Skinned

¤ Stolen Weapon ¤

"I... I don't know," he said, the tone of his voice cold as he struggled with distress, "Jasper was the only one who managed to outrun the enemies. Heath was left behind along with the rest of the border patrols."

My heart stopped, the color draining from my face as I thought of every possible thing that could have happened to him.

"Jasper," Reed called out from the group, and a man with brown curly hair stepped out to approach us, his shoulders curving forward as soon as he stopped under Killian's penetrative gaze.

Jasper was tall and fit, with clothes torn and dirty as he wiped a hand across his cut open lip. His dark blue eyes refused to look up and regard the Alpha, kept only on the ground as he anxiously waited for what Killian and Reed had to say.

"How many of them are out there?" Killian questioned.

Jasper's throat bobbed, "A dozen or more. Armed. They shot everyone down, I didn't even hear the first fire before my partner was d-dead in my arms."

Reed clenched his jaw, "And Heath?"

"Beta Heath told me to run and alert everyone before shifting," The male subordinate wore a frown as he recalled the scene that took place, and I could see the fear on the look on his face as he tried to collect his thoughts, "He killed two men on sight, I know nothing more than that because I'd already made an escape."

"Fucking idiot," Reed snarled, his upper lip pulling back as his canines descended from the closer presence of his wolf, which sent Jasper to cower back in fear.

"No one sensed them close at all?" Killian asked, his features dark and brooding as he urged the male for more information.

"None," Jasper said, shame evident in his battered features, "I couldn't even smell them when they were shooting from a closer distance... I-I don't even know how I managed outrun them."

Killian frowned at the subordinate, his eyes shifting ahead of the clearing as he took a brief moment to let the facts run through his mind.

He then clenched his jaw as if he came to a conclusion, and his features darkened as he looked over at Reed, "Alert the wolves, have them vigilant and ready for attack. They'll be here soon."

"Am I missing something?" Reed asked, completely dumbfounded.

Killian snarled impatiently, "Alert them, Reed. Jasper didn't outrun them, they used him as an easy trail to us. If they wanted him dead, they wouldn't have hesitated to kill him on sight."

Jasper paled as soon as Killian's words dawned on him, and he looked down with hands curled into tight fists as he owned his shame.

"If I had realized, I wouldn't have ran off here," he mumbled, "Forgive me, Alpha."

I looked over my shoulder when I felt another wolf approaching, and saw a distraught looking Maliha with her arms folded tightly above her chest, the look in her light eyes telling me her grief of something I couldn't quite tell.

I thought she was going to approach me, but her gaze slipped away from me and landed on Reed, whose face had shifted to become somber. Her bottom lip trembled as she stopped in front of him, and she settled a desperate grip on both of his arms with wide open eyes that struggled to keep the tears at bay.