After I Died, My Mate Chose the Murderer

Elara POV

When Ryland mentioned me, the anger and disgust in his eyes were unmistakable. Before Beta Ethan could say anything else, Ryland had already turned on his heel and started towards the pack hospital.

Seventy-two hours might not seem like a challenge for Ryland, given his reputation as an Intelligent Alpha with enhanced senses and skills but as Ryland pieced together the clue, his frown deepened.

Both canine teeth were missing from the victim's mouth, and the remaining teeth had been filed down, making dental identification impossible. Ryland sighed deeply at the corpse.

“The victim was a she-wolf, probably between twenty-three and twenty-eight years old,” Ryland said, his voice filled with exhaustion. “There are multiple claw marks throughout the body, about one hundred and eight minor wounds. But what killed her were two severe blows directly to the heart.”

He paused…

Ryland's eyes flickered all over my body as he continued, "Of all the body parts collected, two canine teeth are missing. The remaining teeth have residual traces of wolfsbane, making identification difficult."

Beta Ethan frowned as the gravity of the situation dawned on him. “This is unbelievable, Ryland. How can anyone in the pack – anyone with our blood – be capable of such cruelty? I swear by the moon, I’ll hunt them down and bring them to justice myself.”

Ryland straightened; his face filled with exhaustion as he added. “It’s not just the killing, Beta, the method of killing is similar to ancient werewolf torture techniques. Based on the condition of the wounds, whoever did this act, did it while the victim was still conscious. It's equivalent to being skinned alive during a forced transformation to your wolf."

“What?” Beta Ethan’s eyes widened with shock.

“Yes!” Ryland sighed “Whoever did this wanted to delay our investigation, and they knew exactly how to do it.”

Upon hearing this, Beta Ethan immediately rushed out of the Pack Lab, ordering the pack warriors to intensify the search and not let any suspect escape. Such a dehumanizing method, coupled with the knowledge of how to delay the investigation, suggested that whoever had done it had likely committed this same act before.

Not just that, the perpetrator knew the territory, knew the pack’s routines and had taken their time to carry out the murder. It felt personal.

Ryland also remembered that this method of killing was similar to a case in Crescent Moon Pack twenty years ago, during the Great Pack War. Was it the same person? He wondered.

I watched from the corner of the room, my ghost body floating in the air as I remembered how I had died.

From the moment I was taken, my body had been chained in silver chains that burned my skin, restricting my wolf’s ability to heal me. Not just that, a silver-laced gag was stuffed in my mouth as they carved out my skin with a silver blade as if they were trying to make a sculpted figure of me.

It was a woman – yes, I remember that much. With each cut she would spray wolfsbane-infused water on it, making me cry out in agony.

To delay the investigations, she had submerged my hands in a smoking liquid laced with silver particles. The intense burning sensation caused me to faint. But she wasn't satisfied. She had someone splash me with ice-cold mountain spring water to wake me up and continue to torture me in different ways, but I still stared at her intently, refusing to give her the satisfaction of seeing me broken.

She had ordered someone to strike my chest with a silver-tipped hammer and had laughed with satisfaction – a sound that would haunt me even in death. Only when she saw I was no longer moving or breathing that she stop. She then placed me on a rolling operating table made of cold iron, further suppressing any lingering werewolf healing abilities.

I had been in so much pain… so much that my body finally gave up the ghost.

Back to the Pack Lab, Ryland suddenly frowned as he picked up my hand to examine it closely. His eyes flickered with something close to recognition as he lifted my lifeless hand. My heart skipped a beat. Did he recognize it? Did he know it was me?

On my eighteenth birthday, he had given me a moonstone bracelet. It had both of our initials engraved on it, along with tiny paw prints. He had put it on my wrist, a symbol of the bond we shared. He had placed it on my wrist with such care, such affection, back when things were different—before Selene returned to our lives and tore us apart.

But that bracelet was gone. Ripped away by the woman who had taken my life. She had sneered when she yanked it from my wrist, telling me I didn’t deserve it, that Ryland was never mine to begin with and I was unworthy of being part of the pack.

Now, all that was left were the deep, jagged, silver cuts on my wrists. There was no trace of the bracelet, no sign of the love that had once existed between Ryland and me.

With a thoughtful look on his face, Ryland left the pack Lab, heading to the pack’s archives. It didn’t take him long to find the file he was looking for.

He pulled out a worn folder, marked with a date from twenty years ago [The Crescent Pack Full Moon Massacre].

The similarities were too much to ignore. The method of torture, the missing canine teeth, the wolfsbane-laced wounds, the silver-induced injuries – The exact way it had happened twenty years ago.

The previous group of Rogues responsible for that murder were caught one month after the incident and in the process, our pack had lost two of its finest warriors – my parents.

My parents had both been respected members of the Crescent Moon pack and had sacrificed their lives to hunt down those rogues responsible for the murders. But by the time other warriors from the pack arrived on the scene. My parents were already lying in a pool of blood, their bodies covered in countless minor cuts and fatal wounds.

Just like me.

But would Ryland ever realize that? Would he ever piece together the truth, that the woman he was investigating was the very one he had pushed aside, the one he had cast away for someone else?

I doubted it.