Ash sat in the slowly emptying classroom trying to complete the work that had just been handed to them by the teacher. Catching up when one was actually trying to live a decent life wasn't as easy as it sounded, but it was better than having to be on high alert every time in your life and making sure to take pills that hide who you are
Remaining suspicious of everyone around you for probably knowing your secret and making sure to act natural while you lived with people that you knew were your enemy. Living that life was hard, although getting out of it didn't seem to be something that was easy.
Some of his friends that found out about him immediately unfriended him while the ones that sympathized remained close to him even though those were also cut in half when they were threatened to be alienated just like he was. Nonetheless, he did not mind any of that. He had been initiated into the Lycaon pack and was finally feeling a sense of belonging that beat the fake friendships of high school. He continued writing, slowly losing track of time as the students got out. Soon the class was empty and he was the only one there. His sensitive ears picked up on the silence. He was happy to get to feel his wolf's presence without fear of it being suppressed again.
Footsteps got his attention prompting him to raise his head to look at the door as someone entered the classroom. He sighed in relief when he recognized who it was. Someone he knew and could trust to have his back. "Someone looks jumpy," the newcomer said.
"Yeah, I'm still a bit jumpy. It will pass… that much I know."
"I wouldn't be so sure. How is the work going?" something seemed odd about the person talking to Ash. He wasn't the type to just walk around alone.
"Can I ask what…"
"You don't get to ask anything…" the tone changed into one that was cold and hostile, "not after betraying us like that." The smell of wolfsbane was the first to hit Ash's nose before his breath was cut off. Ash's assailant stood holding a blade covered laced with wolfsbane, one that dripped blood that was stained purple from the poison having slit Ash's throat in the blink of an eye. Ash's body fell to the ground and started to convulse and release more blood. With his throat cut the way it was, he couldn't make a single cry for help. The killer had made sure to make this quick and quiet. "You know it doesn't even matter if they find you. I'll be out of here real soon and by the time they find out… well, I'll be long gone."
The assailant threw the blade out the window and walked out of the classroom like nothing had happened, counting on the sick odour of the wolfsbane to keep the wolves away before they could smell the blood. He couldn't help the smirk that formed on his face and the feeling of satisfaction on getting rid of a traitor and in turn causing so much trouble for the hunters and the Lycaon pack. 'Oh dear Katie, I wonder what you will do now. I'm practically dying to know,' he relished his sadistic thoughts, his heart devoid of all feelings of remorse…
.....................…
Cole sat partially attentive to the math teacher and partially trying to think of different ways to make the evening one to remember. That was right before the sharp pain in his chest hit like a hurricane. He cringed at the pain and put his head on the desk trying to figure out what it was that was ailing him. Caden noticed his master's condition and asked, "What's wrong?"
"I don't know… pain, unbearable pain in my chest. Like something's been severed," he said. Caden stood up from his seat in such a hurry that it caught the attention of the entire classroom.
"Mr Caden, if you have a question… Mr Caden, Mr Caden, get back here," Caden was out of the classroom before anyone could stop him, his nostrils flaring, looking for the one scent that mattered to him in the school other than Cole's. He ran down a few stairs before the repulsive smell of wolfsbane hit his nose. He almost turned to go back when the scent of blood mixed into the one of wolfsbane. It wasn't just any blood though, it belonged to the person he was looking for.
"Cole, get out of the classroom right now. Something terrible might have happened to the new pup," Caden said through the mind link. His body was frozen in place, a feeling of dread taking over him. Cole emerged from the classroom staggering, the teacher following behind him.
"If you needed to go to the infirmary, you could have just said so," the teacher yelled in exasperation.
"This has nothing to do with my medical condition. Get back to the lesson," Cole said to the teacher in an authoritative tone, "and excuse my other comrade to come with me." The teacher rolled her eyes in disbelief and simply walked back into the classroom. Seconds later, Jason came out and helped Cole walk, catching up to a frozen Caden at the staircase.
"Hey Caden, what's with the…" his question stopped halfway when the scents got to him as well. An alpha would be heavily weakened if it didn't know the cause of the feeling of loss and this was what was happening to Cole right now. Caden knew what the pain he described meant which allowed him to make the suspicion that Ash was in danger, but now he stood frozen unable to continue for fear of the reality that his mind kept trying to prepare him for.
"Caden," Cole's voice had a hint of anger to it, "stop wasting time."
The message was clear in his words and was enough to get Caden moving again. He ran ahead allowing Jason to lead Cole there at his own pace. The scent was impossible to miss and soon enough classes were werewolf students were starting to run out of the classes away from the source of the smell. Panic was taking a bit longer to set in which worked well for Caden since he was able to go through the hallway before it filled up with panicking students. Unfortunately, this also meant that the culprit had all the time in the world to make a swift getaway.
