Unnamed point of view

"Mason Meyers." My father gulped thinking over our recently gathered information.

I was looking for a replacement for the girl in the cellar. Maybe two this time, I mused to myself.

"Are you listening to me, boy?" His angry tone made me roll my eyes.

"Mason Meyers," I repeated. "What's so special about Meyers?"

I wanted nothing more than to repay him for the damage that he had done to me. My face would be permanently scarred from what he did. I was lucky not to be blinded by him.

"If he's looking for us, we should leave."

If I didn't know any better, I'd say that my father was afraid of him. Any wolf worth the dirt on his paws wasn't afraid of anything. That's what I had been taught as I grew up, that was why I survived the change. I wasn't afraid of anything!

I scoffed. "I'm not leaving for one wolf."

A growl came from my father's direction. He was angry.

"You are not the one who calls the shots here. I always have and I always will."

"You call the shots?" I asked in a laugh. "What shots have you been calling? The only thing it's gotten me is a face full of scars."

We stood face to face as his eyes turned golden. "You ready to challenge me? You won't last two minutes," he threatened. Once, I would have been afraid of his threats, but not anymore. It was my time now.

He lunged at me, and he was right about one thing. The fight wouldn't last two minutes. When he lunged, I took advantage of his lack of balance and grabbed him before I slammed him into the floor. I could hear a squeak from the girl below us at the sound. When he tried to get up, I twisted his arm up, a fraction away from popping his arm out of the socket and breaking the bones in his forearm.

He hissed in pain. "You are making a mistake. You will never truly be strong enough to rule."

I smirked as I stood over his powerless body. "Who said anything about ruling?" I applied the needed pressure and destroyed my father's arm. He groaned in pain, so I slammed his head into the floor, effectively shutting him up.

With a sneer, I let go of him. His arm fell limply to the side.

Now, it was my time for the girl. I was finally in charge; there was no one to stop me from what I really wanted to do.

I strode down the stairs, more cheerful than I had been in a long time. The fear in her eyes was an aphrodisiac, bringing forth even more arousal than a victory had. Her fear let off a fraction, my good mood misleading her.

I was in charge now. I called the shots. I could do whatever the hell I wanted to now.

"Please, let me go. I won't tell anyone anything," she pleaded. The other three girls clung together cowered in their cell, shaking their heads at the girl.

The other three had been here longer. They knew how to behave. This one didn't, so I was going to get rid of her.

All I wanted was to give them a warning. They shouldn't have messed with me, not when I knew they were all so caring of the humans.

I couldn't help but smile at the poor doe as she shook and cowered in her cell. Abusing her trust would bring the most satisfaction. I stood her up and freed her from the bindings from her wrists.

She smiled thankfully. "Thank you so much."

She stepped around me, and I let her. I followed her out of the cellar.

She gasped and stumbled back when she spotted the unconscious man on the ground. She nearly fell down the stairs, but I caught her. I could've let her fall down, but that wouldn't be nearly as fun of a way to break her.

"Is he dead?" she asked, not being able to take her eyes off of him.

I shook my head with a smile. My father looked good as a rug on my floor. Maybe a wolf rug would do this place some good. "He's not dead, pet. He's just knocked out."

"So now I can escape from here?" she asked hopefully as she tried to pull away from me.

She still thought she had a chance.

"No, no, pet. You're staying here with me."

She tugged at my grasp again. "But… but you said you'd let me go," she pleaded.

"I did no such thing." Her struggles were nothing against a wolf's strength. I picked her up and carried her forward. She scratched, kicked and bit me, but it did no good. They only fed the fire burning in me. I slammed her forward, over the only sturdy table we had. It was the perfect height for what I had planned

She moaned in pain after her skull collided with the thick wood. "Now, pet, this will be a whole lot less painful if you just relax. Otherwise, I'd imagine, this will hurt a lot."

The woman started screaming and crying once she realized what fate awaited her, but no one could hear her.

Lexi's point of view

It was four days after we mate-bonded that things started happening.

We weren't getting anywhere. The scents weren't as obvious anymore. The two murderous wolves probably knew we were after them. They were being careful now.

