by Lacey Thorn
“Yes, he’s mated to another member of our pride, Kenzie Marshall,” Tah clarified.
Darby had read about Kenzie, as well. She’d been a part of the Marine unit Tah had commanded. Darby had tried to read the file they had on the other woman but it was encrypted, and Darby didn’t have the clearance required to open it. Whoever Kenzie was, she must have an interesting story.
“I admit we don’t have as much information since you left Colorado,” Darby informed them. “This place makes it impossible for a watcher to get close enough without you discovering them.”
“Isn’t that why you’re here?” Tah questioned smoothly.
“Part of it, I’m sure, though that wasn’t the purpose I was given. I’ve read my father’s message to you, the unencrypted part. He spells it out for you. I’m here to help however I can, with information, contacts, and anything else within my power.”
“How far does your network of contacts reach?” Abby asked.
“Everywhere,” Darby answered. “We’re global. My father is in Ireland now, checking into something that caught his attention. He’ll be working with those within our network there.”
“Ireland?” Abby glanced at her mate as she asked the question.
“I know what you’re wondering. If it has something to do with the two Dockery brothers you have here, my answer is that I don’t know. My father didn’t go into detail about why he was heading there, but I’m sure he’ll tell me when he can.”
“And you’ll keep us posted on anything you learn,” Tah added quietly, though there was no masking the command in his voice.
Darby nodded. “I will.”
She broke off when Calloway walked back in with her backpack on his shoulder. Her mate carried it to her. She took in his expression, the loose movement of his arms and legs. No tension, no anger. Whatever Gideon had or hadn’t said while they were together, it hadn’t upset her mate, but the other man was no longer with him.
“Gideon headed to the lab. He pointed it out and told me to stop in with Darby when we’re done here.” He trailed the backs of his fingers over her cheek and gave her a smile meant solely for her. “He wants some blood work on both of us. I take it that’s normal procedure here.”
“You’ll get used to it,” Tah grumbled. “Once you meet the professor, you’ll understand more.”
Professor Mueller. Darby had read about him, too. It was his daughter who was mated to not one but all four of the wolf alphas. Darby couldn’t imagine having four alphas as mates. Hell, one arrogant cougar was enough for her. She wasn’t as up on the wolves as she was on the cats, but she knew the wolves had faked the professor’s death to neutralize a threat to his life. She was looking forward to meeting him and finding out more.
“The professor’s always wanting us to give blood. So much so that Logan’s nicknamed him the vampire king,” Abby added with a laugh.
Darby started to question why he would want so much blood but stopped herself. She’d find out for herself eventually. At the moment, she needed to focus on the task at hand, opening the encrypted message her father had sent to Tah and Abby.
Darby listened to Tah and Calloway talk about the drive to Riverton while she dug through her bag and pulled out the drive she needed. She plugged it in, waited for the computer to scan and recognize the device then right clicked on the document and chose to open it with a program on her drive. Abby watched everything over Darby’s shoulder.
“Do all watchers have this type of programming?” Abby questioned.
“Yes and no,” Darby answered as she watched the program work its magic. “This is a specific encryption used between my father and I. Another watcher might be able to come close to decoding the message, but they wouldn’t be able to decrypt it completely. It’s a safeguard that all watchers use in case any correspondence were to fall into the wrong hands.”
“You meant hunters. What if they did get it and had one of your watchers captive?” Abby wanted to know.
“We have protocols in place,” Darby assured her.
“Such as?” Abby pressed. “What would you do if they had you and tried to force you to decode the message?”
“I’d use a different program that would corrupt the file as well as the computer it was on.”
“A group of hunters would kill you for that,” Abby whispered.
“I wouldn’t be the first watcher to die in such a way,” Darby stated as Calloway growled behind her. She reached up to pat the hand he laid on her shoulder, giving his fingers a squeeze to remind him she was fine.
“I’m sorry,” Abby said, and Darby assumed she was trying to douse the tension pouring off of Calloway. “It was purely hypothetical. Nothing is going to happen to Darby now that she’s here. We’ll take care of her.”
“We will,” Tah agreed, moving to stand next to Calloway behind the couch. She felt his gaze over her shoulder and wasn’t surprised when he focused on the way the document was changing as her program worked. “Can you read it yet?”
“One more minute,” Darby murmured as she watched. Abby had leaned in so close their cheeks were almost touching. Darby slid over the computer so it rested half on her and half on Abby. Whatever had been sent was meant for all of them.
“What is that?” Tah asked as the screen filled with a random flow of words.
“The drive decrypted it to something I can read.” Darby’s gaze scanned the words, pulling out the letters she needed and moving past the others. “It’s a request for an extraction,” she read. “It appears that someone has been compromised, and their safety is an issue.”
“Extraction?” Tah queried. “Your father needs us to come get him? Or is he requesting our help for another watcher?”
“This isn’t a watcher,” Darby continued, and realized she was going to have to see just how much they did know about what Isaac had been doing over the years. “She’s one of Isaac Erikson’s.” She glanced up at Tah’s growl, closely followed by another whimper from the babe in his arms. “Sorry. I understand you didn’t know him long before he died.”
