Torment (Primal Progeny Book 1) (22 page)

Courtney looked up from her phone and pulled a face, she would have rather run back in front of another car than help Audra willingly, but like Georgia she realised she had little choice. She hauled herself off her chair with an abundance of dramatic pain faces and moans and groans; hobbling over to the older woman and scooping up her baggage without looking at or talking to her. Then without second bidding she began to limp out into the hallway, making her way to the door without looking to see if she was being followed. She dumped the bags on the stairs outside the front door and retreated back to the kitchen, keeping her head low as she barged past Audra in the hallway.

Audra bumped the younger woman with the picnic box and smirked to herself at the ‘oomph’ sound it bought from her, she could hear the limp of the girl intensify and it satisfied her enormously. The little upstart shouldn’t be so insolent! She noticed her bags on the front steps and snarled to herself, the little bitch hadn’t even bothered to take them to the car! She’d be one of the first to pay for all the rudeness and snide remarks when Audra found her way to power. She couldn’t wait. She walked past her bags and made her way to the cars, seeing that the boot of one was open and taking it that this was the vehicle they would be using.

Without checking to see if Tobias was in the car or not she swung the picnic box into the boot and went back for her luggage; wedging it in next to the food carrier and only then leaning forward to check if the car was occupied. The vehicle was empty and so she backed out of the boot and quickly scanned the area, there was no sign of the male beta. With an agitated huff she walked round to the passenger side of the car and climbed in, leaving the boot open in case he planned on adding any more bags. She felt slightly agitated that somehow he had managed to take longer to prepare than she had despite having had more time to do so. The older she got the more she felt she was surrounded by incompetence.

Looking behind her between the seats she saw no evidence of movement in the direction of the house and sighed to herself. They were supposed to be in a hurry… She had thought that as beta, Tobias would be taking into account the urgency of the situation. She popped open the glove box and rummaged through its contents, pleased to find a first aid kit and pleasantly surprised to find it fully stocked. She returned it to its place and closed the compartment just in time to be frightened out of her wits by Tobias’ sudden appearance by her window. She leapt out of her skin and scowled fiercely as he laughed at her.

‘Are you trying to kill me from fright?!’ She snapped through the window.

He could barely answer through his laughter, and was bent double and clutching his knees with his hands as he delivered his stilted response. ‘Oh… Oh my… Ha-ha! Oh – good god Audra! You knew I was on my way?!’

She rolled her eyes in response ‘I thought you would already have been out here to be honest with you.’

Tobias stood up straight and wiped a tear from the corner of his eye, still chuckling to himself on and off. ‘Well surely it’s obvious that I was from the fact that the car was open?’

Audra looked peeved but didn’t reply.

Tobias raised an eyebrow at her all too familiar bad attitude and walked round the car, sliding into the drivers seat and smirking at her.

‘You did that deliberately didn’t you’ She sniped.

He nodded, his handsome face dominated by a smug smile. ‘Of course I did, you’re far too uptight for a lower ranking were Audra, you need to learn to loosen up!’

‘I hardly think that’s appropriate at the mom –’

He cut her off ‘you have to keep your sense of humour in dark times Audra, its what stops you from going insane. If you’re going to be in a mood I’d rather you kept your mouth shut until you’re feeling more sociable.’

Audra gave no sign of having heard him; she simply stared through the front window of the car and ignored him.

Tobias was unsurprised by her response and started up the engine without pressing her to answer. There were more important things to think about than her attitude problem. They set off out of the car park area at a slow crawl, heading for the scene of the murder.

Chapter 23

Eve had left the little cottage in the pack lands swiftly and hopped into her waiting car at the end of the muddied road. She had elected not to drive up the road and get wedged in the mud; she disliked cleaning the cars for a start and knew that it would be her job to do so if she created the mess. Also, she had worried that the car would become stuck and she would have to walk, which would not have been ideal.

Firing up the engine she checked her mirrors quickly before setting off, conscious of the fact that Varulv might well be lurking and following the scent of the man who had followed him to the scene of the crime. She had no doubt that the old shape shifter would have returned to the scene to re-live his enjoyment of the hideous crime he had committed; and knew that his ego would want to track down the innocent he had framed to revel in their anguish.

