The Hunted

Seventeen

Red

Monroe and Lucy were trying to distract him. They had brought Annalise when they'd entered his office and his goddaughter's presence had forced Red to pack up the files he'd been pouring over for the last few days. The images of mutilated human corpses were not suitable for an eight-year-old.

"What's up?" he asked as Annalise perched on the edge of his lap and began scribbling away on a notepad. She ignored him completely, content to draw.

"How's the investigation going?" Monroe asked instead, avoiding his question and staring pointedly at the files he'd closed.

"Not many leads to go from and so far I've made zero progress on our fae enemies. I can't imagine anyone in our pack doing these things so even making a list of possible suspects has been difficult."

"But you do have suspects."

Red nodded solemnly. "A few."

A very short list but there were some wolves in the pack who might have the motive.

Lucy looked stricken as she rubbed her swollen belly. She was five months pregnant now, which meant that she would be due in about eight weeks. The baby had started kicking ferociously and foot rubs had become a part of Red's daily job duties.

"Henry received word from one of the packs in Washington yesterday," Lucy said. "He didn't have much information to go on about their wards failing but said that they'd had issues with hunters in the past. There were some really gruesome cases of humans being murdered across the state and so the hunters stepped in there but they were killing every wolf they saw instead of looking for the actual perpetrators. It's created some issues. I expect he'll give you a debrief later."

Red nodded, distracted a moment as Annalise showed him the butterfly she was drawing. When she was satisfied that he'd reviewed it and loved it, she began scribbling away again.

"Thanks for the update," he said. "Please tell me that you haven't read these files or those cases. It's the last kind of stress that you need in your life right now."

Lucy glowered at him. "You are more of a worrywart than my own Mate. I am perfectly fine. And I'm not stressing because I know that you're going to figure out who's doing this."

"Yeah."

Even if the investigation had been slow-going. Hindered by the fact that he hadn't been able to really talk openly to his packmates about it. He didn't want to tip anyone off about what he was looking into lest it sent someone on a rampage.

The only ones who knew were his closest circle. Henry and Lucy, Monroe and Toby. No one else was trusted enough. Red hated it. Keeping secrets, not trusting anyone...

Red didn't like that he was the one intentionally lying to his packmates when they asked about why he was leaving pack territory so often. Wondering about where he was going when he disappeared early in the mornings – usually on his way to the crime scenes where the humans had been butchered.

But Red had gotten good at gritting his teeth and faking a smile because it was a necessity. Someone in this pack was a murderer. And Red needed to be the one to find out who.

For himself – for Blake – he had to do it.

"Where is Henry today?" Red asked his Luna and Beta. "I haven't seen him and one of the SUVs is missing."