“Del-Rey, welcome back.” Wolfe and the others rose from the table, hands extended in greeting.
Once the preliminary meet-and-greet bullshit was over with, Del-Rey took his seat and slapped the file he carried with him in the center of the round table, in front of Wolfe.
The pack leader’s expression tensed as he opened it and read the report Del-Rey and his men had put together with the help of the Bureau of Breed Affairs, the Feline Cabinet, and the investigations he and his own men had done into the subject.
The file was passed around the table, each member going over it carefully, their expressions telling the same story. Disbelief and anger.
“Will it ever stop?” Jacob murmured, his low voice harsh as he finished the file while his wife read over his shoulder. He slid it on and waited.
Del-Rey watched as Faith laid her hand on her mate’s shoulder, her cheek against the top of his head. The connection, the bonding between them ignited a flare of rage in him that threatened to spark out of control. They were mated. The scent of their bond, their emotions and need for each other was an affront to his senses. An insult to everything that he had been forced to walk away from.
When the last cabinet member, Dash Sinclair, closed the file, Del-Rey felt the tension as it began to ratchet up through the room.
“We’ll need to convene the full cabinet together,” Wolfe said heavily. “This is a risk to all of us.”
The full cabinet was something even Del-Rey had never seen. Each species of Breed had their own cabinet. The twelve-member tribunal he had faced eight months before was a selected mix to deal with smaller issues that concerned the society as a whole. Such as when Anya Kobrin had demanded separation from her mate.
The full cabinet was another story. Six members of each species. The Wolf and Coyote packs as well as the Feline pride. Added to that was the six-member board selected from within the Bureau of Breed Affairs, comprised primarily of humans except for the director of the bureau, Jonas Wyatt.
The full cabinet was twenty-four members in all, and Del-Rey had a feeling its meetings wouldn’t be as social and well conducted as the few pack meetings he’d been called to.
The risk in not calling together the full cabinet was growing by the day.
“There’s not enough evidence to prosecute the pharmaceutical company or the research and development arm that’s conducting the experiments,” Del-Rey stated. “No evidence that they’ve used Breeds in that research, either willingly or involuntarily.”
Wolfe ran his hand wearily over his face as he pulled the file back to him and reopened it. Del-Rey knew what he would find there. In the past four weeks the Feline Breed scientist Elyiana Morrey had nearly died from the drugs that had been used to attempt to force her to destroy a Lion Breed known to have an anomaly in his blood suspected to induce a primal strength and rage known as feral fever.
Mercury Warrant had developed feral fever in the labs where he had been created and trained. At the time of his rescue the scientists there had developed a drug therapy which, in essence, controlled him, locked the animalistic power inside him and forced him to obey the commands given to him by his trainers and creators.
A variation of that drug had been used on the scientist. The lack of the feral hormone for the drug to attach to in her blood had created far greater, nearly fatal results. It had almost destroyed her mind. Now there was evidence that Breeds unknown to the Breed community were being captured or somehow convinced to participate in the experiments with this drug.
Three Breeds had been found just within the past week, their brains fragmented by the pressure that had built within them. One had nearly killed a human, and keeping that one covered up hadn’t been easy.
“This drug could become our personal nightmare,” Del-Rey told them. “It doesn’t just have the power to steal our will; it also has the power to make us killers and nothing more. The Bureau is working to get more information but their contact within the companies has disappeared. They suspect that person won’t show up alive.”
“They’ve found a way to create the killers they always wanted.” Hope’s horrified whisper filled the room.
“Not entirely,” Del-Rey stated. “There are symptoms when the drugs are being slipped into the victim. Our concern is the rumor that the research company has managed to find volunteers. Breeds who were led to believe that this would recess their Breed genetics.” He leaned forward slowly. “The Breed that nearly killed the police officer was younger, unknown and unlisted with the Bureau of Breed Affairs. We know there are still facilities holding many Breeds captive, moving them often. He could be one of those, or a volunteer. Whichever, we have a problem on our hands.”
Faith spoke up. “Dr. Morrey was given the drug by Breed assistants in her lab. Breeds that showed no signs of being under the drug themselves. Greed.”
“Greed,” Del-Rey agreed. “The past eight months that I and my team have been chasing down rumors and leads on this, the company managed to actually get the drug into Sanctuary. We need to stop this now.”
“And stopping it would require . . . ?” Wolfe asked.
“One of the teams need to be granted full sanction,” Del-Rey stated, staring back at them coolly. “Leashing your enforcers and forcing them to hold back in this investigation won’t get the answers you need.”
Dash sat back in his chair and regarded him silently.
“Full sanction?” he asked. “Very few of our teams are allowed that status, Pack Leader Delgado, and none are available now.”
“Then you better make one available,” Del-Rey stated coldly. “Do you think keeping a leash on your enforcers is going to work in this situation?”
“Your team has been investigating this since the first,” Wolfe said then. “You should still have time to finish it.”
His jaw bunched. “I’ve brought you enough to put a sanctioned team on it,” he told them as he rose from his chair. “Go over the file. I should also point out something you’ve obviously overlooked.”
Wolfe frowned back at him. “And that is?”