“We knew him well enough,” Tah pronounced. “What exactly do you mean by this person being one of his?”
“Isaac was well known for using people for his own ends. He could and would use anyone for his schemes, and it made it difficult for us to do anything about it. We stepped in when information reached us in time, but that was the exception not the rule.”
“Fuck!” Tah swore with a growl. “What the hell kind of schemes was the bastard involved in?”
“We’re not exactly sure of the extent of his plans,” Darby told them. “We know he used humans to strike back at the hunters.”
“How did he use them?” Calloway asked.
“He sent them to infiltrate the hunting society wherever he could. As far as we’ve been able to learn, they were all affected in one way or another by hunters. They either witnessed an attack or walked into the aftermath. Isaac played on their emotions until they were ready to do whatever he asked them to stop the monsters.”
“Jesus!” Tah snapped.
“What can you tell us about this person? How were they compromised? What danger are they in?” Abby inquired.
“It looks as if they were sent to a lab. It doesn’t say how they were endangered just that they were and that they need immediate extraction. Before you ask, I can’t tell you who it is either. I’ve just got initials. MQJ.”
“Oh, my God!” Abby exclaimed.
“What?” Calloway asked.
“When Isaac died, we spent some time going through his paperwork. We came across some that had letters with dates and more letters. We knew they were codes of some kind. We came across those initials, MQJ. We have a doctor here. His name is Miles Jensen. The letters were followed by a date. When he saw them, he thought they could be about his daughter, Madison Quinn Jensen. The date was the one she disappeared on. He hasn’t heard from her since.”
“Was there a hunter link?”
“M
iles lost his wife to a hunter attack,” Tah filled in. “It was a warning to him for working with our kind. His daughter blamed him. She was beyond angry.”
“And ripe for a man like Isaac to get his hands on. He would have fed her anger then offered her the perfect solution for revenge,” Darby said.
“We’ll have to tell Miles about this,” Abby reasoned.
“Once we know for sure, we will,” Tah emphasized.
Darby nodded. “That makes sense. I’ll need to see the complete code you came across. See if I can place where Isaac sent her to. If this is her, she’s in trouble and needs help.”
“We’ll need a hell of a lot more information before we put together any type of plan for a rescue. As it is, we have no idea what we’d be walking into. This could be a well-formulated attempt by hunters to do a little manipulating of their own, lure us out into the open,” Tah admonished.
“That might be true except for one thing,” Darby corrected. “This message was never meant for you. This was sent to us, and we’d never risk the safety of any shifter.”
“Who then?” Calloway questioned, and she knew by his tone that he thought she meant to go herself. She wasn’t stupid. She wasn’t trained for that.
“It was sent to your father or someone he knows,” Abby mused aloud. “So one of the watchers was meant to get this person out.”
“Yes,” Darby agreed. “I’ll need to follow protocol on this, reach out to the network we have in place and give them the information sent. They’ll know where to look and the danger involved in attempting an extraction.”
“You have watchers who’ve infiltrated the hunters?” Abby sounded shocked at the idea.
“We do,” Darby confirmed. “We figured out a long time ago that the best way to protect the shifters was to know the enemy. No better way than from the inside. Our people contact the network when they can, step in when an opportunity presents itself, and work on derailing anything they’re able to.”
“Tell me about this network,” Tah commanded.
She shrugged her shoulders. “I’m afraid I don’t know much beyond the fact it was set up long ago when watchers first tried to gain access to sects of hunters. It was a safety plan, a way for those inside to get in touch with watchers on the outside. My father would be able to tell you more. I’m afraid I don’t have the clearance to know more than what I’ve shared.”
“But you know enough to get in touch with them?” Abby asked.
“Yes.”
“You do have a wealth of connections at your fingertips, Darby,” Tah admitted. “Much more than we realized.”
“We can stop them,” Darby vowed. “Working together, we can put an end to the hunters once and for all.”
“I hope you’re right,” Abby said, glancing up at her mate and child. Darby understood the mother’s desire for a better world for her daughter, one where people weren’t set on hunting Regan down simply because she was different.
“I’m not sure if this is related or not, but it seems like too big of a coincidence to ignore,” Darby proclaimed. She pulled out her phone and called up the message from her father, putting it on speaker so they all heard it.
I was hoping to speak with you before takeoff. My flight’s nine and a half hours with only one stop. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to call you then or not. I wanted to warn you. Calloway left sometime last night. I have no doubt he’s following you. Eyes open, my girl.
Calloway squeezed her shoulder while Tah chuckled, but Darby ignored them as she waited for the rest of her father’s message to play.
One more thing. I…had a phone call this morning. We’ve found something…someone. I’ll tell you more when we speak. She’s…unique…and in danger, serious danger. We’ve got to get her out before it’s too late.
“Unique?” Abby asked.
“I don’t know,” Darby said. “There’s nothing in this message about that.”
