by Nora Phoenix
“And you think that’s me?” Lidon asked, too stunned to grasp what Grayson was saying.
“I know it’s you. I’ve known from the moment I set foot inside the gates, from the second I met you. But I couldn’t confirm it, couldn’t even mention it, because that’s not my task. But now that your uncle has, I’m at liberty to talk about it with you.”
“I… I don’t know what to say,” Lidon stammered. He leaned back in his chair, his head a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions.
“What do you mean by powers?” Enar asked.
“Extraordinary senses,” Grayson said.
Enar looked at Lidon. “That’s true. Both your eyes and your hearing are exceptional, way beyond what’s standard.”
“A strong intuition, an innate sense of right and wrong.”
“Look at the job you chose,” Palani commented.
“Physical and mental strength combined with a high level of discipline.”
He couldn’t deny that one, Lidon thought.
Grayson cleared his throat. “No need to confirm this one but a high sexual libido is also one of the characteristics.”
Vieno giggled. “We’re not saying anything.”
“A stronger alpha compulsion, which we’ve already seen evidence of.”
Lidon swallowed. “If this is true, why didn’t it manifest sooner? Why didn’t my uncle tell me before?”
“Because it didn’t manifest until you chose the old ways. As long as you were single, dedicated to your job, the power was there, but it was untapped, unfulfilled. Like a natural talent that hadn’t been honed yet. Once you chose Vieno, Palani, and Enar, when you made the decision to rebuild the ranch and honor the pack traditions of your blood, your powers rose to the surface. Your uncle didn’t tell you sooner because you would have rejected it, like your father did.”
Lidon frowned. “My father was a True Alpha?”
“No, he wasn’t. I meant to say he rejected the traditions of the bloodline he was a part of. He didn’t want them, at least most of them, instead only allowing those traditions that he was comfortable with.”
“Like the rule about not allowing strangers within the gates,” Lidon said.
“Yes. Some pack traditions would have been too ingrained for him to ignore, or they must have seemed harmless to him. But the ones that truly mattered, like having multiple mates, he chose to diverge from.”
“You do realize that if my father hadn’t married my daddy, I wouldn’t be sitting here?” Lidon asked Grayson.
Grayson smiled. “Of course, and I get this must be hard for you to hear, but your father weakened himself and his bloodline by letting go of his strength. A pack’s strength is always in numbers, most notably in the numbers of the alpha leading it.”
“Yet here we are,” Palani remarked. “With, apparently, a True Alpha. What does that say?”
“It means nature finds a way. It means that whatever your grandfather did on the day you were born was strong enough to overcome your upbringing.”
“What traditions are you talking about?” Enar asked. “Like, what specific things should Lidon do if he wanted to honor his bloodline or however you called it?”
“That’s a question Lidon should ask. No offense. I can’t show what he’s not willing to see.”
“I’m asking,” Lidon said, and he hadn’t realized how much he meant it until he spoke.
Grayson leaned forward. “Danger is coming, and you need to be ready. Build and grow your pack and name your beta, your second-in-command. Protect your pack above all, at all costs. Trust your instincts, your alpha. Claim what is yours and mark it. Lead, and others will follow you, alpha.”
15
Palani was determined to get to the bottom of the mysterious fertility drug they suspected caused the genetic mutation, but due to everything going on in his life, he hadn’t found the time yet. His work had kept him too busy.
He’d finished a series of four articles on the Anti Wolf Coalition, whose ideas were equally shocking as those of their counterpart, the Conservative Wolf Party. Palani thought them both fringe-style lunatics, but their popular appeal couldn’t be denied. He still wondered how two parties with such extreme ideas amassed such support, and Franken was bewildered as well, so he’d asked Palani to investigate further. So far, he hadn’t made much progress, but he’d figure it out.