I hated to admit it, but until we got another victim, we were at a standstill. These wolves weren't wet behind the ears. They knew how to mask their scents from tracking and how to hide.

The atmosphere of the room changed instantly when a shock stricken werewolf stumbled into the house.

Mason and the alpha stood immediately to protect against any possible dangers.

"There's a dead body." The wolf panted between his words. "Grant is with it."

Alpha Dean and Mason exchanged glances.

It was time to go to work.

"And you didn't think to link us when it happened?" Alpha Dean snapped angrily.

The wolf bowed his head. "I'm sorry, Alpha. I didn't know what to do but run like hell back here and tell you."

The alpha rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "You're all incompetent."

I knew that there was going to some kind of payback from the rogues. Mason had hurt one of them. I was prepared for it, but I had expected it to be more of a direct approach, this wasn't. 

We were loaded in the cars in no time. Mason and I didn't wait for the pack cars, we followed Dean's car to the crime scene. The other cars trailed after us, most of them were full with curious wolves. None of them would end up being very effective.

Looking at the dead girl, I felt ashamed. If we had caught these wolves, she would be alive. They had killed this girl because we had hurt them. They should have been dead, but they weren't. This girl was our responsibility. She was dead because I had allowed them to slip away.

If I hadn't messed up Mason in our altercation with the wolves, she would've lived. 

Her death was over my head. This was my fault. She died uselessly and painfully.

Mason squeezed my shoulder. "Stop it. It's not your fault."

I shook my head. I knew this was my fault. "If I hadn't gotten in your way—"

He stopped me with a kiss. "No. It's not your fault. It's no one's fault but theirs, and when we find them, they're going to pay for it." I just stared into his eyes, not able to say anything back because he would just tell me to shut up again. "Alright?" I sighed and looked down. 

He nudged my head up. "Tell me what I want to hear."

I shook my head. "You don't like it when I lie to you."

He smiled and pressed his forehead to mine. I could feel the current between us flowing, calming me slightly. "We'll find them and we'll make them pay. We needed this lead. We won't stop until we find them."

I nodded and looked over at the girl's lifeless body. This girl was the worst, by far. She looked malnourished, like she had been with them for a while. Her body was twisted and broken, covered in bruises that were at different stages of healing. She had scrapes and cuts over her, they weren't fatal, but they would be painful and terrifying to her. She was completely nude, which was new, none of the other girls had been nude. It instantly had me thinking that she had been raped. 

The pack's only medical person was a human doctor. He was being paid handsomely to keep the secrets of the pack. 

"You should check her," I suggested as I crouched down next to her. 

"For what?" He asked as he looked over one of her multiple bite wounds. 

"Signs of a rape."

All of the wolves stopped moving, stunned that I would suggest something like that. 

"Baby," Mason whispered carefully, "he was trying to change her, I don't think her was trying to rape her."

"Just check," I snapped. "None of the other girls were raped. She’s not contorted in the change. Even most alphas can't force a corpse to return to its human form." I motioned to her. "My bet would be that she bled out too quickly, then he tried to change her, but it didn't work."

Mason sighed and nodded to the doctor, who just nodded back. The men looked away uncomfortably as the doctor checked the dead woman. 

His shoulders slumped. He looked at me and nodded. I felt my rage escalate. 

I looked at Mason. "We need to find these bastards, and quickly, before they do this to another girl."

He nodded. "We will, baby. We will."

"Where are we looking first?" 

I didn't want to sit around and do nothing while these two were on the hunt.

"We should see if the cops have any information on the missing girls."

The alpha nodded and walked back to his car. "I know the sheriff, he'll help us out. Missing person reports are usually public."

His golden eyes reminded me that we were all pissed off, which meant all of our eyes were golden. We needed to calm down before we went to the cops. Three golden eyed people wouldn't be easy to explain.

We went back to the alpha’s house to change into clean clothes and cool off before heading over to the police station. The hardest thing was not to take this personally.

Dean had said the police station was behind the times, so it was possible that they didn't have missing persons online quite yet. 