Seeing nothing and having smelled no evidence of another on her way to the vehicle, she set off with the roar of tyres trying to gain traction on the mud slick surface. She knew the way to Hunter’s home well and barely even needed to think about the way she was going. She had monitored him for years, watching him from afar… Even attempting to halt the progress of the male who had entered his home that night many years ago, only to chew on the electrics and fry himself. She remembers that smell drifting to her on the wind and grimaced, nothing smelt worse than burning fur. And she had heard the horrendous popping and tearing sounds as his charred body had shifted back into human form. The memory almost caused her to gag.

Pushing that thought to the back of her mind she slipped back into thinking of Hunter himself, and all the times she had seen him wander naked into his garden out of the woodlands. She remembered the first time she had seen him all those years ago, how she had been transfixed by his raw masculinity. He had a decent covering of hair even in his human form, and was littered with scars. Two things that she found endearing in a male, perhaps down to the beta in her. She was always looking for a man who could take care of himself, a real man’s man. Any normal human would have felt shame about spying on another, especially in their most helpless state, naked and exhausted… But Eve enjoyed it more than perhaps she should have. The view had always been to her liking, and beside which she had been ordered to keep an eye on him during the change. Perhaps she would have felt guilty if it had been her choice… Perhaps not. Either way she was not intending on telling the unfortunate male in case it muddied his opinion of her. She liked him, and they needed him to be compliant. Even as she thought that she knew it seemed awful, but it was true, he needed to trust them or there was a chance he’d go rogue and end up getting himself killed. He knew he had been watched anyway, so there was no real need to delve any further into the particulars of it with him.

Switching on the radio she tweaked the station until she hit a channel with music she could bear and drove on in silence, trying to keep her mind clear. Soon enough she could see the track that led off the road to his home in the distance, and she smiled to herself. It was nice to have had no incidents for a while. She turned off and parked up outside his fence, knowing that the frequency of Varulv’s kills was ever increasing and it was nothing short of a miracle that nothing else had transpired… Particularly as he had been disturbed in his most recent endeavour.  As she pulled up the handbrake the music was cut short by the station’s presenter cutting in with some breaking news. Grimacing she reached to switch off the ignition and cut off the undoubtedly unwelcome news when something stopped her. With her fingers lingering over the keys she listened, mesmerised.

The news was not welcome. There had been another murder, not ten miles from the scene of the first and equally as brutal. Eve’s eyes widened as she listened, taking in each horrible detail. It was Varulv, there was no question of that.

Hurriedly turning off the engine she leapt out of the car and rushed through the gate into Hunter’s garden. Fumbling in her pocket and suddenly realising she had no key she used her shoulder to barge open the door and dashed into the building. Taking little notice of her surroundings she rushed into his bedroom and gathered up an armful of clothes, not bothering to follow his instructions of what he needed. Knowing she had to hurry, that he would need this news, she crossed the hall into the bathroom and grabbed a toothbrush, a can of deodorant and a bottle of bubble bath.

That would have to do, she jogged out of the building with her arms overflowing with things that suddenly seemed utterly superfluous, and threw them onto the passenger seat of her car. Jumping into the drivers seat she threw the car into reverse and sped back up the track. It took her barely ten minutes to get back to the cottage she had left him at, though she didn’t once look at the speed of the vehicle she knew she was pushing 80 miles an hour. Luckily the country back roads were always quiet. 

Pulling up at the end of the road where the little cottage was hidden away she grabbed up his things and dashed along the grassy verge. Swinging open the front door she threw his clothes onto the floor by the door and slammed it shut behind her, running full pelt back to the car and tearing off down the roads back towards the pack house.

*****

Hunter heard the approach of the female beta through the window of the bathroom, and knew from that way she moved that she was in a hurry. Sitting upright in his bath he looked toward the door and listened for her entry, wondering what had happened and concerned that it was something to do with his bail.

He did not get a chance to ask her as he heard her drop something, and then slam the door behind her before he could so much as call her name to get her attention.

Scowling he pushed himself up out of the water and stepped out of the tub, grabbing up one of the towels he had picked earlier that day and wrapping it tightly around his waist. Water dripped down his body but he did nothing to dry it. He was more concerned with catching up with her, and so he dashed down the corridor to the top of the stairway. Peering down her saw his clothes and a couple of toiletries littered on the floor by the door and his frown deepened. He jogged down the stairs, swiping his wet hair back out of his face with one hand as he went. He swung open the front door and peered out, but he was too late and there was no sign of her but for the footprints she had left in the sodden grass on the verge along the edge of the road.

