The Alphas Assassin (Complete)

The Coroners Report

*Ariella*

“Woah!” A surprised voice called. Heavy hands planting on my shoulders to stop me from falling. “Apologies Chuviha!” His Russian accent was pronounced and thick. The man was tall and widely built like a bear but had a friendly smile with a single chipped front tooth. He had a golden watch on his wrist as well as a wedding band and other rings with a golden chain around his neck peeking from beneath his shirt where dark chest hair sat.

“S-sorry sir…”

He paused and looked at me, a glimmer of something like recognition danced in his eyes for a moment as a slender hand gently touched his arm. It was the girl I had bumped into after my appointment. She smiled at me. Her hazel eyes bore into me and gave me a familiar tingle and I smiled. But as the night breeze picked up and whipped into my face. I froze. She smelled like Gabriel, and it almost made me sick to think of him.

“Sorry.” I said again quickly. I turned and hustled into the main lobby.

“Wait!” I heard the woman yell after me but Carter had rushed past her, placing his hand on the small of my back and escorting me to the elevator, effectively brushing off the woman’s attempt to chase me.

I breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed and leaned against the back wall.

“What was that?” Carter asked.

“I don’t know… I bumped into her the other day after Miss Anna dropped me off… but…”

“But?” He pressed.

“Now she… she smells like Gabe…” I whispered, folding my arms over my body.

Carter handed me his laptop and I braced myself for what I’d see.

Mason had sent dozens of files. Pack information, agreements, treaties, alliance paperwork, proposals… death records, autopsy reports… my sister's birth and death certificates…

I pieced through the investigation and coroner's reports of Isabel Laurent. She had been taken, missing for 4 days before she was found, propped against the wall of our own courtyard of our pack house on the morning of the 5th day… she had indeed been tortured, her body having been beaten and used in ways only a demon could have done. There were pictures of an odd, horseshoe shape seemingly branded into her lower stomach where knife marks also lay. Her purple dress was soiled with Goddess knows what type of bodily fluids from those four days.

Her fingertips had been taken, removing any evidence she may have had under her nails. There was no report of any other biological matter according to the report, no hair, no semen, no spit, not even blood… no DNA… Nothing that would link her death to anyone.

As I looked to the bottom of the last page of the report I read the scrawling name of the signature.

“Dr Arlene Gray, Medical Examiner. Red River Territory Coroners Office.”

I sighed and tried to shake the image from my head before going to the next files, spending hours reading through different proposals and agreements that had gone between Waning moon and Red River. I saw where Isabel had been promised to future Alpha Armin, Camilos son. Then saw where Isabel’s death had been reported, then saw where Alpha Camilo had requested me in her place to be married when I turned 20. From there, just like Mason said. The dealings with Red River seemed to drop. For a long time I was no longer mentioned by name in any dealings with other packs. Only being referred to as “The Surviving Child.” When necessary and then my existence truly seemed to drop off.

I flipped to the next several documents in the files. Amongst them were dozens of pictures of things like pack meetings and get-togethers. Normal things like Alphas in the conference room, or dinners splayed in the backyard of our Home or another… then it moved into pictures of my father, my mother, and two young children. A 4-5 year old girl holding my mom's hand and a baby cradled in my dad's hand propped up to look toward the camera. Beside them stood a tall dark haired man with a young girl in her pre-teens and a boy maybe slightly older than my sister's age, next to them was another pair with a boy the same age. Two more families stood at the far end of our deck, one with three boys in the same age range as the two other boys and one with another young girl about 9 or so years old. My ages were guesses of course. This picture had no date or time stamp on it; it was just a scanned photo from a print out.

When I looked closer at the families I recognized Alpha Valerian. His hand was clasped onto the boy's shoulder, an incredibly familiar steel face watch glinted the sun's rays. They had matching hazel eyes, strong facial features, thick dark hair with well dressed outfits.

