Reid

“Trying to be civil? I’m here because you had one of your goons put a gun to my back and threatened my grandmother. What’s civil about that?”

Rage coursed through me at the words, but it was coupled with profound relief when I heard Alyx’s voice. It was strong and clear, and she sounded pissed. That was good. It meant she was strong enough to keep fighting. I offered up a mental fist pump. My mate had spirit.

“You gave me no choice. Just as you leave me none now.”

Terror gripped my gut when I saw Chamberlain pull a gun out of the side table and point it at the guy standing off to his left. The gun discharged, dropping the target like a rock. I lunged for the connecting door, but in a smooth move too fast for a guy his size, Bear blocked my path.

“Get the fuck out of my way.” I didn’t want to take out my own teammate, but I would.

“Think,” Cap growled behind me. “Chamberlain’s forcing her hand, but he’s not going to hurt her. She’s too valuable to him.”

I hated to admit it, but he was right. Busting in half-cocked might make Chamberlain or the guard panic. Alyx could get hurt in the crossfire before I could get to her.

“Hawk, you’ve got Chamberlain. On my mark, shoot to disable only,” Cap barked out, far calmer and more collected than me. “Dex, let’s open some doors. Bear, take out the guard.”

Everyone nodded.

Cap’s gaze met mine. “Reap, take care of your mate.”

That was a given.

It took less than ten seconds for everyone to get into place, but it was the longest ten seconds of my life. When I entered the room through the connecting door, I was only vaguely aware of what was going on around me. The quiet snicks of Dex disabling the locks. The nearly inaudible hum of Hawk’s bullet as it penetrated the glass and embedded in Chamberlain’s wrist. The soft thud as the handgun hit the carpet.

My attention was focused on my mate, covered in blood and falling to the floor.

Heart thundering in my ears, I half-shifted and launched myself across the room, wrapping myself around Alyx protectively, being careful not to score her delicate skin with my claws. I rolled us behind the couch, sheltering her body with my own.

“Alyx? Alyx, look at me, sweetheart. Are you hurt? Tell me where it hurts, baby.” My voice came out like a growl as I struggled to keep my wolf in check. I pawed at her, looking for injuries, even though my nose told me the blood wasn’t hers.

Her eyes flickered open briefly and looked at me. I swear to God, no one had ever looked at me like that before. “I knew you’d come,” she said softly. Then she closed her eyes and went limp.

* * *

Alyx

“Tell us what happened.”

I looked at the speaker. The blond buzz cut and no-nonsense attitude screamed military, but I could tell he had softened his bark for my benefit.

I had woken up an hour earlier tucked in a cocoon of warm blankets, wearing clean sweats and a man’s shirt. The shirt and the blankets smelled like Reid, so I knew he had been with me until recently. I didn’t know how, but he had found me and saved me.

Blond Buzz had introduced himself as “Cap,” which I assumed was short for “Captain.” Another guy sat off to his right, watching me from beneath half-lidded, hypnotic, light gray eyes. I had the distinct feeling he was reading me. My brother Ari was like that. Ari could take one look at someone and know what they were feeling and thinking. Thanks to Ari, I knew how to be a blank page.

“Where’s Reid?” I stubbornly asked again.

Blond Buzz’s eyes snapped in impatience, while Gray Eyes’ mouth twitched in a hint of a smirk.

My repeated inquiry was met with the same answer it had been every other time I had asked. “He had some things to take care of.”

“Is one of those things Roger Chamberlain?”

Cap’s expression gave nothing away, yet I was certain I was right.

Part of me shivered at the thought of exactly how Reid might be taking care of Roger, but another part quietly cheered. My former boss was a dangerous megalomaniac who had to be stopped.

“Tell us about your relationship with Chamberlain.”

I cupped my hands around the mug of tea they had brought me. The warmth felt good seeping into my hands.

I trusted Reid, and Reid clearly trusted these guys, but I didn’t like where this conversation was going.

“When will Reid be back?”

This time, there was no mistaking Cap’s irritation. “When he’s finished.”

“I like her,” Gray Eyes said, smiling. “She’s not intimidated by you.”

I stared into his hypnotic eyes and felt myself relaxing. Yep, this guy was definitely like Ari.

“Should I be?” I asked.

“No, you have nothing to worry about with us, Alyx. It’s Chamberlain we want.”

I believed him. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that this went way beyond my situation.

“Not that I’m not grateful for the save—because I am—but of what interest is Roger Chamberlain to you?”

Gray Eyes looked at Cap, who jerked his head once in what I guessed was permission. Then he turned those eyes back on me. “Let’s just say you are not the first exceptional person Chamberlain has set his sights on.”

