"And you guys didn't find anything?" Alex asked over the phone. He was talking to the member of the Dynamic pack that had been assigned this case.

"They had all but disappeared the past three days," he said. "And the night that you were talking about was so dark, we couldn't catch a whiff of anything."

Alex sighed. For the past four days they had been doing nothing but trying to find clues about what was going on in that pack. The first day of Summer had come and gone as if nothing was happening. But there had to be something going on.

Because why would they all have disappeared from the city? Why would Shiro's ceremony get canceled? And the fact that Geo wasn't texting him as much was only putting him more on edge about the situation. He didn't like this one bit.

And here he thought that he would only have to wait two weeks. Alex huffed a laugh. He was never lucky when it came to a mate, he shouldn't have been surprised. It just hurt that Geo wasn't even talking to him. And he was one of the members that had disappeared from the city too. All the workers in that roofing company told him that Kenji and him had both decided to take some time off. With how much Alex knew that his mate didn't like his father, it threw him off that they would take time off at the same time.

"Who's looking through the forest?" Alex asked.

"That would be Alpha Nir and I's men," the man sighed. "Alex, I feel like we're trying to find a needle in a haystack. Are you sure that it wasn't just some ceremony that they were doing because of their culture or something?"

Wait.

"A ceremony?" Alex leaned back in his office chair. "Has there been instances where they've acted like this before then?"

"A buddy of mine lives in a neighborhood with a bunch of them," he told him. "When I talked to him about it, he said that it happened all the time with them. They just head out into the woods for a few days and then come back like normal. When he asked, they just told him it was in their culture."

"Yet we haven't heard about it at all," Alex said. "You should ask that buddy of yours if he knows which direction they go in the forest. This could be our needle."

"What if it turns out to be nothing?"

"What if it turns out to be something?" Alex asked him back. "You're supposed to be the detective here. In your professional opinion, doesn't it seem suspicious that they would have a ceremony that none of us knew about, under a New Moon which is the darkest night of the month?"

He heard a pause before the man sighed again. Alex knew that this guy had been through a lot of cases in this city. He was an experienced detective. He should know that this didn't feel right.

"You're right," he said. "Look, I've been trying to keep an eye on that pack for years, Alex. Long before everyone else started to have their suspicions. Every time you try and inch your way into finding any clues, they back away and run you around in circles."

"Well, isn't it a good thing you have help now?" Alex asked. "And how long have you been watching that pack?"

"Ever since Munni Wang died," he said. "There was something about his death that didn't sit right with me. But the family wouldn't do an autopsy, claiming that he simply died of old age."

"That's what everyone thinks," Alex leaned into his desk. "What, do you think it's something else?"

"I'm not going to make any assumptions," the detective said. "All I know is that Munni had a perfect bill of health. And, with his grandchildren disappearing, along with most of the pack after that, it didn't sit right with me."

That was quite an assumption. If they found evidence of someone killing Munni, that alone would be enough to chase Sakdah out of there. But Munni was really old. And he was always working himself to the bone. Everyone figured that he died of old age simply because he never seemed to rest.

Kind of like how Shiro didn't ever seem to rest.

"Try and find out which direction those wolves that your buddy saw went," Alex told him. "That's our strongest lead at the moment. I'm going to call up Nir and see if he found something."

"Will do," he said. They both hung up the phone right when Jett walked in. This was supposed to be the day that he got the curse. He should be in bed or something. But, there he was, walking around like nothing happened.

"Did they find anything?" Jett asked.

"It might be a ceremony," Alex said. "Detective Jim found out that it was normal for them to disappear from the city like this." He wasn't going to tell him about Munni. That was something that he was going to need a lot of evidence on before he started announcing anything. That would be enough to stir the whole town and all the packs combined.

"A ceremony that was more important than an Alpha ceremony?" Jett asked. "That seems ridiculous."

"Your dad could be right when he said that Sakdah didn't want to give up his title," He cocked his head to the side. "How are you feeling, by the way?"

Jett sighed and rubbed his face.

"Fine," he said. "Perfectly fine. There's no symptoms or anything."

"Well, that's good."

"Except for the fact that I haven't heard from Shiro after he told me that it wouldn't affect me," he frowned. "I don't know how he's even doing this. And I can't seem to get him to pick up the phone or answer me at all."

"Geo's the same way," he told him. That was why he had couped himself up in his office to try and figure this out. It made him antsy, and worried. He wanted to know what was going on with this pack just as much as Jett did.

"I just don't get it," he groaned. "How is he doing this? Did he find a way to counter the curse without being marked? It doesn't make sense."

Before he could try and console his friend, the phone rang again. It was the detective again.

"What'd you find, Jim?"

"Not me," he said. "Alpha Nir's men found something in the area that my lead pointed me to. You're going to want to get Alpha Jett to see this. It's strange."

"Where is it?"

"Deep in the woods," he told him. "It's in Reverence territory, so you might want to wear something to hide your scents."

