Shattered Soul

Chapter 2: The Silent Wolf

Kade

I was trying to glance over the patrol reports that were quickly starting to cover my desk as Wade sat in the corner and continued to talk about nothing. I would glare at him every couple of minutes before giving up when he would just keep going. Why the hell did I invite him in here? I never get a damn thing done while he’s here and I really should be focusing with the Council crawling up my ass for answers. I focused harder on the reports, looking closely for signs of more missing women, clues to a possibly holding place, or the culprits, when Wade’s voice broke through my focus again.

“-she seriously didn’t think I would. So, I showed off some muscle and charmed my way into her bed-” I looked up.

“Wait, are you still talking about Lee?” Damn it. Now he’s never gonna shut up.

“Yup. She just can’t admit she loves me.” I shook my head. He and Lee were an off-again, on-again thing for months. She was a feisty she-wolf who was still on the edge of deciding if she wanted the flirty playboy as a mate or to reject him and move on. I knew she wouldn’t move on, and even though Wade was a flirt and a bit of a d**k teasing her about it, he was head over heels for her too.

“She’s gonna kick your ass again. When are you gonna learn?” Wade just chuckled.

“Once she agrees to marry me, we won’t have any more problems.” He added with a sly grin. His bright baby blues twinkled with mischief, the same kind that had gotten me, my brothers, him, and our two other friends, Ki and Rea into a lot of trouble as kids. His bronze hair hung in his eyes as he laughed.

“She’s never going to at this rate. You’ve pissed her off more times this month than you have hair on your head.” Wade frowned.

“Yeah, I know.” I glared at him.

“Now, if you’ve decided on not being a d**k, can you leave me alone? I gotta get through these damn reports or the council will chew my ass out again.” Wade frowned.

“Why do you take their s**t?” He muttered. I bit back a growl. I should have stayed on the topic of his s*x life. “You’re the Alpha for crying out loud. You tell them what to do. Hell, you’re the freaking Alpha of Flames. You could just roast them alive.” I rolled my eyes. God I hate that stupid nickname.

“You know that’s not the case anymore.” Wade lean back in his chair.

“f**k them Kade. You’re not Ro-” My eyes flashed up to Wade’s and I let my wolf show, allowing my eyes to glow gold with power. He knew never to say that name. Wade simply sighed. “The Varners shouldn’t be punished for something he did.”

“But it did happen, our pack was nearly destroyed, and an Alpha was murdered while another was executed. The council makes my life a living hell so that you and everyone else can stay alive.”

“Kade that-” I rolled my eyes and set my papers down.

“Seriously, just-” I was interrupted by the phone ringing and glanced at my cell. The number had me picking up the phone immediately as the pack doctor never called. The man was addicted to text messaging unless it was an emergency.

“Doc?” I asked as I placed the phone to my ear. Wade sat up straighter, forgetting our disagreement instantly, and listened closely.

“Kade, I need you at the hospital right away. We have something you should see.” He started. I looked at Wade. I knew he could easily hear the conversation, but I placed him on speaker anyway.

“What is it?” I demanded as I was already up and leaving the office. Wade was close on my heels.

“I just had a patient come in. She’s been severely beaten and is suffering from hypothermia. She refuses to tell us anything about her.” I paused on my way to the back door.

“Wait, what? Are you at the town hospital?” I asked for clarification. Doc was a brilliant Surgeon and worked full-time at the local hospital where both wolves and humans went, though he ran the pack’s personal hospital here for when injuries couldn’t be documented in human files. Usually, he wouldn’t call me for something as trifle as someone being admitted to St. Raphael’s General Hospital.

“Yes. Kade, this girl smells like a wolf but she’s not a Crescent Moon member.” I froze.

“Is she from the Cedar Ridge, Red Moon, or Glacial Falls pack?” I questioned, listing off nearby packs. Could she be one of the missing women? A few of the neighboring packs have reported recent kidnappings and sent pictures in hopes someone else might find them. My pack, being the largest and most powerful was in charge of security for this entire section of the country, another thing my late brother messed up. Now the more girls went missing, the more incompetent I look as Alpha.

“Is she one-” I began again before Doc cut me off.

“No. She doesn’t look anything like any of the photos. Her age is right though. She looks like she’s late teens but she’s malnourished with multiple broken bones and older healed ones too. Some of it looks to be years old, that’s the odd part. She smells like a wolf, but is healing like a human.”

“What could that mean?” I demanded as I grabbed my car keys and motioned for Wade to follow.

“Well, depending on how long she’s been going without the proper diet, she could actually be older. Being malnourished for years can start to affect everything in a person’s development. It could stunt your growth, keep your weight low, and make bones more brittle. That goes for us too.” I closed the door to the house and clicked the unlock for my car as Doc gave me a quick medical lesson. I quickly climbed inside after passing the multiple other ones in my drive from Wade’s, the house caretaker Virginia’s, and my siblings. The pack house was always full.

