*Grayson*
I didn’t do this often. Eardrop, that is. Usually I’d always been the type to mind my business and not give a fuck what anyone else was up to. Which was why I was a little surprised that I was standing stealthily by the foot of the stairs, using my abilities to listen in on the conversation going on in the dining area. From what I could make out, Keera, Kathryn and Lexi were the only members of the team who weren’t present in the discussion. It was just Josie and Joe talking. I could definitely see how Keera wouldn’t be present anyway.
She was the topic of discussion after all.
“She’s not exactly as cold as I thought she was,” Josie was saying a little warmly. My eyebrows rose at that. It was very easy to see why anyone’s first guess on meeting Keera was that she was cold. She wasn’t exactly the laughing playing around type. She hardly even smiled at anyone. What I really found surprising was Josie’s statement that she wasn’t as cold as she’d earlier thought.
Keera might have loosened up a bit when it came to her team members but she couldn’t fool me. I knew exactly how cold and easily irritated she could be. It was how she’d always been. I tried to ignore the sound of my wolf internally poking my conscience. Tried, and failed. Woefully. Even I knew that Keera hadn’t always been so. . .
Uptight.
I couldn’t exactly blame her, could I? She wasn’t exactly around people she knew very well. I’d gathered from Trevor that she was only working together with the team for the first time aside from Lexi. I already knew she hated being in the pack just as much as I hated having her here. And then she had to live with being in close proximity to her ex best friend and his supposedly annoying twin. She wasn’t always like that.
She’d been laughing the first time I’d set my eyes on her.
That was six years ago. I’d first watched her from a distance before confronting her and asking for her to stay the hell away from Ginny. She’d been leaning against the hood of a car with some guy, all smiles and laughter, a shot glass in her hand. They’d kissed seconds later, still laughing when they’d pulled away from each other. Hell, thinking about it now, they had even seemed almost. . .
In love.
I ignored the burning sensation in my chest and pushed the thought aside. Keera was free to fall in love with whoever she wanted to. My mind had already been made up about rejecting her as my mate when everything was over. She could be with whoever she chose. I focused my attention back on Josie and Joe. Speaking of whoever she chose. . .
“I think it’s admirable the kind of faith he has in her,” Joe was saying, his voice warm. I turned my head, taking a look in the direction of the dining area until Josie and Joe came into view. Josie was looking thoughtfully into space and I could already tell from her expression that though she agreed with what Joe had said, she also thought that his faith in her might stem from something else.
Like the fact that Trevor might have more than work and friendship on his mind where she was concerned.
And her? I thought silently, even as I cursed myself for even bothering about it.
What did she have on her mind where he was concerned?
“There are a lot of things to admire about Keera,” Josie was saying. She let out a little sigh, squeezing the empty burger wrapper in her hand and throwing it into the trash can a few meters away from her. “I just wish we could find a lead on the case.” She said, “It’s beginning to upset her, I can tell.” I blinked, her words registering in my mind. Was she really upset that they hadn’t been able to help us so far?
I hadn’t thought she had really cared.
I took a step back and then walked into the living room, making myself known after deciding that I had heard enough. Naturally, their attention turned to me and I gave them a nod in acknowledgement, looking down at my phone. I’d sent Keera a text stating that there was going to be a briefing in an hour. She had read it but she hadn’t bothered to send back a reply. Oh well.
As long as she showed up with her team.
There was important information they needed to be aware of. I walked to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water as Josie and Joe carried out the rest of their conversation in hushed tones. I could easily hear them but I chose to tune them out instead, no longer interested in the topic they were discussing. The doorbell from the front door chimed once and then we heard the door let out a short grating sound as it got pushed open.
Conall walked in with Elena right on his trail. I had to glance down at my cell phone to confirm that they had in fact arrived a little early to the meeting. Usually they were both almost always the last bunch to show up to any meeting seeing as they had lots of duties as pack hunter and pack healer. I shook hands with Conall, clapping his back before moving to give Elena a hug.
“That’s a first,” I couldn’t help saying. “You guys are a little early.” They shared a look, smiling at some inner joke. “Don’t think you’ve ever been the first to arrive for a meeting,” I told them. They must have definitely realized it too at some point and made conscious efforts to arrive first. I shook my head, laughing lightly when they confessed as much.
They walked further into the house to shake hands with Joe and Josie. It didn’t take long for the other members of the council to show up. Keera was the last person to show up with Kathryn and Lexi. The conference room was a little noisier than usual. It seemed like they had all gotten to the point where they had started saying more than just hi and hello. I cleared my throat to draw their attention and everywhere went silent in a few seconds.
