“I’m sorry for your loss, Jess,” Dee said, “but we have a chance to save lives. To reverse what Matthew and the others did, at least in small part. We have to try.”
“I don’t care about saving lives,” the woman spit. “All I care about is vengeance!”
“Do you imagine yourself alone in your grief? That man took everything from me, and five days ago I was this close to putting my blade in his neck.” Dee held her fingers an inch apart. “Don’t talk to me about vengeance!”
Craig clutched his phone again, and Dr. Redding flinched back from the silver-haired woman’s anger.
“None of this is helpful,” I said, shooting a warning look at Dee, who smoothed out her expression and crossed her arms with a huff of anger. The anger was better than the sadness, and I didn’t want to stifle the fire woken in her, but I needed these people’s help. “Craig, you have people stationed at the Landing Stations, correct?”
“Yes, sir,” the man said with a quick nod. “They’re ready to blow the locations on my orders.”
“And how difficult would it be to find a lab with the equipment you need and have it secured so Dr. Redding could do her work?”
The white-haired woman opened her mouth to speak, but I silenced her with a look. Oddly, the woman’s scent mollified after that and even had a small streak of affection twisting through it.
“Well…” He glanced at the taller woman and back at the RV where a third woman, short and plump, stepped down, “Donna, what do you think?”
“The University of Maine down in Bangor. The group of Alphas operating out of DC, that Matthew controls have been making sweeps of New England, rounding up all the mutants they can find and herding them south.” The plump woman glanced from her husband to me, fingers fluttering on her breast and voice losing some of its strength as she finished. “If we can’t have young Courtney here… at our sides… then we’ll have to call in help.”
“We can’t,” I said, turning to the man. “What help can you call on?”
“Michigan… North Carolina… The risk is too great to have them travel across the country, though! Perhaps… perhaps we can—”
“No perhaps, Craig!” the plump woman snapped, surprising me with the sharpness and strength of her tone. “Dee and her friend have brought a cure! Have you lost your marbles?!”
“It’s not so simple, Donna dear,” the man said with a placating gesture, but the white-haired woman was shaking her head.
“She’s right, Craig. We can’t afford to let fear rule us anymore.” She took a deep breath, and the fear diminished in her scent as she went on. “I will oversee efficacy testing and mass production of the chemicals you found, but only on two conditions.”
“What’s that?” I asked, glancing up at the RV when a young, pale face pushed up into the window.
Chapter 17
“First that you agree to Craig and Donna’s demand that you allow their daughter to accompany you on their mission.” Craig and Donna nodded emphatically at that, their hands finding and gripping one another’s. “And second, that you promise to lead the efforts to cure the mutants. We can’t do it”—she motioned to herself and the other two, then pointed directly at me—“but you can.”
“I’m not sure about that,” I said, “but I was already planning on joining the effort once we free Dee’s family.”
“Annie, come down!” the plump woman called up to the RV, her scent suddenly sharp with sadness, along with her husband’s.
There was a scramble of feet, and a short young woman was scurrying over to her parents. She kept her head down, long red hair covering her pale features, but the prodigious curves of her body couldn’t be hidden by her bulky wool sweater or long skirt.
“Hello, sir,” the girl said, in a squeaky voice.
I frowned and glanced back at her parents, who were both beaming with pride. Even Dee was smiling at the young woman
“Annie is a trained surgeon and an excellent software engineer,” the white-haired woman said, hugging the girl with one arm and running her hand down the girl’s long red hair. “Last week was her nineteenth birthday, and she decided she wanted to join Dee on her adventure.”
The woman’s voice gave a hitch, and she pressed a hand to her lips, her eyes shining with unshed tears as she stared at the girl.
“Look at me, girl,” I said, letting my voice deepen with tones of command.
Her head snapped up, and I met her bright green eyes. The girl was adorable with her delicate nose and cherubic features, but her innocence shone through like a beacon.
