The Beta's Missing Mate (Book 16 Of The Regal Eclipse Pack Series)

Chapter 16

Ana smiled to herself as she read over the text message from her boss. He'd approved her vacation time and commended her on a job well done over the last few months. He'd told her to take the time to decompress, and if she wanted more time, to just ask. She was also getting a raise.

She loved her job and appreciated the man she worked for. He let her know when she was doing well and when she wasn't, though he was diplomatic about it. He knew the job was hard, and it could be wearisome. But he was fair to all of them and incredibly supportive, and that's what Ana appreciated.

She'd come home, taken a hot shower, and gotten in her comfy pajamas, then made herself some dinner. Now she was seated at the table, ready to tackle more of her father's notebooks. She opened the next one. There weren't many left.

About six months ago, her father had gotten a new partner at work, and everything had seemed to change. His new partner was a man by the name of Clyde, and her father seemed to think that Clyde was a bit off. After reading a few entries regarding him, Ana tended to agree. The man had a lot of red flags that were glaringly apparent.

But Coleman had still gotten to know him, as the two men had spent a great deal of time together at work, and her father had told Clyde about Gen and how sick she was. He'd said more than once that he'd like to find a way to use Nolan's healing abilities on Gen, though he wasn't quite sure how.

Ana found herself wishing that he hadn't mentioned her sister. She didn't trust Clyde as far as she could throw him, just from the small bit her father had said about him. She wondered how difficult it would be to find out his last name and look into him. But he couldn't have a suspicious history if he were a paramedic. They would have done a thorough background check on him. She was still curious, though.

Clyde was apparently very interested in Nolan as well and had asked a lot of questions. Ana found herself glad that Nolan had disappeared before her father had met Clyde. She had a feeling Clyde was very twisted. It was something deep inside of her, a sixth sense that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She got it occasionally when she was working a case. And she got it while reading about Clyde.

One day, Coleman and Clyde had responded to an airplane crash. It had happened a few weeks before her father's disappearance. A bad storm had come through the area and had brought with it very strong straight-line winds. Ana remembered that storm pretty well. She'd lost power during it. It also wasn't very long after she'd met Aidan. It had done quite a bit of damage and had torn the plane apart, resulting in two separate crash sites that were about a half mile apart. Clyde and her father had responded to the second sight, which was the back of the plane.

There had only been one victim, a man who had been burned and had shrapnel in different areas of his body. He was unconscious, and they'd begun to work on him, shocked that he was still alive. But then her father had noticed something. The man's body was healing up rather quickly, and it intrigued both her father and Clyde. And that's when her father learned that Clyde had a place they could take him and see if there was something in his system that could help Gen. And her father had agreed.

Ana had been shocked to read that. Her father had participated in the kidnapping of a man so they could use him to save her sister? She rubbed a hand over her face in annoyance. She knew her father cared deeply about helping her sister, but to resort to this? Her thought drifted to Gen and how healthy she'd looked the last time she'd seen her. Had it worked? Gen was still as tight-lipped as she'd been the last time Ana had seen her. She'd had to continue reading.

Ana had been completely horrified. They'd quickly figured out that this man, whom they'd referred to as Patient X, had some sort of healing abilities that could be replicated in others, and her father wanted to treat Gen with it. But Clyde had wanted to do more. He'd spent some time convincing her father that they could let Patient X go when they were finished with him, but only if they could mess with his memories. Her father had reluctantly agreed.

Clyde had performed brain surgery on the man, which had somehow not killed him, and ran a few other experiments that Coleman wasn't thrilled about. Her father had said this man was a werewolf, and Clyde had figured out how to cut him off from his wolf and his memories. Then, Clyde had repeatedly drained the man of blood, over and over again, and it never killed him.

They'd held the poor man for weeks, as Clyde had convinced her father that they could sell his blood and make a killing. Coleman hadn't been thrilled by the idea, but apparently Clyde had been very persuasive, which raised another red flag with Ana. How persuasive?

Ana shook her head as she read over his cruelty. How much this man must have suffered, and her father had allowed it to happen. She felt sick over it and wondered what had happened to him. Besides the bloodletting, which she was sure was probably the worst part, the fact that they had implanted something in his brain and cut off his memories was horrible, too. He'd had to be scared and confused. Was he still being held prisoner somewhere? She hoped not. But how horrible for him.

If Clyde was still out there and she could find him, she'd go after him. Unfortunately, she'd have to go after her father as well; she was aware of that, but so many laws had been broken, and someone had suffered terribly because of these two.

Ana had finally reached the final notebook, and she felt sick as she stared at it. Part of her didn't want to even open it, but she knew she had to. Reading about someone being tortured for weeks on end, someone who healed too quickly to die, had been bad enough.

The final notebook was less than half full, and she opened it and began to read.

Clyde apparently knew of a place where they could find other werewolves. They lived about a hundred miles from his secret little lab, and he convinced her father to help him kidnap some of them. Her father never did mention how Clyde knew all of this, but he knew their weaknesses were silver and wolfsbane. Ana had rolled her eyes at that and wondered how true that was. But they'd managed to take four people and brought them back to their lab.

They'd been disappointed to find out that their blood didn't heal the way Patient X's did. They seemed weaker and not able to handle quite as much as X, though they were still superior to humans. Her father had wanted to let them go, but Clyde disagreed with that idea, convinced it would end up resulting in their own deaths, which made her father wonder if Clyde ever had any intention of letting Patient X go.

In the final entry, her father admitted to having given some of Patient X's blood to Gen, which shocked Ana. He said that her sister had agreed to try it, though he thought it was more to appease him than anything else. He was hopeful that the blood would work and was patiently waiting to hear back from her. That was the last entry.

Ana closed the notebook with a slam and leaned back in her seat, pinching the bridge of her nose. She knew Gen had seen Coleman two days before he'd disappeared. That must have been when he'd given her some of Patient X's blood. It hadn't been long after they'd brought in the other werewolves either, and those ones, Clyde hadn't performed memory-altering surgery on.

Had someone come after them? She imagined they must have had family out there, especially since Nolan had seemed so normal. Maybe it was family that had come after them? Which meant, if so, her father was either on the run or dead.