I felt something move behind me, stir as my body started to wake from a peaceful sleep. I was so cozy. Comfortable. I wanted to stay there forever, but reality was tugging me back from sweet sleep.

I yawned and started to stretch my toes under the covers. Ethan's chest rumbled a bit. He was still softly breathing behind me, arms wrapped tight around me, and legs intertwined with mine. We were like a damn pretzel.

I smiled to myself. I couldn't believe I stayed the night, but waking up to him was one of the best feelings in the world. I cursed myself inwardly, sleeping in my own bed was going to be miserable now.

I tried to pull away from Ethan. I realized how full my bladder was and needed the bathroom, but he just rumbled again and pulled me back to him. Really into him.

There was something hard against my butt. It startled me, but what startled me even more was when I realized what it was. I bit back a groan as waves of pleasure started to crash against my skin. Desire started to fill me, need.

I knew I was in deep shit.

He pulled me tighter against him, rubbing his hands along my belly and through my hair while the hardness continued to press against me. I bit my lip and tried to squirm away, but his arms were like iron. Iron that I didn't really want to break out of.

Dammit.

I let out a gasp as his fingers started to mindlessly trace the edge of the waistband to the boxers I was wearing. He stilled. He stilled and I knew he was awake.

I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks as we held our breaths for a pregnant moment. "Ethan, I um, I need to use the bathroom."

His hands left me and I quickly got out of bed and walked straight to the bathroom. I didn't dare look back at him. I could feel his eyes on my back. They made my body feel sparks of need that almost made me stop walking.

I quickly shut the door and let out a labored breath. My heart was fluttering and my beast was pissed that I walked away from our male. She wanted me to go back to that bed and jump his damn bones. I pushed her back. I wasn't ready for that, so she could just control her damn hormones.

After I relieved myself I tried to splash some cold water on my face. It calmed my hot skin down and helped me to settle my mind, but only a little.

I pulled my shirt up and turned to look at my back. The damn thing was almost healed. I guess this mate-healing stuff really did work.

I let out a long breath then opened the door. Ethan was laying on his side, letting his fingers trace the area where I was laying. I sighed and walked forward as his sleepy blue eyes snapped to me as a tired smile pulled at his lips.

He opened the covers for me and I couldn't help but to climb back in. He pulled me closer to him, although he was careful to keep some areas of his body away from me. My wolf chuckled in the back of my mind. This was more than amusing to her.

"Did you sleep?"

I nodded a little. "Ya, did you?"

He shrugged. "Not really."

I brushed some of his hair back. "Why?"

He took my hand and kissed my palm, tickling it with his scruff that had grown out to be a bit more than scruff. "I had a dream about my mother."

I took his hand in mine and laced our fingers together. "Ethan–"

"She was making me breakfast while Evan chased Evangeline around our living room. Eli had just walked in from being up training early with our dad."

"What happened?"

He shook his head as his eyes tried to hide the demons that were clawing at him. "It was just a dream. It doesn't matter."

I kissed the back of his hand with a soft smile. My wolf whined in the back of my mind, she didn't like seeing our male so pained. I let my fingers trail the edge of his jaw. "It's not your fault you know?"

He blinked and looked at me at eyes that were not doing a good job of convincing me that he agreed. "Do you want breakfast?"

I nodded and let him change the conversation. He wasn't ready to open up that Pandora's box, not yet anyways. "Do you want to see if Derek will make us pancakes." His lips twitched into a smile that seemed to break up his previous mood. I climbed out of bed and stretched while he followed.

He threw on a shirt, to my displeasure, then took my hand and led me out of his room. Evangeline caught my eye as we trotted down the stairs. Her eyes flickered to my neck then back to her brother as a devious grin spread over her face. "Morning Char."

I groaned as Ethan rolled his eyes and pulled me out of the door. The air was fresh that morning; the breeze seemed to blow away some of the shaky feelings I had from the previous night, from the whispers.

Andrea was walking out of her cabin and stopped in her tracks when she saw us. She waved her fingers amusingly before she continued to trot back towards a trail. "I feel like I am doing the walk of shame in college again."

"At least we're doing it together sunshine." I smiled as Ethan eyed me playfully and winked. Damn him. The pull was humming, it was always humming around him. It was getting stronger though, harder to resist. He was right. Everyday it felt like it trying harder to pull us together.

