Derek
Kyra spent the night at her apartment. And he missed her presence nonstop.
He had not realized how much he had come to rely on her. But they had been spending quite a bit of time together. He'd never spent this much time with one female, never in his whole life.
They had been together while searching for Jesse, then together on the trip to the Caribbean and then in Chicago. When they'd arrived back home to the pack, she'd stayed with him, getting to know the rest of the members. Then finally she said she needed to go back home. He understood, even though he didn't want her to go. He'd offered to go with her, but she had refused. He figured she needed a little privacy and he respected that. He tried not to call her or text her nonstop while she was gone, but he was tempted.
Roman ribbed him the entire time. "When are you just going to admit that she's your mate?"
"Like you did such a good job of that,” Derek said.
Roman scowled. His relationship with his mate had the rockiest start of any of theirs. He nearly screwed up his chances for good with Everleigh. But thanks to their daughter, they had worked it out eventually. However, it took five long years.
After two days of being gone, Kyra came back to the pack. He was thrilled to see her, but she was acting oddly. "Is everything okay?" he asked.
She looked him in the eye, but it seemed like she was forcing herself. "Yes. It's great.”
He left it alone; he knew better than to push someone when they weren't ready to talk.
“Would you like to go out on a hunt with me?” he asked.
She nodded eagerly and for the first time that day, he saw some actual enthusiasm on her face. They shifted and ran to the woods, hunting rabbits and squirrels. The sun had warmed all of the rocks, and the snow from the mountains was beginning to melt and run in rivulets down toward the streams. They even stopped in a stream and caught a few fish.
All he could feel from her was contentment. And underneath, maybe a little bit of anxiety. Was she nervous about joining the pack? Had he come on too strong? He decided he would lay off. Just as they were wrapping up, his phone rang. He quickly shifted into his human form and grabbed it from his jeans pocket.
As soon as he'd said hello, he knew there was a problem. It was Cody from the neighboring pack. They were in Canada, but he still kept in contact. It had been hundreds of years since wolf shifters had needed an army to protect themselves. But after the losses back then, they had learned their lesson and they kept informal alliances with their nearby neighbors. A second in command, Derek had been happy to visit all of the neighboring packs and get to know them. Canada was much like Alaska, but it was still nice to meet new people.
Cody was a little more serious than Derek was, but he was still a goofy, fun-loving guy. And Derek just knew from the tone of his voice the news was going to be bad. Devastating even. Cody hesitated. "I heard you were looking for Jesse.”
"Have you found him?" Derek patted his pocket, checking for his wallet. He would leave immediately to go get his friend. If Jesse was struggling with something, then Derek wasn't going to leave him to deal with it with another pack.
Cody hesitated once again. "We did find him. Derek. I hate to have to tell you this over the phone, but there's really no way to avoid it.”
Derek's heart sank. Over the last few days, he’d never let himself fear the worst. But clearly that had been naïve. "Just tell me."
"Are you alone? I would say I’d wish you weren’t alone right now."
"I'm not alone.”
Immediately, Kyra’s small hand clamped down on his, squeezing hard. He took a deep breath. "Just tell me. I can't stand waiting. I need to know what happened."
"We found him just a little while ago. He's… Derek, he's dead."
Derek leaned against the tree and closed his eyes. There was no rush now. Yes, he would go retrieve his friend's body, but it didn't have to be in the next five seconds.
He would take the time to get Kyra back to the pack or to her house, and then he’d go talk to Roman as well. But he would handle this himself.
"Did he take his own life?" Just getting the words out were difficult. He squeezed his eyes shut, anticipating the answer. He hated to think about what Jesse must've been going through to get to that point. But it was the only explanation. Wolf shifters just didn't die in most accidents. And he hadn't heard of any forest fires.
It could have been a fiery car crash but that was a stretch. A silver bullet could end their life if it was in exactly the right spot. But again, that was a rarity unless it was self-inflicted. Very few people even had silver bullets, because very few people knew that they might need them.
"Derek. He didn't take his own life,” Cody said. “I can promise you that.”
“What the hell happened?”
“He was murdered."
He needed the details, no matter how unpleasant, but he didn’t want Kyra to have to hear them.