Warning: this chapter contains sexual incidents. Be advised.
Anger.
The one I swore to keep under a leash rages through me and demands blood.
Blood.
Of the ones that took Arielle.
Of the ones lying.
Of the ones standing in front of my face now, holding chains.
I had come out of the forest to find six of them waiting.
They're standing wide apart in the vast space of the brown field between the house and the forest, long chains dangling from their arms, faces set in hard determination and hate.
The hate is an important expression I've seen on every face for the past three days.
And it is starting to grow stale and very fucking annoying.
"You pups better run home," I say, making to walk around them when the largest of them and probably the leader blocks my path.
"You're coming with us. Willingly or in chains is entirely up to you."
His sneeeing face is familiar from the night Terrence came. He had been part of Terrence's men.
They had been the one to take Arielle.
A heavy sigh rumbles from my chest as the afternoon sun pours over me and my very angry face.
My wolf is stirring slightly. But the threat isn't enough to make it antsy for a fight.
After killing Dave it has been quite silent.
It's bloodlust satisfied after so many long years. Fighting had only delayed it but it was always there casting dark shadows in my mind.
Now I'm as calm as a river in the face of potential danger.
"I don't want to have to kill you all," I say flatly. "Fuck off."
Killing is the type of chaos I sort to separate myself from. But somehow I keep coming back to it.
The way I keep coming back to the consuming thoughts of Arielle and how she must be so scared.
The largest one scoffs. "You can't scare me, Casper. You killed one of us. You must serve your punishment according to the pack's law."
"Doesn't the law also say no werewolf should attack a human without reason?" I throw back at them, watching coldly at their young dumb faces.
"How do we know he attacked her?" Another says, his voice full of spite. "How do we know it's not all a lie and you didn't just kill him? I mean there's no evidence to support your story."
He starts to swing his chain in a slow circle. An act meant to be intimidating but after the shit I've seen, to me, it's like watching a little boy play at being a soldier.
Despite the anger boiling in my veins, a chuckle rumbles out of me.
"What's fucking funny?" Their leader demands, following suit and swinging his chain as if he means to throw it.
"Does anyone know you're here? Whose bright idea was it to come here and get beaten up?"
"Don't make this hard, Casper."
Across the field, from the back of the house the sound of a door opening and closing echoes. Then the light footsteps steps into the grass and a second later Jean appears looking quietly furious.
His eyes slide carefully from the chains to the men holding them and finally to my angry face.
He tucks his hands casually into his pockets, eyes narrowing slightly, voice so deep and flowing that even I feel unsettled for a second.
"You have two minutes to get off our property."
His voice have the desired effect and the men shift, glancing between each other. Their leader steps forward, pointing at me with one sharp end of the chain.
"When will he be punished? Everyday that passes our brother lays dead while he roams free."
Jean stares at them steadily.
"The last thing my brother is doing is roam. We're all looking for Arielle that you claim to not know where she is. The Alpha had instructed you to wait."
"But—"
He cuts off the protest with one warning look and in that moment he could've been the Alpha. I can feel how the weight of power suits him. How he uses it easily like a well mastered knife.
And ever since I came back, this is the first time I properly look at my brother in a different kind of light.
"Terrence is burying Dave tonight. Better go focus on that."
The leader looks helplessly at him, opening his mouth to say something but Jean beat him to it.
"You have one more minute to get off our property. I'm sure you wouldn't want to bury more people tonight."
Just like that the tension seeps out of the air. The men bow their heads, give me a murderous look and roll up their chains.
"My brother's blood must be avenged."
Jean nods flatly. "For sure."
The men turn and leave, stomping through the fields with tight shoulders.
I glance back at Jean. The words he had said suddenly replaying in my mind.
"…Who do you think protected this place when you left to go 'find yourself' in the city? Who stepped up when you abandoned us? ... Nobody needed you then and nobody needs you now… because all you do is ruin everything."
He blinks and the fury falls away from his eyes replaced by a cold unreadable expression.
"You're really trying to take my place," I scoff. My anger is still here, simmeeeing beneath the surface looking for an outlet.
"It hasn't been your place for years now," he says, unfolding his back and turning to go back into the house.
"You should save us all the trouble and fuck off back to the city."
