AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Rachel glanced at her watch. “Well, I need to settle into my new apartment until I meet with my handler.”
“After you go over things with your handler, call me if you have any questions or concerns.”
“Will do.”
“Goodbye, Rachel.”
“Goodbye…Howard.” She left and batted back tears. Calling him father after he told her he chose them over her just didn’t sit right. Her trust issues rose like a maddened snake to strike any man who happened to come her way. Rachel needed to guard her heart from Lev. His wolf had claimed her, but had the man? She wasn’t going to be his woman with the special DNA, if he could fall in love with someone else. Was it possible for them to have more than one mate or love interests?
Chapter 18
Lev entered the situation room and interrupted Rylee as she spoke to Jesper and Cricket. “Ma’am, any news?”
“Yes, we have developing intel.”
“About the rogue pack?” Lev had filled her in on every detail he witnessed about this mysterious pack of lycans and men.
“Yes and a possible connection to Svetlana.”
So the bitch was involved.
“First, Jesper will discuss cases of mysterious abductions over the last twenty years. Abductions involving women with Rachel’s blood type.”
Though Jesper had originally been an omega in another pack, here he’d gained beta status as the LIA’s brilliant accountant and archivist. “Not just women with the Stallo marker?”
Rylee sighed. “No. It’s possible that before the discove
ry of the gene marker these rogue werewolves abducted other O negative women in hopes one might turn out to be a Stallo descendant.”
Lev curled his lip. Kidnapping human women had been forbidden and a punishable offense since the creation of their kind. However, since blood typing, a few rogue werewolves had taken such women only to be disappointed at their inability to breed. The odds were slim the women would turn out to be a Stallo woman. The discovery of the special DNA marker had emboldened this rogue pack.
Rylee turned to Jesper. “Report.”
Jesper pointed to the screen. “I searched FBI databases for the last couple decades for women with Rachel’s blood type and their mysterious disappearances. Cold cases.” He switched to the next slide showing a graph of lunar eclipses. “Most of the women were probably murdered by serial killers, however, there was a spike in women disappearing days or hours before a partial or complete lunar eclipse. I thought it might have been a coincidence so I went back forty years and found five women disappeared during a lunar eclipse. Not sure if it means anything, since moon rituals to conduct magic are no longer practiced.”
“Could be an ancient lunar ritual to ensure mate fertility,” said Rylee.
Lev shook his head. “Spring is when we mate for pups. If fertility is so important then why this lunar eclipse pattern?”
Rylee nodded. “I’ll ask Lunara.”
Lev never believed in wolf shamanism or real magic, but Lunara had an uncanny ability to communicate with the departed. He’d thought of asking the gifted beta to reach his father in the afterlife, but so far never had the chance.
Jesper spoke, “Lunara travelled to Norway to meet with Chandra and Professor Clayworth.”
Lev smiled at Chandra a royal alpha’s boldness in actually marrying the human, James Clayworth, an authority on ancient history. If she could marry a human, why couldn’t he? Marriage was different than taking the mating vow, but it would please Rachel to be considered his wife and he her husband. It showed he respected her culture.
“Cool, that’s where Stallo’s bones are buried,” said Cricket.
“Apparently, a few months ago, there was an attempt to steal his bones. The pack guards prevented the theft, unfortunately, the werewolf intruder got away. He managed to steal a few manuscripts. Professor Clayworth obtained permission to study Stallo’s manuscripts and other artifacts. Lunara arrived as a consultant. Anyway, I’ll ask them to return as soon as they can,” responded Rylee.
Lev lifted a brow. “Interesting. Could this robbery be connected to our mystery pack?”
Rylee snorted. “This is not the first time a rogue lycan tried to steal Stallo’s bones, but the only one who managed to get into the vault. There are no leads to the thief or his purpose.”
“I bet they plan on usurping our lycan council, and what better way than taking our ancestor’s bones and all known Stallo women?” said Cricket. She furrowed her brow. “They might even think they could clone him.”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” said Rylee.
