“When I returned stateside, I had several letters waiting for me from Shea. In one letter, he talked about having had to go to the clinic in our hometown because of some mysterious illness. This really bothered me. He had to have been very sick to force my Dad’s hand to seek out human medical help. None of it made any sense. Shea said the nurse gave him an injection while my Dad was out of the room and he couldn’t move, something that should have been impossible with our Shifter metabolism. He claimed the shot had paralyzed him,” Senior revealed.
Several of the guys expressed, ‘what the fucks’ and ‘no fucking ways’, but let Senior continue.
“While paralyzed, they took samples from him. He didn’t go into detail of what those samples were, but he did say he felt violated.”
Ryleigh rubbed her Dad’s shoulder, offering the only type of support she could at the time. This was his story to tell. He looked like a defeated man, Ryleigh didn’t like it. She knew from their conversations he would always regret not being there or coming back sooner.
“What the fuck,” gasped Milo.
Ryleigh left her hand on her Dad’s shoulder, encouraging him to continue. Speaking openly about his brother’s death was never an easy task, but she knew he wouldn’t let his men see the toll it was truly taking on him.
“We all know that Shifters are taught from a young age to only seek out that medical attention if there is a dire need for it, and even then, to never leave another Shifter alone with human medical professionals,” Senior continued, seemingly unphazed. “I couldn’t imagine my Dad doing this. He would have never left Shea alone. Shea stated in the letter that my Dad was lead out of the room under the guise to fill out paperwork. Standard operating procedure in human clinics or some shit.”
The men were clearly incensed by this information. How dare the humans take advantage of the situation?
“After the nurse and doctor had taken the samples, he was given another injection. This one released his body, and the fever and illness which had brought him to the clinic in the first place disappeared within minutes, at least that’s what he wrote in his letters. What killed me was him asking me why he got sick in the first place. Shifters don’t get sick, we all know that,” he said, looking to his men in the room. “We are immune to human diseases and ailments.”
Unease filled the room. If the humans engineered Shifter illnesses, they had yet another big issue to address.
“He felt like a failure, and his letters became darker after that,” Senior explained. “Deciding I didn’t have another choice, I contacted my Dad after reading the letters. He told me that several other Shifter juveniles had come down with the same type of illness around the same time as Seamus. All the parents and Elders believed that the kids had been doing drugs or partying too much, like teenagers do. They hypothesized that these new drugs did not mesh with their Shifters half, causing the illness. Whether it was naivety or embarrassment, the illness was not talked about again.”
Jacks knew how Senior’s brother had felt. Shifters were raised to believe that they were invincible, being sick showed weakness, and no Shifter wanted that. It determined your place within the Clan and so many other things. Stronger animals in the wild often targeted a weak animal and the Shifters, although human, weren’t much different. His brother would have suffered bullying to the furthest degree, add in the violation, and he felt for what the boy had been through.
“Damn, Senior, I remember that time. Several young males had fallen to that sickness. My brother Ben being one of them,” Kayden announced. “He was always a bit wild, but my clan said that he was even more so right before he passed, saying crazy stuff, having hallucinations, and drinking a lot. My clan also didn’t look into it any further, calling it youthful folly or some shit. Ben might have been wild, but he wasn’t reckless, and he didn’t do drugs. Our mother cured us of ever wanting to try them.
“Now that I think about it, the whole thing was kind of strange. We had these mysterious illnesses and deaths all in about a three-month period, and then it all stopped. The different clans weren’t as connected back then as they are now. I wonder how many young men were honestly affected?”
Ryleigh could tell her Dad needed a break, so she decided it was time to interject.
