He nodded. “His name is Byron. He’s an accountant. Human. I can’t help myself.”
“I… Cameron, this is so unexpected.”
“I know. There was no easy way for me to broach the subject, but we’re both twenty-nine. The society isn’t going to be patient much longer.”
“The society has never pressured males to marry. You can sire pups into your senior years.”
“Maybe. But if they marry off my best girl, there will be no female left I’d ever share my life with.”
No female who understood his secret. Eyes burning, Laina took an interest in the half-moon above her. Empathy was one thing, but martyrdom was another. “Cameron… I…”
Cameron rested his hands on her shoulders. “It’s a beautiful night. I’m sorry to ruin it for you.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “You haven’t. What you propose isn’t crazy or unheard of. It’s an amicable solution.”
“But…”
“But…” She narrowed her eyes at the moon. “Since the day I was born, my life has been dictated by my curse. My brother has the power to control my every move. Thank God he doesn’t exercise it often, but the fact is that he can sometimes make me feel like I want to chew off my own arm to escape his hold over me. When it comes to this one thing—deciding who I will marry—I want my freedom. I want to find someone or not find someone of my own volition.” She faced him, begging for his understanding. “Isn’t determining who we love the most basic, intimate, and personal choice? Why should either of us have to pretend anything?”
He frowned. “The pack is made up of human animals. Maybe it’s in their nature to be cruel.”
“Last I checked, the human part of me was in control.” She smoothed her hair and wiped under her eyes. “You were kind and brave to propose to me.”
He snorted. “Not bravery but desperation. You’d be an answer to my prayers.”
“Does your proposal come with a time limit? Can I think about it?”
He smirked. “Fifty years. If you don’t decide before we’re eighty, all bets are off.”
“Come here.” She embraced her friend, kissing his cheek. Now would be an excellent time to change the subject and put her friend at ease. But she never got the chance.
An ear-piercing scream cut through the darkness and chilled her to the bone.
ChapterFive
Breaking from Cameron’s embrace, Laina rushed inside toward the shouts coming from the ballroom. She cursed her stilettos as she skidded on the marble floor and had to steady herself on the wall. A ring of pack members had assembled on the dance floor. Once she’d excuse-me’d through the crowd, she stopped short, hand over her mouth when she saw their cause for alarm. The space where she’d performed with Cameron only moments before had become the stage for a bloody murder. A white wolf lay butchered, the white-on-white décor now marred by grisly streaks of crimson.
A grunt of disgust came from Laina’s throat. Her stomach turned. Strong hands gripped her shoulders from behind.Silas. “Don’t get any closer. There’s nothing you can do, and you could contaminate the scene.”
He edged past her, shouting instructions to the others to stand back. He’d call for help, Laina knew. The supernatural department of the Carlton City PD would be on this in a heartbeat.
Laina turned back toward the scene, intellectual curiosity warring with sheer revulsion at what she was witnessing. She tallied the number of bones in the pelvis and quickly determined the victim was an animal, not a shifted werewolf. That gave her a modicum of relief. Still, whoever did this meant it as a personal threat. Wolves were considered family by her kind.
The snowy fur of the abdomen had been split open.Dissected,Laina thought, wiping away a tear.The white wolf was positioned on her back, limbs stretched unnaturally as if drawn by invisible cords, bones and muscles locked in a painfully strained position. Whatever atrocity had been inflicted on the poor creature, the murder must have occurred before transporting her here, enough time for rigor mortis to set in. Nothing secured the limbs now, but they were frozen in the horrid position, a morbid memento of the torture she’d endured. Still, the abdomen appeared soft, and Laina could only make out the smell of blood, not decay. She’d seen joints stiffen within ten minutes of death in certain animals, although one to three hours was more common. The color of the blood suggested a recent death. She’d have to tell Silas she estimated the murder anywhere between an hour and two hours ago.
Laina pressed her knuckles to her lips, her chest aching for the ill-fated wolf.
“What does that say?” Cameron asked from behind her. He was peeking around her side as if he were using her body as a shield against the horror and squinting at the smudges of blood on the floor.
“I can’t make it out from this angle,” Laina said.
“Maybe we should go to my room and sit down. Let Silas do his job. It might not be safe here.” He tugged her elbow.
She shook her head. “If you think I’m running and hiding, you don’t know me.”
“And if you think I can stand to look at this a moment longer, you don’t know me.” Cameron grimaced. “Fuck, I need a drink.”
“Go,” she whispered, giving him a little push. “There’s nothing you can do here.”