“You realize what traveling with me will mean for you?” Her expression grew unsure, so I went on. “I don’t know what we’ll be walking into yet, but I can promise you it will be dangerous. What’s more, I already have one woman unbound by pride, and your scents will attract mutants wherever we are.”
“Will you not… bind her?” the girl asked in a fragile voice.
“Soon, but not before I make use of that scent.” My gaze flickered to her parents, but they gave nothing away, watching their daughter with nervous pride. “Is this what you want?”
“I…” the girl's eyes shifted to Dee, then back to me as she swallowed hard and went on in a stronger tone. “I do, sir. Donatella has told us about you, and from all I can tell, you’re a good man. Ever since I was a girl…” Her eyes shone as she went on and her scent grew complex as the shyness faded from it. “I’ve studied the Alphas and their prides with my parents. I told myself as a girl, if the opportunity to bind myself to a good man, a powerful Alpha ever came… Sir, please take me with you, and if you find me acceptable…”
“I will agree to your demands,” I said to Craig and the young woman beamed a beatific grin at me before throwing a quick hug around her mother’s and father's shoulders and turning to hurry back into the RV. “How quickly can you get started?”
I motioned to Dee, and she handed the Styrofoam container we’d brought from the compound. Dr. Redding opened the box carefully and peered in at the neatly packaged vials with a small hopeful smile working its way onto her lips.
“Craig will drive through the night. We’ll be at the lab by dawn, and I’ll get started right away. Did you happen to get any notes from the facility? Anything to help me get started in my work?”
“Dr. Gupta did,” I said, pulling the portable hard drive from my back pocket, “but this is the only copy we have.”
“Give me a moment and I will copy it,” Dr. Redding said, taking the hard drive from me and hurrying up into the RV, passing Annie on her way out.
The young woman wore a heavy coat and black Doc Martin boots and carried a heavy pack on her back, and I was happy to see a pair of handguns strapped to her hips and a rifle in her hands. She peeked up at me from under her red bangs, blushing prettily, before hurrying over to say farewell to her parents.
Jess emerged with the hard drive a few seconds later. What she’d used to copy the drive so fast, I didn’t know, but she pressed it back into my hand and threw her arms around the girl’s shoulders.
“It was good to meet you all,” I said, “and we’ll be sure to keep in touch. Remember to wait for our signal to blow those Landing Stations.”
“Yes, sir,” Craig said with a sharp nod. “And please care for my girl… She’s all we have in this world.”
“You have my word,” I said, ignoring the girl’s scarlet blush and the scent of her sudden and overwhelming arousal as the man pushed her toward me. “Come along, Annie.”
“Yes, sir,” the girl said, hurrying up to my side with a small smile creasing the corners of her lips.
I left Dee to speak with her friends as I led Annie across the tarmac. The conversation behind me was hushed, but with my keen sense of hearing it would be too easy to eavesdrop so I pressed the girl or details about herself.
“Where did you grow up?” I asked her when we’d gone twenty feet or so, her scent jumping back and forth between excitement and anxiety.
“
On my parents' farm,” she said with breathless excitement, the girl practically bouncing on her toes as we walked. “There and the university where they taught. It was basically my playground as a kid. Did you grow up in Portland?”
“In a suburb,” I said.
“I always wanted to visit Portland… before…” Her expression fell for a second before perking back up. “What was high school like? I always wanted to go to a school with other kids my age.”
“You didn’t go to school?” I asked.
“Oh, I did, but after a few tests when I was young, they put me in accelerated programs. I had a lot of teachers but no peers.” She grinned, the smile slipping when I didn’t laugh. “I’m not a total nerd, though! Well… maybe.”
“Nothing wrong that,” I said, with an easy laugh. “I suffer from my fair share of nerdiness too.”
“What was it like growing up in Portland? Were your mom and dad… with you when everything went down?”
