“I got mixed up with the wrong guy.” Admitting it out loud was like tattooing idiot on my forehead. I got up, crossing my arms. “I think we have bigger issues to talk about now, though.”
Lana nodded. “We need to discuss how you want to handle your sister with the Pack.”
“Handle?”
Adam nodded. “Now that Gareth and Jason know you’re involved with Aren and in this mess with the werewolf bounty hunter, the rest of the Pack will find out soon, if they don’t know already. For now, they think Nadya’s a nanny to help Lana with the twins. But it’s only a matter of time until they notice the similarities and the timing of Nadya coming into our lives. I think we should come clean with the rest of the Pack.”
My chest constricted. Was I going to have to explain to Nadya why the entire Pack hated me? As if he sensed my wariness, Aren got up beside me.
“No.” Aren shook his head. “We need everyone focused on Fonthill. If we bring up Nadya’s family history, it’s going to cause more drama we don’t have time for.”
I watched Adam weighing the decision. As the Alpha of the Pack, it couldn’t be easy for him to lie to them, but Aren had a good point.
Eventually Adam nodded and stood up. “You’re probably right.” He turned toward Nadya. “Until this is over, you’re just our nanny.” My sister agreed and Adam went on. “Is there anything about your gift that we could use to help us in this mess?”
“Not unless I touched him.” Nadya laced her fingers together, keeping her eyes on her hands.
The thought of Fonthill touching my sister made my skin crawl. “I’m doing all I can to keep that from happening.”
Aren glanced at his brother. “What if the Pack figures out who Nadya really is? I noticed the family resemblance right away.”
“We’ll deal with it if it comes. For now, we’ve got enough on our plates.” Adam focused on Nadya. “You understand you can never tell anyone about werewolves and jaguar shifters, right?”
Nadya chuckled. “Like anyone would believe me.” She sobered and met his eyes. “I’ve kept my secret my whole life. I won’t have any trouble keeping yours.”
Adam started to smile. “Fair enough.”
I hugged my sister and kissed her cheek. “When this is over, we’ll talk, okay?”
“Definitely.” She stared into my eyes. “Be careful.”
“I will.”
I watched her as she made her way down the hall to check on the twins. No wonder she’d always been so good with children. It never occurred to me that she might know what they needed even if they couldn’t tell her.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Aren
While I haggled with Adam and Sasha over some sort of plan to take care of Fonthill, I noticed Lana hunched over her laptop. Her fingers moved in flurries over the keyboard, and her expression went from concerned, to intrigued, and finally to frustration.
Someone knocked at the front door before I could ask her what she found. My shoulders tensed. It was after eleven o’clock at night, past bedtime for door-to-door salesmen and religious missionaries. I gestured to my brother to stay put, my instinct to protect my Alpha kicking into high gear, and headed for the door.
I recognized the scent before I reached for the handle and opened the door a crack.
“Sebastian.” I glanced past him. “Alone?”
“Until you alert the neighborhood,” he grumbled.
I stepped aside to allow him in, keeping myself between the jaguar and Adam. “What brings you here?” Sebastian’s dark eyes locked with Sasha’s and a surge of jealousy stabbed my chest. “I asked you a question.”
He finally turned my way. “I have information, but I would be happy to walk out of the door and cease putting my own life in jeopardy.”
“Wait.” Lana got up from her chair. “Please, come in.”
I followed him into the room, kind of hoping he would make a move so I could beat the crap out of him. Sebastian took Lana’s hand and kissed her knuckles in a cheesy gesture that went out of style a hundred years ago.
“Motherhood agrees with you, Little One.” He turned toward Sasha. She brought her hands up to her hips before he could reach for her, making me smile. He straightened up. “It is good to see you, too, Sasha. Living among wolves hasn’t improved your manners.”
“Spare me, Sebastian.” She rolled her eyes. “You risked a lot to come here. Spill it.”
He raised a brow. “‘A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed one too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.’”
Lana moved back around her laptop. “Percy Shelley, right? Mary Shelley’s husband?”
“Like Frankenstein’s Mary Shelley?” I shook my head, ready to knock the information loose if he didn’t stop speaking in cryptic poetry.
“Exactly.” He focused on Sasha. “I located a file on the Lycan Squad experiments.”
I glared at Sebastian. “So what did you find?”
He kept his attention on Sasha and Lana. “The government had a top-secret contract with Nero. A program called Operation Moonlight. Severino began recruiting werewolves to join the military in hopes they could become powerful weapons to protect our nation. The unexpected pack mentality of the race proved inefficient for assassins, but the military brass saw an opportunity to use them as a unit.”
Adam’s brow furrowed. “The Lycan Squad.”
“Yes.” Sebastian turned his attention toward Adam. “Operation Moonlight was closed, and a new project started. With the government’s help we began to assemble the Lycan Squad, and it was quickly determined that a trained squad of Green Beret werewolf soldiers would be unstoppable if—”
“If they could shift anytime without waiting for a full moon,” I interrupted. Sebastian seemed almost proud of his company’s involvement in experimentation on young men who thought they were protecting their country. I ground my teeth together to keep from saying any more.
“Our scientists were working to perfect a serum to simulate the magnetic pull of the full moon on the DNA in werewolves.” Sebastian started to frown.
Sasha shook her head. “We already know this guy can change at will. We’ve seen the damage, and he attacked someone in the middle of the day.”
Sebastian took another step into the room and handed a flash drive to Lana. “The serum caused insanity and death. You can read the test-subject results. I am surprised this wolf is still alive. They discharged the few wolves who survived and mainstreamed them back into society, but judging by the data, I didn’t think they could have lived much longer.” Sebastian sighed and shook his head as he backed toward the door. “The information is on the flash drive. I have done all I can.”
He stopped at the door, his gaze locked on Sasha, then left without another word.
I crossed to her side and put my arm around her, not giving a damn if it was possessive. Lana plugged the flash drive into her laptop and started scanning files as the back door opened. We all tensed, relaxing only when we saw Logan walk into the kitchen.
“Gareth and Jared just got here, so Luke and I are going…” His voice trailed off as he noticed Sasha. Logan frowned. “What’s she doing here?”
I didn’t move from her side. “She’s helping us stop the werewolf who shot at Adam and me.”
His gaze moved to Adam. “And you’re all right with this?”
He nodded. “We can use all the help we can get with this situation.”
Logan chewed on that for a moment before he finally tipped his head. “If you think we can trust her.”
“She’s working on earning it.” Adam stood and crossed the room to clasp forearms with Logan. “Thanks for keeping watch tonight. There’s one more thing I could use your help with before you go.” Adam gestured for me to come over. “Barry from Aren’s office was attacked by the rogue werewolf I told you about. We can’t have the police finding his body.”