Chapter Twenty-nine

Shane’s POV.

A wave of jealousy washed over me, crowding my sense of reasoning, with my palms tightly balled into fists as I watched Chase’s car roll out through the gates. There was a sour taste in my mouth from watching Aria interact so well and freely with him.

Memories of all that happened the previous night flooded my thoughts, the moment I laid eyes on her. I could recall how soft her lips were when they had touched mine. How pliant her body was against mine and how soft she’d felt. How lovingly her touch had been and how her lovely scent had sated me. I’d found peace and all of my worries were forgotten in those few minutes she’d spent in my arms but it all came crashing down when she’d admitted she wasn’t good enough for me and had run out of my bedroom even before her words could make sense to me.

Her words and her sudden change in character came as a shock to me, that I was lost on what to do. It seemed that shitty bastard had done more damage to her than I ever gave him credit for and it had hurt my heart to hear her utter those words. To finally realize that she considers herself worthless all because of what he did to her, and how terribly he harmed her. And in that moment, I promised myself I was going to do anything to keep her safe but first, I decided to give her a bit of space.

Maybe I’ve been too hard on her these past few days. I’d give her time to come to terms with what I feel for her, and the chemistry spiraling between us, and then I’d show her that she deserves all of the love in the world. Even if it means having my best friend take care of her while I stay off her radar, I will do it.

These thoughts only worsened my mood and my heart pricked at thoughts of constantly seeing her with Chase, rather than where she should be, in my arms.

I was still there staring at the now locked gate, long after the car was gone when a frightened Sentinel suddenly ran towards me, heaving from lack of breath, and falling to his knees. A frown marred my face as I recognized the man and I’d never seen him in such a state.

“Alpha… Alpha Shane…” He tried speaking, amidst gasping for air.

“Speak, Carl,” I ordered, irritated by his show of fear.

“The packhouse has been… The packhouse has been infiltrated,” he stuttered out, his fearful eyes looking up at me with a haunted expression in them, as though he’d seen something out of the ordinary but I glanced around, unable to take his words seriously.

I’d taken a walk around this morning and everything seemed normal. So, what was he going on about? The packhouse was one of the safest places in BlackMane, and it had never been under attack due to the strong security measures that had been put in place. My annoyed gaze returned to him and I was about to call out his bluff but he spoke again, in clearer words.

“The two sentinels who were with you last evening… they’re dead. They were…” He suddenly kept shut as if he couldn’t bring himself to say the words as his gaze fell to the floor while he kept heaving.

At this point, I was tired of his acts.

“Take me to them,”

Immediately, he rose to his feet and turned in the direction he emerged from, hurrying along, not caring to look back if I was following him. He led me to their chambers where a small crowd of the Sentinels were gathered, looking distraught and haunted at the same time. The sight had my heart rate gradually speeding up as I wondered what could be so bad that had these strong men shitting their pants but I didn’t need to think too much because the moment I stepped into the first room, I halted to a stop at the horrifying sight before me.

My first intuition was to get out of the room to save myself from the trauma of what I’d just seen but it was as if my feet were rooted to the spot and I couldn’t move. Right there on the bed was the remains of a man who appeared to have been skinned. My eyes were rooted to it, unable to look away. By now, my heart was slamming hard against my chest, threatening to break out. I’d never seen a sight like this before. With shaky legs, I turned towards the small crowd of sentinels around, about to demand answers but then two other guards walked in, with determined looks on their faces.

“We’ve swept the entire packhouse, Alpha Shane, and even checked the security feeds but there was no sign of an intruder,”

“Zack has also gone out with some men into the town to sweep every corner and be sure it’s safe,” The other man added but I wasn’t impressed. The sight we’ve all seen was terrifying and if anything, it speaks of their incapability to handle a war or even a breach if it ever comes to that.

“You want me to believe that no one breached these highly guarded walls to do this? Skin a man?” I gritted out, now fuming with anger at their carelessness but I got no response as they all bowed their heads in shame. “Who found the bodies and who was with these men? I need to know every detail of the last time you saw them, their last activities, who discovered these bodies, and all that went on last night. And you better pray…” I pointed an accusing finger at them, seething. “Pray the lunatic that did this doesn’t harm any other soul, else, every one of you will feel my wrath.”

“What…” Chased stumbled into the room at the moment, and as soon as his eyes met with the body on the bed, he cursed out. “Fuck! How did this happen?” He looked to me for answers but my eyes strayed to all of the guards gathered around and no one seemed to have an answer but then one of them stepped forward.

“Alpha Shane, I saw them first. Carl and I…” His eyes strayed to the same guard who’d informed me of the deaths. “Together with Braden and Stan, we were meant to head out for the usual morning routine check of the property. Carl went towards Stan’s room and I came here to wake Braden.” He pointed to the corpse on the bed. “He was never one to sleep in late but I assumed he may have been very tired after all of the activities of the previous night and considering he went out with you to the home of the missing family. I got here and was about to tap on the door but a very offensive odor greeted me instead.”

His mention of the offensive odor reminded me of how badly the house we’d gone to inspect smelled but I shook it off my thoughts to hear him out.

“I knocked after realizing it was coming from his bedroom but I got no response. I proceeded to call out to him, even teasing him about why his chambers were smelling so bad. It was then Carl rushed in to inform me of Stan’s death and what he’d seen in his bedroom. Horrified, we both broke in to see Braden on his bed, just as he is now. The entire room was oozing badly and at first, Carl and I couldn’t breathe…”

I narrowed my eyes on him.

“What did it smell like?”

