by Marie Harte
Circe’s Recruits 2.0:
ALEX
by Marie Harte
Circe’s Recruits 2.0: Alex
Neither human nor animal, but something in between. And these Circs are hungry…
Alex never asked to be made into a monster. He tried to help his sister right a wrong, and in the process he lost her and his humanity. Angry, hurt, and doing his best to adapt to his new “pack” family, he accepts that life will never be the same. He’s even found patches of happiness in a new sense of belonging. But until he gets vengeance for Katie’s death, he can’t find peace.
Saving a group of kidnapped psychics with ties to his sister is a step in the right direction. Even better, one particular beauty promises to lead him to the enemy he’s been seeking. But will the price of his revenge come at the cost of the woman, and the family, he’s come to love?
Warning: This book contains sexual content readers may find fascinating: group play, m/m/m, m/f, m+/f and more. Expect government conspiracies, underground fighters, genetic experiments, and Shifters unlike the kind you think you know. This book is not for the faint of heart. Enjoy!
CIRCE’S RECRUITS 2.0
GIDEON
ALEX
ELIJAH
CARTER
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and plot points stem from the writer’s imagination. They are fictitious and not to be interpreted as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locations or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Circe’s Recruits 2.0: Alex
Copyright © August 2017
No Box Books
Cover by Addendum Designs
All Rights Are Reserved. None of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without express written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations used for reviews or promotion.
http://marieharte.com
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
About the Author
Other Paranormal Romance Releases
Circe’s Recruits 2.0: ELIJAH
Circe’s Recruits: ROANE
Chapter One
Myitkyina, Kachin State, Myanmar
Late November
ALEX PALMER KEPT his face expressionless as he watched his client conduct business. He stood to the right of the slighter man, who was seated in a ratty, upholstered chair. Joo Kim wore a cheap black suit over a white collared shirt. Sweat beaded his forehead, the air conditioning nonexistent in the cheap hotel room.
Paper-thin walls allowed the chaos from the bustling Burmese district to bleed through. Shouts, horns, and street noise competed with the loud haggling from the prostitute and her companion next door, the racket a mash of Burmese and English Alex partially understood but ignored, focused on keeping his client alive.
Joo Kim finished his deal, a fair trade of guns for drugs. The opium peddler, an older American man, had connections to a little known rebel faction in a small ward outside the city. The seedy hotel was the perfect place for drug deals to go down with little fanfare. Small time dealers and buyers met often at the White Orchid.
But from their spot-on intel—nice job, Carter—Alex knew the hotel had recently begun attracting some important people with topnotch security. The American government also had an investment in the situation, since they kept an eye on the volatile region. Hence Alex’s client, Joo Kim, posing as a rogue CIA drug buyer.
Normally, the muscle of their private security firm would handle a case like this. Alex was a front man, the softer, more personable aspect of the business. The one who did the meet and greet with potential clients, putting them at ease while also showing them how impressive Gideon Enterprises was using an impressive show of fang and claw.
But he’d needed to be in on this one all the way because the buyer’s contact had insider information he wanted.
Information he needed.
The emptiness inside him, the loss that continued to plague him, echoed. Loneliness, his constant companion despite being surrounded by others, festered, and it drew on the rage he kept bottled up all the time. He couldn’t think about Katie without miring himself in a guilty fury.
Pain pricked at his fingertips as claws threatened to slide free. But he took hold of his anger and kept the rampant monster inside him from showing itself, used to pretending to be normal.
Hell, he’d been born with skills ordinary people considered unreal. But after being experimented on by some really bad people, Alex had become something else. Something not quite human.
“So we’re good, Mr. Lowell?” Joo Kim asked the seller and stood.
Lowell nodded but kept looking at Alex. “We’re good.”
Money had changed hands electronically, and Lowell snapped his laptop shut. On either side of him, the no-necks he’d brought as security glanced at each other. Nothing obvious. Yet Alex caught their subtle signal with an intuition he’d come to trust.
He took a step forward and positioned himself firmly in front of Joo Kim. In a low voice, he warned, “Get out, now.” Aware Lowell had yet to look away from him, Alex knew something felt very wrong here.
Or very right, if he interpreted the seller’s interest correctly.
Alex didn’t wait. He made short work of Lowell’s guards, trying to be nice, then slicing claws through one of them to prevent an injection of some kind. He disarmed the other by breaking his wrist, then knocking him out cold. While the one he’d gutted lay bleeding on the floor, Joo Kim fled the room. Alex kept his gaze on Lowell, who had yet to look away.
The older man smiled. “I thought so.” Lowell had dark hair fringed with white, his eyes a murky shade of green. When he withdrew a familiar pistol Alex instinctively knew not to trust, Alex realized Lowell must have known who—what—he was the whole time.
He dodged the small dart that would have penetrated tough skin normal bullets couldn’t harm. Then he yanked the gun away and grabbed Lowell by the neck. He pulled the bastard up off his feet and jammed him against the wall so hard the guy’s head cracked against the stained plaster.