“Whether this person is Miles’ daughter or not is beside the point,” Abby stressed. “They’re in danger, and there’s only one avenue open to us at the moment to get them help.”
“I’ll make the call,” Darby vowed. She prayed they’d be in time to help the person who needed them.
Chapter Ten
Darby left a message on the machine that picked up, followed by her number then the number Tah had given her. There was nothing further she could do until she heard back from someone within the network.
Tah walked them to the lab. Darby thought part of the reason was because he thought she might get an immediate call back. She’d tried to tell him and Abby it would be at minimum of twenty-four hours before she heard anything, but most likely, it would be after the person who received her message contacted another watcher to step in.
Tah was adamant he know what was going on, citing that if it turned out the MQJ was Miles Jensen’s daughter, she was part of their extended family. That Isaac Erikson was involved in the woman’s situation appeared to play a role, as well. Apparently, the pride had made it their mission to decipher the cryptic papers Isaac had left behind and correct whatever he’d done. Darby had a feeling if this turned out to be Quinn, as the pride referred to her, she would be just the beginning of them learning the extent of what Isaac Erikson had put into place.
“These are the new arrivals then.” A short man with a crop of unruly, white hair seemed to fly across the room to them. Darby knew he had to be the professor. He approached Calloway first, poking his stomach, palpitating his neck then tugging his upper lip until Calloway snarled at him, canines flashing as he stepped back. The older man laughed. “Prickly lot you shifters are.”
Tah sighed. “This is Professor Mueller. I should have warned you about his habit of annoying people.”
“Research, Tah. I can’t treat what I don’t know.”
“I’m not sick,” Calloway rumbled.
“But you’ve been injected with drugs, and Gideon mentioned that worried you. Sit.” He pointed to a stool. “We’ll take some blood, run some tests and see what’s what. Cougar right?”
Calloway nodded and took a seat on the proffered stool.
“And you’re the watcher.” White, bushy brows lifted as he skimmed his avid gaze over Darby before focusing on Calloway once more. She watched as he prepped her mate’s arm then slid a needle in. “I’ve got journals you’ll want, but only when the time is right.”
“Journals! Where? How?”
He waved his hand as he removed a filled vial from the needle in Calloway’s arm and inserted another. “Picked them up here and there when I came across them. Interesting reading. I imagine more so for you.” He went about changing vials again then set everything aside, tossing the used needle in a bin and turning fully to her. “Up you go,” he said to Calloway, who stood quickly and moved aside. “Now, it’s your turn.”
He motioned for her to take the stool Calloway had been sitting on and went about pulling out fresh supplies.
“So whose journals do you have?” she asked as he poked her and began filling tubes with her blood.
“Mmm, different people,” he answered, his attention clearly focused on what he was doing.
“Is something wrong?” Darby asked as he seemed to visually analyze her blood.
“As much writing as you all do, I expected you to bleed ink,” he murmured.
Her eyes widened until he glanced at her again and she noted the twinkle in his gaze. Tah laughed.
“Open,” the professor demanded, and she responded without thought. He swiped a huge swab in her mouth, running it over her inner cheek.
“What’s that for?” she asked as he turned and handed Calloway another swab, gesturing for him to do the same to himself.
“He’s bitten you.” He nodded toward the mark just visible at the collar of her shirt. “Changes seem to begin with the introduction of their saliva into your bloodstream. Have you noticed any differences from how you were before?”
She nodded. “My hearing’s better. Act
ually, all my senses are increasing.”
“Good, good,” the professor muttered as he made notes on a clipboard. “Won’t be on par with your mate’s but much better than mine. Your recovery time if injured will decrease, also. Your body will become more resistant to run-of-the-mill illnesses. That bite of his, it’s better than a flu shot.”
Calloway snorted a laugh.
“Ah, here comes Gideon,” the professor said. He put the vials in the pockets of his lab coat, grabbed his clipboard then headed out with a wave of his hand.
“He’s…interesting,” Darby said.
Tah grinned. “He’s been like a father to Abby. When she and I mated, he took on the lot of us without question. He’s passionate about his work, works far more than he should and is one of my daughter’s favorite people in the world.”
“His daughter is Jess Mueller, correct? The one mated to all four of the wolf alphas?”
Tah nodded. “And also a close friend.”
“You have ties to the bear shifter pack in Wyoming, as well?” she queried.
Tah gave another nod.
“Connections,” she said, answering the question in his gaze. “The wolves, bears and coyotes. Now, to the watchers. It’s going to take all of us if we plan to put a stop to this war. You’re the first alpha to bridge the gap with the leaders of the other shifter species. Staying separated makes it easier to control you. Banding together will make you formidable foes. Proactive instead of reactive. It has the potential to change everything.”
“Something to delve more into this evening,” Tah replied. “I’ll leave Gideon to show you to your cabin and see you both at dinner. Call me immediately if you hear back from your contact.”
“I will,” she promised as he turned and walked in the direction the professor had gone earlier. She was a bit confused by his abrupt departure. Wasn’t he excited at the thought of putting a stop to the hunters once and for all?