He hadn’t made any headway in his Excellon investigation either. Truth be told, the threat against him and Lucan had him rattled. He felt safe on the ranch with Bray and his men around, but even with a massive bodyguard called Adar shadowing him—he had Lidon to thank for that, as he insisted Palani be protected by one of Bray’s men at all times—he was apprehensive when he set foot outside the gates. Adar was built like a fucking tank, but even that didn’t lift the sensation of being watched off Palani’s system. It was like Lucan had described, an awareness of being tailed, even though he never saw anyone. He wouldn’t let go of his investigation into Ryland, Excellon, and Lukos, but he’d damn well tread more carefully.
He had off today, so he made it his priority to determine if their theory about the fertility treatments was plausible and to find out who’d been behind this. He’d made calculations based on the data on the carriers of the gene. The drugs had to have been available for at least fifteen years, but most likely longer. No trial could ever last that long, so how had they managed it?
Rosalind and Abby McCain, two of the McCain sisters, had been more than willing to talk to him. “Anything to shed more light on what happened to our sons,” Abby told Palani. She'd lost her son, Robert, the computer programmer, and her sister Rosalind had buried her son Lance, who’d been safe in the flower shop until that fateful delivery. Their third sister, Gillian, was Colton and Adam's mother, and Abby explained she was unable to speak to Palani as she struggled with her unfathomable loss. They were kind and sweet to Palani, their faces older than their age suggested, marked by the grief that hung around them like a cloak.
“You entered the trial first, correct?” Palani asked Abby. With their permission, he used their first names as the “Mrs. McCain” would get too confusing.
“Yes. We’d been married for five years, and when I still hadn’t conceived, I sought treatment. A friend of my husband’s was a doctor, and he’d heard of a successful trial, so I applied, and I got in.”
“Do you remember the doctor’s name?”
“Yes, of course. Dr. Morton Baig. He was young, only mid-thirties back then, but ambitious and smart. Very friendly too.”
The name tickled Palani’s brain, but he couldn’t place him. He filed it away to do more research later. “And he worked in a hospital?”
Abby nodded. “Yes, he was on staff at the Women’s Clinic with his own room and everything.”
“The one with the wolf poster,” Rosalind said, a smile on her face. “Remember that poster with the big gray wolf?”
Abby smiled as well. “Gosh, I’d forgotten, but yes. Every time you hung in that chair with your legs in the stirrups, you felt as if that wolf was watching everything!”
They giggled, and it warmed Palani’s heart to see them smile, if only for a little bit.
“What did he tell you about the drugs?”
“It was called X23, and he explained they affected the embryo right after conception. His theory was that I could conceive, but that the embryos didn't survive that initial stage because they were too weak, so I kept having early miscarriages—if you can even call them that at that stage. He said these drugs would produce stronger embryos that would survive. And he turned out to be right.”
“How long did it take for you to get pregnant?” Palani asked. “I’m sorry, these are quite personal questions.”
“Mr. Hightower,” Rosalind said.
“Call me Palani, please.”
“You explained the Melloni gene to us and your reasoning that it was the likely cause of the depression that drove our sons to suicide. Your questions make me feel like you think t
he fertility drugs are the cause. Is that right?”
“Yes, that’s what we suspect.”
“We?” Rosalind asked.
“I have a friend, a doctor, who’s helping me get to the bottom of this. We’re also being aided by Dr. Melloni himself, the man who discovered the genetic mutation.”
Abby and Rosalind found each other's hands, and Palani was struck by their strength. “I’m so sorry for dredging up emotions,” he said. “I can’t even imagine the grief you must be coping with.”
Abby nodded. “I hope you’ll never experience this,” she told him. “But if we can do anything to prevent other mothers and fathers from losing their son, we’ll do it. We’ll answer any question you have, no matter how personal or intrusive.”
She shot a quick look at Adar, who stood at a respectful distance. “Is this the reason you needed protection?” she asked. “Because of you investigating the gene?”
“No. It’s because of another investigation, which angered some people. It’s a precaution from my employer,” Palani said.
