Page 159 of Conner's Luna

I shake my head frantically. "I can't stop now. It's right here, honey. I know it is." I shake the papers in my hands. "This is the latest genome that Dr. Honekier was working on," I tell Conner. "The subject is female, the first in months, but I never saw it on the computer program." I pull out another sheet and hand it to him.

"BMW. Nice car, very nice body," he says in a low, dangerous voice.

"What do you mean?" I ask him.

"Babygirl," he says quietly. "Did you ever give him a sample?"

I stare at him, shocked to my core. Ice trickles through my veins. Conner gathers me closer, shushing me as panic grips me. "Yes. I had to give a blood and urine sample to get the internship. For a drug test, Conner. Just a drug test."

Sarj approaches cautiously. "Confirmed semen samples from the two males in the clinic."

Another older male approaches with the Grim, both looking, well, grim. "Conner," the Grim says, maintaining a distance, "financial records indicate that Antony Wilkinson has made several payments to Dr. Honekier over the last year."

I look at the papers in my hands blankly. "Fertility indicators suggest that the two male samples in the lab would be a potential match... to me."

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40 - Pride and Pups

Conner

"I'll fucking slaughter the entire pack, Dad. How is this not an act of war?"

"Let me call Xander, just to make sure he didn't order this testing," Dad cautions. "It's his style, honestly." Dad looks at my wide-eyed female, tucked securely in my arms. She's struck mute at the realization that her DNA was essentially stolen to be used in whatever experimentation her employer is part of.

"Bailey, Xander would never hurt you, yeah? If this was him, then he just wanted to make sure you could have Conner's pups," Dad explains gently. "It doesn't matter now."

"Can I?" she whispers, looking up at me with eyes shimmering with tears.

"Yeah, honeygirl, you can," I croon softly, reassuring her, "statistically highly probable."

Sniffling, Bailey holds out her hand for the papers. She looks at hers and then shakes her head. "My samples were run twice, the first time was three months ago, against a CAG and BTG. Maybe it was Alpha Alex. Conner's initials are here. CAG and BTG. Who is BTG? Wouldn't he run my sample against just Conner?"

"Braxton," I snarl. "I'm going to kill him," I tell Dad, perfectly seriously. I knew that Uncle Alex was involved with the lab. He's the major stakeholder, but he should have told me that he was involving Bailey and me in this shit.

Dad just rolls his eyes and shakes his head. "Xander's just making sure that we can have the next generation. It's not surprising."

Bailey looks at the documents again. "These two, the sperm samples in the lab... they're more recent. Those two men are labeled... TW and CW. Who are they?"

"Trey and his younger brother, Cole," I grunt my words, my wolf snarling for their blood. At least I know it's too late, fuckers.

"Looks like the good doc was playing both sides," Dad remarks. "Antony Wilkinson didn't want you to birth his grandpups," he adds with a scowl. "Why would he match both of his sons to you?

"Maybe he didn't do all of it, either. Dr. Honekier was human, right?" Bailey says quietly.

Dad shakes his head. "Half. He doesn’t have a wolf, however. It’s rare," he adds.

"Oh," Bailey nods, her mind whirling sickeningly fast. "So why kill female wolves if all this is about is fertility?"

She looks into the distance for a while, then softly says, "the murders coincide with the change in research. What if Honekier wasn't the only one involved in this? His notes don't match the program. What if... what if someone else had another objective in this research?"

"Fuck. We knew we had more than one suspect, but now we may have more than one motive," I say. "We'll have to re-examine each murder along with these notes, consult with Uncle Alex, and interrogate Wilkinson for answers."

"I'm glad my grandpup will be smart," Dad mutters as he walks away a little, his cell pressed to his ear.

"Conner?" Bailey whispers to me.

"Yeah, baby?" I stroke her cheek with my thumb, hating how pale and shaken she is.

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