Un.Requited (Claimed Series) (28 page)

Before Hayden could defend herself, Cole spoke up once again. “Hayden is very controlled around humans, almost surprisingly so. She’s been working here for two weeks and there has been not one incident.” He hardly seemed insulted at Adolf’s continued criticism. In fact, he seemed preoccupied with something else.

Shane nodded fiercely, looking extremely fascinated by the proceedings. Hayden couldn’t share his sentiments. She hated sitting by idly as they questioned her ability to stay in control. It had been a long road for her, she was proud of how she was coming along.

“Then why does she still have amber eyes?” Eric questioned from his table. His less than supportive query earned a reproachful look from Asher.

Hayden hardly acknowledged the sudden surveillance from the werewolves, as she was preoccupied with Eric’s inquiry. She
had
been right in assuming amber eyes were a sign of unruliness, of unrestraint. That explained why Blake had trouble focusing when the rogues had attacked, and why he still had trouble with humans from time to time.

“And yet, a human sits safely beside her.” Falco, the dark-skinned Alpha, mused reasonably.

“
A select few werewolves, who are in control, do possess amber eyes. If you had forgotten, my father had amber eyes his whole life,
” Cole informed as he studied Hayden intensely.

“And we all know how things turned out for Xavier Slayter,” Adolf commented snidely. A vindictive smile stretched across his lips when he sensed he’d hit a nerve with Cole.

Everyone quieted and the tension heightened. Cole slowly turned his head around to look at Adolf. It was a low blow for Adolf to mention Cole’s parents, especially his father, who had killed himself over his dead life mate.

Hayden knew very well that Cole was sensitive about Xavier, even going as far as to push others away so he wouldn’t end up like his father.

With a fluid stride forward, Cole pressed his palms into Adolf’s chest, not shoving, but keeping them in place as a warning. “
Never
talk about issues that don’t concern you,” Cole warned icily. His scowl turned fiercer when Adolf only smiled thinly in response.

Blake stiffened next to Hayden, ready to intervene if things got out of hand. Unexpectedly, Falco beat him to it.

“Boys.”
Falco chuckled as he stepped between the two Alphas. “You’re just looking for the smallest excuse to pick a fight with our young Alpha, aren’t you, Adolf?” Falco patted Adolf’s chest. “Go sit down, both of you. We’re wasting time discussing issues that should stay buried.”

Clearing his throat, Eric defused the situation. He seemed to be the most logical Alpha out of the bunch, assessing the situation without any partiality. “If Hayden had no hand in the murder, then how do you explain the scentless alley? The only ones we smelt before arriving were Hayden and the body, no one else.”

Joseph seemed to straighten at the question. “Unless someone came up with a solution to mask their scent,” he suggested with a thoughtful look about him. Purposely, he ignored the doubtful stares he was receiving from the other inhabitants inside the bowling alley.

“Joseph could be right,” Blake supported. “I heard rumors that Nicolas was dabbling in science and chemicals. He’s trying to improve his rogues’ abilities. He knows he needs an advantage over us, so he’s using technology to accomplish it.”

Cole tipped back his head and laughed coldly. A few people flinched away at the bitter tone, Hayden included. “Experimenting with science? Nicolas has no idea where to begin when it comes to creating solutions.”

Hayden scrunched her eyebrows up as she tried to picture Nicolas surrounded by different chemicals and chemistry equipment. It didn’t conjure itself.

“Maybe not Nicolas personally,” Hayden commented softly. “But you never know what intelligent human he could have turned into a werewolf. Not all rogues are idiots.” She thought the theory sounded reasonable, but one look around at the other werewolves hinted that they thought it was too implausible to consider.

Obviously, they’d rather believe Hayden was the number one suspect, as opposed to supporting the idea of improbable science experiments. 

Eric’s brown eyes grew hooded. “Do we know the identity of the human killed?”

“Robert Warden.”