“Without much delay,” I started, curling my lips, “The council and I wanted to know how far you’ve gone with the case.” I met Keera’s eyes but she immediately shot her somewhere else. “If there’s anything we need to know,” I said, continuing. “Or anything we are supposed to do to help.” Nyx and Ryan’s gaze moved to Keera, much like everyone else’s. She was having some sort of non verbal conversation with her team members before she leaned away from her seat and towards the table.
“We might need something in the near future,” She said calmly. “But for now there’s not much you can do to help. We tried to find out what Sam might have been injected with but somehow all traces of whatever it might have been, seemed to have disappeared from his body.” Ginny grimaced, hearing Sam being referred to as a body obviously getting to her. Ryan rubbed her knuckles, his lips meeting the side of her head.
“So what you’re trying to say is that you’re as clueless right now as you were on day one, on what or who’s killing them?” Ria asked, fuming. She looked like she wanted to pull her hair out of their roots. Calm down, Ria, I said through the mindlink. At first I thought she hadn’t heard me but then she looked at me and visibly calmed, leaning back in the chair “I’m sorry but it’s beginning to look like they’ve been sitting around doing nothing this entire time.” She couldn’t help but add.
“Excuse me?” Keera’s voice was calm but not the good kind of calm. The kind that made you think about running as far as your legs could carry. Her jaws clenched with barely restrained fury. “You did not just say that we’ve been sitting around doing nothing, while we’ve been working our asses off, trying to come up with a fucking solution to fix your fucking mess!”
I felt a wave of anger course through me and I had to remind myself that it was Keera’s emotions that I was feeling. “I guess that’s the entire problem, isn’t it?” Ria snapped. “You might have been trying,” Air quotes were on the last word. “But the truth remains that you actually have nothing to show for all your supposed efforts.”
“That’s enough, Ria” Ginny scolded, Ryan barely holding her back. Apologize, I said to Ria through the mindlink. Her gaze shot to mine in shock and a bit of surprise. I lifted an eyebrow at her, letting her know that I was not joking around. She had no right talking to Keera in that tone. Whether or not I was happy with it, Keera was still my fated mate. And my wolf simply couldn’t stand the disrespect.
Apologize, now, I repeated through the mindlink. She stared at me incredulously, looking a little hurt when she realized I was being dead serious. “I’m sorry,” She said reluctantly. Keera scoffed lightly, shaking her head and giving herself a rueful smile. She was wondering why she had even bothered coming here in the first place, I could tell. “But things would probably be a lot better if you have any news for us.” Ria muttered under her breath.
“Speaking of news,” Josie said, sitting up. “Tala’s parents informed us she had been on her way to see a friend when she left the house.” I narrowed my eyebrows, wondering what that had to do with anything. Sarah had told us that Tala had left the house to see Millie. It was part of the reason I’d excused their lack of worry for her when she hadn’t showed up back home. Tala and Millie had always been hanging around together for long hours.
I wasn’t sure how Josie thought telling us this was going to help.
“She never got there,” Keera deadpanned as if reading my mind. Our eyes held and even now when we had people around us, there was no denying the underlying cackle of electricity between us. Could the others feel it? Hell, did I really care if they could? The truth still remained that nothing could ever happen between us. She tried not to show it but her subtle squirming gave her away.
She was affected by my stare.
“And Millie had been waiting for her the entire day at home.” Josie added, catching my attention. “Her parents had let us know that much.” I met Ryan’s gaze, wanting to know if the news was as new to him as it was to me. I hadn’t known that, he said through the mindlink. The frown on my face deepened. They were saying that Tala had never gotten to Millie’s house.
Why not?
“We’ll see if we can figure out why tomorrow,” Keera stated, again sounding like she had read my mind. Which of course was impossible. Humans didn’t have that ability. I groaned inwardly, well aware it was just the mate bond messing with me. Making it look like we were in tune with each other when we were absolutely not. I nodded at her words before proceeding to let them know that we had decided to go on with the bonfire ritual. We’d put the ritual off for way too long.
Since there wasn’t much space to bury our dead like humans did, their bodies were burnt instead. And then afterwards a bonfire was set up in memory of them. Tributes were read and then thrown into the fire and the pack just spent the entire time together, hanging out and talking about how good the person was until it was dawn.
We’d put off the ritual so Keera and her team could carry out the tests they wanted to but it had been prolonged for long enough. They were going to have to come up with some other way to catch the killer. We owed all the victims the respect of performing the ritual. And since they were already so much, the ritual was going to be the biggest we had ever performed.
And probably the most chaotic.