Ember's Pov

If I had worried that Jean would make a failed love-making attempt look weird, that fear would have been unfounded. Because after that mini-heated moment, he made sure I took a shower and gave me one of his shirts to wear. It was thick, warm, and comfortable. Axel didn't call, so I assumed he understood what was going on.


"you should text Axel and tell him you're not coming home," Jean said, bringing a glass of milk to my bedside.

"or perhaps I could leave him be, and see him tomorrow." I said and received the glass of milk, "Thanks for this one." I said as he shook his head,

"Has anyone ever told you that you're quite stubborn?"


"countless times. But the fact remains, that I'm not a child. I don't need to be calling home every time I want to stay out late or spend the night at a guy's house."

"true. You aren't a child. But at the present time, everyone is just a little worried about you. You know this."


"I do. I do. But I'm safe. "

Jean only shook his head as he lay down next to me, "sadly, I'm not getting through to you. Drink your milk and retire." he said, and he actually sounded tired. I'm not sure I have ever heard Jean sound tired.

"Fine then," I said and did as I was told.

~~~~

I woke up at the wink of dawn to an empty bed, and reached for the space where Jean should have been,

"of course, you wake up before I do," I said and sighed, before sitting up and looking out the window. The sun was just coming up and I could hear the chattering of birds.

In spite of everything I was passing through, it felt like it was about to be a good day.

Axel didn't return from wherever he had gone off to till around seven, so I found myself doing stretches, and practicing mindfulness. He found me on the ground, my legs crossed when he opened up his door, and the silence that followed was erring,

"is this a thing?" he finally asked, and I opened up one of my eyes to look at him,

"only when I have a mind to it. You were gone when I woke up and I didn't really know what else to do with myself. "

"do you do this with yourself often?" he asked and started taking off his shirt and a flashback from last night hit me, making my cheeks burn,

"I... Often, lately. Yes." I blurted and felt like a fool for it.

"That's fine then." he said and sat on the chair across from me, "is your mind right, because there is something I've got to tell you."

"to tell me." I repeated and quickly got my mind out of the gutter, "All alright then. Shoot. I'm all yours."

"I was just at the infirmary. The men didn't make it."

I blinked back in shock and shook my head, as though to clear it, "Wait, make this make sense. You're telling me that they died?" I asked and he nodded slowly.

"Oh my." I said, and brought my hand over my head, suddenly feeling faint, "I know they didn't look so good yesterday, but for some reason, this was unexpected."

Jean said nothing, and I supposed from the looks of it, he didn't seem so shocked by what had happened.

"I'm really sorry about this one," he said soberly and I knew he meant it.

"why?" I asked and he shrugged,

"I'm the one who pumped them to bits. I was very angry and didn't think that we would need to keep at least one of them alive to get information from them. Now, they are gone, and it's all my fault."

"don't do that. Don't carry those, Jean. I was being attacked, you were angry. Of course, you didn't think about getting any information from them at the time. We'll just have to figure it out some other way. But you're not about to feel bad for fighting for me. Otherwise, I'll feel bad too."

"hell no." he said, dropping to the ground, so that we sat side by side, "I'm not feeling bad, so you don't have to feel bad."

"Exactly," I said and laid my head on his shoulder.

PARIS's POV

I decided to go back to the cabin where I had caught the scent of the kidnapped attacker. Because as much as it had seemed much like a dead end the last time, I wanted to believe that there had been something I had missed. At the very least, I was going to try and look around once again, in hopes that I would find something worth my while.

I walked into the cabin once more, and it was exactly as I had left it days ago. This gave me reason to believe that no one had come back, not the attacker, not the one who had kidnapped him. No one. And it smelled the same way it had the last time.

The truth was, I did not know what it was that I was looking for. I mean, I knew who I was looking for. But I didn't know where to start. So I started from the weakest point where I smelled the attacker until it led me to the strongest point. The backyard.

"the backyard?" I asked, bemused, and scratched at my head. I was Alpha, and hunting scents was a skill for me. But this? This was really testing me. I followed the scent into the woods until I began to smell something morbid, and something told me I was in for it.

Alas, I stopped before a swelling on the ground and shook my head.

"this can't really be happening," I said, suddenly feeling sick. There was a shovel close by, and I thought that whoever used it must have been incredibly stupid or way too confident. Possibly both. And those two combinations were always a recipe for disaster.

I picked up the shovel and got to digging, and only sheer will stopped me from throwing up at the sight before me. I had found my attacker all right. But every part of me wished that I didn't. Not if it meant, finding him at the bottom of the ground, with parts of his body detached.

"Oh, brother," I said, placing a hand over my head. I dug into my phone and called Jackson,

"sire?" he said when he picked up the call,

"a cabin in the woods. The backyard leads to the woods." I mumbled. I knew I was being incoherent, but my mind was whirling.

"Sire, my apologies. But I don't think I understand you."

"come to the woods. Follow the damned prisoner's scent and come to the woods, I'll send you my live location."

"Okay. Do you want me to bring some men over?"

No, that would complicate things, and I really did not know who to trust anymore,

"no. no men. Just you."

"Alright," he said, sounding worried. I ended the call and sent him the live location, then got to covering the mangled body with sand. I was done looking at him. Then I walked back to the clearing where the cabin was, with my mind racing.

In all my years, my own enemies had been outsiders and I had never felt shivers run up my spine at the sight of death. Not when I had caused my own fair share of deaths. But that was in the name of protecting my loved ones.

But this, what I saw before me, was happening in my own pack land. Pack members were killing each other. My own members were tampering with my security systems and hurting security guards. And I had reason to believe it was happening from within my own circle.

Ember's safety mattered to me a lot. But this was way bigger than this. All of this was bordering on diabolical, and I had to do something, before destroying my pack from inside out.