Derek walked out onto the porch with a smug grin. He looked at my neck then back at me with an amused expression. "And where were you last night young lady?"

"With me, obviously," Ethan answered as a smirk tugged at his lips.

I felt my cheeks tingle while Derek let out a low chuckle. He sighed then nodded into the house. "Come on then. Elliot's been demanding pancakes all morning."

Ethan and I ate breakfast with Elliot and Derek, who both made great effort to embarrass the hell out of me. Ethan of course, thought it was more than humorous and was no help at all.

After Ethan left, both Derek and Elliot proceeded to grill me about the previous night. Derek was more than proud of my fight with Amber and Larissa, but both he and Elliot were pissed that they missed it. Elliot was more upset he didn't get it on camera.

I told them about the whispers. Neither of them knew what to make of them, but Derek was more than disturbed. He ended up searching our cabin for thirty minutes while I showered.

I didn't want to shower. I didn't want to wash all of Ethan's scent off of me. My beast didn't either. She hated seeing the water go down the drain, carrying his smell with it.

After that day, it seemed liked things became routine, more normal. I started to help Evangeline with her duties. They weren't too bad unless we had to deal with Miranda. She was still pissed as hell about the fight, but had to hide her furious discontent.

Her daughter challenged us and lost badly. It was a fair fight between her and I. There was nothing Miranda could do.

Thomas on the other hand, was not pissed. While he didn't seem pleased to have his daughter laid up in the pack hospital, he did make a comment to Miranda in front of Evangeline and I that went something like, 'Well, she did challenge her.'

We started to help Miranda with getting things ready for the Alpha Council Meeting, or 'royal pain in my ass' as Thomas would call it. There was apparently a lot of paperwork to be done as well as planning for the three days that the other guests would be here.

I was excited, though. I would get to see Levi, Lander, Liam, and Remi. It made my wolf yip in the back of my mind, she missed our family, as did I.

Evangeline, Andrea, and I continued training with Billy. Every day, we got better, stronger, smarter. Billy was good about teaching us strategy and taking the time to teach us.

Evan and I went back and forth many times, as did Ryder, Jake and I. They best was when Andrea and I finally sparred. Fighting a female was so different from fighting a male, and my beast loved the challenge.

Andrea was formidable. Her beast was relentless, without mercy. She came at me like a tornado; fast, furious, and wild.

But my beast was quite the challenge for her.

We went round and round and round until we tied. We tied because Billy and Evan had to pull us apart before we sliced each other up to shreds.

Evangeline got stronger too. The red headed female seemed to be tapping deeper and deeper into her veins. One day she actually bested Jake, then the next day she clawed into Evan so bad that he had a decent size gash in his ass from her claws. Evangeline loved it because according to her, she finally got a real piece of his hide.

The only problem was Ethan.

It wasn't that Ethan and I were fighting or having problems, quite the opposite actually, and that was the problem. The pull got stronger every day; but it wasn't just the pull, my feelings for him grew too. It was hard not to let them.

Every day, it was like he was slowly becoming something else, something stronger. He was bolder. His beast wouldn't shy away from showing his teeth to females that eyed him a little too seductively or letting males who looked too longingly at me who I belonged to.

He was still holding back, though. He would open up to me; little by little like baby steps, but I always felt like there were so many layers yet that I needed to peel back–that I wanted to peel back.

But still, as much as I was slipping down the slope that led to him, I was still not completely on board with his mark on my neck yet. Many times we would be in a heated moment and he would pull away or I would pull away before it went too far. A few times his fangs were poking out of his lips as he looked at my neck longingly, and a few times I almost let him have it.

I didn't feel completely right yet, and my beast agreed. We were waiting for something, but I couldn't be sure what it was. Maybe it was more time that we needed, or for the tiny ghost tendrils of fear to go away when he looked at me with those eyes that I knew I would happily drown in.

It was a struggle. A real struggle.

My wolf and I went back and forth on it relentlessly. Neither of us knowing what to do. Limbo. We were in a constant state of limbo.

I was running that morning on a new trail that Billy had shown me. It went alongside a mountain and looked over the treetops at one point. My beast loved it. I loved it. These mountains were starting to grow more and more on us. Hold a place in our heart.