He finally found the classroom that was supposed to be the smell was thickest and got in, his hand on his nose. He turned to face the back of the classroom and froze at the sight before him, his body began to shiver in rage, fear and loss. Emotions that, up until now, had never been invoked at the same time at such a magnitude. Ash lay in a pool of blood, his eyes lifelessly staring up like he was looking at the someone towering over him. the smell of wolfsbane originated from a slit in his neck that ran across his throat. He wouldn't have been able to scream for help with that kind of wound. He also didn't know how to mind link since he was only recently a pack wolf. 'Who would do such a thing?'
"Did you find the source of the blood?" Cole's voice came in strained through the mind link.
"Yes, alpha, I found the source of the blood," he said.
"You rarely refer to me as your alpha… What happened?"
"Just get here… and see for yourself," Caden's voice was completely empty of all emotion. All he knew was anger and a strong sense of revenge. It took everything he had to keep himself rooted to the spot on the ground. He wanted to hunt down the person that had committed this heinous atrocity and end their lives in the most creative and painful way he could think of.
A little over a minute after talking to Cole, he turned up with Jason, "Damn that scent is thick in here," Jason said, his voice sounding, "Hey, Caden, is this…"
"Is this supposed to be some kind of joke? If it is, then it's not a funny one…" Cole spoke, his voice spelling danger.
"That pain in your chest is what an alpha feels when they lose a pack member…" Caden spoke, "Ash… is dead," the three of them shared the same thoughts of murderous intent as they stared at the dead body of the fifteen-year old that they had only recently taken into their custody. Memories of Ash's innocent smile and crybaby nature only helped to fuel their anger.
"He was innocent. He was only a child," Jason was about to start rambling.
"Stop speaking in the past tense. It doesn't help quell this rage," he said.
The first people to arrive were Sandra along with some of the teachers. Katie was nowhere to be seen in the group of people that came. Sandra steeled her face and made a call to the Hunter Agency to tell them of what had just transpired within the school. There was an uncomfortable silence for some time before the sound of sirens could be heard in the distance, however, they were not the first to arrive.
No one noticed how or where she passed when getting in. Katie just appeared frozen at the front of the classroom, her body shivering with fear. Sweat beaded her forehead and stray strands of her hair stuck to her face. To the werewolves, she still had an overwhelming scent of the forest with her which showed she'd been running. 'Where is she from?' thoughts originated from the three werewolves as well as Sandra. Sandra had noticed her leave with the principal, but she did not know where exactly she had gone.
One more thing that caught their attention was Ash's hand. In his own blood, using the last of his strength, he had endeavoured to write something on the ground but wasn't able to finish. His energy had only allowed him to write one letter. The letter, 'K'…
Caden turned to the new arrival in the room, pure rage driving him through his next actions. This one gesture raised a lot of questions… The one person that Ash was infatuated with was Katie and it seemed less than likely for a dying person to try and write the name of their loved ones rather than their killers. The first person that came to mind when he saw the name was that of the person that stood before him right now. Each passing thought seemed to convince him more and more that he was staring at Ash's murderer. His need for justice was beginning to cloud his judgement even though no one could blame him for his suspicions.
Ash had been killed with a poisoned knife and his throat had been skillfully cut to make it so that he bled to death without uttering a single word of help. Not to mention the only person Kyle would have trusted to get that close to him with a weapon in hand would have been Katie as well. Everything seemed to point directly to her. The weapon that had been used as well as one that only Katie was authorized to use in the school.
Katie soon noticed the malice that was directed towards her and spotted the letter that was written on the floor. From the look in Caden's eyes, there didn't look to be a way for her to calm him down and allow normal conversation. "Does this look like something that could happen in the safest school to you?" Caden asked her, his voice shaking with anger.
All of Katie's work to promote peace in this school and bring about a sense of safety was shattering right before her eyes. The mass panic that she found in the corridors proved that. Considering the reports on werewolf casualties in the school being more than humans, there was going to be an uproar of chaos when it was revealed that a werewolf was killed within the walls of Brigade high school. Katie's mind worked on summing up how much she was supposed to deal with that she didn't manage to notice the fist that connected with her jaw a second later.
Katie hit her back hard on the whiteboard at the front of the room, falling down into a crowd. Her jaw pulsed with pain from the impact of the blow Caden had delivered, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Are you messing with me right now?" Caden asked, his voice low and dangerous.
"I won't let it slide the next time you try to hit me," Katie said. She walked right past him and up to Ash's body, using two fingers to close the boy's eyes. "Damn it, Ash. What were you trying to say?" Cole was astounded by her level of confidence that it only seemed logical that she wasn't the killer. Come to think of it, there was nothing she would gain from killing the boy. As far as Cole had noticed in the past days, Katie did not prefer violence and kept it to a minimum. Her fight with Shaemus spoke for itself.
