Nathan was pacing in front of us, wearing one of Andrew’s old coats. The sun was starting to sink towards the horizon. I looked at my phone. I’d lost an hour to self-pity.
“Domenic arrived while we were talking with her mother. He said…” I retraced the conversation. What had he actually revealed? “He knew me. He said he is investing in ‘pioneering medical advancements.’”
Nathan stopped pacing. “He’s funding the study, then.”
“He also said he needs her help with a problem,” I continued.
Nathan’s nod was impatient now. “Yes, the Omega stem cells are no longer mutable. He wants her to figure out why. What do wedo?”
I suddenly remembered the addresses in my pocket. “We go looking for them.”
I’d wanted to go busting down the doors of the warehouses alone, but Andrew convinced me to enlist help.
“Why aren’t we calling Maggie?” Nathan asked under his breath while the subway rattled us north.
“And what can she do that we cannot? This will be faster,” I hissed. I also remembered the aftermath of Matteo’s “accident.” When the police came and left, and nothing changed.
This story would not end that way.
We arrived at Jason’s pack house on the northern end of the city. Their block was lit by streetlights with orange-ish bulbs that cast strange shadows through the branches of the bare trees that lined each side of the street. This was an older neighborhood, very quiet, and mostly working-class.
The door at the top of their shallow steps opened, and the light shining behind him silhouetted Jason’s hulking form. “It’s fucking freezing out here, come inside,” he called down to us.
The inside was nicer than one would expect for a pack of ex-military Alphas. Though a bit sparse, the foyer was immaculate. The combined scent of the Alphas who lived there was strong, mostly dominated by Jason’s toasted almond scent, but not unpleasant.
Jason led the way to what could probably be called a dining room, but felt more like a war room. Three other Alphas were waiting for us, seated around the large oval table that took up most of the space in the room.
“My packmates,” Jason said without ceremony. “Silas, Everett, and Theo.”
Each of the men nodded in greeting. I’d met Silas and Everett before when I still worked at the security firm, and they looked much the same. Silas had dark skin and hair cropped just as short as Jason’s, and was more muscular than was strictly sensible.
Everett’s blonde hair was longer, slicked back from his forehead, and his goatee made him look disreputable. His intense blue eyes were a bit unsettling.
Theo was slim, with a build similar to Andrew’s. He looked out of place next to these dangerous men, with his round, frameless glasses and boyish, middle-parted hair that fell to an angular jaw.
We introduced ourselves and sat down in the three free chairs while Jason passed out beers.
“Alright, let’s get to it,” Jason said. “What do you know?”
“Not enough. Our Omega—” I broke off for a moment. It had felt so natural to say, but of course it wasn’t true. Not yet. “She has been threatened, yes? Now we know who it was. Her father, Domenic Crawford, took her away today.”
“Took her?” Jason asked sharply.
“She went with him because he promised he would not hurt us if she did,” I explained. “It was not willing.”
Jason nodded once and gestured for me to continue.
“We have these addresses.” I passed him the piece of scrap paper. Bridget’s mother had delicate handwriting, like she was almost afraid to push the pen against the page.
Jason scanned it before passing it to Silas. “And no idea what they’re used for?”
“No,” Nathan said. “But he has apparently invested in the study we were working on, researching Omega stem cells. The cells stopped reacting as we expected, and that was when the threats started. I think he wants her to figure out why.”
“So let’s pay this guy a visit,” Everett said with a dark smile. His voice was slower than I remembered, but the southern drawl was the same. “Get some information from the horse’s mouth.”
“You’re not torturing anyone,” Theo said. He looked up sharply from where he was peeling the label from his beer bottle to glare at Everett.
“We’ll do this the right way,” Silas said. His voice was surprisingly gentle for such a large man. “Surveillance at each site, to see what we can determine from the outside, and then sweep the interior. We’ll find her.”
