Hunted Wolf: Moonbound Series, Book Eight by Krystal Shannan, Camryn Rhys Page B

affected like her mother, and there was something buzzing under the surface with her. Anger? Pride? He couldn’t quite tell.
    “What happened after you got to the island?” Viper asked.
    “We lived there. He brought us to the house first, until there were too many children. One of the girls tried to escape with her baby, and he couldn’t allow that. So he moved Luna and me down into the bunker with the children so he could control the mothers.” Her tone was so matter-of-fact, it chilled his blood. She talked about the kidnapping, the rape of girls, like she was describing what she had for breakfast.
    “Why did he need to control the mothers?” Rain said.
    “So he could breed them,” Christina said, shrugging her shoulders. “We’re animals, after all. That’s what we’re made for.”
    Luna’s nod was curt and precise.
    Viper’s mouth went dry. He tried to wet his lips, but he couldn’t.
    Breeding wolves .
    “Who was breeding them?” he ventured.
    “Adrian.” Christina blinked at him, as though it was the most natural thing in the world. “He bred me and Belinda and then when he brought Galina. We were the first generation. When my daughters were old enough, if they were the right stock, he would breed them, too.”
    Hannah’s jaw was working and Viper wanted to take her hand to calm her. But Rain was between them. He picked at the edge of his jacket that was still hiding his tattoos from plain sight.
    “His daughters?” Hannah asked, her voice cracking.
    “Of course. They were the best stock, being of his blood. I was only the first generation, so I was never going to be able to give him what he wanted.”
    “What did he want?” Hannah said.
    Viper swallowed hard. “Pure stock.”
    Hannah and Rain stared at him, but Viper nodded. He’d been doing the math about the number of children and their ages, plus the relative stories they’d heard from debriefing Lani and Marco, and from the notes Marco’s mother provided them.
    Christina nodded and flashed him a childish smile, almost in solidarity. “Yes. Pure blood. That’s what he was after.” She reached for Luna’s face and stroked the side of her cheek. “Not all of the girls were right for breeding, of course.” A sad note. “And I was only able to give him three. I had mostly boys, and then Luna and Anna weren’t the right stock.”
    Rain shook his head. “What made them the wrong stock?”
    “They didn’t have enough of their father in them.”
    The words hung heavy in the air and Viper tried to wet his lips again to no avail. His stomach was starting to turn. No wonder Gabriel had been in such a fever to kill his father. Viper’s own family was nothing compared to this.
    Part of him wished that Gabriel had been able to do it, after all. Living with a past like this was going to be torture for these kids. No matter how old they were.
    He wanted to kill Rossi all over again.
    “So he would… breed …the ones who looked like him, in other words?” Rain interjected in a low tone.
    “Yes.” Christina’s smile, again, was a creepy mix of understanding and pleasure. Like she agreed with what Rossi had been doing.
    Viper’s fingers itched to be pounding something. This was all so fucked up. To do this to humans, to wolves, it didn’t matter. It was sick.
    “And when some of the boys were old enough, he would breed them to the girls.”
    He glanced at Rain and loosed a long breath. “Pure blood.”
    “That’s right,” Christina said. “He wanted the perfect pure blood.”
    Luna’s eyes shifted around the group. “He was trying to breed out the weakness in wolf kind.” Her back straightened and her chin rose up. “And if we couldn’t help with the breeding, then we helped with the care. Or we took care of the island. Or, like some of the boys, we helped keep everyone else out. Some of the girls helped him make money. But we were there to make the race better. More pure.”
    Viper swallowed hard and tore his eyes away