She was his greatest treasure, pure at heart and strong. He could still see her face when she came to him several weeks ago, distrusting and confused. He had promised to never hurt her, and although he kept his promise to the best of his ability, he had still withheld crucial information, not entirely lying, yet not explaining everything. At least that was how he justified it to himself.
Her distrust hurt the most, he never wanted to see that look on her face again. Declan hadn’t wanted to keep such important things from her but for the greater good he’d had to make a choice and that choice was to keep his daughter in the dark. Whether he liked it or not, there was more at stake than just his discomfort over his daughter’s feelings. An entire race depended upon keeping secrets. He never once thought his two worlds would collide the way they had such a short time ago.
Help her forget the atrocities of the past and move on, that had been his first goal, and until today, he had thought he had done that. He wanted her to continue believing his motives for helping her as a child were altruistic and loving. However, in reality they weren’t. He was tasked with getting the child and keeping her creation under wraps. That didn’t change his feelings for her, but in the beginning, she was simply a job. The shame would haunt him until his dying days.
All his hard work was for naught. In reality, her memories surfaced and she started to put the puzzle pieces together with the help of her team. It only took one little piece of information to undo years of work. Never before had Declan wished he hadn’t encouraged her to follow in his footsteps. If she had stayed with one of the many career fields that she had chosen over the years, then neither of them would be in the position that they were in today. But that wasn’t the case. He had to make some very hard decisions, revealing parts of himself and her past, while keeping his real motives of the past safely hidden away. He hoped his choices never backfired on him again.
Finding Ryleigh 15 years ago, changed him and what he wanted out of life. Before that day, he was sure that he would spend the rest of his days serving his country until his last breath, following orders and working toward someone else’s greater good. Ryleigh gave him back his humanity, not to mention humility. That was something his military career had basically drained from his soul. Declan laughed to himself. Raising a child had a way of humbling a person. Ryleigh didn’t care who he was to the outside world or even who his teams knew him as. To her he was just a dad and at times he cherished that, but others times he hated it.
He was still manipulating her and that wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. He didn’t have a choice because some things needed to be hidden. He wanted to be a good parent to her, not someone to be feared or even someone to obey and follow like he was to the men that worked for him. His team might call him Senior, but Ryleigh called him Dad. That one word was enough to squeeze his battered heart. His work life or early career rarely interfered with his and Ryleigh’s relationship. However, they were now going to collide like two freight trains during the night. The explosion would either bring them together or tear them apart. He hoped for the former and feared the latter.
Declan’s goal since finding Ryleigh all those years ago, was to maintain her safety and keep the ugliness of his world and everything else away from her. She had suffered greatly and he didn’t want her to endure a second of pain again, but he’d failed on both accounts. His girl was tenacious and dove right in where she needed to stay away. She now knew things weren’t as they seemed, and the nightmares that he had hoped were gone from her childhood were rearing their ugly heads once again. This time he couldn’t keep them away like he had done when she was a child. She was a grown woman, and although he was very proud, he had moments that he wished that she was one of those flighty entitled brats who his teams were consistently getting called in to save from their own stupidity. But that wasn’t his girl, not even close. She was smart, observant, vigilant, and had proved herself within his circles of the of the Security, Search, and Rescue community. Her own team had already made a name for themselves in a very short time and were quickly rivaling NAC for cases. All that didn’t matter now because everything was going to change. His daughter’s life would never be the same after this meeting.
He could still imagine Ryleigh the day he found her. She was looking up at him from a tiny cage, battered but not broken. Bright green eyes that seemed to have a knowledge and maturity well above her age, full of hope, but also apprehension. Her body was skinny, malnourished, and mistreated. The assholes had left her with tattered clothes and no shoes. In the 10x10 cage, she had a bed intended for dogs and a single bowl filled with water. There weren’t even the core amenities provided for her. His heart went out of her, but she never asked for a thing. Not help, not to get her out of her confinement, no, not Ryleigh. She just watched and waited for what was to come, expecting the worst, but hoping for the best. She was chewing her little thumbnail like it would solve all her problems. That was his girl, and he only hoped her perseverance lasted through what was to come, now. Everything that she had learned threatened her life and future, and Declan didn’t like it.
To him, Ryleigh represented innocence and strength, but maybe that was just a parent’s dream. Ryleigh had gone through and witnessed things in her life that would make even the most seasoned cringe. As the years went by, and he watched her grow, his admiration only grew. His goal in life was to protect, cherish, and love Ryleigh, the child who was once a job, but now a part of his heart. What he was doing now went against all that. He knew his teams would never hurt her physically, but he couldn’t guarantee she would come out of this emotionally unscathed, and that rankled him to his core. All of them were about to be tested.