We still missed home though. As we ran down the trail we thought of our father, Levi. He was so damn proud of us after we called him about the fight. His only regret was that I didn't rip out another fang so he could make a damn necklace out of it.

The mountain air was good for my mind, but still, there were many things clouding my brain, even in this crystal clear weather. Things like Ethan. Things like this pack. Things like the sense that there was more going on. I wasn't sure, though. It was a weird vibe that I got; it was like having a word on the tip of your tongue that you can't remember.

I was trotting down a hill and broke through the treeline. It was quiet in the forest. Only the sounds of branches swaying like gentle arms in the wind sounded through the forest. My beast slowed some more, it was a beautiful run and we really hadn't taken a lot of time to enjoy the views on our morning runs.

But then I heard a crunch.

It wasn't the crunch from another animal, like a squirrel or rabbit. It was from a larger animal, a wolf; but I couldn't smell anything. The whole forest smelt like, well, a damn forest. There were traces of wolves that had been there days before, but nothing that alerted me of something nearby.

Another crunch.

This time, it was nearby. I stilled and looked around. There was a cliff coming up. It looked over a small creek and ran about a quarter mile until it sloped back down.

My beast was wary, but still, our curiosity got the better of us. We crept forward quietly, like a ghost sailing across the floor. My beast scooted forward on her belly until we could peek over the edge of the cliff enough to see the bottom.

However, before we did, we realized what it is. We realized what it was because of the smell that our nose inhaled. It was a smell that made me wanted to both tear someone's throat out and vomit.

Putrid, drying, decay, and insanely sour. It smelled like the trash in a garbage bin that someone poured vinegar over before they set it out in the sun for a long hot sizzling week; cooking all the trash together to make a monster. A Frankenstein.

Rogues.

I shot my eyes forward and saw two of them. Two males that were fairly young, but sick. These were just as sick as the last ones we saw.

One of them was tall, lanky, and had a shirt that did little to hide the lines of his ribcage that his sickly skin was pulled around. Hungry. These rogues looked hungry, like they hadn't eaten for days. They were probably too damn sick to hunt anything.

The other rogue was somewhat shorter, but his cheeks were hollow, too hollow. His hair was like blonde straw, and his skin was almost translucent. God, he was sick, they both were.

How the hell did no one find them? How did they get across our lines? The pack was surrounded by mountains. There was another pack higher in the mountains, but I don't think either of these two rogues could have made that trip. They couldn't have come all the way through Tikanni either, that would be too much land for them to cross; they looked like they could barely make it a mile as it is.

Neither of them smelled me and I wasn't surprised. They looked too damn sick to really do anything. They were just walking slowly through the trees, completely unaware of what was around them. I wondered what was running through their minds or if they even had their minds at all?

My wolf and I watched them. She was curious too. We lost the last ones we saw; she wanted to follow these two and see where they went. She was confident we could kill them easily, they were no threat to us.

We crept forward as they walked. They looked around the forest a bit, but they looked like they were looking at something else. Seeing something else. I wondered if they were hallucinating?

The short one reached out to something longingly. His brows raised and his mouth parted slightly as he whispered, "Mary?" I felt my chest tighten as I watched him realize that Mary, or whoever he was reaching for, was not there.

His eyes blinked hard before they opened with sadness that seemed to be like thick cataracts on his eyes. He had to have lost his mate Mary. They may be rogues, but my beast was pained by this; it was a sad sight and a reminder to me of how important Ethan was. Without him I could end up like these two, hell, if something happened right now I knew I wouldn't be the same.

They continued walking and we followed. It was just the same thing over and over. They walked a few more steps then paused. They looked like they were pausing to catch their breath, their bodies were probably close to shutting down.

Every now and then the short one would reach out to something or murmur the name 'Mary.' They were sick with sadness. Sadness that had ripped a hole in their heart and eaten away at their brains.

"Ethan?"

"Sunshine?"

"Ethan I need you to come here," I said as I crept quietly along the cliff; out of sight to them but in perfect range to watch.

"Miss me that much sunshine?"

I rolled my eyes a little. "No there are two rogues–"

His growl cut me off. "What?!"

"Calm down, they are sick, like close to death Ethan. I am surprised they even made it this far."

"And you're doing?"

"Watching them," I replied very matter of factly.

I heard another growl and ignored it. I was fully capable of handling these two and besides, we needed to know where they came from. The rogues paused a little and I paused with them.

