Alpha Pack 4 - Hunters Heart (13 page)

enough, with high cheekbones, thin, arched brows, and

thick black lashes framing her brown eyes.

Nice, but plain. Nothing to account for the intense

desire that had been rolling off Ryon like steam from a

boiling pan of water. Not that she was about to complain.

In the bedroom, she retrieved the piece of paper Ryon

had written the important numbers on, and pushed it into

the pocket of her jeans. She walked out of the quarters into

the hallway, firmly closing the door behind her, and

glanced around.

Setting off in the direction of Ryon’s room, she came to

the door that corresponded to the number he’d written on

the paper. The man owed her a talk and he was going to

follow through.

After knocking, she waited for any sign of life beyond.

She was just getting ready to knock again when the door

swung open. Ryon stood there bare-chested, and she

couldn’t help that her eyes immediately fell upon the broad

expanse of taut skin. He was toned a golden hue, a fair-

haired man with the complexion of someone who was

outside frequently. His pecs were dusted with just the right

amount of hair, enough to tickle and fun to play with, but

not too furry.

“Hey there,” he said, eyeing her curiously. “I was going

to check on you soon. Everything okay?”

“That’s what I’m here to find out.” She wasn’t going to

be swayed by his hunky self standing half-naked in the

doorway.

His expression became serious. “You deserve the truth.

Why don’t you come in and we’ll talk about—” A buzzing

noise interrupted what he was about to say. With a

grimace, he pulled an iPhone from this front jeans pocket

and looked at the display. “Nick. I have to take this.”

Turning, he went back into his quarters as he answered

and waved her to follow. From his end of the

conversation, she could tell that hers with Ryon would

have to wait.

“Hey, boss.” Pause. “Now?” Pause. “All right, I’ll tell

her.” He ended the call.

“What is it?”

“Nick wants you and me in the conference room for a

meeting with the team.” He made a face. “It has something

to do with the body in the woods.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know what more I can contribute,

but I’ll sit in and listen.”

“Let me just put on a shirt.” Quickly, he disappeared

into his bedroom.

“Don’t bother on my account,” she muttered.

He called out. “What?”

“Nothing!” Damn, wolf shifters must have supernatural

hearing, too.

He emerged wearing a dark T-shirt that read NEVER

ENGAGE IN A BATTLE OF WITS WITH AN UNARMED PERSON.

She snorted and he glanced down at it. Then he snickered.

“Oh, well. Guess it’ll do.”

They walked out together, and he kept his pace slower

so she could keep up. Her energy wasn’t 100 percent,

though her pain was pretty much in the past.

“You’re doing great without the wheelchair,” he

observed.

“I just needed that extra bit of time to get back on my

feet, but now I’m fine.”

“We’ll get Melina to x-ray that arm again. She might be

able to take the cast off.”

She gaped at him. “After a couple of days? Are you

nuts?”

“Nope. You’ll see.”

He didn’t offer more, and it frustrated her to no end. She

tried to put it out of her mind as they came to the

conference room. Inside, the Pack guys were assembled,

some sitting around the huge oval table, some standing or

leaning against the walls. All of them appeared interested

in what Nick, at the head of the table, had to share with

them.

“I’ve had some news from the sheriff,” he said by way

of calling them to order. When the room stilled, he went

on. “This afternoon the body of the second hiker was

found about two miles from the woman. They’re almost

positive it’s her husband, from the clothing and some of

the belongings that were scattered. Deveraux slipped us a

sample of the man’s tissue, for comparison against the

woman. Of course, our lab is looking for shit the humans

would never dream of.”

A few grim chuckles followed that statement.

“And have they got anything from the woman?” Micah

asked.

“Yeah.” Nick rubbed the back of his neck, as though he

was searching for the exact right words for what he had to

tell them. “There was no wolf DNA present in the saliva

on the lady’s tissue, either natural wolf or shifter. Even if

the white wolf was capable of shifting into half-human

form, our lab doesn’t feel there’s any way she could’ve

done that sort of damage. The teeth marks aren’t consistent

with the length or curvature of our fangs.”

“What
are
they consistent with?” Aric crossed his arms

over his chest.

“This is the fun part. The marks in the tissue and the

way the victims’ bones were crushed match an animal

with the massive skull of say, a tiger, and the teeth of an

alligator. The skin was punctured, two jagged rows of

long teeth evidenced there, just like a roadmap of the

creature’s mouth.”

“Jesus,” Ryon breathed. “What the fuck?”

Grabbing a remote control for the projector, Nick

turned on the device to shine an image on the wide screen.

“
What the fuck?
about sums it up. This is a computerized

composite image of our mystery creature based on the

lab’s findings.”

“How the hell did they come up with something like

that?” Jax blurted. “That thing is impossible.”

“Nothing is impossible, as we all know firsthand. The

victim’s tissue was slathered with the DNA of the

attacker, and it turns out that the DNA contained shifter

gene strands of a tiger, a bear, a wolf, a huge lizard—and

a human.” This caused some exclamations of shock. “I

created this picture with the lab’s help, as a beast that

contains similar characteristics of their findings, using the

strongest traits of each shifter, and merged with a human. It

won’t be exact, but we’re dealing with something like this

guy.”

Daria stared at the rendition. The beast had to be at

least eight feet tall, with a thick skull shaped like a tiger’s

and a maw similar to a gator’s, but with the mouth much

shorter. It stood erect on two hind legs, thighs thick as tree

trunks. Its chest was like a barrel, arms strong, hands and

feet sort of webbed, with sharp claws on the end. The hide

was tough and scaly-looking.

The creature was the ugliest fictional monster Daria had

ever seen. Only it wasn’t a costume for some alien movie.

