Page 1 of Escalating Alpha (Seraphine Thomas #18)

Abducting Agent Cindy Fisher was easy.

Getting the approval to do it was not.

It honestly had been a fucking nightmare, and even Galvin had made it clear that if this didn’t go the way I was hoping, my ass could finally be in front of an ethics hearing. I was willing to take the risk because I was sure that I was right about her.

The main issue I had with this part of undercover training was that it always happened at the end —even in TV shows and movies. They would sink weeks or months into training someone and then have them abducted as the last “test” of their training to see how they did.

Fucking stupid.

Even when it had happened to me.

Why? You were way too panicked to really remember dick about your training. It was instinct. Some had it, but most didn’t.

The rare few who would survive undercover work had it.

So why waste your time and resources putting all that time and effort into someone to train them just to find out they didn’t have it at the end? Yeah, sure, training was never wasted, and even if they washed out of undercover work, they could use that in their career. Sure, of course.

But I was too fucking busy for that, and if I was going to take someone under my wing for real, I wanted to see she wouldn’t wash out first.

There was also the issue that my abduction had had.

Namely, I’d figured out it was a test. Yeah, ten minutes in, I’d figured it out and ruined it.

Had it still taught me a lot? Abso-fucking-lutely. I’d sent my training officer for that section a damn fruit basket when I’d been abducted for real while undercover. The skills had been invaluable in keeping me alive.

But yeah, I’d figured it out. I doubted I was the only one because after all the tests I’d been put through… I hoped the people we trusted with such big cases were smart enough.

She hadn’t been aware of her surroundings and that cost her. I would need to talk to some of the newer agents about taking that shit seriously, especially in a city like Chicago.

Hell, as a woman she shouldn’t ever have been that involved in her damn phone at night. She knew better.

But she put up a damn good fight. She landed a few shots that made us chuckle or flinch from where we were watching.

They got her back to the warehouse we were using thanks to one of Noah’s vampires. It was for his business, and he said he didn’t care if we used it for the night as long as it didn’t come back on him… And we cleaned up any blood.

Funny guy.

The stage was set well. We had others involved. A few who weren’t fans of mine but knew that it would look good on them for promotion time because just picking my buddies would be suspicious.

One was playing dead off to the side in a pool of fake blood like he’d been shot. He’d taken an actual potion that knocked him out and paralyzed his body for two hours. Terrifying, but he said he expected me to remember this and assumed it would get him off my shit list.

Yeah, he would. He’d deserved to be on there and we both knew it, but I’d let the shit off of it. He’d paid the penance.

Agent Eric Corbin was also being tested… Even if he didn’t know it. In other ways since he was up for being promoted. I needed to see how he reacted to putting his people into bad situations. Cindy was going to be hurt because of this—emotionally scarred.

He needed to be able to still send people into those situations as a SAiC.

He was currently restrained to a chair and roughed up. It would take a bit to heal even with the stuff I’d gotten from Nina. I was pretty sure his nose might not ever look the same from the hit one of Noah’s guys landed. The vampire definitely owed Corbin a nice meal because he’d come back to me looking guilty.

Yeah, he hadn’t controlled his strength with the human. It happened.

I would spank him later.

“You can take as many of us as you want, but we still won’t have the fucking answers,” Agent Nathan Roach snarled. “All of that comes through DC. We don’t know how to bypass the new security gates or any of it!”

Agent Roach—real last name—was a new agent who filled a slot from someone senior after someone transferred out when Murray came on. I’d asked Agent Brad Scott to help me, and he’d done a solid for his buddy and told me to ask this guy instead because apparently he had a hard-on for undercover work.

And working with me to learn the craft. The sole reason he’d picked Chicago even knowing there was shit going on here was he hoped to get to work with me and learn from me on how to be an undercover agent. So he wanted this chance to prove his acting skills and that I should give him a chance.

Something rubbed me wrong about him. I had no reason to feel that way besides my gut, and his file was clean. I appreciated him even jumping in on something that was going to leave him beaten and bloody, but… Something was off with him. I had to get to the bottom of that before I could ever really work with him that closely more than just as his big boss.

The vampire holding Cindy pulled off the hood and plopped her onto a chair near Corbin, restraining her to it. She immediately took in her surroundings and what was going on, swallowing loudly when she saw what she thought was a dead agent. One she knew.

One she’d gone through Quantico with. Yeah, that was intentional.

A vampire backhanded Roach. “We know you’re lying. We want our access back , asshole. We know it’s not all done through DC.”

“Maybe that was true before, but they had a DC crew come install it all,” Roach told him. “I don’t know. We’re—you know asking the lowest on the totem pole won’t give you answers.”

“This is about access to the FBI building?” Cindy asked, glancing between everyone. “So your genius plan is to just grab a bunch of low-ranked agents with absolutely no seniority and power?”

Yeah, that got her a punch to the stomach and Corbin a hit across the face when he lost his shit seeing that.

“He’s a good guy and doesn’t like seeing a woman hit,” Brian defended. “Even before I had real feelings for you, I almost lost my mind when you came back with a split lip and black eye that one time.”

“I know, but you still had to send me back in, and Corbin needs to understand it’s going to happen and he can’t stop it,” I muttered as I kept my focus on the cameras. “You just bandaged me up, celebrated the win, and told me that I wasn’t as alone as I felt flying out there without a safety net. It’s what made you such a good boss. He needs to learn the same.”

“This is different than the normal script and situation,” Jerome Curtis—one of the trainers from Quantico—said for about the twentieth time.

