If Lilith was the victim, would the Alpha care? She and the Alpha had never been close. In fact, the Alpha had been irritated by Lilith in the past couple of months as she became more and more obsessed with the deaths of her parents. If it was Lilith out there, maybe he would be glad to be finally rid of the annoyance. Teddy couldn't tell. The Alpha was way too good at maintaining his blank stoic expression, no matter what was happening around him.
After the introductions, the Alpha led them down the path that led to where most of the werewolves lived. The farther they moved from the clearing, the darker the forest became. Everyone quickly illuminated their wands and the Alpha looked back with a hit of what might have been irritation. Not that the rest of the group picked up on it, they were too busy being mesmerized by being so close to an actual werewolf. The draw fell flat for Teddy and he hung back until he was in step with Harry, his godfather. They both slowed until they trailed the back of the group.
"Who is the victim?" Teddy asked in a barely contained whisper.
Harry gave him a sad look before shaking his head. "I don't know much yet. She is young, though."
Given that Harry was in his forties, young didn't mean the same thing to him as it did to Teddy. Still, his breathing ratcheted up. All the werewolves except Lilith and Teddy were over thirty.
If fate was going to play a joke like this on him, he'd rather just have Hasan with him. Why did he have to deal with the other Auror team, especially Collins, at a time like this? Why the hell was she here in the first place? She hated werewolves even more than she hated him. "Why are there two teams?" he asked. "Why are you pulling us in at all?"
Harry glanced towards the rest of the group and then rubbed between his eyebrows right below his scar. "I need your expertise, Teddy, but I couldn't show favoritism or draw attention to your... condition."
"So you pulled Collins and Jones into this?" Teddy couldn't help the bit of disgust that crept into his voice. "Hasan and I are the best junior Auror team."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "They have closed more cases than you."
Because Hasan and I are trusted with the harder ones, Teddy thought, but knew enough not to say it aloud.
"Just tell me if you see or smell anything off," Harry said with a meaningful glance before leaving to catch up with the Alpha again.
"Woof," Teddy muttered under his breath.
