Moon Bound

(41) What You Find In The Woods |Scarlet's POV|

"That didn't go well," Cole said, halting next to me.

I nodded. It certainly didn't go well. Especially, considering what was laying in front of us.

I couldn't move my eyes away from the boy. The kill fresh, the ground soaked with blood, what remained of the body was a sight so gruesome and terrifying it was a wonder none of the patrolling wolves had already discovered it.

The smell of death lingered heavy and overwhelming in the air. Clogging my lungs, it was blocking the air path. Yet, as I choked for a fresh breath of life into my lungs, something inside me stirred up.

At first, I thought it was the blood that affected me but then I had to reconsider. The need to drink was simply not there. Instead, there was something else, something even scarier.

A drive to go to the body. An urge to lay my palms against the thorn flesh. Give it warmth.

It was official. I was going insane.

"Who would do this?" I asked, hoping his answer would distract me from my own dark desires, if not from the bloody mess in front of me.

I wished I could say I didn't feel pity towards the juvenile who was now a cold corpse placed on the lifeless ground but couldn't. He'd been one of them, one of my tormentors, his age notwithstanding when he took part of ShadowFang's usual behavior towards me, but I just couldn't not feel that loss the way it was supposed to feel.

Like an ache in my chest. Like a burden suddenly placed on my shoulders. Like a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I couldn't breathe.

Cole stepped closer to the body, leaning over and inspecting it as if trying to find a hint about what had really happened. First it was the explosion and now it was a dead body.

I didn't need to look at the dead boy to know what - or most accurately who - happened to him, but I couldn't look away either.

His clothes were torn as if having been forcefully stripped of his body. Now, they were laying a few feet away from the corpse, leaving the body, the flayed skin on the chest for all to see. Parts of the flesh were missing as if some hungry animal had bitten it off. The throat was open, the windpipe, judging by the gaping hole on the jugular, probably missing as well.

I didn't get that closer to check. I was already holding by a thread. So, instead, I watched Cole turn the body with his foot, rolling it flush on its face.

Claw marks cut through the skin on the back. Big and long trails of torn flesh, blood smeared over the skin.

"No wolf can leave such marks," I choked out, breath hitching in my throat.

"No wolf did this," Cole confirmed my suspicions.

"This is a message," he went on softly, the guilt in his voice palpable. "A warning of what will happen if we don't comply with their demands."

"If we don't give up willingly," I corrected.

It was our fault, but mostly, it was mine. The pack was right to think I was poison. I really was and I needed do nothing to infect everything around me. It was like Regan and I - fate. And no one could change fate.

"He knew people like us are being hunted, Scarlet. He probably knew it for a long time and it was a risk he took," Cole pointed out. "He knew this could happen. You shouldn't feel guilty because of his losses."

I shook my head. I'd been the trigger and now that burden was mine to carry.

He sighed. "You've become too human, Scarlet. A quality I'd usually admire but not now. Now it's dangerous to be human. It's dangerous to feel when you are surrounded by monsters and you are letting everything affect you. I know this is a murder, but you are not the one to be blamed it happened. It's all because of me innocent people are dy-"

"Innocent?" I spat out, cutting him off. "They are anything but innocent. They more than deserve this. They had it long coming... Just not like this," I finished in a whisper.

"It's still my fault, Scar. I can just go and all of this will be solved. No murders, no wars, no losses like this one. I can just go but I'm too scared to do what I should. I'm not as brave as you are." He looked up from the body, eyes focusing on me as I contemplated his words.

What did he mean he could just go and it would be solved? He couldn't seriously be suggesting he just disappeared off with his brother, the wildling.

"And you leaving will accomplish what, Cole?" I asked.

Hiding his hands in his pockets, he didn't look at me for a long time. He just stared ahead, lost in his thoughts and in that moment I wished I could just open his head and take a look at what laid inside.

"This is the only way," he muttered to himself, sighing as if resigning to his fate, then whipped around to face me. There was a hardness to his eyes now, a darkness that scared me.

"What if they come for you next, Scar? What if they come for Jaz, Hunter, Micah or Adam? Will you be this hell-bent on me staying here if the next time they kill one of the people you actually care about? And, trust me, I know they can do that. Once they decide to do something, there's nothing that can stop them. I can guarantee you. There will be a next time."

So certain.

"There won't be," came out in an angry bark.

We both turned to see Alpha, followed by his beta, Hayden, making their way toward us. One of the patrols was walking a few steps behind them, obviously already notified them about the body we'd thought we were the first to discover.

Too engaged in our argument we never even heard them coming.

"Alpha Greene," Cole acknowledged him, stepping away from the corpse as the wolves took that place to inspect it on their own.

By their tense and rigid postures, I could conclude they were none too happy to make the same discovery we had.

The wildlings did this.

A few grunts were exchanged as the men probed onto the corpse, faces revealing too much even in the fall of dusk.

A few minutes later, Alpha nodded at the patrol guy who retreated back into the surrounding woods, following the unspoken command neither Cole nor I had heard.

"A pack meeting will be held after we bury the boy," Alpha announced, his gaze skipping to his beta then traveling to me and, finally, settling on Cole. "I expect you and your people to attend."

He switched his attention back to me and added, "No exceptions will be tolerated."

He was back to being an ass. I wasn't surprised with the treatment I'd given him, but I wasn't happy about it either.

I felt a grimace slipping on my face as I looked up at the man who was my mate only to find his green eyes cold on me.

It reminded me of the past, the look on his face just then and the orders coming out of his mouth. The past when he'd given me as many orders as he wished and like a good girl I'd followed each and every one of them. Mostly.

Time had gone by and eventually things changed, yet once again I found myself ready to go with the flow named Regan Greene, alpha of ShadowFang.

Or at least, pretend as advised.

# I get it peeps. You're probably thinking 'WTH is happening now?' - I'm sure that you are. So, I'll just say this:

Soon, peeps! Be a bit more patient. It's just a few chapters away. Maybe in the next one, who knows?