“As you know personally, Shifters are very hard to kill. Not only do you heal at alarming rates, but you also have distinctive traits related to your animals. Dragons, such as Seamus and my Dad, have very thick skins and run at a higher temperature. One common trait is you all metabolize things such as alcohol or drugs at an alarming rate. You could chug a bottle of whiskey and not even feel buzzed. I, on the other hand, would be in a hospital with alcohol poisoning. One of our goals going forward is to trace and identify what was used and why it affected Shifters. We also need to figure out how they knew it would work. We need to determine if all the cases are connected and if there really was a recreational drug out there that would affect so many young men, causing them and their families to seek human health care professionals when it went against their very nature. That can’t happen without your help and the help of the clans.”
This wasn’t a new revelation to the men in the room. Jacks knew they had all had a crazy night or two without any consequence. It would take a case of hard liquor for any of them to even get a buzz. He even knew of some Shifters who had been tested for drug tolerance while in the military, and they too had little to no effect. Only extremely potent animal tranquilizers seemed to cause a reaction and even then, it was short-lived. But the biggest question was why the Elders would dismiss these events. They were supposed to confer with each other, so all the clans stayed informed. Why was this pushed under the rug? It didn’t make sense. Jacks hoped they didn’t have to look into their own clans for possible traitors. He also knew that The Holly Group wouldn’t be able to get the information they needed, even with Ryleigh’s genetic link to Senior.
“Our research has indicated that the men in question did not dose themselves. A contagion explicitly linked to Shifters was unleashed in specific areas. Health professionals were advised to watch for specific symptoms and perform specific tests. The young men received an injection with a slow acting serum that eventually caused their deaths. We have documents that outlined this experiment and they link back to Pandora directly.”
“Where the hell did you get your information and again, why the fuck are we just hearing about this now?” Surfer Dude Badass exploded, slamming his fist on the table, practically foaming at the mouth.
“You have no idea what you are talking about. I was with my best friend Jake when he died. He just laid down and died peacefully. I was there, damn it! And we didn’t do any fucking drugs!” Liam shouted. “I went to the same clinic, had the same fever, and no one took samples from me or gave me any injections. The nurse there told my dad to take me home and give me fluids, nothing more. I was out of there hours before Jake. It took three days before that fucking fever broke. My dad accused me of being defective along with other accusations, for fucks sakes.”
“Was there anything odd about what the nurse said or did while you were there?” Ryleigh inquired.
“Hell, I don’t know, I was so out of it,” Liam recalled. “My dad was pissed, though, because she made us leave through the back door. He felt like a second-class citizen, said we would never go back to that place again. Julie, the nurse, had always been friendly to us before, but after, she wouldn’t even look us in the eye. I did see her at Jake’s funeral. His mom had insisted that he be buried the human way with a complete funeral, not the way of the Shifters. Julie was crying, but I never saw her again after that,” Liam pointed out.
“Do you have her full name? Anything else. Maybe her age?” Ryleigh probed Liam for any information. “Family members could be useful as well. If we could get in touch with her, we might be able to get more information on what went down. Right now, we are putting pieces of the puzzle together. All the dots are not lining up at this point, but she may be able
to connect a few more,” Ryleigh speculated. “But I have to say it looks like you got lucky, that nurse might have saved your life.”
“Yeah, I can give you all the information I know, but if we find her, I want to be the one to question her,” Liam asserted. “If she saved my life, I want to know why she didn’t do the same for Jake. He was the good one. Everyone liked him. Why would she save me and not him? It just doesn’t make sense. He did well in school, helped old ladies cross the street, and was the quintessential Boy Scout. Why would anyone want to hurt him? He would have never hurt anyone. He was kind, didn’t have the same urges as most of us did. He wanted to be a teacher for fuck sakes.”
Ryleigh watched as her Dad got up under the guise of going to get a cup of coffee, but stopping and placing his hand on the angry man’s shoulder.
“Son, we will give you the opportunity to ask those questions if we can locate this woman. You have my word.” Then he continued on to the side table like nothing happened. Ryleigh knew he cared about these men as much as he cared about her and hated to see any of them hurt.
“Thanks, Senior, this is all a bit too much to take in,” Liam responded.
