22 | Tension

I followed beside Alec as we made our way around to the back of the gym. It felt completely natural to be walking next to him in silence, his presence was almost calming. The only thing that seemed to be bothering me was the fact that we were close enough to touch but neither of us bridged the gap between our bodies. Every so often the back of hands would brush against one another, eliciting a warm current up my arm. It agitated me enough to the point that I tucked my hands into my pockets.

"So, this guy, was he close with Maggie?"

The muscle in his jaw ticked, "You could say that..." his choice of words were interesting.

I turned my face toward him, gaze suspicious, "What does that mean?"

Alec gave me a side glace, blue eyes filled with a pained glaze. Regret washing over his body language before he shrugged it off, "They dated for a bit..." It felt like there was more to it than that but he wasn't going to share and I wasn't going to push him on it.

As we rounded the back of the gym I spotted a group of boys huddled together dressed in black. They looked like the people I had used to go out of my way to avoid before my father died. Now, I was certain they would have welcomed me with open arms. Misery loved company, and broken people flocked together. There was no need to explain and no one asked, you simply got to exist as the damaged goods that you were.

"Hey Corey..." Alec greeted.

I didn't know which one of the boys was Corey until the brunette with the cigarette pressed to his lips grimaced. He turned his face and blew smoke in our direction, "What do you want, Vanderville? Didn't know you we allowed to go places without your other half." I knew he must have been referring to Avery and I could also tell he didn't seem overly enthused to have Alec anywhere in his vicinity. I wondered what kind of relationship the two of them had, perhaps that was why he had been hesitant to talk to him.

"Just wanted to talk for a bit."

Corey narrowed his eyes as he took another drag from his cigarette, "I'm not really in the talking mood."

"It's about Maggie, and the night that she died..." He pressed on without much tact.

An uneasy stillness followed, the other boys looking between Corey and us. They waited patiently for a sign from their friend on how to react. Finally, he gave a nod of his head and they walked away, giving us accusatory glances as they went.

I watched Corey as he turned toward us, there was a haunted look in his eyes barely masked by the cold expression on his face. I recognized the emotion because it was one that I had seen staring back at me in my own reflection for months. It was the look of defeat. It was the look of someone who had lost faith that there was any goodness left in the world. It was the look of someone standing on the edge of the abyss, ready to jump into oblivion.

"What's with the sudden interest?"

"I'm sure you heard about Gunther's death..." I stiffened at the mention of the man in the words. Alec's gaze shifted to me for a moment, looking apologetic.

"Sure. I heard about it..." Corey took another drag from his cigarette, "What's that got to do with Maggie?"

"We think that their deaths might be related somehow..." I jumped in, "Maybe there was some detail about that night that could connect their deaths."

"Who are you?" He questioned after a moment of looking me over. He leaned forward and sniffed in my direction and I noticed the way Alec tensed up next to me at the action. I had learned from Callum that it was customary behavior for people like us. You could learn a lot about a person by smell alone. I didn't take offense to the action, though I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up in awareness as the creature beneath my skin stirred.

Corey leaned back into the wall, "You don't smell like pack."

"That's because I'm not..." I replied, shifting between my feet. I knew a little bit about the pack dynamic from my time with Callum but I didn't know that they had a group smell. Corey looked to Alec with skeptical expression. He obviously didn't trust my presence, not that I had expected him to.

Alec cleared his throat, "Mary-Beth is cool." And by the word cool I knew he was implying that it was safe to have this conversation in front of me.

"Does your dad approve of you hanging out with a packless wolf?" I could hear the mocking tone of the question. It was clear that Corey was no fan of the Vanderville's. I was beginning to think that perhaps that was a rising trend around Twin Peaks.

"I'm not packless. Callum Wolfe is my alpha..."

Corey snorted at my comment, "Even better..." I turned my gaze toward Alec in confusion at the response, watching the way his jaw ticked as he ground his teeth together. Corey grinned at the fact that he had gotten the reaction he'd clearly been aiming for, dropping his cigarette and stomping it under his booted foot, "I wonder what he would do if he found out you're hanging out with Cal's wolf?"

Alec reacted quickly, a growl pulling from his chest as he surged forward. He fisted the material of Corey's jacket in his fists as he pushed him back into the wall with startling force. Corey coughed out a pained laugh at the impact, "Calm down, Vanderville. I'm not a rat...I'm not like you." His words sounded bitter as he spat them out.

