Buried and Shadowed (Branded Packs #3)

Bam. Her tart response made his cock rock-hard.

It was crazy. He’d seduced countless women. He’d even occasionally been rejected, although that was thankfully rare. But none of them had disturbed him like this beautiful wolf.

Waiting for her to step into his lair, Rios closed the door behind her and hit the overhead lights. They were both capable of seeing in the dark, but he needed a firm reminder that this wasn’t a night to ease his cat’s hunger for this female.

“Have a seat.” He waved a hand toward the leather sectional that was set in front of the large-screen TV.

She hovered near the door as if hoping he would hand her a file and send her on her way.

“I-”

“This is going to take a while,” he smoothly interrupted her protest.

Her lips tightened, but with a regal lift of her chin, she moved to perch on the edge of the sofa.

A purr rumbled in Rios’s chest as he watched the elegant sway of her ass. Damn. If he could get his hands on that fine piece of real estate…

Muttering under his breath, Rios swung on his heel and moved to the bank of computers. He couldn’t hide his scent of arousal, but he could control his traitorous cock.

“I wasn’t sure what exactly you needed so I printed off all the info we have so far,” he said, grabbing the tall stack of files before he turned and made his way back to sit on the sofa next to Bree.

Her eyes widened as he started to spread the files on the low coffee table.

“All of that?”

“A lot of it is the additional information that helps establish timelines, as well as the necessary documents to verify the truth of our accusations,” he assured her, doing his best to ignore the musky scent that was teasing at his senses.

Sinclair was right. This was important.

The most important—and most dangerous—thing they’d ever done in the history of the Unseen Pack.

And this woman was the key to swaying the humans into accepting they were speaking the truth, or condemning them all to death.

“Okay,” she said, her expression somber. Bree was clearly aware of the lethal expectations being placed on her slender shoulders.

“Where do you want to start?” he asked.

“At the beginning,” she said firmly.

“I got you covered.” Rios grabbed the top file and placed it in her outstretched hand. “We know that the first case of the virus was reported in April 1986 in a hospital in Rome.”

“Yes. Even the humans agree on that,” she said, flicking open the folder to study the medical reports inside. “What’s this?”

“The original hospital report on that patient.”

She sent him a startled glance. “How did you get this?”

“There aren’t many things I can’t get if I want them badly enough,” he said in low tones, unable to resist the urge to reach up and brush the back of his fingers against her cheek.

An unexpected blush had stained her ivory skin before she ducked her head to study the file with a fierce concentration.

Rios’s cat stilled, his hunting instincts on full alert. Well, well. His pretty wolf wasn’t completely indifferent to him, after all.

She cleared her throat, pointing a manicured finger at a notation in the medical report.

“It says here that the patient claimed he’d recently received a flu shot at the Verona Clinic.”

He dropped his hand. First, they’d work. Then…

His cat purred in anticipation.

“The clinic denied it, of course,” he said.

She flipped to the end of the file. “Do we have any corroborating evidence?”

He pointed toward a stack of files on the table. “We have stories from a half-dozen other patients who made the same claim,” he assured her. “Plus, the Alpha of the Golden Pack has evidence that the clinic was actually testing a strain of Ebola that they intended to weaponize.”

She shuddered. Shifters had plenty of faults. They were hot-tempered, territorial, and enjoyed the occasional brawl. But when they fought, it was with teeth and claws. They didn’t invent hideous weapons that were meant to destroy huge swaths of the population.

“Why didn’t the officials investigate?”

Rios nodded, well aware she was asking the questions that she expected to receive when they came out of the shadows to renounce the SAU.

“At first, they were searching for the corporation that was funding the research,” he said. “They could close the clinic, but unless they knew who’d actually paid to have the virus released into the world, they couldn’t be sure that it wouldn’t happen again. Then the virus became a pandemic, and everything went to hell. It wasn’t until the vaccine was created to halt the spread of the plague that they tried to discover what had actually happened. By then, most of the proof had been destroyed.”

Reaching into the pocket of her gloriously tight skirt, she pulled out a razor-thin phone and started taking notes.

“Do we have any information on who was behind the destruction of evidence?”

Rios reached for another file. This one sent a blast of fury through him.