Page 9

“Are you scenting her room?” I ask.

“Just making sure we have the right person.”

I already said we did, but I give in.

“Do we?” I ask, holding back my smirk.

It’s clear we’re both reacting to this scent, which isn’t unheard of from two alphas. We like the way she smells, but we can’t let it get in the way of doing our job. That always comes first.

“Dresser drawers are left open,” Forge comments when he steps further into the room. “Clothes on the floor in front of them, but nowhere else. Probably made a mess while finding what she needed.”

The cabin is otherwise clean, which tells me she was in a rush.

“So she grabbed clothes and food. She took off fast. But why?”

Something about this doesn’t feel right—it doesn’t feel like she did it, but I need to follow the clues and not my gut.

Forge turns to face me. “That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? Witness or suspect?” he asks.

Technically, she’s a suspect. I’m just not sure how long she’ll stay that way.

“It doesn’t make sense for her to kill him,” I say. “Everyone in the village said she was the one person who took to him when he first showed up.”

“She was a child when he came here. She didn’t know any better.”

“But she never changed her mind about him. They mentioned that he was like a brother to her.”

“We see family murders all the time,” Forge adds with a huff.

“True. Anything is possible. It doesn’t feel right though.”

“You and your feelings,” he mutters, getting on his hands and knees to look under the bed.

“They come in handy,” I comment as he sits back and looks around with a deep frown.

“Why run if she isn’t guilty?” he asks.

“Maybe she’s scared.”

“Why?”

“Maybe she was threatened by who did it. She got away. Or maybe she’s worried we will think she did it. Or maybe she freaked out because she saw a brotherly-figure dead, lying in his own pool of blood.”

“She has a whole village,” he says as he gets up. “Family. People she is close with. Running doesn’t make sense. Even if she’s scared, why not run to someone here who could protect her?”

“Maybe it’s someone here who did it.”

“Yeah.” He nods, holding my gaze. “Her.”

“Forge—”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get ahead of myself. We don’t have enough evidence yet. But don’t count her out. She could be good for this.”

Having a suspect doesn’t mean we automatically say they’re guilty. At least, we’re not supposed to. Forge isn’t great at that though, which is why I have to remind him.

“So could anyone else in the village, or anyone outside of it, too,” I say.

We go through the rest of the house, looking everywhere we can for any clue as to where she could have gone or if she did this and why. There’s nothing here. No bloody clothes. No weapon. No diary or note of where she could have gone.