Jordan looked at his watch. “This late at night?” he asked, looking back up with confusion more than suspicion.
Duncan sighed, “There was a death in my extended family.” That was not a lie. All members of his pack were family to him one way or another.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Jordan sympathized, getting up from the table. “Yeah, I can stay with the kids.” Then he looked down at his clothes. “I need something to sleep in…”
“Don’t sweat it. I know they will be a bit big on you, but I can let you borrow one of my pajamas and I will show you to your room.”
Duncan showed Jordan to the room that would be his and went and got him some clothes to wear. He went back to the room he gave to Jordan, entering as he knocked on the door. The room was empty, but Duncan heard the shower running. He set the clothing on the bed and exited the room. He went back downstairs and out the back door. He stripped out of his clothes, folding them and placed them neatly under the swing he put up for the twins. He stretched and breathed deeply, fine hair started coming up all over his body and his nails turned into claws, Duncan went on his hands and knees.
In a split second he was no longer a man, but a giant midnight black beast whose looks resembled a wolf, but one that was much larger in size and had two tails showing his Alpha status. The beast had bright blue cobalt eyes, his beast howled at being released for the first time in days before it took off in a flash, dashing through the forest. In less than five minutes he reached his destination. Ryland was standing outside waiting for him. Duncan stopped in front of his friend and shifted back into his human form, Ryland handed him a set of clothes.
“Thanks,” he said.
“No problem. Who’s looking after the pups?”
“Their new nanny is with them, well, manny according to Benjamin. Plus, they’re asleep after having a day filled with fun.”
“Manny as in man, or did I hear you wrong?” Ryland asked for clarification. Duncan nodded. “There is a story behind that, I’m sure of it,” he commented.
“Not now, show me the body.”
“There is something else I forgot to tell you about the kid.”
“What?” Duncan asked, walking into the hospital that was in the center of town. When he took over the pack, that was one of the first things he changed. Investing in mom and pop stores, and into a small but efficient hospital and recruiting doctors he could find and who felt constrained in their mastered fields. There was a section of the hospital that catered solely to pack members. Duncan, Blayze, and the lykosian staff were diligent in their work to guarantee that the humans on the island were not aware of that area of the hospital.
“It was Sammy Wilson’s boy, JJ.”
“Shit,” Duncan cursed. Jeremiah Wilson Jr. just graduated from high school and was going off to university in a couple of weeks. His mom was very proud of him. Jeremiah Sr. died in combat a couple of years earlier. After his father had died, JJ went on a bit of a rebellious streak. Before Duncan could do anything about it, a few of the men in the pack stepped forward and played a father figure to the kid which kept him in line. JJ was a good kid, he worked part time and helped his mother take care of his younger sisters whenever she had to work nights.
“Yeah,” Ryland agreed.
“Does she know?” he asked.
Ryland nodded his head. “Doc called her after he called me. She was still here when I got here. It wasn’t pretty.”
“What the fuck is going on, Ryland? This is the third dead body in three months.”
“I know, and I wish I had an answer for you.”
They walked into the morgue, and Dr. McKnight was standing beside a table with a white hospital sheet covering his body.
“Hey, Blayze,” Duncan greeted Blayze McKnight, the head doctor.
“Alpha,” Blayze greeted, bowing his head in respect. “It’s good to see you, but not under these circumstances.”
“Yeah, I agree. Show me.” He walked closer to the table, Blayze pulled the sheet back and Duncan gagged at the stench that hit his nose. He was decaying at a fast rate, which hadn’t happened with the other teens. “How long has he been dead?”
“Only a couple of hours,” Blayze answered, standing beside him with a cloth covering his nose.
Duncan stepped back. “Should he be decaying so quickly?”
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Blayze answered, putting the cover back up. “I have never seen anything like this before.”
“I want you to run every test known to man, and get me those results as soon as possible. I want to know how the hell he came in contact with aconite,” he said to Blayze. “Ryland, I want you and Charlie to look into everything this kid and the others have been up to. There has to be a connection between all three of them.” Duncan shook his head, he was tense from his day and now dealing with a pack member’s death.He’s just a kid.“There is no fucking way I’m letting another kid die.”
“Yes, Alpha,” they said together.
“Okay, I need to see Sammy. Ryland, since I didn’t come with a car, I need you to drop me off.” He ran his hand through his hair, clasping his hands together at the base of his neck. He was fucking tired from working all day and now he had to deal with a grieving mother.