I gave Mason a small smile as we walked down the stairs. "We can handle this if you want to stay here." He was giving me an out. 

I shook my head before giving him a kiss. "It's alright, I'll be fine."

He nodded once. "Let's get this over with."

---

Walking into the police station, the accuracy of the alpha’s description was disheartening. They had computers from the nineties and stacks of paperwork. 

The man with the sheriff's badge walked up to the front desk with a smile and his coffee cup. His hair was grey and receding, probably due to the stress of his job. 

"Afternoon Dean, what can I do ya for?" His cheerful voice didn't match the pain in his eyes. The people he had sworn to serve and protect were disappearing and showing up dead. I'd bet that this man hadn't slept in days. 

"Sheriff Sterling," he replied as an answer. "We're here to look at your missing persons reports."

The sheriff pursed his lips. "Now, don't you go getting into trouble. I've got enough problems without you snooping around and making it worse."

I could sense the sheriff seizing up. If the alpha kept at it, this sheriff wouldn't be of any help at all. 

"That's why I'm here." I extended my hand as I stepped forward. "Alexia Meyers." I felt Mason's smile through our bond. Using his last name as my own pleased him. My name wasn't officially changed, but it would be soon enough now that I was over my demons. "I worked missing persons in LA a while back. One of the missing girl's parents called me and asked me to take a peek at the case," I lied flawlessly. 

"And who are these parents you're representing?"

I thanked my lucky stars I read the file on the way here. The newest victim was another local girl, so finding information was a breeze. "Tina Maple's parents. She's a local here and I haven't heard any buzz about her going missing yet."

He nodded. "We're keeping that close to the chest. I don't want this killer to know that we're catching on to him."

I nodded. "I need to have a look at your case files regarding all girls and women who have gone missing in the past three months."

He took a long sip of his coffee as he assessed me. I felt Mason's impatience. Then the sheriff nodded. "I'll have our receptionist gather you some copies."

I smiled. "Thank you so much, I'll wait here for them."

He nodded and turned to the woman, who nodded and spared a glance at me before gathering the files for me. 

---

Once we were back at Dean's home, it was easier to calm down. We waited a good hour for everything to be put together. The organization in the sheriff's office left something to be desired.

Mason and I flipped through and traded files, tossing out anyone who didn't fit what we were looking for. They were all pretty, young women. The older women, teenagers and men were all thrown out.

"Maybe we should ask Jack to hack surrounding police stations for missing persons," Mason suggested as he flipped through the pages. Jack was one of his oldest pack members, more like a brother than anything else, and he was always who we went to for anything with computers. Mason probably had the files all memorized and was now bored.  "That way we'll know if he has anyone hostage."

"I'm sure he does." Mason looked over at me. "He had that girl for a while. Her missing persons’ was filed four weeks ago. She was also malnourished and had cuts at various stages of healing. He had her for a while. We just pissed him off."

Mason stood and came over to me. He picked the papers off of me and plucked them from my hands. 

"Her death was not our fault. Her death was because a wolf is crazed. The end."

I looked up at him. He towered over me since I was still sitting. "He killed her because we hurt him."

Mason nodded and crouched down in front of me. "Because I hurt him." He put his hand on my thigh and squeezed. "He would have tried to take you from me and I was going to kill him for that."

"But they got away."

He gave me a soft smile. He knew how guilty I got with things like this. I felt bad for a year after the mess with Willow's stalker. "We will catch them Lex. I have no doubts."

I kept my eyes on his. He meant it. We weren't going to stop until these terrorizing wolves were dead. 

We ended up with two extra girls. One had been gone longer than anyone else and the second hadn't been missing more than a week.

There was no way to tell if the other two missing girls were abducted by the werewolves. The two girls were taken before any of the other girls, and their bodies hadn't shown up yet. 

My gut told me these two were still alive, maybe they were even runaways. If they were victims of the wolves, their mangled bodies would have been found. 

I stared at their faces, trying to figure out what might have happened to them. 

I just had to accept that there might be nothing I could do for those two girls. I had to focus on finding these guys and catching them so that no other girls would have to suffer their fate.