Thank you to SilverKey for the wonderful picture!

---

The trip wasn't anything spectacular. Once Mason had given me the folder with all the details Finn was able to gather up, he knew I'd have my nose in it until we touched down in whatever city this was.

There were ten women so far.

The first four had been kills of opportunity, found hours after death. The other six had been taken for a of couple weeks before their bodies were found. Some had been taken right after work, some while on a run through a local park, but these killers were getting bolder. The last two women had been taken from their homes.

One of those two women had an infant son, who was left alone for two days before his father came to pick him up for the weekend. Luckily, the kid hadn't died while alone. The other victim had been living in her apartment without a roommate. It was almost a week before they noticed that she had gone missing.

All ten of these women were generally in good health. The tallest of the women was five-foot-seven-inches; the shortest five-foot-two, while the rest varied between the two in height and weight. Three of the women had been blonde, four were brunettes, and two were unnaturally red while the last woman, she had been a real red head.

There was nothing that I could see that made these women's connection obvious. I'd definitely have a few questions for the murderer when we found him. These young women deserved to live their lives. They didn't deserve to be attacked, their lives ripped away before they had a chance to start.

Mason's hand gripped mine; his eyes were clouded with worry when I looked at him. "You okay?"

I shrugged. "It's just not fair."

Mason nodded. "I know it's not. We're here to see if we can do anything about this situation."

"What do you mean if?"

Mason's eyes scanned over my face, taking in the confusion that I didn't bother hiding from him. "If these aren't werewolf killings, we can't dispense our kind of justice. It's the human's problem to solve."

I shook my head. "Whoever killed these women needs to pay for what they did. We can't just let him keep at it until he gets caught." The sides of Mason's mouth turned up in a small smile. "What?"

He shook his head and pulled me into a kiss. "You're hot when you get passionate about something."

I scoffed in annoyance and pulled away from him. "Considering that this passion comes from finding a murderer, I don't think it's appropriate to find this cute."

He pulled my face to his again before placing small kisses all over my face. "I'll think you're cute 'til I die."

I did my best to smile at the situation. "That's a good thing I guess."

He went back to his seat once we were descending.

All I could see was trees. There were some mountains in the distance, but there were primarily trees. There was a lot of space to hide in, escape if this killer needed it.

Mason's point of view

I was nervous when we picked up our rental. A long time ago, before the pack joined up with Finn, we had visited this pack.

Our little pack hadn't left on the greatest of terms. Hopefully this new union of packs would ease any hard feelings that might have lingered with this pack.

I wasn't exactly proud of what happened. Ten years ago I wouldn't have cared. Ten years ago I wasn't worried about Lex finding out and leaving me.

I hadn't exactly been an honorable guy when I was younger. There had been a lot of women, multiple women, women who had been spoken for, even one who had been mated. There had been even more fights.

That was what made me nervous. I knew the mated couple was still in this pack. I had been outlawed in their territory and had no excuse to come back. But this was an order from the head alpha. I had no choice. They had no choice. They were just going to have to deal.

I knew by the end of this Lex was probably going to figure out what happened here. She was often too curious for her own good.

But I sure as hell wasn't going to just admit what happened. There was the slight chance that she wouldn't have to know what happened.

Lexi's point of view

As Mason drove us up to the pack house I knew this pack was going to be very different than my pack. There were hardly dressed women all over the place.

I glanced at Mason and saw the smirk. It was obvious that he wasn't going to object to the women walking around here.

I punched his arm. "Wipe that smile off your face."

When he parked the car he leaned over and kissed me. "There's no reason to get jealous. They're all whores here."

I looked over the girls again. "And why are there whores here?"

He sighed. "The packs around here aren't as protective of the pack house as you're used to. Plus," he jerked his chin towards an open garage, "these guys were all into motorcycles before they were changed and it never wore off. These girls think that these guys are real hard asses because they ride around on bikes."

"So these poor girls think this is a motorcycle gang or something?"

He nodded his head. "Not everyone can be as smart as you are." He opened the door to the car. "Motorcycle gangs have a reputation of harboring violent tendencies; it's a good front to have for a pack of wolves."

 I scoffed. "It's a good front for new wolves and teenage boys… you know, the ones who can't control their tempers."

He winked at me before stepping out. "I'll keep you safe."

I stuck my tongue out at him.

Our presence was already noticed. Around these strangers I wasn't so certain about my decision to postpone the mating bond with Mason. I wanted them all to know that I was taken. Even more so, I wanted those girls who were eyeing Mason like he was a freaking gourmet buffet to know that he was taken.

They would be easy enough to intimidate. I didn't have to worry about these women really hurting me. I wouldn't be surprised if all they knew how to do was claw, scratch and pull hair.

Pack groupies was a new thing for me. Shouldn't these women know that these guys were just looking for a quick lay? I'd bet that not even a quarter of these women were going to end up in serious relationships.

When we walked into the house my senses were attacked by a foul smell so bad that I covered my nose. How could werewolves even stand to live in a place that smelled so horrible?

Mason tightened his grip on my hand, but made no moves to display whether or not the smell bothered him. It had to. His sense of smell was infinitely better than mine.

I wouldn't be able to stay here for long with it smelling like this. I needed this place cleaned up and not smelling if I was going to be staying here. All those women outside were good for was spreading their legs open, apparently.

The smell in the hallway wasn't so bad, or I had just gotten used to it. Mason led me to some stairs and ushered me up. He always kept a hand touching me. It was comforting to me, but to him, it stuck his claim on me. The males would know not to try to woo me because I was Mason's, even if I wasn't marked.