All Ryleigh could do was rip the hypothetical band-aid off a quickly as possible, not waiting for her Dad to return to his seat or even give Surfer Dude a minute to process.
“Now as I said, I share DNA with Dad’s brother, Seamus, but we also ran other tests using your DNA after Dad told me about Shifters and their existence.”
The room exploded and once again Ryleigh was sucked into the abyss of Alpha dominance, this time harder than before. She couldn’t move, could barely breathe, and making eye contact was out of the question. She knew what she said was a massive violation to the men gathered. She had tried to prepare for the results of the blow, but nothing could have prepared her for this. If she thought the last time was bad, this was beyond horrendous.
Fuck, Jacks was pissed, but watching Ryleigh he knew he needed to reel it in. Alphas had the ability to exert their dominance and feelings on others, and Ryleigh was getting hit six-fold. If he didn’t calm the guys down, they could do permanent damage.
“Fuck. Listen, assholes. We might not like what she has to say, but look what you are doing to her. Pay fucking attention,” demanded Jacks.
His argument seemed to work because he saw several of his brother pale when they took in Ryleigh’s shell-shocked expression. Liam and Carter got up and started shaking their arms out to relieve their stress. Kayden was deep breathing, and Milo had his eyes closed. Senior, he couldn’t look at him right now, but Jacks knew that he was in the back of the room. The man should have stopped this before it had gotten this far. Jacks couldn’t figure out why he hadn’t.
Chapter 13
“I promise you that only the founding five members of the Holly Group have this information and they won’t share it with anyone,” Ryleigh blurted out with her first full breath,
She knew she was expecting a lot. These men had no reason to trust her or the women of The Holly Group. She had hoped that they would trust her Dad enough to hear her out though.
“What the fuck do you mean you ran my DNA?” Milo fumed, no longer the gentleman asking polite questions. “I didn’t give you consent. You have no right to take or run my DNA against my will.”
Ryleigh noticed all the men nodding in agreement.
“Who the hell do you think you are that you could take that choice away from me or any of us? Most of us would have fucking volunteered. You didn’t even give us the option,” Milo snapped.
Senior didn’t stop this time to reassure one of his men. Instead he walked straight to his seat, moving it closer to Ryleigh, and then planted himself firmly at her side.
“You gave consent when you signed your employment contract with NAC,” he fumed back, not liking Milo’s tone. “We have access to and are allowed anything from your person or lives to solve a case. If you have a problem with that, now, maybe you should reconsider your employment here. Seems to be a running theme with you today, Milo. You think I should look into that?”
“That is fucking bullshit, and you know it, Senior! My DNA is not your property. What you did is wrong and if you don’t have the balls to admit it, then maybe I don’t want to continue my involvement with NAC. After all, isn’t one of our founding principles to not violate human or Shifter rights? What the fuck do you think your daughter and her team have just done? Why the fuck were their feelings and considerations put before ours? I don’t know about the rest of you, but I feel fucking violated. I’m not even going to address your other comment, I’ve proved my loyalty to NAC in a hundred ways, and I resent your implication.”
Ryleigh tried to sooth the tempers that were flaring. No way did she want a repeat of a few minutes ago.
“Milo, I agree that this is a massive invasion.”
“Listen, it was my choice, not Ryleigh’s or The Holly Groups, to run your DNA,” Senior admitted. “She asked and I consented. We needed to figure out where these women came from, and if they are related to any unknown, possibly captive, Shifters or to us.
“You need to look beyond the fucking violation to the bigger picture. We have a doctor and a group of assholes out there who were able to get their hands on semen, skin, and God knows what else, from Shifters, and they created these so-called designer babies. How and when did they get it, through the sick Shifters or did it come from somewhere else? This is bigger than the people in this room. I’ll gladly take your heat for consenting to the testing.”
