“How are they going to react to the fact they could have female relatives and don’t even know it? These men are Alpha through and through. They will want to protect their female family members, and you know the ladies in my group are not going to respond kindly to that. Shoot, we only had one match besides me, and she isolates herself even more than I do. Considering what was done to her, I can’t imagine her ever trying to bond with a male.”
Ryleigh’s emotions were all over the place. Solider badass put her in a tailspin, and the rest of this cluster fuck was icing on the cake. She could feel the sting of tears in her eyes, but tried valiantly not to let them fall; just thinking about Zoey’s reaction to the DNA match was enough to throw her over the edge.
“I know honey, but they need to know and will have to deal with the consequences of all this. We worked it out. The others will too,” Senior said in an attempt to console his daughter.
Ryleigh rubbed the bridge of her nose and knew the headache that had started would be a full-blown migraine by the time this meeting was over.
“I hope you are right, Dad, but there is a big difference between the two,” Ryleigh said, wiping tears from her eyes. “I had already accepted you as my Dad, and you took me as your Daughter. I’ve known you most of my life, and I am grateful that I never experienced the abuse that she did. You’ve had my trust since I was 11 years old. The operative in question barely trusts me. If it weren't for today’s technology, she would never contact anyone or come off the mountain she hides on, and I don’t blame her one bit.”
Bringing Ryleigh in close and hugging her tight, Senior pointed out.
“Like I said, they’ll have to deal with this just like anything else in life. The situation is bigger than all of us. We need to put a stop to the atrocities this group is responsible for, the sooner, the better.”
Ryleigh liked the comfort her Dads arms always provided. She knew he was letting her hold on longer than what was necessary, but she needed just a couple more minutes.
Rubbing her back and then leaning away he looked her in the eyes.
“You ready to drop the next bomb?”
She knew this situation was wearing on her Dad as much, if not more, than it was on her, but he would never let it show. Declan Quinn never outwardly expressed his weakness to anyone, but Ryleigh knew how much these men and the members of their teams meant to her Dad. He wasn’t fooling her. She hoped the hug helped him as much as it had her. She knew he would do everything in his power to right the wrong that had been committed against all of them. It was the type of man he was.
“Right behind you.” she said, nodding her head and stepping about from his embrace. “I hope your men will keep an open mind and not push too hard. Most of the women in my group are not ready for new relationships, let alone with Alpha males, and I know the men in that conference room are putting the pieces to that puzzle together as we speak. I almost wish I didn’t have to put any of them through this.
“The women of The Holly group are reclusive and standoffish; that doesn’t make for the right environment for any type of bonding to occur. Shoot, I hate to say it, but I think I’ll have to force most of my operatives to even work with the NAC guys, let alone anything else. A couple of them have already expressed their dislike of the situation and have down right refused the merger. Don’t you guys have men that shift into bunny rabbits or something less intimidating?” Ryleigh said, trying to make light, smiling at her dad.
“Sorry, honey, only Apex predators,” Senior chuckled, “but, Ryleigh, I really don’t think it would matter if they were bunny rabbit Shifters. The women in your group don’t trust men. The few times I’ve met them, I was only tolerated because of my connection to you. You have to remember the guys’ animals aren’t the problem. I think in time, after working together for a while, everything will even out. My men need to prove themselves to your group and once that happens, who knows.
Ryleigh’s legs felt like lead. She really didn’t want to go back in the conference room, but knew it needed to be done.
Well, it looked like Ryleigh had put some of those pieces together herself, thought Senior. He didn’t want to go into the fated mate thing with her, but had mentioned the legends. It seemed as if his brilliant daughter had already done the math.
Chapter 11
Jacks and the other team leaders had been sitting in the conference room for a while after the initial conversations. Each of them had gotten quiet, within their own thoughts. He hoped that everyone would come back, so this meeting could continue. Jacks wasn’t good at waiting around. He also couldn’t get the redhead out of his mind.
Looking up he noticed Kayden and Milo had walked back into the room, not looking any better than when they had left. Both of them were tight with the tension in their bodies, and their eyes were glowing. Jacks knew their animals were close. He hoped he didn’t need to intervene, and the men would calm down on their own. Having this many Alphas in a room was always hard, but adding in the cluster fuck they just learned didn’t help the situation. He was surprised that none of them had thrown a punch or drawn blood yet. With their animals so close, nature would eventually take over. He knew that without a doubt he would protect that woman. He might not know Ryleigh Quinn, but he would protect her by any means necessary, even taking down men that he considered brothers and allies.
“How are you doing, Kayden?” Jacks asked. “That was a pretty bitter pill to force down.”
“I can’t fight shadows, man, and that is what Ryleigh and Senior are asking us to do. Some unknown Tiger Shifter male is going to impregnate a little girl. None of that sits right with me. It’s fucked up,” Kayden grumbled. “Shit man, this whole situation is screwed up. Not only have we been spinning our wheels with the case, but now we have to worry about random women who have shifter DNA. Think about it. Ryleigh said there could be hundreds of children created in the last thirty years. Who is to say that we haven’t run across one already? Do we have to request DNA test now for any women we want to fuck?”
