*Keera*
I didn’t think it was possible to be in my line of work and not develop a few people skills. Like the ability to read people for example. It was something I had really gotten good at over time. Which was why despite the fact that Grayson tried to hide it, I knew from the second he pulled open the door that he wasn’t happy to see me. I just didn’t know why it pissed me off so much. I bit down on my lower lip, reminding myself that I’d promised myself on my way here that we weren’t going to another one of our infamous arguments.
I was determined to keep that promise.
He gripped the side frame of the door with one hand, the other one still holding on to the door knob. I watched as his eyes dropped to the home made food in my hands. His features displayed his surprise. I held the food tighter, studying him. It had devastated everyone when we found another body. Even more painful was the fact that it had been someone Ginny had been close to.
She’d been a bit unsteady after discovering Sam’s body lying between the thick bushes by the side of the road leading up to her house. No one had been able to calm her down until Grayson had arrived at the scene. I bit the inside of my cheeks, remembering how easily he’d ignored me in front of everyone when I’d been trying to talk to him. It really hurt me for some reason. Probably because I felt our last conversation had been somewhat civil.
Apparently I was wrong.
“I thought you were already asleep.” He finally stated after we’d been silent for a while, jolting me out of reverie. I shook my head. I met his eyes, weirdly wanting to ask him if he was alright. He’d been gone for so long I’d honestly gotten a little worried. At first I had stayed up waiting for him to get back but then Lexi had walked out of her room and joined me on the couch, saying something about wanting to use the TV since she was finding it difficult to fall asleep.
I had been nowhere ready to explain the reason I was still up so I wished her goodnight and went back upstairs to my room. I’d been awake the entire time up until Grayson got back, asking myself one question over and over again. Since when was I worried about Grayson? All we ever did was fight and get into arguments. Why was he beginning to affect me so much? Why did I suddenly find his actions hurtful? Grayson and I had never given a shit about each other.
We weren’t even friends.
I was extremely surprised that I was suddenly so genuinely concerned about him. I cleared my throat, handing the food in my hand over to him. “Ria said I should give this to you when you get back.” I informed him, pleased that my voice sounded as firm as ever. I had been a little surprised when Ria, of all people, had given me a meal that she’d prepared for Grayson and asked me to give it to him.
For one, I wasn’t aware that Ria and Grayson were that close. Although in hindsight now, I wasn’t exactly sure how I had missed it. All the signs had literally been there. They were around each other more than he was around anyone else. After she’d left I’d taken the food with me to my room before coming back to where I’d been sitting on the couch. Her gesture had left me wondering if something was going on between them.
Not that it was any of my business.
I only felt that it would make a lot more sense. Neither of them had found their mates yet and from the knowledge I had about werewolves they were free to choose someone to mate with aside their true mate. If they had decided to mate with each other it would definitely explain why they were always hanging out. And then the second reason I’d been so surprised was that she’d given the food to me.
I couldn’t place my hand on the exact reason but I had the gut feeling that Ria didn’t like me. She hadn’t outrightly said anything mean but there was just this weird feeling I got whenever I was around her. It must have been difficult, giving the meal to me to give to Grayson since it had already gotten so dark and she couldn’t be out for much longer. The fact that there’d been another victim showed that the killer was still on the loose.
It would be insanely stupid of anyone to not be extra careful.
A dark look crossed Grayson’s face but it was gone before I could make out what it was. He took the food from me, giving himself a small rueful smile. “I should have known you weren’t capable of doing something like that.” He murmured, his head slowly moving from side to side. His hair fanned across his face and a few splashes of water met my skin since it wasn’t completely dry.
But that wasn’t my problem.
I folded my arms across my chest, fixing my gaze on him. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, wanting to know. At this point there was no way he wasn’t trying to hurt me on purpose. Since when did he expect me to cook for him? We had never had that kind of relationship. Hell, I was even convinced that if I gave him something I prepared he would downright reject it.
So what the hell had he meant by that snide comment?
At first he looked lost, a crease forming between his eyebrows but then he realized I must have heard him and shrugged a shoulder. “Exactly what I meant.” He replied, his eyes blazing with an unspoken challenge. I uncrossed my arms, staring at him in a mixture of shock and confusion. I’d know he was in a shitty mood the second he’d arrived at the crime scene but I didn’t know that his mood was this bad.
