Styx's Storm

PROLOGUE

GENETIC EXPERIMENTATIONS LAB OMEGA SCIENTIFIC HOUSING COMPOUND ANDES MOUNTAINS

The lights were off, the electricity having sputtered out, leaving them to navigate with only the dim emergency lights to see by. Outside, flares of light from the explosions that rocked the labs illuminated the windows. Gunfire and screams echoed, coming closer, filling Storme with a fear so agonizing it shuddered through her body.

"Storme, you have to hide. Don't let anyone find you, do you understand me? No one can find you." Her father helped her slide into the narrow crevice between the walls in the back of her closet.

She stared up at him in terror, aware of her brother working behind him to erase information contained in the computers and on the discs filed along the wall.

"Take this." He grabbed her hand.

The antique sapphire ring her mother had once worn was shoved onto her finger. He had showed her the secrets of the ring days before. The hidden compartment beneath the hollowed out stone and the data chip he had placed here. He had warned her, so many times he had warned her, that if anything happened to him, then she would become the protector of the information contained on that chip.

"Daddy, come with me." Storme could feel panic tightening her chest as the sounds of gunfire, screams and animal rage grew closer to the living area of the genetics research laboratory where her father had worked her entire life.

"No, we can't go with you, baby." Tears filled his tired brown eyes, grief creased his face. "Your brother and I will be fine. Get to the safe house; we'll meet you there after we're certain we've done what has to be done here."

No, they wouldn't meet her. She would never see them again, and she knew it. She watched her brother for long, panicked seconds. She couldn't see his beloved face. The creases that were forming on his forehead and next to his lips. He rarely laughed, though he smiled at her often.

She was only fourteen. She didn't want to face the dark alone. She was frightened of the dark.

"No, don't make me go by myself, Daddy." Sobs were fighting to escape her lips as the tears began to fall.

She stared back at him, seeing the fear and worry in his eyes, the mussed gray hair, the grief he was trying so hard to hide from her. And the courage. She didn't have his courage.

She wasn't strong like her father and her brother were. They faced every day the savage human-animals they had created and trained in the compound behind the houses. They lived with the monsters that Storme had only glimpsed from a distance as they trained. Monsters that could rend flesh with their teeth, that could tear limbs from bodies with only their bare hands. The monsters that howled at night with a savagery, with a horror that haunted Storme's nightmares.

"Storme, be strong for me." He shoved a backpack into her hands before pulling back. "Remember the promises you made me. You swore you would do this, Storme."

Her fists clenched as the panel slammed closed, leaving her in the darkness with the terrifying black void stretching out below her.

She had promised. She had sworn to protect herself and the secrets he had been amassing over the years. Secrets that were to go to one person. A person with no name. A person he had promised would find her, protect her. A mysterious someone who would know what to say, and what to do, to gain her trust.

The information the ring held was all that would save her, all that would save so many innocent people, he had insisted. And he had entrusted her with it.

She tried to step down the narrow steps that led to the tunnel beyond. She did. But as she took the first step, she heard an enraged, savage snarl as an explosion rocked the house.

She almost screamed. Struggling to keep her balance, she pressed her hands tight against the wall and fought to keep from falling down the stairs.

Fear held her motionless, her eyes wide as she stared through the crack in the wall into the bedroom and watched her father as he stared toward the doorway in fear.

"We have to get out of here." His voice wavered as James moved in closer to him, protectively. "The Breeds will come after those of us who created them first."

Storme saw the realization in both her brother's and her father's faces, and she knew that the horror she had always feared was upon them.

"But not those of you who helped them." The voice was guttural, angry.

Storme swallowed tightly at the sound as her fists clenched in the effort to stay in place, to keep from trying to protect her father as well.

She had promised she would run and hide. That she wouldn't endanger herself.

"Where is the girl?"

The girl? Her?

"I sent her away yesterday," her father replied, his voice shaking.

"Because you knew what was coming?"

Her father shook his head. "How could I have known?"