Mason didn't knock when he opened a solid wood door. It looked heavy and it looked old. The shiny knob on the door looked out of place against the wood. The original handle was probably broken when a wolf threw a fit. I know that they kept extra door knobs at our house; everyone knew that with Mason around, little things like that usually had a permanent hand mold.

There were five wolves in the room. It looked like it was the alpha's main office, just very cluttered with paperwork and a mess of dirty dishes. These wolves just didn't want to clean up after themselves. I didn't think werewolves could be so lazy.

There were four men and one woman. Her eyes widened in surprise when I walked through the door first, followed by Mason, with his hand on my lower back. Her eyes turned soft when they rested on Mason, however, the man she was sitting next to glared at Mason.

I inwardly groaned. This was going to be complicated. If this woman was mated to the man glaring at Mason, her mate knew how she felt about him. It didn't take a genius to recognize the look in her eyes. I saw it all the time in the way women looked at him.

With her being a werewolf, I'd have to tell her to back off. I glanced at Mason when he took my hand again. He didn't give any indication that he saw the problem I did. He was more perceptive than me when it came to werewolves. I knew I'd just have to ask him about it later.

Mason didn't look at the two males as we walked past them. They looked like bikers, but they weren't very intimidating. I've met too many wolves who were much scarier to be concerned with these two.

When we got to the front of the desk, it was obvious the alpha was doing some sort of power play by not standing up when we came into the room. He was letting the world know that he wasn't concerned about Mason's tendency of intimidation, which had me a little worried. I had faith that Mason wasn't concerned about being outnumbered here.

Then I saw the alpha's cheek twitch.

He was fighting off a smile. Mason's face still held no emotion. I wanted to believe that he was waiting for the alpha to give to the smile first. If we had a mating bond I would've known, but we didn't.

I kept an eye on the woman and the man to the side of the alpha. Neither of their faces had changed. She looked in love, while her mate looked murderous. The bite mark on their necks and his arm around her waist was a clear indication that these two were mated.

I looked back at the alpha in time to see a smile break out on his face. As soon as he gave, Mason's unreadable face changed to a happy one. These two must had been friends from a long time ago.

Mason let my hand go to meet the alpha halfway around the desk in a hug. Mason didn't hug people that didn't mean a lot to him. The only people he had ever been in contact were his immediate pack members, even then he didn't hug often.

It was nice to see him being friendly with someone other than our pack.

"It has been far too long my friend," the alpha said with a smile. His Scottish accent caught me off guard. I hadn't expected it to come from him. It wasn't as strong as I'm sure it had once been, but it was still recognizable and, amazingly, easily understandable.

Mason nodded once with a teasing smile. "I try to keep myself out of trouble."

The alpha's laughter was loud and sounded a bit rusty, like it had been a long time since he had really laughed. "You," the alpha gasped for air, "stay out of trouble?" He wiped a tear from his eye. "That would be the day."

He sighed and looked my way. "I assume that this pretty lass is joining you on your mission to find the serial killer." The alpha looked me from top to bottom, probably ranking me in his list of women. Only an unmated, uncalled for alpha would let all these random women into his home.

Mason stepped towards me and held out his hand. I immediately took it since I wasn't comfortable with the look the alpha had given me. I wasn't going to be someone he could just hook up with.

"She is actually my mate-to-be," Mason said with a smile as he wrapped his arm around my waist.

The alpha's smile dropped. That meant something. He scanned my neck for a mark. "You brought the one you haven't marked here, of all places?"

Mason shrugged, not a bit of the concern the alpha showed came through him. "I'm not worried about this place or any of its members stealing her away from me." I was sure I wasn't the only one to notice the anger come from the mated pair, but I was the only one who looked over. The man's golden eyes were glaring at Mason. The woman's golden eyes were glaring at me.

The alpha sighed. "I'm glad that you've found someone Mason, but this isn't the place for a romantic getaway."

Annoyance crossed Mason's features before his unreadable face was back on. "I appreciate your concern, Dean, but she'll be fine. I have faith in her."

I kept my surprise contained; I didn't expect a Scotsman to be named Dean.

Alpha Dean's brows rose skeptically. "It's not her I'm worried about." He turned and glared at the other couple in the room. "For Christ's sake," he snarled, "get the fuck out of here before I kick you out my damned self."

The man growled at his alpha in response.

Mason turned his head to acknowledge the man for the first time. "Should I kick them out or are you going to?"

I didn't need to see Mason's face to know the look he was giving the couple. I tended to see that intimidating face a lot when recruits were around.

After the couple left the room, the tension left completely. I needed to find out what happened to make them hate Mason so much. It had to have been a big deal. I had known the pack for a long time and had never heard of this pack we were visiting. You'd think I'd get some kind of warning if I were coming into a situation where there was bad blood.

"We shouldn't be here longer than a week." Mason said casually. I don't know how he could put on a facade like that so quickly, but I wasn't going to forget what just happened.

The alpha nodded and leaned against his desk. "Just don't go stirring up old shit."

Mason shrugged. "I'm not the one with the problem here."

"Yeah, yeah." Alpha Dean walked over to his chair and sat. "There's a room prepared, have one of the boys show you where it is." The alpha smiled at me. "And you let me know if any of the girls give you problems."

Yeah, right. My wolf grumbled.

I nodded. "Will do." Maybe.

These girls were all human, except for the one that had been in this office. I expected that she'd try to have a go at me, just to see if she could.

Mason looked at one of the guys and motioned for him to lead the way. The wolf didn't look happy about it, but he did it.

When we got to the room I had to open a window.

"How do they live in this place?"

Mason looked over me, amused. "They've gotten used to it. The only fresh air they probably get is when they're shifted in the woods."

I huffed. "I'd rather be out there right now."

He shrugged. "We'll be going back home before you know it."

He wasn't exactly reassuring.