Alex agreed and hung up. He knew that Jett had already heard everything that had been talked about. He gave him a quick glance before they walked out to get ready. A few minutes, and a talisman later, they were outside, ready to turn into their wolf forms. If it was deep in the forest, then they were going to need their animal forms to travel there fast.

"What do you think it is?" he asked Jett.

"I don't know," he told him. Both of them racing in the direction of the Reverence Pack. "I just hope that whatever it is answers at least some of our questions."

He couldn't agree more. He could feel the pull of his mate right when he went over the territory line. It made him want to run straight to that pack house to grab him and never let go. He was still pissed at him for not answering his phone at all. But right then, they needed to focus on stealth. They ran as quietly as they could in the direction that the Detective gave. It took at least an hour to finally find the right spot. Scents were hard to pick up as everyone was wearing something to hide theirs.

It was a large clearing, hidden by high branches that covered the sky. It looked eerie, like a dome of bark and twigs. The fog seemed to enjoy clinging to the ground the most in that area, as it was thick where they were. They silently changed into their human forms and walked up to where Nir, Roger, and a few others already were.

"Well," Roger said. "It took a while, but we finally found something at least."

"What even is this place?" Alex asked. "It looks like the entrance to Hell."

"One of the hidden areas of the Reverence territory," Nir said. "Hidden from even the moon and the sky. It looks like they've had fires here recently as well."

Well, it seemed like Jim was right about something.

"Why would this be more important than an Alpha ceremony?" Jett pondered. "What even happened here?" The fog was hiding a lot of the floor. Alex had been walking around looking straight down just to see if he could find anything.

"Blood," Roger said. "That's the main reason why I had my detective call you, Alex. The second that Nir's men saw it and notified me, we all flew over here."

He looked at the spot that Roger was pointing at. Sure enough, there was blood. It stained the ground. Actually, it looked like the floor had been stained with blood many times. The smell was strange, and absolutely awful. He searched the area to try and find something, anything to indicate who this blood belonged to.

"This isn't the only spot in the area with blood on it," Luke said. He had been one of the warriors Nir sent to search the area. "Just about this entire ground is covered in old remains of blood. That's why there's such a fowl smell here. This is just the freshest."

"Hey Luke?" Alex picked up something and sniffed it. It smelt familiar.

"Yeah?"

"Smell this," he handed him it. It looked like a clump of mud at first. But when you wiped the mud off, you could see the strands of hair in it.

Luke's eyes widened in fear as he also recognized the smell. Alex had a hunch that he would. Alex himself had just met the guy not too long ago. But he knew that Luke had known him for a tad bit longer.

"Who is it?" Jett asked. "Do you recognize the smell?"

Even Nir was looking at him curiously. Luke just met Alex's stare, that fear not going away. Those light blue eyes had never looked so full of terror.

"Teddy."

"Teddy?" Jett asked. "Who's he?"

"A warrior for the Reverence Pack," Alex explained. Luke was freaking out too badly to answer that question. "He actually killed the hunter that was shooting you, Nir."

"The small one?" He furrowed his eyebrows. "Why would they do this to him?"

"That's what we all want to know," Roger motioned for Luke to hand him the hair. "Nir, do you think you could take this to your labs to see if it's him for a fact?"

"I'll prioritize it," Nir said. "We'll take samples of the ground as well. I want to know who all this blood belongs to."

"We'll take care of trying to get some of them to talk," Alex said. "I know someone who might."

"Do you really think Geo could have done this?" Luke asked him.

"No," Alex shook his head. "But his father? Definitely. The new council that's going to be in place doesn't seem like they want this."

"I would still keep my guards up," Roger told him. "At the moment, none of them can be trusted until we find more evidence."

They all said their goodbye's and left. There was too much work to be done after all of that. This went beyond a suspicion now. This was a murder. And, after what Jim had said, it seemed like this wasn't the first time this pack had done something like this.

"Do you really think you're going to be able to find him?"

"I found him at that party," Alex told his friend. "Three times, might I add. I can find him again."

"I just hope he has answers. This just got ten times worse."

He hoped so too. He had just met Teddy, but the tiny guy had already wormed his way into his heart. Not that he was interested in him romantically. But it was cute seeing him tease Geo. The two of them seemed really close. They fought well together too.

Another thing he noted was that Teddy was the only one in that pack that seemed openly gay. He flirted with plenty of guys at that party from what he saw. Alex hoped that wasn't the reason his pack had done this to him.

But it would make so much sense as to why Geo looked so terrified that night. It would make so much sense as to why he wanted to wait on marking him.

Alex would kill every last one of them if they so much as ripped a hair off him. Fuck the consequences.

They got back to their territory and their pack house, only to change and hit the road again. This time, Alex drove them to the city. He had a feeling that Geo would be out today. And that feeling always seemed to be right when it came to his puppy.

"What were you thinking about?" Jett asked him. "You're more quiet than usual."

