The Survivor ( #2 Eastern Werewolves Pack Series)

He drove away while his left hand was searching for Zia’s photo in the inner pocket of the jacket. He knew Kaya might have seen the photo but he didn’t care much about that. As long as the photo was inside the jacket, that was all that matter. When he found it, he finally breathed with ease. Since he woke up from the nightmare a few hours ago, Jaxon couldn’t sleep at all. Not when the photo wasn’t in his hand’s reach.

After he found the photo, he reached for his phone and dialed Dalton’s number. There was something about the man inside Kaya’s house triggered Jaxon badly. It felt like he had seen that man before. But, he couldn’t pinpoint the exact memory. Even, his wolf was anxious in the back of his mind. His wolf usually laid back and didn’t intervene in his thoughts unless it was necessary. Sensing his wolf reacted this way to the man, Jaxon had to unearth the truth.

“Jaxon, how is your progress?” The Supreme Commander asked as soon as the call was answered.

“Nothing major. I want to make a quick request about something,” Jaxon answered as he made a left turn.

“I’m listening.”

“Is there any nearest investigation team in the town I’m at?”

Dalton went silent for a minute. Jaxon could hear the sound of papers flipped around.

“Yes, there are three investigation teams in the town. Jahan is leading Delta Team to investigate about a missing person.”

“How much do you trust Jahan with my mission?”

After Dalton was promoted as Supreme Commander, Jahan replaced him as the Commander of the 1st Battalion.

“With my life,” The Supreme Commander answered. “I’ve sent their address to you. What’s going on?”

“Find more about Dave Smith and Alaric Konstantine for me. Also, find where Smith was buried, his last contact before his death, colleagues, next kin and everything.”

“We’re on it. What’s triggered you so badly like this?”

“I think there are shapeshifters in the town. I’m not sure just yet but I’m going to find out.”

“Okay, I’ll call you back when I have all the information you requested.”

Jaxon hummed once and ended the call. He made a quick U-turn and drove to where Jahan and his team might be. An investigation team was always paired up with a small forensic team. The former Alpha needed the expertise of the forensic team for some reasons. Something about Kaya and the man with her were triggering Jaxon to the core. His wolf failed to recognize her as a human from the moment she served his foods back in the restaurant. That made Jaxon wondered. Could she be a shapeshifter too? He had seen the extent of a shapeshifter’s power. It was hard to tell if there was one. From what he learned from Mira, shapeshifter could copy the ability of the person they were imposing included their scent, accent, behavior, and anything.

He sent a short text to Winston to tell the later that he was heading to Jahan’s team. About fifteen minutes, Jaxon arrived at the address. It was a double-story house with four cars parked outside indicated the entire team was there. He knocked the door twice and spotted a camera was just about it.

“Jaxon...I mean, Alpha Jaxon...er…,” Jahan stuttered after he opened the door. “What are you doing here?”

“I need help from your forensic team,” The former Alpha replied. “And just address me as Jaxon.”

“Right. Sir Dalton told me that I would be expecting for your arrival. Come on in.”

Jaxon entered the house and saw the assault team was getting ready for something. Jahan led him to the basement where the forensic team had set up their equipment. The former Alpha placed his jacket on the desk.

“I need you to run fingerprints test on my jacket,” He told the chief of the forensic team.

“Give me ten minutes to get the result,” The chief replied and brought the jacket to another table to begin the test.

Jahan signaled the former Alpha to the vacant glass room in the basement.

“I was briefed about your mission,” the Commander of 1st Battalion said. “I also received a file of the people you requested on a background search.”

Jahan grabbed a file from the desk and passed it to him. In the file, there were four different photos of the same location. Jaxon remembered this location. It was where his informant was killed.

“The woman on the first photo was Bellatrix Leslie. Her body was found yesterday—washed up on the beach about twenty-five clicks from here. She was a gun for hire,” Jahan explained before pointed to another photo. “That guy is Emmett Balthazar. He’s a necromancer and shapeshifter.”“Very dark and powerful magic,” Jaxon said under his breath.

The Commander nodded. “Yes. He was involved in many grave robberies’ cases. Majority of those cases were involving the bodies of very powerful witches and warlocks. The Witches and warlocks’ Council is hunting for him as they fear he might using necromancy to reanimate the dead people and steal their magic.”

Stealing magic of the dead witches and warlocks to strengthen their own. That was something Jaxon could expect from the likes of Emmett Balthazar. Grave robberies were a common thing to happen in the Supernatural World. That was why many people hired witches or warlocks to cast a spell to protect the graves.

“And this one?” Jaxon showed the photo of a woman whose face wasn’t visible for Winston’s camera to capture.

“Unknown,” Jahan answered short. “Sir Dalton already assigned a team to keep looking for footages around the hotel.”

The knocks on the door halted the two men from discussing his mission. The Chief of the forensic team came in with a paper in his hand. He passed it to Jaxon.

“There are three different fingerprints on the jacket. Yours and two other people.” The chief pointed to the information on the paper. “The first one was Colin Nickerson. He’s a detective at the local precinct.”

“Second fingerprint?” Jaxon asked as there was no mention of the second fingerprint.

He knew Kaya touched his jacket because obviously, she needed to do that if she wanted to wash his jacket. Why the system was having difficulty in finding her information?

“I’m still running it deeper into the system.”

The fax machine beeped once before it faxed out several papers. Jahan dismissed the Chief as he reached for the papers.

“The first fingerprint belonged to Colin Nickerson?” The Commander asked as his eyes trained on the first paper he picked from the stack.

“Yeah.”

Jaxon stared at the paper and realized it was the same man with Kaya earlier. But, something unsettling washed over him.

“These papers came from Luna Mira. It says here Colin Nickerson went missing since last night.”

“But, I saw he was with Kaya at her home when I picked my jacket.”

The Chief ran back into the office once more. “Sir, you have to see this.”

Jahan and Jaxon rushed out of the office and followed the Chief to the computer.

“I found something odd regarding the second fingerprint when I ran it into the Council’s identification system.”

Jaxon read the alert notice on the screen of the computer. To access the information, it needed level 6 security access. That level of security access only available for the Supreme Commander, Luna Mira, and Alpha Cohen Kingsley. Information stored using the security access was always related to the werewolf’s royal family.

What did this mean? Why Kaya’s background search was locked inside a level 6 security system? Colin Nickerson went missing last night, but he was with her this morning.

“Jahan, dispatch your team to this location.” Jaxon scribbled Kaya’s home address on the paper before he rushed out.

He realized the meaning of why her background information was locked. She might be Rosalie Xavier because that the only thing that could explain why her information was tightly locked inside the system. And the man she was with earlier, that wasn’t Colin Nickerson. He was Emmett Balthazar.

They found her before Jaxon did.