Page 29 of Logan’s Acadian Wolves

Why would they go after the doctor? Logan had told her that she’d taken blood samples. Was that why they’d gone after Dana? To get the blood? Or hide the results? But why not just take her? Then it occurred to Wynter that she’d been with Logan the entire time. Maybe they were afraid of the Alpha. Her mind whirled and she considered a possibility far worse than the ominous directive. If they’d somehow changed her DNA so that she was wolf, they could have caused Dana’s death by giving her a virus. They had access to any number of highly contagious diseases. And while they hadn’t yet perfected a virus for wolves, Emma, a hybrid, was ill. And like Emma, Dana was also a hybrid. Panicked, she attempted to get Logan’s attention while he knelt next to the bed with Fiona, who was crying uncontrollably.

“Did anyone touch the body?” she asked, putting a hand on Logan’s shoulder.

“She’s not a body!” Luci screamed at Wynter. “She’s our friend. And she’s Fi’s sister.”

Logan turned his head, and growled a warning at Luci.

Despite Luci’s attack, Wynter pressed the issue. “Did anyone touch the body?”

“No, no one touched the body. Okay?” Luci responded curtly. “Can someone tell me what in the hell she is doing here?”

“Logan, we need to get everyone out of the room,” she told him quietly.

Logan glanced over his shoulder at Wynter, unsure as to why she was behaving so strangely. “Please, can you just give us a minute? Fi’s just lost her sister,” he pleaded.

“I know, and I’m so sorry, but Logan, this message. It’s for me,” she explained with a pleading look.

“Out, everyone out,” he commanded. What the fuck?

“But Alpha, please,” Fiona cried. “I need to stay with her.”

Logan hugged Fiona to his chest. Wynter turned her head at the sight, admonishing the small misplaced pang of jealousy that fluttered in her chest.

“It’s okay, Fi. I’ll be right out. Luci, stay with her. Dimitri, stay. I want you here for this.”

Luci shot Wynter a menacing grimace on the way out of the room. As soon as the door closed, Logan turned on her. “What in the hell are you doing, Wynter?”

“They know I’m with you. The people who took me,” she said, carefully approaching the body.

“I’m sure whoever took you knows you’re with me. It’s not exactly like we’ve been trying to hide that. We’ve been all over the city today.”

“It’s the message.” She gestured toward Dana’s stomach. “Scientifique. It’s me. No, I mean, that’s what he called me.”

“Who called you that?”

“Him. The person who kept me. I never saw him,” Wynter recounted with fear in her eyes. Logan never took his eyes off of her as she continued. “Director Tartarus. I only communicated through email with him. And sometimes text messages before they locked me up. But once I was captured, the guard would bring me a flash drive with a single text file on it in the morning. There’d always be one with a letter of sorts…directions from him. At the end of the day, I was instructed to save my results back onto the drive and then I’d give it back to the guard. It was my only communication with him.”

“Tartarus. Very funny,” Dimitri huffed.

“What?” Wynter asked as she knelt next to the bed, looking carefully at Dana’s skin.

“Tartarus. Greek mythology. A place where gods would be sent for punishment,” Logan explained.

“A punishment to fit their crime,” Dimitri added.

Logan watched Wynter remove the lamp shade from the bedside light, pick it up and shine the light into the soulless stare of Dana’s eyes. “What are you doing?”

“Honestly,” she sighed. “I just had to be sure that she wasn’t sick. I mean, Tartarus. He knows disease. The company I worked for…he’d have access to all kinds of viruses. And even though you told me she was wolf, she was hybrid…” Like Emma. “I needed to see for myself. From what I can tell, though, there’s no indication of illness. No jaundice, lesions, weight loss. And if you saw her last night and she was healthy…then it’s unlikely. But the bite marks. Whoever did this tortured her. She died from exsanguination when they slit her throat.”

Just like he’d seen happen to Wynter in his dream, Logan thought. But he knew it wasn’t Dana’s face in his vision.

“She knew him. Maybe well or not. But she liked him,” Logan said with his arms crossed.

“What makes you say that?”

“Make up. Hair’s done. The bra and panties.”

“I agree about the underwear, but she was going out with Fiona and Luci. Maybe she was hopeful,” Wynter said, playing devil’s advocate.