The employer part was a little lie, though Franken had readily agreed with Palani’s request to let Adar shadow him after Palani had explained his investigation into dirty cops had pissed off some people. But he couldn’t burden these women with the details of his personal life and his work, not when they didn’t need to know.
Abby took a deep breath, then dabbed her eyes with a tissue. “I got pregnant two months after taking the first shot. Dr. Baig said I would feel differently about a month after, and I did. I had…an increased sexual appetite, as he had predicted. Even during the pregnancy, my sex drive was strong.”
Rosalind nodded. “When Abby got pregnant, Gillian and I wanted in on the trial as well. I’d been married three years, and I, too, struggled with getting pregnant. Gillian too. Dr. Baig accepted Gillian into the trial first, and she became pregnant within two months. A few months later, he contacted me to inform me a spot had opened for me, and three months later, I was pregnant with Lance.”
“Did Dr. Baig guarantee you would get X23? Or did he mention you might get a placebo or another fertility drug?”
Abby and Rosalind shared a look. “No, he made it clear we’d be given X23 from the start,” Abby said.
“That’s strange because usually drug trials are double-blind, meaning both the doctor and the patient are unaware which drug will be administered, so the results can’t be misreported by the patient,” Palani explained.
“I didn’t realize that,” Rosalind said.
“Did you ever feel like something was off about the trial or about Dr. Baig? Or now, looking back and knowing this might be the cause, can you remember anything out of the ordinary? Anything he said or did?”
Abby said, “I always thought it was weird that he didn’t track us during the pregnancy. He only did the initial exams and administered the shots, but once I was pregnant, my regular ob-gyn did the rest. And Dr. Baig stressed not to inform my regular doctor about the treatments, as it could influence how he treated me.”
Palani nodded. It made sense for Baig to keep his distance once the women were pregnant, as not to arouse any suspicion. His warning not to inform their regular doctor fitted the profile as well of someone who wanted to cover his tracks.
“And you?” he asked Rosalind. “Anything strike you as odd?”
She looked pensive. “I remember contacting him after Fredric, my second, was born, because I was surprised he, too, was a male omega. Dr. Baig said that the drug might affect the embryo’s sex and identity, so we had a higher chance of getting an omega.”
“You used the drug for all your pregnancies, correct?” Palani asked Abby.
She looked at her hands, her cheeks growing red. “I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. Even my husband doesn’t know. Only Rosalind and Gillian. After we had three omegas, my husband wanted me to stop with the drugs. But he wanted an alpha so badly, so I tried once more without him knowing. I contacted Dr. Baig and explained the situation, and he agreed to give me the drugs free of charge and outside the trial. I know it wasn’t legal, but I—”
“I completely understand,” Palani assured her. “No judgment from me. Did he come to your house?”
She shook her head. “No. He asked me to come to the research facility where the drug had been developed.”
Palani leaned forward. This was interesting. “What can you tell me about that?”
“I went there as well,” Rosalind said. “My husband wanted me to quit the drugs after our first, since he’d seen Abby only had omegas, but I went behind his back. I wanted more kids, you know?”
“It was small,” Abby said. “And it had a super weird name. Do you remember what it was, Rose?”
Rosalind frowned. “Something with Mais…Mait…Wait, that’s it. Maiitsoh.”
“Maiitsoh?” Palani repeated. “Can you spell that for me?”
“M-a-i-i-t-s-o-h. I looked it up years later because a friend asked me about the drugs and Dr. Baig had left the hospital, but the facility was closed, and I couldn’t even find that weird name online anymore. Like they had never existed.”
“Baig left the hospital?” Palani asked.
Abby and Rosalind both nodded. “Yes. It was weird,” Abby said. “One week he was there, and the next he was gone.”
“We got a letter that he’d resigned,” Rosalind said. “We suspected he’d been fired for…” Her voice trailed off, and her hand found Abby’s arm, gripping it so hard her knuckles turned white.