One started to slowly turn his head towards me, but his sight never caught me. I had scooted back on the cliff, out of their sight in time for him to turn his head back forwards.

"I'm on my way with Thomas and Evan, please stay out of sight Char."

"I am, I'm on a cliff and they are below. I'm just trailing them."

"Christ Char, they are dangerous!"

"Not these two. Seriously Ethan they are insanely sick. One of them keeps hallucinating can calling out to what I think is his dead mate. They look like they haven't eaten in days. I just want to see where they are going. We lost the last two, I don't want to lose the trail on these two."

"Sunshine I will never forgive myself if something happens to you, please stay out of sight and be careful until I get there."

I sighed while my beast agreed. We understood, and after watching that rogue whisper out to his dead mate, we understood well. "I promise."

"Ok, stay there. I'll be there soon."

His voice quieted in my head but I could feel him reaching out across the pull to me. It was like he wanted to reassure himself that I was ok, that I was still here. I understood. After losing everything that he had to rogues, I would be the same way.

I heard another crack, but it wasn't just a crack. It sounded like someone set off a firecracker, like a BlackCat that you buy at one of those tacky Firework stands around the Fourth of July.

I snapped my head in the direction only to see some leaves stirring a little, like someone had just been there. My wolf was confused, as was I. I turned my head back to the rogues they were gone.

I felt shock and bits of fear start to course through my veins. How the hell did they do that?! Again?!

My beast was anxious, as was I. What if we had misjudged them? What if they were not that sick and just leading me on?

I pushed back those thoughts and looked around. Their smell was dying and dying quickly. I crept forward a bit and looked around some more but they were nowhere to be found.

I felt my beast swell with anger and frustration. I couldn't help but agree, something was not right. It wasn't right at all.

I carefully climbed down some rocks and jumped onto the forest floor where they were. My nose was too the ground and my ears were up, but I found nothing. It was driving my beast insane. She looked and looked and looked but there was nothing there.

I sat back on my legs and walked up and down the path they had just been on, and all I found were leaves, grass, some nice flowers, rocks, and a few droppings from probably a rabbit.

Shit.

I could feel Ethan coming. I quickly turned and jogged over to him. His eyes were not doing well to hide his fear; his beast was anxious, and I didn't blame him.

He rubbed his head against my neck then rubbed against my length with his. He did a circle around me and checked for any signed of damage before he licked my cheek.

"Where are they?"

I sighed and turned back to where I had seen them. "Gone. Like the others. It's gone. The trail is gone and they are gone."

"Sunshine..." He looked at me curiously then back to where I was staring. "Ok show me. Show me where you saw them walk."

"Where are they?" Thomas trotted up with Evan on his tail.

"She said they disappeared like the last time. We're going to go look down here and see if they left anything," Ethan said tiredly.

Thomas flickered an eye to me then looked back at Ethan. "Alright, Evan let's go check the perimeter. Meet back here when you're done."

Ethan followed me over to where I had first seen them. I let my beast do a big circle and smell around, but she found nothing. It made her swell with anger. She didn't like intruders coming into our territory and just leaving as they pleased.

"Ok, so walk me through it sunshine."

I nodded then walked to the center of the circle I had just walked. "Well, I first saw them here. I was up there," I said while pointing my nose to the cliff that I had hidden on. "I was coming back from a run and I heard walking."

"You didn't smell them?" Ethan asked a little bewildered.

I shook my head. "No, I just heard walking. Crunching over the leaves. I couldn't smell anything which is why I crept up. When I got to the edge of the cliff I could smell them clear as day. I mean they smelled awful Ethan. They smelled like a rotten corpse that someone left out in the summer sun."

His beast looked from between the cliff than to where we were standing with a careful eye. He looked back at me as frustration started to set in. "Ok, then what?"

"Well, like I said, they were just standing here. They weren't really doing anything. I mean, these were sicker than the last ones. I think their minds were so gone that they didn't even know where they were.

"They just started walking this way," I said as I started to walk the direction I had seen them go. We walked a few yards before I stopped and looked around again. "Then they stopped here. I don't know why. They looked around, but I think they were hallucinating. Like I said earlier, there was a shorter one who kept murmuring out to his dead mate 'Mary.' It was really sad actually."