It was fact.

Everyone looked their fill for a few moments, the mood

somber. Finally, Ryon spoke. “I hate to say this, but

there’s only one way I can think of as to how this monster

came into existence.”

“Unfortunately, you’re on the right track. When we

liberated Malik’s and Bowman’s test subjects from the

last lab, one of them obviously escaped.” Nick heaved a

weary breath, but met his men’s gazes steadily.

“And now we have some poor bastard who was turned

into a mutant killing machine wreaking havoc on the

general population.”

“Jesus Christ,” someone moaned.

Nick gave a grim laugh. “I have a bad feeling we’re

going to need more help than that.”

Daria had a bad feeling he was right.

Six

Jax was pissed. Ryon watched his friend, knew he was

taking the news badly. As they all were.

Jax yanked at his goatee in anger. “I don’t see how it’s

possible we lost one. We were careful!”

“You can’t take this personally,” Ryon told him. “It’s

not your fault, or anyone’s. Remember, the building

exploded and some of us were injured. In the chaos, one of

the test subjects ran. It’s a pretty believable and

understandable outcome.”

Kalen pushed from the wall where he’d been leaning. “I

just remembered something. Right before the building

blew, Bowman was excited, talking about a test subject

that was almost a perfect example of the super-soldier

they were trying to create. He apparently had more

tweaking to do, but in his twisted mind he was nearly

there. What if that’s the one who escaped?”

“It’s a good theory,” Nick said. “No one on our list of

survivors has anywhere close to the horrible genetic

mutation that our subject has acquired. So, it has to be one

that got past us, perhaps Bowman’s pet. Do you recall

what Bowman said about the subject?”

Kalen nodded. “Yeah. He said something like
‘Bring

the wolf to OR-4. I want to try to splice his DNA with

human subject 356 again. I’m on the verge of a

breakthrough.’”

“That could be important. Every bit of information

helps.”

“You know,” Micah said thoughtfully. “if this creature

is in fact one of the poor bastards like me who got

experimented on, that might explain why I felt him at the

first victim’s murder scene.”

Ryon nodded. “That’s right. I felt a vibration, but for

you it was like ants crawling on your skin.”

“A lot of tests were done on our skin,” Micah said.

“Might be why I get a prickling sensation when he’s

close.”

“So what’s the plan?” Ryon asked.

Nick clicked the remote and brought up a map of the

Shoshone. “The forest is too vast to search the entire

region at once. I think we should split into teams and look

in the areas in the grid close to where the bodies were

found. See if we can find where the creature is holed up.”

“And if we do find it?” Aric snorted. “Should we ask it

nicely to come with us? Man, I’m no pussy, but that thing?

That’s seriously messed up.”

“I’m with Aric,” Hammer put in. The big, quiet man

usually just listened and used his muscle whenever and

wherever needed, and he had plenty of that. But even he

appeared worried. “We’ve got no idea yet what that thing

can do.”

Their commander shared their concerns, but his

directions stood. “Unfortunately, this is one of those cases

where we won’t know until we dive in. I wish there was

another way, but there isn’t.”

“When do we leave?” Jax asked.

“First light.” His smile was grim. “When it’s up and

ready for breakfast.”

More grumbling ensued. Micah shifted in his seat. “A

question. Since the white wolf has been ruled out as the

killer, why did it push Daria into the ravine?”

Nick was silent a moment. Whatever his thoughts were,

he wasn’t happy about them. “I don’t know. But I’m going

to find out.”

Interesting choice of words.
I’m going to find out
. Not

We’ll find out
. But Nick always played his cards close to

the vest. Getting a secret out of him was like sneaking a

gold bar out of Fort Knox.

“Everyone can go, except Ryon and Daria.”

The others filed out, shooting them looks of sympathy.

As good a boss as Nick might be, nobody liked to be the

one singled out for a meeting when he took on that tone.

Once everyone was gone, Nick moved closer to him and

Daria, taking a seat at the table across from them. Most of

Nick’s attention was for his mate, and Ryon was puzzled.

But not for long.

“Daria, I spoke with your father today.”

That gave her a visible jolt. Her eyes widened. “Dad?

How did you get in touch with him? Why?”

“Actually, he got in touch with me. The news story

about the killings here went national and your name was

mentioned as the wildlife biologist who stumbled onto one

of the bodies and became injured.”

She rubbed her temples. “Oh, no. I didn’t think he

would hear the story all the way in Missouri.”

“Yeah. He’s apparently been going nuts calling the

Sheriff’s Department for the past two days trying to find

out where you were. Of course, that information was being

kept secret and Jesse has been so swamped that he missed

receiving your dad’s messages until this morning.”

“What did he tell Dad?”

“Just that you were fine, staying with friends while you

recovered from your so-called scrapes and bruises,” he

said wryly. They all knew the danger had been much more

than that. “He promised your dad you would call.”

“Damn. I’d hoped to get through this without him finding

out.” She frowned.

“Any particular reason?”

She leaned back, looking annoyed. “He’s a worrywart.

Dad and I are close, and he’d be in my hip pocket if he

could, keeping his baby safe.”

Nick’s sudden smile was wistful. “Dads are like that.

You should cut him some slack.”

Ryon wondered at his tone, the expression, but the

moment passed.

“Well, thank you for telling me. I would’ve called him

in another day or two anyway, though I wasn’t going to

mention my, um, adventure.”

“You should know that he’s been trying to reach you

since before he knew you’d been hurt. Not only does he

want to make sure his daughter’s all right, he has some

news from home and needs you to call right away.”

Daria looked alarmed. “Is he okay? Did he say what’s