Hunter's Heart (Alpha Pack #4)(27)

"How the hell did they come up with something like that?" Jax blurted. "That thing is impossible."

"Nothing is impossible, as we all know firsthand. The victim's tissue was slathered with the DNA of the attacker, and it turns out that the DNA contained shifter gene strands of a tiger, a bear, a wolf, a huge lizard-and a human." This caused some exclamations of shock. "I created this picture with the lab's help, as a beast that contains similar characteristics of their findings, using the strongest traits of each shifter, and merged with a human. It won't be exact, but we're dealing with something like this guy."

Daria stared at the rendition. The beast had to be at least eight feet tall, with a thick skull shaped like a tiger's and a maw similar to a gator's, but with the mouth much shorter. It stood erect on two hind legs, thighs thick as tree trunks. Its chest was like a barrel, arms strong, hands and feet sort of webbed, with sharp claws on the end. The hide was tough and scaly-looking.

The creature was the ugliest fictional monster Daria had ever seen. Only it wasn't a costume for some alien movie. It was fact.

Everyone looked their fill for a few moments, the mood somber. Finally, Ryon spoke. "I hate to say this, but there's only one way I can think of as to how this monster came into existence."

"Unfortunately, you're on the right track. When we liberated Malik's and Bowman's test subjects from the last lab, one of them obviously escaped." Nick heaved a weary breath, but met his men's gazes steadily.

"And now we have some poor bastard who was turned into a mutant killing machine wreaking havoc on the general population."

"Jesus Christ," someone moaned.

Nick gave a grim laugh. "I have a bad feeling we're going to need more help than that."

Daria had a bad feeling he was right.

Chapter Six

Jax was pissed. Ryon watched his friend, knew he was taking the news badly. As they all were.

Jax yanked at his goatee in anger. "I don't see how it's possible we lost one. We were careful!"

"You can't take this personally," Ryon told him. "It's not your fault, or anyone's. Remember, the building exploded and some of us were injured. In the chaos, one of the test subjects ran. It's a pretty believable and understandable outcome."

Kalen pushed from the wall where he'd been leaning. "I just remembered something. Right before the building blew, Bowman was excited, talking about a test subject that was almost a perfect example of the super-soldier they were trying to create. He apparently had more tweaking to do, but in his twisted mind he was nearly there. What if that's the one who escaped?"

"It's a good theory," Nick said. "No one on our list of survivors has anywhere close to the horrible genetic mutation that our subject has acquired. So, it has to be one that got past us, perhaps Bowman's pet. Do you recall what Bowman said about the subject?"

Kalen nodded. "Yeah. He said something like 'Bring the wolf to OR-4. I want to try to splice his DNA with human subject 356 again. I'm on the verge of a breakthrough.'"

"That could be important. Every bit of information helps."

"You know," Micah said thoughtfully. "if this creature is in fact one of the poor bastards like me who got experimented on, that might explain why I felt him at the first victim's murder scene."

Ryon nodded. "That's right. I felt a vibration, but for you it was like ants crawling on your skin."

"A lot of tests were done on our skin," Micah said. "Might be why I get a prickling sensation when he's close."

"So what's the plan?" Ryon asked.

Nick clicked the remote and brought up a map of the Shoshone. "The forest is too vast to search the entire region at once. I think we should split into teams and look in the areas in the grid close to where the bodies were found. See if we can find where the creature is holed up."

"And if we do find it?" Aric snorted. "Should we ask it nicely to come with us? Man, I'm no pu**y, but that thing? That's seriously messed up."

"I'm with Aric," Hammer put in. The big, quiet man usually just listened and used his muscle whenever and wherever needed, and he had plenty of that. But even he appeared worried. "We've got no idea yet what that thing can do."

Their commander shared their concerns, but his directions stood. "Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where we won't know until we dive in. I wish there was another way, but there isn't."

"When do we leave?" Jax asked.

"First light." His smile was grim. "When it's up and ready for breakfast."

More grumbling ensued. Micah shifted in his seat. "A question. Since the white wolf has been ruled out as the killer, why did it push Daria into the ravine?"

Nick was silent a moment. Whatever his thoughts were, he wasn't happy about them. "I don't know. But I'm going to find out."

Interesting choice of words. I'm going to find out. Not We'll find out. But Nick always played his cards close to the vest. Getting a secret out of him was like sneaking a gold bar out of Fort Knox.

"Everyone can go, except Ryon and Daria."

The others filed out, shooting them looks of sympathy. As good a boss as Nick might be, nobody liked to be the one singled out for a meeting when he took on that tone. Once everyone was gone, Nick moved closer to him and Daria, taking a seat at the table across from them. Most of Nick's attention was for his mate, and Ryon was puzzled. But not for long.