Torment (Primal Progeny Book 1) (31 page)

‘Why…?’ She tried to ask. He cut her off by placing his finger once again to her lips.

He stood and held out a hand to her. ‘Come with me my love, it is cold here and we risk being found if we are out in the open. People do not take kindly to nakedness in this day and age, we must find you shelter. ‘

Audra took his hand and let him help her to her feet, her long brown hair tumbling down around her breasts and shoulders. Varulv shrugged off the coat he had been wearing and draped it over her shoulders. He steered her towards the lights of the city, a sly smile on his face and a blank look of acceptance on hers.

Chapter 32

The drive to the barn had been a silent one for Tobias and his hunting party. Even Matthew, who would usually have been chatty and joking regardless of circumstances, remained quiet. Usually he seemed devoid of the ability to discern when jokes were not appropriate, but Tobias was stern enough that even he knew it was not the time or place.

By the time the meeting had finished and they had arrived at the barn it was pitch dark. Tobias parked a little over a mile away from the building and switched off the engine. With the lights cut out the countryside was so dark that they could barely see their hands in front of their faces. Though their eyes adjusted more quickly than a human man’s would have, they were still totally without sight for a moment. That unnerved them all.

First to climb out of the vehicle was Tobias, closely followed by Mason, then Arthur and Matthew and then finally Finnlay, who had been stuck in the middle seat in the back of the car. Tobias motioned to them that they should follow him and began to trudge off into the darkness. They all followed in silence without question. The walk to the barn was a short one, but the breeze was cold and they were soon shivering and pulling their jackets around them. By the time the great black bulk of the building reared into view they were almost grateful for its offer of shelter. Murder scene or not.

Tobias led them up to the front of the barn and stood in the doorway whilst they filed past him into the ramshackle old building. The smell of old blood hung heavily in the air and made them feel uneasy; but there was no indication of any more recent tragedies. Once the others had passed him by and melted into the shadows of the barn, Tobias followed them inside. He gave the landscape one last scan before he turned his back and walked in, feeling watched somehow.

Once inside the building they converged in the center of the room, totally blinded by the deep darkness.

‘Can we not put a light on?’ Finnlay’s voice whispered out of the dark.

‘What light?’ Tobias snapped quietly. ‘There’s one in the barn itself but we don’t need to be drawing any attention to the fact that we’re here. Even a torch would be too revealing, you’ll have to deal with it.’

Finnlay nodded before realizing that the gesture would go unseen, and quietly replied ‘ok, sorry.’

Tobias replied in a hoarse whisper. ‘That’s fine, just use your heads please boys. I’d like for the barn to have a thorough examination while we wait for Eve to arrive. I trust I can count on you all not to run off like my last trusty assistant?’ The joking comment was delivered with an acid undertone.

A chorus of quiet agreements answered him, and so Tobias continued. ‘I’d like you all to make your way around the inside of building and pick up every scent you can. Try to ascertain when Varulv was last here, how long he was here, what he did, what he wore, what his intentions were… Everything.’

The group separated and fanned out to check the interior of the barn. Tobias and Finnlay moving to the front of the building and working in opposite directions along the walls. Matthew and Finnlay doing the same but starting by the rear door. Mason drifted around the centre of the barn, focusing his attentions on the area where Lucy had been killed, and working his way out from there to follow blood trails.

After around half an hour of this they had found nothing that was not already known and Tobias was beginning to become frustrated. No matter how thorough they were, they came across no extra evidence that would help them. Eventually he called to them all to stop and ordered them to head back outside.

Once they had all gotten out and into the moonlight, they grew a little less tense. Tobias moved them away from the building a little and scanned the surrounding land agitatedly. 

‘Eve’s taking her sweet time.’ He observed. The others did not reply for fear of being seen as insolent to a higher-ranking member of the pack. This made Tobias smirk to himself; it was nice to see they were loyal to their superiors, even if they weren’t at alpha level. 

‘We’ll wait here for a while until she arrives’ the beta male continued. ‘We can’t set off without her and we can’t make her arrive any faster.’

The others nodded and murmured, falling into conversing quietly amongst themselves whilst they waited. Tobias remained quiet and watched the roads for signs of his co-beta, blocking out the chatting around him and losing himself in thought for a while.

While he absent-mindedly scented the air the sound of a distant engine reached his ears, and then the sound of it cutting out. Turning his head to face the direction of the sound he listened intently. He heard two doors open and close, and two sets of footfalls coming in their direction. The wind was not working in his favor however, and he could not smell who was approaching. That made him uneasy.

‘Listen! Get round to the back of the barn’ He suddenly ordered his party. They complied quickly and quietly, all then listening to the approaching footfalls. Carefully they concealed themselves in the shadows behind the building, hugging close to the wooden wall and waiting.

The atmosphere grew more and more tense as the footsteps grew closer and closer. Tobias crept to the edge of the barn wall and watched in silence, his eyes trained on the dirt track leading up to the barn entrance. In the distance he could see the shadowy shapes of two approaching figures. He sniffed the air hopefully, but the wind direction was still wrong for him to be able to discern who was approaching. Luckily though it was not blowing the pack member’s scents to them either.

