Chapter 158: Questioning Zoe

Graeme scrutinized the change in the young girl.

The innocent, cloying demeanor of Zoe's that he was so used to seeing had vanished. In its place was pure analytical curiosity. She didn't even seem affected by the fact that he had started to raise her off the floor. Her feet began gently peddling at the absence of the ground, but she was still fixated on August, who—now that he glanced at his mate—seemed to be equally fixated on the girl.

"August?" Graeme called to try drawing her attention.

She was tilting her head, staring at Zoe with concern. He saw her pupils widen suddenly, only a sparkling golden rim left remaining around them.

"Little Red?" he tried. She glanced at him this time, but her eyes snapped back to the young girl in his arms.

"Can you put her down?" she asked and approached them both.

The way she was so focused on Zoe had Graeme's stomach slowly twisting into a knot. Something strange was happening between them.

"It's okay. You can let her go," she put her hand on Graeme's arm, and he relaxed at the physical contact with his mate. If she said it was okay, then—after what he just witnessed her do with Greta—he was going to trust her. But he didn't like it.

Graeme dropped Zoe from the two feet he had raised her in the air, and she stumbled before righting herself again. This seemed to snap her out of whatever psychotic fixation she had on August, because she finally became aware of Graeme next to her again.

"You are different," August whispered as she stood in front of Zoe. "Why are you so different?"

"I wonder the same about you," Zoe beamed back at her. "That is incredible what your pupils are doing… how does that change your vision?"

"Hey, hey," Graeme snapped his fingers in front of Zoe's face. "This isn't some science experiment. What the fuck did you give my sister that was meant for August?"

"I…" she locked eyes with Greta. "I'm sorry. It was something Andreas had me develop to stunt alyko ability."

Everyone's eyes went wide with that information. "What?" Greta gasped softly. "How long have you had something like that?"

"Hmmm… a few years now?" Zoe replied.

"Who do you use it on?" Greta asked.

"Alyko obviously," Zoe shrugged as a small laugh escaped her.

"What alyko?" Graeme growled.

Zoe's smile slowly fell to a sober expression and she cleared her throat.

"She can't tell you that," August whispered, still studying Zoe with her black eyes.

"She has to," he growled the reply. Penelope had said this pack was the worst when it came to alyko. This had to have something to do with it.

"No, she literally can't," August turned her eyes on Graeme. "She wants to. But she can't."

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"What?" Greta asked behind August.

Zoe's head dropped, and she looked at her feet, clasping her hands together in front of her. Was the obnoxiously curious and clinical Zoe upset? Graeme was shocked by that alone.

"I don't understand. What did they do to you?" August asked as she crossed the remaining distance between them.

She took Zoe's wrist in her hand and turned it over so that her palm was facing up. August glanced back up into the girl's eyes before gently running two fingers along the pale skin of her upturned wrist. Zoe sucked in a breath and snatched her arm back.

"You can't help me," she protested. "Don't bother trying."

"So you meant to give this poison of yours to August?" Graeme asked, eager to return to the important question of how his sister ended up half-dead on the floor of a cell. He didn't give a shit about helping Zoe.

"Yes," the young girl said softly, attempting to regain the innocent persona by batting her eyelashes at him. It wasn't working.

"Why?" Graeme barked, and Zoe flinched.

"Andreas… he is afraid of her. I didn't want to. I wasn't sure how she would react to it. I came back to check on her."

"You came back because you saw her light up on your fucking map," Graeme replied.

Zoe nodded. "Yes, that's true. But I wanted to check on her. I was worried." She raised her eyes to August's again. "You are so unique… you have no idea. I would hate for something to happen to you before we got a chance to study you more."

Graeme groaned and turned, raking his hand down his face in frustration. "She's not a lab rat!"

"Maybe not to you," Zoe laughed softly, and Graeme turned to advance on her again.

"Okay, okay," August stepped between them to keep Graeme from attacking her. "Greta got the... poison instead. She puked everywhere and had a high fever. She passed out, Zoe," August told her. "What happens when you give that to lycans?"

Zoe shrugged. "It's never been done. I don't know."

"Never?" August asked.

"No. The elders are fiercely protective of lycans in this pack," she replied.

Graeme scoffed, and Zoe turned to him.

"Think what you want, but I have tried to offer various exciting experimental possibilities to help improve lycan life, including increasing life expectancy, decreasing emotional response, mimicking the mate bond… promoting more dominant physical and behavioral characteristics. But they have always refused. Well, Andreas and Pearce have refused. Honestly, I think Auden is quite supportive of all types of lycan experimentation."

Zoe looked around at the disturbed expressions of those surrounding her. Greta's face in particular was frozen in disbelief. How could this be going on in her pack this whole time? The elders had been sheltering this precocious young scientist with terrifying experimental tendencies. Who knows what else they had been up to over the years since Zoe had been here.

"Okay, theoretically—a lycan getting the alyko serum?" Zoe returned to the question. "Would… have all of those symptoms. Yes. It is unlikely, after the serum had finished taking its affect on their genetic transcription processes, that they would survive. The alyko who seem less prominent in their abilities have fared worse, because the serum seems to disrupt regular genetic transcription in significant ways."

Zoe continued: "That is probably why Andreas believed August would be fine. Her abilities appear significant.. But honestly, as part of the pandemic's viral transformation and with the significant proportion of human genes she has, I did not have that confidence."

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