“I swear, I’ve never inhaled anything like it before. Maybe a decaying body? I have no idea, Alpha Shane but it was terrible. We’d quickly rushed out to inform Zack and the others and Carl came to you immediately,”

My eyes met with Chase and as if he could read my mind, I saw the question in his eyes but I couldn’t believe it.

Chase and I had been in that same house with these two guards, who were now dead. I was on the verge of dismissing these thoughts but I recalled we had masks to block out the odor and they didn’t but then my eyes strayed to the body on the bed. The sight was too bad to have been affected by the terrible smell they inhaled. There was something else, and I believed someone was responsible for their deaths. Or maybe there was something else missing from this story?

“Take the bodies to the pack hospital and ask them to run an autopsy. We’ll get to the bottom of this and as soon as Zack returns, tell him to see me. You,” I pointed to another of the guards. “Take the men and go to Aria’s school. You’re to keep an eye on her for her safety and make sure no one makes contact with her,”

They nodded in acknowledgment and quickly left the room as everyone got to work, following the orders I’d just given. Chase and I, on the other hand, left the room, silently heading toward my office as we mulled over the situation.

“It can’t be the smell. That’ll be ridiculous,” I said as soon as we were in the privacy of my office but all Chase did was frown and wordlessly stare at me. “There’s something amiss. Even if the smell is part of this, it’d merely be poisoning and it shouldn’t lead to what we saw back there,” Yet, he kept staring at me.

“Did you feel sick yesterday or even this morning, like you didn’t know what was wrong but you woke up pale, and…and… was barely able to breathe?”

My frown deepened.

“What are you talking about?”

“Because I felt like death this morning. I was going to go to the hospital as soon as I dropped Aria at school but surprisingly, I dropped her off and all of the symptoms I felt somehow vanished. I woke up barely able to breathe, Shane. There was this terrible ache in my chest, and I’d only agreed to get out of my home because it was for Aria, after hearing what that guard had to say, I couldn’t help but wonder if that stench we inhaled had anything to do with my predicament,”

I stared at him as though he was crazy but I had no experience of the symptoms he was talking about and we’d all been in that house.

“You can’t be serious,” I shook my head, refusing to believe him. He was thinking too far. “We all went to that house and I felt none of those things. It’s a mere coincidence and I strongly believe an intruder had gotten into this property to do that to those men. No fucking smell can skin a man alive,”

“Is that what you think?”

“It is the reality, Chase. Someone killed those men. That smell might just be a camouflage to fuck with us,”

For a minute, he was silent.

“The stranger in the dungeons…” He shook his head. “Unless… Aria…”

I narrowed my gaze at him, at a loss to his words.

“I think… Aria. Were you with her last night? Did you come in contact with her or hold her in any way last night?”

“What has that got to do with the situation on the ground?”

His eyes stared into mine.

“I don’t mean to offend you with what I’m about to say or even my line of thoughts but could it be possible that she has a sort of healing power?”

My brows pinched together in question.

“I still think the smell is a factor here, and I could recall feeling terrible this morning until I came in contact with her. I mean, she offered to hug me when she noticed I wasn’t well, and when she pulled away, a certain warmth spread through me, and suddenly, everything I was feeling was gone. All signs of discomfort. All that was left was large beads of sweat soaking into my top,”

“So if I get this right, you’re saying you could have ended up like those guards but coming in contact with Aria magically healed you and you think that’s why I didn’t feel any of these symptoms because I was in contact with her, earlier than you…”

He nodded slowly as if to confirm my words.

“Bullshit, Chase. Have you forgotten how sick she was when we brought her to live here? Have you forgotten how she’d barely survived her father’s maltreatment? The same Aria that has been taking care of my father and cleaning him up but he’s still on his sick bed? And even if your deductions were sort of right, she’s a wolf, Chase. One of our kind. From ancient times, only the witches had the true healing powers. All we had were herbs to help hasten the process of healing not to magically cure ailments in a short period like you’ve just said,”

“Maybe… maybe you’re right,” He finally concurred, still looking unsure but I wasn’t ready to buy into his deductions.

“The stranger in the dungeons. He’s the one we need to focus on. I’m convinced he has the answers we need, and he knows about all of these attacks. We need to tackle this fast if they’re already infiltrating the pack house.”

Just then, a knock sounded on the door, interrupting us.

“Come in,” I called out. The door opened to reveal one of the guards, and the pack doctor, Dr. Mark.

“He’s here to see you, Alpha Shane, and there’s been a new development with Carl and Ezra,”

“They’ve been hospitalized,” Dr. Mark filled in. “and I have reason to believe that you and Beta Chase may need urgent medical attention,”

“We took the bodies to the hospital as you instructed and on our way back, we noticed Carl and Ezra were sick. Their bodies were pale, and they were complaining of terrible chest pain. It was so bad that Carl almost passed out in the car. We had to return to the hospital where they were hospitalized and attended to by Dr. Mark, here,”

My eyes darted to Chase and I recalled what he’d said about feeling sick just this morning.

“Your men told me they may have inhaled a poisonous substance from the chambers of the dead men and I’m here to check everyone that was in that environment, who may have also inhaled it,”

Chase stared back at me with a knowing look and Aria came to mind. Could it be true? But I recalled how sick she’d been when we brought her to the packhouse. But then at the same time, I recalled the sudden improvements in my father’s health just a few days after she met with him. Could it be her doing?

These thoughts flooded my head but it didn’t make sense that she’d be responsible for all of these. She had no such powers. While I decided to let the doctor get to work, I instructed the guards to visit the prisoner in the dungeons and torture him until he spoke.

I had no doubts he had a hand and knew a lot about what was going on.