Chapter 3
The pack healer's voice cut through the morning air like a blade, each word landing with surgical precision among the assembled investigators. Dr. Sarah Chen had been examining the remains for over an hour, her enhanced senses cataloging details that human forensics would miss entirely.
"The victim was approximately twenty-five years old," she reported, her clinical tone barely masking the horror of her findings. "Female. The torture was... extensive. Prolonged. The explosive device was positioned to ensure maximum suffering before death."
I watched from my ethereal perch as every wolf present shifted uncomfortably. Even hardened security officers looked away from the debris field, their faces grim with the weight of what they were hearing.
Kade stood perfectly still, his expression carved from stone. His steel-gray eyes remained fixed on the healer, absorbing every detail with the same professional detachment he brought to every case. Nothing in his posture suggested this was anything more than another crime to solve.
"The blast pattern indicates the victim was conscious when the device detonated," Dr. Chen continued, her voice growing quieter. "She would have known what was happening. The wolfsbane concentration was specifically calculated to weaken her without causing immediate death."
A collective intake of breath rippled through the gathered wolves. This wasn't just murder—it was sadistic torture designed to maximize agony.
But Dr. Chen wasn't finished.
"There's something else," she said, her hands trembling slightly as she consulted her tablet. "Something that makes this infinitely worse."
The silence stretched taut as every person present waited for her next words. Even the distant city sounds seemed to fade, as if the world itself was holding its breath.
"The victim was pregnant," Dr. Chen announced, her voice barely above a whisper. "Approximately eight weeks along. This wasn't just murder—it was a double homicide."
The words hit me like a physical blow, even in my incorporeal state. My ghostly hands flew to my abdomen, staring down at the translucent form of my body in shock and disbelief.
Pregnant. I had been pregnant.
Two months. Eight weeks of carrying Kade's child, and I hadn't even known. The constant fatigue I'd attributed to stress, the nausea I'd blamed on anxiety about our deteriorating relationship, the emotional volatility that Kade had dismissed as my usual "dramatics"—it had all been signs of the life growing inside me.
Our child. The child that had died with me in that warehouse, never knowing its father's touch, never taking its first breath.
I wanted to scream, to rage, to tear apart the world that had stolen not just my life but the innocent life I'd carried. But no sound emerged from my spectral form, no tears could fall from eyes that no longer existed.
The crime scene erupted in controlled chaos as the implications sank in. Beta Marcus immediately began coordinating with the forensics team to expand their search parameters. Other security officers pulled out phones to alert pack leadership about the escalation.
But Kade... Kade simply nodded once, his expression unchanged.
"This changes our approach," he said, his voice carrying the authority of his Alpha training. "We're no longer looking at simple rogue violence. This was targeted, personal. Someone wanted this specific victim to suffer, and they wanted to destroy her completely."
He stepped closer to the crater, his eyes scanning the debris with renewed focus. "I want a full background check on every female in the territory who fits the victim's profile. Cross-reference with known rogue associates, recent pack disputes, anything that might indicate motive."
"Alpha," Marcus interjected carefully, "shouldn't we notify the families? Start checking for missing persons reports?"
Kade's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. "Of course. But I want to be personally involved in this investigation. A pregnant woman and her unborn child were murdered in our territory. That's not just a crime—it's a declaration of war."
I floated closer, desperate to see some flicker of recognition, some intuitive knowledge that might connect him to the truth. But as I watched him organize the investigation with cold efficiency, I realized the devastating reality.
He cared more about this anonymous victim than he had ever cared about me when I was alive.
The irony was so bitter it would have choked me if I still had a throat. Here was Kade, finally showing the protective instincts of a true Alpha, finally demonstrating the kind of fierce dedication I had dreamed of receiving. But it was for a stranger—for the shell of the woman he had never truly seen.
He was investigating his own mate's murder without even knowing it.
"Sir," Dr. Chen called out, "there's one more thing. The positioning of the restraints, the specific placement of the explosive device... whoever did this knew exactly how to maximize psychological trauma before death. This wasn't just about killing—it was about breaking someone completely."
Kade nodded grimly, pulling out his notebook to record additional details. His movements were sharp, purposeful, driven by a righteous anger I had never seen him direct toward my problems when I was alive.
"We'll find them," he promised, his voice carrying the weight of an Alpha's oath. "And when we do, they'll pay for every second of suffering they caused."
The words should have brought me comfort. Instead, they only deepened the ache of what could have been. If he had shown even a fraction of this concern when I was alive, if he had listened to my fears instead of dismissing them as paranoia...
But my thoughts were interrupted by the familiar buzz of Kade's phone.
Even from my ethereal vantage point, I could see the way his entire demeanor shifted the moment he glanced at the screen. The hard lines of his face softened, his shoulders relaxed, and that gentle curve appeared at the corner of his mouth—the expression he reserved for only one person.
Serena.
"I need to take this," he murmured to Marcus, already stepping away from the crime scene.
"Hey," Kade answered, his voice immediately warm with concern. "What's wrong? You sound upset."
Serena's voice drifted through the phone, sweet and fragile. "I'm sorry to bother you when you're working, but I can't stop thinking about you. What are you doing? I miss you already."
I watched in horrified fascination as Kade turned his back on the investigation—on the scene where a pregnant woman and her child had been brutally murdered—to give Serena his complete attention.
"I miss you too," he said softly. "I'm dealing with a case right now, but it's nothing I can't handle. Are you feeling better today?"
The case files lay forgotten on the hood of his SUV, the evidence of my torture and death reduced to mere paperwork while he cooed reassurances to the woman who had always come first in his heart.
Even in death, even carrying his child, I still came second to Serena's every whim.
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