I sat up slowly and looked around. But I couldn’t see it. I crawled between the seats to make sure the beast was really gone and pressed my nose to the rear window. It was like it’d never been there in the first place. If the road in front of the car hadn’t been destroyed, I would’ve thought I’d been hallucinating.

Fucking teleporting fey.

The wolves started a song of grief as I put the car in gear. They kept pace with the car as I closed the distance to Donovan.

After another minute, I turned the corner and started passing rows of flats. Shops were sprinkled in with the buildings until I hit the main street. Groceries, restaurants, and little mom-and-pop stores lined the street on either side.

Donovan was still in wolf form, standing in the middle of a roundabout in the center of town. A large statue of a human man towered over him, and beside him was a dark blob. I wasn’t sure what it was until I got a little closer and my heart sank.

If I hadn’t seen John’s room, I wouldn’t know what I was looking at. But I did.

The fey creature had found its second victim.

I parked in front of a Tesco and slowly made my way to Donovan. I was already too late. Rushing didn’t matter anymore.

The wolves ignored me as I wove through them. The entire pack gathered around the roundabout, singing the mourning song. Pack magic tingled along my skin, urging me to shift and join them in their song, but I wasn’t a member of their pack so I could ignore the pull. Someone needed to be in human form and properly dressed if any actual humans showed up. Even if the noise of the murder hadn’t woken anyone, the call would. Why this hadn’t occurred to them baffled me.

The wolves continued howling as I made my way to Donovan. Blood was dripping down his hind leg, but other than that, he seemed okay. He was much better off than what was left of the person beside him. A severed head was the only recognizable part. I swallowed, trying to not think about the life that had been taken, but the face… He was younger than me. Maybe fourteen.

“Who would do this?” I said to no one.

Two wolves approached the remains. One made a keening sound that ripped my heart in two. She lay down beside what was left of the boy, her body shuddering with grief.

The other wolf snarled viciously at Donovan. He leaped at my mate, but Donovan put up a wall of power. The wolf hit it as if it were a physical thing and fell back, but that didn’t stop him from snarling.

An angry father. I got it. But this wasn’t Donovan’s fault.