Suddenly he noticed something, a glint in the darkness on the shorter figures face, and another, and another… Leaning forward he squinted out into the darkness, and as he looked he noticed the smaller figure’s heavy boots. Looking even more intently he saw that she had dreadlocks. It was Eve and Hunter at long last.

Jogging out of his hiding place towards them, he left his hunting party hanging back in confusion. Breaking into a slow run he headed straight for Eve and when they drew level wrapped his arms around her tightly.

‘Its good to see you up and about.’ He smiled down at her. ‘And you out of a cell’ He winked at Hunter.

Eve returned his hug awkwardly, as her arms were pinned by her sides by his crushing embrace. Hunter smiled tensely at the male Beta and nodded. ‘Its good to be out.’ He agreed, sounding anything but glad. His tone was laden with malice he could not conceal, though not that Tobias blamed him. 

Eve grew tired of the rib crushing hug and shoved Tobias off of her, tucking her dreads behind her ears and adopting a business like tone. ‘Well, we’re here, what next?’

Tobias gestured to the building where the other men were loitering around in the darkness uncertainly. ‘We’re taking the boys to hunt down the fucker who’s causing all the trouble ma’am.’ His tone was jovial and mocking, which earned him a punch in the chest from his fellow beta.

‘Who did you bring?’ Eve asked.

‘Finnlay, Arthur, Mason and Matthew.’ Tobias responded, sounding sure of his choices.

Eve nodded ‘good choices, all strong, loyal weres.’ Looking over to the other males she called out ‘what are you waiting for? Its rude to ignore a guest!’ She gestured to Hunter, who managed to raise an awkward and unhappy smile. It was one thing being the main attraction in a meeting where everyone was sat down and looking friendly. It was quite another to be mixing with a group of experienced male werewolves in the dark of night.

The four men strutted over and shook Hunter’s hand, well wishes were given and all expressed their happiness at his being let out of the station.

‘Thanks’ Hunter replied to them all in one statement ‘I’ve not been charged so it’s been pretty lucky tonight for me… But I really think this is all wasting time. We should be on the trail by now.’

Tobias nodded. ‘He’s right. Lets get out there.’

Eve poked and prodded the men towards the field, taking up the rear and glancing over her shoulder just once as she went. The place had an atmosphere she couldn’t stand, but she didn’t want any of them to see her nervousness. The fact that they could probably smell it irritated her, but there was nothing she could do about that.

Tobias led the way and spoke over his shoulder to the others as he went. ‘I’ll take us to where Audra ran off, we can follow her scent from there.’

Matthew responded first. ‘Are we following on foot or by paw?’

Eve spoke up from the rear of the group. ‘By foot, we need to conserve our energy. We can make the change later, when we are nearer and only then if we need to.’

They trudged across the field, flattening the grass, and disturbing rabbits who munched on the foliage here and there. Hunter thought about Eve’s statement as they moved onwards and at length he broke the silence. ‘Do you think we will all change? Might it be an idea to have some of us remain human?’

Tobias responded before Eve could even open her mouth. ‘Naturally some of us will have to remain in human form. We just need to decide who’s doing what before we get to meet the delightful individual we’ve been sent after.’ He laughed awkwardly, trying to add humour to the task at hand and failing miserably.

Matthew cut in, his voice high pitched in comparison to the other males. ‘I can smell something.’

Tobias halted in his tracks and held out his arms, gesturing for the group to stop. Nervously they all looked about, sniffing at the air.

‘What is it?’ Eve asked quietly, looking behind her and shivering at the cold air that was only becoming steadily colder.

‘Blood…’ Matthew answered slowly ‘Human blood.’

Tobias tilted back his head and sniffed loudly. ‘I smell nothing, are you certain?’

Matthew nodded ‘100 percent Tobias, it’s faint and it’s distant but its there.’

Eve piped up ‘He’s known for having a good nose, I’d say we’re going to come across something unpleasant on our travels…’

Tobias looked behind him and took Matthew by the arm, shoving him to the front of the group. ‘We best head in that direction… Lead the way.’ He instructed the lower ranking werewolf.

Matthew Looked back at his Beta and nodded. ‘It’s a fair way away, and it’s getting old.’

‘Best get a move on then’ Tobias gave the younger male a shove, ‘get on with it!’

Matthew turned and broke into a jog, the others followed suit. Their condition would gift them the stamina to keep up the gait for miles before beginning to feel any kind of fatigue. Though it did mean that conversation ground to a halt for a while.

As they jogged Hunter watched their misty breath evaporate into the night and a deep frown etched itself into his face. He could clearly smell both Audra and Varulv, and he wanted nothing more than to finally get his teeth and claws into the both of them. Imagining he was tearing into Varulv and finally getting his revenge for the crimes the old beast had committed; Hunter sped his pace and drew level with Tobias.

‘I can’t wait to get my teeth into this fucker.’ He growled sideways at the beta male.

‘Down boy!’ The beta joked ‘We need to formulate a plan to deal with him, we can’t just throw you in.’

‘I can take care of him.’ Hunter insisted.

‘I don’t doubt it.’ Tobias laughed. ‘But I have a feeling you’ll be wanted alive after this, so how about lay your hackles down and share the burden.’

Hunter grunted begrudgingly in response. They jogged on in silence, covering good ground and slowly edging closer to their target.