"You thought you were so careful." The voice was filled with fury. "You aided our destruction, JR. You'll pay for betraying us by aiding the Breed sympathizers in this fucking rescue."

"I aided nothing," her father, JR, James Robert, denied.

A harsh laughed filled the room.

"We'll find the girl. No doubt you sent what I need with her. Or did you? Give me that research, JR, and I'll let her live."

"What are you talking about?" Fear was thick, heavy, surrounding her father, her brother, even as Storme felt it stealing her breath.

"I want that data chip."

"What data chip?" Even Storme could hear the nervousness, the lie, in her father's voice.

An animalistic, harsh snarl filled the room as shadows moved. As though there were many, not just one. Dark, brutal shadows, glowing eyes advanced.

Storme stared at the aberration. The merciless eyes, the face that seemed too young, and yet too cruel. And she memorized it. Memorized the creature that she knew would kill what was left of her family.

Her brother jumped in front of their father, to save him, Storme knew. That was James, so protective, so loving. As the Coyote latched onto her brother's fragile shoulders, Storme covered her mouth with her hand to hold back her screams and watched in horror.

Dear, beloved James. He played word games with her, made her laugh, and as she watched in horror one of those horrible monsters grabbed him, bent his head, and tore James's throat out.

Blood sprayed as another explosion outside lit the room with brutal light, displaying the scene in harsh detail.

Bile rose in her throat as it tilted its head back, the face, so like a human's, covered in blood as its lips opened and a howl echoed around her.

They could smell fear. They could smell her. Her father had warned her of that. He had made her swear to protect herself and the secrets he had risked his life to steal.

If she stayed, she was dead. Her brother was already dead, and she knew her father wouldn't survive.

Because of the Breeds. Because of the human animals these scientists had created, trained, and were now turning loose on the world. Breeds, like the one now tasting her brother's blood.

She backed down the stairs. The darkness enfolded her, wrapped around her. She could hear her father screaming, denying that his daughter was there. She was gone. He had sent her to stay with relatives.

He swore he had no information. He stole nothing. His daughter had nothing. He was screaming in pain and fury.

They would know better. They would have smelled her presence in the house if they had passed by it. They were that good. But here, deep beneath the earth, cocooned as though in a grave, she was safe.

The smell of her father's and brother's blood above, the smell of smoke, fear and death would hide her for a little while. And once she was through the tunnel and into the small town beyond where the tunnel exited, she would have a chance to run.

She was alone.

She could feel it.

A strange sense of disassociation filled her, washed over her and stopped the tears. Fear choked her, made it hard to breathe, but her mind felt mercifully numb.

As she felt her way through the drainage tunnel her father had dug into years before, Storme knew he must have foreseen the chance that he and her brother could be caught doing whatever it was they had been doing.

She had known for years that they were frightened of the people they worked for. That they couldn't leave. That only Storme had the ability to travel back and forth from school in America to this small community her family lived within.

The place her mother had died just after Storme's birth.

Had those who had killed her brother killed her mother as well?

This place, these Breeds--because of them, because of her father's loyalty to them, everything she had held dear had been destroyed. They had destroyed everything that was love and security to her.

She shouldn't be alone. Her father and her brother should have come with her. They should have saved themselves and damned the information they were so desperate to destroy.

Information that her father swore would destroy so many innocent Breeds. Were any of those creatures truly innocent?

As she made her way through the damp, muddy tunnel, the sight of her brother's death flashed before her eyes, over and over. The memory of the Coyote's head bending--canines curved and wicked, flashing in the light of the explosions outside and tearing into his throat--sliced through her mind.

There was nothing that could numb that memory. Nothing that could erase it or the nightmare vision that insisted on invading her soul at the thought that her father was suffering the same fate.

Breeds. Killers. Animals. They were monsters. Evil, wicked monsters that man had created, that man was now losing control of, just as her father had warned them they would lose control. The Breeds were turning on their creators, escaping, killing, turning the world into a place of conflict where their very humanity was in question. There was no redemption for the Breeds; they had no mercy, no compassion, just as the other scientists had always warned her father. A Breed was a Breed. A Coyote was still a Breed, and a Coyote had just destroyed her world.