My stomach did a slow flip and twist as the truth dawned. “There were—are—others?”

Gray Eyes nodded slowly. “Chamberlain is a master manipulator. He targets those with special abilities. He believes if he can clone their genetic makeup, he’ll be unstoppable. He’s not wrong.”

I thought about that, about the different ways Roger had tried to get to me. First, through my pride, by praising my work and intelligence. Then he had shifted gears and tried to woo me. When that hadn’t worked, he had resorted to force and threats. Wanting to use me to make money was bad enough, but Gray Eyes’ suggestion that Chamberlain would have taken it even further was chilling.

“And ... what happened to them, to the others he targeted?”

Gray Eyes didn’t blink. “They weren’t as fortunate as you.”

Nausea rolled through me. I didn’t doubt he was telling the truth.

“I think it’s time you told us everything, Alyx,” Cap said.

So, I did.

* * *

Reid

“So, you’re just going to walk away?” Bear grunted when I gathered up my gear and prepared to head out.

Chamberlain was in our hands, lying in the bed he had made for himself. I’d had some time with him, enough to express my displeasure with the poor choices he had made, before Bear had pulled me off him. I thought I had gotten my point across. If he ever forgot, the scars I had given him would be a handy reminder.

Alyx was safe, sleeping in my bunk. Chamberlain wouldn’t be bothering her anymore.

There was no reason for me to stick around.

I ignored Bear, just as I had been ignoring everyone who felt compelled to tell me what a stupid fucker I was. They didn’t understand.

I was a warrior. A soldier. A predator and a protector. It was in my blood, an integral part of my genetic makeup. I couldn’t change that, no matter how much I might want to.

Not even for Alyx.

The thing was, I didn’t think she would want me to, either. She understood. She got it. She would never ask me to give up what I did because she knew it would be pointless. Just as I could never ask her to give up healing people.

If I was wired differently, I would bind her to me so fucking tight. Become her world. Own her heart and soul and body, just as she already owned mine. If anything happened to her, I would be completely and totally wrecked. I would lose my fucking mind.

Therein lay my biggest problem. If we completed the mating, if Alyx accepted me as her mate and marked me as I had marked her, she would be in the same boat. Once mated, she would be irrevocably tied to me. If anything happened to me, she would be just as broken, just as devastated. I couldn’t do that to her, not when my job put me in high-risk situations every day.

No one knew how their life would end, but I was pretty sure mine didn’t include the long life span usually associated with shifters, or passing away peacefully in my sleep.

Alyx deserved better than the worry, angst, and inevitable heartbreak she would receive from binding herself to me.

I hefted my bag over my shoulder, knowing what I had to do. I had a few weeks left on my leave to get my shit together. It was ironic, really. That was why I had gone to Nowhere in the first place.

I was almost to the door when I caught her scent. My feet slowed until I stopped completely. Closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply. Greedily, I filled my lungs, absorbing her into me the only way I could allow. Then, I kept going.

* * *

Alyx

I felt drained after telling Cap and Psych, as he had introduced himself, my story, but I felt better, too. Lighter. Stronger. Until then, I had only shared bits and pieces, the bare minimum.

It was difficult at first. I was not a sharer by nature, but there was something about these guys that made it easier. Maybe because they, like me, were more than human. Psych’s gift was easy enough to figure out because of my brother’s similar abilities, but I wasn’t sure what Cap’s, or any of the other’s, were.

Except for Reid, of course. I now knew what he was. I had seen him shift back at the hotel. It had happened so quickly—from man to wolf, back to man—that I had thought I was hallucinating. But the more I thought about, the more certain I was that what I had seen had been real.

My alpha male really was an alpha male. Surprisingly enough, I was totally okay with that.

By the end of the day, I was all talked out. I was tired and sore, and my stomach was in knots after hearing some of the awful things Roger Chamberlain was involved in. All I wanted to do was go home, crawl into bed, and put this nightmare behind me.

“Ready, Bones?”

I smiled tiredly at Dexter’s new nickname for me. He was a bit of a Star Trek geek and said the way I waved my hands and healed people reminded him of the Dr. McCoy character on the original TV show. I was okay with that, too. In fact, I was okay with just about everything, except Reid’s continued absence.

“Yeah. Guess he’s not going to show, huh?”

I had been stalling in the hopes that Reid would return from “taking care of some things,” but I had to face facts. Reid didn’t want to see me.

I didn’t need Psych’s gift to figure that out. The truth was there in all their eyes.

I stood taller and lifted my chin. I neither wanted nor needed their sympathy.

