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Billy had the gall to look at me like I was some kind of fool, and only Remus’ hand on my shoulder kept me from getting back into the man’s face. “They’re doing some sorta shady shit. There were other humans who wanted to move up the ranks, you know. Like I said, you can’t get a tattoo if you’re a human, and you can’t be in charge if you don’t have a tattoo, and they sure felt like they’d earned it.” He shrugged, shaking his head. “So some of the top brothers said ‘Okay, fine,’ and took them to the facility. And they never came back.”
I narrowed my eyes. “They wanted to become shifters?”
Billy shrugged. “Look, I never asked the question outright, but…it sure seemed like that’s what they were asking for. And when I overheard some of the brothers discussing failed experiments over at that place, well…what was I supposed to think? Seems logical, doesn’t it?” He snorted and shook his head. “Never thought I’d say that kinda thing was logical, but here we are, huh?”
I nodded and said nothing, the weight of that implication settling over me. It wasn’t just shifters they were trying to control, but…hadn’t Iris said that the doctor had told her he wanted to learn from her? Maybe that was what he meant — he wanted to learn more about shifters so he could create his own from regular humans.
The idea made my skin crawl. It didn’t matter that they hadn’t been successful yet. They clearly weren’t to be deterred.
And if the Crescent Moon Pack treasure is real? They’ll have no issues with funding, and they’ll be even harder to stop.
“So what’re you gonna do with me?” Billy asked, breaking my train of thought.
“We certainly can’t let him go,” my father said, frowning at the man.
“We can’t kill him, either,” Remus argued, raising a brow. “He’s been useful enough…so far.”
My father gave a small nod. I grumbled, well-aware there would be no arguing the point. It would be a waste, and no matter how furious my wolf was, I still understood that logic. “So where are we going to keep him?”
“Silverstreak has a holding facility,” Remus answered smoothly. “We’ll get out of here, and I’ll ensure he makes it to the secure location.”
I had no better suggestion, so that would be the plan.
I didn’t get backto the safe house for several more hours. Billy had to be blindfolded and escorted to where we’d all met, and once there, he had to be transferred to another car with Bane and a few more guards to take him to Remus’ holding facility. It was well past midnight when I pulled back up to the safe house, signaling to Jaxon as I walked up the walkway and unlocked the front door.
The house was mostly quiet, but I could hear voices. It took me a moment to realize they were coming from the television, and when I stepped into the living room, I realized Iris and Bella had both fallen asleep on the couch. There was some Disney movie playing in the background, I could tell that much, though I never watched too many of them as a child. I couldn’t even have told you which one it was.
Not wanting to wake them, I carefully pulled a blanket off the armchair and unfolded it before gently laying it over them both. They looked so peaceful, and they clearly had a much better night than I did. “Sweet dreams,” I whispered quietly, finally slipping off my shoes.
I walked over to the other chair, a La-Z-Boy, and settled myself down into it, still watching Iris and Bella. I allowed the sound of the movie playing in the background to score my drift into sleep, warmed from the inside out by the sight in front of me.
21
IRIS
Remus’ Safe House
Travis County, Texas
Eli and I sat in the kitchen, sipping coffee as Bella leaned over the coffee table. She was coloring a page with such enthusiasm, I was surprised she didn’t color on the wood surface by accident. She’d only woken up twice in the night; once not long after the movie ended or Eli came home — I couldn’t tell you which. She’d also had a nightmare not long after we’d gotten her back into bed, but after I sat up with her again, she fell back asleep and didn’t stir for several hours.
At least she’s getting the chance to rest.
Even if Dr. Hayes said she didn’t have serious injuries like I did, she still had been subjected to Dr. Brenner for months — or longer. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what his “experiments” did to a growing shifter. I could only hope it wasn’t going to leave any lasting impact on her.
I halted my morbid thoughts before they could get any further. Bella had slept fairly well and woken up in bright spirits. She wolfed down the scrambled eggs I made for breakfast before taking her stuffed wolf over to the coffee table where she’d left her coloring books the night before. Though I had no experience raising children, I had to assume that meant she must be feeling at least a little more comfortable. She didn’t even try to coax Eli or me to sit with her, and the look of pure concentration on her face suggested to me she was deeply involved in whatever she was working on.
“So,” I said quietly, not wanting to distract Bella. I glanced back at Eli. “Did you guys find anything useful last night?”
Eli and I hadn’t yet had a chance to talk. I’d been asleep when he came back, and when we all woke up, it was because Bella was unsettled. By the time Eli and I finally got into bed, well…all I could think of was sleep at that point.
“Yes and no,” Eli said, bringing me back to the present. “No documents or items or any other sort of evidence we could bring back.” He paused, looking a little apologetic. “Honestly, as far as hideouts went, it was pretty unimpressive.”
“So what’s the ‘yes’ part?” I prompted.
“Ah, yeah. There was one person holding the place down. A human. He had an attitude that lasted about thirty seconds.” Eli snorted and shook his head. “He didn’t reveal much we didn’t know, but he did confirm that only alpha wolves get the bird tattoo and are allowed to be leaders. Humans and other shifters can’t become any sort of leader, no matter how…I don’t know, howvaluablethey are to the brotherhood.”
I wrinkled my nose. Valuing wolves only by their status as alpha (or not) was so archaic. While it was true alphas were usually physically stronger and had the ability to cast their alpha wolf on others, that wasn’t to say other shifters didn’t possess other valuable qualities. Betas, for example, were better at modulating strong emotions in themselves and those around them. There was a reason every pack had one, and it didn’t make a beta less of a leader, either.
