Page 45 of Property of Crypt Keeper

Zara.

My jaw clenched so hard pain shot into my temple. My wolf surged violently beneath my skin. That child had been stolen. My mind was racing with the possible story.

“Crypt…”

“What else?” I asked between clenched teeth. My voice didn’t sound like mine anymore. Too deep. Too rough.

Hack exhaled slowly. “Zara’s birth certificate and social security card? Also legit. Yet in both cases, at both the social security office and the county clerk’s office, the person who filed the forms died within months of their issue. This goes way beyond a missing kid. I went down a rabbit hole I didn’t even know was possible.”

He pulled up another screen. Folders. Photos. Maps. Most of them grainy surveillance images. Medical facilities. Warehouses. Shipping manifests. Bodies. Missing persons.

Supernatural missing persons. My stomach dropped.

“What the fuck is this?” I asked.

Hack’s voice lowered. “Off-book research sites.”

My eyes narrowed. “Meaning?”

“Black sites,” he confirmed grimly. “Unofficial labs. Human trafficking routes. Underground medical facilities.”

Every word made the room colder.

“From what I found, they’ve been snatching supernaturals for years,” Hack continued. “Most disappearances were written off as clan disputes, rogue hunters, territorial shit… things like that.”

“But?” I pressed.

“But the patterns lined up too clean. So I kept digging.”

Hack pulled up another file.

“What the fuck is all that?” I asked as I leaned forward, resting my knuckles on the desk to look over his shoulder.

“Experiment logs. Most heavily encrypted, some partially corrupted. Within them, species classifications. Breeding viability. Genetic adaptability.”

My blood ran cold. “Someone is playing God?”

“Looks that way,” he confirmed.

“No,” I denied quietly.

Hack nodded grimly. “Yeah.”

I stared at the screen. My wolf snarled violently inside me.

Not rage. An icy cold desire for blood.

“They’re experimenting?” I asked, my hackles raised. “You’re sure?”

“Looks like it.” His face was solemn.

“On supernaturals.” It still didn’t seem possible that I’d understood him correctly.

Hack looked sick now. “Cross-breeding. Genetic manipulation. Trying to create new species combinations.”

Zara.

Female Rougarou. I was sure of it now. It would explain the “crazed” killing of the “aunt’s” chickens on the full moon. A simple shifter didn’t have that instinct.