“My group has all been tested,” said Ryleigh. “We carry Shifter genes and we needed to determine if any of those genes came from any of you or your familial lines. It’s not like there is a database out there with this information, and we felt it was better to proceed without delay.”
“So, did you find any matches?” Jacks asked.
He couldn’t help but think, crossing his fingers for good luck, God, please don’t let this woman be related to me in some freaking way. Getting a boner for a family member was not cool. He shifted in his seat, uncomfortable with the possible incestuous thoughts he was having. He couldn’t help but wonder, maybe that was why his bear was reacting so strongly to her. She could be a sister or cousin or something. That would surely cure his erratic cock. But he still couldn’t help but pray, Goddess, please don’t be related to me.
“Yes,” Ryleigh grimaced, “to answer your question, two other matches came up, both to the same male in your group. We haven’t had a chance to sit down with the man involved, but plan to do so after the meeting.”
“Fuck, no!” Milo boomed. “I want to know right fucking now if these women are related to me. I don’t give a damn who’s in the room,” getting agreement from the others.
“Okay, listen. I don’t feel comfortable doing this as a group, but if you all consent, I will,” said Ryleigh.
“Oh, now she is going to ask for permission. How nice,” Milo jeered.
After all the men approved without a moment of hesitation Ryleigh had no choice but to comply.
“Okay, Kayden, you are related to one of my operatives, Zoey Parks, as well as Cassie Larson.”
The room erupted in a mass of profanity and yelling.
“What the fuck do you mean these women are related to me? I don’t have any children, and my Dad only had two sons,” Kayden roared in disbelief, jumping from his chair. Shaking his hand and pointing at Senior, he said, “No one besides Uncle Sam has ever taken my blood, and that was a limited amount. Besides, that shit is supposed to be locked up like Fort Fucking Knox as agreed to by our contract. We have safeguards against this and only a few humans even know we exist. Our teams are all Shifters. Shit, even General Austin is a Shifter. No one wants this information getting out.”
Jacks couldn’t blame Kayden for his reaction. He didn’t like the idea of someone accessing his DNA either, but he could also see the other side. NAC and The Holly Group needed to figure out how Pandora got a hold of Shifter DNA, and if
he could help he would.
“How in the hell did you get your hands on my DNA?” The more Kayden talked, the more enraged he got. “I was adamant when I signed onto NAC, no blood, hair, or skin samples were to be collected. You had to either obtain them from my records from the military or hacked them. Which is it?” Kayden demanded some sort of explanation. “If you think it came from my brother, I want to know how. I cremated Ben, which is the Shifter way of letting the spirit free. Dead and crispy jizz does not make babies. How the hell do you know these women are 100% related to me?”
“Kayden, I apologize, but you’re wrong.” Ryleigh clarified, “NAC has your DNA profile along with every other Shifter in this room, as is policy. If a mission goes wrong, they need to be able to clear their agents of any wrongdoing by DNA analysis, if necessary. As for your brother, Ben had begun the process of enlisting. Once we had the information from the initial testing that you were related to both Zoey and Cassie, we were able to obtain his DNA profile from the Military. It was a genetic match. Cassie is your niece, but Zoey is your sister,” Ryleigh explained.
“I lost my brother, and now you’re telling me that I have a sister and a niece that I’ve never met?” Kayden screamed. “What the fuck. You could have told me. I would have been there for either of them and how the hell did my Dad have a daughter without him knowing it? He wasn’t one of the boys everyone was talking about earlier. If what you are saying is true, he died without even knowing he had daughter, let alone a granddaughter. What gives you the right to keep this from me?
“This is unacceptable, you should have come to me first the minute you found any of this out. I would have protected Cassie. She sure as hell wouldn’t have been in fucking Mexico with a bunch of friends, unprotected.” Kayden came to the nauseating realization, “Oh, Fuck, they want her for a breeder,” he stated with a strangled sob. “They want my niece for a breeder. She’s just a baby.”
NAC & The Holly Group - Box set: Alpha Team Page 9