Emerson's point of view

Finding a new place to hide wasn't as challenging as my father said it would be. The difficult part was moving the damn women.  

My body still ached from the fight from the night before with Meyers. His woman managed to leave my jaw aching from the dislocation. The crushing Meyers had done to my neck left me unable to speak to my father, but he knew what he was expected to do. The swelling in my hand had gone down as the broken bones healed.  

Meyers left me with a limp, but I couldn't complain about being able to walk.

The bastard had broken a bone or two in my ankle, broke the long bone that connected to my knee in three places and tore muscle. All this damage would have taken months to heal completely if I had been alone.

Once everything was set, it took a solid day before I could move it. I couldn't take the risk of having something go wrong during the healing and be stuck lame for the rest of my very long life.

Thomas finally came in handy.

It wasn't easy ditching the car with a broken leg. I had to be carried back to the house.  

We couldn't sit around, so as soon as I could bear weight on my ankle, we started to move. We couldn't risk being found. I waited for my father to return with the new car. It was a truck with a hard bed cover, perfect for moving the girls.  

I limped down the stairs behind my father. Three humans wasn't hard to deal with, we just didn't want them to act out.  

The three dirty women huddled together in their cell as far from the door as they could get. Mary had her arms around the other two to try and offer them some comfort. Little did she know, one of these whores was going to die. I needed to keep Meyers and his little bitch busy while we settled into our new home.  

"Stand up," I ordered as my father unlocked the cell door. "The less you struggle, the easier this little trip is going to be." 

Three pairs of terrified eyes looked towards me, but I only stared at Mary. She was my favorite, which was the only reason she was still alive.  

The loud sound of duck tape being sectioned forced their attention to my father. We weren't going to take the risk of driving through the streets when they could scream.  

He tore the tape with his teeth, and then reached into the cell for one of the girls. He pulled her out and shut the door once she was between us. There was nowhere for her to run, so she just fell onto her knees in a sobbing mess.  

"Clasp your hands together and hold them out," he told the girl. Shaking like a leaf, she complied.  

The duck tape was around her wrists before he slapped some over her mouth.  

The first girl was easy enough to handle. She didn't fight against me as I led her up the stairs. The tears started again when I took her outside. She thought she was going to die. The smell of her fear was intoxicating.  

I unlatched the back of the truck and motioned for her to climb in. She hesitated, looking at the hard cover.  

"There are no monsters in there." I was losing patience with her. "If you don't climb in there on your own, I'll throw your ass in." 

She didn't hesitate any longer. She climbed into the truck without any assistance.  

The second girl was brought out next. 

She was left at the porch while my father went down to get Mary. She would be the most trouble, so she was last.  

"Come over here and get in," I ordered the girl as she stayed frozen on the porch.  

I could see in her eyes that she was thinking about making a run for it. Her eyes quickly looked around; as if she thought I couldn't tell what she was doing.  

"You don't want me to catch you," I warned. It would be painful running after her, but I did want her to run. All I'd have to do is close the truck up before chasing her. She wouldn't get far. She was just human.  

She took a step towards me before making a dash for the trees. I smiled and felt a thrill flow through me. The girl on the run was going to be the distraction for Meyers.  

"Don't get any ideas. I'll be right back," I whispered to the girl in the bed of the truck.  

I was going into the trees when Mary came out of the house. Her cheek was red, which meant that she was misbehaving. I'd deal with her rebellion when I got back with my victim.  

I could hear the girl breathing hard as she ran. The duct tape covering her mouth made it hard for her to take air in as she ran. I heard her whimpers and yips as she ran through the debris of the trees. Branches and pine cones crunched under her feet as she ran.

As I gained on her, I could smell her blood. I would bet that her feet were bleeding from the sharp debris on the ground.  

When I heard a feminine cry, I smiled as I knew she was done. I casually walked closer to her as she cried on the ground.

She didn't even look up when I purposely stepped on a branch to snap it. 

She just cried. I crouched down next to her and ran my hand up her back. Her cries intensified. I smiled. Looking down at her giving up caused my pants to be uncomfortably tight, but there was no time for the thrills I felt.  

I picked her up and slung her over my shoulder. She was just limp; sobbing because she knew what was coming.

I knew my limp was more pronounced by the aching fire in my ankle.

I heard Mary's muffled screams as I walked closer to the house.  

She froze when she saw me carrying the girl back. I could see the terror in her eyes as she screamed from behind the tape over her mouth.  

When I got closer, she lunged at me. I dropped the girl to the ground and caught Mary.  