After retiring from military service, Declan formed NAC (Not Another Child). His agency’s mission was to rescue children in peril and to do it significantly faster without the hindrance and bureaucracy constraints of the standard law enforcement system. His team’s mantra was “no stone left unturned.” They investigated every rumor, innuendo, or feeling, anything required to save a woman or child from one more minute of pain and suffering. He would never understand why evil people would want to destroy, consume, and harm such innocents. He wasn’t a naïve man, he had spent his life exposed to some of the most heinous acts human beings could perpetrate. It had hardened him to some degree, but it also helped him keep his focus and drove him to make the world a better place. He strove to do this not only for his daughter, but also for others who were lost but not forgotten, at least not forgotten to him and his teams.
Shaking his head, he watched his daughter gather her strength. She had stopped chewing her thumbnail and was now holding herself close. He wanted to go to Ryleigh, wrap his arms around her, and assure her that everything would be okay, but he couldn’t. She needed to do this on her own, and he needed to let her. He would always have her back; he really hoped she knew that.
He hated what was about to go down, but he also knew that he didn’t have any other choice. The cat was already out of the bag, so to speak. There was no sense in trying to shove the thing back in. His daughter would always come first for him, but his team and clansman were equally important. The guys needed the information Ryleigh had; it changed all of their lives significantly. Conversely, his need to protect his daughter was riding him hard.
His sweet girl was about to shake up the lives of very powerful and potentially harmful people by blowing their perceived secrecy and security right out the door and in some way, divulging his betrayal not only to Ryleigh, but to his people. He didn’t care about that; if any of them had a problem, they could take it up with him. The next couple of hours would be hard. Ryleigh would have to expose some of her deepest and darkest secrets to a room full of predators, and he would have to watch. Only to let them have the final blow; she and a handful of others could be the answer to what they have all been hoping and looking to find for well over a century.
He remembered the day she came to him, eyes red-rimmed and swollen from crying.
His first instinct was to go to her, but she wasn’t acting like the child of his heart. She was mad, standoffish, and hurt, not making eye contact with him, and guarding her tiny body with her arms clenched around her waist. Declan didn’t like the combination at all.
“Dad,” Ryleigh croaked, “we need to talk.”
Declan’s first inclination was to kill anything that caused her harm or discomfort. He abruptly stood from his desk, pushing his chair into the wall, ready for anything.
she had a folder in her hand, and as she held it out to him, her next words gutted him, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Confused, Declan didn’t know what was going on. There were so many things he had kept from his daughter; missions, contacts, how he came to find her, and even his race. Deciding to tread carefully, he asked cautiously, “What do you mean honey?” She looked so forlorn and alone at that moment. Declan wanted to cry with her, tell her whatever it was they would work through it, and it would be okay, but he held his tongue. Whatever was in that folder was about to change both of their lives, and he was pretty sure it wasn’t for the better.
Ryleigh was so mad and hurt. This was her Dad, the man she valued above all others, and he was keeping things from her, important things. They weren’t mission secrets, which she understood the need for confidentiality or even mundane secrets like what he was planning on getting her for Christmas, but life changing secrets. Secrets that could change them both irrevocably.
He looked like the same man who rocked her to back to sleep when she had a nightmare or cheered in the crowd when she achieved every one of her degrees. Declan “Senior” Quinn was a handsome man. He was tall and maintained his physique even at his age. He was fort-eight, but could pass for a man in his early thirties. The only indication of age was a little graying on the temples of his blonde hair and the tiny crow’s feet next to his unusual eyes. With his experience and career, some would except a weathered and aged man, but he wasn’t either of those things. She often wondered why he never dated or maybe even had a woman on the side, but to Ryleigh’s knowledge he didn’t and that always puzzled her. He was a catch by anyone’s standards. She had always wanted him to be happy, but never questioned him. Maybe now she knew why.
Chapter 2
Ryleigh wanted to puke. She tried to remember his actions, not what was to come. This was the man that had decided that because of her first eleven years, she didn’t have enough of a childhood and forced her to play with dolls and have tea parties. The big badass Navy Seal would come into her room with a tea set and a feather boa, talking with an English accent, trying to get her to play. She didn’t know how to play, it was something she hadn’t ever done before. He was an amazing father, and most importantly, she trusted him wholeheartedly. She had almost from the start. When he’d said he would get her out of the hellhole, she had called a home and promised nothing would ever harm her again, she believed him.
As she grew up, she wanted to be just like him, but now she was questioning that. Had he known what she was from the start and was that why he took her in? So many questions and so few answers. Was her life a lie? Did he want something from her like everyone else? Ryleigh couldn’t wrap her head around any of it.
Ryleigh wasn’t able to get anything past the lump in her throat, so she handed her Dad the folder. She watched as the furrow between his eyebrows got deeper and deeper. She also watched as his complexion went from red to almost purple with rage and knew that he was aware of what The Holly group had found. Those things she could ignore as human nature, but what she couldn’t ignore was that his eyes were now glowing an iridescent green, and his pupil seemed to elongate, totally not a human reaction. He was something other, and she had been genetically engineered to be that as well. She could understand him keeping his “enhancements” to himself, but did he know about her? If he did, that hurt.
