Mated to the Beast of the Wasteland novel Chapter 157

Chapter 157 His Mother’s Gift

Chapter 157 His Mother’s Gift

“Elara, if you’ve got evidence, then bring it. Don’t feed me stories.”

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A chill crossed Merrick’s face. “I’ve got nothing to do with the Griffinkin. If you have proof, slap it right on the Griffinkin’s front gate. I’ll even pay to make it trend.”

“You really are cold-blooded, willing to throw your own kin under the bus.”

Merrick laughed at that. His fists clenched, loosened again, and then his arm slid around Gillian’s shoulders.

“Gillian, let’s call it a night. It’s late, and you’re pregnant. Your sister can deal with this cryogold box on her

own.”

The verbal sparring between Elara and Merrick made the hairs on the back of Gillian’s neck stand on end.

“Both of you, take a breath. Are we still going to figure this out or not?”

Neither of them said another word, and the silence in the room thickened to the point of being unbearable.

Gillian drew in a deep breath and turned her attention back to the gold-shimmering box.

“Whatever’s inside this cryogold box must have come from Mom. Mom probably worked it out before anyone else at the lab did. But if she had it figured out, why would she hide it? And then claim her experiment had failed?”

“Maybe she’d already guessed that whoever ran the research base wanted to create monsters like that lizard beast, so she hid the results before they could be taken.”

Elara’s theory actually held water.

“Who ran the research base?”

Elara’s face darkened. “Whoever they were, they were smart. They left no loose ends behind. I’ve been digging for years and still haven’t turned up a single lead.”

“Was the research base part of the 8th Legion?”

Gillian had directed this one at Merrick.

“Unknown. When I took over the 8th Legion, the whole place was a sieve. Anyone with a pulse could walk in and skim off whatever they wanted. A huge chunk of the data and records had already been lost by

then.”

All of this had happened 20 years ago. If any backups still existed somewhere, they sure wouldn’t be in a place where the taint corroded everything down to ash.

Merrick let out a quiet sigh. Otherwise, would he ever have ridden out to the Elemental Cities to pile up debt the way he had? If he hadn’t taken on those debts back then, the entire wasteland would have gone up

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Chapter 157 His Mother’s Gift

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in flames. And would any of those Elemental City families have agreed to loan out the money so easily?

Merrick had shouldered the debt and held the wasteland together. Anyone in those Elemental City families with a working brain knew it was a deal worth making.

Sure enough, Wasteland City had limped along for another six years.

“Merrick, why does the White Griffin System carry data on the purge?”

Merrick didn’t dodge the question this time. He caught Gillian’s hand and pressed the White Griffin chip squarely into her palm.

“This system belonged to my mother. It’s what she left me.”

The cool weight of it against her palm made Gillian’s heart skip. Had he really just handed something this important over to her?

A trace of sorrow shadowed Merrick’s eyes. “Gillian, I found this when I was ten, going through my mother’s belongings. She had nothing to do with any of this.”

“I’m sorry, Merrick. I’m not casting suspicion on your mother. It’s just that this thing might be tied to how my parents died.”

“I know, Gillian.”

Only once she was sure Merrick wasn’t upset did Gillian take a closer look at the White Griffin.

The misty white crystal of the White Griffin held a sky full of pinprick stars inside it.

Standing out from all the rest, one white star and one black drifted around each other in the exact pattern of the Outer Planet orbiting Capital Planet.

The moment Gillian closed her hand around it, those two drifting orbs faded out, and a pool of white light rose up in their place. The light slowly shaped itself into a white bird, spread its wings, and started flying through the crystal.

A closer look revealed the bird had three legs, a rare detail indeed.

Elara had seen the White Griffin System before, but she’d never known it carried a name for something | like this.

“So the purge is what this thing is actually called?”

Gillian nodded at Elara’s question. “Whatever’s in that cryogold box is no joke. My purification power and my healing power couldn’t touch it.”

“It’s that powerful?”

Elara realized they weren’t going to land on any answers tonight, and the state Gillian was in tugged at her

heart.

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