Silence descended but for the beeps of the machines and the low whirring of their fans as he and Graeme continued to run the blood and DNA samples.
“I suspect Lauren knew Chelsea was your mate.” Graeme shocked him with the statement.
Turning to his brother, Cullen watched him suspiciously now.
“How do you figure? Hell, even I didn’t know. God, Graeme, she was like thirteen or something when I married Lauren.”
Graeme stilled then, a distant look coming over his expression for long moments before he shook his head as though in reply to some inner dialogue. His brother could be amazingly good at talking to himself too.
“I believe Lauren may have had some psychic ability. Weak, but still present enough that she might have picked up on something you were unaware of at the time,” he revealed. “Just as I believe your mate has a stronger gift, perhaps one similar to her grandfather’s or her cousin’s.”
Orrin Martinez was a Wind Listener, able to hear secrets in the wind, he’d told Cullen once. Chelsea’s cousin Megan Arness had such a strong empathic ability that until her mating with a Lion Breed, Braden Arness, she’d been forced to keep herself mostly isolated.
“And you know this how?” Cullen questioned him doubtfully.
“I’m really not certain how I knew.” Graeme stressed the past tense. “When I found you it was right after her death, I believe. I broke into the clinic treating her and stole several blood and urine samples that were taken just before her death.” He flashed Cullen a satisfied look. “Specialists such as hers keep those for various tests after the death of a patient.”
“Thief,” Cullen muttered, watching his brother warily.
“Whatever works,” Graeme stated. “I’ve tested those samples extensively over the past ten years,” he explained then as he input commands on the keyboard and another monitor flared to life, filling the screen with a series of multicolored, complicated genetic strand sequences.
“Orrin Martinez.” He pointed to the upper strand. “Lauren’s, and Chelsea’s.” He identified the lower strands. “Lauren’s is similar to her grandfather’s, though the exact makeup of it is much weaker and was far harder to find. While your mate’s appears far stronger, but the makeup of it is entirely different. The research I’ve done indicates Lauren may have held a slight sensitivity I believe to be in the ‘reading’ category. Possibly the ability to sense bonds and connections. I’m still working on it, though. I’m certain I’ll have a clearer picture of it soon enough.”
Cullen could only shake his head in amazement. Graeme could read genetic code with an instinctive, terrifying ability. His intelligence and instincts where genetics were concerned were growing at an astounding rate after his mating.
In some cases, his brother had revealed, he no longer needed to be in Primal form to sense genetic as well as emotional bonds and had even begun to recognize certain genetic markers by scent.
“How do you keep what little sanity you possess?” he asked his brother. The amount of information Graeme could sense would drive even the strongest minds into never-ending madness.
“What sanity?” Graeme murmured, completely serious now. “Never doubt the madness, brother. I simply control it, rather than it controlling me now. For the most part anyway. Now, as for your mate,” he continued, shooting Cullen a sharp look. “She’s amazingly healthy. I can smell the changes occurring in her genetic code; it’s adapting, though slowly, which indicates a much stronger mating. It’s in line with the Primal genetics I’ve always suspected you possessed. Though I’ll know more once I’ve processed her samples.”
Primal genetics, or the madness his brother called his greatest strength and the monster that lived inside him. Graeme had been trying to convince Cullen for years that he carried the same monster inside him, merely waiting for the proper trigger to set it free.
“Once I have all her readings I can create a treatment that will be much more effective and enable the two of you to adapt to the mating much more comfortably than most,” he informed Cullen.
The process of putting the hormone therapy together could take several days, though. And that therapy was imperative at this point.
“By the way, I tagged you and your mate last week with the injections I brought,” Graeme informed him blithely. “You can decide if she’s made aware of it or not. I wasn’t going to do it, but the madness overcame my hesitancy.”
“One of these days I’m going to stop being so patient when you decide after the fact to inform me of the crap you inject into my body.” Cullen sighed, glad his brother’s madness wasn’t homicidal.
“If you say so.” His brother obviously wasn’t bothered by the threat as he began coding information into the computer again. “This should be ready in about forty-eight hours,” he predicted. “I’d like more blood after the injections, though, just to be certain I have everything coded properly.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Cullen nodded.
/> “By the way,” Graeme said then, his head lifting as though just remembering some bit of information. “Are you ready to talk to Cerves? He’s waiting upstairs along with his wife and brother. Lobo’s playing reluctant host as they wait for us.”
Cullen’s brows lifted in surprise. “You had them grabbed?”
“Actually, no.” Graeme’s brow creased with bemusement. “They showed up several hours ago at Lobo’s gate, requesting to meet with him. It seems they’re certain there may be a misunderstanding with the commander of Covert Law Enforcement, who they’ve learned may be a hidden Breed.” As he flashed his canines, his gaze gleamed with the wild awareness of the feral creature within. “They’ve asked Lobo, as the resident alpha leader, to mediate for them.” The feral promise of savagery grew stronger in his gaze then. “I believe Juan was a bit concerned when the Primal informed him that you weren’t his only problem. He controlled his bladder much better than his lieutenant did. The poor man pissed himself.”
Cullen smothered a spurt of laughter as he eyed his brother with mock disappointment. “They just don’t have any fortitude anymore, do they?”
“Ball-less,” Graeme amended with a sigh of regret. “They just take the fun out of torturing them, don’t they?”
A chuckle escaped despite Cullen’s best attempt to hold it in. That was his brother’s favorite complaint. They just weren’t fun to torture anymore.
Cullen gave a heavy breath then, turning back to his brother.