Accepting the lightweight thermal jacket Bear thrust my way, I slipped my arms into the sleeves. “His loss,” I said, leading the way toward the door. “I call shotgun.”

The ride back to my grandmother’s was a fairly quiet one. Bear didn’t say much, though he did grunt frequently, and Dex had caught on that I wasn’t much of a conversationalist. I didn’t know how much they knew, if anything, about what Cap and I had talked about, but since they didn’t bring it up, neither did I.

Though I had hoped otherwise, I suspected Reid was long gone. That didn’t mean I kept myself from glancing over his way as we pulled into the driveway. The shades were down, the garage was closed, and there were no telltale wisps of smoke rising from the chimney. What really hit me, though, was the lack of his presence. That same, cold emptiness I had been feeling since that first night at the compound hadn’t eased, and that, more than anything else, told me he was gone.

Something had happened between Reid and me. Some connection had been made. He hadn’t said anything about it and neither had anyone else, but I could see it in their eyes when they looked at me, just as I could feel it deep inside. I didn’t have to understand it to know that it was true.

Gram greeted me with a big hug and invited Dex and Bear in for something to eat, which they gladly accepted. I was kind of glad for that. Her fawning over and feeding them took some of the initial attention off me. They ate more than enough to be polite, then said they had to get going. I walked them to the door.

“Do you know where he is?” I finally asked.

They exchanged a look, one that suggested they had been hoping I wouldn’t ask.

“Alyx, it’s complicated,” Dex said.

“I bet,” I murmured. He opened his mouth to say more, but I held up my hand. I was putting him in an awkward situation. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

“Alyx ...”

“Seriously, it’s cool. I knew what I was getting into.”

“That’s the problem,” Dex said quietly. “You didn’t know. But you should have.” His eyes flicked to my neck for a moment before rising again.

I put my hand up to my neck self-consciously, covering the spot where Reid had bitten me the last time we had made love. As it had every other time I had touched my fingertips to the skip, heat flared there like a brand and warmth blossomed in my core.

“Yeah, well, life goes on, right?” I summoned a smile. “Thanks for bringing me home, and for ... everything.”

Dex nodded.

Bear grunted, then impulsively wrapped his arms around me and gave me a hug. I felt him slip something into my back pocket before he stepped back. His dark eyes glistened, but he said nothing, so I didn’t, either.

I watched them drive away, closing the door on that part of my life.

My grandmother came up behind me and wrapped her arm around me. “Is it true, Alyx? It’s over?”

That was the question, wasn’t it?

I pretended to misunderstand. “Yes. The man who was threatening me won’t be a problem anymore.”

She nodded. “Reid filled me in when he came back to let me out of his safe room. You should have told me what was going on, Alyx.”

Reid had put my grandmother in a safe room? I probably should have been surprised, but I wasn’t. That was exactly the kind of thing I would expect from him.

“I couldn’t do that, Gram. You would have become a target, too.” I refrained from telling her that she already had been.

“I know. Reid explained that, too.”

“Did he explain why he felt the need to take off without saying goodbye?” I said before I could stop myself.

“No,” Gram said, shaking her head. “But he didn’t need to. He’s scared, Alyx.”

I snorted at that. The very idea was ridiculous.

“I’m serious, Alyxandra.” Gram’s normally laughing eyes were as serious as her tone. “When a shifter male finds his mate, it is a very serious matter indeed.”

I wasn’t sure what surprised me more: that Gram knew Reid was a shifter, or that she believed I was his mate. I decided on the second one. Gram had always had a keen grasp of what was going on.

“I don’t think so.”

“Sit down, Alyx. You and I need to talk. But first, I’m going to make a fresh pot of coffee.”

Several hours later, I walked back to my loft in a daze. My grandmother knew all about shifters and mating because my grandfather had been one. She knew all about the paranormal team of special forces because my grandfather had once been a part of it.

She had recognized what Reid was the first time she had met him. She said her gift had also made it perfectly clear that we were meant to be together, but she knew Reid would balk, just as my grandfather had.

My grandfather hadn’t wanted to bind her to him, knowing the kind of life he had led. It had taken her months to convince him otherwise, and they had wasted months of precious time that could have been spent together.

I took a long, hot shower, the words of my grandmother rolling around in my head with the things Cap had told me, with intermittent flashes of my recent kidnapping and naked time with Reid thrown in for good measure. Yeah, I was a mess.

I had some very important decisions to make that would affect the rest of my life.

The last couple of weeks, and especially the last couple of days, had been rough. I needed some time to process it all. First and foremost, I had to get to the hospital to check on my kids. Once they were taken care of, then I would decide what the hell I was going to do next.