Isaiah’s inhale wheezed. “That’s not possible.”
“Obviously it is because he’s alive.”
“There had to be someone there with him.” Isaiah prayed there was.
“He was alone.”
“No.” Isaiah stood, took a few steps, then turned back. “No, there’s some other explanation.” Only someone stronger and faster than a human stood a chance of killing a cur. “If Dr. Dante could take a wolf, Grey would know, and he would have gone after him before the Utah Facility incident.”
So far, Grey showed no interest in bloodlines outside of Mah lineage. But if Dr. Dante were Varu, Isaiah was sure Grey would have made an exception because a scientist with firsthand knowledge and experience with the ichor would be too valuable to leave out in the open. No, Grey would have taken the researcher the moment the VrK had been created, and he would have injected him, turned him into a Mah, and blood tied Dr. Dante to the pack.
It was Laura’s lack of response that made Isaiah ask, “You know something, don’t you?”
“It seems while Dr. Dante was in Canada, Paul Dekker bit him.”
Isaiah rubbed his forehead. “What would make you think that?” Especially since Dr. Dante was alive.
“Because the medical examination Dr. Dante had after the attack in his home revealed a scar on his shoulder that wasn’t noted in examinations previously done by US doctors before Paul took him.”
Thunder rumbled in the distance, and a soft wind carried the promise of rain. “But Paul Dekker’s dead.”
“Very.”
“If Dr. Dante survived a bite, he’d be a cur. And if he was a cur, he would have died with Paul.”
“What if he was Urja?”
How long had it been since Isaiah had heard that word? Long enough that he wasn’t even sure where he had. The Clan leaders forbid Urja before he was born.
Unlike a Cana who brought peace to a pack, Urja brought out the darkness, empowering the wolves and sending hosts into a second stage of metamorphosis that enabled the beta tied to the Urja to draw strength from the Suvar and feed it to those who were bonded to him.
Urja didn’t just make a pack powerful like a Cana. It turned them into monsters.
Then those packs would have the strength to rebel if they chose, and rebelling threatened the Varu Clan’s goal to integrate with human society.
The air thinned. “Why…” Isaiah forced himself to breathe. “If you knew, why didn’t you kill him?”
“Because I didn’t.”
“You’ve dissected every aspect of that man’s life. You can’t convince me you didn’t know he’d been bitten.”
“We’d already combed through his medical records before we picked him up after the Utah Facility incident. Then again, when he was diagnosed with the heart defect.”
“You interrogated him after Canada.” She should have found out then.
“I did, but there was no reason to have him examined by one of our doctors since he’d just had a clean bill of health from a Canadian hospital.”
“Youwould have suspected something.”
Laura was an Apex Warden. That required instincts as keen as any Varu. So there was no way Dr. Dante had hidden the bite. There was only…
“You chose not to have him examined, didn’t you?” Isaiah already knew the answer.
“Without confirmation, I’m not in violation of my oath.”
So, she had purposely ignored it. “Laura, why?”
“The same reason I choose not to confirm my suspicions as to why you spent a large portion of your coffers to acquire higher education for one of your pack members with a focus on biological sciences.”