Page 49 of New Blood

“Apologies, I didn’t see you,” Austin said quickly and pulled the door shut fully behind him.

Had Violet been standing in front of the door for long? Had she been able to listen in on his conversation with Jude? Had she eavesdropped?

“Can I help you with anything?” he asked.

“Uhm… ahh…,” she stammered. “Oh, I was just looking for Jude.” She gestured to the files. “He wanted some additional reports that I didn’t have ready yesterday.”

She sounded nervous, and her face grew redder with every second. She looked even younger now than when he’d first met her. Maybe she was simply nervous around strangers.

“He’s in the office. Go right in,” Austin suggested with a friendly smile, while he made a mental note to mention this encounter to Jude.

He would also keep an eye on Violet to see if he could gather from her behavior whether she’d heard that Jude was mated to Danielle.

29

“Fuck! Where?” Jude asked.

He’d been in the middle of reviewing the additional reports Violet had brought him when Heath had barged into his office.

“About two miles west, deep in the woods,” Heath replied. “If we take the ATVs, we’ll be faster.”

Together they hurried to the covered area behind the garage. There, three ATVs were parked. Heath hopped on one of them and pointed to one of the others.

“Keys are already in the ignition. We never remove them, in case of emergency, you know.”

Jude understood. Given that the entire estate was heavily guarded by cameras and high fences, it was unlikely that somebody would steal one of the all-terrain vehicles. He jumped on one, turned the ignition, and felt the motor hum. In Montana at the Werewolf Alliance ranch, they rarely used ATVs. Instead, they took horses to reach remote areas.

“I’ll follow you,” he said with a nod at Heath.

As Heath headed across the open meadow toward the trees, Jude followed closely. In the woods, they both slowed down, making sure to avoid hitting trees or other obstacles. He could see that there were distinct paths that had been flattened by tires. They stayed on them for a while before Heath pointed to the left. There was no path there, but they nevertheless headed that way. Small bushes and fallen tree branches snapped underneath their heavy tires, carving out a path.

The scent of blood suddenly drifted to him. It was more intense than he’d expected, even though Heath had forewarned him. As the stench of death grew stronger, Heath lifted his hand, alerting him to stop the vehicle. Jude brought the ATV to a halt and switched off the engine. Heath did the same and jumped off. He pointed to a bush next to a tall tree.

Even without Heath indicating the spot, Jude would have known which way to turn. The smell of blood and death was strongest there. They both walked to it and stopped right in front of it.

Jude stared at the large deer that lay on the ground. It had been savagely attacked and killed. Its throat was ripped open, the claw wounds clearly visible. The deer would have bled out within seconds. It was unlikely that it had still been alive when the attacker had ripped open its chest and pulled the ribs apart to be able to reach inside the creature.

“The heart?” Jude asked with a glance at Heath.

“Gone. Ripped out.”

They both knew what that meant. The attacker had eaten the animal’s heart.

“Any other organs missing?”

“Not from what I could see when I first examined it.”

Jude nodded. “There’s only one creature that would do this.”

“A werewolf.”

“It looks like a pretty fresh kill.”

“I would say it was killed sometime last night, maybe early in the morning.”

“I agree. What was William’s stance on somebody from the pack hunting in these woods?”

“I’m not sure. He had certain rules for his family and others for the pack. I just know that nobody outside the family would dare kill a deer on his estate and leave it there to rot.”