Six months later…
Magnus felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise, but when he looked around, there was nothing there.
As usual!
It was the same every time. His instincts were telling him something and his wolf became alert. Ears sticking up and body tense like a spring ready to jump. But no matter how he strained himself there was nothing along the lightly snow-drizzled street that would suggest that anything out of the ordinary was going on. Christmas decorations were up. People were rushing back and forth and barely paying any attention to the shopping window's decorations. And not a single one of them paid any attention to him.
Not more than usual anyway…
"You alright there?" Bjorn asked, handing him a cup of hot coffee. Magnus wanted to say no – that he wouldn't be alright until he'd had an hour-long bath and his senses bleached! But he was pretty sure that his friend felt the same, and he didn't want to sour the already bad mood.
They had just returned after spending hours scouring the forest, looking for anything that could help their investigation.
Another body had popped up!
It was the same as the last guy from almost 6 months ago, only this time it had been a woman – as far as they could tell anyway. The ritual site had been exactly the same in all other way. Circle with a cross, everything around it dead and the victim killed in what looked to be at least three different ways. After the ME's were done with the place, he and Bjorn had teamed up with the Sheriff's Department to search the woods for anything that could bring them close to the killer.
Or just a suspect!
But even miles away from the body, the acrid scent of the ritual kept them from scenting anything else. And the way it kept making their eyes water and their animals restless and agitated, being out there hadn't done much other than being a major waste of time.
And just to add a cherry on top, this time, the media had caught wind of it.
"The Fallen Priest" as they'd dubbed the killer – or just "The Fallen" – was on the cover of every newspaper in town and probably the county as well. TV-reporters and journalists were swarming around the police department, asking the same question over and over again. Mostly they were trying to blame the department for not doing more after the first victim showed up, not realizing that they didn't have a single thing to go on.
No DNA.
No fingerprints.
Nothing!
Hell, so far, they didn't even have a scent and if he was being honest, it screamed to high heaven that something supernatural was involved. Which was why the whole thing had gone from bad to worse in a heartbeat, when the MBI felt had sent in their own specialists.
Talk about a train wreck!
"Just have the feeling that I'm being watched," Magnus said in a light tone as if it was no big deal. He didn't add "again" or mentioned the fact that he'd felt like this more often than not lately. His wolf was on edge as he scanned the crowd, looking for something he'd missed…
"Well, things have gone a little crazy lately," Bjorn said, leaning against the car, glaring at a human reporter who wanted to come over. But the shifter's murderous gaze worked as an efficient repellant and the man turned and scurried away. And perhaps it was cruel, but Magnus didn't mind not being attacked by reporters and he certainly didn't envy his Beta his job right now.
"You can't really blame yourself if you're feeling the heat," Bjorn continued and drank his sweeten coffee. Magnus mentally groaned and took a sip of his bitter poison.
He could say that again!
It was like the world had gone mad all of a sudden. Magic was being cast at every corner. Reporters were hiking around the mountains as if a killer wasn't on the loose and making shifting damn near impossible. Some nutjob was complaining about a ripple in the time space continuum (whatever the fuck that meant!) and Milla was failing most of her classes because she was spending most of her time at the station. And if that wasn't enough, his cat had begun to go missing for days at the time and he was afraid that she'd run off again or worse, get herself killed…
And oh--- The Elders wanted him to mate!
Yeah, funny story actually…
After he'd told his mother "NO" loud and clear, she'd interpreted it as a "maybe" and the alpha before him, a man named Victor Rodney, had then translated it into a "show me the selection". Which meant that all the eligible females from surrounding packs were either showing up at his office or at his home at all hours of the day, asking for an extended stay in his pack to see if they had "chemistry". Now, he wasn't the alpha of a very big pack, but he was one of the strongest alpha wolves to have ever lived and he was extremely powerful, since he had a lot of sway with the human government. Being under his protection meant also being safe from rogue human hunters who had gotten it in their heads that every shifter alive had to be exterminated and they could call in favors from the MBI if anyone should need it.
And of course, having a bear enforcer did have a nice ring to it.
Despite having won the title as the strongest alpha alive, having Bjorn as his enforcer made most people assume that by default, he was stronger than the usually bigger and stronger shifter species. And that's why the bear shifter submitted to his alpha authority since that was the natural order of things.
They were all wrong!
Bjorn simply accepted him as his alpha because they were friends; hell, they were family! But every time Magnus wanted to correct people in their assumptions Bjorn always stopped him.
"It'll just make them nervous if they think you don't have some kind of sway over me," Bjorn had argued, calmly downing a bear after some female has dropped hints about it during their conversation. Magnus had been so furious that he'd partly shifted and the woman had scurried away, leaving Bjorn to deal with the aftermath.
"Then fuck them," Magnus argued back, his voice still slurred with his animal that pushed his jaws out and mad forming words harder than usual. "You're my best friend. Hell, you're more of a brother to me than my real brothers are. That's just not---!"
