“If we find her, that might lead us to the other recent disappearances too, like Cyn,” Iris added.
I nodded. “Maybe we should check home ownerships in the area — see if anything matches up to the names we have here. I haven’t been getting far with the business aspect, but I hadn’t thought of homes until now. Depending on their available money, it might be no problem to buy up residential areas as a front.”
Iris glanced over at me and nodded. “That’s an excellent thought. I have a few contacts that owe me favors trying to uncover some things, but I’ll ask them to look into that, too. All we have to do is find the facility, I’m sure of it. That has to be the link to tie all these ends together. I don’t know how else they could manage to contain and subdue this many wolves without losing one or some information getting aired, you know?”
“Yeah, given how many are missing — sorry,reportedmissing — I don’t think they’re taking one at a time. They need to have some kind of safe house to keep multiple individuals. And they’re wolves! So, they have to be using something to sedate or restrain them — regular humans wouldn’t be able to hold them against their will.”
Remus had gotten to his feet, wandering back to the wall. “What about this?” he asked. When I turned around, I saw he was pointing at a photo of the blood donation van Iris had printed out. “Have we investigated this fully?”
Iris stood next, following him over. “I was able to place many of the missing wolves having visited it,” she confirmed, pointing to the faces as she spoke. “But not all of them. No matter how much I hate coincidences, I can’t rule them out as coincidental. My next thought was to investigate who was working there, as it seems to be mostly run by shifters, but I haven’t had much luck with that yet.”
“It looks to be mostly supported by donations,” I added, getting up to join them. “So, the records have been messy to go through at best.”
Nic was the last to join us back at the wall. “Someone has to be feeding these shifters to humans, though, like that gunman,” he said, scowling deeply. His eyes had found Ryan’s photo on the wall. “Otherwise, how would a human ever be able to know who was a shifter and who wasn’t? Their senses just aren’t that good.” He made a face. “Do you think Ryan was selling other wolves out?”
I frowned, staring at the photo for a few moments. “He was adamant that he had no idea shifters were involved for months; he thought they were developing a weapon. Frankly, Ryan wasn’t very good at handling his emotions, so I’m inclined to believe his explanation. Unless he was secretly an award-winning actor, I don’t think he was responsible for selling out his packmates.” I shook my head. “I also don’t think he has the right contacts. Whoever is selling these wolves out, they’re in contact with the transient communities. They also targeted some drug users — both active and recovering. Ryan didn’t seem to have contact with either of those groups.”
Remus made a low noise. “I can make a list of individuals I know who organize or work in those areas,” he said, grimacing. I knew the thought was painful for him — the idea of someone volunteering their time to aid those less fortunate, only for that person to be preying upon the most vulnerable members of society. A pack was only as strong as its weakest link, and if they were being snatched up and disappearing…
At least we’re getting somewhere.
I wasn’t sure if we were getting there fast enough, but we were gettingsomewhere. We had twice the resources now, but we were no closer to discovering anything about this Project Night Moon, who was behind it, and where the missing shifters were. Iris and Nic were right — with Ryan dead, Ashley would be running out of time. We needed something to change soon, or we might end up too late for her, too.
33
IRIS
Eli’s Penthouse
Austin, Texas
Even though the blinds were drawn, light had finally filtered into the room, hitting me gently in the face. I woke up slowly; it was something I could almost call peaceful. I was warm and the blankets were pleasantly heavy. The pillow still smelled like Eli, birchwood and leather. Like lying out in a birch grove with nothing but the sky overhead and moss underneath. I nuzzled into it, almost tempted to drift back off when I noticed the weight missing from around my waist.
I gave a gentle yawn and turned over, blinking the sleep from my eyes — but the other side of the bed was empty. When I reached my hand forward, smoothing over the exposed sheets, they were cold.Not just up to use the bathroom, then.
Curious, I crawled forward on my belly, reaching for my phone on the nightstand. When I flipped it over, I wasn’t surprised to be alone in the bed; it was almost noon. Eli had probably gotten up to eat ages ago. I wasn’t even surprised I’d slept this long, given the opportunity, though I was surprised that he hadn’t needed more rest.
I guess shifting to heal goes a long way.
Sometimes, I wondered what would have happened to me if another shifter family had taken me in instead of humans. If being coaxed to shift would have helped my heart and chest heal more than it did, or would it not have mattered? I spent weeks in the hospital. Maybe longer. I lost track of time. Perhaps the damage was already done to my wolf and me by then.
I touched my chest gently and shook the thought off. No matter the case, the option had long since passed. Shifter families didn’t raise me; I did have a pacemaker, and that was that. There was no use dwelling on it now and making myself melancholy.
As I sat, the world swayed around me menacingly.Oh, it’s going to be one of those days.I grimaced as my stomach lurched, staring at a single point on the wall as I focused on my breathing.One, two, three, four. Inhale. One, two, three, four. Exhale.
The breathing exercise helped me focus on something other than my blood pressure and nausea. Eventually, the room stopped oscillating around me like it was mimicking the ocean waves. Once up, I made my way to the guest room, where we’d dropped my bags. I didn’t mind wearing Eli’s clothes — honestly, they were pretty comfy — but they didn’t fit great, and I was finally starting to feel warm again. Trucking around Austin in sweatpants sounded like a recipe to get very sticky very quickly.
I took my time cleaning up and getting ready. Even though I’d slept for ages, I still felt tender. Slow. Sleepy. My blood thinners made me fatigued at the best of times, but pulling all these late-nighters — or worse, all-nighters — was doing a number on me.The things I do for a case. I wasn’t usually much of a makeup girl, but I decided to at least put on some concealer this morning, not loving the way the dark shadows looked under my eyes. The effort it took to brush out my hair and put it in a messy bun was all I had in me; the cleanest-looking pair of shorts was pulled on, old and faded or not, and I grabbed a black tank that had ‘Motivated by coffee’written across the front.
At the moment, nothing felt more accurate than that.
I stifled a yawn as I stumbled out of the bathroom, eyeing the door to the master suite longingly. Nothing sounded as good as crawling back into that luxurious king-sized bed, but my stomach gave a plaintive gurgle. If I didn’t eat sometime soon, I’d feel even worse the next time I woke up.
Deciding I didn’t want to deal with what was essentially an exhaustion hangover later on, I slowly puttered down the hall and into the kitchen area, bracing myself against one wall. Eli was on his feet the moment he saw me, practically vaulting from the couch in his hurry. “I’m fine,” I said pre-emptively, swatting at the hand he extended towards me.
Eli raised a brow. “Really?” he asked, looking pointedly at the fingers I had braced against the wall.
I shrugged. “Just a bit dizzy.”