“Where are they?” Alex rasped, constantly seeing his younger sister in his mind’s eye. Except she was dead, and other women, innocent victims, needed his help. He hadn’t been there to save Katie. But he wouldn’t make that mistake again. “The subjects from the Level 4 program. Where are they?”
Lowell’s face turned red. Alex didn’t care. This man had information, according to their intelligence. A member of Dr. Edwin Lang’s inner circle. If anyone would know about the many victims Lang had fucked with, it would be Lowell. The weak shit.
Alex glanced at the incapacitated thugs and almost wished one of them would have done more to challenge him. Since becoming a monstrous Circ—a creature more beast than man—he sought more from his opponents. To date, only his team could give him what he needed. And lately that wasn’t enough either.
He squeezed harder, staring into watering green eyes and seeing death coming all too quickly.
“Ease up, Alex,” sounded in his earpiece, his leader’s command clear, his voice deep. When Alex
didn’t respond, Gideon growled, “You kill him, we don’t find out where the Level 4 group is.”
He hadn’t planned on killing the guy… At least, Alex, the man, hadn’t. Alex’s beast grudgingly acknowledged their alpha and dropped the enemy, who collapsed like a rag doll, wheezing for breath. “Fine. He’s dropped.” Then to Lowell, he said, “Seriously? This is the best you guys could do? You and those two assholes?” Alex nodded to the men on the floor, one unconscious, the other cradling his intestines, as if trying to shove them back into his stomach. “If you knew you were meeting a Circ, and by your tranqs, I’d say that was a sure thing, why come so unprepared?”
Lowell didn’t look at him.
No. This was too easy. Alex suspected a trap. He should have known right away that something was off. When he’d brushed against the doorknob, the furniture, and even the thugs’ clothing, he hadn’t felt anything. No psychic impressions he normally sensed when open to receive.
But even the most prepared forgot to wipe everything clean of psychic prints. He brushed Lowell’s belt buckle and received a slew of images and a rush of voices as Lowell prepared for the meeting and ordered his men not to fight back. To keep Alex occupied while reinforcements arrived.
Alex’s psychometric ability to get impressions off an object through touch had become stronger since becoming Circ. Like his team, he wasn’t just a beast. He had abilities the Circ serum had enhanced.
His genetics had been modified, allowing him to grow stronger, to hear, see, and smell much more keenly than an average human. His skin could harden into a kind of epidural armor, and he now had an animalistic sentience he lived with on a daily basis. Not to mention a host of other levels of weirdness that applied to his interactions with fellow Circs.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, not wanting to deal with more crap. Not when all he wanted was an answer to a simple question.
With a measured step back, Alex quietly informed Gideon trouble was on the way.
He ignored Gideon’s order to leave and knelt once more by Lowell’s side. “Tell me where you took them.”
“Wh-who?” Lowell coughed and grabbed his throat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Gideon continued to inform him of the enemy drawing close. Six armed coming up the stairs. ETA two minutes. My ETA is five minutes. And I’m gong to seriously kick your ass when I find you.
Alex ignored him. “If you don’t tell me, I’ll break off your dick. Then I’ll feed you to the mutant outside.” He closed his eyes and pretended to sense one of them. “He’s close, and he’s a friend. Did I mention he’s hungry?”
Lowell’s heart rate increased. The scent of fear sweated through his pores.
Alex could appreciate his terror. Circs were beasts but rational. Well, mostly. Mutants were Circs gone bad. Men turned into monsters with crooked spines, spiked genitalia, tar-black skin, and a hunger for blood and sex that was never appeased. Known cannibals, furious at the world, and prone to excess if not stopped.
Lowell knew as well as Alex did that a human stood no chance against a mutant. Alex himself had trouble, and he was Circ.
“You’re lying.” Lowell’s eyes had grown huge.
“Am I?” Alex smiled, allowing his fangs to descend. A horrible howling pierced the room, and it seemed as if everything around them ceased to be.
Lowell shuddered. Had Alex not recognized Eli’s voice behind the howl, he might have believed he’d spoken the truth.
Instead, he waited, patient.
Another howl, sounding closer this time.
Lowell looked frantically at his backup still lying on the floor then blurted, “Lang’s got the Level 4s sequestered at a facility. The ones still alive, that is.”
Alex could only imagine. “How many are left?”
“Of the original thirteen, six. All female. The men didn’t respond favorably to treatment.”
“Treatment?”
Lowell shrugged and winced, rubbing his throat. “I don’t know. Above my pay grade. I was sent here to grab a Circ and bring him back. Lang’s running out of test subjects.”
“I’ll bet.” The poor bastards who didn’t die right away likely turned mutant or rogue. Rogue Circs could be just as bad. The could fully function, blend in with the human populace, but they had nothing but death and destruction on their agenda. “Give me the location of the facility.”