They were without souls.

And now Storme was without family.

As she reached the metal ladder below the drainage gate just outside the small Chilean town, Storme forced herself to find the energy to climb to it and push it open.

The serene calm she had seen in the town during short visits didn't exist now. People were pouring out of their homes, standing and watching the display of light and explosions on the mountain above their homes.

Storme slipped silently along the edge of the crowd, her gaze locked on the mountain. Howls echoed from above, enraged and filled with fury as gunfire and explosions continued to rip through the night.

Moving quickly, hurriedly, she began to run through the shadows to the house outside of town. The one her father had promised he would meet her at.

He wouldn't be there. It wouldn't matter how long she waited, he would never be there. Only death would find her there if she waited, and she had promised her father she wouldn't allow death to find her.

As she reached the house, she didn't wait around. Racing into the small attached garage, she threw the canvas from the old, rusted pickup that sat there.

It looked like shit, but she knew it would run. It was strong and fast; the tinkering her brother had done with the motor had ensured that whoever drove it would have the best chance possible of escape.

The passports were still in the glove box, the small box of cash was still hidden in the back of the seat. Birth certificates, records needed to hide their identities if all escaped together--everything was still there.

Carefully, she pulled her father's and brother's papers from the glove box, pushed them into the backpack, then shoved the key in the ignition.

She knew how to drive. She knew how to shoot the powerful gun strapped to the door, and she knew how to fight. She was only fourteen, but her father and brother had been planning this for years.

They had taught her how to survive in case the worst that could happen, happened. As though they had known, despite their assurances to her, that they wouldn't be with her.

As she accelerated from the garage, lights off, nothing but dust moving in her wake, she was aware of the heli-jets lifting off from the mountain.

Breeds or scientists, she didn't know which. Whoever it was, they were no friends of hers. She had no friends, she had no family, there was no one to protect her until whoever her father had been working with found her.

If he found her. And when he did, he damned well better be sure he had proof of who he was, because Storme knew in her soul that she could never trust anyone after this.

Everyone was the enemy.

TEN YEARS LATER HAVEN, WOLF/COYOTE BREED COMPOUND

Jonas strode into the small meeting room, paused and stared at the scientists and the Enforcer staring back at him. Dr. Jeffrey Amburg was a human genome advanced design scientist. He had been involved in more than twenty-five years of Council-backed Breed genetic research. He'd created Breeds, his experiments had killed Breeds, and he was here, in Haven, for the first time. It was the first time in two years that he had been allowed out of the specially secured rooms he had been confined to after Jonas had captured him in Buffalo Gap, Virginia.

Dr. Nikki Armani, Wolf Breed genome specialist and physician, was also human. She too had worked for many years with the Council. The difference was, Nikki had conspired from day one to find freedom for the Breeds she had cared for when they returned from missions wounded and nearly dead. Or when the experiments conducted on them had weakened them to the point of death.

Dr. Elyiana Morrey was the exception here. She was a Breed. A Lion Breed created to treat her own kind. Training had begun with her from conception, introducing her in vitro to the complicated process of manufacturing and repairing the often complicated Breed physiology. She was both physician as well as scientist, and her breakthroughs in the mysterious mating heat afflicting the Breeds had given them the additional time needed to continue hiding the phenomenon from the world in general.

Navarro Blaine was one of the higher ranking undercover Enforcers. A Wolf Breed with specialization in several forms of martial arts, the man was more of a shadow than even the shadow he cast.

This meeting, outside of Jonas's normally preferred base of Sanctuary, home of the Feline Breeds, was the first meeting to bring all three scientists together, along with Dr. Elizabeth Ambrose Vanderale, the ninety-some-year-old mate to the first Leo, Leo Vanderale.

