A woman is killed by a wolf on the Cherry Lane path that runs beside the local university. The animal's tracks show it came from and returned to a nearby river, making the creature impossible to hunt down. The case is assigned to volatile, unstable police officer Alex Ivanov.
Meanwhile, scientist Ilya Ivanov performs secret experiments at the university and a nearby zoo, involving dogs and wolves. When Alex connects Ilya's fiancée Caroline (a wolf expert) to Buda Lake, who's actually his long-lost half-brother. The two haven't seen each other since they were children, removed from certain death by Alex's father / Ilya's uncle Boris, who left them with an Addison's-like disease and rapid aging.
The wolf attacks continue, and female involved because Alex is the killer. Russian military experiments on children like him—and Ilya—with the ability to transform into canines. Alex lives like an outcast for his age, while Ilya works to find a cure for this disease that consumes both of them with an Addison's-like disease and rapid aging.
Boris tries to see an peacemaker, but Alex is determined to kill Ilya because Ilya's father (an) his program that changed them both—and killed Alex's first love. He even attacks Boris, who which Boris goes into hiding.
Ilya transforms into a golden retriever, hoping to track down Alex as he roams Cherry Lane in wolf form, searching for new victims. The two of them caught in a war within. With Alex inflicting more damage because of his greater size and strength. Both men go years with each transformation. Confronted with his odd behavior, Ilya tells Caroline in on the situation, and his research.
Alex kidnaps Caroline and takes her to Cherry Lane, blindfolding her inside as old pump house. He uses Ilya, knowing Ilya will come after him like that again. Ilya arrives in dog form, and Boris comes armed with a pistol. While Ilya and Alex hunt each other as canines, Caroline escapes and retrieves the rifle she'd pleased to use on the wolf.
Dog and wolf battle it own in the darkness. Boris opens fire, grazing the wolf. The wolves fail into the river, and Boris plunges in after them, and forcing him under. Caroline now along the shoreline, looking for a clear shot. She fires at the water beneath the retriever, hoping to wound Alex and not Ilya.
Caroline and Boris pull the badly-injured retriever from the water and patch him up. But there's a catch: this time, the retriever stays a retriever—and does not transform into Ilya.
Caroline leaves him with Boris and takes a research job at the University of Milan, where she hopes to develop a way to bring Ilya back and reverse his premature aging.
Boris sees a news story: two people attacked by a large carnivore in another city.
This isn't over…
Chapter 2
Ilya Barker stood in his lab, dropping the last sample of DNA into the centrifuge for separation. He heard the door open and turned. Caroline Rhodes, DVM—the interim department head—sauntered in. Ilya slid his heavy black-rimmed glasses down. "You move as gracefully as a cat," he said.
"You should join me in an ashtanga yoga class." Caroline swept her blond hair back, accentuating a carnal gaze.
Ilya looked at her with his mocha-brown eyes, inherited from his father. "My job doesn't allow me the time," he said, gesturing toward the equipment.
"You spend so much time down here. I swear you prefer a test tube to a uterus."
Ilya stepped away from the machine. "I can control what goes on in a test tube. The uterus on the other hand?" He put his arm around her and kissed her. The scent of lavender filled his nostrils.
"I certainly hope that's not where you plan on having our kids," Caroline said. "Which reminds me." She pointed at her ring finger.
"I haven't forgotten. We'll look at rings when I get some free time. By the way, now that we're living together, when are you going to get rid of your condo?"
"When I see a ring." She looked around the lab. "Ilya, you spend so much time in this windowless lab you look like the coldest day in December, and we're already into March." She changed the month on the wall calendar.
Ilya set his glasses down. "I know I've been working long hours. For what it's worth, I missed you more."
"How are the tests going?" Caroline looked at the gel box used to separate DNA fragments. "It seems you have a problem with heat." She pointed at the sequencing in the slab gel. "One of your wells has melted."
Ilya sighed. "You know how it is. Win some, lose some."
"I know it will slow you down, but have you tried a lower voltage?"
"Any lower and I'd have to shut the gel box off."
Caroline turned her attention to a full ashtray on the counter beside him. Ilya picked it up and emptied it. "Hard to find good help these days."
Frown lines darkened at the edges of Caroline's eyes. "You know they're talking about you. About the late nights and what you do down here." She glanced past his shoulder at the open storage room door. "The days of working alone in a genetics laboratory are over." She sat on one of the empty stools along the lab counter and scrutinized the open door. "If there ever was a time," she mumbled to herself. Her index finger touched her lower lip while she thought. "And two and two don't add up."
"I haven't heard any complaints," Ilya said, moving to stand between her and the storeroom door.
"You know how it's done in academia," Caroline said. "In hushed tones behind closed doors. I'm worried you're going to lose your grant." She looked at the plastic DNA model resting on the counter. "I don't even know what you're doing anymore."
Ilya sat on the stool beside her. "To put it in terms even they would understand, I'm using CRISPR to weed out the multifactorial inheritance disorder."
"You've missed the last three meetings," Caroline said. "And I'm not sure how much longer I can cover for you … Genetic abnormalities in what? Ilya, they're starting to call this place the eugenics lab."
He conveyed his concern with his shoulders pushed forward in a defensive stance. Body language wasn't his second language—it was his first—and he understood Caroline knew how to read it. "You know I only work with animals."
"What am I going to do with you?" She checked her phone. It was the umpteenth update from her colleagues on the attack along the riverside trail by the university grounds.
Ilya cleared his throat.
"It's not about you," she said and put her phone down. "Haven't you heard?"
Ilya shook his head.
"Last night a girl was killed. She was down on the trail by the river." She delivered a hardened glare. "The one you walk Prophet on."
"I've never had any problems down there," Ilya said.
"The police asked me to look at the bite wounds. It was a very large carnivore. Didn't you get the texts I sent you?"
Ilya checked the pockets in his lab coat and then raised his arms in frustration.
"Anyway, there's a detective that wants to talk to me about the attack. He has an appointment with me for tomorrow. When you get home you can check the messages I sent." She got off the stool. "One more thing. Jeret the curator at the City Zoo called today. He said the wolves were acting up last night."
Ilya put his glasses back on. "What did your friend have to say about it? That girl that takes care of them?"
"Her name is Korin," she said as she headed out the door. "She wants me to take a look and see what I think." She turned back to him at the base of the stairs. "I'll see you tonight."
"Tonight, I promise." His attention lingered on her figure for a moment before she disappeared.
The storeroom door opened all the way and a silver-haired man stepped through: Boris Volkoff. "She suspects," he said in a manner endemic to Russian speech, which phrases questions like statements. His eyes were a pale blue, hardened at the edges by the long heritage of cold Russian nights. He knew Ilya understood the importance of success. "Everything we've worked for resides in these experiments."
Ilya nodded.
"No one must know what we're doing in here," Boris said.
"She doesn't know, but I'll reaffirm when I talk to her."
"The death along the trail?"
"I'll know more tonight." Ilya lowered his glasses and studied the samples in the gel box.