Heads turned in the general direction of the unfamiliar voice. Hayden glanced at the newcomer, grinning lightly at his confident swagger. The man had a big belly that hung over the waistband of his jeans and a scruffy, greying beard spread wildly across his aging face. She knew his identity; after all, he did own the bowling alley she worked at.

“Red Donovan,” Falco sneered, his eyes narrowing on the middle-aged man. “It’s always a pleasant surprise to see you up and about.” Anyone would be thick to miss the sarcasm in his tone.

Hayden didn’t share Falco’s opinion of the human. In truth, she thought Red Donovan was an exceptionally decent man. He mirrored his grandson in personality quite a bit, though he tended to favor the grumpy-side to Shane’s exuberant energy.

Shane was positively smitten with his grandfather, his adoration of Red overriding his interest in werewolves. The boy always spoke highly of Red in an idolized kind-of-way. Even now, the human next to her was at the edge of his seat, watching in unabashed pride as his grandfather approached the werewolves.

“Robert Warden was killed,” Red repeated brusquely. He hadn’t even given Falco the satisfaction of reacting to the Alpha’s sarcastic remark. “I think one of the Alphas here knows a few things about Mr. Warden.”

Silence, until Falco began chuckling in delight. A few eyebrows climbed at the Alpha’s connections to the dead human. “Yes,” Falco started, “I knew the human. But I don’t see what it has to do with the murder.” Falco tilted his head, his blue eyes searching. “Unless, of course, you think I was the one to kill him?”

“You tell me.” Red grunted as he limped through the parlor and into the middle of the gathered werewolves. He never showed any uncertainty as he fearlessly stood up to Falco. “After all, he was the one who bought out your diner a few days ago.”

Hayden’s eyebrows skyrocketed after hearing that bit of information. Clearly, Red Donovan was insinuating that Falco had killed Robert Warden.
But
that couldn’t be the case. Alpha’s had tight control over their wolves. Falco wouldn’t steep so low as to attack a human. He would go about it in a more cunning way.

Like making it look like you, a newborn, did it?
Hayden grimaced at the thought.

The dark-skinned Alpha frowned at Red, suddenly losing his sardonic front. “You’re stepping over the line, Red. You may know of our secrets, and you may have the
slightest
ability to ward away other Hunters from our town, but by no means can you waltz in here and accuse one of us of killing humans.”

Red hardly looked abashed. He flashed a smile full of teeth. “I can point fingers all I want if it happens at my bowling alley.” His aged, but sharp eyes landed on Hayden. “And I can certainly vouch for this young woman here. From what I’ve seen, she doesn’t make a habit of taking her lunch breaks outside in the alleyway.”

“Then we still haven’t gotten anywhere.” Asher quickly interjected before Falco could intervene with any more insults. “Falco and Hayden aside, who had the motive to kill Robert Warden? And how did the murderer get away without leaving a trail?”

No one had an answer for that, and even Hayden’s imagination fell silent. She knew she didn’t have anything to do with Robert Warden’s death, and yet, she failed to come up who could have done it and why.

Moreover, her more pressing question was if she had actually seen Nicolas. Somehow, it was frightening to imagine the rogue Alpha having the ability to sneak around town without triggering any sort of warning alarms with the other Alphas.

“Should we take cover, Cole?” Eric was the one to ask for Cole
’s input
. “Or do we continue on as we have, keeping an extra eye out?”

Blake suddenly roused from his silence, anger evident on his face. “I told you we should have been wary after the rogue attack, Cole. This wouldn’t have happened if you’d listened to me. Nicolas has invaded our town and there is no way around it.”

Cole slowly turned and drilled Blake into submission with a single stare. “We will talk about this later,” Cole promised softly, his dark eyes dancing precariously. “For the meantime, we’ll take shifts throughout the week. A separate pack is assigned guard duty each week and we will rotate accordingly. We’ll search the town for any signs of rogues.”

