NAC & The Holly Group - Box set: Alpha Team

by Chelsea Handcock

  He was the team’s enforcer. He should be there protecting them, not pulling babysitting duty. Dalton liked Ryleigh, respected her, but his skills would much better put to use in the field. He needed the action from a mission to get his mind off things better left in the past. The possibility of mates and Shifters being exposed brought of memories of his childhood. If his Dad had been able to find his true mate, would his life have been different? Would he have a single good memory of the man who created him? Would his mother have stuck around long enough, so Dalton would’ve had the opportunity to know her? To remember how she looked, smelled, and sounded like was something he yearned. He had no memories of the woman. So many would haves and ifs, they were all fucking with his head.

  Getting up from his station on the floor, Dalton walked back over to the sink. Trying to regain some calm, he looked out to the water. It was still quiet, still placid, and still not helping keep his thoughts at bay. He would go for a run or even a shift, but he couldn’t leave Ryleigh, so he was stuck right where he was for the foreseeable future. Stuck replaying all that had happened and all the possibilities that could happen over and over in his mind.

  Yeah, he hated change, but even he had to admit that he didn’t begrudge his Alpha and his mate’s happiness. Dalton even kind of envied it, but he learned at an early age that change leads to bad things. He was always waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it always did. His Dad was a mess; couldn’t hold down a job and drank like a fish. Dalton didn’t know his mom, she’d been gone before he was able to remember if she had been ever around at all. When his Dad would get hammered, he liked to tell Dalton that she never wanted him; she’d shown up one day, dropped him off like garbage, and never looked back. As a kid, Dalton, didn’t want to believe it, but as time went on and his Dad’s drinking got worse, he realized that some of what the bastard was saying had to be true.

  Dalton spent most of his time as a kid with Jacks’ family or at the homes of one of the other guys on Alpha team. Of course, they weren’t the Alpha Team back then, they were just a bunch of little kids with big dreams. They all wanted out of the small community they lived in and bought the fairy tales the adults often told, like the mating tale. Leaning his hip against the counter and crossing his arms, Dalton shook his head and smiled, remembering some of the things he and his team had done as kids. Those were good memories. Memories that he hoped he would never forgot. Until recently, Dalton never actually thought about the lack of female influence in any of their lives. Each guy had some to an extent, except for Dalton, and he wondered who was better off from their experience.

  There weren’t any female Shifters left in the world, or so they believed at the time. Over time, males only started producing males and females were bred out of existence. The folklore said that when a male Shifter met his fated female, the man and the bear would know instantly. A bond would form and there would be a pull, unlike anything else, drawing the couple together. The male would feel the spark and know he’d met his match. The female would be drawn to him and an unbelievable lust would encompass both until the claiming could be completed.

  The male’s needed to protect, cherish, and honor the female, she would become his sole focus in life. The beast within would unite with the man to achieve that goal. Until that time, the man and bear would roam endlessly looking for his mate, never being satisfied or whole until he found her. It was both a curse and a blessing. The female would be able to calm the animal within the male. Once the bond was fully formed, man and animal would unite for one goal, to make their mate happy. No longer would the aggressive and restless nature of the beast control the human side of the male.

  Unfortunately for Dalton and the Shifters in existence that possibility had been myths and fairy tales until now. They had believed there would be no happy ending for them. Without Shifter females to bond with, their chance at completion was slim to none. That was until Ryleigh and The Holly Group found out about the experiments The Pandora Group had been doing.

  The Pandora Group was a devious group of moneymakers, doctors, and scientists. It was an entity which existed and ran within the grey area of the government. They were humans with one goal in mind, lining their pockets and exploiting Shifters. The group had somehow discovered Shifters and decided to try their hands at playing God by creating Shifters for themselves; females to sell as property or pets and males to form armies. Fuck, they still didn’t have all the information regarding the group and what they were involved in. What they did know was that was all about the money. Dalton wondered how much the group actually knew about Shifters. Did they know there were no female Shifters? Did they somehow manage to learn Shifter history? It all seemed far-fetched, but then again, the proof was in the pudding.

  Dalton had wanted to believe the tale when he was a child. However, when he got older, he’d resigned himself to the fact that he would never be whole. He learned to live with fucking when he had the urge and then leaving. That was how most of the guys dealt with it. One and done that was their motto; never sticking around to form any lasting bond because they knew was impossible. The only member of his team who had experienced anything more until now was Cash. he’d bonded with a girl when they were younger. Dalton knew it was as close to the real thing as a Shifter could get, but they were just kids. How much did kids know? Then Jacks brought Ryleigh into their lives, and Dalton saw firsthand how much she meant to his Alpha.