They only seemed to enrage Alec more, slamming Corey into the wall a second time--harder than the first, "I was trying to protect the both of you. Maggie was human, man. She was too close to the pack. You know the rules. If she had found out the truth..."

"Protection from the truth? Yeah, a lot of fucking good that did. She's dead. So, I guess the truth doesn't really matter anymore, does it?" He interrupted, leaning forward, "Plus, isn't it a little hypocritical of you to be talking about rules when you're breaking..."

Alec snarled cutting off whatever Corey was going to say, eyes blazing a brilliant amber color. It looked like he was on verge of losing control of himself. I grabbed hold of his arm, "Let him go, Alec."  I urged in a firm but gentle tone. A heavy silence hung in the air, the two of them staring off. Slowly, Alec released his grip on Corey, taking a step back. It was the first time that I had seen him act in a way that was aggressive. I kept my hold on his arm, in case he got the urge to attack again.

His blue eyes met mine, gleaming with a silent rage, "I won't touch him anymore, just ask him your questions so we can get the hell out of here." I released my grip on his arm, frowning. I wanted to ask him why there was so much animosity between the two of them. Why was it a big deal if Corey and Maggie had been close? Was their closeness the reason she had ended up dead? And why did it matter if Alec and I hung out? I was supposed to be getting answers not more questions.

I slowly turned my attention back to Corey, who was smoothing out the wrinkles in his jacket, "Sorry about that....Are you alright?"

"Just peachy."  He sneered as he met my gaze.

I pressed my lips together, "Don't you want to catch the person who hurt Maggie?"

He spat down at my feet, "They already did, and they let him go." Which had Alec letting out an inhuman growl. I put my arm out as I felt him shift forward. I knew he was talking about Cal. I narrowed my eyes at the remark. Callum wasn't a murderer. I knew that in my gut.

"Callum Wolfe didn't hurt Maggie."

Malice dripped from his dark eyes as he stared me down, "Is that what he told you?" He let out a deep laugh, a laugh that chilled my blood, "Did he forget to tell you the story about his family? How their all a bunch of psychopaths..."

"Corey." Alec growled his name, interrupting whatever he had been about to say.

He rolled his eyes, but said nothing more about Callum, "What do you want to know? I already told my side of the story to the cops..."

I nodded my head, "Just humor us, okay?"

"Whatever."

I proceeded with my first question, "What was she doing out in the woods?"

"There were a bunch of us partying out there..."

"No, I meant why was she out in the woods alone? She may have come to the party with you, but she left it alone. Why?" I tilted my head, watching him intently. I noticed the slight shift of his foot, and the way his fingers curled into a tight fist at his side. I pressed on, knowing I was heading in the right direction with my question, "You two were together, right? Even though that wasn't allowed--because she was a human and you aren't."

The muscle in his jaw ticked, "Maggie saw someone else kissing me. She got angry. I tried to talked to her, but she didn't want to listen. We fought for a minute before she wandered off into the woods. That was the last time I saw her."

"And you didn't go after her?" This seemed odd to me, "Even, though you knew how dangerous it actually was for her to be out in the woods alone?"

"I was drunk, and I knew she was headed home. I planned to talk to her in the morning, smooth everything over. I didn't think anything would happen. She had taken that short cut a thousand times before."

"Did a lot of people know about the short cut?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know. I knew about it, some of her friends, anyone else that lived by her."

"How do we know you weren't the one who killed her?" I blurted out.

That seemed to be the wrong question to ask because he growled and lunged towards me with a look of hatred in his eyes. Alec moved quickly, getting between the two of us. He swung his fist, knocking Corey in the jaw and back into the wall. Neither one of them moved after that, the only sound was heavy breathing. Slowly, Corey lifted his face, blood dripping from a busted lips and hot tears streaming down his face, "I loved Maggie. I would never hurt her."

I knew he wasn't the killer, but maybe someone else at the party was. A theory of what might have happened was beginning to form in my mind. A dark theory, one that had to do with the possibility that Maggie may have known Corey's secret. The secret that Alec had wanted to keep her from finding out. A dangerous secret that may have gotten her killed.

"One last question..." I stepped out from behind Alec, "Who did she catch you kissing that night?"

He glanced toward Alec before meeting my gaze, "Avery Vanderville."