Elizabeth stood at Jonas's side, sleekly tailored in a gray silk skirt and matching blouse, looking barely old enough to be the mother of the self-proclaimed thirty-year-old Dane Vanderale.

It was a damned good thing the Vanderales had adapted and learned how to make themselves appear older before appearing in public; otherwise, Leo and Elizabeth both would have been given away by their acknowledged son's widely known age.

"Ladies and gentlemen." Jonas nodded as he and his mother, Elizabeth, moved to the conference table. "I hear we may have a problem."

As usual, Jeffrey Amburg sat back silently. If Jonas wanted information from him while in the presence of the Breed scientists, then he would have to force it from him. The scientist was aware of the hierarchy of the labs now, and he was at the bottom of the food chain.

"Jonas, this meeting was uncalled for," Ely was the first to speak. "I have things to do at Sanctuary, as does Dr. Vanderale. This subject does not require such an in-depth meeting."

Nikki Armani narrowed her gaze on Ely. It was no secret that the doctors rarely saw eye to eye, which wasn't surprising. It seemed that Feline and canine physiology could be as different as night and day once one began probing into the more intricate aspects of DNA and genetic sequencing.

"The Enforcers being used for this little mission Sanctuary has dreamed up to capture and gain the trust of this woman, are Wolf Breeds outside of the cooperative units detailed in Sanctuary," Nikki reminded her. "Excuse me, Dr. Morrey, but when Haven has requested the assistance of Feline Breeds, they do make the trip to Sanctuary without voicing such protests or showing any irritation they may harbor."

Jonas sat back and looked to Ely. She was his favorite. Like a little sister, Jonas watched out for Ely where he could, especially since his own mating.

Ely had been through hell in the past year, and the consequences of others' actions had nearly destroyed her mind. But in this, there was no protection. She had opened her mouth, and she would now have to defend her stance.

"Dr. Armani, this matter would have been taken care of much more easily at Sanctuary for the simple fact that all the scientific research, with the exception of your personal files, reside there."

"And are accessible by Haven, in their entirety, last I heard," Nikki argued. "Or is there some reason we don't have files that you do indeed possess?"

Ely's lips thinned. "The files in question are Feline Breed, rather than Wolf, but in many cases, we've been able to cross-reference and find answers for the wolves' medical problems as well, as you very well know. I had no doubt our files wouldn't have the answers to whatever is in question now."

"In this situation, I doubt that's possible," Nikki stated as she turned to Jonas. "I'm aware you have the files on the Montague girl, Storme. As you're aware, her father and brother were based with the Omega lab. That lab was primarily occupied by Wolf Breeds. The pack leader, Navarro," she glanced to the silent Breed, "managed to access and acquire the majority of the files before the scientists could destroy them. We believe the information we've found may shed some light on the anomalies showing up in the blood work on Jonas's adopted daughter, Amber, as well as Phillip Brandenmore's."

Jonas stilled. Tension ratcheted up in the room. Brandenmore was believed dead by the world at large. He wasn't dead. He was confined as he had once confined Breeds, while Jonas searched to find the answers to whatever the bastard had injected his adopted infant child, Amber, with, as well as himself.

Brandenmore was in his seventies, but the physiological tests done on him since his capture showed a man perhaps a decade younger. And whatever had caused that was still working on him. Repairing internal organs, regenerating cells, and destroying his mind.

"Navarro?" Jonas questioned him roughly. "What have you found?"

Navarro leaned forward slowly. "We've been working on a particular file taken from the compound home of Drs. James Robert and James Montague, father and son, who were based at the Omega lab. Those files have several references to a project known as Omega. A reference I believe you found in Brandenmore's personal files." Jonas nodded sharply before Navarro continued. "The information we've uncovered suggests Project Omega dealt with experimentations on two Breeds believed to be in the grip of a syndrome known then as 'mating fever.' There were certain attributes to the syndrome, though, that the scientists focused on, rather than the syndrome itself. One of them was the decrease in cellular and physical aging; another, and I believe Brandenmore must have gained information on this, was whether or not cellular or genetic alterations could be produced using the unknown hormones generated in the mating couple."

