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I stuck out my tongue, even though he couldn’t see me, and shut the damn door and locked it.

Half an hour. I dropped all my stuff by the door and flopped down on the couch, letting out a long, gusty sigh as my head hit Colin’s pillow. It smelled like him. My whole apartment was starting to, and I liked it a lot more than I’d ever admit out loud. Colin saidhometo all my senses, in a way even my parents and their house didn’t. Like something that was just mine, as opposed to shared with three boisterous werewolf siblings.

Maybe I was more werewolfy than I thought, what with the weird bursts of possessiveness coming out of nowhere.

Being surrounded by Colin’s scent, and knowing he’d be coming back soon, definitely improved my sense of general well-being, but it also gave me a little guilty twinge in the pit of my stomach.

Because I’d been waiting for an opportunity to be alone all day, to do something he wouldn’t approve of. And doing it in the space he’d at least temporarily claimed as his own felt like even more of a betrayal.

I had to do it right then, if I was ever going to. I’d been thinking about it during both of my midterms, sitting there without even my phone out, staring into space and considering all the angles of my current problem. And I’d come to the conclusion that I had to face it head-on.

But not recklessly. First things first. I’d had a bad experience with a manipulative fellow grad student that’d taught me two things: that saying things on the phone you didn’t want repeated was dumb, and that different states had their own laws about recording phone calls. Oregon was a one-party consent state. I maneuvered my phone out of my pocket and spent a couple of minutes downloading and installing a call recording app. Maybe Greenwald wouldn’t know the state law. Maybe he wouldn’t think to wonder.

With the app up and running, I opened his latest email. Before I could talk myself out of it, I took a deep breath to try to calm my pounding pulse, tapped the phone number at the bottom, and hit send.

“Initech Corporation,” said a cool female voice. “How may I assist you?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and sat up straight. I had to keep the anger at bay. Play it a little bit cool. “I need to speak to Dr. Geoff Greenwald. This is Dr. Newton McEwen returning his message.”

A momentary pause. “Hold, please, while I see if Dr. Greenwald is available.”

There was a click, and then hold music as bland as the website had been.

Was it my imagination, or did the hold music have an ominous undertone? Hold music always sounded ominous, though. You were never waiting for anything pleasant when you were on hold. Paying the electric bill. Getting test results. Trying to entrap a creepy stalker who’d threatened your sister. That kind of thing.

Finally the line clicked again.

“Dr. McEwen, Geoff Greenwald here.” Okay, his voicedefinitelysounded ominous. Not deep or intimidating, but light, fake, like a Bond villain trying to be friendly. “So happy to hear from you.”

I couldn’t exactly return the sentiment. “I received all of your messages,” I said, putting a little bit of emphasis onall. I wanted to shout at him, demand to know if he’d sent someone to follow me and take disturbing photos, tell him I was going to rip his head off and use it for a basketball, but I had to at least pretend this was a normal job offer. If I put him on the defensive right away, I’d probably lose my chance of getting what I needed to take to the cops to end this—or just to blackmail him back. “I thought I should do you the courtesy of declining your offer verbally, so I could thank you for your consideration.”

A slight pause. An ominous pause? “Initech is very interested in what you have to offer, Dr. McEwen. I’m not sure that’s such a wise decision.”

My temples throbbed again, and I had such a hard grip on my phone it probably would’ve shattered if I’d had a werewolf’s strength.

“I’m not sureI’minterested in what Initech has to offer, though,” I said, making the understatement of the year. “I’m happy with academia. I’m not looking to move into the private sector at this point in my career. I’m flattered by your interest. But I have to decline. You’ll be my first call if I’m looking for a change in career direction.”

Greenwald chuckled, a smooth tenor vibrato that made my jaw clench. “I’m sorry to hear that you feel that way, Dr. McEwen. Especially since you must be aware that our interests are your best interests. Don’t play stupid with me,” he said, his tone going flat. “I know you’re a very intelligent man, and so I’m going to be direct. Initech is researching in directions parallel to your work, looking into stimulating latent shifter genetics. We need results.”

Gods fucking dammit,of coursethey wanted results. Ihatedthe private sector, even when they weren’t threatening my family. The phone slipped in my sweaty palm. The air of the apartment felt too cold against my burning face.

Greenwald added, “If you’re unwilling or unable to assist in providing the additional data we need, then I’m afraid we’ll need to turn to other avenues.”

“Other avenues.”Please, please say something illegal. ‘I’m going to kill you unless you give me your research.’ That would do.

“Yes,” he said, almost in a hiss. “For example, are you aware that no one has been able to determine which portions of the X chromosome are involved in the expression of the female alpha phenotype? Further study is called for. Don’t you agree?”

Fiona.

Rage boiled up, nearly choking me. Rage, and terror. Sheer, muscle-melting terror.

Further study. That could mean a lot of things, and in this case, I was pretty sure Greenwald didn’t mean he wanted to pay her a respectable honorarium in return for filling out a questionnaire and giving a few vials of blood and a somatic cell sample.

Rational thought went straight out the window, dragging my self-control along with it.

“Stay away from my sister,” I snarled. “She’s not a research subject!”

“Of course not!” he said, with a faux-genial chuckle. “Female alphas aren’t essential to the discovery of how some alpha and non-alpha shifter genes remain latent while others are expressed. But they are an example of the process. And college students always need extra cash—and they’re very loyal to their older siblings, I understand.”