Gypsy Truths (All The Pretty Monsters #6)- Kristy Cunning Page 0,134

front of it, my hair raising on my body for no particular reason. Her dark hair is oily and tangled, as well as draped in front of her face, hanging down to her waist.

She lifts her head, and the hair naturally falls to the side, revealing a white face with solid black eyes. I actually jerk backwards, as the ghost grins a black-toothed grin at me, seeming far too ominously excited.

My hackles rise, my instincts walk me back a step, and the ghost laughs loudly.

“You’re too late, wolf. It’s already done,” the demented ghost says to me with a scratchy, rasp voice.

The howling in the distance ceases for the first time, and my heart kicks in my chest. Without another second of hesitation, I launch myself through the ghost, racing toward the camp.

My feet pound the sloppy earth beneath me, the tension ratcheting up with every stride. My breath echoes back to my ears, as my heartbeat kicks up harder.

I slide through the mud, skidding to a halt in front of the safe-house.

My eyes widen and my nose burns against the overwhelming stench of…dead shifters.

The pads of my paws sink into the mud, as I move closer, too stunned to react just yet.

There are at least seventy, maybe more. It’s hard to count, considering how severely gory the field is.

It’s almost reminiscent of the infamous barn massacre, but with green blood instead of red.

Speaking of green blood…it drips from one body part or another, and I wade through the carnage, slowly turning in a circle to take in the many pieces littering the treetops as well.

My breath snakes out, and I turn to head toward the silent cabin before me. The door opens before I reach it, and Charlotte’s terrified, trembling form peers out.

“A-Alpha?” she says on a scared whisper.

I shift back to my skin, watching her eyes rise. Her gaze stops rising when she reaches my chin, and she stares at it instead of trying to meet my eyes.

“What happened here?” I ask, as the lightning crashes somewhere in the distance.

“Someth-th-thing stopped them,” she says, her body trembling that much harder.

“What stopped them?” I ask, turning in a circle, still counting pieces.

“I don’t know, Alpha. It must have been the vampire. I only saw it through the window. The shifters were so dominant, alpha. All of them. It was damn near suffocating, and every wolf was intimidated, even me. I’m so ashamed, but—”

“Arion did this? You’re sure?” I ask, my brow crinkled in disbelief.

“I can’t say for sure, Alpha. Tell him what you saw, Jacob,” she says, backing away, as her mate, and one of my human fathers, comes toward me with lowered eyes.

He bristles, uneasily darting a worried gaze around.

“I didn’t see much. I heard a woman’s voice saying something about shifters dying if they engaged in conflict with her, or something to that effect. But that was it.”

“A woman?” I echo, my mind flicking back to the creepy fucking ghost. “Marta? Perhaps my mother? Almost all the alphas are here today, so pick one.”

“I-I don’t know all the alphas well enough, but it was too fast to be a wolf, Alpha. I would have seen glimpses of fur at the very least.”

“Start at the beginning and tell me what you did see.”

“I was securing the cellar, and we were preparing to fend the outrageous squad of shifters off for as long as we could. All I could see was movement. No form. It moved too fast for me to see what it was, Alpha. I couldn’t even catch a glimpse of anything but a hint of red here and there.”

“Red?” I ask, certain Idun was wearing a red top. I think.

But she wouldn’t have killed her own shifters to save my wolves. She’s the one who would have ordered the slaughter.

“Just a streak here or there, Alpha. It could have just been blood I was seeing, but they were all dead with the first strike, so it should have only been green blood, so it’s hard to be certain. Not a single one had time to scream, and it was over within less than a minute. Nothing’s faster than the vampire besides Idun, right? And Idun wouldn’t have done this, so it has to be the vampire.”

The rambling ends when he swallows the rest of it, and I circle around once again, unsure what the hell to think. Then I gesture for them to follow me.

“Come on. Let’s get you to Sanctuary. They have a more fortified