“No, my parents passed away years ago,” I said, glancing back and seeing Dee still huddled with Annie’s parents, the pair resting arms on the young woman’s shoulders. I couldn’t make out her scent, but the shake of her shoulders told me she was finally releasing the emotions she’d bottled up.
Chapter 18
SCENE FOUR
Three dozen men sat around a long oval conference table. Flat-screen televisions on the walls showed other faces connected over a video link.
The seven young men, now in their early twenties, were scattered throughout the room, sitting beside silver-haired men in expensive suits with the neatly coifed hairstyles of politicians. An older man sitting at the head of the table began speaking, his face etched with concern.
“Recent reports from the media sector indicate growing polarization derived from a lack of accurate information. This contravenes our mission of providing free access to information around the world. Matthew, do you have a report?”
“Yes, Director.” Matthew rose smoothly, and when he spoke it was in a calm, commanding tone that put the others around the room at ease. “My data scientists have discovered it’s in our organization’s best interest to encourage the polarization happening within our nations. This will lead each of your respective governments to take our advice to heart.”
There were murmurs of disapproval at this, and the director’s frown deepened. The man clearly hadn’t been expecting Matthew to say this.
“If you’ll open the packets provided.”—Matthew motioned to folders before each of the politicians—“you’ll see how a further increase of disunity by roughly 10% of your populations would provide the exact openings we need to put our reforms in place.”
“You Alphas were supposed to make the world more peaceful!” shouted a man with a long, dark beard near the center of the table. Looking around angrily, he slapped a hand on the table. “When King Mohammed agreed to provide his youngest son to your unholy experiments, he was promised the world order would remain in place. These separatist forces will tear our nation apart!”
“Peace, Uncle,” Adesh said, placating the older man beside him with a calming gesture. “Neither Matthew nor I want those separatist whores to gain an ounce more power, but you can’t smash them with the military like you want. Listen to the man, and if you don’t like what he has to say, we choose another path.”
Around the room, the coterie of young Alphas whispered in the ears of their politicians, and it was a more receptive audience that listened as Matthew spoke about furthering divisions around the world so they would look to those in the room for guidance.
“Tom Redding and the director have begun something grand with this Council,” Matthew finished with a flourish, “but it is up to us, the men in this room, to see Master William’s vision of an ordered world at peace. And we will see it through to the end!”
Not all were convinced by the man’s words, but those who were on the fence had a young man at their elbow whispering in their ears, allaying concerns and fears. The old director sighed and hammered his gavel once more, calling for a vote. And as Matthew looked on with a proud smile, every hand rose to back his proposal.
I found myself opening up to Annie as we strolled across the tarmac. The girl was shy but flirty, and her sidelong glances and long fluttering eyelashes gave it the feel of a first date, ruined only by the pack and bulky weapons she carried. Her mood was mercurial, bouncing from question to question randomly as she pressed me for details about my life and our recent adventures. I was relaying the tale of how we’d infiltrated Alpha Command and escaped when Dee came marching past me with long strides, a frown on her face when she glanced over.
“If you two are done ‘walking out’ then let’s get aboard. We’ve wasted too much time already.”
“They won’t harm your sisters or mother,” Annie said, walking over and gripping Dee’s hand. “They’re too valuable.”
“There are multiple ways to harm a woman, Annie. You’ve lived a sheltered life.”
The girl was quiet after that, and I was happy when Ava came down from the plane. She was bundled up in a fur-lined white coat with black leggings. I took in her beauty and felt as if I was returning home, odd after only going a few hundred yards.
“Ava, this is Annie. She’ll be traveling with us for the foreseeable future,” I said, introducing the girl who tried to curtsy, or bow, but nearly dropped her rifle, snatching it at the last moment.
“A pleasure, ma’am.”
“The pleasure is all ours, I’m sure,” Ava said, drawing the girl up the stairs and into the cabin. She shot me an approving grin over the girl's shoulder and glanced over our heads. “It seems your parents aren’t quite done with you, though.”
