The director shot a look at Storme's back, his expression doubtful. She was damned stubborn, Styx could almost read what the other man was thinking. The hope that they would have that information soon was dwindling.
As Styx stepped from the front of the fireplace and shot his "near" mate a disgruntled look, the back door opened once more, to admit the alpha of the Wolf packs and leader of Haven, Wolfe Gunnar, and his mated wife Hope.
Hope still had the fresh, innocent look of the college student Wolfe had kidnapped almost thirteen years before.
As Wolfe stepped to the wide entrance into the kitchen, she stepped past him, the soft Asian flavor of her features still and quiet as she moved into the living room and stepped to the couch.
"Hello, Storme." The familiarity in her voice and the sudden scent of pain radiating from Storme had Styx's senses going on high alert. "It's been a long time. Aren't you going to say hello?"
Storme laid the remote down carefully, the tension in her body mixing with the fear, the pain and the anger.
Slowly, her head turned, the dark, emerald green of her eyes glittering with so many emotions Styx nearly winced at the sight of them.
"No," Storme stated, the low tone of her voice grating, "I'm not."
She rose from the couch, moved to his bedroom, opened the door and stepped inside before closing the door softly. Behind her, she left them staring at where she had disappeared, the men in the room too aware, too sensitive and too uncertain about the emotions that flowed between the two women.
One thing was for damned certain, they knew each other well, and Storme had just found another part of her past to run away from: the lupina, whose soft blue eyes shimmered with tears.
"Storme wasn't very old when the first Breed rescues began," Hope stated as Styx set a pot of coffee on the kitchen table in front of his alpha and lupina almost an hour later. "That was fourteen years ago, so she would have been ten perhaps. I met her just after Wolfe and his pack escaped from Mexico. Delia, my mother, was sent to the Omega labs for nearly a year before we were transferred back to the States and she left me with my father's sister. Storme was there, lonely, always reaching out to a father and brother who had no real time for her."
"Navarro told me the labs there were worse than the others," Styx commented as he glanced back at her.
"They were horrendous," she agreed painfully as Jonas and Rachel watched her heavily. "I didn't know about whatever project was going on there. Mother didn't take me to the labs because she didn't want the Coyote Breeds there to sense whatever hormonal reaction had begun in my body. She wanted to study it for herself. But I know Storme was taken often to the labs where wounded and experimental Breeds were kept. It was a hellhole there. She saw only the worst of what the scientists had created the Breeds to be.
The fury and the agonizing rage that filled them, a result of the pain they endured from the experiments or the wounds they carried."
"Were you close?" Jonas questioned her.
Hope shrugged. "At one time, perhaps. For years I've waited, hoping she would contact me, hoping she would trust me with whatever information her father gave her, but I never heard from her."
Wolfe spoke up then. "Jonas, what information does she have that's so important to your child?" The Wolf Breed alpha leaned back in his chair and watched the director curiously. The fact that Dr. Armani was under orders by the Bureau not to reveal the details of the information she had found was known by the alpha. It was an order he wouldn't force her to break unless he had no other choice.
Jonas sighed. "I'm not certain of the parameters of Project Omega. What I'm certain of is that somehow it coincides with whatever Brandenmore was researching as well. A serum or virus that has halted his aging and begun regenerating his cellular structure. Organs are healing and rejuvenating, at a very slow rate, yet still it's happening.
At the time Brandenmore kidnapped our daughter, Amber, he injected her with something we believed was a sedative until I nearly killed Brandenmore. He told me then it was an experimental drug and that if he died, the secret of saving her if the reaction became adverse would die with him. I have to admit, I didn't completely believe him until the night I heard her purr."
Styx blinked back at Jonas as Rachel's breath caught on a sob.
There were rumors of Council scientists attempting to create a virus that would alter the DNA of humans after birth. In each case, the test subject had died in horrible pain from the agony of the body attempting to both fight as well as accept the strange genetic virus.
The conflict within the test subjects had created horrifying stories of screaming, mindless humans who had survived until their hearts had finally ruptured from the stress of the genetic mutations.
"Are there any signs the baby is in distress?" Hope whispered, compassion and sympathy spilling from her eyes as she stared at Rachel.
Rachel, thankfully, shook her head. "The scientists can find no Breed genetics or hormones in her system to match those of Brandenmore. All we have are the odd purrs.
It's happened twice now, and each time, Jonas has scented a hint of a Feline babe about her. Just as quickly, the scent as well as the purr is gone."
"Then you believe the information Storme has is somehow related to the genetic experimentations on humans?" Wolfe asked, his tone boarding the harsh growl of an angered Wolf.
Jonas nodded sharply. "I've let her run for ten years, hoping she would grow up, see the truth of the Council and the Breeds and accept my offer of help. Had I known her father had been insane enough to actually save the research conducted on Omega, then I would have captured her when she was fourteen. Unfortunately, I had no idea the full extent of the research the Montagues conducted."
The fact that he hadn't was lying heavily on his shoulders. Styx could sense the director's regret as well as his inner fury.
"What now, then?" Wolfe asked. "How do we force her to turn over the information?"
"We force nothing." Styx crossed his arms over his chest and stared back at the four of them implacably, aware of Navarro coming to attention behind him in the corner of the room.