Chapter 165

[ 1,437 words ]

Aria

“Are you sure you’re not just seeing what Rosa wanted you to see?” Ransom asks from across the kitchen.

He has one of the quints on his hand and is feeding her a bottle.

The other three are fully and happy taking naps in their bassinets.

Hazel is on the other side of her kitchen plating up some eggs to go with the stack of Belgian waffles and bacon she made for our brunch.

“It is too early for one of your riddles. Can we please speak in plain English?”

Ransom snorts. “What I mean is people normally present what they want you to see. It’s possible there is part of her past she was hiding that would connect her to the other victims.”

“He’s right. You’d be surprised what a background check can bring to light,” Hazel says, sitting down and taking a sip of her coffee.

I found taking a bite of my waffles. “What could Rosa possibly have to do with anything? She spent her whole life with the pack. Surely if there was anything someone around here would know.”

Hazel gives me a thoughtful look, tucking blonde curls behind her ear. “Maybe.”

“I don’t like that look. Tell me what you’re thinking?”

“Honestly, I’m thinking about your mom, or more specifically the house she left you.”

“Shit, I must really have a case of pregnancy brain because no matter how hard I try I can’t make sense of your words.”

“It will pass,” she says sympathetically. “What I mean is how your mom hid all of those documents from you, all of the proof of who she was and what she knew, what if Rosa did something similar.”

My wolf perks up at the idea. Now we are getting somewhere.

“I say we go on a little investigation of our own,” Ransom says, wiggling his eyebrows.

“You’re just bored,” Hazel accuses.

He picks the bottle out of the baby’s mouth and nestles her against his shoulder to burp her. “I am. Elliot is always tryna find a way to leave me out of the action. I’m starting to feel like a trophy mate.”

“Sorry babe, but you’ve been benched just like the rest of us,” Hazel says in a tone that tells me she is not sympathetic at all.

Ransom looks at me, “Not for long. You know we are the dream team? What do you say? Meet up tonight and investigate?”

I look between Hazel and Ransom chewing my bottom lip.

We’ve always worked better if we could see things for ourselves, she coaxes.

That is true. Plus, without my mate to hover over me, maybe we could get a grip on the whole situation and find something that would be useful in our search.

“Alright. Let’s do it.”

***

Night falls, and I listen to the breathing of my mates as I carefully extract myself from their arms.

Throwing on a pair of sweats and a shirt, I tip toe out of the house, peaking in on Lowden’s sleeping form before I head out.

I wave at Dex as I head down the path where Ransom and Hazel are waiting.

Dex gives me an unreliable look.“If your mates wake up to find you gone, I’m telling them where you’re at.”

“Traitor,” I snipe.

“I’m not going to be put on the chopping block for this expedition.”

“But you are helping us,” I chime.

He frowns. “You cheated. You made Felix ask me.”

“That’s just being smart.” I pat his chest and go to the others.

“Felix is watching over the brood?”

“Yup, granted the quints will be down for at least three hours but it is still a challenge,” Hazel says.

“Then we better get a move on ladies,” Ransom says.

We head into the center of the pack towards Rosa’s house. Except for the random patrolling enforcers, the pack is quiet.

When we reach the small cabin, it’s blocked off with tape. The overgrown grass and foliage blows in the breeze giving the home a sorrowful kind of look.

Like the land is mourning its Mistress.

“We should split up, I’ll go around back and you girls will take the front,” Ransom says.

“Of course you want to take the back,” Hazel snarks.

“Bitch,” he quips with affection.

We split up. Ransom disappears behind the house and we head to the front door.

The door is unlocked and opens easily.

When we step inside, the scents of cinnamon and nutmeg permeate the air. It reminds me of the oatmeal cookies Rosa used to make.

For a small moment, I wish I were here, that I could have somehow stopped it. Before those thoughts can take me, I tuck it away. I can’t change what happened, but I can get justice.

I can make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Hazel and I start in the sitting room, looking under furniture and rugs, running hands along the edges of walls and baseboards for anything that could be amiss.

Anything that isn’t what it seems.

“I gotta hand it to Rosa, I don’t think I’ve ever been in a more put together home. I’m lucky if I can see my floor most days,” Hazel says.

“No, kidding and I only have one pup.”

“Yeah, but you have four mates, so it evens out in my opinion.”

“You won’t find me arguing there.”

The moonlight cast white highlights throughout the room, creating harsh angles along the walls and furniture.

We move toward the kitchen, where Rosa’s body was found. The change in the tiles on the floor serves as the only indicator of change in the open space design.

With my enhanced eyesight, I can still see specks of blood between on top of the cream colored grout lines.

Poison, Thomas said.

But how did the poison get in?

As if Hazel can read my mind she starts to open Rosa’s pantry.

When she puts on a glove and pulls out a bag, I ask, “What are you doing?”

“Collecting samples.”

I smile at her. “What else did you think of bringing?”

“Just the basics. A knuckle stun gun, my blades and some pepper powder.”

“Pepper powder?” I question.

“It’s like paper spray but you can throw it?”

I shake my head and open up the fridge, taking out items and sniffing each of them for signs of contamination.

I’m not as good as Liam is, but my pregnancy hormones have significantly improved my sense of smell.

A sharp, metallic smell catches on my nose as I look through the bottom shelf.

“I think I got something,” I say, following my nose and pulling out an innocuous jar of some type of cream.

“What is it?” Hazel asks saddling up to me.

“It looks like cream, but it smells wrong. There’s a trace of a moldy meat smell underneath.”

Hazel wrinkles her nose. “I’m glad I can’t smell it.”

She studies the jar. “If this is it, it could be how she got the poison into her system.”

“But it doesn’t explain how it got in her house in the first place.”

The door to the yard opens and Ransom comes in a furrow on his brows.

“They trained the crows.”

I double blink trying to wrap my mind around what he just said. “Say that again.”

“You mentioned the black feathers so on a hunch I started to check the trees around the property. There were claw marks just like I suspected. I followed each of them and discovered them moving in a pattern.”

Hazel’s eyes widened. “They were mapping out the area.”

“That’s what I think, though I can’t be sure until we check all the trees,” Ransom explains.

“Are you telling me they had the birds watching us?” I say no bothering to hide the shock in my voice.

The birds would raise the flags of our pack, my wolf says.

“No. I’m saying they used them to help them when they got inside. Possibly to help them stay unseen,” Ransom said. “ We had a few hunters in the compound who would train a few species of birds in a similar way.”

I clutch the creamer jar more firmly in my hand. “I think we found what they used to slip the poison in.”

“We should get it to the medical building. Have them run and test to see if whatever in there is a match for the poison,” Hazel says.

Ransom looks around as if expecting someone to jump out of the shadows. “All right, let’s get out of here.”

“With pleasure,” Hazel says.

As we are walking back I find myself looking up into the trees, searching for signs that we are being watched.

Ransom’s cell phone rings, drawing our attention.

Who would be calling him this late at night?

“It’s Kiara,” he says before answering his phone.

I hear her frantic tone but can’t make out what she is saying.

Ransom goes deathly still. “I’ll be there in a few hours. Lock everything down and initiate the panic protocol.”

He hangs up the phone and I ask, “What happened?”

“I have to go back. One of our juveniles has gone missing.”

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