and her cheeks flushed with color. She was the most beautiful, impossible, amazing woman I’d ever met.
I stood up. I had to walk off the rage burning inside of me before I exploded. Lana watched me, glaring, every bit the wary cat ready to pounce. The animal in her made the wolf in me edgy and eager, but I made no move to touch her. It took all the control I had to keep the warring emotions inside of me at bay.
“I didn’t mean to be an asshole. I was worried about you.”
“You were not,” she snapped. “You were worried I was with some other guy.”
“You were,” I growled. I couldn’t help it.
“Not by choice.” Lana reached for her laptop. “Never mind. Can we forget the jealous boyfriend routine for a minute so I can show you what’s on this flash drive he gave me?”
I nodded, trying not to smile when she said the word “boyfriend.” I felt like I was back in high school. Love made me a goddamned idiot.
I sat beside her while she brought up the contents of the flash drive. It contained a folder labeled
“I already told you about the Nero Organization.” She stared at the screen. “He hasn’t told me much more about them except that they raised him and trained him to be an assassin. They sent him to find me and bring me back. But I’ve never been there. At least not that I remember.”
“Right.” I was trying to focus, but the male jaguar’s scent was making it difficult. I’d never wanted to beat the crap out of anyone so badly before. “The question is, how did they find out about you?”
“Exactly. That’s why Sebastian brought me these files.”
My shoulders tightened, and I shook my head. “That’s not why, Lana.”
“What?” She looked caught off guard. She was in the middle of deciphering information, but I was still stuck on figuring out what happened in this room before I got here. I needed to know where I stood with her.
“He gave you this because he wants you to need him.”
Lana set her computer aside, and her eyes met mine. “Since when did what he wants start to matter?”
“The moment I came in your room and found his scent all over you.” The muscle in my cheek tightened, but I kept my voice low and controlled.
She reached up and cupped my cheek in her soft hand. I fought the urge to turn my head and kiss her palm. Instead, my gaze stayed locked with hers.
“Nothing happened with Sebastian. I know we don’t know each other very well yet, so you’ll just have to take my word for it, but tonight at your place meant something to me.”
I kissed her. I couldn’t stop myself, my lips slowly brushing, tasting, and silencing her before she started reminding me that she was leaving soon. I didn’t want to hear that. Not tonight.
When I drew back from her lips, she opened her eyes, smiling up at me from under her dark lashes. God, she was sexy.
“You made me forget what I was saying…”
I smiled, happy to feel some of the power shifting in our relationship. Nice to know I could have that effect on her. “You were telling me about what’s on the flash drive.”
She gave me a knowing grin and went on. “Well, apparently, when I first started to change with the new moon, there were some jaguar sightings that made small mentions in the local papers. No one believed it since they’re not indigenous to Texas, but there were theories about people illegally raising exotic animals. Anyway, the Nero Organization apparently has ties to the government, media, and healthcare because not only were they alerted about the newspaper articles with jaguar sightings”—she clicked open the next file to show some sort of X-ray photo—“but they also managed to get a copy of one of my CAT scans.”
I stared at the X-ray again, as if I might understand it better now that I knew it was Lana. “Did the CAT scan show anything about your nature to the doctors?”
“My nature? Like turning into a jaguar?” She tipped her head slightly and shrugged. “They saw an anomaly in one of the lobes of my brain, so someone must’ve noticed something, otherwise the Nero Organization wouldn’t have been alerted. It’s the CAT scan that made them send Sebastian out to find me.”
“So what’s breeding experiment #333?”
She met my eyes. “I think I am.”
I frowned, glancing over the text. Lana was right; this had to be about her. No other reason for the jaguar to lift sensitive documents. “I’m guessing male subject 505 and converted female subject 413 are your parents.”
Lana nodded, her face intent on the screen. “I think so.” She let out a long slow breath. “It would be really helpful if they had names.”
I brushed a kiss to her temple. “Then we’d probably think he was giving us a red herring to throw you off the trail.”
“Could be right about that.” She almost smiled. Scrolling deeper into the file she stopped, pointing at the screen. “They discovered my mother had psychic abilities. That’s why they chose her.”
“How could they know she was psychic?” I read further and frowned. “Nero runs a private school for girls?” Who the hell were these freaks?
Lana nodded. “Appears so, but of course no name here, just high school facility #12.” She met my eyes. “This says school facility #12 was for females exhibiting psychic gifts. My mother is referenced as a previous student.”
Every muscle in my shoulders tightened. “They use their school to find girls for their breeding program.”
Lana pressed her lips together and pointed at the screen again. “There’s more.”
I read, skimming notes about reproductive cycles and conversion dates.
And two fetal heartbeats. Twins.
I glanced at Lana. “Twins. Just like the Pack. Two shifters, but you were a girl.” The final notation in the file was a live birth of a single male. There was no mention of a second infant.
Lana’s gaze met mine. Her eyes looked haunted. “There were two heartbeats, but only one birth recorded. What happened to the other baby?”
“Maybe he’s trying to throw us off the trail.”
Lana shook her head. “He asked me to destroy this after I looked at it. He said he’d be punished if anyone found the information outside of Nero’s walls. He wouldn’t have risked that to give me a red herring. This has to be my parents.”
“Then you’ve gotta be the missing baby, right?”
Lana nodded and closed her laptop. “If this is all true, then somewhere I have a brother.”
“And they know the other twin is missing…or was until they found you.”
“Could be. There’s no notation about a still birth. Nothing about that second heartbeat.”
“Maybe your parents didn’t want to leave you.” I took her hand and held her gaze. “Maybe it was the only way to save you from a future with Nero. If Nero found out their experiment worked, they’d be testing you and trying to replicate you for the rest of your life.”
“Probably.” She nodded. “And there’s one more thing.” Lana glanced at her laptop, then back up at me. “Sebastian mentioned something about Operation Moonlight and testing Nero did on werewolves.”
I frowned. “I’ve never heard anything about Nero until I found you.”
“That’s weird…” Her voice trailed off for a second. “It wasn’t on the flash drive either, just something Sebastian mentioned when he gave it to me. He told me to have you ask your Alpha.”
“I don’t take orders from jaguars.” Sebastian was full of shit. Or my father had some secrets the rest of us knew nothing about.
Chapter Twenty-One
I yawned and looked over at the clock. Adam wouldn’t be here for another half hour, but I needed some