Eli howled again. Lowell talked faster, and Alex fought not to grin. Despite his annoyance with life in general, he couldn’t help feeling amused that his buddy could so well impersonate a freakish cannibal. He’d have to make sure to let Eli know Lowell had nearly pissed himself in fear.
Lowell rattled off a set of coordinates Alex shared with Gideon. No doubt Carter was even now working to gather intel on the site.
“Anything else you have worth knowing?” Alex asked.
Lowell gave him a smug look. “Plenty. But nothing I’ll tell your freak ass. Because my men will gut you like a—”
Alex cut Lowell’s throat without a qualm, and the man strangled on the rest of his answer. Anyone who worked for Lang deserved to die.
At that moment, Lowell’s backup broke through the door.
Alex smiled. “Finally. I’ve been waiting.”
******
Gideon had to push through the crowd of frightened men and women rushing past him in a panic. The sound of gunfire and inhuman growling made it worse.
Fucking Palmer.
Not that he hadn’t known what might happen. It was his own fault for letting Alex take the lead. Hell, the whole team knew he was a bomb waiting to go off. In the three months since they’d come together to form a pack, Alex had gone from a genial, compassionate member to a combative aggressor more concerned with bringing the pain than ending conflict peacefully.
The weeks going by with no news of Katie’s killers put Alex in a foul mood. Even Bailey had a difficult time pulling him out of it. Gideon’s mate, and the pack’s resident empath, Bailey helped keep them stable, easing their rages when blood and sex could not. She sure the hell kept him steady, he thought with grim amusement.
But lately Alex wanted nothing to do with her. Though the entire pack—team, damn it, it’s a team, we’re not animals—shared intimacies daily, Alex had been pulling away. Gideon didn’t like it.
And now this. Flaunting Gideon’s authority? Hell no. Alex was growing out of control. Time to reassert dominance.
He entered Alex’s room to find a bloodbath. Eli arrived at the same time and gaped.
“Day-um, Palmer. Started the party early, eh?” Eli grinned, the savage never as happy as when he stood surrounded by carnage and chaos.
Gideon sighed.
Eli’s grin widened.
Alex stared at Gideon, his gaze unwavering. Challenging.
Eli swore. “Uh-oh. Look, guys, we should probably settle this somewhere else. I hear sirens.”
From several miles away. Gideon heard them too. “Great advice, Eli. I’m so glad we brought you along. Never would have figured that out myself.”
Eli, wisely, said nothing. The cocky bastard liked to needle Gideon’s authority while not actually meaning anything by it. But this new Alex… He was hurting, and he lashed out. What he needed was discipline. But Bailey kept insisting they go easy on the guy.
Gideon grunted. Fat lot she knew about the male mind. “Let’s go. Hurry up and lose the blood. Eli, meet us back at the rendezvous point.”
Eli nodded, grabbed the laptop, and left.
Gideon waited for Alex to do as he’d been told. And Alex did, but slowly.
Gritting his teeth and doing his best not to lose his shit before they left the hotel, Gideon followed Alex out a side door. They lost themselves in the crowd that had gathered outside the White Orchid, then hurried through several narrow alleys toward the motorbikes Bailey had stashed for them.
When Alex made to get on a bike, Gideon stopped him. “No. Come with me.”
Alex glared but said n
othing, and they walked in silence to a room in the back of an abandoned building. Having scouted the place out earlier for a possibly safe house, Gideon knew the owners wouldn’t be back until the following week.
He easily manipulated the lock and let them in to a small, empty building being converted into a restaurant. Gideon nodded for Alex to follow him, and they walked into the back, where Gideon flicked on a dim bulb once inside a storage closet no bigger than six by six feet.
Alex frowned as he looked around.
Gideon moved so that he stood with his back to the door. The small room would feel more like a cage to Alex in his current state. Which was what Gideon wanted. A limited space to engage, to keep Alex close, unable to escape.
Not until they settled this.
“What the fuck is your problem?” Gideon growled.
When Alex snarled, flexed handfuls of claws, and let his fangs show, Gideon didn’t hesitate. He shocked Alex with a mental blast designed to incapacitate, not kill. And not harm, overly. He needed to settle Alex the easiest and quickest way possible, because apparently Alex had been skipping out on their nightly training sessions. The bottled up aggression in a Circ needed an outlet, and Alex had been denying his.
Why?
“What the fuck, man? Why have you been avoiding the pack?”
Alex groaned and clutched his temples. “I hate when you do that.” Gideon waited for his answer, surprised when it came. “It’s Bailey.”
“Bailey?” Gideon hadn’t been expecting that. “But you’re bi. I get Carter not wanting to sex her up so much. But I though you liked it.”
“No, dumbass.”
Gideon scowled. Oh yeah, Alex definitely needed to be taken in hand.
“It’s not about sex. It’s about her constant screwing with my feelings,” Alex bit out. “I don’t want to feel better. Okay? I just want… I need… I don’t know what the fuck I need.”