Aiden stood and smiled at the unit members. "Our women are amazing."

Gavriel and Colton nodded in agreement.

Rheia sat down on the arm of one of the chairs. "So back to the initial attack, why would they go after Penny?"

Mina waved her hand in the air. "Maybe for the same reason they went after my Elena, because Penny is half chameleon."

Meryn and Beth exchanged dubious looks. "Mina, I don't think that's the reason why."

Mina looked around. "Why else would she be attacked? Chameleon's are extremely rare. Some shifters hope their children mate with us so that their grandchildren and their bloodline gain our abilities."

Meryn held up her hands forming a 'T'. "Okay, timeout. What do you mean Penny is only half chameleon?"

Rheia stared at Mina. She was wondering the same thing, she had always assumed she was chameleon like her mother.

Mina blinked. "Didn't I tell you? Elena was pregnant when she left Lycaonia. Penny is the child she had with her wolf boyfriend."

"No wonder she was able to get past the units during the training drill," Colton said looking a bit shell shocked.

Meryn's head whipped back to Mina. "When you say chameleons are rare, how rare?"

Mina sighed. "We're almost extinct. That's why we pushed Elena to try and find a mate among other chameleon families. How ironic that she did exactly what we wanted in the end. Since her mate ended up being a chameleon, their baby, had they lived would have been the first pure blooded chameleon shifter born in a decade."

Meryn let the legal pad drop and scrambled for her laptop. "No, no, no, no, oh no," Meryn muttered under her breath as her computer booted up.

Rheia stood. "What did you figure out?"

Meryn tapped away and then the color began to drain out of her face. She swayed a bit in her chair. Ryuu and Aiden were instantly at her side. "Meryn, what?" Aiden demanded.

Meryn shook her head as if trying to erase what she'd seen. "After breakfast, while you guys had your showdown at the clinic I ran a wider search. All of the US, going back twenty years, you know, a huge sample, just in case." She swallowed hard. "I know why chameleons are so rare. They've slowly been hunted to extinction." She flipped her laptop around to show a map of the US. Red dots were scattered everywhere. "Over eighty-five percent of all reported paranormal murders in the past twenty years have been chameleons." Meryn began to shake so hard Rheia thought she was going to hurt herself. Suddenly, she stood. "Excuse me." Covering her mouth she ran from the room. Rheia stood and darted out right behind her.

Sure enough she headed straight for the bathroom. Rheia held her hair back as Meryn threw up her breakfast. She rubbed her back and wet a washcloth to lay across the back of her neck.

"I'm okay," Meryn whispered.

"Of course you are, you're doing beautifully," Rheia said removing the washcloth. "Feel like heading back?"

Meryn shook her head. "Not really, I bet Aiden's lost his shit. I really don't want to deal with him right now."

"I have my son under control Meryn, you can come out," Adelaide's amused voice said from the other side of the door.

Grinning at each other Rheia helped Meryn to stand and they walked out.

Meryn turned to Adelaide. "How is he?"

"I made him sit on his hands in a chair. He'll be fine once he sees you up and around." Adelaide wrapped an arm around Meryn and led them back to the family room.

When they entered Aiden went to stand but Byron cleared his throat. Meryn took pity on her mate and went directly to him. He pulled her into his lap and it looked like he wasn't letting go.

Rheia turned to Beth. "Have they figured it out yet?"

Beth shook her head. "Not unless they're keeping it to themselves."

Colton turned to her. "Please, oh wise women, show us the light."

"Goofball," Rheia said, and nudged him gently in the ribs.

Meryn leaned back against Aiden's chest and closed her eyes. "It means that ferals have been systematically collecting chameleons, for whatever reason, for the past twenty years. It means that they are larger and more organized than we ever feared."

Her words silenced the room.

Adelaide sipped her tea. "And that's just one puzzle. What about the other one?"

Rheia turned and looked at Adam who was trying to get comfortable on the sofa. "Adam had the body for weeks before I showed up. I removed the necklace and it went from solid state to liquid state in the matter of moments. But the ferals didn't know Adam had the body until he contacted the council to report the change."

"Did you notice anything when you looked at the slides?" Beth asked.

Rheia shook her head. "Nothing that Adam didn't explain. The first slide was from a normal paranormal, the second was from our Mystery Man before he, disintegrated. The third was from our Mystery Man after he became goo and the last slide was from a regular feral."

Meryn shrugged. "Does it matter? I mean, dead is dead, right?"

Rheia shook her head. "Not according to Adam. He said, that even after death paranormals decompose slowly, which is why he believed the Mystery Man was a normal paranormal because he was decomposing at the same rate as a paranormal. It only accelerated after the necklace was removed." Rheia stopped as a horrible thought began to take shape in her mind.

Rheia slapped her forehead. "I had it all wrong! But in my defense, it's partially Aiden's fault."