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Theo
Taking in everything that James told us, I just can’t see it. Yeah, Arlin is a bit of an ass, but illegal and inhumane experiments? Total insanity. Nope can’t see it.
“You really think Arlin is involved in all this?” It would be nice if we could blame this on some crazy human, though we would be cleaning up the mess either way. “Though Arlin being involved might make sense. He could be that wolf that Rebby saw with the Master.”
“He is involved.” James spits out as we start to climb the stairs. He doesn’t need my help as much with the railing to hold onto. “I’m not sure that he was the wolf with the Master; his shifted form doesn’t match unless that is a newer acquisition of his. But he is involved.”
I try the doorknob, not because I don’t believe Tristan, but it seems the right thing to do. It of course doesn’t open.
“Break it down,” James snarls.
I take a step back from the door, then kick forward, my heel hitting to the left of the doorknob. My foot goes completely through the hollow-core door, which makes James laugh as I am stuck to my thigh in the door.
“You could have just hit it with your shoulder, you know?” He is still laughing as I try to pull my leg and foot out without splinters scraping my leg to smithereens.
“This was the proper way to kick a door down. Plus, I thought it was solid wood.” I glare at him.
“Did your book research tell you that?” He leans on the wall, his injured leg stretched out in front of him.
“Yes, if you must know. I needed it for a scene and didn’t want to ruin a door in the house trying it out.” Extracting myself from the door, I reach in and unlock it from the inside. “After you.”
We walk into the room and my jaw drops. Arlin hadn’t destroyed this room like the others, for some reason. “Well now we know why he kept this locked, but why didn’t he destroy it?” I walk towards the wall that is covered with images that look like someone played with Photoshop, creating a zoo of exotic animals. A computer sits on a large desk filled with papers.
James goes straight to the computer. “Damn. He has it locked.” He switches his attention to the papers. “These are a bunch of formulas...We need the Arachnerds to look at all this, or a scientist. I have no clue what I am looking at.” James throws the papers down on the desk, walking over to where I stand looking at the images.
“I can’t tell if these are actual images of their experiments or just mockups of what they were planning.” I stare at one image in particular and my heart clenches. My fingers touch her ears.
“We’ll get her back.” James’ voice is confident.
“I know we will, and I will make Arlin and the Master pay for what they did to all these poor people. But what will we do with them once we save them? They can’t live in society as animals.” I want to scream, tear something apart at what happened to these people.
“I don’t know yet. We will have to bring them into the packs, but I don’t know that they will fit in.” James scrubs his face. “That is for another day.” He looks around the room. “I don’t think there is anything to learn here, at least that will help us today. I will have the room secured and someone from the Arachnerds come and clean it out.”
I can’t stop looking at the images on the wall. One that is partially hidden catches my eye. It is a picture of a little girl that bears a striking resemblance to Arlin. “James, did Arlin have a child?”
“No. His wife died ten years ago in the fire. They were childless.”
“Any other family? Niece?” I ask, pulling the photo out.
“No, he was an only child.” James walks up to me. I hand him the photo. The child in the photo, while having a beautiful face, is missing both of her legs. “I had no idea. Why didn’t he say something?”
“I don’t know but she looks to be about ten. Wouldn’t that have been when his wife died?” I can’t take my eyes off the young girl.
“They were an odd couple. More interested in their experiments than anything. As long as they didn’t break shifter law, or bring the humans interest to us, father let them be. Father and his Omega, Tristan’s dad, died in the fire trying to save Arlin’s wife. I blamed Arlin and in my grief, banished him.”
I’m starting to understand what happened to Arlin and though I sympathize with his pain, I can’t condone what he has done. My eyes scan the wall and I notice that underneath each photo of an animal is a photo of a person. In some of the photos the person is unconscious, others look like photos from the DMV.
“James, they’re not mockups, but photos of them shifted!” Horror fills me as I take in each photo, seeing it for the first time. In the photo of the little girl, she is human from the waist up, and an octopus from the waist down. “He was trying to have his daughter’s legs regenerate!”
“I don’t care what the fuck he was doing! It is disgusting and wrong. Now we have to clean this mess up, make it so these poor people can have a semblance of a life.” James’ voice is hard as he spits the words out. “When I find him, I will tear him limb from limb.”