"I'm thinking that there's a reason why everyone hides their sexuality in that pack," Alex tensed as he said it. Before he could go in greater detail, he saw the spikey hair on a rooftop that he was looking for. He pulled over immediately and sat there to wait for him to come down. "Let's see if we can get some answers."

They got out and sunk into the shadow. Geo was easy to surprise, which was different from all the other pack members they had. He got so focused on what he was doing or thinking that it seemed like he just tuned the rest of the world out. Alex loved that look on his face, though.

"Hey gorgeous," Alex smirked. Geo jumped and turned around to look at them.

"Uh, what's up?" he asked. He seemed more nervous than usual. Alex frowned when he heard that. He wasn't the usual Geo that always teased him or rolled his eyes at all his antics. This was a nervous Geo that was hiding something.

"Where's Teddy?" he asked him. "I haven't seen him since that fight. Luke was wondering if he was okay."

"Teddy?" his eyes turned soft before looking indifferent. He wasn't as good at hiding as Shiro was, that was for sure. "Oh, he's probably around here somewhere."

"You mean the ground?" Jett asked this time, crossing his arms. Geo's eyes went wide for a second, before looking around him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he shook his head. "Teddy likes to disappear from time to time. He'll show up sooner or later."

"Quit the bullshit, Geo," Jett said. Alex could practically feel his mates nerves the longer the conversation went on. "We know something happened the other night. Something that involves Teddy."

"I still don't know what you're talking about."

Jett growled at his answer.

"Don't lie to me, beta," he threatened. "I'm not from your pack, but you still never lie to an Alpha."

Geo pointed his gaze down, submitting to him. Alex didn't like that Jett had growled at him, nor did he like Geo's reaction to it. But this was important. This involved a life that was taken.

"Is he dead?" Alex asked. "Just answer us that."

"It's..." Geo took a deep breath. "It's not what you think. I don't know what you found, but whatever it is, isn't the truth."

"That's not an answer, Puppy."

"That's all I can give you," Geo said. He looked up at them with honest eyes. For a second, they seemed like they were crying for help. "Please, you're going to just have to trust me on this."

"How can I trust you when you've given us absolutely nothing?" Jett said.

"I can't tell you," He shook his head. "I'm on strict orders, as are all of the pack members, not to. But whatever you saw wasn't what you think. And, if you saw what I think you saw, then you need to be careful of going into our territory."

"That still doesn't tell me how I can trust you," Jett said. He always got pissed off whenever someone lied to him. Since he could always figure out when you were lying, it got him all grumpy every time they did it.

"You trusted Shiro when he said that you wouldn't feel any symptoms of the curse," Geo said. "Didn't you?"

"Does that tie into this?" Jett's face softened at hearing Shiro's name. He had fallen so hard for him. "Did you do something to Teddy so that I wouldn't have to feel the curse?!"

"No, no," Geo shook his head. "That was just what prolonged Shiro getting his title."

"How is he doing this?" Jett continued his questioning. "Where is he?"

"I don't know," Geo said. "He wouldn't tell me. He said he was worried that you would go looking for him."

"Why?"

"Because..."

"Because why, Geo?" Jett said. "For heaven's sake, can you at least answer one question?!"

Geo took another deep breath.

"Because in order to take the affects away from you," he started, speaking as quiet as a mouse. "He took all of it on himself."

What? That was unheard of. Alex didn't even know how he could do something like that. Let alone what it would do to a person. Did this mean that Geo would try the same thing if they had to wait longer than thirty days?

"How?"

"The same way he was able to hide your bond when he first found out you two were mates," he told him. "It's something that can be done with sheer willpower and the strength of the mind."

"Can you all do this?" Alex asked him. "Or is it just Shiro?"

"Only the strongest can withstand it," he told him. "It causes a lot of pain."

The look on Jett's face when he heard that was absolutely heart wrenching. He looked so guilty and upset. It reminded him of the time that he made his first mistake on the battlefield and wound up hurting some of his warriors. It took quite a lot to get him to realize that it he had to just take it and learn from it. But this was different. This was his mate.

"You said he wouldn't tell you where he went?" Jett's voice got lower and quieter. Alex had no clue what was going on in that head of his. And that worried him.

"No," Geo said. "Like I said, he didn't want you to try and look for him."

"Can you mind link with him?"

"Not entirely," he answered. "He's not in the best state for that."

"Is he in the city?"

Geo hesitated for a second. He seemed unsure of what to say. Alex wanted to try and find an easy way of doing this, but Jett was too besides himself. He gave a low, menacing growl. One that could shake even him to the very core.

"Yes," he answered finally. "He's in the city."

"Thank you," he walked past Alex and to the car. Alex gave one look back at Geo, trying to give him some kind of sympathy before getting ordered to get to the car himself.

"I'm sorry, Geo," he told him. "I'll have to make this up to you."

"Just don't let him mark him," Geo said. His voice was pleading and his eyes looked desperate. He had never seen his mate this way. But it struck him to the very core. "Please."

"I'll try my best."