Page 117 of Wanted

“Are you sure? What about him? He hasn’t shifted or anything, has he?” A female voice. I know it well. It’s my mother.

I hear wrestling from the back of the truck. I slit one of my eyes open enough to see the doctor lean out of the back window to reach over my cage.

He shakes Chance’s cage. There’s no reaction.

“No, he’s still in his human form,” the doctor says in such a calm, remote manner that if I didn’t know any better, I’d believe this was a run-of-the-mill, everyday occurrence for him.

“And he’s unconscious?” my mother asks.

“Nearly sleeping with the dead.”

That almost causes a howl to rise all the way up my chest and out of my throat. I force my wolf to clamp my jaw shut. Even as the pain lances through my chest.

“Did you have to hit him with two darts?” Dr. Lee asks as he settles back into his seat in the back of the truck. Thoughhe leaves the window open, allowing me to hear the inside conversation.

“He’ll be out for a while and I’d rather have him awake when I begin my experiments.” He clicks his tongue.

“Do you see how big thatthingis? He had David by the throat. Who knows what that wild beast could’ve done to him?”

The shrill in her voice underscores the disgust for Chance. Dr. Lee, however, chuckles.

“I told you not to engage until we got them here. And you never told me about the gray streak in her hair. That’s a rare occurrence among their kind. It means she’s a storyteller.

“I’ve been waiting to get my hands on one of those for years. She might be able to tell me what the old writings in the texts I have mean.”

What is he talking about? I wonder.

My mother sucks her teeth. “That awful, ugly gray hair.” She clicks her tongue, and it doesn’t take much to imagine her shaking her head in disgust. A look I’m familiar with from my mother.

“We tried to control her,” my father says, regarding the doctor’s previous comment. “But then Emery went running through the house searching for Ashley.”

“Right before she turned into that… that…thing!” My mother pushes out a harsh breath. “I can’t believe I had to look at that animal. I don’t want to see it ever again once we drop them off at the lab.”

“You won’t, honey,” my father soothes.

“And we’ll have the money you promised us?” my mother asks.

“Yes, yes,” Dr. Lee replies. “After all of these years, I will make the final six-figure payment to your overseas account.”

I can’t make sense of any of this. Nothing is making sense and all I keep hearing is the repulsion in my mother’s tone.

For the remainder of the drive, I do my best to remain still to not alert them that I’m awake. I have to figure out what is going on, and more importantly how to get me and Chance out of this.

CHAPTER 33

Emery

After what feels like an eternity, the truck finally comes to a stop. I scent the air and know we’re in the woods somewhere. The smell of white pine and sugar maple trees tells me we’re still in Upstate New York.

I barely manage to keep myself from flinching when the back of the truck bed opens.

“Whoa! What the hell we got here?” a man asks before letting out a whistle. “That’s a big motherfucker, isn’t it?”

There’s a slight southern accent to his words.

“Just for you and your crew,” Dr. Lee says.

“Oh shit. He looks like he could be a lead beta. Ron, come look at this big fucker.”