“So, she seems like she’s most likely a victim if she is part of the disappearances?” I slipped the key into the ignition as Wade was getting in.

“Possibly. She has a high level of-” The phone cut out as the Bluetooth connected to my car.

“s**t,” I muttered as I messed with the volume before I could hear Doc again.

“Doc, say that again. I just got in the car and missed that.” I told him as I pulled out of the drive and began heading deeper into the woods towards the town.

“I said her tests showed high levels of Silver Nitrate in her blood.” I frowned and looked over at Wade.

“So, she can’t shift?” He muttered. Silver wasn’t deadly to werewolves. At least, not until you reached extremely high dosages directly into the bloodstream. This causes metal toxicity and acute organ failure if not flushed from the system when most go into anaphylaxis. Lower levers were fine and we could even wear jewelry or be shot or stabbed with silver bullets and knives. The real problem with silver was its ability to suppress the animal inside us. It blocked the beast and prevented shifting. With high enough dosages, it even began to mute more such as slowing our healing, dulling our senses, and making us weaker like humans. Silver Nitrate was something we gave to prisoners to make them more manageable.

“No. And with how high the dosage is in her system; I’m surprised she isn’t dead. With levels this high, it should take out you, Alpha.” I frowned hearing this and Wade let out a long whistle. Alpha’s, once given power over their pack, are powerhouses of raw strength, and health, and some of the older families, like mine, had abilities that surpass even our kind. The Varner line was said to be blessed by the elementals to wield nature. Others like Alpha Mori, the only female Alpha in existence, has power over her body. She’s not restricted to staying as just a human or a wolf. I’ve heard rumors she can change her shape into terrible creatures said to be mere myths like Wendigos, Giants, and Dragons. Alpha Reyes, an old friend of mine, can make people see things, and his mate, a very old family line can alter matter. Change water to rock, or her own skin to diamonds. Not including our abilities, Alpha’s health is far better. Killing a werewolf is hard, but it’s rare for one not an Alpha to kill another Alpha. Silver in lethal doses for an average wolf, was nothing to us. To have that much silver in her blood was incredible. It would have to make her the child of an Alpha, but there were none reported missing for centuries. Not since the United Wolf Council made rules to stop the millennium-old warring that use to scour the land in blood and spilled into the human world. All those werewolf stories were due to this war, and it took a long time, with countless lives lost on both sides to return us to nothing more than fantasy.

“How is that possible? There are no missing Alphas or anyone in an Alpha’s direct family missing.”

“I know. I’ve been mulling that over. My best theory is she must have been injected with it for years. I actually took samples of her hair to test and see how long she’s been given it. I don’t think this girl has ever shifted before.” I glanced at Wade.

“Would it be possible to build that high of a tolerance?”

“Of course. We see the same issue on a smaller scale with long-term incarceration or even in humans with addictions to drugs like alcohol. Adults aren’t able to build a tolerance too high or quickly but if it were a child with no wolf I believe a tolerance would build fairly quickly with the same results. No way to test that obviously.” He said with complete confidence.

“Could a witch have helped?” Wade asked. There was a brief pause.

“Well, I’m no expert on witchcraft, but I don’t think so. Most of their potions have a time limit to them and aren’t a permanent thing. We should ask around though.” I gave Wade a glance and he started texting the right people.

“I hate dealing with f*****g witches.” He grumbled.

“It might not be Wade,” Doc called out, obviously hearing his muttering. “I’m still betting on a steady dose over the course of years.”

“If that’s true, this girl has been captive for a long time. Maybe not with whoever took those other girls, but somewhere.” Silver Nitrate. That would explain the ability to hold female wolves prisoner without issues and to be able to take multiple at once. We’ve had reports of three being taken at once, a tough struggle for even a group of male wolves and to top it off some of the females taken had mates that were killed to get to them. Getting to a mated female was a death sentence. Not even an Alpha would attempt to separate a pair of mated wolves.

“Start the transfer process to have her placed in the pack hospital. I’m on my way.”

“Yes, Alpha.” Doc said before hanging up. I noticed Wade glance at me from the corner of my eye.

“This doesn’t sound good.” He muttered. I shook my head.

“I agree.”

“A female wolf with high levels of silver in her blood and no name. Why is it I have a feeling she’s going to be the key to this entire missing person case.”

“I can’t see her not being a part of it. Kidnapping wolves isn’t exactly an easy thing to do. I figured it was a group of wolves or even maybe the vampires, or witches, but with Silver Nitrate, that all but confirms it.” Witches would simply use spells to contain a wolf. Far easier for them and no need to maintain a supply. The vampires might use silver but there was no scent of anything unusual at the kidnapping sights. Their scent is very distinct and the only way to hide the smell would be a witch's help. Witches were on just as good of terms with vampires as we are with both of them. I paused for a moment before having a thought.