She squirmed against me, exciting me even more. Her screamed words were mumbled by the tape over her mouth. I couldn't wait until she started yelling at me, so I ripped the tape mostly off of her mouth.  

"You sick bastard!" she screamed the moment she was able to. "How could you do this to us?" 

I smiled and pulled her hips crushingly into mine. She could feel just how excited this made me. Even the tape hanging off of her cheeks thrilled me.  

"Unless you decide to start listening to me, nothing's going to change." I moved her along the length of my arousal once before shoving her towards the truck. "Things might just get worse for you," I warned.  

Once she was close to him, my father grabbed her arm and brought her to the back of the truck.  

"Get in," he ordered.  

She shook her head, looking down at the girl who was still crying on the ground. I was surprised that she had any tears left in her.  

I put my boot on the girl's hands. She cried out, bringing beautiful tears to Mary's eyes.  

"If you don’t get into that truck, it's going to hurt her, a lot," I threatened. Her eyes met mine in a challenge. I smiled at how much she liked to fight, it was one of the reasons I liked her. I put just enough pressure on her hands to get her to squeal again.  

Mary shook her head. "Alright, just stop it! I'll get in." She waited for me to take my boot off the girl. "I'll get in the truck after she does." 

I applied more pressure, almost breaking the bones in her hand. "I don't think you're in a place to bargain with me." I felt a bone snap as she cried out again. "Any longer and bones are going to be breaking. You'd better get in there quickly." 

When the girl cried out again, Mary ducked into the bed of the truck. I took my boot off the girl when my father reached in, and I assumed, covered her mouth back up again because her screams were muffled again.  

"Take them to our back-up meeting place. Leave them alone until I get there. I won't be long." 

He nodded and hopped into the cabin of the truck and started it up. I looked down at the girl on the ground. 

"We're going to have some fun, buttercup." 

I lifted her up once more and took her into the house again as she sobbed. I slammed her onto the dining table, making her groan as pain radiated through her.  

I ripped the tape off of her mouth. I didn't want the screams she was going to be making muffled. I wanted her to scream as loud as she could.  

Her jaw chattered from her fear.  

I took my knife out of its holder and gently ran it over her body. The fear was delightful. I cut her bindings because I wanted her to fight back.  

She trembled as I sliced the center of her shirt. I leaned down to rub my nose up the side of her chin an inhaled deeply. "The louder you scream, the quicker this will be for you." 

A sob ripped from her throat, causing her to push against me. I bit the side of her ear hard enough to draw blood. Her cries weren't loud, but that was okay. By the time I was going to finish with her, the screams would be heard for miles around.

---

I tossed the corpse of the woman off the pack porch. I was going to burn the place down, but I didn't want her body caught in it.  

I wanted Meyers to see her like this. I wanted him to know he couldn't stop me.  

I poured gasoline all around the house. The fire would get their attention, as well as the human's attention. They would have to work quickly to get the evidence away from human hands. The girl was a mess that the humans would think as an animal attack more than anything else.  

I stripped and saturated my clothes since I wouldn't be able to take them with me anyway. I lit the match and stuck around to make sure the fire caught.  

I changed into my real animal and ran to meet up with the truck. The passenger side opened when it came into view. I hopped in and crouched down so no one would wonder about a wolf in the car. They would just assume that the fur was from a dog, which was less risk of being caught.

When we got to the new house, we checked inside to make sure it was all clear. The road looked like it hadn’t been driven on in a while, so I wasn't worried about someone stopping by to check in on the place.  

Once I changed back into my human, I grabbed Mary out of the truck. I wasn't in the mood for her lip, so I kept the tape over her mouth. I wanted her, fast and hard. Having her all tied up and gagged only added to it.  

I slung her over my shoulder and took her into the room that was mine.

Lexi's point of view  

I could smell the fire before anyone caught on to it. Somehow I knew that this was something we had to investigate before the humans did. I called Mason, but he didn't answer. I sent him a text and left it as that.

This needed attention now and I wasn't just going to sit by.  

I grabbed the keys and left. I followed my nose off of the pack lands, to a secluded area that we hadn't gotten around to searching yet. I pulled off to the side of the road when I could hear the fire crackling as it destroyed everything it touched.  

I ran through the trees so I wouldn't get traced back to this once the cops and firefighters showed up. I could hear their sirens in the distance. The place was already destroyed by the fire, but looked like it had probably been abandoned long ago. There were no car tracks or any signs that someone had been around. 

I turned to leave when I caught to scent cooking flesh. It made my mouth water until something in my mind clicked and I realized what it was: a girl.