Jonas felt the implications of the project as his body began to tighten in rage. Brandenmore was doing as the Bureau of Breed Affairs and the Breed alphas feared. He was trying to create a vaccine or virus that would alter human genetics, using research on Breed mates that had been confined in the labs.

"I thought the Bureau as well as Sanctuary had all files pertaining to those labs. I've seen nothing known as Project Omega," Jonas growled.

"All files that our alpha, Wolfe Gunnar, had possession of, Sanctuary and the Bureau of Breed Affairs have copies of," Dr. Armani amended. "There are several encrypted files from those labs that Navarro and I have been working on that Wolfe hadn't been made aware of, simply because we had no idea what they were."

Navarro wasn't just, as Nikki stated, an elite Enforcer, he was also one of Haven's best code breakers.

Fuck, he didn't need this, Jonas thought, the Breed society in general didn't need this. This could create an outcry against the Breeds that even mating heat wouldn't cause. The ability to "infect" the population and change the most basic makeup of their creation, could begin a quick spiral down to the extermination of Breeds.

Montague was assumed to have wiped all information regarding Project Omega from all Council files. For ten years, Jonas had believed the scientist had been successful, despite the fact that there were rumors the daughter knew something, or had been given information by her father or brother.

If she had that information, then she would have traded it years ago for her own safety, to either the Council Coyotes or the Bureau of Breed Affairs. She wouldn't have run and fought for ten years to hide the very information that would assure her safety.

He turned to Navarro once again. "You were pack leader there. What were the parameters of Project Omega?"

How much did Haven know about a project that should have been destroyed before it ever began? A project Jonas had never truly believed had gone far enough to have attained any answers, let alone live trials.

"The parameters I am uncertain of," Navarro answered, his pronunciation precise and with just the lightest Asian flavor of an accent, compliments of the team of scientists that ran that particular branch of operations in the Omega labs. "I know that the mating fever phenomenon they were studying in another sector of the labs was what we now call mating heat. It was believed to be somehow related to the feral fever. There were several Breeds confined there, but they escaped during the rescues and I have not heard of them revealing themselves since. The search I conducted turned up no rumors of their whereabouts or information concerning them. For all intents and purposes they are most likely dead. Without them, or the rumored data chip that the daughter knows the location of, then there are no true answers concerning the success of their investigation into whether or not such an aging or Breed creation vaccine could be made. I personally do believe they are dead."

Yeah. Right. Jonas knew better than to believe such a thing until he actually saw the bodies himself.

"The files you've unlocked, what was in them?" There were some experiments whose results Jonas prayed were never revealed. Project Omega was one he'd once felt that way about, until now.

"Most of the information was destroyed, and we were unable to retrieve all but a few vague references to the project," Navarro admitted. "I've been unable to retrieve anything of any worth other than the notation that the doctors involved were the Montagues and that there was a suspicion among the scientists that JR, as James Robert Montague was often called, had managed to hide the contents of the destroyed files rather than losing the results forever. This could be why the Council has chased the girl for so many years; they suspect she has that information as well or they could be aware that the Drs. Montague had actually succeeded in some way."

No doubt. Montague, like most scientists with the Council, would risk his life, as well as his children, to protect his project. It made no sense to Jonas. There wasn't a single Breed he would risk to save the contents of such files or experiments, which could so change the course of humanity that, in his eyes, humanity would be irretrievably destroyed.

"We have to have the Montague girl, Jonas." Nikki leaned forward imperatively, her dark gaze intent. "I've asked the other scientists here so they can help me to go over the parts of the files we have retrieved in the hopes that they'll understand some of the formulas ..."

"Retrieving the girl won't be so easy," Navarro stated. "I know the Bureau has been trailing her for years now because of the rumor that she carried vital information. What you didn't know was that I was working with the Montagues while in those labs. JR, the father, told me that if he managed to get any information out, then it would be with Storme. I was to find her immediately after the rescues, if you hadn't already done so." He nodded to Jonas.

