“A decision has been made,” Michael announced. “We believe you when you say that you did not have a hand in Eve’s disappearance.”
“But?” I questioned.
“We cannot overlook the link between you and the murdered humans. This connection to Adam impedes with your sentencing. I do not know if it’s true, but if we were to kill you, Adam would die also—or at least suffer severely from the loss. We do not wish to punish him for your wrongdoings.”
It sounded good, anything was better than death.
“You will be shipped to Idaho and be housed in the Anderson pack. There you will work as a servant until the end of your days,” Michael said, causing me to gasp.
“I request to go with her,” Adam insisted, his fingers gripping my hand so tightly I winced.
“You would abandon your pack for your own selfish reasons?” Jeff asked with aversion.
“No,” I interrupted. Looking at Adam, I said, “You can’t give up your post as their alpha because of me. I won’t allow you to leave them for me.”
“What kind of life will I have if you’re not by my side? Do you think I’ll be a good alpha when I’m distracted by thoughts of you? I will not lose you.”
“You were going to lose me anyway,” I reminded him. Had it not been for our pairing last night, I would have died tonight. “At least this way I’ll still be alive, and I’m sure I can have visitors,” I looked at the leaders. “Even people in prison are permitted visitors.”
The leaders talked amongst themselves, and Adam stared at the tabletop, his jaw set in stone and his eyes just as hard. I was getting very good at putting on a brave face. The truth was I was terrified. I didn’t want to leave Adam or my pack. Would the new alpha be as respectable as Adam, or would he try to visit my bed every night? Would I be treated like a criminal for the rest of my life? All of these thoughts sent a shot of fear through me, but I had to remain strong on the outside for Adam’s sake. I was going to make sure that his number one priority was taking care of our pack.
“We will grant you seven, one day breaks where visitors will be allowed to visit you. But you are not to leave the grounds, and you’ll have a spectator with you at all times,” Michael said. “We don’t take joy in tearing you away from your family, Anna, but horrific crimes have been committed, and we have to take action.”
I nodded, unable to refute his words.
“If Anna is murdering people, and I still don’t think she is for the record, then what’s to stop her from doing the same in Idaho?” Adam questioned with anger.
“From what we understand, the attacks happened at night,” Jeff said, crossing his arms. “Anna will be caged during the dark hours with surveillance. This will help us see if she is, in fact, changing without remembering.”
“That’s bullshit!” Adam shot up and paced the floor like he was a caged animal. “She does not deserve to be treated like some dog!”
“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” Jeff said. “The cage is very large and a full sized bed is inside, along with a mini fridge. We’re not sadistic, Adam.”
Just as I was about to say something to try and calm Adam down, the phone rang. Adam answered it a little ruder than necessary and then his face fell. “Be right there,” he told the caller, hanging the phone up. When he looked at us his eyes were wide and his mouth slightly open.
“What is it?” Wade asked.
“Eve’s shirt was found two miles from here. It was soaked in blood,” Adam replied.
Chapter Twenty-one
We combed the forest for any more clues. Eve’s bloody shirt had been found hanging from a broken branch, but no other traces of her existed. The sky let lose a downpour of rain, colder this high up in the mountains. The pack spread out and continued to search for hours. Emotions grew heavy the longer we looked and didn’t find anything. Adam had been quiet. I gave him space, knowing this couldn’t be easy on him. They’d been together awhile so I didn’t take offence that he held feelings towards her. What kind of person would that make me if I were to get jealous of a potentially dead woman?
“I think I found something,” Sawyer called from twenty feet away. Digging my heels into the soggy earth, I ran forward. The sensation of running, the scenery bobbing up and down with my heavy footfalls, brought this morning’s weird episode back. I stopped, ignoring Sawyer and those who rushed to his side. Tilting my head up, I stared at the canopy of the trees. The sky was a gloomy gray, lending a dark eerie feeling to the forest. Swiveling my head from left to right, it was like I was seeing the vision again. This was the place I’d seen in the shower, but how?
The chattering of the pack drew me out of my thoughts. Jogging the rest of the way, I weaved in between the bodies to see what they were looking at. Sawyer knelt down on the ground, his hands carefully brushing leaves away from some markings in the dirt.
“What is it?” Elle questioned, bending over to get a closer look.