  Turning and leaning back, resting more fully on the counter, Dalton wanted to laugh thinking about how he’d treated her that first day and the lesson she’d taught in return. Never judge a book by the cover fit Ryleigh to a tee. She was a pint-sized woman and he never suspected she held a powerhouse inside her small body. At his age, he should have known better than to prejudge someone, but he’d been so focused on not letting anything hurt his Alpha and friend that he never saw Ryleigh coming. When Jacks asked him to assess her hand-to-hand skills and strength, Dalton had been determined to prove to Jacks and the team that they needed to stick with the status quo. She was small, standoffish, and a little awkward going through his tests. He never gave the woman a chance. He criticized her warm up, her stance, shit, he even criticized her motives. Then he went at her like a bat out of hell, using his strength and speed against her. It was a dick move and he knew it even while he was doing it, but he didn’t care. He was determined to prove her to be a liability.

  He was an expert, having studied and mastered several forms of martial arts. In his determination to prove she was unfit for the mission, he never noticed that Ryleigh was blocking as well as some of the guys. He also failed to see that he was pissing off the little spitfire. When she finally let him have it, he deserved everything he got. She took him down quickly and paralyzed him, surprising the fuck out of him. No one, including his team, had ever gotten a better jump on him. Shaking his head, he had to admit, Ryleigh was a spitfire.

  At first, he was humiliated, but then he respected her actions. He knew that she waited until Ethan had left the room before she confronted him. She wasn’t trying to put him in his place, Ryleigh simply had enough of his high-handed tactics, and in his own way, he loved her for it.

  What he wasn’t as happy about was Ryleigh had decided he was the little brother which she never had. Being younger than the other guys always had been a bit of a drawback. They respected his skills and his place in the team, but he was often treated as the child of the group. Ryleigh’s constant ‘little brother’ remarks bothered him. He couldn’t help but feel less than when she said it. But if he thought about it, he knew it was her way of showing she’d accepted him as part of her family. She didn’t have a family like he did and she craved the comradery of siblings. He didn’t think he and Ryleigh would ever be as close as she and Cash were, but the respect and affection were there.

  Jacks and Cash were always giving him shit about not thinking things through totally before taking action. It pissed him off sometimes, especially when he knew his actions were justified. But,
like most older brothers, they felt they knew best. Most times Dalton let them think what they wanted, but did what he needed, like he had when they were all kids.

  Witnessing Jacks and Ryleigh together, Dalton wanted to believe the legends, but being the pessimist, he truly was, he didn’t think he would ever find that person to complete him. His job as an enforcer was to protect his team at all costs, even if those costs were to himself. He would do that job until he had no choice but leave and take care of his beast, letting the bear take completely over. Shifters were restless and he constantly felt the pull of his wild side. With no anchor, the men of the clans went rogue, and Dalton knew that was his fate. His team was his family and they always came first. He couldn’t imagine someone else replacing them or being more important than his Team.

  With the beast constantly looking for something he would never find, it was hard for many of them to stay in one place for very long. Dalton and the team were determined to be the exceptions to that rule, and he would hold out for as long as he could or take himself out. He wouldn’t leave that responsibility or burden to anyone on his team. When a Shifter went rogue, they were more beast than man. This caused a problem and teams like his were dispatched to take care of the problem, usually by taking the rogue out permanently. He wouldn’t allow that burden to become someone else’s.

  Grabbing a beer out of the fridge, he made his way to the table and sat down. Twisting off the cap, he stared at the bottle. It wasn’t the answer to what he’d been looking for, but for a moment it would help. He would only allow himself one, but he needed something to take the edge off. This one bottle would do little to nothing for that. With his metabolism, he would need a hundred times the alcohol in the bottle to even get a buzz. But he liked the bitter taste and the slight sting it created in the back of his throat. His thoughts were seriously starting to mess with him.

  He needed to shift and regain some control, but until one of his team members got back, the beer would have to do, even though he knew it wouldn’t be enough. He had to stay alert and ready, just in case. Thoughts of shifting brought up another painful memory; his first shift. Dalton remembered how scared and vulnerable he felt. He couldn’t control what was going on with his body and the beast took over. He didn’t have a good man like Jacks’ dad to teach him what he needed to know about being a Shifter. he’d learned most of it by watching from the shadows. His old man wasn’t the kind of person to lift a finger to help anyone, even his son. He often wondered why the man even kept him around. Peeling the label from the bottle of beer, he remembered that day like it was yesterday.

  The change was brutal and scared the crap out him. Had Cash, now his Second, not wandered across him, Dalton was sure that he would’ve stayed in shifted form for the remainder of his life, becoming one of the rogues who needed to be hunted down and terminated. After he’d changed back, Cash had tried to find out why he didn’t know what to do and why his old man hadn’t been there to help him through the transition, but Dalton had made him promise not to tell.

  Running his fingers through the condensation on the beer bottle, he had to admit that he was surprised that Cash never brought up that day again. Cash, being the kind of man, he was, stuck to him closely after that, helping as much as a kid could help another kid. If Dalton was the muscle of the group, then Cash would be considered the conscience. Although the man could take out men larger and stronger, Cash maintained a softness that none of the other guys seemed to have. The man cared, but Dalton wasn’t stupid enough to say that to the big guy. He might be the muscle, but Cash was a worthy opponent and would kick his ass in a second if he thought he or any of the guys needed it. Smiling, Dalton continued his not so fun journey down memory lane. His beer had gone warm and no longer appealed to him. The ring of water on the table held so much more appeal now. He ran his fingers through the condensation, hoping to distract his weary mind.