“Call Ki. Tell him to get the guys together and to call the Doc and see if he knows where she was found. If she was one of their victims, she was running. We might be able to trace her footsteps to where she was held and if it’s done fast enough, we might catch their scent.” Wade had his phone out moments after I gave the order. It was an hour to town, so I slammed on the gas. This female, I had a good feeling, was the key to everything.

We made it in record time. Thirty-five minutes taking the tight turns through the woods at fun speeds. Wade and I always had found joy in racing our own times into town.

“That was slow.” Wade teased. I glared at him.

“Not rolling my brand new car Wade.” His eyes flashed gold at the reminder of his little stunt a few years ago. He had rolled his father’s new car and been grounded for almost six months our senior year. He still held the record though at a smooth twenty-six minutes.

“I’m still catching slack from my old man about that.”

“No one told you to hit a turn on a wet road going one-twenty.” I chuckled as I parked and exited my car.

“You’re just mad you didn’t do it first. I still broke the record.”

“And a Porsche.” Wade flinched at that.

“It was a nice car.” He muttered. I rolled my eyes at him as we walked into the hospital. I walked to the front desk and smiled at the secretary before turning and heading for the ICU. Wade followed, flashing the young woman a grin, and making her blush before following me to the elevators. Once inside I hit floor five and waited for the doors to open. When they opened, there was Doc, holding a clipboard and paging through the papers there.

“Kade. How nice of you to visit.” The middle-aged man looked at me with light brown eyes and dark hair with faint traces of grey. I smiled at the man, aware of our possible audience of human nurses. A few I recognized as wives and even a husband or two of pack members, but there were those here that knew nothing about us.

“I came as soon as I had heard,” I played along. Doc smiled.

“She’s asleep but frightened. Couldn’t seem to remember much but was able to drop a name after a little while.” He lied smoothly as he walked us back. Once we were more or less alone, he dropped the act.

“There’s nothing yet. She came in barely alive after being fished out of the river a few miles away. She was a wildcat tearing through not only the police but some of the staff. I had to dose her with more Silver to control her and then drug her up to sleep. She’s healing. Quickly for a human, but only minutely.” We stopped at a door as the Doc continued, his voice low enough that no human could hear even though at his time of night the hospital was almost empty.

“She suffered a pretty bad beating before her dip in the river. Concussion, cracked skull, broken ribs and fractured wrist, multiple bruises to her throat and abdomen and that’s all the fresh wounds. This girl was in a fight then some injuries look consistent with falls and being tossed around in the river.” I investigated the room but could only see the foot end of the bed with the curtain drawn.

“And she hasn’t said anything?” Doc shook his head.

“Before she was in a panic. We wouldn’t have gotten anything out of her earlier. When I came back to drug her again, she was awake and I tried to get information out of her. She refused to tell me her name or what had happened to her. She tried to fight again. Her things are over there. Some clothes, money, and food all in plastic to protect it from the rain.” I glanced back at Doc and raised an eyebrow.

“So, she was escaping.” Doc nodded.

“I believe so.”

“Did the police see this?” Doc grinned.

“I’m faster than them.” He said before gesturing us inside. “By the way, she’s Wade’s cousin. She looks a little like him other than the hair color so I figured that would be the best cover until she responds to us.” I nodded before heading inside. Pulling the curtain gently aside I looked in on the she-wolf.

The woman was beautiful though she has obviously been through hell. Her facial features were defined but almost too sharp with the hollowing in her cheeks and collarbones. Her right cheek was swollen with an ugly purple bruise that was slowly beginning to envelop her eye. Her body was thin, slightly too thin, but not lacking muscle in any way. Around her delicate neck were more bruises layered over one another. The darkest was a straight strip about two inches wide but there was another below that with long tendrils moving out and up toward her jaw. Fingers. My wolf murmured to me.

She was still asleep and the only sounds in the room was the steady pulse of the heart rate monitor and her soft breathing. Her long dark hair framed her face in soft waves around her. I glanced back at the Doc and raised an eyebrow at him as Wade stepped in the room behind me and whistled.

“She looked like she went through a meat grinder,” Wade muttered glancing at me. I nodded in agreement.

“No one has tried to claim her yet?” I asked Doc. He shook his head.

“Good. I want someone here with her at all times if Doc isn’t on duty. I’m going to stay here to start. Wade,” I tossed my keys at him, and he jumped as he struggled to catch them, nearly letting them fall to the floor. “Go get my laptop and a change of clothes. I’ll take first shift.” I walked over to an armchair to settle in for a long night when Doc protested.

“Kade, you should head back and tell one of the others to come. You’re needed at the ranch.” I looked at Doc.

“My pack knows what they should be doing. She’s our best link to those missing girls right now and as Alpha, she’s not leaving my sight.” I could tell by the look in Wade’s eye that he was about to protest. I growled and let the wolf show in my eyes. I was not budging on this. Something was telling me that this girl was somehow the key to this entire thing, and she was not leaving my side until I got answers.