“What’s wrong?” Abby asked. “You turned all white.”
“What if it was because of the drugs, the X23? You said the trial ran way too long, that it wasn’t double-blind, that something was off about it. What if the hospital found out?”
“That’s good thinking, Rosalind,” Palani said. “I’ll verify that with the hospital.”
He asked them a barrage of other questions, and they answered each one. By the time he left, he had a whole stack of notes. He’d gotten answers, but in turn these had resulted in a ton of new questions.
Rosalind’s suggestion to check with the hospital had been a good one, so Palani called the Women’s Clinic first. It was the oldest hospital in the city, and they had digitalized all their archives two years ago, meaning Palani’s request for information was an easy one. It helped that he was on good terms with a clerk in the archive office, a lovely elderly lady by the name of Kaila Kelley, who regularly called in tips for Palani.
“Dr. Baig,” she said. “That’s over twenty years ago. I even remember him. Handsome lad. Real ladies’ man. I always figured he got fired for being a little too personal with a patient, you know?” She chuckled as her fingers clicked away on her keyboard.
“Huh, that’s strange,” Kaila said. “He’s not on any patient records. He should be because I know damn well he treated patients, but he’s not. There are no patient records attached to his name.”
“Any chance you could get into his personnel file?” Palani asked.
“You know, I really shouldn’t, but you and I both know I will. I can’t stand it when something doesn’t add up. Hold on a sec.”
Her fingers rattled on the keyboard again.
“His file is blocked. I’ve never seen this before, but I can’t access it.”
“Do me a favor, would you, Kaila? Keep digging to see what you can find out? Something fishy is going on with this guy, and I need to find out what. I’ll bring you a box of those expensive chocolates when I drop by next time, promise.”
She laughed. “You got yourself a deal, kid. I’ll call you when I have news.”
So Baig had been wiped from the hospital records. Yeah, everything told Palani he was on the right track. But what about that research facility both Rosalind and Abby had been to, Maiitsoh? He had to check his notes again for the spelling. What kind of weird name was that, and more importantly, where had they gone?
He did a quick online check and found nothing. No company records, no proof a compa
ny with that name had ever existed. Had Rosalind gotten the name wrong? He tried a few variations in the spelling, but with the same result. What did that name mean anyway? He typed in “maiitsoh meaning,” and a result popped up. It was the Navajo word for wolf.
Wolf.
Why would they name a research facility after the word for wolf? What was up with people and their fascination for the wolf shifters? He came across it all the time recently. George York and the whole wolf party, Grayson and his wolf shifter stories, the whole pack thing with Lidon, and now this Maiitsoh company. And of course, there was the Anti Wolf Coalition, who was fed up with the whole wolf shifter fascination.
Something tickled his brain. He’d seen another wolf-related name, but where? He tried to dig it up from his brain but got nowhere. Still, it wouldn’t let him go.
It wasn’t till he drove through the gates of the ranch that it hit him where he’d seen it. He raced inside, opening his laptop while he hurried into the kitchen, where Vieno and Enar were making out, the smell of a roasted chicken in the air.
“Hey, baby,” Vieno said, his face beaming and his lips swollen from Enar’s kiss.
“Not now. Oh, fuck, what if I’m right?” Palani muttered. He plunked his laptop onto the kitchen table, his fingers flying over the keyboard.
Lukos. The company who made Excellon. Lukos was a different spelling for lycos, the Greek word for wolf. And suddenly he knew why he’d recognized the name of Dr. Baig.
“Palani, what’s wrong?” Enar asked, letting go of Vieno and walking over to Palani.
Palani’s heart stopped when he saw his suspicions confirmed. The website for Lukos showed the board of directors. Their medical advisor was an ob-gyn by the name of Dr. Morton Baig. That’s why the name had sounded familiar when Rosalind and Abby had mentioned it because he had seen it before on the website of Lukos when he did research.
