Before Craig could answer, Jarrod came stomping down the hall.
“Craig, what have you done?” he demanded furiously. “I swore an oath!”
“Yes, you swore an oath. I didn’t.” Craig dropped his gaze in submission, and moved in front of Angela. “She had nothing to do with it!” he added hastily, as Jarrod clenched his fists, his face going furry.
“Yes I did, and if you hurt Craig, I’ll kill you!” Angela shouted from behind Craig.
Jarrod stood there for what felt like an eternity but probably only lasted a few seconds.
Finally he regained control. He turned to look at Mary, his gaze searching. Pleading.
“I was trying to protect you. I never wanted you to know…”
“That my mother didn’t give a damn about me? That my sister is a horrible person?” Mary wiped at her eyes.
Then her door banged open and Constance rushed out. “Briony’s gone!” she cried out. “She said she was going to find Petra and make her talk. I tried to stop her, but she went out the window and ran off!”
She saw Jarrod and went pale. She paused and nodded her head at him abruptly. “Sir,” she said. Then she squared her shoulders and looked him right in the eye. “Everybody said that I was crazy when I said I felt that there had been a mix-up at the hospital. Briony is saying the same thing. There’s something wrong, and I won’t be quiet anymore.”
Jarrod nodded, his face grim. “I know that now, Constance. We did a DNA test on your baby, you know that, and when it came back showing the baby was yours, I thought you must be mistaken. But now I’ve been looking into the pack’s finances and I found out that my uncle is purchasing something from Eastern Europe several times a year…from a surrogacy clinic. I just found this out yesterday, and we have a team investigating it, but I think Earvin has been bringing in babies. Designer babies, so to speak. Babies engineered to be swift and strong, to grow up to be the kind of athletes who would always win at the Alpha Games. I believe that he started twenty years ago, and he took over as Gamesmaster four years ago – when the youngest babies he’d replaced turned sixteen and were eligible to enter the games.”
Mary felt a shockwave of horror wash over her. What the hell had been done with all the babies he’d replaced? Was Briony’s baby dead?
“Did you speak to the Mage?” Constance demanded.
“When the Enforcers went to his house this morning, he walked out on the front steps to meet them – and shot himself in the head with a silver bullet. Ignatius fled the pack lands, not that he’ll get far. Let’s go find Petra before Briony gets to her. Trust me, I’ll make my aunt talk.”
“How will we find her?” Mary asked.
“Her phone’s being tracked by GPS. I’ll go. You stay here,” Jarrod said sternly. “I mean it.”
He headed out with Craig following at his heels.
Mary waited until he was gone. Then she turned to Constance. “We might be able to talk to Briony before she gets to Petra,” she said. “How would we find her?”
“I can scent track her,” she said. “And Briony is probably scent-tracking Petra. Follow me.” She rippled and went gray. Her eyes turned pointy and triangular. She shuddered and sank down to all fours, covered in thick gray-and-white fur.
Mary and Angela followed her through Mary’s suites and out the back window. They ran behind her into the woods. Constance paused and sniffed at the air, then began loping along. Angela and Mary ran at full speed behind her. Soon they were gasping for breath, as Constance kept twisting around to bark impatiently at them.
Finally they reached a clearing. Briony and Petra stood there. Petra was clutching a baby in her arms, and her eyes were wild.
Briony was in human form except for her ears and fangs.
Mary and Angela stumbled into the clearing.
“Briony…don’t! Jarrod’s coming…” Mary shouted between gasps of breath. She looked around. If he wasn’t here yet, it probably meant Petra didn’t have her cell phone so he hadn’t been able to track her. But if he started scenting, he’d find her soon.
“Earvin’s coming too!” Petra cried out, her eyes wild with fear. “You’d better let me go or he’ll kill you! Especially you,” she spat at Mary. “He hates you.”
“That baby you’re holding is not mine,” Briony snarled, advancing on her, fists clenched. “You were taking that baby to kill him, weren’t you? Did you kill my baby?” Her voice rose to a scream.
“No!” Petra cried out, backing up farther. “I’ve been saving them!” She stumbled on a root, tripped, and fell, still holding the baby. As she struggled back into a sitting position, the baby rolled out of her arms and lay there in the dirt, crying.
Before she could get up, Jarrod and Craig raced into the clearing in wolf form.
“Lying bitch!” Constance had shifted back into human form, and she screamed at Petra in a voice that was hoarse with fury.
Jarrod and Craig shifted back into human form, and Jarrod began moving towards his aunt. “Whose baby is that?” he demanded of Petra, pointing at the squirming child on the ground.