"You have to consider the best of the pack," Bjorn stated calmly yet again, glancing at his alpha brother. "So stick your pretty little hurt feelings up your ass and be the alpha they need you to be." He scoffed and took a huge swig of his beer. "I'm not going anywhere either way and if they give me any shit, I'll deal with it accordingly."
It had been a bitter pill to swallow, but Bjorn had been right. Causing unease with tension between shifters, magic and the media was at an all-time high wasn't going to help anyone.
He just had to bite his time…
"You better," Magnus replied, hating that his friend had a point. "Because you're more than just part of my pack. You're family!"
Bjorn's lips had quirked into a half grin then and they'd downed their beers like they'd always done. But it wasn't the influx of strange wolves, the out-of-control magic use or the MBI investigators that had his hairs standing on edge. His wolf was pacing back and forth like a caged animal. He wanted out. He wanted to hunt---
Something!
Instinctively Magnus stuck his nose out and sniffed the air. The lingering scent of something enticingly sweet and ripe was there. It was always there when he got this feeling. He'd tried to chase it down so many times now, but he never managed to ever really track it. It was almost like he was chasing a ghost. The scent would be there one minute and just when he thought he was close – so close he could almost taste it – it would be gone. It was infuriating and frustrating because somehow, he felt like he was losing something important.
Someone important…
"Here come Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum," Bjorn mumbled, pulling him out of his half-feral hunting mindset and back to the two men heading their way. Magnus just barely kept back a groan, while his wolf let out a low growl of utter disgust.
If it had been the two men's intentions to blend in, they had failed miserably. Dressed in thick coats, colorful mittens, hiking boots more suitable for a polar expedition and hats with the sign "(heart) Massachusetts" on them, they might as well have had a sign that said "MBI-agents". Agent Valentino Gage along with his partner, Supernatural Specialist and Warlock, Agent Peter Anders, had turned out to be just about the biggest pain in the ass he'd ever come across.
And worse?
They treated shifters like nothing more than intelligent pets…
"We need to use your office again," Agent Gage said, briskly walking up to them and trying to keep his composure. But Magnus could see that he was itching to clap his hands together and shift from foot to foot in a desperate attempt to keep out the cold. Agent Gage was a human from LA, where MBI headquarters was located, and obviously the man had never left the sate of California before today. And yeah, it was a little petty, but Magnus enjoyed seeing him miserable in the cold. Ever since stepping into town they'd done nothing but disrespected his pack and the guests coming in from all over, which again landed on his shoulders to sort out.
And suddenly a stream of reporters didn't seem so hard to handle after all…
"With all due respect," Magnus gritted between clenched teeth, mindful not to clench his fists and ruin a perfectly good cup of coffee. "But I can't close down the sheriff's office every time you need a white board."
Especially not when Lawry was feeling the heat from all things human related. He was under a great deal of pressure both from media and politicians alike to solve this case. And what's worse, was that he would most likely never be able to "solve it" considering that the MBI would take the son of a bitch and throw him in a black hole the second he was arrested. Closing the sheriff department down every few days because these ungrateful bastards needed to make a phone call was grinding against Magnus's last nerve.
"This is for official MBI business," Agent Anders said in a cold monotone voice that sounded void of any kind of soul – which really was just a typical witch for you. "We're not asking."
"Of course, you're not," Magnus said, just barely keeping his animal out of his voice. Hell, he was clenching hist teeth so hard he was surprised they weren't breaking off. But unfortunately, he didn't have jurisdiction over the men and although being part of the MBI payroll did have its benefits, cooperating with them was a pain in the fucking ass!
"Bjorn," Magnus ground out, casting a glance at his partner, who had a matching expression of annoyance, but with a slight hint of menace and murderous intent added in the mix.
"This way, Agent Valentine," he said with a grunt, gesturing for them to get in the car.
"It's Valentino!" Agent Gage hissed with a furious expression, glaring at him with obvious distain in his eyes. Magnus would have laughed, since Bjorn loved to poke at the pompous asshole, but he also worried that with such obvious hate for shifters, his pack might be at risk if they found something they didn't like.
Like a suspect that could easily become a scape goat…
"I know," Bjorn snickered and pushed away from the car, undeterred by the fact that the man obviously hated his guts. He threw away his empty coffee cup and Magnus did the same, downing the last bit of the bitter goodness before heading to the sidewalk to throw it away.
That's when the scent hit him again!
Sweet and ripe. Like strawberries in June or a wild berry bush in August. He loved that scent, having spent a lot of his childhood helping his mother in her garden making her special jams. It was a scent that reminded him of home.
Of love…
One last time Magnus longingly looked around. He swore he could feel eyes on him, and he desperately wanted to go hunt for that scent one more time. Despite knowing it was probably useless, he found himself wanting it more and more with each passing day…
With a sigh he got into the car and drove towards the station, hoping for better luck another day.