CHAPTER 76: A SISTER’S SHADOW...

Slater

As soon as Rhett was wheeled into the operating room, my phone buzzed with a message. It was a text from the private investigator I’d been using.

Need to see you. Usual spot!!!

I stared at the message, thinking about the drugs in my cross bag. This was a perfect opportunity for me to give him the drugs and ask him to run a sample of what they are, but the problem was that I didn’t know how to leave the hospital.

I turned to look at Charis, who was already pacing anxiously, and Kael, sitting on the waiting bench with a calm air. Still didn’t know how he did that.

I didn’t want to seem insensitive or do anything suspicious, so I leaned on the wall and scrolled through my phone aimlessly while I racked my brain thinking of a way to leave.

I watched as Kael finally went to Charis, gently stopping and settling her on the waiting bench, as always, his little romantic acts didn’t sit well with me. I knew he liked Charis; the guy was showing it in his actions, but what worried me most was how receptive Charis was to his affection.

She was actively encouraging him. I’ve wanted to talk to her about this a million times, but it’s just that I don’t want to sound like the bitter ex.

Suddenly, the elevator dinged, and Rhett’s father, Alpha Terry, walked in. He’d changed from his formal clothing to something casual. No one acknowledged his presence, and he didn’t want to be acknowledged.

Instead, he sat on the waiting bench opposite Slater.

I waited for a few minutes before walking up to Kael and Charis.

"Hey guys, I’m going to find us something to snack on. Do you want anything in particular?"

"None for me," Kael said quietly. "But can you get something warm for Eamon and some gloves. I forgot to come with any, and his hands are cold as ice."

Charis was a Shadewolf, and one of their pitfalls was the cold. Unlike other wolves, they were constantly cold.

"And some chocolates?" I murmured, looking at Charis, who had an anxious look on her face.

"Yes," she nodded. "The white ones."

I nodded and walked past them towards the exit.

As soon as I walked out of the hospital, I slid my hood over my head. I texted my PI back to inform him I was coming. I navigated through the streets of Ravenspire, keeping my face low and my eyes sweeping behind every few blocks.

The surest and least trackable way to travel was by bus. At the stop, I hopped onto a bus going in the opposite direction of where I was headed. It was a small effort to lose whoever might be following me.

At the next stop, as passengers thronged in, I slipped out of the bus quietly and crossed over to the other side of the road to take a bus going in my direction, but via a longer route.

After a gruelling two-hour journey and three stops, I finally got to the meetup point.

The location was a small, dingy café on the west side of Ravenspire Pack. The neighbourhood didn’t appear on maps, and this part of Ravenspire wasn’t intended for students either.

From the outside, the café looked like any other run-down coffee shop serving subpar meals, but it also doubled as a club at night that did everything except what clubs usually did.

The place was perfect for all kinds of meetings. The streets had no surveillance cameras and literally no one cared about you or your business here.

The club was a network of information brokers that mainly consisted of werefoxes rather than werewolves. It had black market dealers and people who existed in the shadows of our society. It was the kind of place you could buy anything from false identification to untraceable weapons.

It was called Cavern Six.

I pushed open the rusted door of Cavern Six and almost threw up.

The place reeked of alcohol and sweat. Its cracked black tiles were smeared with neon lights and the scent of grease. Booths lined the back wall, each of them had equally grimy curtains that I was sure weren’t originally black or brown.

Loud music was blaring from overhead speakers.

I pushed past the dancing, sweaty bodies to booth number six, the farthest corner table that offered the most privacy. My PI was already waiting for me. I slid into the seat.

"Thought you wouldn’t make it," my PI said.

He was a former Gamma commander whose pack was merged with another after their Alpha went broke from trying to sue Ravenshore. He was in his mid-thirties, with a lean frame and the discipline of a warrior.

I had never asked for his real name. I just called him Jex.

I leaned in. "What’s so urgent?"

Jex’s eyes darted around first before he whispered. "I’m going underground for a while. I believe someone is onto me. I’ve been trailed twice, and I think it’s because I’ve been sniffing too close to something big."

"Do you know who?" I asked.

"I don’t know yet. But I think it’s someone who wants to know the Alpha I’m working with and try to ruin their pack. Don’t worry, it’s no problem now."

He reached into his coat and pulled out a sealed manila envelope. "Your sister, Riley, is still alive."

My heart stopped beating.

I just stared at Jex, wondering if this was a dream or if I was being tricked because I’d lost every hope that she would ever be found. Jex has been searching for her for a year without a single clue.

Three months ago, he’d met me and demanded a million dollars. That Ravenshore had their dirty secrets under leash, but the only way to get them was money. It had been so difficult to part with such a massive amount of money, and this was the first time we had met since our last encounter.

"D-Do you know where she is?" I managed to ask after recovering from my initial shock.

"Yes, I do. I don’t know the exact address, as there wasn’t enough time to verify it, but I am familiar with her daily routine and where she lives. Also, all the girls from Ebonvale who went missing are hardly dead."

"What?" I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The school, Ebonvale, has been selling these so-called missing girls as high-end escorts to top government officials in the human world. They inhibit their wolves to stop the girls from fighting, and then they force these girls to bear children for these men because of our unique supernatural potential."

My blood ran cold as Jex continued.

"They also harvest eggs from human women, then take the seed from strong male werewolves, specifically Alpha wolves. In the first experiments, they attempted to use human women who carried the babies to term. Still, it didn’t work out because the women couldn’t handle the continuous, violent movements that came from carrying supernatural babies."

"So they switched?" I whispered, already fearing the answer.

"Yes," Jex nodded. "They now take Omegas—I have no idea where they bring them from—and make them carry the babies to term."