APEX

Ch. 22: An Unwanted Visitor

Calla

I filled my plate with rotisserie chicken, potato wedges roasted with rosemary and garlic, and several sourdough buns, fresh and warm from the oven. Their tangy, yeasty smell made my mouth water. What should have been a sit-down meal had turned into an all you can eat buffet, with most people opting to take their dinner back to their rooms, or downstairs to the small, built-in kitchen table usually reserved for the human staff.

These human employees had now sequestered themselves in their quarters, and as for the werewolves, none of us wanted to gather for a meal with Zara's cold, lifeless body on the floor less than fifteen feet away from the dining room table. Not that we weren't used to dead humans. All of us had been up close and personal with more than one at some point. While we'd been given state permission to murder humans who had grievously harmed other humans, that fact had never made me feel the act was completely justified. And absolutely nothing excused Zara's murder. She'd entrusted us to keep her safe and somehow, that trust had been broken in the most brutal way. My stomach turned but the nausea subsided after a moment of deep breathing. Except for the fact that a hunt-free full moon had left me ravenous, I wouldn't have been able to eat at all.

The solitude of my cabin gave me time to think. As I chewed meat off bone, I ran through the events that might have transpired to end the forgotten hours with a dead housecleaner. Rhys had been one of the first werewolves to leave the lodge before moonrise. It seemed at the time that he'd been anxious to get away from me, but for all I knew, he could have been upset about any number of things. Did he have some sort of connection to Zara? I dismissed the notion almost as soon as I'd thought of it.

He didn't even know her name. Plus, he had an ironclad alibi: me. There was no way he'd have had time to backtrack to the house after every other shifter had left it, somehow manage to get inside, kill Zara, and then make it back out to where he'd had his run in with Barnett.

No, Rhys was innocent. And while I already suspected him to be innocent of Vicki's disappearance and Trevor Daniel's attack, the fact that he couldn't have committed this act only worked in his favor. Somehow, I had it in my head that the events were connected—Trevor, Vicki, and now Zara. If I could prove that, then maybe it would help lead me to the person, or persons responsible.

So, if Rhys wasn't Zara's killer, who was?

I thought back again to the time before moonrise. After Rhys had left the house, I'd talked with his Aunt Loreen and her daughter Celene, finding them both kind and genuine. Celene seemed to take a particular liking to me, saying she had always admired the way my parents conducted themselves with integrity and grace. It was a nice switch, hearing complementary comments made about my pack from members of its chief rival. The familiarity with which both women spoke to me and about my family left me feeling warm and at ease.

That ease had not lasted, however. Aamon and Liam had broken the merriment of my conversation, their voices raised in a spat that I couldn't make sense of.

Finally, Aamon had told his brother to fuck off and had left the house in a huff. Within the span of the next ten minutes, the rest of us had followed suit. Celene walked down the front stairs with me. We were the last two shifters out. Behind us, the heavy doors shut tight, and the sound of a metal barrier being secured into place had followed us as we headed onto the front lawn.

Just before the transformation began, Celene and Loreen had offered to run with me. It was a nice offer, but behind it there seemed to be a sense of obligation and courteousness. The two used their Wilderness Cycle to reconnect as mother and daughter, and I had neither of those connections to them.

I gave them a polite but negative response, something telling me that even if they'd truly wanted me to run with them, I didn't wish to go in the same direction as them—up the mountain behind the lodge towards what they claimed was the northern range's most impressive waterfall.