Chapter 3
"Beth! Will you stop daydreaming and get off my bed so I can straighten the sheets out?" Anastasia demanded. I looked over at my brain still not registering what she asked me to do, since it was still thinking of the gorgeous girl in the woods last night.
"Sorry. Hey I'm going to go out for a walk." I walked out before she had time to respond.
I'd been walking for at least thirty minutes already. The trees around me were familiar, so I was really paying much attention to where I was going. Suddenly I stopped and listened as a deathly silence settled around me. Twigs snapped behind me. The loud crack of a branch breaking in half made me jump a little. A soft cadence of footfalls sounded closer than I was comfortable with. I made my way into some dense underbrush, and then circled around the area I had originally been standing. Frowning in confusion at finding no one where I expected to find someone, I looked around. My breath left me in a rush when something heavy collided into me. The trees above me blurred as I struggled to regain the air I had lost when I hit the ground. A face suddenly obscured my vision of blurry tree branches. As I started to breathe easier the face suddenly became clear. Kristina.
"Fuck." I breathed out.
"Goddammit! You again!"
"You ran into me so stop snapping at me!" was my irritated reply.
"I can't seem to fucking get rid of you! I'm going to end up shooting your ass at this rate!" she snapped.
"This was your fault! So get off of your high horse and get off of me!" I growled.
Kristina pushed off of me with an irritated snort. Pushing myself into a sitting position I studied the irritated girl standing in front of me. Relief rushed through me that it was this girl that crashed into me instead of my stalker. She could shoot you right now but you wouldn't even notice, because your too busy checking out her ass!
"She's got a nice ass though." I muttered to myself.
"What?" she asked turning around.
My face felt hot and I knew I was probably as red as a tomato.
"N-nothing," I stammered.
She studied me for a long moment, and the silence made me extremely nervous. I looked up at her from where I sat on the ground and met her quizzical gaze.
"Who are you?" she suddenly asked.
"I told you who I was," I said confused.
"No who are you, really?"
"Beth Hunter. The wolf that keeps running into you at the worst possible times? Well at least in my book," I said sarcastically.
"You know I hate sarcasm," Kristina said flatly.
"Well not really since I don't really know you, but thanks for telling me," I replied with a grin.
"You are the most exasperating wolf I have ever had the misfortune of meeting. Do you ever take anything seriously?" she asked.
"N-," a twig snapping cut me off.
Tilting my head to the right I listened for anything that would tell me where that sound had come from. I was met by completely silence, not even the crickets made a sound. Sudden realization hit me that it hadn't been silent because of Kristina, something else was in the woods with us.
"What is it?" Kristina whispered.
"Listen," I whispered back.
"I don't hear anything," confusion laced her voice.
I nodded looking around us and then at her. Sudden understanding showed in her face. Kristina knew we weren't alone. The feeling of being watched settled on me, and I couldn't help but feel a little bit of fear. Who was watching us? Kristina and I flinched when the animals started making noise again, but they sounded alarmed. Following my gut I took the old deer trail to my right. Towards the section where the trail branched off onto another, an old oak tree stood in between both trails. My stomach churned at the sight before me and Kristina.
I stared up at the gruesome discovery in the tree before us. A boy hung upside down with on leg wedged between two branches. His face was the only part of him that hadn't been touched. The boy had been gutted much like a deer would be. What had to be his intestines were piled directly under where his body hung. My gaze was caught to the tree at mine and Kristina's left. As I made my way to the tree I heard Kristina breath, "Oh my God. Luke."
I stared at the tree that had I small piece of paper stuck to it. Bloody fingerprints dotted the paper and on impulse I reached out and pulled it off the tree. My heart stopped as I read it: Hope you enjoy my present sweet Beth, because this is only the beginning. Your mother may have hid you from me for all these years but even she should have known you couldn't stay hidden forever. I hope you like the gift I left with the note. See you soon Beth.
I looked up from the note and back at the tree. There pinned directly under where the note had been was a human heart. Luke's heart. Stumbling backwards away from the tree I turned around as my lunch made its back up to my mouth. I threw up into the bushes until I couldn't anymore.
"Beth? Are you okay?" Kristina asked as I finished heaving up everything in my stomach. I looked up at her and she looked like she was about to lose her own lunch. Handing her the note I had clutched in my hand, I also pointed to the tree I had stumbled away from. Kristina read the note and then looked at the tree. She covered her mouth and closed her eyes.
"You need to leave," Kristina said softly as she looked back at Luke's body.
"But-," I started to say.
"No buts. Leave Beth," She said with a little more authority.
I hesitated before finally backing away from the horrific scene behind Kristina and into the trees.
"Don't breathe a word of this!" she yelled.
Calling up my wolf I shifted and ran to the only place I could think of. Anastasia's house.
Kristina turned and looked back up into the tree at the boy she had trained and patrolled with as a Were-Hunter. In all the centuries she had been alive the gruesome sight in front of her finally made her feel like she was back in the Dark Ages. She pulled out her cell phone and called Nikki's mother Cameron.
"Cam you need to come and see this. Your not going to like this at all," Kristina said when Cameron answered.
After explaining to Cam exactly where she was, Kristina hung up and looked at the note in her hand. Anger overwhelmed her as she thought of the psychopath that had done this to Luke. The psychopath that was also stalking the mysterious wolf she was so attracted to.
"Jesus Christ," a voice sounded behind her.
"It's Luke," Kristina said without turning around.
Cameron walked up beside her and Kristina sent her a sideways glance. Cam looked exactly like Nikki but only just a bit shorter. Kristina watched as Cam signaled her men to gather evidence and clean up the area.
"Who did this?" Cam asked with in a voice that barely veiled her rage and pain.
"I don't know but he left this," Kristina said handing Cam the note.
"Beth?" Cam asked in confusion after reading the note.
"Beth Hunter. The wolf that was adopted by the Wyatt family," Kristina explained.
"If this is her birth father that is doing this then there has to be something about him in our records. A wolf this violent shouldn't have escaped our notice," Cameron said.
"Then I guess we should start doing some research, and hope that we can get an I.D. with the fingerprints he left behind," Kristina said with anger lacing her voice.
Hours later no match had been found from the fingerprints, and Kristina stared down at the books she had laid before her. She nor any of the others could find anything that gave them a clue to who exactly this guy was. They couldn't find any records of Beth Hunter's birth parents and that just confused them even more. Information on Beth was so easy to find so why wasn't there anything on her parents? Everything is recorded in this time period, so the records had to have been destroyed.
"Let's call it a night. We'll keep looking more in the morning," Kristina said with a frustrated sigh.
Echoing frustrated sighs sounded as Were-Hunters pushed away from the table they had been seated at. Kristina waited until everyone had gone to their separate rooms inside the mansion, before she slipped out of the house and made her way across the lawn. Looking back from the gate she turned and walked down the side walk.