Mating Season

Open Grave

Chapter Ten (Open Grave)

Not a single one of the two packs' members had any clue what was going on anymore. No one but for the two figures standing at opposite ends of the unmarked, open grave currently being dug up. Behind each Alpha stood their respective pack, sporting various wounds and injuries, glaring daggers at one another. And it was no wonder.

One pack was furious for being attacked without provocation, while the other was out for blood for the loss of an important member.

So why were they behaving as if nothing happened again?

Amber sighed softly and then tightened the hands by her sides into fists. No one would envy them their situation.

Above them, the full moon glowed. The Shadow Hunters had been here all morning and afternoon.

She looked down at the patch of upturned soil among the sea of green grass. After they'd found him, Gaspard and Amber had given this unfortunate soul—Eric—a proper burial. She'd never imagined that she'd have to dig him up again. It seemed that his eternal rest still eluded him. How truly unfortunate.

She did not remember him. He had to be a new member who had joined sometime after she'd 'left'.

Surreptitiously, she stole a glance at Lucas... just as he was surreptitiously stealing a glance at her. Their eyes collided for the briefest of moments. An energy like an electric current sizzled between them. Amber quickly looked away, unable to bear it.

How long till they—till he—left her territory? It was driving her wolf dangerously mad, being at such close proximity to him. He was so very close, yet so very far...

The corpse began to emerge. It wasn't long before the body was completely exposed. Most around them looked away at the sight of Eric's mangled, decomposing body, but not him. He stared on, never shying his gaze away. She couldn't read the expression on his face, not that she'd ever known him intimately to be able to gauge and predict his reactions. As pack members, they'd only conversed during training sessions or when passing the salt.

Amber's own stomach churned dangerously at the sight of insects wriggling within the claw wounds, but she didn't look away either.

The males who'd dug open the grave climbed out simultaneously; Amber suspected he'd telepathically given them the command. He jumped into the grave and crouched down. He was unfazed by the blow flies and flesh flies buzzing around him. Amber watched him lean his face into the largest gash across Eric's chest.

Without realizing it, she held her breath. Lucas sniffed, sniffed again, wrinkled his nose slightly, and then abruptly got up and leapt out of the grave in one swift move.

His eyes met hers. Everything and everyone around them seemed to melt away and disappear. Only they existed. They held each other's gaze for what felt like hours. She had no hope of reading his expression. She couldn't even begin to guess what he was thinking, and that irritated her immensely. Ever since she'd become Alpha, she'd grown exceptionally skilled at reading people. Yet she couldn't read her own—

Amber brushed that thought away, not caring to think about it any further. Instead, she forced herself to focus on the issue at hand.

She knew that he'd seen –or rather smelled—for himself that they were not the ones responsible for Eric's death, but she suspected that he wished he could disbelieve his own nose if it meant blaming her and her pack.

He was the first to break the silence. "Have you reported this to the Council?"

"I was just about to when you and your pack attacked," she told him matter-of-factly.