“Murdered?” Hunter suddenly jumped up from his place. No Lycans were murdered under his regime so easily. The last that was murdered was ten years back and that too because he was too abusive to his wife. It was his wife who had killed him. That she-Lycan was still spending her time in dungeons.
Asher shook his head and exhaled roughly. “It is strange. Natalie was a fun-loving girl and always upbeat. They are saying that she was murdered by her boy-friend.”
Hunter drew his brows together. “Did you conduct any investigation about her whereabouts?”
Asher stretched his neck and then cracked his neck. “I have checked it everywhere, at least all around the territory of the Dark Moon pack, but she isn’t found anywhere.”
“How is this possible, Asher?” Elijah said in a suspicious tone. “You haven’t sniffed her out? There must be some trail that must lead us to her.”
“I have followed that trail and it ends up in the woods a few miles before the township we are building for the demons,” Asher replied. “But-” he got up and walked to the whiteboard behind him. He picked up the marker and traced the path of the trail that he had discovered. “The trail also leads to the township that you are constructing for the Crescent Moon pack.”
“What the ***!” Hunter got up, thumping his fists on the table.
Asher shrugged. “That is what is befuddling. I had also gone with my warriors to trace her scent, but we realized that we were walking in circles.”
Hunter gnashed his teeth. He looked at Elijah, who too was clueless. “Call two teams of the warriors. We are going to go in separate trails,” he said. He was irritated that he had just announced the pregnancy of his wife to his pack and this had to happen. “Elijah, you lead the other team, while Asher will come with me. Also ask Natalie’s father to come along.”
“I will,” Asher replied as he started winding up. As he was about to leave, he suddenly said, “I wanted to question all the classmates of Natalie to understand her. I am sure that we can get a lead by asking questions from her classmates. Often the peer group knows more than the parents know about their kids. But-”
Hunter narrowed his eyes, waiting for him to complete his sentence.
Asher cleared his throat. “We might have to i
nterrogate Mia as well.”
“Asher!” Hunter growled and Asher winced.
He picked up his hands and said, “It’s up to you Alpha. We don’t have to question Mia at all, but would it seem fair. All I can say is that Mia should be given a clean chit before all others.”
“He is right, Hunter,” Elijah advised. “Let them question Mia.”
Hunter took a ragged breath. “Okay, but you can question her after a few days and when you ask her questions, make sure that I am there or River is there. She is too young and innocent.” Suddenly Hunter felt too protective about his sister, Shet was his responsibility after his parents’ death.
“I can do that!” Asher replied hastily and then left. He opened the door again and said, “There’s one more thing I forgot to add.”
“And that is?”
“Natalie was Rosalie’s cousin.”
For the whole day, Hunter, Elijah and Asher were searching the borders and then also went deep in the jungles. They shifted into their Lycans in order to search for the body amongst the thousand smells of wet earth and pine and herbs and animals, but they couldn’t find her.
Natalie’s father, Howard, had lost all hope of finding his daughter. She was his love-child with his human mate who was still living in the human world. Even though he could have brought his mate to his world, she abandoned him and their pup because she hated his beast. Howard had been single-handedly looking after Natalie. Natalie was a rare case of being a half human and she wasn’t as powerful as the pure Lycans. And that alone bothered Howard as ***.
The next day, Asher started questioning Natalie’s classmates. While Hunter didn’t come, Elijah was present. After they had questioned everyone, they approached Natalie’s core group of five friends- Jack, Miami, Nick, Trish and Mia.
Natalie was an adorable girl and even though everyone knew that she was a half human, they all loved her. However, lately. she was showing bizarre behavior.
“I don’t know but she seemed like she was in a different world,” said Jack, pondering about Asher’s question.
“That’s right,” Miami added. “She said that she had information about someone that if it ever leaked out, that person would be destroyed.”
“What information?” Asher asked.
“I don’t know. Natalie was always very secretive. But she had so much energy and was so beautiful that everyone was attracted to her,” said Miami.
Mia was standing behind the group and watching them all quietly. Asher glanced at her and stopped himself from asking questions to her.
“Did she have a boyfriend?” Asher asked Miami.
“She said that she had a boyfriend,” Miami said.
“Who?”
“We don’t know. She was very secretive about him but she said that he was an older guy. She never mentioned about her. But she always said that she liked him a lot.”
“I see,” Asher sighed, glancing at Mia again. He turned his attention to Trish. “Did you see her going with her boyfriend?”
“Never,” Trish said, shaking her head. She looked a little nervous. “Natalie said that her boyfriend gave her a lot of money
and dresses.”
Nick chimed in. “I don’t want to sound bitchy, but that girl was very vicious on the inside. She liked playing with people’s emotions like they were nothing.”
Mia shifted uneasily on her feet which didn’t go unnoticed by Asher. “Can you elaborate?”
Nick tightened his lips and paused for a moment before saying, “She had put Mia into a lot of trouble and she had announced it in the school that her cousin Rosalie was rejected by Alpha Hunter, but that Rosalie wanted her to marry Hunter after her. However-” he gazed at Mia, who was clearly not liking the conversation. “However, Rosalie was upset. that she couldn’t help Natalie with it.”
Asher was stunned. On one hand he wanted to give it a high-school crush label, but on the other hand, he was getting wildly suspicious.
“Natalie was upset for a few days and then she bounced back saying it didn’t matter. Luna River would never be her match anyway and that now she had a lover. So even if the Alpha came begging on his feet to marry her, she wouldn’t.”
“She was ***to think that my brother would marry her!” Mia snapped, tension radiating off her. “Hunter didn’t have eyes. for anyone except River!”
Elijah tensed. He wanted to come to Mia and wrap his arms around her to soothe her, but he restrained himself from doing
that.
Asher became so tense that he locked his jaws, hoping that Mia would keep quiet. He glared at her so hard that she closed her ****. “The questions are over for today. If you all find something different or want to tell me anything. then you can. Feel free to call me, okay?” Asher said and got up.
As they were going back, Asher said, “This has become complicated. Who was the older Lycan she liked? We have to find
him.”
Elijah didn’t reply
