"Wow, that's some radical shit," said Michele as they cleared the bio-scanners that gave them access to the Bunker. "Even Jason Borne would have a tough time getting in."

Daniel's brows knitted together. "Who?" The woman was becoming stranger by the minute.

At first, he was sure Michele was going to reject the idea of going anywhere with him. Something in her history must have made her suspicious of everyone, especially those in authority. The way swear words just rolled of her tongue was a unique dialectal in itself, and Daniel understood the compulsion of parents to wash their children's mouth out with soap when they used profanity. However, she was not his child, nor his concern, so he ignored the language the best he could.

Daniel led her through the next set of doors which opened up into the main floor which housed the banks of monitors and people.

"You must be Michele," said Parker as she approached them. "I'm Parker Johnson, welcome to the Bunker."

Michele glanced around the room. The wariness hadn't subsided. In fact, it had escalated the moment they left Nederland. Whatever had happened in her past had scarred her for life. She clutched her messenger bag tighter around her and nodded. "You the hacker." It was more of a statement than a question.

Parker tilted her head and smiled. "I prefer to call it security specialist." She indicated towards a chair. "If you will just take a seat, Alpha Locke and I will be back in a moment, and we'll get started."

Curious, he followed Parker to her office. After she closed the door, she turned to him so that her back was to the main office beyond. "After your call, I did a bit of digging. I have no idea about what she's like in the Werewolf community, but in the human world, our guest appears to be very good at her job. She doesn't have a record and doesn't leave much of a digital footprint." Parker whipped her head around and watched as Jay gave Michele a tour of the facility. "So, do you really think Carbine knew something?"

"I'm not sure, but whatever is going on, it's spooked her, and I suspect she's not one easily scared"

Parker turned back and gave him a light punch in the arm. "You know you're still not forgiven for this morning."

Daniel chuckled. "I didn't expect to be."

"You didn't need to have Jo follow me."

He shrugged his shoulders. "It was that, or lock you in the house. I chose self-preservation over your wrath."

Parker placed a hand on his chest. "We'll talk about this later. Right now, we need to find out what's on that laptop."

As they stepped out of Parker's office they heard Michele ask, "Yes, but what I don't understand, is the purpose of this place."

Jay, unsure of just how much to say, looked nervously across at Daniel and Parker. Daniel, putting the young Werewolf out of his misery, stepped forward and explained the reason why the bunker had been set up.

"And all this for keeping one pack's identification up-to-date and finding them work?" said Michele, once he was finished.

Before he could answer, Parker cut into the conversation. "No, I think you misunderstood Alpha Locke. The purpose of the Bunker is to help all Were's, no matter whether they are pack or not; Alliance or not."

Daniel held back a grin. While she was still mad at him, she was ready to defend him to the hilt. At least her anger was directed at someone other than him for once.

Michele, after letting a few choice swear words loose, remained silent as she wandered around the desks and made her way to the bank of giant screens. "So, your saying that everyone here is from different packs, and you are training them how to hack into databases?"

Parker raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "I wouldn't put it quite like that. We are teaching them a skill that the werewolf community need. But you are correct, the team are from around the country, including Marc over there who is from a pack in France."

Michele snorted. "Do I look as though I was born yesterday?" she said. "Packs only take care of their own, and don't give a fuck about anyone else. Others might, but I ain't believing that bullshit you're selling."

Daniel's temper rose. Her disrespect was bordering on insolence, something he would not tolerate. "I have no idea what sort of lies you believe, and I don't care. Your life is yours to ruin, and as long as you don't take others down with you, or put anyone at risk, you can do what you like. I, however take exception to your conduct. You are a guest in my pack and I will not have you disrespecting us. I am an Alpha, and, so too is Parker. Our word is our bond, and to have you questioning our integrity is beyond what I am willing to overlook. You have been treated with respect and we are offering you a way to survive whatever is coming. That will be enough of your insolence, am I clear?"

The room fell quiet, and all eyes turned to Michele.

As expected, Michele's façade crumbled and she dropped her eyes. An alpha command was an alpha command. She shifted from one foot to the other, then back again, and mumbled an apology under her breath.

"Jay, can you please help our guest unlock her laptop," said Parker. She then addressed Zeke. "Arrange for a new drivers licence in her state of choice, passport and bail agent licence in her new name."

"But... but..." Michele trailed off.

Parker pivoted on her heel. "Yes?" Her voice came out cold as steel.

"But Alpha, I haven't decided what to do with the information yet."