  Chapter 2

  They all lived in the same community, or clan as the Elders liked to call it. Shifters tended to stay with their own kind, calling the groups clans. Bears stuck with bears, lions stuck with lions, and so forth. But many communities or clans had their issues too. Dalton believed it was the lack of female influences in their lives. Very few males ever stuck with the same female for any amount of time. Many of his kind had no idea what a motherly influence was like. He sure as hell didn’t. His dad was a hard man who would go on benders for days and forget he had a kid. Sometimes Dalton would come home to no electricity or water. It happened more times than he cared to remember. He learned early to hoard food, so he wasn’t starving during those times. He also learned to keep his mouth shut because if his old man got any grief from the people in their community, Dalton was the one who paid. He learned that lesson early and quickly.

  One time, after noticing Dalton didn’t have the right clothes for winter and was sporting a few more bruises than normal for a kid his age, Jacks’ Dad tried to step in. His old man made a good show of it in front of the man saying he had gotten behind on bills and was planning on getting Dalton some new clothes soon. He played the bruises off by saying how clumsy Dalton was. Jacks’ dad let it drop and left. He trusted Jacks’ dad. His Dad was a high-ranking member of the community and everyone seemed to respect and honor his wishes. As an idealistic kid, he hoped that his dad would change. He was wrong.

  Fisting his hands-on top of the table, Dalton tried to contain the emotions the memory was having on him. Anger and resentment, he could deal with, but the vulnerability he still felt bothered him. Dalton never forgot the lessons he learned that day. He never let the other families see that anything was wrong after that, even if he had to lie, cheat, and steal. He did it to keep up the illusion his dad wanted him to portray, no matter the cost. He got odd jobs cleaning houses or cutting grass and learned to do what he needed to survive without anyone’s help. He also started watching the other boys in his group to make sure they weren’t being treated the same way. he’d always protected them and watched out for them. They were his real family. It was probably why when he was older, his job as enforcer came so naturally to him. He was used to staying in the shadows, watching and waiting until he was needed.

  When the guys came of age and decided to join the service, Dalton was happy for them. He knew they needed to get on with their lives and away from the clan. Jacks was starting to portray more and more Alpha tendencies and it was causing problems within the clan. Like any animal pack, there was a pecking order, and the group of boys now coming of age was disrupting that order. It was time to move on and find their own way, even if that meant leaving Dalton behind.

  He was the youngest, and he knew he would be left behind. It bothered him that he couldn’t look out for them while they were away, but he was aware that some of them needed the change and to get away from their families even more than he did. He would never stand in their way; he encouraged them to go. He even assured them he would follow as soon as he was able. He wanted to serve his country, and he and his friends wanted to make a difference. Staying with the clan wasn’t the way to do that. Some chose that life path, but he wasn’t one of them.

  Jacks and the others offered to wait until they could all join at the same time, but Dalton wouldn’t have it. That started one of the worst years of his life; he was always happy the guys weren’t there to see it unfold. Leaning back in the chair, he ran his fingers through is hair. All of these memories needed to stop. They weren’t helping anyone.

  The phone ringing brought him out of his unhappy jaunt down memory lane. He pulled his phone from his pocket.

  “Yo,” Dalton answered.

  “How is Ryleigh?” his Alpha, Jacks, said without a preamble.

  “Dude, she won’t leave the fucking computer station. I have tried everything I can think of,” Dalton replied.

  “Damn. Listen, we’re wrapping things up and we’re going to hitch a ride back,” Jacks said. “Wyatt is going to stay behind for a couple of days. Cash should be there pretty soon. If you
can, try to get Rye to take a break. If you can’t, tell Cash when he gets there. He seems to be able to get her to listen.”

  “Will do. Now tell me what went down,” Dalton probed.

  Dalton spoke to Jacks for the next half hour, going over the mission and what went down. It didn’t sound good and only made Dalton feel even worse about being left behind. He hated leaving his team unprotected, but he was stuck being a babysitter and doing a pretty shitty job of it to boot. He should’ve felt honored that his Alpha, Jacks, trusted him to take care of and keep his mate safe. He was way out of his depth. Dalton had no idea how to deal with her or any woman on a personal level. Sure, he’d no problems getting them out of their panties, but this was Ryleigh, his Alpha’s mate. He didn’t have the skills needed to make her listen. She generally blew off his concerns and continued with what she was doing. He thought about yelling at her and forcing her to take a break, but knew he would never take that approach with her. Truth be known, he didn’t want to make her cry.

  Deciding he would try to entice her away from the computer with a good meal, he started to pull stuff from the refrigerator to make a salad to go with the lasagna he’d placed in the oven while talking with Jacks. After that salad was done, he set the table, thinking he had a good plan going. What woman could resist a home cooked meal with good company? He was the Enforcer for the Alpha Team. No way was one little woman going to take him down. He had a job to do, and he was going to do it. Ryleigh needed to take a break, and he needed was to get her away from her computer and reports.