Chapter Eighty-Six - Chase

The wolf from Mrs. Young’s region brought the plastic bag of roofies toward her. I could feel Patch’s unease as he handed it over and she put her glasses on to study it.

“Where did you find it?”

“The kitchen,” the wolf said. “I was thirsty and decided to go ask for a drink. While I was there I saw some pills on the table—“

“That’s a lie,” Patch said. “He was snooping in my things.”

“So they are yours?” she asked. “Since you know where they were and all?”

Patch slid his tongue over his teeth. “I take them to help me sleep.”

She gave him a sheepish look and handed the bag to another wolf on the court. “We’ll keep these, and match them up to the urine sample when we get them. If they match, we know Patch gave them to her. It’s all the proof we need. Now, let’s have dinner while we wait.”

“Ma’am. We may not have the information until tomorrow. Do you want us to stay here tonight?” I asked.

She stood swiftly and gathered her notes. “If we have to, yes.”

Willow sighed nervously beside me and I grabbed her hand to ease her nerves. I’d stayed here with no problem. It wasn’t that I thought Patch would let a monster loose in the house to kill us all, but I didn’t like Willow sleeping here.

Patch stood up, his gaze cut toward mine before he left the room. He stopped at the door and looked over his shoulder. “Dinner is ready in the kitchen.”

“I don’t want to eat or stay here,” she mumbled.

“Me either, but what other choice do we have? We’re stuck here until the lab gets back with the results. Let’s hope it only takes 24 hours.”

Willow stepped in front of me and looked up at my face. “I’m afraid to stay the night here.”

Putting both hands on her shoulders, I said, “Bunny, there are so many people here. There is no way Patch is stupid enough to do something to you. Or to me. We’re fine, okay?”

She looked down at her feet. “If we stay, I want to search the house myself.”

“Willow, you know that’s not a good idea—“

“We can do it after dinner when everyone goes to bed. There is a storage room on the first floor. I broke a leg off the table and stabbed him in the cheek with it. There has to be some blood or evidence somewhere in there.”

Willow looked over her shoulder at the she-wolf that conducted the interview. “I’ll be right back.”

I watched her call her attention and the she-wolf pulled out a pen and wrote something down. When Willow came back, she tucked her hands into her pockets. “I told her about the table. She wants to go look at it. Will you go with me?”

“Of course.”

I followed Willow out of the courtroom and down the hallway that took us toward the kitchen. The guards were lined heavily at the end where Willow stopped.

“Excuse me,” she said.

The guard didn’t budge in front of the door.

“Move,” the she-wolf said.

The guard reluctantly moved out of the way and allowed the two of them to enter. I stepped beside him and listened as Willow replayed everything that happened. I looked at the floor for proof of any blood splatter but the carpet looked replaced recently.

I grew more and more pissed as she retold what happened. She opened up a closet and showed the missing table leg to the she-wolf. She wrote everything down with a concerned look and glanced back at me.

“Patch,” she said.

I looked over my shoulder at Patch standing in the doorway. He looked on the verge of having a meltdown. “Mrs. Frances,” he said. “Why are you in here? The dining hall is a few doors down.”

“Willow had to show me something,” she said, shoving passed him.

Patch watched her walk away and put his hand out in front of Willow. I stepped forward and knocked it down. “Don’t touch her,” I spit.

Patch smiled. “This is all a misunderstanding.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, sure it is.”

I guided Willow out of the room and into the hallway. The guards lining the hallway watched us walk into the dining hall.

A bigger table had been pulled into the room and sat in the middle to accommodate everyone. We sat at the end in front of two impressive plates of roast.

Willow sniffed it before taking a bite.

I didn’t blame her for it, but I knew Patch wouldn’t roofie her twice. It hadn’t worked like he wanted in the first place. Willow’s tolerance was higher than he imagined it would be.

The silence, other than the sound of our eating was heavy in the room. Sunbeams peeked into the far windows as the sun set over the forest.

Patch cleared his throat as most of the table finished with their food. “The rooms on the second floor are ready for all of you. You may stay around and have dessert if you want, or a drink, but I don’t mind if you would like to shower and relax. Whatever makes you feel comfortable.”

“I’m not hungry for dessert,” she whispered.

I stood with her and we exited. Most of the others stayed behind besides Rex who found his way into the hallway with us.

Willow opened her mouth when the dining hall door opened. Patch had two guards behind him who stepped out with us. “The guards will see you to your rooms.”

He was afraid we’d sneak around the castle which made me curious as to what Mrs. Young’s wolves found in the forest.

The two guards led us toward the second floor and to the first two bedrooms. Rex slipped inside, giving us an indication that he would come by later, and I went inside with Willow.

She sat on the bed and covered her face.

I walked over and raised her chin with my fingers. “What’s the matter? This is going better than I thought it would.”

“Patch is blocking his mind,” she said. ‘I can’t read it. He’s planning something.”

“Blocking his thoughts? How?”

She shrugged. “I dunno, Chase. But it’s not helping me relax here. What if he brings in some beast while I’m sleeping and it murders all of us? What if he has tons of them somewhere? Hiding them in the forest or under the ground—“

“Willow,” I said. “Calm down. Go take a shower and I’ll run down to grab our duffle. Everything is going to be fine.”

She stood up and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door softly behind her. The water turned on before I walked to Rex’s room and told him to keep an ear out for Willow.

I went down, grabbed our duffle and we stayed most of the night in our room. The guards brought water for us before bed but neither of us drank it.

Willow slipped into the covers well before nine o'clock and fell asleep shortly after. Being she wasn’t alone, it most likely helped her sleep, but there was something in the corner of my mind that didn’t sit right.

I watched the dark room only lit by moonlight and searched the corners. The feeling of being watched weighed on me.

Sitting up on my elbows, I looked around the room. Something stirred inside of the closet. I slipped the covers from my body and stood on the floor.

Movement vibrated through the wood and worked into my body.

My wolf could feel something stirring close by but we could not place it.

I crept toward the closet and pulled it open slowly. Only an empty closet stared back at me. “I’m going crazy,” I whispered.

I went to shut it when the moonlight caught something in the far corner. A hinge of what looked like a door. Crouching down, I felt along the wall with my fingers until I felt a crease. I pushed and then pulled until it pushed open. An awful smell wafted from the inside of what looked like a long staircase.

“Willow,” I whispered until I heard her walking over. “You have to see this.”

“What is it?” she asked, bending down behind me. “Are those stairs?”

I nodded and went to grab my phone for a light when I noticed two red eyes staring back at me.