like this? How could you come to any other assumption?”
“You can never make assumptions,” Hadley interjected. “You have no idea what humans are capable of.”
I snorted softly. “I guess I don’t.” I glanced back at the file in my hand. “So, wolves are hiding their scent?” I commented.
“Exactly,” Hadley said. “It took some time to put this all together. It wasn’t until we started poking around did the fact that wolves were involved in this emerged. The coincidences between the cases were just too high. Then, when Talon contacted me, I knew we were on the right track. The biggest concern is just how the wolves are doing this.”
“Anything is possible when using Black Magic,” Zia stated. “But the question still remains—why are witches getting the wolves to do this? What have these humans done to deserve such a horrible fate?”
“There must be a connection between them,” Kyden said, rummaging through his file. “We’re just not seeing it.”
Then a light bulb went off in my dense head. It would happen sometimes¯when my mind put pieces of a puzzle together¯not often, but on a few occasions. “Hadley, do you know if the girls were raped?”
“Couldn’t say. There have been five cases of young women in the past week. We never did a rape kit on them since there wasn’t much of their bodies remaining.”
“What are you thinking?” Kyden asked, intrigued.
“I don’t know. I was just wondering if the cases were the same as Rynn’s attack. If there is a connection, a similar story.” I pulled the first box over again. “The odd thing is that Rynn survived.”
Kyden arched a brow at me. “Good thing she did.”
I waved it away, knowing his misunderstood me. “No, I know it is a good thing, but why? All of these women were basically eaten. Rynn was bit, yes, but she survived. He didn’t destroy her completely.”
“She does make a good point,” Ryker added. “If all these cases were so similar why did Rynn’s attack veer away from that?”
“Could it be another change in the pattern of attack?” Zia said, but it was clear she was thinking aloud.
Hadley looked shocked, her eyes wide with excitement. “This girl survived the attack?”
“Indeed she did. The Patriarch is looking after her as is his Beta.”
“Did you talk with her?”
“No,” Kyden replied.
“Hmm…maybe I should pay her a visit,” Hadley said.
“Oh, no you don’t,” I said quickly. Hadley snapped her head toward me. “That wolf has been through enough. Having someone from the FBI come in and interrogate her is the last thing she needs.” Hadley looked about to speak, but, I continued. “Besides, what can it help? Even if we knew more about the wolf who attacked her, it isn’t going to help any. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack. Our best bet is these files. A name, a witness, anything that gives us a lead.”
With that, Hadley resigned and we all dug back into our files, searching, hunting for anything to solve this mystery.
After another five hours of receiving endless paper cuts and drinking enough coffee to give me the jitters, I was pretty much at the same point I started with. Nothing really connected. Yes, all the crimes were very similar, but that was about it. No names, no witnesses—nothing.
Zia sighed deeply. “This is far worse than I imagined.” She looked around the room at the boxes. “All the cases I have seen have the same M.O. Young women killed for no apparent reason. No evidence, no contacts, simply cold cases.”
Kyden sighed, and threw his file back into the box. “I have nothing here.”
“Me neither,” Ryken commented.
“All my cases run exactly along the same lines.” I sighed. “All young women—brutally murdered.” I started putting the files back into the box. “What do we do now?” I asked Zia when I was through.
Her gaze met mine, worry etched across her face. “I am not sure. Even if we captured a wolf, they would not be able to tell us anything about who is behind this and why. You have seen them. I doubt they will be eager for conversation.”
Kyden added, “Which brings a question to mind about who these witches are and why did they choose Dante to be turned to the darkness? He has authority. It was a risk to take him. Seems odd that whoever is behind this would go after such a powerful wolf.”
“Oh, I know the answer to that,” I said, hastily. “Magnus took Dante to get to me.”
Kyden’s face darkened. “Did he