“Where did you get this information, Ryleigh?” Her loving father was long gone, he was all business now. The tough as nails CO and President of NAC was definitely standing behind the desk at the moment. She wanted to throw a fit like a pubescent teen, but decided to take her cues from him. She would treat this conversation like any other professional meeting. Declan “Senior” Quinn wasn’t the person she thought he was. She needed him to be the loving and doting father he had always been, not something else. Not someone who would betray her and definitely not someone who would keep life-changing information from her. She would get her answers, she wasn’t leaving until he answered every single one.
Deciding to break the silence, she cleared her throat which felt like she had swallowed the Sahara Desert. “The case my group was on last month yielded a variety of information,” she said looking into his eerie eyes. “Including the fact that there is a doctor out there who is creating children and using animal DNA to enhance them. It also showed that this has been going on for a very long time, thirty years or so.” Ryleigh desperately wanted him to show some kind of shock, but her father’s face was expressionless. She could only assume he had known this information all along. If he hadn’t, would be as surprised and shocked as she was when she read the initial intel?
Turning, unable to look at him anymore, she continued, “The intel brought back memories, things that were said to me as a child I had forgotten or chose to not to remember, I’m not sure.” She heard him grunt, but never moving from his station behind the desk. “When my team and I discussed the evidence, others were reminded of similar things. So, we decided to look further.”
Turning to look out the window because it seemed like the safest place at the moment, she continued, “We tested our blood and ran several tests with no results until we decided to check our DNA. Each of us has more than the standard 46. We narrowed down the results and found that we all carry animal DNA, some identified some not.” Turning she pointed and looked at her dad, “Can you explain that, father?” The father thing kind of slipped out, but what else was she supposed to do? She was mad and wanted to put him in his place somehow. She had never called him father. It was what the person who contributed his semen to create her insisted that she call him, she hated the word. Declan knew that.
He had lied to her, well, not really, he had kept something paramount from her. Something that explained so much. Ryleigh waited, but there was only silence. But, oh, his eyes were conveying a lot. He was furious.
“I’ve always known there was something different about you,” Ryleigh charged. “You never date, and even beyond missions, you used to disappear from the house without taking your car or letting me know you were going anywhere. I would look for you, but I could never find you, and then you would show up and act like nothing was out of the ordinary. I spent years looking through the house for a secret room or something to explain where you had gone, not once finding anything. I never put much thought into it, blamed it on your Seal training. Then there are the other things, your eyes glow when you’re upset, and you seem to get bigger. Your skin gets a sheen to it I have never been able to explain before, and you’ve never once in seventeen years even had so much as a cold.”
“Listen honey...” Declan said, trying to placate her.
“No, let me finish,” she said placing her hand up to stop him from continuing. “Do you remember that time when I was about fourteen? You got me those roller blades and insisted I try them out. You said it was good exercise, you had heard all the kids were doing it. That my life should include some fun not just studying. I didn’t want to, but you convinced me, and I lost control and headed down the driveway super-fast. The incline was so steep I couldn’t stop, but you somehow managed to catch up to me before I hit the main road and the oncoming traffic. You had been standing on the porch a good 50 feet from where I was watering the plants. No way should you have been able to catch up to me and that car you said swerved out of the way. Why weren’t there any skid marks from behind?” Ryleigh demanded.
“You told me that you fell into the car when it stopped, but the door was crushed along with th
e window. I saw the skid marks from the tires moving away from you like it skidded from your push. There was really no another explanation for it. The driver admitted that he never hit the brakes when he got out of the car. You refused to call the police and gave him money to fix the damage when the accident was clearly his fault. With this new information, I started to see patterns that I blew off before. So, I had your DNA run as well.”
“What the Hell Ryleigh!” Declan yelled, crouching over his desk, planting his hands, and staring right her. He needed her to realize how bad this was and how serious he was. She needed to start talking, but he needed something to ground him. For the moment, his desk would have to do; he ignored the loud cracking noise. He would never strike out at his daughter, but he was infuriated. This was even worse than Declan had expected. If word got out about what he was or what his people were, the damage would be horrific. His people lived by rules of secrecy which would put the government to shame. He was a Shifter, a man who could turn into an animal at will. He and his clansmen had lived thousands of years right alongside humans without detection, and now it looked like his daughter might be the reason behind the downfall to his entire race. He had been so cocky to not realize that Ryleigh had picked up on some of his Shifter traits. Never once did he detect her discomfort or even her curiosity. She never mentioned a thing.
Declan didn’t like the position that this new information put him in. He knew that his shifter DNA couldn’t be traced, his lineage and bloodlines were long extinct. Humans had no Dragon DNA to compare to his, but that didn’t mean the others were out of the woods. Apex predators were common, and although they were different from the traditional animal varieties, there would be similarities. Someone with Ryleigh’s brain or the others on her team could easily discern those similarities, and if that information ever got out, Fuck! He wanted to scream at her to forget about this, to never mention it again, but he also needed to know it all. What all did The Holly Group know? How could he protect his people while also keeping his daughter safe? Were all the members of The Holly Group like NAC, could all her people be trusted? Fuck, the list went on and on.
Tuck Page 17