Jonas shook his head. "She wasn't at the safe house. She and the vehicle we provided for escape were gone. The GPS tracker we had installed on it had been deactivated."

Navarro nodded. "She's terrified of Breeds, and she hates them for the loyalty her father had to them. For the fact that he and her brother died to protect that information. In her mind her father and her brother chose the Breeds over her."

"And forgiveness doesn't come easily," Jonas sighed. "And we can no longer allow her the convenience of coming to us on her own. Find her, and have her brought in."

Navarro nodded, his lips parting to say more when Jeffrey Amburg came abruptly to his feet.

"Destroy the formulas, and destroy the files. I'm finished here." Amburg's gaze was icy as he stared at those around the table. "Destroy the files and the girl immediately. If the information she's rumored to be carrying ever falls into Council hands, then it has the power to not just destroy the Breeds, but also the world." He turned to Jonas, the icy blue of his eyes like shards of pale glass now. "Project Omega is something you never want to resurrect, not for any reason."

Jonas stared back at the scientist. "What is it, Amburg?"

For a second, pure, raw fear flashed in the scientist's eyes. "You don't want to know, Jonas. And trust me, you sure as hell don't want the Council possessing it. Above all other threats against the Breeds, Project Omega could be the most dangerous."

And here Jonas had believed he was beginning a new phase of his life with a measure of peace.

A mated wife, a babe he called his own, and for the past six weeks, life had been, if not peaceful, at least without any major catastrophes.

"What was the project, Amburg?" Even Ely was taking notice now.

Amburg shook his head, his gaze imploring as he stared back at Jonas. "I won't be a part of this. I wouldn't be a part of it then, and I won't be a part of it now. And there's no threat the Breeds could use against me to force it. I'm ready to return to Sanctuary now."

He left the room.

Jonas stared after him thoughtfully, knowing the reasons Amburg cooperated so well with the Breeds. Besides the fact that he lived for Breed research in whatever form he could do it, Jonas also held his granddaughter, Isabella Ross. She was free. She lived, worked, laughed and enjoyed friends, but at all times there was a Breed close by. A Breed who, Jonas had assured Amburg, was more than willing to kill the only human he loved.

Amburg was willing to risk Isabella's life to keep the secret of Project Omega. And the hell of it was, at any other time, Jonas wouldn't have blamed him.

Turning back to Navarro, Jonas hardened his compassion for Amburg, the Montague girl and anyone else who dared get in the way of protecting the child he called his own.

"What do you need?"

Navarro sighed with a grimace. "Her mate would be nice. Because honestly Jonas, short of undying love on her part, I doubt anything but her father's resurrection would convince her to tell us where that data chip is located."

Jonas tilted his head thoughtfully before turning to Dr. Armani. "Did the Breeds confiscate the blood samples being held in the Omega lab?"

Nikki nodded slowly.

"Were there samples of the girl's blood?"

Realization lit the doctor's eyes. "There were. Several vials actually. The scientists there were very thorough."

Rising to his feet, Jonas gave a sharp nod. "Start testing your Enforcers first. Let me know the possibilities and get it done quickly."

"I can help." Ely came to her feet, the compassion, the generosity that he feared absent now; something else sparking in her gaze. "If we're going to do this, let's get it done quickly, before the Council can get a jump on us."

The two scientists met at the head of the table, turned in unison and headed for the exit.

It would begin here.

Jonas turned back to Navarro. "Is she your mate?"

Navarro shook his head. "If she were, she wouldn't be running."

Jonas gave a sharp nod. "Let's find out who the lucky mate is then. And let's bring her in."

"If she has a mate." Navarro didn't rise. "What happens, Jonas, if she has no mate?"

It was a question he hadn't considered. It was one he wouldn't entertain unless he had no choice.

Because no mate meant no hope of resolving this without death. And that was a resolution Jonas refused to entertain.