Chapter 32 Finn's Death (Jax POV)
The scream wakes me at 4:37 AM.
It's Ashley, her voice carrying the kind of raw terror that means something catastrophically wrong. I'm out of bed and shifting before I'm fully conscious, wolf instincts taking over.
I find her at the forest's edge, human form, shaking violently.
"Ash, what happened?"
She can't speak. Just points into the trees with a trembling hand.
I shift back to human, forcing my wolf down despite every instinct screaming danger. "Ashley. Look at me. What happened?"
"Finn." Her voice breaks on the name. "He's... Jax, he's dead."
My blood runs cold. Finn. Seventeen years old. Newest pack member. Turned only six months ago after a hiking accident that should have killed him. Still learning control, still figuring out what being werewolf means.
"Show me."
She leads me twenty yards into Moonstone Forest. The smell hits first. Blood, lots of it, and underneath that the distinctive copper-sweet scent that means vampire.
Finn is lying face-up in a small clearing. His throat is torn out, savage wound that exposed everything underneath. His body is pale, drained of blood in a way that's horrifyingly familiar.
Vampire attack. Classic feeding kill.
I drop to my knees beside him, checking for pulse even though I know there won't be one. His skin is cold, rigor mortis already setting in. Dead for at least two hours, maybe more.
"Who found him?"
"I did. I couldn't sleep, went for a walk, saw him lying here." Ashley is crying now, silent tears streaming down her face. "Jax, he was just a kid. He was learning. He was getting better at control."
"I know." My voice sounds distant to my own ears. Shock, probably. The clinical part of my brain noting symptoms while the rest of me processes that another pack member is dead.
First Tyler's brother two years ago, shot by hunters.
Now Finn, throat torn out by vampire.
My pack keeps shrinking.
"We need to tell the others," Ashley says. "Tyler needs to know."
"Tyler's not pack anymore. He left."
"He'll still care. Finn was..." She stops, unable to finish.
Finn was everyone's little brother. The youngest, the newest, the one we were all trying to protect while he learned to navigate being werewolf.
And now he's dead.
I pull out my phone, calling Silas first because he needs to know before this spirals. He answers on the second ring.
"Jax. It's early."
"Finn's dead. Vampire attack. Throat torn out, body drained. He's in Moonstone Forest." I keep my voice steady through sheer force of will. "You need to lock down your coven immediately. Before this becomes a massacre."
"I'll be there in five minutes. Don't move the body. Don't touch anything." He hangs up.
Next call is harder. Tyler. My former beta. The wolf who challenged me and left because I chose Zara over pack neutrality.
He answers on the fourth ring, voice rough with sleep. "What do you want?"
"Finn's dead. Vampire killed him. You need to come to campus."
Silence. Then: "I'm on my way."
He disconnects.
I make one more call. Jordan, one of the wolves who left with Tyler. She needs to know too.
By the time Silas arrives with Cain and Lyra in tow, Ashley and I have been joined by the pack's remaining member, Marcus, not the ancient vampire but a nineteen-year-old werewolf who's been with us for two years.
"Don't touch him," Silas says immediately, moving to examine the body with clinical detachment. "Cain, what do you smell?"
Cain kneels, inhaling carefully. "Vampire. Old. Very old. More than five centuries."
My wolf snarls. "Which one of your coven did this?"
"None of them. I know every vampire at Silvercrest. This scent doesn't match any of them." Cain looks at me seriously. "Jax, this wasn't us."
"Really? Because there's a dead werewolf with vampire bite wounds and your scent all over the area."
"My scent is here because I've been in this forest dozens of times. That doesn't mean I killed him." Cain stands. "Jax, think. Why would I kill Finn? What purpose would it serve? We're eleven days from Victoria's assault. The last thing I need is internal conflict."
"Unless you're trying to eliminate potential threats before the assault. Finn was young, inexperienced. Easy target."
"If I wanted to eliminate threats, I'd go after actual dangers, not seventeen-year-old wolves who can barely control their shift." Cain's voice hardens. "Use your brain instead of your wolf instincts. This doesn't make sense as something I'd do."
