Fallen (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 33 - Clouded

*****

"There has to have been another," Zev muttered, his face twisted in bewildered frustration as he studied the images spread across the table.

We were working with a few of the forensic scientists from our pack as well as a few other experts they worked with in the city. That was one place where people from a few different packs and different walks of life worked together. They had taken photos, collected samples and DNA and were currently explaining what they could deduct from the pictures and the way the scene had been laid out initially to us. It offered more insight into how the attack played out, who was attacked first and who suffered the most in case there was a possibility the man was targeting someone specifically. We all doubted that, but it was important to consider.

After the initial shock had worn off, Zev and I both became suspicious of the scene and the fact that just that one wolf from the beach, a wolf I knew was not very strong or well-trained given how he had approached his attack at me, had managed to take out four of our pack's most highly trained guards. Even if they were caught off-guard by his presence, and it seemed they were, they were trained for situations they did not expect. One wolf... That wolf... could not have killed them on his own.

Hilliel was still shaken but was recovering well and had informed us that when he arrived, three of the four guards had already been killed. He had watched the last one get attacked and decided that waiting until the murderer was finished was not an option, so took his chance while the wolf wasn't looking and jumped at the murderer from behind.

We were considering the possibility of a second person involved who had disappeared before Hilliel showed up because it just did not make sense that that man had killed the guards.

"They would have to have been an expert, there are no signs anyone else was there at the time," one of the scientists spoke.

"An expert doesn't kill like this." The crime scene had been messy, it was clear there was quite a fight and struggle.

"Have you considered the possibility that one of the deceased was in on it beforehand?" Everyone looked at Zev and me for a reply.

"Yes." That would explain why the cameras just happened to go out minutes before we estimated that the attack happened, and why no immediate message that the cameras had gone offline had been sent to whoever was working at the main security office in the center of the pack. Whoever had tampered with it knew how our security camera systems worked.

There was or were clearly more traitors within the pack. But how they knew the man from the beach... or whether his attack just happened to line up with their plans was harder to figure out.

"Why get yourself killed though?" Ethan, one of the heads of security, muttered. The four people working at the gate that day were those who had been scheduled to work for weeks beforehand, no one had mysteriously called off work so no one had tried to evade the attack. Why would someone arrange their own murder?

"What about Hilliel?" I mumbled. It was not something I wanted to bring up, I felt even more guilty suggesting him because I knew the incident was partially my fault.

Sending a wolf that had just attacked me back to my pack so nonchalantly was a monumental slip-up. I had been so certain his need for revenge would overshadow his anger towards me, so certain that his attack was spurred by just passion for his mate, I didn't consider that he would hurt anyone if I offered to help him get back at Lawrence. I was not usually a bad judge of character, in the past, I had always been able to rely on my gut feelings about someone... but maybe, and it was hard for me to consider because it seemed ridiculous, just maybe Talian being there clouded my judgement.