I grit my teeth, my fists clenching.
"Well I'm not going anywhere."
"And look how we're fucking suffering for it," he turns back to me. "We're on the brink of a pack war after Dad fought so fucking hard to keep the peace. People are picking sides while you spend your time running through the fucking woods."
"I'm looking for Arielle."
"For someone who wanted her locked up in the basement, you've sure stepped up. We're all looking for her but we're still fucking concerned about what happens in this pack. Even Kyle has focused enough to be of help." He walks forward, closing the distance was he talks, his face breaking with every words and twisting into rage.
"But nothing applies to you I guess. You do whatever the fuck you want with no care for the consequences."
My heart pounds in my ears, my wolf stirring awake, filling my chest with the promise of violence.
He laughs. A dry toneless sound. "What? You wanna hit me? Wanna knock my ass flat on the ground because you're the fighter in the family?"
Jean stops right in my face. "Things have changed, Cas."
"Yes they have. You no longer have respect. I'm still the first son and heir."
Something flashes in Jean's eyes. A streak of red in the sea of green and for a moment I don't recognize my brother. There's an alien soldier in his place and I can smell the acute resentment wafting from him in waves.
"You've never deserved this pack, and I'll make sure you never become Alpha."
With that Jean turns and walks away. This time he doesn't take the path to the house, instead he curves and quietly vanishes behind the dark trees of the forest.
I'm left stunned. My wolf realizing there won't be any fight, sinks back to sleep and my mind is just stirring with new information that my brother has at some point started to hate me.
And he hasn't stopped.
***
With one of my longest friends dead, the other missing, only Jaz is left and I make the drive to her house.
Partly because I don't think I can stay at home anymore and need a place to cool down and mostly because I haven't seen her since Arielle disappeared.
I park in front of the modest house and step out. The air smells richly of scented flowers and ripe fruits from the large orchard spreading acres in all direction behind the house.
My anger hasn't abated but at least it's now under firm control. Though the doubles feeling in my chest persists.
Things have changed, Cas.
I wasn't expecting a warm welcome but not such a hostility either.
Sighing, I push Jean out of my mind and that leaves Arielle occupying my thoughts once more.
There isn't even a clue hinting at where she could've gone.
Terrence has denied taking her. I've searched his property ten fucking times and found nothing. Not even a trace of her scent.
As if her entire existence here was a fucking dream.
Her hairband in my pocket says otherwise. The scent of her still lingering on all my senses says otherwise.
The weight in my chest from her absence says fucking otherwise.
I wanted her to go. But not like this.
Not when I had no idea if she's safe or danger.
It's a struggle to try and know what the fuck I'm missing.
I walk up the sunlit cobbled path to the front door and knock twice.
A dog barks from somewhere inside. A set of footsteps echo sounding louder through the door.
Jaz opens the door. She looks surprised and about to go out from the way she's dressed and her blonde hair put up in a ponytail.
"Hey stranger." She smiles, stepping aside for me to enter.
"Hey." I step in and drop quick peck on her cheek.
"Are you heading out?"
"Yeah. I wanted to go join my parents in the search for Hugo. We're supposed to round up early for the funeral."
"Any news?"
"Nobody has seen him yet." She locks the door and quickly wraps her arms around my neck.
"I feel like I haven't seen you in forever." Her cheek rests on my chest, her warm body pressing against mine offering comfort that I lean immediately into.
Inhaling the lavender scent in her hair, I nuzzle my face into her neck, letting everything fade from my mind. It takes a long second for the rage and frustration but it does ease.
My shoulders slowly deflate and my arms tighten around her waist.
It's hard to imagine Jasmine not being my mate. When she has always been there for me. A calm force in my violently shitty life.
She made the long trip to the city to visit me and watch all my important fights.
Even when she wasn't there I felt her presence and it was a reminder of home.
A home that doesn't want me now.
I pull away first and she cups my face and kisses me.
The kiss is slow at first and I respond even slower spreading my fingers on her waist.
"I don't think we have the time," I mutter on her mouth.
She chuckles. "We have time." She breaks away, grabs my hand and leads me through the house to her room at the end of the hall.
When we enter, she kicks the door shut, slips her hands into my jacket shrugging it off. Her mouth finds mine and this time the kiss isn't slow.