The scent of her wounds, that odd combination of magic and burning flesh, tugged at old memories. Those memories flashed from his brain and assaulted him, several hitting one after the other. Lilith pressed against his chest, crying as her body struggled to shake off the effects of the pack initiation. His own initiation: his leg smoking and pain melting his veins like hot iron. One of his first changes, trapped in a cage and surrounded by the cold sterility of a hospital room.

Teddy blinked, confused. He didn't know why that odd combination of scents smelled so familiar or why it would bring up those memories. He set them aside to consider later and forced himself to clinically examine the rest of her. He mentally isolated each body part to examine separately so his brain couldn't remember what it was actually part of. He methodically moved from one section of limb to the other, not wishing to miss anything even if the process roiled his stomach. The second he could justify it, he quickly turned his back and exited into the living room.

He didn't expect anything there and he didn't even try to deny to himself that it was to get away from Lilith's body. Still, he examined the room by the light of his wand, trying to loosen his hands out of fists. Nothing was out of place here, all the framed pictures of Lilith as a toddler with her parents were hung perfectly along the walls. There was a pair of sweats and a neon green shirt hanging on the banister but that didn't tell Teddy anything new. She had been wearing them that morning.

They had run together during the full moon as wolves and by the time he found her the morning after she had already been wearing those clothes, making her easy to spot. She had let him walk her back through the forest but had seemed distracted. She hadn't even bothered with an excuse when she shook off his attempts to talk. She had just looked him in the eye, thanked him for the escort, and left. Things had gotten awkward since they broke up. Their wolves got along better than they did in human form. Or had gotten along. When she was still alive. His fists were back to being tightly balled, the wand biting into his left hand.

There was a creak on the floorboard and Teddy turned to see Harry enter the room. "So?" Harry asked.

Teddy took a deep breath and began a detached assessment of the situation. "She was starting to cook breakfast, he enters and, when she fights back, incapacitates her. He takes her clothes... possibly just to make it look like she had been in wolf form during the attack." His stomach was tight enough that if anyone so much as touched him, he was sure he would throw up. He hadn't seen any signs of other reasons she would be unclothed and prayed this guess was correct. "Then leaves her to bleed out."

Harry nodded and came across the room. "They found her clothes buried outside." In a lower voice he asked, "Anything else?"

"There was a smell around her wounds, especially the deeper one on her arm. Like magic. You should have it run through a full set of diagnostic spells."

Harry nodded again and then patted Teddy's head. "Good job."

Teddy rolled his eyes upward for a moment and then allowed himself to follow Harry. "Woof, woof," Teddy muttered to himself.

Shortly afterward, the rest of the Aurors joined him in the living room. Collins spoke up in annoyed tones, "Why is the Ministry wasting resources on this? The marks are clearly from a werewolf. It should be easy enough to quarantine the werewolves until they find out which one of them did it."

Teddy's teeth clenched at the idea and he glanced through the door to see if the Alpha was listening. The Alpha stood outside the kitchen, body angled so that he could observe inside and the forest around them. Probably feeling Teddy's gaze, he turned his head to the kitchen. If he had been making an effort, he could have heard Collins. Again, his face gave away nothing. He stared at Teddy for several seconds until Teddy had to look away, unnerved. Out of the corner of his eye, Teddy saw the Alpha turn to scan the rest of the forest.

Teddy swallowed and addressed Collins, "How do you explain the knife and skillet? She had already returned from being a wolf before she was killed."

Jones, Collins' teammate, spoke up. "How do you explain the claw marks?"

Teddy shrugged. "I'm not saying I have an answer but I am saying that it isn't as cut and dry as Collins is making it out to be."

Harry raised a hand and everyone turned to him. He quietly asked, "Have you heard of the Moonlight Killer?"

The Moonlight Killer was a mass murderer from over twenty years ago that Harry had never caught. They were infamous for attacking people with werewolf-like markings. The werewolf community had only been freed of suspicion when it was proved a few of the kills couldn't have happened on the full moon.

Harry continued, "I believe this may be another of his victims but the Ministry disagrees and doesn't want to waste me on the case. I will still be overseeing this investigation but that is why you have been called on."

That made sense. If they were going to catch this bastard, they were going to need more manpower than what Harry could spare between 'more important duties.' That didn't mean Teddy was happy about sharing this case with Collins and Jones. Lilith was his. Her murderer was his. He tipped his head towards Hasan to gauge his reaction.

Hasan solemnly nodded back and clapped Teddy firmly on the shoulder. "We'll get him," Hasan said in a soft dangerous voice that made Teddy glad to have him as a friend.