Page 55 of An Unexpected Claim

I sighed and ran a hand over my beard. “Yeah. But other than being more familiar with his scent now, there wasn’t anything new.”

“What a fucking mess,” Tanner mumbled.

“No shit.” I scrubbed my face with my hands, then rolled my shoulders and neck. “Still no connection between the victims.”

“Oh, shit,” Tanner breathed. “I’m such an asshole.” He shuffled through the stacks of paper on his desk until he found the one he was looking for and shoved it at me. “I don’t have solid proof yet, but I have a hunch it’s going to pan out.”

“No fucking way,” I said in shock as I read through the paper. “Same facility?”

“Nope. That’s why I missed it at first. I decided to start with the first victim and follow their footsteps with a fine-toothed comb for the four weeks before their murder. Since that’s his time frame, I felt like it was a safe bet with victim number one. But we still don’t know what he was looking for that made him choose those particular people as his victims. Or what his purpose is for the way he leaves them.”

According to Tanner’s research, every single one of the victims had donated their DNA to a lab within the four-week window before their murder. One was a student and had donated to her science department, one was a twin and had donated to a study identical pairs, another had submitted their DNA to find out if they were genetically disposed to any diseases, it went on and on. Different reasons, different facilities—the only discernable connection was the act of donating and the time frame. I had no clue how this guy had access to all of this information, but if he did, this was most likely how he’d chosen his victims.

“You have a list of the facilities?” I asked. Tanner handed me another sheet of paper. Hacking into some of these databases would be a bitch. A few of them were like Fort fucking Knox and I wasn’t sure even I could crack the security on them.

We had other items to discuss at the moment and this would take time. I’d have to look into it more later, so I set the papers beside me.

I turned my attention to the missing Council members, of which now totaled three. “Any progress on the search for Melinda or Fenn?”

I couldn’t dig into the circumstances of all three at once, so; I’d focused my attention on the missing shifter, Beau. The other two were representatives of different species. Melinda was a vampire from the New York coven, but she was Lucien’s cousin, which meant he’d been up my ass about her. Fenn was a Fae representative. His king wasn’t happy with me either.

Apparently, absent the real villain, they had no one to blame, so they’d decided to aim it at me. I was used to it, though, so their displeasure barely registered.

However, despite their disgruntlement, they’d each agreed to assist my agents at KBO in discovering the whereabouts of their respective ISC members. The last time I checked in with Willa, there hadn’t been any updates.

Either the three of them were very good at disappearing, or whoever had taken them was the one with talent.

“Actually, Phillipé popped in yesterday while you were…handling your mate.”

I snorted at his very inaccurate description. “No one ‘handles’ Peyton.”

Tanner fought a smile, a very smart decision when I was in a shitty mood. “He heard a rumor, and they are looking into it.”

Phillipé was the prince of Monarchie du Sang. But he spent a large portion of his time in New York handling their properties here. I’d hoped the whispers that made their way through their club would pay off.

“Do you think…” Tanner hesitated, and I waited patiently for him to figure out what he wanted to say. “I don’t believe that the Council disappearances and the deaths of the shifters are unrelated.”

I nodded. “I agree.”

“Do you remember about twenty years ago we had that small religious faction that was picking off animals and lone shifters?”

Leaning back on the couch, I resumed my position with my arms spread out and my legs stretched out in front of me, crossed at the ankle. “Of course.” They’d been a particularly sick group of humans. Somehow, they’d come to believe that shifters were real. However, they had their facts all wrong. They’d managed to eliminate some packless wolves and a few other shifters who didn’t have a family unit. The only reason we’d figured it out was because they’d killed more innocent animals than actual shifters. When they’d realized they hadn’t taken out a supernatural creature, they’d made the mistake of just ditching the carcass. Local packs had brought it to my attention after finding more than a dozen dead animals. When we’d found the first body of a shifter, we’d hunted the group responsible and, while not many knew what had happened to them other than that they were gone and punished, the truth was that I’d made them pay and collected the names of every member and accomplice in the process. We’d wiped them out.

“Something about all this… I don’t know why, but my brain is trying to connect the two.”

“You think we missed some members of the group?”

He shook his head and scratched his dark, thin beard. “My gut says no. It’s more like a shared purpose. As if they knew the details of the situation and decided to pick up where they left off. But with a much more sophisticated, well-executed plan.”

My brow furrowed deep over my eyes. “Only a handful of people knew the details. All shifters.”

Tanner’s dark eyes met mine and he nodded solemnly.

“You think it’s shifters behind this?” His speculation threw me for a loop. Not that there weren’t plenty of evil sons of bitches who were leaders in the shifter communities. But by interfering with the ISC, particularly snatching its members, they could start a war.

“I’m not sure yet. I do think they are involved though.”

“Put Lisa on it,” I instructed. “Have her dig into all the local alphas for now and see what they’ve been up to.” I pulled my hair down and ran my hands through it, relieved when it released some of the tension building behind my eyes. “I want you working on the Council members. I haven’t had time to delve into emails and phone records of the members. Find out if anyone is being blackmailed, influenced, whatever. I want to know why the fuck there is so much infighting going on and why the votes are coming up split ninety percent of the time.” I blew out a frustrated breath, knowing it was a lot to heap onto Tanner and Lisa, but I didn’t have much choice. They would have help from the other tech team members, but their abilities were far below what was necessary to really offer much aid.“I have to deal with the Peyton situation.” I knew she was going crazy cooped up in the cabin, so I’d decided to work for a couple of hours, then take Peyton on a run before coming back to work.

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