Page 82 of Shades of Scars

The door to the stairwell that leads up to our roof top pool hangs ajar. There is a massive amount of blood in two spaces smeared across the light, hardwood floors. Enough blood to hint at something fatal.

However, there are no bodies. The space is empty aside from boot tracks of various sizes planted all over the floors. Like whoever had walked through the pools of blood couldn’t have been bothered to care about leaving evidence behind.

In the largest pool of blood, Fraser finds a single shell casing.

There are so many scents swirling around the space. Each one is hammering against the already tenuous hold I have on my sanity. I’m frozen when Caito approaches me, and one of his warm hands lands on my shoulder. “The blood smells like Apollo.” I squeeze my eyes shut against the torrent of emotions his words wage through me.

Apollo.NotScarlett.

Fuck, if this doesn’t make me a bastard because I feelrelieved.

When my eyes open again, Lark suddenly appears from the stairwell that leads up to the rooftop. He doesn’t even have to voice the words for me to know everything. Sutton walks into the office, a grim look on his face. “My team has cleared the entire floor and all thirteen others. No one else is in the building.”

I feel my breath snag in my lungs. “The floor right below us was empty?” I turn my attention to the alpha, and he nods. I take a deep breath in, allowing myself to concentrate for just a moment.

So many damn scents clog the air, but it’s easy enough for me to pick out the ones that matter the most to me. Especially when my inner alpha is on the hunt for anything that can help me find my pack brother, my omega, and her friend.

Apollo’s scent is the thickest, thanks to the mass amounts of blood. I don’t allow myself to dwell on what that could mean, though. By the doorway, I find Kate’s, the roommate. Then the familiar, mouth-watering aroma of my omega.

But there is another scent here that should not be here.

One that makes my eyes snap open and focus on the alphas waiting for me to come back with a verdict.

“Raven.” I snarl her name, not at all sounding like myself as I do so. Caito’s eyes flash and he inhales deeply through his nostrils, attempting to pick up on the faint trace of my sister like I had. I know he won’t, but he doesn’t need to. He’d never trusted Raven around Scarlett. He’d even mentioned as much to me and warned me she’d eventually become a problem.

He’d been right.

“Find her. Find my fucking sister.”

* * *

It takes three hours for Fraser to locate Raven’s last whereabouts, which shocks the hell out of me. Not his skill, but the place he eventually tracked her to.

I’m deadly fucking calm when I find her, slumped into a chair in the corner of the Black Tide Valley Memorial Hospital’s emergency department’s waiting room. As I approach her, a part of me fucking prays that she’s here because she went in to rescue my omega and pack brother, but I know, deep down, that’s not the case.

It’s not me or Caito that plucks her out of her chair by her hair, though. Fraser Arson does the honors, and he fuckingsmiles like a goddamned psychopath when she screeches and flails, attempting to lash out at him with her fists and claws. She doesn’t get very far.

Two security guards are already approaching, but Fraser snarls, “Official Infinity Ring business. Mind your fucking own,” and the both of them stop in their tracks. They don’t even spare us another glance before they melt away. It makes me wonder for half a second how powerful Caito’s former chum buddies could be, but that thought is quickly replaced when Raven’s eyes find mine.

She pales as soon as she sees me, and I feel the last vestiges of my hopes and dreams flake away that she’d one day change.

When I look back at her, I am not her baby brother.

I’m her future fucking executioner.

Fraser shoves her down on her knees before me, Lark, and Caito, but he keeps his fist tangled in her hair. When he leans down, he murmurs in her ear, “Better start singing. You won’t like it if I have to make you.” His words send a sudden jolt of unease down my spine, but it isn’t for her sake.

The guy is clearly unhinged. More so than my pack brothers and I at the moment.

“I’m sorry, Wren! It was only supposed to be her! I got Apollo here as soon as I could. He’s in surgery.” I feel my blood freeze in my veins at her words. She heaves out a sob, looking absolutely wrecked, but not because she handed over my omega to some unknown entity, but because of Apollo.

“Apollo is here?” Lark breathes out, and when she nods, my pack brother mutters a curse.

“You better explain before I let Fraser handle you.” Caito snarls, physically vibrating beside me with his need to inflict damage on her.

“I-it was only supposed to be the omega. She belongs to Harlan. He wanted her, and I wanted the name of the man whoput out a hit on her. She got Ant killed, and I thought it was only right to get her out of the way before something happened to any of you.” This time, Lark snarls, taking a step towards her, but I hold up my hand. “This wasn’t supposed to happen!” She wailed. “Apollo just had to let her go. He shouldn’t have tried to intervene!”

“Did you get what you wanted?” I finally asked when her mouth clamped shut. Confusion warped her features for a moment.

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