“Was he able to give you the names and a description of the other men?”
“Again, no. But he was able to provide one for our vampire. We’ve put a reservation-wide alert out, so we’ll be contacted if anyone stumbles into him.”
If anyone stumbled into him, they’d be dead. I crossed my arms and said, “Tell me about Gabe.”
All trace of amusement disappeared. He picked up his coffee and drank it—taking the time to carefully choose his words and cut the possibility of emotion spilling over, I knew.
“Gabe was assigned to us three years ago,” he said eventually, “after the witch who’d been with the reservation for over fifty years decided to retire.”
“Replacing a long-term incumbent would have been no easy task.”
“Tarkan did indeed leave big shoes to fill. But Gabe was young, personable, and I don’t think he was disliked by anyone in the reservation—even me.”
“So what happened to change that?”
“It started when he and my youngest sister began dating—and, before you say it, I had no objections. Kate—Katie—might have been only nineteen, but she was well able to protect herself both physically and emotionally.”
Might have… two words that spoke volumes.
“She’d been ill for months that same year—constant colds or fevers, weight loss, bruising easily.” He hesitated. Grief ran through him, even if none of it reached his expression. “It took them a year to diagnose it as acute lymphocytic leukemia.”
Which was a form of cancer… and if ever there was a single word that had the power to strike fear in even the strongest person, it was that one.
“Isn’t that curable?”
“If it’s caught in time, yes. It wasn’t.”
I reached out and placed a hand on his. Despite the fact I had all my shields up, his grief stormed my senses and had tears stinging my eyes. “I’m sorry, Aiden.”
He shifted his hand, briefly gripping mine before releasing me.
“She began treatment immediately, but she just got sicker. We knew—” He paused and looked down at his hands. “When she approached my father wanting permission to marry Gabe, the pack made no objection, even though it went against tradition and rules.”
I blinked. I hadn’t been aware werewolves deliberately avoided anything more than a casual relationship with humans, but I guessed it did explain the very rare mention of half-breeds throughout the annals of history. And it was something both Belle and I had better keep in mind if either of us did start wanting something more than casual.
Not going to happen, Belle said. It’s all about the sex, remember. Hot, steamy, luscious sex.
Idiot. To Aiden, I added, “Did they get the chance to marry?”
“Yes. But that’s when the problems started.”
I frowned. “Marriage changed their relationship?”
“No. They were still besotted with each other. But Katie got sicker, and grew to hate all the drugs and the chemo and how they made her feel.”
“I believe that’s common—”
“Yes, but in this case, Gabe convinced her that he could do what science could not. She trusted him, ended her treatments, and died.”
His bitterness and anger was so strong it broke through the barriers of his self-control and filled his voice.
My fingers twitched with the need to reach out and comfort him again, but I resisted. The force of his emotions was bad enough as it was—touching him might blow a circuit.
“As heart-wrenching as that must have been,” I said, picking my words carefully, “it’s hardly a crime. So why is there still a warrant out for his arrest?”
“Because she didn’t just die. She was murdered. We found her body in the middle of a pentagram, a blade in her heart, and his fingerprints on the hilt.”
“But he couldn’t have—” I checked the rest of the sentence, but far too late.