Ethan rubbed his cheek against mine, disrupting the sad thoughts from my brain before he did his own perimeter of the area. His wolf was thorough. He practically dug up the area like he was a wild hog.

But he found nothing.

I kicked around a small black porous rock with my paws while I thought on how the hell this happened again. Ethan eventually gave up and came back to me,more frustrated than before. "Ok sunshine, what happened after this?"

"They just kept walking. I mean they would pause," I said as we started walking forward, "every now and then, but I feel like it was not because they were looking for anything. They just seemed so sick. I mean they looked around a little, but I don't even know if they were on this planet if you know what I mean."

We stopped where they had stopped and looked around. We found nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Ethan scratched at his ear with his paw before looking back to me with a mix of frustration and weariness. "So how did you lose them?"

"Well, I had followed them only a little more after I linked you. I heard this crack. It was like a firecracker. It caught my attention, but when I looked back they were gone."

"A firecracker?" he asked incredulously.

I gave him a long look and nodded. "Yes, like the kind you buy on Fourth of July. There were some leaves rustling in the area I heard it, but that was it."

"And then they were just gone?"

"Yes," I said as hints of annoyances started to season my voice. "It was like when I was with Evangeline and they just disappeared."

"Ok, let's shift back," Thomas called out as he and Evan trotted towards us.

Ethan grabbed me a shirt from a nearby hole under the tangled roots of a large tree then laid it out for me. I let my beast brush past him, teasing him, as we went to the shirt so we could change in privacy.

He gave me a devious look that made my skin warm a bit. I quickly changed and tossed the shirt on then walked by to the group. Ethan was leaning on a tree and held out his hand for me when I walked up.

I took it and let him pull me into him. He hugged me to him and kissed my hair while he let out a relieved sigh. "I'm just glad you're ok."

I kissed his bare chest then nodded into it. "Me too," I said as I thought of the rogue who kept hallucinating about his dead mate.

"Alright," Thomas said as he and Evan walked up in a matching pair of black shorts. "So, tell me what you saw."

I turned as Ethan slid a hand around my waist and pulled me into him. I could feel his beast, he was still uneasy. The thought of rogues near his mate probably made him think of things he wanted to stay far in the past.

I let out a frustrated breath and pointed back to where I first saw them. "I saw them there. I was coming back from a run and running up on that cliff. I slowed some because I wanted to, well, stop and smell the roses I guess."

"Alright then?"

"Well, I heard crunching. I could hear something walking but I couldn't smell them."

"You didn't smell them at first?" Evan asked a little-taken aback as his eyes flickered to Ethan then back to me.

I nodded. "Ya, it was strange. That's how I found them. I wanted to see what it was. I just crept close enough on the cliff to look over when I smelled them. I smelled them before I saw them. God, they smelled so bad. They were so much sicker than the ones Evangeline and I saw."

"What do you mean?" Thomas asked a little incredulously.

"I have no idea how they made it so far, I mean, they were so sick. Like, they were both probably going to die today at some point. They looked like they hadn't eaten in days, they smelled like someone dug them up from their own grave then left them to rot in the sun, and they seemed like their minds were not even there at all."

"Why's that?" Thomas asked as he leaned against a tree.

I sighed and pointed to where I saw them first stop. "Well, I saw them walk a little. They weren't really doing anything, just walking. They stopped there and one of them started to reach out for something. It wasn't until he started to murmur the name 'Mary' that I figured that he was probably hallucinating about his dead mate."

"Why do you think they stopped?" Evan asked while he looked over at where I had pointed.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I think part of it is that they were just really sick and they needed to take a break? I don't know. They just paused and kept going."

"Then?" Thomas pushed more firmly.

"Well," I sighed. "That's really it. I saw them walk and pause some more when I linked Ethan. The one just kept going on about 'Mary' but they didn't do anything unusual."

"So how did you loose them?"

I looked back at Thomas and shook my head a little frustratedly. "I heard this crack, like last time. It was like a firecracker. I took my eyes away for maybe only a few seconds and when I looked back they were gone. It just like last time. Their scent started to fade quickly and there was no trace. I looked up and down this area while I waited for you, but it was like their scent was just being erased from the whole area."

Thomas rubbed his jaw  and looked around. Even looked at Ethan warily. I leaned into Ethan as I felt my own frustration start to swirl. This was the second time in less than two weeks, this was not only absurd but now it was dangerous.

