Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 44098 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44098 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
“I think that’s a long stretch.”
“We’re wolves, Alpha. We take care of our pack and every full moon, we throw back our heads and howl. We give in to the wolf inside us. You don’t think that’s a long stretch of the imagination?”
Alpha ran a hand down his face and took a deep breath. “Fine. What are you looking for?”
“I don’t fucking know. Something, anything in this mess, that would explain Agatha. She’s not a wolf, and yet seems to blend into our world, and that makes no sense.”
He looked through the first box, not seeing anything of significance. Milton had been clever. He’d been able to file some of his research but it had also been made to appear as if the file was about a pet dog.
When he got to a file named “Agatha,” he stopped. The picture was that of a wolf dog. He pulled out the file. The wolf was bright white with a few wisps of gray. Opening the file, however, he saw Agatha’s picture, and next to her name was a title, Experiment Twenty-Six.
What the ever-loving fuck?
Chapter Four
Calling a church meeting had been vital. Boyan had read the file that stated Agatha Preston was Experiment Twenty-Six. According to the notes, Agatha had been born to a couple, a human female and a male who could turn into a wolf. They were simply known as “Mom Twenty-Six,” and “Dad Twenty-Six.”
The mother died during childbirth, and the father attempted to escape with Agatha. He’d been captured. There were no details as to where or when, or exactly who they were.
Agatha’s blood had been drawn as a child. According to the blood work, she was a human child and had been placed in an adoptive home. She had been adopted twenty-four hours later, but it would seem Milton had in some way stayed a part of her life. First as a vet, then as a family friend, and finally, taking her blood in an attempt to find her parents. Even though he knew her parents were dead, he’d kept the blood, and Boyan had a feeling it was Agatha’s blood that had been used to infect other humans.
“Do we know if someone was funding this?” Enzo asked.
For the first time in a long while, he didn’t have any knitting in his hands.
“We don’t,” Alpha said. “No one has come to check on his research, nor bought his veterinary practice.”
“This is a little … stretch,” Wolfe said. “None of us knew about him until Amelia. Do you really think he could be responsible for experimenting and testing on wolves? On packs?”
“Anything is possible,” Alpha said. “We know there are human hunters. We know they have tried to hunt us and kill us. If someone put a price on one of our heads, it wouldn’t take long for them to find someone weak, take them out, and hand them to whoever was willing to pay.”
“This shit is dangerous,” Rocco said. “If she is number twenty-six, it means there were twenty-five experiments before her. How many after?”
“I’d say until he found the perfect blood,” Gunnar said. “He was trying to create a baby that had both wolf and human blood. That must be what he was after.”
“But what he might not have known was that our blood doesn’t change until we transition. Our wolf is dormant,” Alpha said.
“What about Agatha?” Ryker asked. “She’s not a wolf.”
“Or is she?” Boyan asked. “Her scent mingles with the rest of the pack. She is happy here, which I don’t fucking get.”
“She has never turned,” Gray said. “Her scent mingles with us but that doesn’t mistake the fact she’s still human.”
“Maybe that’s it,” Enzo said. “She is part human. Her mother was human, her father was a wolf. It stops her from being able to turn.”
“Do you think that’s why Milton wanted nothing to do with her?” Rocco asked.
“I’m starting to think we shouldn’t have killed Milton. Most of his notes are nonsense. He clearly took the blood himself but suggests he ran out of money, got desperate, or someone attacked him,” Enzo said.
“Agatha knows nothing,” Boyan said. “She only knows that her parents gave her up.”
Boyan sat back and stared at the file spread open on the desk. They had gone through Milton’s files and decided they were nonsense. Crazy ramblings of a man who’d gone over the edge. Not once had he considered any of this real.
Now, they were facing the possibility that not only did Milton infect innocent people, but he also had a lot of people currently living in the human world who may or may not be wolves.
“I need to meet Agatha,” Alpha said.
“She works at Poison,” Boyan said.
“No, I need you to bring her here.”
Boyan looked at Alpha. There was a reason they had given him the role of Prez, and also why he was the leader of the pack. Out of all of them, there was only one skill Alpha had that none of them did—the ability to bring forth a wolf, no matter the time within a moon cycle.