“The bigger problem is there are humans out there that know about us and have been screwing with our genetics and creating designer children. The whole thing makes me sick.” Jacks could tell that every man in the room felt the same way. By the looks on their faces, none of this information was good.
“Ryleigh said that she is twenty-eight, and that means we’ve been out in the open for at least that amount of time to some fucked-up people. I feel like we have targets on our backs, and the bitch of it is those bulls-eyes have been there for a long fucking time. How didn’t we know that these experiments were going on and how do we justify this to our clans and family? Shit, the men on our teams. How do we explain it? How will any of us ever feel safe again, let alone trust anything we’ve been told?” He argued. “Everyone has been so sure we were well hidden and protected. I’m not a pantywaist, but this shit’s scaring the crap out of me, and my bear is fucking hating it.”
Senior cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention, but he didn’t need to announce his presence to the men. Their Shifter senses pegged him well before he reached the door. Jacks assumed that he still cleared his throat more for Ryleigh’s benefit than the guys.
Jacks shifted his focus to Senior and actually looked at him. These proceedings were wearing on Senior. He was still tough as nails, but his focus was divided between his people and his daughter. The man had iron control; earlier he had almost lost it, which Jacks had never seen before. Never having a child, Jacks couldn’t say he could relate. His life and loyalties consisted of his men and the other members of NAC. The other relationships he had been involved with were superficial. Until Ryleigh caught his notice, he would have never thought there was anything that could change his feelings.
The men in the room were all Alphas of their own teams, but Senior, he was on a level that far exceeds any of their animals. Being the only dragon shifter and the Alpha of every team had a way of doing that. No one really knew how old Senior was.
His human exterior gave away nothing. He looked to be in his late forties, but Jacks knew the man was much older than that. His own grandfather and father had worked and served under the man.
He wasn’t a typical shifter, living a standard or extended life span. He was a mythical beast. No one really knew all the power the man held. Jacks was starting to question it and the influence he had over all of them. By all rights, Ryleigh and her Team should have already been tried and convicted for just having the knowledge they did. Senior might be able to pull some string to get his daughter off, but that didn’t include the others. Jacks needed to make sure that never happened, Ryleigh needed to stay safe.
For the first time, his focus was drawn to someone other than his CO and Alpha when he walked into the room. He was conditioned from his years of service to always provide your superiors with your full attention. Although he had some fleeting thoughts, Senior was not his focus, that belonged to Ryleigh. She looked stressed. Her face was red and her eyes had the distinct sheen of tears, making the green even brighter against the bloodshot background. He didn’t like it, neither did his bear. The damn beast wanted her, no questioned asked, but most of all it wanted to protect her and keep her safe, even from memories and nightmares yet revealed.
Damn, he needed to remember that Ryleigh was Senior’s daughter, and that was her Dad’s job until Jacks could find a way to make it his. Damn it, why the fuck did he keep on thinking of this woman as his? She wasn’t. Maybe if he kept on repeating it, his bear and body would get the hint; from the reaction he got from looking at her face, he knew that wasn’t going to happen. He needed some space. Maybe then he could figure out why he was reacting so strongly to her. She looked sucker-punched; all he wanted to do was to take her in his arms and make everything all right. The urge to protect and console her was overwhelming. What the hell was wrong with him?
He watched her as she made her way to the conference table. She wasn’t as confident as before and she seemed to be just following Senior’s lead. That bothered him more. Why was she pulling back now? He wanted to see more of that backbone, not this weak imitation.
“Sorry, gentlemen. I know this is a lot to take in and I wish that was all, but that was just the beginning, there is more,” Ryleigh choked out. This next part wasn’t going to be easy. Ryleigh almost wished that she could make her Dad say the rest, but she wouldn’t, she needed to do this. The Holly Group had found and investigated this information that made it her responsibility. Collective groans and whispered swears parroted around the room. Ryleigh wanted to be done with all of this.
“As I said, I was created and mainly kept in that lab after the age of two. I was made aware of my animal DNA, but was either too young or too confused to process the information. What we’ve discovered is not only did The Pandora Group use Shifter DNA to create children, but they also enhanced them.”
When the men started to raise their voices and grumble, Senior stopped them by raising his hand.
“For me, that enhancement has to do with my mind,” Ryleigh continued. “I don’t process and retain information like a normal human would, I need constant stimulation. My handlers acknowledged this and at least fed that part of me, but only after discovering the catastrophic results of leaving my brain idle.”
“Their primary focus, however, did remain on my inability to shift, and they pursued that goal aggressively. I don’t think they planned on making an intelligent pet.” Most of the men in the room visibly flinched at her use of the word pet. Ryleigh could understand, but that was what she was back then. There weren’t any words which could make her situation better for them to hear.
“Even as a young girl, I knew there wasn’t an animal inside of me,” said Ryleigh. “There was no otherworldly presence in my soul, but there were times I had hoped for one, so I wouldn’t be so alone and could protect myself better, but no such luck.”