Thomas looked back at me as his brows furrowed a bit. He pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed it a bit before looking back at me with what seemed like an inkling of reservation. "Charlotte, it's not that I don't believe you, but you have to put yourself in my shoes. It's kind of hard to understand how two rogues on the verge of death even made it this far, they shouldn't have been able to make it through the mountains if they were that sick."

"I mean, I don't disagree. But I know what I saw Thomas." My wolf nodded in the back of my mind. We would stand by our word. We know what we saw, and there was no denying what it was.

"Right, but now they are gone and it's like nothing was even here. It's just, well," he said while he looked around again and let out a long sigh. "It's just a little impossible. I'm not saying that you didn't see them, but I also am stumped on what to do here."

"We could have Ryder come by and do a sweep. Let him have at it and see if he or the other trackers can dig up anything?" Evan suggested while he looked at me reassuringly.

Thomas nodded as he thought to himself then looked over at Ethan who was still scanning the area. "What do you think?"

Ethan shrugged. "I don't know, I just don't understand how a scent disappears like that." He sighed and pulled me closer. "Evan's right though, it wouldn't hurt to have the trackers come through."

Thomas nodded then stood up away from the tree. "Alright, let's do that. Evan get a hold of Ryder and tell him that I want something by first thing tomorrow. Otherwise, let's get back. Ethan here has got some paperwork he's got to sort through for our council meeting."

Ethan groaned a little then shook his head. "I hate those damn things."

"Who doesn't," Thomas said over his shoulder as he started to walk away.

Ethan pulled us forward my I wasn't pleased. My beast wasn't pleased. We just saw rogues cross our borders and all we were doing was putting two trackers on it?! I felt like we should do more, I know we should do more.

"Can I talk to you?" I whispered to Ethan.

Ethan nodded. "Thomas I'll meet you back at the pack house," he called out.

"Sounds good," Thomas said over his shoulder with Evan in tow. He gave me one last look of curious reservation before he shifted and started to run through the trees.

Ethan turned me to him as he leaned back against a tree. "What is it sunshine?"

"Well, don't you, I mean don't you think we should do more?"

He sighed and looked down at his toes before he looked back to me. "Char put yourself in Thomas' shoes. There is nothing here to go on, nothing at all. I mean, I don't doubt you, but you also have to remember that we have a pack that is still scared as hell of rogues. Even mentioning them gets people worked up, it get's me worked up."

"So you're saying you're not going to do anything because it will scare everyone?" I asked with a raised brow.

"No, I'm saying that we don't want people to panic for nothing. There's nothing here. Unless Ryder finds something, what else would you have us do? We don't need to get the pack worked up for nothing, they've been put through enough."

"Ethan," I huffed out while looking around the area. "Isn't the fact that we have found nothing more reason to look harder into it? I mean when those rogues attacked at Levi's there was no scent either, but Levi tore the place up looking for them."

Ethan nodded. "That's a good point sunshine." He sighed and looked around some more. "How about this, we let Ryder go through it and see what he says? Trackers are always finding things that we missed, and Ryder is scary good. If he finds something then we will chase that trail."

"And if he doesn't? Ethan, I feel like you can't just leave it. What if there are more doing this?"

He nodded as something flickered in his eyes. Something that seemed to pain him more than he wanted to share. "If he finds nothing then we will figure someone out. We can do an ad hoc investigation of some sort. I just," he sighed as he tugged at his hair. "I just don't want to shake the pack up. I would rather keep this quiet unless we have evidence that proves otherwise."

I felt my wolf grumble but I didn't think I was going to get Ethan to budge much more. I wanted him to though. I knew Levi would tear this damn place up until he found an answer. Even now I know he's probably still trying to figure out what happened to us.

I couldn't shake it. I wanted them to care more. I wanted them to feel the sense of urgency that I felt. I wanted them to believe me.

Thomas seemed like he was wary, and in a way I can see how. I mean it is all crazy and utterly impossible, but even impossible things are not truly impossible.

"You do believe me though, right?"

He walked forward and kissed my forehead before he pulled me into him. "Yes, sunshine. I said it before. I don't doubt what you saw."

But it was in his voice that I heard something that unsettled me. Irked my beast and made me feel like something was slowly gnawing at my belly.

Doubt.