Alpha Valerian's other arm was hung around my fathers shoulder and I could see my dad had his free arm around him. They had happy smiles on their face as if they had been laughing and my mother seemed happy as well. I focused back in on the boy at the end of Alpha Valerians long arm.

“Gabe…” I whispered softly as a tear came to my eye.

“Gabe?” Carter looked over my shoulder. He had been sitting beside me watching TV for the hours I had been scrolling through documents “That’s… you think that’s Gabriel?”

“I know it’s Gabriel.” I corrected him. “That’s Alpha Valerian…” I sighed. “Uncle V!” I finally recalled. “That’s Uncle V! Alpha Valerian was the Uncle V I’ve been seeing in my dreams!”

“You think so?” Carter asked. He had snuck one of my chocolate bars from the tiny cabinet and his mouth was doused in brown goo as he chewed.

“That watch.” I said, pointing my pinky finger at the watch on Valerian's wrist. “Gabriel wears that watch.” I assured.

Carter nodded as he studied the picture. He offered the chocolate bar to me and I bit a piece off while scrolling to the next document

“Who’s the rest of these people though…? Must be Red River Pack members?” He thought leaning back into the headboard.

I stopped as I reached the death report of Waning Moon's mass slaying. Reading name by name, all of the pack members who had been cut down in, what I had remembered to be, a heartless and brutal slaying.

Memories slowly flooding back of people and kids I knew in my pack. It was small, my family had known just about everyone and everyone was considered friends or family to us. I could remember my parents having huge pack dinners and festivals in the giant courtyard around the house where everyone from the pack was allowed to join no matter their rank or status. My dad had even offered refuge to worthy rouges and packless members… but none of them had been spared from the m******e.

I saw my parents' names… My sister's name… my own name… tears welled as I read each one.

When I had too much I flipped back to the family photo. It was one I’d ever seen, and even though it had other packs members in it, and was likely from a meeting, I relished the idea of seeing my family full and happy like I’d never seen before. I don’t remember ever seeing my mom smile so happily, or seeing my dad so ecstatic. This was before Isabel had been taken, and I deduced, it must have been well before the issues began with other packs that eventually lead to our demise.

I scanned the photo once more and my eyes fell to the final family. I looked at the girl in the photo and tilted my head. Something about her orange curls and green eyes rang a bell somewhere in my head. Then I gasped and flipped quickly back to the death report and scrolled to the bottom. Carter had looked back over to the screen in question.

“Red River Territory Department of Health…” I recited as I read the letter head and then scrolled to the bottom to see the signatures. “Camilo Rodrigo Ramos… Red… River…” my voice trailed off.

“Wha-…” Carter began as I flipped back to the picture.

“Camilo Rodrigo Ramos…” I responded. I pointed to the man with three boys in front of him. “Alpha of Red River…” then I looked at the family beside him. “Beta Reynaldo… and…”

“And…” but he paused as he took a closer look at my finger, stopping at the girl in front of Betas Reynaldo and Antoinette. “Is that…”

“Melany…” I finished.

“She’s… wait…”

“And look here…” I flipped back to the death record, showing him the signature. “It’s Red River. Camilo Rodrigo Ramos. CRR… Not Full Moon… Alpha Valerians name is nowhere on any reports about the Waning Moon Slaying…”

“But if Full Moon isn’t in the records then…”

“Red River is who slayed my family…” I whispered in a choke, “Melany was… is… part of Red River… there’s no beta on record, but she’s the old Betas only child… which means… she’s close to Armin… the new Alpha…”

“Ari…” he paused.

“Red River… they… they did it… all of it…” I breathed, a sob latching to the back of my throat. “Alpha Valerian… saved me… he got me out of there…”

“Ari…” Carter said again, grabbing the laptop from me and then placing a hand on my shoulder, trying to get me to focus on him. “Hey, calm down…”

“Melany… was going to kill Alpha Gabriel and Valerian to get him out of power for Red River to take hold of the pack… Melany is missing… she’s going to try to complete the mission…” I looked into Carter's eyes. “We need to get to Gabriel… before Red River does…”