And I most certainly didn’t know he hadn’t gotten over it yet.
But why on earth did he seem to be out for just me? I had never been an easy target. Not to him and not to anyone and strangely, I didn’t think he had been an asshole all day just to fight either. That sort of thing required energy. One I could tell he clearly didn’t have just by looking at him. “You’ve been acting like a dick all day, Grayson.” I said to him, “If there’s something you have to say to me, go ahead and say it.”
The muscles of his jaw twitched and stretched over his cheekbones as he downright began glaring at me. How did he even have it in him to be angry right now? “You want to know what I have to say to you?” He asked harshly, taking a step forward. “Well listen and listen well Keera,” I braved myself for whatever it was he was about to spill.
“I don’t like you. Never have and never will. The fact that you even get to walk around my pack irritates the hell out of me. The fact that you’re living under my roof, makes me want to rip something apart.” His hands fisted beside him. “The only thing that could even remotely change my mind about you is if you’re able to catch the killer before he tears my pack apart.”
His harsh breathing on my face was the only realization I had that he had gotten dangerously close to me. “But I have a feeling you won’t even be able to do even that.” He stated flatly, slamming the door behind him as he entered his room. And making me realize that I’d been lying to myself all this time and it was time I finally admitted the truth to myself.
Grayson hated me more than I hated him.
***
“We were able to narrow the time of death down to about five minutes past three.” I said from where I stood in front of everyone in the conference room. The council had asked for a briefing, obviously wanting to know how we had gotten with getting an idea as to who the killer was. Despite the fact that Sam had been recently killed, it wasn’t as easy as the team and I had thought it would be to find out who had murdered him.
Sam was one of the older werewolves of the pack and we had been told that he had lived alone right from the very beginning. He hadn’t been fortunate enough to meet his true mate and he had made the decision to be by himself rather than mate with someone else. We had no way of finding where Sam had been heading to when he left the house because the killer had to have gotten access to him from somewhere.
Over the last few days after we’d discovered his body we had conducted a series of interviews with his neighbors but none of the interviews had yielded anything important. None of his neighbors seemed to have mastered his routine. No one could guess where he might have been headed before crossing paths with the killer.
“And the cause of death?” Ginny asked, her question directed at me. I didn’t think it was my imagination that the room seemed to get even more quiet. Somehow, everyone had come to know of the tension around Ginny and me. I subtly inhaled a calming breath like I did whenever I wanted to talk to her. I always needed to brace myself whenever I had to meet her eyes.
She was partly to blame for the way I currently felt about her species after all.
She was looking at me steadily, her emotions secured behind a mask so I couldn’t tell what was going through her mind. “There were needle marks on the side of Sam’s neck, leading us to believe that the killer must have injected him with something.” I informed them, giving an answer to her question. “We’re not sure what it is exactly so we can’t say whether or not it was what killed him.”
The council members looked surprised at the revelation and I couldn’t say that I blamed them. Though it had occurred to the team and I that they were probably given something that first destabilized them or made them unconscious, it was understandable that the council hadn’t thought of it. Not when they thought so highly of their abilities and believed themselves to be beneath drugs.
We were still taking a look at Sam’s organs and trying to see if we could isolate the drug to know what kind it had been. I’d already asked Elena to get me a list of all the potential threats that werewolves faced despite their supernatural healing abilities. She’d given me a book that was so thick I’d barely been able to lift it myself. The book was ancient, the covers worn and the pages a little dusty.
It had obviously been quite a while since anyone had made use of it.
“But do you guys have any idea what we’re up against?” Ralph asked. He was the lead pack warrior. His chin length hair was tied into a tiny bun at the back of his head. I met the eyes of my team members, wondering if there was any point sharing any of our theories. We weren’t exactly sure ourselves what we were up against. At this point the killer could be male or female, old or young. We wouldn’t know for sure until we had identified the exact cause of death. With that in mind I managed a small smile as we brought the meeting to a close.
“Not yet. But we’ll keep you informed the second we discover anything important.”