Jacks bear reacted strongly to Ryleigh’s statement, and he was pretty sure if the beast could have separated itself from Jacks, it would have at that moment. The beast’s need to protect her was strong.
“When Pandora pulled out the doctors, the ones who replaced them were more aggressive in their treatment and experiments. For about three years, they tried to bring my nonexistent animal forward. They did tests and studied me constantly. These men and women were determined to prevail where Pandora had failed. It was determined that my animal may not manifest until puberty. Unfortunately, this only made the Doctors and scientist more determined. If I couldn’t shift until puberty, they were going to find a way to accelerate my adolescence. It was as simple as that for them.”
Yeah, nothing was that simple. She remembered the testing and the procedures those sadistic people did to her. At first, they thought they could scare the animal out of her and they tried every conceivable way to do that, from threats to actual pain and humiliation. When that didn’t work, they tried injecting her with everything from adrenalin to hormones. She could still feel the burn from some of the drugs they tried. It was amazing she had turned out to be healthy. Had her Dad not found her when he did, the outcome would have been much different. Ryleigh gazed at her Dad.
“Thankfully, Senior found me before they could pursue that angle. It wasn’t until a recent mission that we found information about the animal DNA strains and the experiments. I had blocked most of my knowledge regarding that time, but the discovery brought it all back to me.”
“Inherently, my group decided to look into the genetics angle. Our doctors ran genetic testing on all of us at the Holly group first. It was discovered that we all had extra chromosomes linked with animal DNA. After that, I decided to have my Dad’s DNA run as well, without his consent or knowledge,” Ryleigh admitted.
This time when the room erupted, Ryleigh noticing the hatred coming off of some of the men. She had committed, like her Dad had said, the cardinal sin. Unfortunately, they would soon find out that wasn’t the only one.
“What the fuck do you mean you ran his DNA without his knowledge or consent?” Kayden boomed.
“Just listen to her, damn it!” her Dad roared right back.
Chapter 12
Gulping, Ryleigh continued, “We discovered that one of my strands was directly related to my Dad, Senior,” she said, looking to her Dad, trying desperately to avoid the glares she was sure to see if she looked elsewhere. Ryleigh wanted to plead for not only forgiveness, but also understanding. She also wanted to cry when this all started. She had no idea what it all meant. She suspected that her Dad had been wronged by the military or something, like them doing unneeded experiments on soldiers. Never in a million years would she have guessed that Shifters existed or that she was putting anyone in any danger by saying something or investigating the anomalies she had discovered.
“When I brought him my findings, only then did he tell me that he was a Shifter.” The words didn’t have the placating result that Ryleigh had hoped for. The men in the room were still not happy with outsiders knowing about them, but seemed to be still respecting her Dad’s wishes of hearing her out. Ryleigh knew it would take time for these men to accept that they weren’t alone in this knowledge anymore. She feared some of them never would.
“Fuck, Senior, you should have brought this to us as soon as you knew,” Kayden said, still visibly upset but trying to regain his composure. “Why the cloak and dagger shit? We pledged our loyalty to NAC years ago. We would have protected your daughter and the women who work for her. Women and girls with Shifter DNA would be coveted and cherished, you know that. You took the choice out of our hands. How could we possibly protect what we know nothing about?” Kayden exploded.
“Kayden, let Ryleigh finish,” Senior stressed.
Jacks noticed the man was holding on by a thread. One more outburst directed at his daughter, and he would snap. He hoped the other men noticed as well. Loud and boisterous Senior was typical, but quiet Senior was lethal.
“Please keep in mind, gentlemen, this is a new development. We
only discovered the link to Dad and me a little while ago. Since then, we’ve been trying to determine how I was related.”
“Ryleigh is directly related to my brother, Seamus,” Senior broke into the conversation. “He died as a teen under very suspicious circumstances. After more testing, it was determined that Ryleigh’s Dragon DNA came directly from him.”
Ryleigh looked at her Dad and tried to gauge her next move.
“Dad do you want to continue?” Ryleigh murmured. Senior had diverted his eyes. Ryleigh knew it was hard for him to talk about his brother. He would always wonder if he could have helped his brother in some way if he would have gotten to him sooner, something.
Senior, cleared his throat several times and shook his head to acknowledge Ryleigh.
“My brother died while out in the woods shortly before his eighteenth birthday. There were no signs of trauma on his body. My Dad and the Elders of my clan reported that Shea had been a bit depressed before his death, but none of them felt it was the cause of his death, just typical teenage problems. At least that’s what they said at the time.” Senior cleared his throat again Ryleigh knew how hard this was for him, but she also knew he wouldn’t let his men see his vulnerability.
“Because there was no evidence of foul play, no further investigation into his death was conducted,” Senior continued. “I had already been in the service for years when this happened and didn’t find out about his death until a couple of months after. My team had been on a dark mission at the time and there wasn’t a way for my Dad or the members of my clan to contact me. When I was finally able to make contact with the outside world, I received the news that he had died. I asked questions, but my Dad was barely accepting it at that point, and I chose not to pursue it further. I foolishly didn’t want to cause him any more harm.”
NAC & The Holly Group - Box set: Alpha Team Page 8