Page 81 of Hunted

And now I understood why Ellie and I worked on an emotional level. Hayden was fierce. Angry. All raw edges. The one who would jump headfirst into a cage fight to save her sister. She was me. And I respected the hell out of her for it.

“The feds aren’t going to make any move that overt. Their goal is to weaken shapeshifters and the Vampire Nation to the point we’re easily subdued. If they were to try to annihilate us outright, they would face fierce blowback from progressive groups. Their goal in using Rossi to create dissent is to weaken us to the point we can be easily controlled. They want us at war with each other.”

“Having Rossi controlling the werewolves would be disastrous.”

I nodded. “We would see thousands dead within weeks, but the government would cover it up, if it even made the news, as internal pack fighting. Which it would be. But of course, they would have caused the insurrection, just like they’re orchestrating the culling of the vampire covens with the bombings.”

Hayden poked at her sundae. “It was my fault.” Her voice was so small I could barely hear it. “My fault that Ellie got hurt. This never would have happened to her if it wasn’t for me, if I hadn’t dragged her into the supernatural world.”

I shook my head. “You never asked to become a wolf. And after you were bitten in that alley, you tried everything from hiding yourself away out in the country to cutting the sickness from your veins to protect your sister. That day I took Ellie’s memories, when Guillermo handed the order down, you were the only one in the room who fought to stop what I was about to do. Not Brody. Not Ethan. Not me. We all stood there and let it happen. You were the only one brave enough to say this is wrong. This isn’t on you.”

“The truth is, you might be the only person out there who would fight to the death for Ellie like I would.” She swiped fingers under her eyes. “If you let Rossi get to my sister—”

“If Rossi gets to her, I think we both know I’m probably already dead.”

“Then stay alive.”

In a twisted way, it might have been the nicest thing Hayden Crowe had ever said to me.

She reached for a napkin out of the dispenser to wipe her nose. Finding it empty, she said, “I’ll be right back.” Grabbing her purse, she slid from the booth and went past the kitchen to the bathroom in back.

I pulled out my phone, checking my texts and messages. No update on the blood samples from Matteo or Lorenzo Rossi. I dialed base.

“This is River Caldwell,” I growled as soon as I got to the switchboard. “Put me through to testing and forensics immediately. It’s urgent.”

“Yes, sir.”

I glanced around the diner while the operator put me on hold, briefly dropping my mental shields to do a check of my surroundings. No non-human minds. No patrons of the diner showing any particular interest in me or Hayden.

“Testing and Forensics.”

“Where are we on the two blood samples I sent you?” I snapped. “They were supposed to be marked high priority. It’s been five days.”

The lab tech sighed, and I heard a keyboard clacking in the background. “We’ve been backlogged here for weeks. I wasn’t assigned to run those samples. Let me look them up. For the record, it can take days.”

“I get that. But it’s been five days and there was supposed to be a high priority rush on this.”

“Yes, sir.” More typing. And then silence. Silence was never good.

“What’s going on?”

The lab tech cleared his throat. “According to our records, it appears we were ordered to stop testing on both samples two days ago.”

I ground my teeth. “By whom?” Silence followed. “Answer me, soldier.”

“I’m not at liberty to—”

“By whom. That’s a direct fucking order.” The lady at the next table, who was having chocolate chip pancakes with her toddler, shot me a nasty look.

The lab tech drew a breath. “I’m under orders not to say, sir.”

Fuck me.

I hung up and called Alek’s direct number. Thank fuck he picked up on the second ring.

“River?”

“Is this you?” I snarled, not even bothering with niceties.