Sighing with exasperation he turned and began picking up his things. Realising too late that he had been standing over his jeans and they were sodden with the water that was dripping from him. Snatching them up he threw all the items on the sofa in the lounge and whipped the towel off his waist. He scrubbed himself dry roughly, the harsh fabric of the long un-used item scraping uncomfortably across the scar tissue which he was so covered in. Rubbing at his wet hair he shook his head to clear any residual droplets before wrapping the towel round himself once more. Not to cover his modesty, but to get it out of the way so he could carry his clothes without getting them even more damp. 

He folded each item carefully, noticing as he did so that he had only two pairs of jeans, three t-shirts and for some reason seven pairs of pants but no socks. Sighing to himself he picked up the stack of freshly folded clothes from the sofa seat and took them up to his room, placing them all into one drawer.

Returning to the bathroom he removed the towel from his hips and draped it over the radiator that squatted below the window on the far side of the room. He then took himself back to the bedroom and sat naked upon the edge of the bed. It was fairly warm and he had no desire to be clothed if there was no reason to be.  Slumping back onto the bedspread he closed his eyes for a moment and tried to empty his mind of worry… Eventually deciding this was impossible and sitting back upright with a loud sigh.

Re-opening the lone drawer he had utilised he picked out a pair of jockey shorts in case Eve should return unexpectedly and pulled them on. Standing and rearranging his uncomfortably encased genitalia; he ambled back down the corridor and descended the stairs. He flicked on the kettle in the grubby little kitchen and watched it disinterestedly as it began to boil. He wished he knew what was going on. He was certain she wouldn’t have left so quickly without good reason and it irked him feeling left in the dark yet again.

*****

Eve knew that Hunter would be confused and probably agitated by her sudden departure, but it had struck her as she had sped back to the cottage that Alfred would need to know what she had heard. There was a good chance that they would not have been listening to the radio station that she had settled on back at he pack house.

She knew that she should perhaps have at least shouted out to him to let him know that she would be back, but she had been too set on getting back to the pack at the time and it was too late to undo that. She hoped he had the sense to realise something big must have happened. He seemed to have displayed a reasonable amount of intelligence thus far, so it was not an unreasonable assumption to make of him.

There was little time to worry about it then, so she focussed instead on the road and getting home as fast as possible. Surprising herself with the speed at which she completed the journey. She screeched into the car park and slammed on the breaks, leaping out of the car and running inside and up the stairs to the library where she knew her alpha would be. The sound of her heavy footfalls echoing throughout the house as she went.

Alfred looked up from his book sharply, startled by the sudden intrusion into his peaceful solitude. Eve stopped in front of his desk and apologised profusely for the sudden activity.

‘I’m so sorry Alfred; I didn’t mean to startle you. I wouldn’t barge in on you like this under normal circumstances but this is very important.’

Alfred smiled tightly, unhappy at the disturbance but knowing that what she said was true, she never bothered him unless it was absolutely necessary. That was a large part of her job as beta. ‘I understand. What seems to be the problem?’

‘He’s done it again.’ Eve panted, still short of breath from her mad dash up the stairway.

‘Sorry?’ Alfred questioned. ‘Who? Who has done what?’

Eve licked her lips and averted her eyes, her lupine self taking over her human body’s actions. ‘Varulv. He has killed again, just over ten miles from where he killed Hunter’s friend.’

Alfred’s face dropped ‘so soon… This is much sooner than I anticipated Eve. This is serious, we must find him and quickly.’

Eve nodded ‘I know alpha, I know we must. But in the meantime what does this mean for Hunter, it was only just reported but it must have happened this at some point today. The report didn’t specify but it must have been some time this afternoon… If it had occurred this morning and been discovered then Hunter would have been released earlier in the day as an innocent man.’

Alfred nodded ‘mmm… Well no doubt he will be receiving a call from the station very soon… Now we need to get Audra back and ready to travel to the station with him if need be, it will look very strange if he does not have a solicitor.’

‘I can find them’ Eve offered ‘but would you like to hear the details of the crime before I leave?’

Alfred shook his head, ‘they are unimportant for now, there will be plenty of time to recount details when you return.’

Eve nodded ‘all right. Which way did they head on their departure?’

‘Back towards the abandoned barn’ Alfred answered. ‘Now hurry or they will move on before you arrive.’

Eve nodded, turned on her heels and sprinted back down the stairs, there was no time to waste.