bound pack. Any volunteers.”

Silence descends on the table and everyone glances at each other warily. No one speaks up to volunteer. My father clears his throat.

“We need one more volunteer, to the Blood-bound pack.”

That is the demon wolf’s pack. Just the thought of him sends shivers down my spine. I’ve not met him but I’ve heard the stories about him and the terror he sowed in the werewolf community centuries ago. Till now, his name is accompanied by fear. There is not a single wolf as powerful as he is, and they say when he turns demonic, he can tear worlds apart.

Centuries ago, his father’s pack was attacked by a rival pack that planned to usurp his power and take the pack as slaves. His father was killed but the attackers were not ready for the son that was sent far away. He came back to Centuria and with a handful of wolves, brutally killed the Alpha wolf that killed his dad, killed everyone in his lineage that could succeed him and destroyed the alphas of the alliance packs. In the span of a few days, half of the most powerful men in Centuria were wiped out with their lineages and he became alpha. Everyone that witnessed him kill said he was a demon, and it was as if the madness was upon him.

I understand why no one wants to risk their lives to go there.

“I’ll go.” I shock myself when I hear my own voice. My sister glances sharply at me again.

Mother frowns and Father turns a deadly scowl on me.

“No. Another volunteer.” He says shortly.

“Father!” I stand.

“Sit back down, Celine. You are going nowhere close to the Blood-bound pack.” He orders and my ass plants itself on the seat. He did not seal my lips however.

“You can’t cage me here forever Father.” I say.

“Celine.” Annika hisses and Father glowers at me.

“Leave us.” Father says and everyone else but my family and Shawn remains at the table.

“I want to help. Hart was my friend. I’m going to go out of my mind if I sit on my ass and do nothing. Please Father.”

“You can go, but pick another territory. Someone else will go to the Blood-bound pack.” He remains adamant.

“But you know it, that he is less likely to do anything rash if it is the daughter of an Alpha that is sent there and not just a random wolf. I am the safest person that can go there.” I say.

I don’t know why I’m pushing it, I could go to any pack. I guess I’m that curious about the legend, and I don’t like being told not to do something. Perhaps, I’m miserable already, it can’t get any worse than this.

“No. It is too dangerous.” Annika says to Father and I glare at her. This is why we just can’t be close, she always antagonises me.

“You are not the one going.” I snap. She is more important as Father’s heir, there is nobody more perfect for the job than me really.

“She does have a point.” Mother says and I glance at her in shock. She winks at me and I sigh in relief. Mother is Father’s weak point.

“I think so too.” Shawn says with a thinking face.

I relax back into my chair with a private grin. I already won this round.

...

“I heard you’re leaving. To the demon wolf’s territory!” Skye races in. My younger sister is the sister I’m actually close to.

I drop the last dress in the box and zip it.

“You got that right.” I say, hefting it down.

“You can’t go. Celine, do you have no fear? Do you want him to suck the blood out of your marrow?”

“Yuck. And he doesn’t suck blood.” I say with a grin. “He kills.”

She groans and drops to my bed.

“Can’t I convince you out of this madness?”

“Nope.” I say. “My mind is made up.”

She eyes my box.

“That’s a pretty big box for a day’s journey.” She says and I shrug.

“I don’t know exactly how long this will be. Better over-prepared than under prepared right?”

She sighs but doesn’t dispute that. One thing all three of us sisters agree on is fashion.

“Come back in a day.” She says. “Hurry everything up. I won’t be able to eat a bite till you are back safely.”

“Yes mom.” I say and she laughs.

“It’s not funny.”

“I’m not the one laughing.” I hold my arms open and she hugs me back tightly. And then I’m off.

I’ll avenge you Hart, I promise. I’ll kill whichever bastard did that to him.