Stone had been left with an unconceivable decision to make: Stay there in Tennessee for his injured mate, or go back to Kentucky and make peace for his pack's sake.
Two months later, he still fucking hated himself for leaving his mate that day. Although he had sent three of his most trusted pack members to search over the hospital for any signs of her, and to protect her if need be, it wasn't the same. He should have been there with Dia, and not here in Kentucky dealing with this bullshit, even if he had discovered that it was for her best interests that he had left her.
A week after her parents' house exploded, Stone had accomplished two very important things. First, he had made amends with the Sulphur Springs alpha and had secured that alliance. Then the three pack members watching over Dia's hospital reported back with the unthinkable. The Connor's house explosion had been no accident. Someone had purposely set that gas leak so that it would cause an explosion. It was all over the local news there in Tennessee and the human investigators were trying to figure out who had done it. That made Stone wonder: who exactly was the perpetrator trying to kill? Dia's parents, or Dia herself?
No matter the answer, Stone had to find out who had done this so he could make sure his mate was safe, and so he could get her justice for losing her parents. That was something Caleb had been helping him with for almost two months now. The problem was, they were having a hard time figuring out who had started the gas leak and why.
Now Caleb stood in his living room with an answer, and the hair standing up on the back of Caleb's neck told him Stone wasn't going to like it.
"What is it?" Stone asked with no preamble.
His beta crossed his arms over his chest and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He was on edge, and had been since they had discovered the attempt made on Dia's life.
"I don't know who exactly, Stone. I've only uncovered why Dia's parents' house exploded."
A snarl escaped Stone, and he had to reel his wolf back in. He gripped the arms of his chair tight, using all his willpower to keep the powerful beast at bay, when he really wanted to let him loose for bloodshed.
"WHY THEN?" he snarled out in anger.
Caleb uncrossed his arms and ran a hand through his hair. The need to fidget told Stone that his beta was probably battling his own wolf for control, too.
"I was on patrol and behind Old Man Grayson's barn when I heard two feminine voices. They didn't realize I was there because I was downwind. They were talking about the attempt on Dia's life failing and how someone was going to have to finish the job."
"Just to be clear, they said her name?"
Caleb shook his head slowly, then said, "They said ‘the alpha's human bitch.' That's how I know they were talking about Dia."
"Did you kill them?" Stone snarled.
When Caleb shook his head no, Stone lost all control. His wolf's anger snapped, and the next thing he knew, Stone was across the room, pinning Caleb to a wall by his throat.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU KILL THEM?" he roared at his beta.
Wheezing for air, Caleb choked out, "Because they heard me coming and disappeared."
Letting go of Caleb, Stone stepped back and tried to regain his composure. "What do you mean, they disappeared?"
His beta was rubbing his throat, trying to soothe the spot where Stone had grabbed him. His voice was still rough when he answered, "I fucked up. Accidentally stepped on a twig that snapped under my paw. They must have heard it, because the next thing I heard was whispered voices and then nothing. By the time I ran around to the other side of the barn, they were gone."
Running his hands through his hair, Stone growled, "Why didn't you follow them?"
His beta stilled unnaturally, and then slowly leaned closer to Stone to whisper, "There was nothing to follow. No visible tracks and no scent. The best I can figure is they were standing in the small stream that runs beside the barn to cover their tracks. What I can't explain is how they left no scent at all."
"That's impossible."
Caleb nodded. "I know. Even though they could have been standing in the water, it still wouldn't have taken much for the water to bring their scent to the area. Nobody ever escapes without leaving some sort of scent trail. What I want to know, man, is how the hell they did it. Because I'm telling you, Stone, I know what I heard. Those voices were there. So, why weren't they? Or, at least the faintest trace of them?"
Taking numb steps backward, Stone had frantic thoughts whirling through his mind. Disbelief was one of them. How could someone disappear and not leave a scent track? Hunters used other smells to cover their scents, but that wasn't what Caleb had found-or not found, for that matter. His beta hadn't been able to find anything at all. Which seemed impossible.
Unless they have a witch.
"Holy fuck, we have a witch on our hands," Stone whispered in shock.
Caleb's face morphed into one of enraged fury. He hated magic, to the point he was prejudice against it. He had his reasons for it, though. A witch had killed his parents in a spell gone wrong.
Balling his fists up by his sides, Caleb let out an angry growl, his lip curling in distaste. "I'll kill any witch I come across. I swear this to you, Alpha."
Some distant part of Stone's mind heard what his beta was saying, but he was still too much in shock to say anything back. Who would bring a witch onto their lands and why?
His wolf snarled in his head, To kill our mate.
All this time, Stone had been trying to figure out why some human would blow up his mate's parents' house. Now he knew humans weren't the ones to blame. There was at least one witch involved, and a conversation held on his pack lands told him the only other thing he needed to know just then. Someone in his pack wanted his mate dead. Now he just had to figure out who and why. Until then …
Stone pulled out his cell phone and dialed one of the wolves who was watching over his mate's hospital.
"Alpha," the other wolf answered with no preamble.
His pack treated him with the utmost respect at all times and seemed to be happy under his reign. Well, at least he thought they had. Now he had to wonder if he really had some unhappy anarchists in his pack who were trying to bring him down through his mate.
He was at least sure that the three wolves he had sent to watch over Dia-Brandt, James, and Scotty-were loyal to a fault. There was no other wolf he trusted more than those three, besides Caleb.
"Someone is trying to kill my mate. Be aware of everything around you and be careful. I'll also need you three to try harder in finding her inside the hospital and keeping an eye on her there. Nothing is to happen to her, you understand?"
"Yes, Alpha," Brandt replied.
"Good. Call me once you have an update about her. I want to know how she's doing." Stone hung the phone up and collapsed back into his chair. Gripping the arms, he felt the entire world fall away as both his human and wolf side focused on one single task.
Find and kill whoever it was who had harmed his mate.
Chapter Seven
Dia gradually came to and opened eyelids that felt like they had hundred-pound weights holding them closed. Dim lighting let her slowly focus on a window with nothing but clear blue sky on the other side of it. Haltingly, she took in the room around her and remembered where she was: the hospital. Flashes of a memory of waking up here before started to play in her mind.
A doctor telling her she had been in an accident.
Besides having a splitting headache, she didn't feel sore, so what kind of accident had she been in?
Overhearing the nurse say something to the doctor about her parents being killed in an explosion.
Pain and confusion swamped her emotions. Her parents were dead? She didn't even remember having parents, but that didn't stop her chest from hurting at the knowledge that they were dead and she would never meet them or get to know them. It was bad enough that she didn't know who she was, but now that she knew her parents were dead, there was a chance there would be nobody alive to tell her these things. What if she had no other family?
A fast beeping from one of the monitors she was hooked up to started to speed up, so Dia looked over at the machines. It wasn't her heart monitor, she could easily see that number. It was a high number, but there seemed to be no sound to it at the moment. She kept looking until she found another monitor with a second heartbeat, and that was when the last of her flashbacks hit her like a ton of bricks.