Page 76 of Hunted

I was struck by how much she reminded me of Sofia Caldwell. Both so calculating, so deadly. Both willing to kill for their children without hesitation. And yet Zara had driven two of her three children away and River’s mother had seven sons who were as fiercely loyal to her as she was to them, sons who showed up to eat barbecue on Sunday afternoons, sons who showed up to carve pumpkins on Halloween, sons who showed up to sit in hospital waiting rooms when their brothers were hurt. The Caldwells argued, sometimes even brawled in the backyard, but when it counted, they were there for each other without question.

She continued, “If we were able to come up with the data you need, would I have to worry about repercussions from an army of shifters in Blood Moon’s pack demanding to search every coven, insisting we’re monsters holding children prisoner against their will, taking varewolf children away from their vampire mothers and fathers?”

It was a cruel, impossible choice. Thousands of vampire lives hung in the balance. And on the flip side, innocent children whose exploitation I would be acknowledging and tacitly condoning if I accepted the data and looked the other way.

Rowan was so still beside me she was hardly breathing. I glanced over, saw the glassy look in her eyes, knew she was back in that room, the lovely princess room I’d woken up in, the room where they’d held her prisoner for two years while draining her daily of her blood.

“What happened to their werewolf sires? Or were they born to mothers like Fallon that you forced pregnancies upon?”

“In some instances, we used paid werewolf surrogates who voluntarily handed the children over at the end of the pregnancy.” Zara didn’t even flinch at the question and it took everything I had in me not to throw my tea in her face. “They’ve all been adopted by families in the aristocracy, and I can assure you, they’re being well treated. We’ve also had more female vampires get pregnant using donated sperm. A low dose of Eclipse increases the likelihood their body will be able to carry a hybrid wolf-vampire child to term.” She tilted her head. “Three of these vampire mothers were starting to show signs of ALDD, but after carrying a varewolf pregnancy, the symptoms regressed.”

My heart began to pound. “Would you let me take blood from them? If they gave their consent, of course.”

“River is here.” Rowan cleared her throat. “We should go.” Her message was clear. How could I knowingly gather and use data from subjects I knew were potentially being exploited by the covens? Not just the children, but their mothers, who surely had to be lower caste and potentially forced or coerced into carrying pregnancies with promises of a change in status within the coven if they successfully gave birth to a varewolf child and kept quiet while that child was used for their blood? But how could I not, knowing that if we could find a therapy to treat ALDD, it could not only mean the end of centuries of suffering, but the end to the covens creating and exploiting varewolves?

* * *

“YOU’RE SURE YOU’RE OKAY?” River asked for the thousandth time since bringing me home from the emergency room and carrying me up to my room. Piper had fussed over me, helping me find a trash bag for my arm so I could shampoo the blood out of my hair while River ordered my favorite Thai takeout. Meera was exhausted after being up at campus all night dealing with questions from the police. There was still no word from the fire department on whether the lab would be operational in the next forty-eight hours, or if there had been significant smoke and water damage from the fire in the classroom downstairs.

Now I was in my own yoga pants, a white fitted tank and a soft pale green hoodie, eating vegetarian Pad Thai with my left hand while River paced my bedroom floor like a caged beast.

“I’ll be even better if you sit down and stop wearing a hole in my floor. You’re freaking out the bunnies.”

He growled, which sent both rabbits hopping into their giant strawberry-shaped fleece tent. “We collected blood samples at the scene. Jori should be able to use them to strengthen the wards once she can isolate Quinn’s blood from yours and Rossi’s. We’ll also get the sample sent up to Dallas and order them to put a rush on running Rossi’s profile.”

“Tracers aren’t required to submit DNA samples upon applying for candidacy?” I scooped up a bite of noodles. “I would think given how dangerous the work is, that would be a prerequisite.”

“It is, but Rossi never got that far in the process.” He scraped a hand over his skull trim. “I’m just so frustrated with this investigation right now. Every time we start to get somewhere, we run into a brick wall. I’ve talked to two other investigators who’ve been working on this and they both say evidence has been quietly disappearing on the Rossi case for months.”

“You have a mole on the inside?”

“Maybe. This is crucial information that’s being covered up, and the deeper I dig, the more I think Guillermo or people close to him have been suppressing evidence on the Rossi case from the start, critical leads that have been holding us back from locating him.”

“Wow.” I poked noodles around my plate. “Can he do that? I’ll admit that I don’t fully understand how wolf pack politics work, but that seems a little bit like treason.”

“It’s dicey. He’s the Alpha, but we still have pack law and the packs still follow international and for the most part, local law, except for some werewolf specific stuff. We take out dangerous feral wolves before they can become a threat, which human courts would never officially sanction, but at the same time, they don’t want ferals slaughtering or infecting everyone in a supermarket either. We’ve had to modify the law in favor of public safety. And we’ve tried to develop better methods over the years as the science has improved.”

“Eclipse.”

“Yeah.” River propped his hands on his hips. “I’ll be honest. There’s a group of us right now questioning why Guillermo wants it to look like the Tracers are trying really hard to find Rossi but have no chance of succeeding.”

“You think he and Rossi are working together?” I shivered, suddenly no longer hungry. I set my plate on my desk. “Why would that work in his favor? Doesn’t Rossi want to take over the Tracers? I can’t see someone with his lust for power being willing to share control for long.”

“I know.” River sank onto the edge of my bed. “It doesn’t make any sense. But I talked to some of the guys who’ve been up on base this entire time, soldiers who I absolutely trust. They say Guillermo has been disappearing for days, sometimes weeks at a time without logging where he goes.”

I digested this, getting up to pace. “Where was he today?”

“On base. He wasn’t behind today’s attack.”

“How do you know? He could have orchestrated it.”

“He didn’t. Whatever else my uncle is capable of, he wouldn’t go that far.”

I said nothing, anxiety twisting a hard knot in my stomach.

River stood, drawing me into his arms. “God, Ellie, if anything would have happened to you…” He bent down to press his forehead to mine, thumbs grazing my cheekbones softly as if I were breakable as glass.

I rose up on my toes and his lips covered mine, the kiss stoking the urgent need stirring in my belly. When I reached for his belt, he caught my hands. “You’re hurt. I’m putting you in that bed, wrapping you in comforters, and feeding you Ben and Jerry’s until you start snoring louder than the rabbits.”