Hunting Ground (Alpha & Omega 2)

"Not us," said Anna. "Me aside... this is bad-but to wolves who go out every full moon and hunt? There's just not a lot of horror left in blood and meat." She wouldn't point out that Angus was having a hard time pulling his eyes from the steak pile. "Especially when the victim is someone like Jean Chastel. I bet the French wolves felt bad about Michel, but said, 'good riddance' when they saw Chastel. Do you think this is for the public? To force the Marrok to not come out? Or is it for the fae, who have no idea what a butcher Chastel was? To add to the horror of the death so that the hunt for Charles has that righteous feel?"

"You sound like a psychologist," said Angus.

Anna shook her head. "No. Wrong Omega-Ric's the psychologist. I just watch TV and read a lot of forensic mysteries. I would feel a lot worse about this scene if it were Sunny. If this is the vampires-and I don't smell anyone except Charles, Michel, and Chastel, so it sounds like it has to be them-then there's a reason they did this to Chastel... and the other to Sunny."

"Sunny was personal," Charles said. "You didn't get close to see her body, smell it. They scared her and bled her out slowly. She hurt and suffered. Any werewolf who got near her body would know that. They wanted us to know that she suffered. This is... just gruesome. But it is not heartfelt. It is staged." He looked at Anna and gave her a solemn nod. "And for someone who isn't us-who, we hope, hasn't seen it yet."

"Then we need to get this cleaned up, now," said Angus and he pulled out a phone and hit speed dial. "You tell your father he's bankrolling this one: our witch is expensive. Tom?"

"Yes?" His second's voice was hushed, as if he was being quiet so as not to disturb whoever he was with.

"Get a cleanup crew-thorough and fast-and your witch. Yes, we pay her for this one, or the Marrok does, and you tell her to charge him up the nose. Get them to Chastel's place, and I'll tell you more when you get here. Yes, someone finally killed the bastard." He hung up the phone and Anna realized, with a touch of amusement, that Tom hadn't said a single word after that first acknowledgment. Angus was an Alpha who knew his word would be obeyed.

"Butcher," said Charles, thoughtfully. "Maybe this wasn't all for show. The vampires didn't mean it-but they are under orders." He looked at Anna. "I think you're right, mind you. But I also think this was symbolic. A butcher's end for the Beast. Not rage-because then the person behind this would have done it himself. But there is some connection between Chastel and the man who arranged to have this done."

Anna remembered something that the Marrok had said. "Maybe the killer doesn't want to take Chastel's place in the European hierarchy. They'd expect that, wouldn't they? That a werewolf who killed Chastel would have to step in and take over-become the Marrok of Europe? Even if it wasn't a proper challenge."

Charles smiled a little-which was not right, not in that room-but he'd been a werewolf for a very long time and likely didn't have her still-human responses to the gore. "You saved me from a worse fate than you knew when you stopped me from killing him earlier. I have no desire to do my father's job."

"I have one more question," Anna said, taking a last look around the room. She needed to get out of there. Maybe if she were wolf at that moment, it wouldn't bother her so much, but her eyes kept looking at Chastel's head-and his dead eyes looked right back at her.

"Yes?"

"Why did they leave Michel alive?"

"I don't think they meant to," said Angus. "I think they thought he was dead. He's in very bad shape-but he's smart and used to pretending he's hurt more than he is."

Anna knew all about that one. If they thought they'd broken bones the first time, sometimes they didn't hit you a second time.

"That's it," she said, moving blindly out of the room. "That's all I can do." And she sprinted for the bathroom they'd passed on the way in. The coffee hadn't been in her stomach long enough to taste too bad. At least she hadn't had breakfast.

She grabbed a clean towel and got it wet with cold water. When she was finished, she cleaned the bottoms of her shoes. They were leather and only a couple of weeks old, and the blood hadn't been on them long. Mostly they wiped clean.

Chapter ELEVEN

MICHEL was bad. Almost-dead bad. And he wasn't going to be telling anyone anything anytime soon. Alan had him on a hospital bed-in a cage in the basement of his house twenty minutes away. The cage was necessary because seriously injured werewolves, when not attended by more dominant wolves, tended to be violent.

It was probably not useful to go talk to him until he'd had a day or so to heal, Charles decided. Tomorrow then, he'd take one of the other French wolves with him to talk to Michel.

Anna looked sick and tired-sickened, he corrected himself. She had been right. The horror of the scene was lost on him, and probably Angus as well. If the carving had been done while Chastel was still alive... maybe it would have bothered him more. If it had been someone he cared about, or someone he was supposed to protect-it would have been different.

But Anna was young, and despite her rough first years as a werewolf, there was a lot she hadn't seen-or maybe it was just that she could look at the murder site and not think about breakfast.

"Angus, we're going back to the hotel to get a few more hours of sleep. Would you call me when the cleanup is done?"

Angus-on the phone again-waved his agreement, and Charles touched Anna on the shoulder to get her moving.

"I thought we were going to talk to Michel?" Anna said.

"Not tonight. Let's give him some time to recover. I'm satisfied that this was done by the vampires. It wasn't me. I don't see that Michel could have done it. Even if he could have taken a wounded Chastel, which I don't really think is a possibility, there is no way a badly wounded man could take the time and effort necessary to paint such a picture. This was done coldly, professionally: vampires."

She stopped. "Why did the room smell like you?"

He pushed her forward again. "I have no idea. Angus, check it out please?"

Angus nodded without pausing in his conversation.

She took a step and stopped again. "And who won the hunt?"

"Is it important?"

"Maybe. If Chastel had the ruby ring-and Dana had access to it. The fae can put spells on objects, right?"

Charles looked over and saw that Angus was still listening to them.

"Hold a minute," Angus told whoever he was speaking to. "Valentin won it. The German wolf."