“And the humans?
Or for that matter, should we allow our pack members out by themselves?” Falco questioned. “We wouldn’t want any lone wanderers around town being accused of murder.” A few scoffs accompanied his cynical remark.

Cole turned in Hayden’s general direction. “Members should go out in pairs, especially the unmated females and the pups. And
you
will not be continuing your job.” He clearly addressed the last part to Hayden.

As much as she wanted to continue working with Shane, and having a piece of independence for herself, she reluctantly understood where Cole was coming from. She wouldn’t argue,
not when Blake had already disrespected
Cole in public, and especially not when Hayden wanted to be accused of another murder.

Red grunted, pushing off from the railing. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to lock down now.”

Throwing Red a few looks of contempt, the werewolves slowly began to make an effort of leaving. Oblivious to Cole’s close observation, Hayden and Asher made eye contact just briefly, a silent agreement passing between them.

They would still meet by the territory line when Cole was at work.
Quite frankly
, Hayden couldn’t imagine
not
meeting with Asher. They always got along so well and she relied on him for making light of various situations.

Asher nodded, standing up casually and following his father out the door. Unexpectedly, Devan jumped up from her seat and hurriedly made her way after Joseph. For a moment, Hayden was surprised, having temporarily forgotten about Devan’s presence.

Hayden then remembered a certain human sitting next to her. Smiling, she poked him in his ribs, admiring the boy’s disenchanted expression.

“This isn’t the last time you’ll see me.” They hardly lived far from one another, and knowing Shane, he was confident enough to cross Cole’s borders to see her. “Thanks for letting me work here.”

It had been extremely short-lived, but she had enjoyed every minute of it.

The human grinned as he stood from the bench. Near the concession stand, his grandfather called his name, but he easily ignored him. “Your spot is always open here.” He glanced cautiously at Cole before quickly looking back at Hayden. “And you can always stop by the house if you feel up to it.” His unspoken message was clear. He meant to say if
Cole
allowed her to stop by the house.

“
Shane
,” Red stressed with a growl-like undertone.

Hayden hardly had time process Shane’s last words before Cole took her by the back of her neck and steered her toward the exit. One look at him triggered a few warning bells in her mind. His face was pinched and there was an undercurrent of suppressed anger in his coiled muscles.

Craning her neck around Cole’s restricting hand, Hayden looked behind her at Blake, mystified at the Alpha’s current mood. The beta only shrugged, just as clueless as Hayden was. 

“We had fun, Devan. But I can’t keep sneaking around on my father.” In the parking lot, they stumbled upon Joseph gently caressing Devan’s face. “I’m mated to a member of my own pack now. You should accept Nathan as well.”

He’d said it quiet enough, but not as quietly as he should have. Hayden heard him well enough, and if she did, Cole and Blake would have overheard just as well.

The words were self-explanatory, everyone would immediately know about the secret Devan had been trying to keep quiet. Briefly, Hayden wondered if Joseph had intentionally said those things because he knew Cole would overhear. He seemed like the type of sadistic bastard who would deliberately get Devan into trouble now that he was done with her.

Joseph looked up, doing his best to appear startled at their presence. Hayden was unimpressed at his poor acting skills and adopted a look of loathing.

She suddenly felt a rush of protectiveness for Devan, a member of her pack. If it came down to it, Hayden would do anything in her power to defend the members of her pack, and that included protecting them from their loved ones. She relayed as much through her gaze as she caught Joseph’s eyes.

The dark-skinned beta covered his reaction to her raw animosity well enough. His lips thinned as he appraised her before offering Cole a curt nod. He didn’t stay behind for any explanations or apologizes, he just turned his heel and left. 

Cole released Hayden’s neck and continued walking to his car, his face carved from stone. He bypassed a distressed Devan, not even flinching as she sniffed pathetically. The events from tonight would surely cause Cole to snap eventually. Not only was he uptight about the murder, Adolf’s snide comments, and Blake’s disrespect, but he was also holding in his reaction after discovering Devan’s betrayal to the pack.