Hey, kittens!
I'm sorry for almost two weeks of silence. Due to Wattpad's bugs I was unable to log in most of the time and when I did, I couldn't post anything or comment/answer messages.
Here's a new S&R chapter and I've already announced the winner of this month's giveaway in my CatMint5's GIVEAWAYS book. Another giveaway will be available in February.
I hope you'll enjoy this new chapter!
I ducked beneath the yellow tape and pushed the door with my gloved hand. It opened with a screech - a sound the floorboards repeated as I stepped inside and flicked the light switch. The metallic stench assaulted me right away, growing sharper as I neared the bedroom, even with its door closed.
Of all the rooms it had to be that one.
Bedrooms were private, they were the refuge where you found peace and rest after a long day, the place supposed to make you feel safe. But this one...
This one was where it had happened.
The nightmare.
Only, I wish it had been a nightmare and that poor girl got to wake up from it instead of ending up in the morgue.
She'd been so young. My age, actually. It could've been me. It could've been someone I loved.
I felt the air electrify and my muscles, strained with nerves, began to tingle. I felt him and I turned around just as he pushed the front door further, his eyes rounding as he saw me in the hallway of the single-storey house, his arm reaching for the gun, but stopping halfway.
Why was he here now of all times?
"For fuck's sake!" Callum growled and stomped towards me. "What the Hell are you doing at my crime scene, Keri?"
I straightened up and pushed my shoulders back. I was the Alpha of the Silver Bullets; I couldn't let him think he intimidated me.
Not that he ever did.
His forbidding, angry looks and the way he loomed a head above me never deterred me from standing up to him. I had a very different reason to always be on edge around that man. Whenever I saw him, whenever I felt him near me, I had to fight the urge to touch him. Especially now that we'd started to get closer...
Focus, Keri!
"There wouldn't be a crime scene without a killer." My voice came out steady, confident even. Professional. We had to keep this professional. "A killer who is trying to make it appear as if my pack is somehow involved. You don't expect me to just stay at home and wait for reports, do you, Detective?"
"That is exactly what you should do." He crossed his arms over his chest and I couldn't help but notice how large and strong he was. And fit. Especially for a guy his age and with his lifestyle. It seemed that danger made me notice his genetic pros even more. A natural instinct to procreate before it was too late perhaps?
"Isn't that why you made Kelly work this case? So that she can legally be present at the crime scenes and report to you?" Callum went on. I forced myself to bring my gaze away from his chest and back to his face only to be met with the familiar sight of his disapproval.
Good, I thought. Keep looking down on me. Keep making me angry. Keep distracting me from wanting to be with you.
"I trust my cousin, but I wanted to see for myself," I replied. It had been less than forty-eight hours since the new murder had been reported, and I was already desperate to learn more. What if the police had missed something? A pair of fresh eyes - even as sleep deprived as mine - couldn't harm the investigation.
"To see?" He grunted. "You wanted to see how the furniture broke while the girl struggled? The claw marks in the walls? All the blood that's left behind?" The Detective shook his head. "No one wants to see that. No one, but the sick, perverted bitch who did this to the girl."
His hands had formed into fists and his eyes had narrowed with a distant, cold look to them. His gruff voice had gone disturbingly quiet at the last sentence and that was when I was reminded why he'd taken a job at the police department: he cared about the victims.
He was blunt and rude, he acted like he wanted to be left alone, he shunned people, but he cared about the victims. He cared about the innocent. He wasn't the type to embrace a newly widowed woman and hold her while she cried for her husband, but he'd hunt down whoever took her loved one's life and he'd make sure the perp got what they deserved.
Callum had feelings.
He often kept them to himself, hid them at the deepest corners of his heart, but they were there.
My mate cared.
If only he could care for me the way I cared for him.
I couldn't help myself. I turned my back to the door that led to the bedroom and approached him, putting a hand on his shoulder once we were just a foot apart. He lifted his arm and covered my hand with his. My skin exploded with sensation, the electric current from his hot palm overwhelming. I gasped and his lips parted.
And then I remembered why I was there, because of whom I was there.
What if she saw us?
What if she found out what Callum meant to me?
He was strong, but she was a shapeshifter, a skilled one at that, given how long she'd eluded the police and the Sentinels; Callum didn't stand a chance.
