Axel took his spot on one of the back chairs. Levi hesitated a bit before sitting beside the tall, burly man, but he slouched down with a heavy sigh.
“Okay, Levi. Start at the top,” Zane asked, trying to keep his voice calm and steady.
“I… My dad,” the kid closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “My family is part of a group of people who want to remove all the witches from Salem.”
Axel’s eyes shot to Zane, but it was the only outward sign that the two wolves were concerned about Levi’s words. If the teen had looked at either man, he would have seen stoic faces.
“It’s this whole thing,” Levi continued, “my uncles and a few other men in the town think the descendants of the Salem witches are poisoning the town. They want to kill off all of the people who have the same last name as the people who were hung in 1692. They think that to properly cleanse the town, they have to kill them in the same order as they were executed.”
“So, your dad and his buddies want to go out and kill the Bishop women in the town?” Zane asked, keeping his tone calm and leveled. He was even surprised he remembered enough history to recall who had been the first woman to die during the trials that had plagued the town.
“Yeah,” Levi confirmed. “There aren’t many. Just a few chicks. But my dad wants to kill them today. And he’s expecting me to do my share. It’s nuts. Witches aren’t real. I tried to…” Levi stopped himself, and he looked down to his wringing hands. “I tried to convince them they were just crazy, but that didn’t go over too well.”
“So when is this attack happening?” Zane pressed.
“Sometime this morning. I guess as soon as I get back to my dad’s place. He doesn’t know I snuck out, and I don’t know how I’m going to explain this when I slink back into the house.”
“Oh, you’re not going anywhere,” Zane said. “How old are you, Levi?”
“I’m seventeen,” the kid answered.
“Right. So you’re a minor. In good conscience, I can’t let you go out there when your dad might decide to do something dangerous. I’ll set you up in one of the interrogation rooms with Officer Betty Armstrong. You can tell her everything you feel comfortable. We’ll make sure your pops doesn’t do anything rash.”
“I don’t want him arrested, but…” Levi was clearly torn about the hard choice he had made.
Zane could only admire the kid for being so strong, for having such a good moral compass.
“You said your father and the others were targeting a specific family. The Bishop women, is that right?”
“Yeah. There’s only four of them left in town, and they’re youngish. Like, they could be moms, maybe.” Levi shivered as he spoke those last words, making Zane feel for the kid.
It couldn’t have been easy for Levi to come here and explain all of this to the authorities. It was the right thing to do, of course.
“How do you know there are only a few Bishops left in Salem?” Axel asked. He stole the question out of Zane’s mouth.
“The basement at the house kind of became a war room. There’s a list of all the people who are descendants from the Salem witches. They’re all the targets that the Order of Salem wants to take out.”
“Say that name again,” Axel demanded, using his alpha tone on the poor trembling kid.
“The Order of Salem,” Levi repeated.
Zane and Axel exchanged a wary look. It sounded vaguely familiar to Zane, but judging by the frown on Axel’s face, the pack alpha knew something. As leader of the wolves, Axel knew a lot more of Salem’s history, especially everything that was linked to the supernatural.
“This is at your house?” Zane watched the kid nod and passed him a notepad and a pen. “Can you jot down your address, bud? And a list of all the people who are in the Order of Salem, if you can remember any.”
The teen’s hands trembled as he wrote down his home address. Tears began to line his eyes. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” he sniffled.
“You’re doing the right thing,” Zane assured him. “The right thing isn’t always easy, but it’s worth it. We’ll look into this. It could be that your dad is just going to try and scare them away. Chase them out of town.”
Levi shook his head. “He has a bunch of guns. He means business. They all do.”
“That’s all right. That’s why my officers are here. To serve and protect. Now, let’s get you to give all of the information you can while we track down the Bishop women to keep them safe.”
As both a wolf and a sheriff, defending his town and its inhabitants was all that mattered to Zane.
Chapter Three
Zane
As Zane led a shaken Levi to one of the small interrogation rooms, he tried to help the kid stay calm. It wasn’t easy. Levi was having all sorts of emotions, most of which played out on his young, pale face. To help with the shock, Zane gave him a bottle of water.
“You need to drink this, okay?” Zane said. “It’ll help settle your nerves. Agent Armstrong will be with you in a couple of minutes. Hang tight, bud.”
With Axel on his heels, Zane went into the reception area to give Betty a brief rundown of what was happening.
“You stay here and get as much information as you can out of him. He’s a minor, so don’t go in there without one of the social workers. Call them and let them know the situation. They’ll put a rush on it. We’ll go to the kid’s place. I want to make sure this has no ties to any pack enemies before I proceed strictly with mortal, human law. If anything happens here, let me know.”
Zane pulled another of his officers, tasking him with running Levi’s father through the system, as well as the list of names Levi had given him.
With as many things taken care of at the station as possible, Zane knew he had to make his way to the Griggs house to intercept the attack. He hopped into his sheriff’s truck while Axel took his own vehicle. It was always better to have two cars in case things went sideways fast, especially when supernatural things were at play.
Levi couldn’t possibly know witches were real.
They were, though Zane had never had any real run-ins with them. They were a more insular community who took care of their own, very similar to the wolf pack. If humans were hunting witches, that toed the line between what he could do as a sheriff and what Axel could do as pack alpha.
This was where their solid teamwork was a bonus. They could cover all of the bases, keeping most of Salem safe.
The Griggs family home had seen better days. The siding was chipped in a few places, the roof needed replacing, and the shutters were falling off their hinges.
Zane tapped on the door, announcing police presence.
“Did you hear that?” he said, feigning to hear someone in distress in the house.
“Sure did,” Axel nodded that he was ready.
With a good kick to the door, Zane burst into the house, gun drawn. The first floor of the house was clear, and they made their way to the basement.
The dark wood paneling of the walls was nearly covered in papers and notes. None of it looked good. It made the hair at the back of Zane’s neck stand on edge.