"Then who? Which vampire is over five centuries old and has access to campus?"
The realization hits all of us simultaneously.
"Damien," Lyra breathes. "This is Damien's work."
"He's trying to fracture our alliance," Silas says grimly. "Turn werewolves against vampires. Create internal conflict that weakens our defenses before Victoria attacks."
"Or maybe it's just one of you finally showing your true nature," a voice says from the trees.
Tyler emerges, flanked by Jordan and Sam. All three are barely maintaining human form, wolf features bleeding through in patches of fur and elongated teeth.
"Tyler," I say carefully. "This wasn't Cain's coven."
"Bullshit. There's a dead wolf with vampire bite wounds. That's pretty definitive evidence." Tyler moves to stand over Finn's body, and I watch grief war with rage on his face. "He was seventeen. Just a kid. And one of them murdered him."
"Not us," Cain repeats. "Tyler, I understand you're angry, but accusing us without evidence doesn't help anyone."
"Evidence? EVIDENCE?" Tyler's voice rises to a near-howl. "His throat is torn out! He's been drained of blood! What more evidence do you need?"
"Evidence that actually points to the perpetrator instead of just the method." Silas gestures at the wound. "This kill is designed to look like vampire work. Too clean. Too theatrical. Real vampire feeding is efficient, not elaborate. Someone's framing us."
"Convenient excuse."
"Think about it," I interject. "Finn was the youngest, the weakest. If vampires wanted to kill werewolves, why start with him? Why not take out me or Ashley or someone who's actually a threat?"
"Because he was easy. Because he was alone. Because monsters take the weakest prey first." Tyler rounds on me. "And you're defending them. Of course you are. You've been vampire-sympathizer since you mated with that witch. You'd probably let them kill your entire pack if it meant keeping your girlfriend happy."
"That's not fair."
"Fair? You want to talk about fair?" Tyler is shaking with barely controlled rage. "My brother died protecting humans from a bear and got shot for it. Now Finn's dead, murdered by the very creatures you've been protecting. At what point do you actually stand with your own kind, Jax?"
"I stand with the truth. And the truth is Cain didn't do this."
"How do you know? Were you there? Did you witness it?" Tyler steps closer, posture aggressive. "Or are you just blindly trusting vampires because your mate makes you soft?"
"Don't," I warn. My wolf is rising, responding to the direct challenge. "Don't push this, Tyler."
"Why not? What are you going to do? Fight me again? Win by technicality and pretend it makes you right?" He's in my face now, growling. "You're weak. Compromised. Unfit to lead. And Finn died because you cared more about vampires than your own pack."
I hit him.
Not smart. Not strategic. Just pure rage driving my fist into his face.
Tyler staggers back, then launches himself at me. We collide in a tangle of limbs, both shifting mid-fight. Within seconds we're full wolves, tearing into each other with fang and claw.
This fight is different from our last challenge. That one had rules, structure, a clear endpoint. This is just violence, grief and rage channeled into trying to destroy each other.
Tyler gets his jaws around my foreleg. I feel bone crack, pain exploding up my limb. I twist, clawing at his exposed side, leaving deep gouges that bleed freely.
We separate, circling. Blood drips from both of us. My leg won't hold weight properly. Tyler's favoring his left side where I tore into muscle.
He lunges again. I meet him. We go down in another vicious tangle.
Someone's shouting. Multiple voices. But blood is rushing in my ears, wolf instincts fully in control now, demanding I establish dominance or die trying.
Tyler's teeth sink into my shoulder. I howl, twisting to reach his throat. If I can get his throat, I can end this. Force submission or kill him. Either way, this stops.
Then something hits us like a freight train.
Silver fire explodes between us, physically throwing both our wolf forms in opposite directions. I crash into a tree, the impact knocking the breath out of me. Tyler hits the ground hard, yelping.
I force myself back to human form through sheer will, cradling my broken foreleg which translates to a broken arm in human shape.
Mira stands between us, hands blazing with Shadowborn fire, her eyes glowing molten silver.
"ENOUGH!" Her voice carries power I've never heard before. "This is what they want! Whoever killed Finn wants you fighting each other instead of looking for the real killer!"