Page 62 of Wolf Unleashed
“That’s your wolf, dear. She’s trying to take over.”
“The dream felt so real.” She raised her eyes to her mother standing in front of her and reached down to the feelings she’d had before meeting her guys, when the fear had been ever-present. “I don’t want to lose control and hurt anyone.”
“All will be fine, dear,” her mother said as she kissed her cheek. “But I think we need to move up the timeline. Let me check with your father, ask him to rearrange his schedule if possible, so we can get started immediately, before your wolf gets any stronger.”
Her mother knocked on the door, telling the guard in the corridor she was ready to leave. The guard let her out, then shut the door again, leaving Alyssa alone. Her mother’s footsteps grew faint as she walked away, and the guard remained in the corridor. Alyssa had the office to herself.
She’d been in her father’s office twice before, both times with guards watching her like a hawk as she waited for her father to finish phone conversations. Once, he’d logged onto his computer in her presence. From where she’d sat on the sofa, she couldn’t see what he’d typed, but she’d counted the taps on the keyboard. Six digits. A name. A birthday. It could be anything, but she had to try.
One by one, Alyssa went through the list she’d developed in her head. Every six digit name and birthday, with variations of capital and lowercase letters. She didn’t know how long she sat there typing, but she felt the nervous growl of her wolf. Her mother would return any minute.
Her eyes scanned the desk, hoping for a clue of what her father’s password could be. He had a picture of her with him when she was twelve, after her mother had left and before… before the accident. That was the one date she hadn’t tried. The day he’d caged her wolf without her knowledge or permission.
The computer screen came to life, opening a list of directories. She rifled through his desk drawer and found just what she needed shoved among a bunch of loose paperclips and sticky pads in the back of the draw. A thumb drive. After inserting the blue plastic stick, she clicked and dragged the WSSO folder to the external drive. As the computer copied the files, she perused the folders to get an overview of what was here. Experiments, medicines, genetic reports, chemical analysis. Useful information for the DSA but not what she wanted.
She heard voices down the hall and quickly ejected the thumb drive, shoved it into her bra, and shut the computer. The door clicked open. She’d never make it to the sofa.
A second later, the door opened, and her father stood there, frowning. “What are you doing, Alyssa?”
With her feet up on the desk, she leaned back in his leather office chair and held up a picture frame. “This picture was taken after mom left.”
“Yes,” he said, sounding suspicious as he closed the door. “You told me she was dead. And then you faked a car accident and caged my wolf. Everything you said was a lie.”
He relaxed, as if he’d been expecting her to confront him like this. “You were too young to understand.”
She swung her legs off the desk and jumped to her feet. “How do I know you’re not lying to me now? You said you want to be a family again, but you have a habit of lying about critical information.”
“You’re older now. A grown woman capable of understanding the dangers of shifters, of why we must kill your wolf once and for all.”
“And what if it doesn’t work? Will you still release Rafe, Tiernan, and Maddox?”
“You really care for them, don’t you?”
“As much as you care for Mother. More.”
“Well, you have no reason to fear for their safety. They’re gone.”
She felt as if someone had punched her in the gut with a five-inch-thick steel rod. She immediately searched for the bond for Maddox and couldn’t find it. He swore he’d never cut her off again. “What have you done?” she asked, her stomach knotting with a gut-wrenching fear.
“Not me, sweetie. Your shifters. One of them attacked and killed the other. The white wolf.”
“Maddox killed someone? Oh, my god. Tiernan!”
“I don’t know their names, sweetie. They’re animals, after all. The blonde one killed the white wolf. By the time my guards made it into the cell, the shifter was dead. It seems the other shifter, the alpha, held him for the blonde shifter to kill. I’ve never seen a shifter execution before. I’ll have to watch the footage later. Quite fascinating.”
Maddox. Dead. “I’m going to be sick.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, sweetie. I forgot you cared for the white wolf. I know what it’s like to lose a pet. My family had two dogs when I was growing up and one got hit by a car. And of course Dodger, who ran off before your mom had to leave. This really isn’t any different. You’ll get over it in time.”
“Get over it?” she repeated in disbelief. This wasn’t like the old mutt they’d rescued and loved before he ran off when she was ten. It couldn’t even compare.
“Look at the positive side of this. The bond is destroyed and you’re clearly fine, so we can proceed with killing your wolf tomorrow with a simple injection. It’s a faster and better method than the one I had lined up. Once the lab finishes customizing the formula for your genome, we’ll proceed.”
Chapter Eighteen
TIERNAN
“Dig,” the guard, Voss, ordered Tiernan and Rafe.