“Looks like scratches, like someone was digging their nails into the dirt.” Sawyer placed his hand over the markings, not to touching them. I knelt beside him and placed my hand over the indents. My head filled with pressure and my eyelids grew heavy, my arm falling towards the earth. As my fingertips made contact with the scratch marks, it happened again. Nausea churned in my stomach. A cold sweat broke along my brow and I became lightheaded. Then the vision came.
A hand clung to the earth. The fingernails digging into the soil for purchase. The person’s arm jerked back as if something tugged its body away from the spot. The movement was a simple one, but I’d never been more frightened in my life. The hand lost its grip with the earth and slid along the leaf littered ground as something pulled it away. Now that the nails weren’t obscured within the dirt, I got a good look at them—long, red, and tipped in white—exactly how Eve did her nails.
“Anna…Anna,” someone called frantically, shaking my shoulder. My eyes opened—a lazy action that felt like slow motion. I focused on Elle’s face in front of me, her red hair wet, and clinging to her head. Her green eyes were wide and water droplets trickled down her cheeks.
“I’m okay,” I murmured, still a bit dazed. “It was Eve.”
“What was Eve?” Sawyer and Elle asked at the same time. I hadn’t meant to say it aloud. These visions, or whatever they were, would only make the leaders think I was guiltier. They’d say they were glimpses into my memories, ones I thought I didn’t have. Sawyer and Elle waited as I bit my lip and wondered what to tell them. They both watched me with suspicion, a look I couldn’t take from my friends.
“I saw it,” I whispered. “I saw her hand being dragged away.”
Elle and Sawyer looked at each other. “What do you mean, you saw it?” Elle knelt down and slung her arm around my soaked shoulders. The rain continued to assault my body until I felt the icy coldness soaking into my bones.
“It was like a movie playing. I saw the arm that was here, nails digging into the earth as something pulled it away.” I looked down at the indent in the dirt. The rain was quickly washing it away, but I could still see the harsh lines from where Eve’s nails raked as she tried to hold on.
“Even if that’s true,” Sawyer said. “How do you know it was Eve’s hand?”
“Because she’s the only one I know who wears fire engine red nail polish and keeps her nails longer.” The majority of the women, what little we had, all had jobs to do. That meant long, pretty nails didn’t last long. Eve, as the alpha female, didn’t have that problem. Aside from guarding her territory next to Adam’s side, she didn’t contribute much.
“What’s goin’ on? You guys find something?” We all turned to see Adam peering over our shoulders, staring at the muddy ground. Elle and Sawyer didn’t say anything. That meant a lot because they swore their loyalty to Adam—not me. I couldn’t help but feel proud to have them on my side.
“We thought so, but it was just mountain lion tacks,” I lied. The words tasted bad in my mouth. Adam and I were just starting our complicated relationship, and I was already lying. I’d been horrible at relationships my whole life; I couldn’t expect to become an expert overnight, right? I’d eventually tell Adam everything. I needed to understand what it all meant first. The logical side of my brain told me that if I told Adam, perhaps he could lend some insight. Then again, when did I ever listen to logic? I was too stubborn to give into it.
“The weather is getting bad,” Adam said, looking over his shoulder. The pack was heading out of the woods. “We’ll pick up the search as soon as the rain lets up. For now let’s get home and get something to eat.”
I stood and Adam slung his arm around my shoulder, pulling me against the warmth of his body. I gave Elle and Sawyer a ‘thank-you’ look and followed Adam back to the truck.
*
“What was that back there?” Elle and Sawyer cornered me in the laundry room as soon as they saw their chance. Sawyer stood guard by the door so I couldn’t make a run for it, while Elle stood like a brick wall in front of me—her green eyes squinting and impatient.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “This morning is the first time it has happened.” I reached for a dry towel from the metal shelves where we stored them and rubbed it through my hair. “I’ve had dreams…” I ignored their confused faces and yanked my soaked shirt off. Luckily, I’d done a load of laundry the other day and it still waited for me in the dryer. I shifted the wrinkled clothes around until I found a white babydoll tee that had a sunset and palm tree design on the front. The shirt was old and the picture was fading, but it held a special place in my heart. My mother got it for me a few years ago when her and my father visited the Bahamas. Wearing it made me feel closer to her, and at the moment there was nothing I wanted more than for her to tell me everything was going to be alright. As I thought about it, I heard her voice say those exact words. I’d stored it in my memory and pulled it out when I felt like crumbling. When I was younger, I always believed those comforting words, now…now I wasn’t so sure.