Half Truths (A Helheim Wolf Pack Tale) (41 page)

‘Alright,’
Antain said.

‘Alright?!’ both
Colton and Sabel exclaimed.

‘Sit. Down,’
Vaile growled, pinning them both with an arctic stare.

‘She is the last
of her kind which means we have to do all we can to keep her alive. Any unmated
wolf shall be added to the list of feeders for Indi. Right now, that means
Rhett, Brax, Sabel, Colton and Vaile, you are on rotation until we can get some
more of our pack mates to add to the list.’

Vaile cleared
his throat suddenly. ‘I can’t, Alpha.’

All eyes turned
to him. ‘What do you mean, you can’t? It’s for the pack, and as beta you should
be leading by example.’

‘I have mated,
Alpha.’

A thick,
chocking silence settled on the room. Nobody dared speak.

‘The human?’
Antain asked, and was that hope in his eyes?

Vaile gritted
his teeth and nodded. ‘She’s upstairs now. I’d like for her and her cat to live
here if that’s alright with you.’

‘Of course, of
course. I need you close, and you can’t be away from her. Fine.’

Antain sighed.
‘That’s all for now. I need to get back to Eaton, and we could all do with some
more sleep. We’ll talk about the war we’ve just started tomorrow, shall we? One
crisis at a time.’

Indi was walking slowly towards
Beth’s hospital room. Anxiety was making her stomach twist restlessly; a
restlessness she couldn’t quite figure out. She’d had that feeling again; the
feeling that Beth needed her. She pulled on the invisible tether that bound
them, and it led her to the hospital.

As she
approached Beth’s room, Indi could see movement behind the door through the
small glass panel; frantic, jerking movements. Her anxiety jacked up again.
Licking her lips, she approached the door slowly, peering into the room.

Beth’s parents
had been herded into the corner of the room; her mother’s plump hand over her
mouth, and her father’s arm wrapped securely around his wife’s shoulders. Both
sets of eyes were focused on the bed where a doctor was performing CPR and
nurses were trying to stem the bleeding from Beth’s wrists. The johnny Beth had
been wearing was sticking to her skin; her wet hair plastered to her forehead
and cheeks, accentuating her blue lips.

Indi suddenly
felt like she couldn’t breathe. This couldn’t be happening to her best friend.
She wouldn’t take her own life … unless … Indi pushed through the door into the
room where Beth’s blood was tangible. Her ears filled with the sounds of panic
and beeping machines.

‘Get out of
here!’ the doctor called over his shoulder, still pumping the heels of his
palms into Beth’s chest. Bones gave way under the pressure, filling the room
with an unsettling crack. Mrs White cried out in response.

‘Indigo?’ Mr
White asked. Indi turned to him. He looked like he was going into shock. Mrs
White was wide-eyed and pale—the front of her pink pantsuit was soaked through.

‘What happened?’
Indi asked in a cold, hard voice.

‘She took her
own life!’ Mrs White moaned, sobbing into her husband’s chest. Indi looked at
Mr White, waiting for more information.

‘What happened?’
she asked again, focusing her attention on Beth’s dad.

‘She took the blades from the
disposable razors and slit her wrists in the shower. Her mother found her,’ he
replied in a voice devoid of any emotion.

Indi turned
around as the electric squeal of the defibrillator filled the air. Beth’s chest
was bare to the room; protective pads stuck under her right collarbone and the
other against the middle of her ribcage on the left.

‘Charged to two
hundred,’ the nurse said frantically, handing the paddles to the doctor.

‘Clear!’ he
barked before placing the paddles onto the pads and shocking Beth. Her upper
body jacked off the bed, but there was still no pulse.

‘Three hundred,’
the doctor said. The nurse pressed a button.

‘Charged to
three hundred.’

‘Clear!’

Beth’s body
jerked away from the mattress again, her body still limp. The blood from the
cuts on her wrists were seeping through the bandages now.

‘Three-sixty!’
the doctor ordered. Another jolt of electricity went through Beth’s
nonresponsive body.

‘Dammit!’ the
doctor cursed, handing the paddles back to the nurse roughly and beginning
chest compressions again. ‘Shut off that alarm,’ he barked at one of the
nurses, sweat forming on his brow.

For ten long minutes,
he pumped Beth’s heart until, finally, the doctor slowed then stopped.

Mrs White sobbed
loudly. ‘Please, no!’

The doctor
looked over at Beth’s parents before looking at his watch. ‘Time of death: ten
twenty-three.’ He turned back to Mr and Mrs White. ‘I’m so sorry.’ He left the
room while the nurses took the conduit pads from Beth’s skin and covered her
back up again.

Indi’s throat
felt thick. She tried to speak twice before the words came out. ‘Why did she do
this?’ she asked.

It was Mr White
who answered. ‘She found out the results for the pregnancy test. She was
pregnant to the monster who raped her.’ His voice cracked over the last couple
of words as he broke into sobs. Indi looked at her best friend’s pale face,
committing it to memory before leaving Beth’s parents to grieve in private.