I pulled my hand away.
Stay professional. Stay away.
I missed the coolness of Keri's touch the moment she pulled away from my uncharacteristically warm hand. She swallowed, looking away from me, her reddened eyes inevitably landing on the closed door that led to the bloodied bedroom.
'Don't go there', I wanted to say, but I knew she wouldn't listen. Even though her people were involved, she was overstepping her bounds; as a cop, I could've and should've removed her from the crime scene.
But I couldn't do it.
I didn't want her to ever see the horror behind that door, but I knew that on some level she needed it. So when she turned around and walked back towards the bedroom, all I did was follow her.
Her expression blank, she reached out a surprisingly steady, gloved hand toward the handle, held her breath and pushed the door open.
The scent of blood was overwhelming for me and even though Keri was in human form, her senses were still sharper than mine. I expected her to cover her mouth, but she hadn't moved a muscle. She hadn't even taken another breath.
"Breathe," I whispered and she did. One breath out, one in, one out, one in... And then she was moving, turning on the light and entering a room that had once had white walls, but now they were bathed in red, just like the floor. Even the ceiling hadn't been spared from the splatter.
Keri stopped at the center of the room and slowly swirled, taking in the broken furniture, the torn curtains, the shattered glass from the light bulb of the knocked over night lamp.
"She'd picked this one on purpose," Keri said quietly. "She picked this house because it's at the edge of town and no one would hear the human scream. She wanted to take her time."
The last sentence was full of so much raw hatred that my own fury rose inside me like a scorching flame, spreading through my body from the inside out. My palms began to itch and I rubbed them against one another, but the heat didn't dissipate.
The site of that girl in the morgue, her corpse battered and slashed, this crime scene washed in so much blood, it was astonishing it had all come from one person, and Keri... Here. Upset. Angry and helpless.
My chest tightened and my palms felt as if I was holding onto hot iron.
"Callum?" Keri ran the short distance needed to get to me. "What's wrong?"
Her arms were on my shoulders as I hunched forward and followed my own advice. Breathe. In, out, in, out.
"Callum, you are burning." Panic was showing in her tone, but oddly enough my first thought had been to tell her to call me 'Cal' again.
"I'm fine." My voice came rough through my dry throat. What was happening to me? Some sort of a panic attack?
"We need to get you to the hospital." She pulled on my coat. My long, warm coat that I loved and that was suffocating me right now.
"Come on." She pulled again, this time putting more strength into it.
"I don't want..." I began, but it was hard to breathe so that was all I managed. Her arms wrapped around me, a whispered 'please' sounding close to my ear. I closed my eyes and leaned into her.
Keri smelled nice. Clean. But also like earth and trees. Really nice.
As I breathed her in, my pulse slowed down and my chest found a steady rhythm - rise and fall, rise and fall - but instead of fanning the flames, the air that went to my lungs cooled me down. The heat began to retreat from my skin, until it was nothing but embers in my chest.
"I think I'm okay now. For real." I murmured, my eyes still closed.
"You are colder." Her voice was still low. It took her a moment, but she pulled away, her hands sliding to my elbows and once I opened my eyes, I found her looking at me in utter confusion.
"Callum, what happened?"
"I don't know." I shrugged, opened my mouth, but since I had no idea what was going on, I just repeated my previous reply: "I don't know."
"This isn't normal; has it happened before?"
I snorted.
"You turn into a wolf and you think a sudden fever is odd?"
She frowned and for a moment I thought my stupid self had offended her, but it seemed that Keri was still in worry mode.
"A high fever that comes and completely disappears in a matter of what? Five minutes? Less?" She let go of me to cross her arms over her chest. "Something is going on around here, Cal."
Her voice was so stern, I couldn't even enjoy the way she addressed me. But Keri wasn't done.
"Something probably supernatural. We have to see the Sentinels."
Keri's decision to take Callum to the Sentinels: yay or nay?
It might be for his own good, but do you think Callum would appreciate being poked and probed, and having tests run on him, especially since that would mean he should take some time (even if it's just a day or two) off the murder case?
And what do you think happened at the crime scene?
Why was Callum burning up and why did the flame inside him die down when Keri hugged him?
Please support this chapter with a VOTE if you enjoyed it and have a great time wattpadding!