"Irrespective of your decision, you were always going to get the ID. Your well-being comes first, no matter what you may think," said Parker.

While he had said nothing in front of the others, Parker's outburst had surprised him. It was so unlike her to be anything other than level headed. Michele blinked rapidly and the tell-tale glaze indicated her usual tough veneer was cracking. She swung her head towards Daniel, the unasked question obvious.

"Parker is telling the truth. No matter what you think, most packs are more than willing to help."

Michele tugged at the piercing in her eyebrow and stared at the laptop screen as Jay booted it up and plugged it into his tablet. In record time, he had it unlocked and swung back around to face her. Before touching the laptop, she looked up and regarded both Parker and Daniel.

From her subdued expression, she was unsure and confused. After coming to a decision, Michele turned her attention to the screen in front of her and began to tap away at the keyboard.

Daniel glanced over to Parker who was focused on her own tablet. No matter how much he willed her to look up, not once did she make eye contact with him.

She's still mad at me.

When he looked back up, Jay, Zeke and the others were all focused on Michele. They were just as curious as he was on what was contained on the laptop that could have gotten Carbine killed.

As if knowing they were all staring, Michele said, without looking up, "I suggest you all take a chill pill. I could be awhile. I don't know what the fuck I'm looking for."

The room fell quiet again and they all watched intently as searched the contents of the laptop. Daniel knew the moment she found something. Her face lost all colour and her brows shot up. "That sort of shit is not possible."

By the time she balled her fists and growled, "That fucking bitch." Daniel was more than concerned. It was a strain not to reach over and yank the laptop off her.

Wondering how Parker was reacting to Michele's outburst, Daniel glanced over at his mate. When the laptop had been unlocked, Parker had moved to one side and focused on her tablet, not speaking to anyone in the process while she did so. He had assumed that it was because she was still angry with him. However, when he realised her face held the same level of shock as Michele's he knew it wasn't to do with him.

Daniel repressed an inward groan. Of course, Parker wasn't taking any chances, and had accessed the hard drive remotely. Whatever Michele was reading, so too was Parker.

As if realising he was staring, she looked up and spotted him studying her. Parker attempted a wan smile, but it was too feeble to hold. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and opened them again. It was if she'd just seen a ghost. Unable to say anything, Daniel continued to split his attention between Parker and their strangely dressed, foul mouthed guest.

After a few more minutes of swearing at thin air, Michele snapped the lid closed. "I can't read any more."

She stared at the laptop without saying a word, and without looking up at anyone. Eventually, she looked up. "What if we want to stay in Denver? We don't want to be part of no pack or nothing," she quickly clarified. "But I hear tell there's a lot of bail jumpers in this part of the country."

Before he could answer, she pushed the laptop towards him. "Just so you know, even if you were lying about helping me out, there is no choice, I have to give it to you. I can't understand half of it, but what I do is freaky shit."

Parker rose and unplugged the device. "The boys will get you sorted. We'll have a little chat about relocating you after Alpha Locke and I have taken a look at what's on here."

Daniel followed her to her office, her ashen face worried him. Something was very wrong. As soon as they were alone, he closed the door to keep their conversation private. Soundproofed walls and doors came in handy.

Parker's hands shook as she placed the device on her desk. She sat down, opened the lid then looked up at him, her eyes full of fear. "There's a lot more on there than the files she read."

Whatever was coming, he knew he wasn't going to like it. Daniel came around the desk and leaned on the credenza that lined the wall. He watched as she accessed what she was after. As her fingers flew across the keyboard she said, "It turns out this Boris that Michele mentioned to you, is Lycan, and is on the run. Carbine documented everything, including recording many of their conversations."

Somehow, he wasn't surprised. "So, it's true, they do still live."

She nodded. "According to Carbine's diary, the Lycan never really died out. Those that survived the plagues and witch hunts, settled in a forest near Veliky Novgorod, in Russia. They're still small in number, and have become adept at solving the issue of the once a month forced turn. That's why everyone thought they were extinct."

"Does it say how many there are and why they are with Elise?"

"It wasn't through choice. He, and five others of his kind were abducted from their home in Russia a few years ago and were held prisoner, until they managed to escape the day of the raid on Middlemarch. Elise had been experimenting on them the entire time. Turns out that Wildfire was a secondary discovery to her ultimate goal."

"And that was?"

Parker visibly gulped. "She's building an army of Lycans she can control."

Daniel crossed his arms over his chest. This didn't make sense. "But I don't understand how. I admit, five Lycan are formidable, but they are not an army."

"You're not going to like the answer."

