Chapter 3
Julia’s POV
Darren walked back to join the task force in the semi–circle they had formed to review the details they had. They were all standing in front of a whiteboard that contained pictures and notes of everything they currently had.
A task member hurried in with a grim look on his face.
“Alpha, no scent could be found on the victim’s body parts. Her body parts were cleansed with Oblivion.” Oblivion was an illegal chemical that could be used to erase one’s scent.
Everyone was silent as they processed his words. However, he wasn’t done.
“We have also checked the pack, but there have been no missing pregnant women. We’ve asked the families in the pack, but none of them are missing a pregnant woman.”
Beta Sean furrowed his eyebrows. “That’s odd, but she has been missing for days.”
They began murmuring and brainstorming among themselves.
Darren chewed the insides of his mouth, then he walked to the board with a thoughtful expression on his face.
“What of the child that was removed?” He asked, glancing around. Beta Sean shook his head. “It wasn’t found either.”
Tears filled my eyes as I knelt by the trash can. I desperately tried to touch the doll that Darren had flung into the trash can, but my hand passed through it.
‘Of course,’ I thought bitterly to myself. ‘I am a ghost. I can’t touch anything.’
I stared hopelessly at Darren as he stared at the board, deep in thought, looking for a clue.
Oh Darren, our child was right here. The child that you had always wanted more than anything. The clue to everything you are looking for is inside this doll that you discarded into the trash. If only…
I watched as Darren wrote down the words ‘mutilation scene‘ and circled them.
Then he turned to the people in the room and pointed at the words on the board as he explained. “We need to find where the body was mutilated. It had to be a place where they felt safe and completely at ease. If we find this place, we might even get a trace of the scent of the victim and probably the killers themselves.”
Then he turned to Sean. “Has any other part of the missing body parts been found?” He asked. Sean nodded, “Yes, the pack patrols have found the remaining body parts, except the victim’s nose and left leg. They checked everywhere, but they didn’t find it.”
Jim furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “Maybe the killers spread it somewhere else” he suggested.
Darren shook his head. “No, there’s no point getting rid of them separately. There must be something on the leg and nose that might tell us something about the identity of this victim….” Darren trailed off and frowned thoughtfully.
Then he circled the words ‘nose‘ and ‘left leg‘ slowly, lost in thought for a moment.
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3:32 pmAAD.
Subconsciously, I touched my nose ring. Darren used to love my nose piercing back then when he still cared about me. He would have definitely recognized it. I also had an old scar on my left leg where a rogue wolf had bitten me when I was a child. Darren would have recognized that
also.
Darren shook his head abruptly and continued talking.
“If our speculations are correct then we’re likely dealing with members of the Bloodhounds, and they must have found a way to sneak into our pack undiscovered.” He said.
“They captured this woman, and removed the fetus from her womb. They refused to kill her immediately, deciding instead to torture her for days before finally killing her, and chopping up her body.” He mumbled softly.
“This was a personal taunt. They would want it to hurt the group of people responsible for taking them down.” Darren added.
Sean tilted his head in thought as he realized something. “What if they didn’t just take a random pregnant person from the pack? What if they decided to target a pregnant woman from the pack’s task force?”
One of the members of the task force shook his head. “But none of us have a pregnant wife who is missing, and no family member has reported any pregnant woman missing.”
Darren’s eyes widened slightly in realization, and my heart leapt in hope, but he shook his head abruptly.
Oh Darren, Darren, did you just realize something? Did you just remember when I kept trying to tell you that I was pregnant? And you kept waving it aside, thinking I was just trying to get you
back.
I scoffed bitterly. It was a well known fact that Alpha Darren was very intelligent and smart, but right now it was so annoying to watch as all the clues were dangling in front of him, and he was
too blind to see it.
Who would the Bloodhounds hate the most, if not you, Alpha Darren? – The very person leading the pack’s task force.
If you weren’t too blinded by your hatred and disgust, you would have just came home. A simple
visit home was all it would have taken.