"Where were you, Katie?" he asked, his voice coming out hoarse and almost inaudible.
"I was… at the Hunter's Agency…" she said, "I'm afraid we might not be in the clear yet about there being rogues in the school that are suppressing their abilities."
"You expect me to believe a rogue killed him when wolfsbane is thick in the air and the precision of the cut is no doubt something of a master's job. Not to mention the letter he's written on the floor…" he said inquisitively. The pain in his chest was beginning to subside although it still felt like he had lost something within him and hurt like hell to even think about it.
"Your suspicions are your own right. I can't blame you for lashing at any conclusions in your mind so that you can seek justice for the crime that has been committed today. While you have lost your pack member, I have lost everything that I've been building since the day I set foot in this school. I'm only remaining calm so that I can keep a level head while carrying out an investigation on this. And when the time comes that I find Ash's killer… I'll put him through more hell than he can imagine," Katie's voice was getting shaky towards the end, allowing the listeners in the room to get a sneak peek into the rage that boiled deep within her.
"Katie…" Caden called, his hands still balled into fists. This was hard on all of them and he had been the first to act out of pure emotion rather than reason, "I'm sorry I hit you."
"It's okay… I'm just surprised you have already ruled me out of this considering he wrote the first letter of my name with his dying breath."
"I can't deny that it points to you more than anyone else that I know, but…" he paused, taking in a deep breath, "it also doesn't make sense for you to kill someone as innocent as Ash. And for that, I will hold off on any suspicions that I have against you until we have more information.
The paramedics finally made it to the room and got to work on bagging the body accompanied with everything entailed in their job descriptions. The five students stood aside and watched in silence as the body Ash's body was put on a stretcher and carted away.
When the stretcher was just about to pass by them, Cole placed his hand on it stopping its further progress. "When the autopsy is finished, the body is mine," Cole spoke, his voice low while he said it.
"Do you happen to be part of his…" the paramedic stopped when Cole stared him straight in the face, "Never mind Mr Lycaon, we will give you a call when the autopsy is done," With that, he let them leave with Ash's body.
A sudden silence from the commotion snapped everyone out of their thoughts. A sole set of footsteps stood out in the silence. A few moments later several people could be heard moving through the hallways. The first person to come through the door was a tank of a man. The man dressed in sleeveless black leather clothes, an unbuttoned jacket similar in design to the one that Katie owned except that it could easily be twice the size. On the inside of the jacket, he donned on a thin black shirt that did not hide a thing about his physique. The leather trousers that he wore just seemed like overkill with the bad boy outfit.
Katie greeted the man with a slight bow of the head. This was a gesture that registered deep into the minds of the werewolves. The man spelt trouble in each step he took. The others that escorted close behind him almost meant nothing in the suffocating presence and authority that came off him. It was clear that he wasn't a werewolf and yet…
"Meet Sir Anthony Richards… the head of the Hunter Agency," Katie made the introduction as was required of her in a situation where the three wolves could easily get her into trouble.
"Thank you for the introduction, Chase. Report…" his commanding voice came out booming. Katie flinched a little. She would have expected to be used to his tone by now, but it was like he yelled louder the next time he did it.
"I only just arrived sir, but I will relay what I know of the situation. The werewolf that passed the evaluation yesterday was murdered by what seems to have been a blade laced with wolfsbane. I have not yet found the weapon that was used…" she froze up, unable to continue with the rest that was not confirmed.
"Well, considering you were the first to leave the Hunter's Agency when you got the news, you should have seen more than that," he said.
Katie clenched her fists in anger… "I was only gone an hour… How was I to know that the enemy would use a window that small to commit a murder?" she said, her voice low.
"Do you think you would have stopped this enemy if you had been around?" the man asked.
This was a question Katie could not answer… Her mind was a mess, anger trying to cloud her thoughts. The white wolf that faintly strained to act on her anger did not help soothe her anger at all. She had to figure out a way to figure this out.
When Anthony noticed he was not getting an answer to his question, he called one of the hunters that were behind him. "Tell Principal to check the cameras at the entrances and exits in a two-hour span of this incident. Make sure to make a detailed recording of the names of every student with a roughly suspicious movement during that time so that we can narrow down the suspects," he said.
"Do you really think a student is the one that did something like this?"
"After what we witnessed yesterday with Shaemus creating a diversion that risked the lives of nearly five hundred civilians, I can even suspect a helpless baby," he told the hunter. With that said, the hunter left, walking quickly to relay the order. "Chase… I want you to keep it together."
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