He raised an eyebrow. "I've not exactly been enjoying the conversation so far."

"I know what happened to all those missing Were's."

Daniel's head snapped up, her voice was so soft, he nearly missed the words. "The ones that have a connection to the Dire line?"

For the past two years, female werewolves across the country had disappeared without a trace. At first, no one reported it. However, when one of the missing left behind a new-born and a mate, someone finally had the bright idea to alert the council. It was then, other packs came forward, admitting they too had missing werewolves.

Initially, with the exception of them all being women, there didn't appear to be a pattern. They ranged in age, were from different parts of the country, and, as far as anyone could tell, had never met. However, after another one went missing, it was discovered that they all had a single common denominator. They all had a direct connection, through their maternal ancestry to the Dire wolf, the oldest, and original werewolf line.

Parker took a deep breath and rested her face in her hands, something she did whenever she needed to regroup her thoughts.

Daniel's first instinct was to reach out and comfort her. However, he knew Parker well enough to know she needed the space to process whatever information she had found. He clenched his fists together to hold himself back. He hated it when she was this distressed. He felt helpless. It was his job to protect her from everything, yet, as he was quickly discovering, this was easier said than done.

Finally, Parker lifted her head and scanned through the text in front of her. When she was done, she swung her chair around to face him. His heart clenched when a single tear raced down her cheek.

"Elise found a way to modify Werewolf DNA and allow them to change into a third form at will."

"So Lycan's can now change anytime of the month, not only on a full moon?"

"No, she's turning her own soldiers into Lycan."

Daniel shot up from his sitting position. "How is that even possible?"

"From what I can tell from Carbine's notes, Elise is harvesting the Dire werewolf eggs and fertilizing it with Lycan sperm and DNA. She's then extracting stem cells from the genetically enhanced embryo, and splicing it in with the DNA of each of her foot soldiers."

A cold chill ran down Daniel's spine. At first, he rejected the idea outright. There was no way this was a feasible scenario. Forget about the ethical implications which would tie the council up for months, if not years. He knew Elise was deranged, but this was beyond anything he could imagine. The ramifications were far reaching and fatal for them all. There were still so many questions that he needed answers to, but for now they would need to take a back seat.

"So Elise's robbing eggs from the women she's abducted; fertilizing them with sperm, and DNA from Lycan's she's kept prisoner and experimented on over a lengthy period; from this, she is then somehow injecting stem cells from the resulting embryo into her pack and they magically turn into Lycan."

"That's probably a little more simplistic than reality, but I think that pretty much sums it up."

Daniel cast his mind back to the information they gleaned from Middlemarch. There was nothing to indicate how many Werewolves she still had that followed her. Surely there weren't enough to build herself an army. Even with the little they had seen while prisoners, both Parker and Josephine had guessed that Elise only had a little over a dozen followers left. Again, while it was a significant number, was it really enough to qualify as an army? There was also the matter of the poison and control of the Lycan side. According to the Opus, the Lycan had no control over their animal side. In fact, most of them remembered nothing of the night in which they had lost control.

"We're going to have to go through everything, word for word," said Daniel, pointing to the laptop. "There's got to be something on there that will tell us where she is and what's her plans are and how many new Lycan hybrids she's made."

"You know, Alice is not equipped to understand half of this. I don't think she's had a decent night's sleep. If she's not tending to a patient, she's studying. Daniel, you know as well as I do, she's going to need help, and soon. This is too much pressure to place on her."

Daniel let out a low growl. "We've been over this. There is no one else, short of finding that deranged scientist of Elise's, there's no other Werewolf with the skill."

"You know I'm not referring to a Werewolf."

"Out of the question."

Parker's lips pursed into a thin line and her eyes narrowed angrily. "Stop being so pig-headed."

"How many times do we need to go over this? I will not open us to exposure." Daniel let out a low growl from deep within his chest. He couldn't believe she was bringing this up again.

"And yet, that's exactly what you are doing by ignoring this."

Daniel brought his fist down on her desk. "That will be enough. We will get Alice whatever equipment she needs to solve this, end of discussion."

However, from the way in which Parker threw files in her bag, the discussion was far from over.

❧ ⚛ ✺ ≋ ≋ ✺ ⚛ ❧

📎A/N. Well, at least we know what Elise is actually up to. However, it's worse than I thought. 

What do you think? And if she didn't have many left in her pack, where do you think she'd getting the extra's from?

Don't forget to vote it you enjoyed the chapter. Next one should be up late next Sunday PST. 

Till then, take care and enjoy your week.

❤ ℳ