16. Crypt Keeper
CRYPT KEEPER
I woke before Katalina. For a few seconds, I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, not moving. Not thinking. Just feeling—sensing.
The room was quiet except for the slow rhythm of breathing beside me and the distant hum of motorcycles outside somewhere on the clubhouse grounds. Katalina was half-curled against me beneath the sheets, with one hand resting loosely against my chest.
Dark hair spread across the pillow. One leg tangled with mine.
Warm. Soft. Real.
My wolf was awake immediately. But not restless. Not agitated. Not pacing beneath my skin wanting out. Content. Completely fucking content. Which bothered me.
A lot.
Because my thoughts started moving to the other moving piece in this game. Zara.
Smaller restraints.
Experiments.
Rafael.
Katalina.
Then—mine. The thought hit hard enough to tighten my chest. I frowned at the ceiling. No. Absolutely not.
Yet it wasn’t only toward Katalina.
It was Zara too—and that thought should’ve felt like sheer insanity. Should’ve been out of place. Because I’d known the kid less than a damn week.
Less than a week.
But Hack’s results replayed through my head. DNA close to yours. Not sibling. Not niece. Not immediate family. Not anything that made sense. How? How the hell was that even possible?
My arm tightened unconsciously around Katalina. Her body shifted slightly. Not enough to wake, but enough that her face pressed closer against my chest. She breathed deeply but remained dead to the world.
And my wolf practically sighed. I rolled my eyes. Then, I looked down at her sleeping face. The sharp edges she wore while awake disappeared in sleep. No guarded eyes. No sarcasm. No deadly assassin or skilled huntress.
Just Katalina.
Just my—Nope. I shut that thought down immediately. I’d worry about all of that later. My wolf would need to be patient. I rubbed a hand down my face.
Yeah.
This was becoming a nightmare.
Church an hour later was considerably less peaceful.
Boomslang stood at the head of the table while the maps from yesterday, addresses, photos, and more of Hack’s findings covered almost every inch of wood.
Hack pointed toward several locations on his monitor.
“So I started following the supply trails,” he explained.
Pictures flashed across the screen. Office buildings. Warehouses. Rental properties. Storage spaces.
Nothing looked unusual. That was the problem.
“Medical equipment repeatedly shipped under different shell companies,” Hack continued. Pictures changed. Industrial freezers. Generators. Medical crates.
Silver-lined restraints.
Magical suppressants.
Mako folded his arms. “To where?”
Hack clicked again. Pins appeared all over a map. “They’re using multiple addresses throughout the country.”
I leaned forward. None of them looked special.
They were office rentals. Older warehouse spaces. Run-down industrial buildings. Places no one would look twice at.
“They all have similarities,” Hack pointed out.
“Covered windows.” Click. “Secured delivery boxes.” Click. “Roll-up loading doors on larger sites.” Click. “And almost nothing inside.”
The room went quiet.
Boomslang narrowed his eyes. “Transfer points.”
Hack nodded. “That’s what I’m thinking.”
Not facilities. Way stations. Movement routes. My stomach tightened. Because if they were moving things… then they were likely moving people too. Or maybe I should say… creatures. Or whatever the hell Zara had become.
Boomslang looked toward us. “Crypt had a good idea. We split up. Killswitch, tell them what we came up with.”
Killswitch stood and all eyes turned to him. “Team One, Crypt and Mako. They will check the first half of the shell properties, warehouses, flood control locations, and industrial sites.”
Mako and I nodded.
“Team Two will be me and Widowmaker. We’ll take the second half of the list.”
“Got it,” Widowmaker noted.
“Team Three, Hack and Zeus. They will investigate the data—the power usage, supply chains, missing persons, shell corporations,” he continued.
“Roger that,” Zeus affirmed.
“Team Four, Bronx and Toto. They’ll be searching out known smugglers, transport crews, underground suppliers,” he added.
“Boom, Spook, Dexter, Dementor, Clutch, and the prospects will stay here to watch over the compound and our families. I don’t trust that someone isn’t watching and waiting for us to leave everything else unprotected while we deal with this. Questions?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“Then let’s get moving,” Boom announced before rapping the gavel for effect.
By noon, Mako and I were standing outside our third building on our list. I was already irritated. Mako looked equally thrilled.
“So far we’ve found…” He looked around dramatically. “…dust.”
I snorted. “Don’t forget rats.”
“Oh right.” He nodded solemnly. “Lots of rats.”
The building itself looked abandoned. Broken windows. Cracked concrete with weeds growing from the centers. Rotting siding.
Normal. What you would expect from an old, empty factory.
Except it wasn’t.
Because as we drew closer to the building, below the grime—I could smell fresh electrical work. Fresh wiring. Recent construction.
Without speaking, we shared a glance. Then we stealthily slipped through one of the broken windows before moving carefully through the structure. There wasn’t a single scurry of tiny feet anywhere.
Keeping the echo of our footsteps to a minimum on the rusted metal stairs, we descended. That was when we found them. Reinforced steel doors in the basement. Warding symbols and residue. A new panel next to it displayed a high-tech power system.
Then—nothing. Empty. Clean. Too clean.
Mako crouched beside the floor, dragging fingers through dust. “No footprints?”
I looked around slowly. “No trash.”
“No equipment,” he added. “No signs anybody actually stayed here.”
Mako stood, jaw tightening.
“Then why all this?” I asked, motioning around us.
“Either we’re getting close…” He paused, then looked around. “…or someone’s watching us.”
My wolf stirred. Because I hated how correct that felt.
The fourth property was a warehouse near the edge of the city. Larger. Darker. And simply… wrong. I felt it immediately. The moment we walked in.
Blood. Old. Faint. But definitely there.
I stripped out of my clothes, shoving them in my backpack before handing it to Mako.
Then I crouched down, the ripping, tearing feeling made me grit my teeth as I dropped my head.
Bones separated, morphed, lengthened, shortened.
My teeth elongated, and my eyes burned behind my lids.
I could feel the thick fur as it pushed through my skin and spread over my flesh.
When I opened my eyes, I was staring at everything from the eyes and height of my wolf. I breathed deeply, and the scents were stronger as my senses were more developed and refined.
Nose sniffing, I followed the trail deeper inside, my nails clicking softly on the cement floor. Past empty shelving. Past loading equipment. Then stopped.
Mako walked up beside me as we stood looking at a cage set in an alcove of the building. “Well… shit.”
Silver restraints littered the floor. Broken. Bent outward. Like something tore through them. Concrete walls nearby were gouged deep.
Claw marks.
Long.
Violent.
Not random. Desperate.
I stepped closer. My wolf suddenly went very still. Instinct and awareness had me completely motionless. My eyes narrowed.
Because the spacing… the spacing looked familiar.
Far too familiar.
A warning sounded in the back of my mind, and I began the change back to my human form.
Bones cracking and shifting. Skin stretching, sliding, and lightening.
Fingertips splayed on the ground as my nails retracted and flattened, back arched as I crouched on all fours, I breathed heavily until my teeth smoothed, and I adjusted to the change.
Slowly—very slowly—I raised from the floor and lifted my hand to place it over one set of gouges. Cold settled into my spine.
Because it lined up almost perfectly. It was like déjà vu. As if I was looking at the marks I’d left in my own cell during full moons. Which was coming up quicker than I liked.
Mako stared at me. Then looked at the wall. Then back at me.
“Crypt….”
I didn’t answer. Because I wondered who had made these marks. There were not a lot of Rougarous in existence. And suddenly I had one horrible thought. If they knew enough and had the ability to create female Rougarou… how many other things had they made?