We all looked back to find the RV trundling down the tarmac with Craig waving an arm out the window. The heavy trailer pulled to the side before us and stopped, the man hopping out and shouting as he moved down the side.
“Donna would have my hide if we didn’t offer you all your pick from the armory. Can’t say as you look best prepared for what you’re taking on. Mayhap this will be some help.”
Craig’s expression was mischievous, and I saw a beaming grin on his face as he unlocked one of the large panels on the side of the vehicle. I frowned at the girl, and she flashed me an impish grin.
“Daddy likes guns and things that go boom.”
I turned back with interest and swore softly when the heavy door tipped open to reveal rows of firearms neatly resting against the panels within. I saw heavy machine guns, small pistols, a bazooka or R.P.G. of some kind, braces of grenades, and boxes upon boxes of ammunition stuffed into the floor of the space.
My jaw was hanging open as I walked close, approaching the portly little man’s collection and unable to take my eyes from it. The man scratched the back of his neck and looked embarrassed.
“Should have thought about it earlier, but this is a lot of excitement for me.”
“Sir, you have nothing to apologize for,” I said, reaching and gripping his shoulder. He winced when I gripped it and grinned at him but offered a weak smile in return.
“Please… take whatever you want!”
I thought I was excited until Ava ran up and I caught the look on my stepmom’s face. She looked like a kid in a candy store as she ran her eyes over the collection. In the end, we each ended up taking two to three new guns apiece, with so much ammunition for them all that I feared the plane would burn too much fuel.
There was even a small collection of curved blades, in various lengths and thicknesses, similar in design to the one I’d left in the monster’s skull. Dee replaced her sword, and I took one as well. I had no idea how to use the thing, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
As the others were sifting through the guns, Dee pointing out what might be useful to each and helping them gather ammo for the weapons, Ava pulled me off to one side.
“It’s time, Courtney,” she said with a firm tone of voice that I hadn’t heard in weeks, if not months, from h
er.
“Time for what?” I asked, curious at the fixed determination in her scent.
“You’ve put off bonding Brianna and healing the girl for too long.” I opened my mouth to object, but she spoke right over me, her tone that of my mom once again, causing odd feelings to awaken inside. “I know you have plans for the girl, maybe even Annie now. I assume it’s some plan to use the mutants against our enemies, but can you do that now? Can you consign a single one of the Balphas to death in furtherance of your cause?”
My mouth closed, and I felt a frown slip onto my face because she was right, of course.
“I won’t pressure you about Donatella,” Ava said softly, slipping her arm in mine and pressing her warmth to my side. “But we need to be as one if we’re going to have any success.”
“I wanted to avoid putting you, Madelyn, and Shandra in harm’s way,” I said, finally admitting it to myself as I said it out loud.
“We are capable of deciding for ourselves whether we want to be or not,” Ava said, and I heard the chastisement, even if her tone was gentle. “You were always the type of boy who would put others' happiness before his own, and you’ve become the type of man who does the same with safety. What is it that’s really holding you back? I thought you would have taken Brianna on the flight here. I know she was hoping for it. Are you still having trouble with how comfortable Madge and I are with all this?”
There was a hint of amusement in Ava’s eyes as she cocked an eyebrow at me.
“I’m over that worry,” I said with a smile for her. “Mostly.”
She chuckled and patted my wrist. “I wish you could see the man you’ve grown into these past weeks. It’s extraordinary what you’ve done here.” She nodded at the women all arming themselves and at Dee standing off on one side watching with an amused smile. “You don’t even see how different Donatella sees you now, do you? She follows your lead, Courtney, we all do. And you’ve given Madelyn and I the greatest blessing in the world.” She rested a hand over her belly with a look that held all the love a woman could hold in it, and my heart swelled to know I had a hand in her happiness.
New World Alpha: Book Three (A Harem Fantasy) Page 9