Rhett met her
back in the car at her insistence. He jumped out of the car when she tripped
over her own feet, stumbling forward. Rhett caught her effortlessly, his eyes
churning colours. ‘What’s happened?’ he asked, touching her face softly with
just the tips of his fingers.

‘Beth’s dead,’
Indi replied; her voice flat—lifeless and cold just like her best friend.

‘Dead?’ Rhett
asked, leading her to the passenger side of the car and opening the door for
her. Indi sank into the seat, resting her head back and closing her eyes
lightly. Hell, maybe when she opened them, she’d find out it was all a
horrible, horrible nightmare.

‘She killed
herself when she found out she was pregnant.’

‘I thought you’d
told her already.’

Indi shook her
head once. ‘I didn’t want to tell her. I couldn’t tell her. I feel guilty
enough for what happened to her, and now this has happened. I should have seen
it coming. I should have been with her.’ Tears had started to fall without Indi
realising.

Rhett crouched
down beside her, taking her hands into his warm palms. ‘You couldn’t have
stopped this, Ind.’

She shook her
head again. ‘The last time I saw her she was talking about how she deserved
what happened to her. I got angry at her and left. I didn’t come and see her
again. I should have been there for her. If I had, I could have changed her
mind.’

‘Indi,’ Rhett
began gently, brushing away the tears on her cheeks. ‘You almost died this
week. How could you have done anything to stop this from happening?’

Indi’s anger
bubbled just for a second, and she snapped, ‘I should have been there!’

To his credit,
Rhett didn’t try to mollify her. He just squeezed her hand, shut the door and
drove them home.

‘I’m going to go for a walk,’ Indi
told Rhett as he killed the engine after pulling up in front of the farmhouse.

‘I’ll come with
you,’ he replied softly, taking her hand.

‘No,’ she pulled
her hand free. ‘I want to be alone for a while.’

Rhett ran his
fingers over her cheekbones softly. ‘It’s dangerous to be on your own right
now,’ he told her gently.

‘I’ll have my
phone on me, and I’ll be back in half an hour, alright? Don’t worry about me.’
When he didn’t say anything, she added, ‘I’ll stay within sight of the house.’

Rhett eventually
let her go, watching her walk into the shadow-filled forest fringes. Snow
crunched under her boots as she made a wide circle around the house. She
couldn’t get Beth’s pale face out of her mind, and everywhere she looked she
was reminded of it.

She didn’t know
how long she was wandering like she was. The sun was beginning to dip below the
horizon though, so it had to have been most of the afternoon. She sighed,
making her way back to the house; surprised that Rhett hadn’t come out to look
for her. Indi started to slog a new path towards the house when the wind
changed direction. Her body was completely still except for her nostrils which
had flared to take in a familiar scent.

She turned
towards the source of the smell, her nose working, her fangs vibrating with
increasing need. The closer she came to a patch of forest that had felled
trees, the more intense the smell grew. The fallen trees in this patch were
covered with a dusting of snow that had filtered down from the bare canopy.

She continued
around a large fallen fir covered in snow until she discovered the source.
Colton lay dead on the forest floor, untouched by the snow. His stomach had
been ripped open so that only a bloody hole could be seen in the raw mess. Indi
backed up until she hit a tree. Fumbling for her phone, she called Rhett.

The whole pack
came, crowding around Colton’s disembowelled body. Antain was crouched beside
his body and taking stock of the injuries. ‘His heart and lungs have been
removed as well as some ribs,’ he muttered to the group at his back. They all
let out a collecting hiss at the report. ‘His intestines, stomach … hell, even
his bladder has been removed from this incision,’ Antain added, sounding tired.
The alpha looked up into Colton’s face, sliding his eyes shut with just the
tips of his fingers.

‘Who the fuck
did this?’ Sabel snarled; his eyes chartreuse-green.

Antain shook his
head.

Vaile said,
‘There’s no scent here,’ he said after sniffing around the area where Colton’s
body was lying. ‘But I wouldn’t put it past Marcus to take out his revenge in
this way.’

Antain sighed.
‘Vaile, Rhett? Bring him back to the house so we can give him a proper burial.’

Colton was buried next to Leona on
the eastern border of the property near a grove of apple trees. The ground was
frozen, but it didn’t seem to bother the men. They worked tirelessly until the
grave was big enough and then they buried him.

‘I’d like to say
a few words,’ Antain said as the remaining members of the pack stood around the
fresh grave. Eaton was standing beside him now, wrapped up in scarves and
gloves and coats. Antain leaned heavily on her as he spoke. Vaile was there
with his mate, Larissa, while Indi and Rhett stood with Brax. Sabel stood at
the head of the grave, his eyes angry.

‘Colton came to
us a brave, loyal wolf. He had developed into a fine soldier, and he has died
for the pack which he loved. We will honour him with every day that passes by
never forgetting the sacrifice he made to us.’ All the other wolves grunted their
ascent. ‘He wouldn’t want us to dwell though, so what I think we need now is a
good stiff drink and to figure out how we’re going to fight the war we’ve
brought to our doorstep.’

To be continued …