Chapter 94

Erin’s POV

I’ve only seen Jeremy standing beside Bane in photos; I’ve never actually met him. But as he stood before me, he was incredibly tall and had broad shoulders. His arms were also giant, and it looked like he could crush me with a flick of his finger.

He looked like an Alpha, but he wasn’t. He was a Beta.

Henry didn’t look threatened by him though; he stood his ground with his arms folded across his chest as he stared up at the tall and large Beta wolf.

“Neither of you belongs here,” he said, glancing between the two of us. “I’ve been watching you since you arrived earlier. Why are you following the Alpha?”

“The question is, why is your Alpha buying a ring when everyone knows he’s unmated?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.

“Why is that any of your business? Who are you?”

“We are part of the police force,” Henry answered before I could say anything.

Jeremy raised his brows as he glanced at Henry.

“You are the police?”

“Yes,” I answered. “We’ve been sent to investigate your Alpha. As you know a hospital in our kingdom was burned to the ground and Alpha Bane was spotted at the crime scene.”

Jeremy’s eyes had a void look as he processed what I had said. For a moment, I wasn’t sure if he was going to believe me or not.

“Bane has always been acting a little strangely according to some,” Henry began. “Do you know anything about that?”

Jeremy thought about it for a moment longer; I could hear Bane’s voice getting louder from the inside.

“She’s going to love this ring. Thank you for your help.”

Soon, he was going to see us talking to Jeremy. We needed to get out of here.

“Come with me,” Jeremy finally said, turning his back toward us and walking away from the jewelry store.

His waiting car sat out front and we piled into the car just as Bane left the store. He stared around the sidewalk for a moment with a timid frown on his face but then he opened the box that he had just got that held the ring. I saw a glimmer of excitement in his eyes as he held the ring up to the moonlight.

I could see it clearly from where I was, and I was able to take some pictures using my watch without Jeremy noticing.

It was strange that he wanted such a ring and I wondered who it was for.

I wondered if it was for the leader of the Slayers.

But why would she want a wedding ring?

Jeremy pulled away from the jewelry store without another word and we soon arrived at the same small coffee shop in the center of the town that we were at earlier.

“Why did you take us here?” I asked as we made us inside the coffee shop.

“Because nobody ever comes here,” he answered. “We can talk in private.”

This would have been good if he was willing to speak with us privately.

I sat beside Henry in a booth and directly in front of Jeremy who stared between the two of us for a long while.

“Why did you want to speak with us in private?” Henry finally asked once it was clear that Jeremy wasn’t going to speak.

He sighed and glanced down at his hands.

“I’ve known Bane for a long time and recently, he’s been acting odd,” Jeremy admitted. “He’s usually a fierce leader and he’s incredibly driven. If there’s a fight, he’s the first person to get involved. He would steal from other packs for the greater good of his own pack. He might have been an asshole to most, but he was an incredible pack leader and an even better friend to those he truly cared about,” Jeremy explained.

He paused as he gathered his thoughts. I could tell there was going to be a “but.”

“But… lately, he’s been different.”

“Different how?” I asked automatically.

His eyes flickered to me and I saw concern in them. He truly was worried about Bane.

“He’s been cold… even to his friends and those around the pack. He hasn’t been providing for his pack. He’s been incredibly on edge and impossible to talk to. He mentioned getting a ring for a woman the other day and I asked who this woman was… he nearly bit my head off…”

My heart fell into my stomach; this was incredibly odd behavior.

“But then something else happened,” Jeremy said, dropping his voice to almost a whisper. I leaned forward, waiting for him to continue. “He saw a picture of his mother and didn’t know who she was.”

“What?” Henry and I asked at the same time.

“What do you mean?” I asked, furrowing my brows together.

“He saw a picture and he said something about how it was unsettling for him to look at. Said he didn’t want this ugly woman sitting on his desk. I told him that was no way to speak about her. He said if she was so important than where is she now? Said that she was no Luna of his if she can’t even be around to help him run this pack. That’s when I realized something was terribly wrong… I asked him what he meant by Luna and that the woman in the picture was his mother. She died a few years ago.”

Jeremy paused again, shaking his head with dismay written all over his face.

“He looked confused when I said that. He stared at the picture for a long moment and then nodded, saying that he didn’t recognize her at first. I reminded him that he was never married and that it was odd that he would think that he was. I asked if he was okay and he snapped at me, telling me to get out before he kills me. I had never seen him like that before and it terrified me.”

“I can see how that can be scary,” I breathed.

“Do you know what he was doing near the hospital the day that it burned? Witnesses said that they saw him,” Henry asked.

He thought about it for a moment longer.

“He said there was someone he needed to see. But he didn’t specify who. It was around that time that he started acting weird… do you really think he had to do with it burning? I heard it was a woman.”

“We think they might be working together,” I explained. “It would make sense because she was seemingly a patient at the hospital. Maybe that’s who he went to see.”

There was worry on Jeremy’s face and then his entire demeanor changed. His entire body froze, and his face went pale. I glanced over at Henry to see if he noticed this too.

“Everything okay?” Henry asked, his brows knitting together.

“It’s Bane. He’s requesting I return to the packhouse right away. He sounds furious. I got to go…” he said, standing to his feet. “Please, don’t tell anyone I spoke to you, and if you knew what was good for you… you’d just leave. Bane isn’t someone you want to mess with.”

On that note, he turned and left the coffee shop.

I stared over at Henry with a worried expression.

“We aren’t leaving, right?” I asked him.

It would only be a couple of hours before the sun began to rise and I feel like we haven’t made any progress. We only confirmed what we already knew; that Bane was a vessel being controlled by the Slayers.

But why did he get a ring?

“No, not yet,” Henry confirmed, standing at his feet. “Let’s touch base with Theo and then we will head to the packhouse and see what Bane wants to talk to Jeremy about.”

I agreed to that.

We made our way outside and called Theo through our watches; we explained to him everything we had found out so far and then we cut the connection before moving on to go to the packhouse.

On our way there, we noticed a small crowd forming in the streets. At first, I thought it was the fighting event, but I realized it was a new location.

I could hear women and children screaming and crying and men being extremely remorseful.

I was confused as to what was going on until I got closer to the scene and smelled the blood.

My heart was racing in my chest as I pushed my way through the crowd.

I nearly screamed when I saw what everyone was staring at.

Lying in the middle of the street, bleeding out from being stabbed numerous times with a silver dagger, was Beta Jeremy.