“Hang on just a second, Cody.” He put the phone on mute. He looked at Kyra. “Would you mind giving us a minute?”
“Of course,” she said. She gave his hand one last squeeze and then wandered off into the woods.
He tried to keep his voice down. He didn’t want to scare Kyra before he had all the details. "Murdered? Who could murder Jesse? He was one of the toughest shifters I've ever known. I don't know how anyone could sneak up on him. Was it a dispute over a female?"
Over the years Jesse had made some very bad decisions. Derek made it a habit never to touch a woman who was mated. Whether she was human or wolf. If she had a significant other, then she was off limits. But Jesse had made no such promises. And he was frequently chased out of packs for that very reason, so the question had to be asked.
"I can't say for sure,” Cody said. “But I've got a few of our pack members who are well-versed in this kind of stuff.” He blew out a breath. "I think it was a vampire, just based on what I saw."
Vampire. “I didn't even know we had any that were living in Canada."
"Nor did I. I thought they were all congregated in the United Kingdom right now, but this one was here. And I don't know if it was acting alone or if there's a coven involved.”
“How sure are you?” Derek asked.
“One hundred percent.”
Fuck.
While Derek was thankful that his friend had not taken his own life, this presented a new problem. Why had a vampire gone after Jesse? His friend’s life had been cut short by another supernatural creature, which could lead to problems for his own pack.
Before he did anything with Jesse, he would have to talk to Roman and let him know what was going on. "I will come deal with this. But first I do have to talk to my Alpha and get him up to speed."
"Good, the more people we have involved in this the better,” Cody said. “I don't want anyone being caught off guard. It didn't look like Jesse even had the chance to fight back.” Cody coughed. “Not to be indelicate, but we did conduct a sort of crime scene analysis as best we could. One of our shifters has been a local police officer and he took photos, measurements, noted the time of death, that sort of thing."
"I appreciate that. We need all the information we can get."
He understood why his friend was being cautious. Some shifter packs were so old-fashioned that they would be furious if anyone touched a body in that way; they would feel like it was disrespectful, but Derek wasn't old-fashioned. It sucked to think about, but sometimes the humans had it right. They wanted answers and they would stop at nothing to get them. Derek felt the same way.
Cody said goodbye, and now that they were done talking, Derek felt his control slipping away. He reached out and grabbed a tree trunk, wrenching its roots from the ground.
He ripped several more trees from the ground, then began to tear the branches from them. He let out a roar, then realized it would feel better to shift and run as a wolf.
Kyra? Where was Kyra?
Mate.
No. She wasn’t his mate, no matter how much his wolf wanted her to be. But she was better off without him, at least at this moment. He had to get control of himself.
He had so much to do; he knew that. As Jesse’s closest friend, all of the arrangements would fall to him. The memorial, the explanations… everything. There was no one else to do it.
This is what will happen to you if you never settle down. He would be alone. Roman would have to take care of everything.
Kyra was back. He could smell her, like honeysuckle.
He was vaguely aware of her small hands on his arm. But it wasn't enough to break him out of the haze that had descended on his mind. It was like half of him knew this kind of behavior was out of control and the other half just did not care.
He let out another roar and then he leapt into the air.
He grabbed his clothes and ripped them off, changing into a wolf. Without a backward glance, he tore off into the woods. He ran as fast as he could, ignoring the underbrush. He ran through streams and jumped over logs and trampled a few flowers that were just beginning to try and bloom.
He thought he heard someone in his mind.
“Derek! Derek! Come back!”
Then there was an overwhelming feeling of sympathy. His body was flooded with concern. Whoever it was, she felt bad about Jesse's demise.
Jesse. Jesse was not supposed to be dead. He was supposed to be drunk or high, hiding out in a remote area with a bunch of unsavory shifters. That's what he was supposed to be doing and it was Derek's job to find him and drag him back. That's the way it worked. That’s the way it had always been.
Now Derek would never drag him back anywhere again. A bloodsucker had made sure of that. Jesse was the last person who had truly understood him. The last person who could relate to his way of life.
Now he was alone.