I ran to the back side of the flaming cabin and saw the body lying on the ground outside of the house. As I ran closer, I knew this girl wouldn't be alive. She was too close to the fire, and her body looked like it had been thrown out haphazardly.

I had to pull her away from the house by her shirt because the heat from the fire was so intense. I checked for signs of life, but I couldn't find any. This girl was shredded, beaten, and burnt, though there were no signs on her that she had put off any kind of fight.  

I knew she was a victim, and just looking at her, I knew the cops couldn't find her. She looked like she'd been mauled by a bear, but there were too many knife stab wounds, which would suggest to them that she had been murdered.  

The pack doctor needed to check her out before the cops could get her back to her family. We needed clues to where they would be now.  

I carefully carried her body away from the house. The sirens were getting closer by the second, hastening my steps.  I had to make sure I didn't leave a trail; otherwise things might lead back to me.

Once I was closer to the truck and a safe distance away, I put the girl on the ground before I let myself lose the bravery that had been keeping me together. I fell away from her and started balling my eyes out. I had never handled a dead body in this kind of fashion before and she wasn't just a dead body.

She had been abused, terrified, and tortured before she died. I vomited when I took in just how much damage had been done to her. Her right arm was barely attached to her body, hanging on by a thread of flesh. She'd been nearly disemboweled. Her bones were broken and sticking through her already slashed skin. The burns made everything look so much worse.

A growl got my attention and before I even looked over, I had my gun out and pointed at whatever was growling at me.  

I recognized Mason in a heartbeat, even with tears mucking up my vision. He was growling at the body and I knew it was because he was mad, disappointed in himself that he hadn't found her before Emerson could do this to her.

The weight of my gun became too much, so it slipped from my hands and made a solid thump as it hit the ground.  

I curled up into the fetal position and tried not to cry as my heart broke for this girl. I felt, rather than heard, Mason as he came closer to me. He stood over me and licked the tears from my face. I was vulnerable and we were not alone here.

Mason wouldn't let the others get the impression that I was weak. He would have stood guard over me as long as it took to get myself back together.  

It took long enough that one of the wolves had time to change and collect the girl. He carried her in the direction of the truck I had driven here.  

I wrapped my hand over one of Mason's paws and kissed the side of his furry leg. We needed to get back and wait for the girl's autopsy. I picked my gun up from the ground, switched on the safety and put it back into its holster.  

Mason stood beside me as we followed the scents back to the truck. Two wolves were loaded into the back, on either side of the dead body.  

I held the door open for Mason and squeezed in after him. They took the back roads back to the pack house. I didn't wait for anyone to go to the bed of the truck to get the girl; I just went straight into the house.  

I didn't want to have to see her again so soon. I would have to see her again soon enough.

I needed to shower. I left the door to the room open because I knew Mason would follow me. I stepped into the shower when I turned it on. As freezing as it was, I stepped into the water, clothes and all.

The cold bite of the water helped to clear my thoughts. I needed to get this whole thing into perspective. I knew none of this was my fault. I didn't make these guys come into this land, steal away these women and kill them. I just wanted to catch them and make them pay for what they've done.

It just wasn't fair. Why did bad people get to do so much damage before they were forced to accept the consequences of their actions? Why did the good, innocent people have to pay?

I wasn't alone long. The curtain to the shower moved and a naked Mason stepped in. Usually the sight would have had an instant reaction within me, but now, with everything that had happened today, I had no reaction to him.

When he shut the curtain behind himself, I caught a glimpse of the bruise on the back of his ribcage where Thomas had kicked him during the bar fight. He was healing, but I knew he was still hurting from it. He looked me over before meeting my eyes. "You're still in your clothes Lex."

I looked down at my clothes and nodded. "I know."

"Why didn't you take them off before you got in?" he asked as he grasped the bottom of my shirt.

"This morning that girl was alive, Mason." He paused in lifting my shirt, but then resumed. "That means, if they weren't lying, that they have two more girls that might die because we pissed them off."

Mason lifted the shirt over my head and threw it to one corner of the tub. "They were going to kill her anyway, love. We both feel guilty that we hadn't found them and that this girl was killed, but we didn't do it."

He cupped my face in his hands and made me look up. Now that I had no choice but to look at him, I saw the redness from the punch to the face that he had also gotten during the fight, was healing nicely. "This isn't your fault. This isn't my fault. This is their fault."

"It doesn't feel that way."

He nodded and kissed both of my cheeks before placing his lips on mine.

I could always get lost in Mason, and that felt like a much better place to be than in this mess that our reality was.