f i v e
a n g u i s h
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"TELL ME EVERYTHING."

The brunette she-wolf glared at the Alpha standing before her. He was leant up against his desk, black suit blazer having disappeared to reveal a plain white t-shirt. His face was angry; stern. Yet Tia couldn't help but think that it was handsome. Mysterious, captivating, and dangerously attractive.

Eretria folded her arms across her chest. She hated being controlled and manipulated by those who abused their power. "Why should I?" She retorted. "For all I could know, you'll just lock me up again."

Connor shook his head, waving a hand to beckon his pack wolves from the room. Tia glanced at their faces, realising that Jared was nowhere to be seen.

"You're an alpha now. And I invited you into my territory," The man explained.

"Well that's just great," Eretria growled. Her eyes involuntarily rolled, mocha irises refusing to make contact with the glacial blue of Connor's.

Connor raised a thick eyebrow. "Plus, you two are the only people we've ruled out of being the murderers. You were still in the cell at the time it happened."

Colton finally stepped away from the wall, eye bags looming in pitch black crescents. "So how do we know that we can trust you?"

"We don't," Tia answered for the other Alpha, shooting him a look of hatred.

Connor straightened his legs, dominantly taking a step towards the girl before him. This close, Eretria could see the darker cobalt flecks suspended in Connor's bright blue eyes. They reminded her of the Mexican ocean - of crashing waves and her old home.

"I'm not that sick, Eretria." Connor glared with abandon. "I knew your father well. I'm so sorry about what happened."

"Well you can shove that apology up your-"

"Tia," Colton stepped in. "He didn't do it. He's telling the truth." The girl in question pursed her full lips, now bare of ruby lipstick. She knew what Colton meant - Connor's heart rate was steady.

Tia shrugged, momentarily ignoring her best friend. "Well my father's not dead, anyway," she murmured as her glare pierced Connor's paler skin. "But if you insist on calling me the alpha, fine. I'm the alpha, and I'm not going to stop until the bastard who did this is dead."

"Me neither," Colton added adolescently. His face was torn to shreds, skin rippled into a furious snarl. Although Colton's remaining family members were already dead before the event, Tia admired the man. She was proud to call him her best friend.

Connor undid one of the metal cuff links on his new shirt, rolling up the sleeve with one fold. The movement was immaculate, and precise enough to inform Tia that he had done it numerous times before. "And we will help," he murmured, powerful voice reverberating off the wooden walls of the office. "If there's someone, or a group of people out there killing the packs, we're at risk too. Our whole species is. And like hell I'm going to let that happen."

Tia paced along the oak floor, trainer soles creaking against the floorboards. The tinted wood didn't seem to fit in among the new furnishings and huge window composing one side of the room. Through it, Tia could see the lights of the city beyond, blinking like bright stars. Trees waved in the breeze, orange shining through the blackened leaves as the sun dipped below the horizon.

The she-wolf rubbed her temples irritably. "Ok. Fine. So what do we do?" She glowered at the other Alpha.

"Find who did this to your pack. Kill them. End this," Connor uttered in return.

Colton raised both his eyebrows in sync. "Cheery stuff."

Connor strained a finger to hush the boy, power rippling through his body. "We need to be ruthless if this is going to work. And we need to start from the beginning. The police department doesn't know about this, and so it's down to us and my pack to stop this person," the Alpha explained. Tia kept her face emotionless throughout, refusing to give the male the satisfaction of showing her shattered soul. "So you need to tell me everything. Start from the beginning."

With a laboured sigh, Tia rolled her eyes. Crossing her arms in defiance, she told the Alpha male everything she knew. Including Jared's betrayal.

Just as Tia was wrapping up her story, there was a hefty knock on the door. Connor weaved through the two accomplices and opened the barricade to reveal his Beta. The pair watched Connor's jaw pulse as Jared entered with a stack of paper in his hands, enclosed in a brown folder. It reminded Eretria of a death report she had seen multiple times on murder dramas.

"Speaking of the devil," Tia growled.

Connor yet again waved a slender hand. "He explained everything to me," the Alpha said. His contorted face told a different story. He had been betrayed. "It's ok. I would've done the same in his position."

Jared shot the three a toothless grin, clearly uncomfortable in his alpha's presence. "Good to see you again," he winked. Bile rose in Tia's throat, and she smiled inwardly as she noticed the yellow bruising littered across the man's forehead.

"Wish I could say the same," the girl bitterly remarked. She swallowed the lump stuck in her throat, almost choking.

Jared ignored her retort, returning to dump the file on Connor's desk with a resounding thud. Dust motes sprang into the air, refracting the final glimmers of daylight.

"This," Jared spoke slowly, keeping the other three werewolves on edge. Colton was already tapping his foot against the floor, the vibrations spiralling up through his leg and into his bones. "Is everything collected from the pack house." Jared handed each of them a collection of pictures.

Tia almost threw up over them. A picture of the crime scene sat in front of her eyes, refusing to move. She knew the people in the picture. She had grown up with them. Trained with them. Been there for them. All she could see was scarlet, the pigment staining her perfect yet blurred vision.

The girl flipped to the next picture. Then the next. She kept rifling through the stiff paper until she reached one that wasn't to do with corpses, or even the pack house.

The material scraped against her skin as her brown eyes scoured the picture.

"Hey," Tia spoke up. The men all raised their heads in curiosity. "Do you know whether it was the food that was laced with wolf's bane, or the drink?"

"We don't know," Connor sighed, agitated for not knowing the answer. "But since everyone had the same meal, I predict that we start there." He paused, azure eyes resting on Tia's. The girl felt her forehead begin to bead with sweat, and the dull flush in her cheeks as they reddened - she hated herself for feeling so drawn to the man. "Why?"

Eretria turned around the picture, flashing a van with a company logo on the side of the white shine. "Because I think we owe Brad Food Co a visit."

hiya everyone! thank you for reading this chapter and i'm happy to let you know that i'm finally back! be expecting more updates very soon ;)

what do you think's going to happen next?

lotte xx