“Yes, and again , that will keep her from figuring it out like I did,” I grumbled.

It went on another fifteen minutes with them asking everything from codes to the parking garage to any passphrases to tell security that agents gave if they forgot their ID. They even gave the old one for the ploy that they’d had access to before.

I’d done away with that old stupid system. No fucking code words in the FBI to ditch security for the day. Don’t forget your ID and badge or go home and fucking get it and admit to your boss you were an idiot.

Hopefully, it would be the only time you forgot it then.

“Our boss wants the information!” one of the vamps bellowed in Corbin’s face.

“Yeah, and I want my gun right now,” Corbin chuckled darkly, truly pissed and upset. He probably understood he wasn’t handling this as well as he thought he’d do. “But you’re fucked. You abducted four FBI agents and killed one. How do you think this ends?

“Even if we did know—which we don’t—you’ll kill us. Four dead agents and they’ll change everything anyway. You’re going to be looking over your shoulder the rest of your lives for killing one of us. This is all pointless, and you have no idea how big of an enemy you made with our boss who—”

The vamp punched him maybe a bit too hard and pulled out his gun.

“Wait, wait! ” Cindy yelled. “We really don’t know what you want, but I have something better. Something your boss can use or sell. You want to sell information right? I have something everyone would want—huge money. You can sell it and bail quick. Leave the country before anyone realizes we’re gone.”

“Thatta girl,” I chuckled, glad she was using her brain. “Buy time. Separate them. Anything you can.”

The guy turned and pointed the gun at her. “Talk, or this bullet is for you. I’m done with this shit, and clearly killing one of you wasn’t enough.” He moved closer and smiled in her face and at how upset Corbin was. “Or maybe I get a good taste of you? They seem to care a lot about the women in their office. How about if they see more of you?”

“That wasn’t the plan,” the guy from DC’s IA seethed.

“Yeah, well, your plan is too by the books and of no help,” I defended as I moved to block him from the door to stop this. “If you don’t think I’ve almost been raped while undercover— I have . I’ve been sexually assaulted. Touched more times than I could count. She needs to understand that it will happen . It will. Every female undercover agent I know has experienced it.”

“You touch her and I’ll fucking kill you,” Corbin raged… No longer acting. He was really upset.

It killed me to hurt him, but he needed to know. He needed to understand.

It would help him in the long run.

But I still hated it. I would love to live in a world where none of us suffered like this—that there was no reason for any of us to have to go through any of this.

That just wasn’t the real world.

The real world was dark and messy.

The real world had bad guys and monsters.

And we were the ones who signed up to stop them.

“I know where Seraphine Thomas really stays,” Cindy blurted. “She doesn’t really live at the packhouse anymore—that apartment building downtown. She’s too worried about someone trying to raid it. The Master of the City bought her a mansion. Her son is always there with—”

“Shut up, Cindy!” Roach bellowed. “What are you doing?”

Someone else punched him.

“Where? Tell me where?” the first vamp demanded.

“I tell you and you’ll kill us,” Cindy argued.

He studied her a moment. “No, I won’t, and we didn’t want him to die. This was supposed to be a snatch and get information, but he fought us and had an extra gun. Thomas can get us what we really need or if we have her son. Tell me and we’ll leave you here to be found.” He put the gun up to Corbin’s forehead. “Or I shoot him.”

She gave him the address of the mansion I was gifted from Apollo that Noah and his company had tricked out as the ultimate training for breach teams. Meaning it was a huge fucking trap.

“There it is,” I chuckled and moved the IA guy. “Yeah, she’s got it.”

“Check with the boss,” the vamp called over his shoulder.

I was out of the surveillance van and already halfway there before the words even left his mouth. Every emotion under the sun played over Cindy’s face when she saw me.

Every. Single. One.

Rage. Hurt. Annoyance—that I’d put her through this and that she’d not figured it out. The whole list.

And she had the same reaction I’d had when I’d been released.

She decked me.

I held my hand up to hold off everyone else and kept her gaze, my head not even moving which pissed her off even more. “I deserve that. I more than deserve that, and I did the same to the asshole who did this to me.” She lost a bit of anger then. “ But I also sent him a huge fucking loaded fruit basket when I did face something like this undercover.”

She let out a slow breath, still shaking and loaded up with too much of everything. “You did.”

It wasn’t really a question, but I still answered it. “I did. You don’t have clearance for specifics, but I did. I used to have the scar from the gunshot wound to prove it, but being Alpha and almost dying a few times since becoming a wolf had some perks.” I gave a half shrug.

Cindy bobbed her head. “I assume you called it because I fucked up and gave info, right? I can explain and—”

“I called it because you aced it,” I interrupted, beaming at her when she seemed confused. “You aced it. You kept calm besides that first antagonistic comment—which we’re all allowed. You saw when things were escalating and you couldn’t just hold out for people to realize you were gone. Why would that not work?”

“I can’t think yet,” she whispered.

“Tell me now,” I ordered, my tone hard. I tapped her forehead. “Don’t think. Tell me. What did you see here? Now, in the room for those who think you might not be able to handle this. Why did you make the calls you did?”

She swallowed loudly and the anger was back. “One was already dead…” She glanced between us. “He never twitched.”

“Potion,” I answered for her so she could focus.

“Thought he was dead, and that would make them jittery and not want to spend as much time here. We didn’t have until morning and all of us are single. Live alone. No one would notice if we didn’t come home because of the hours we keep or a partner who would miss us.”

“Good. What else?”

She swallowed loudly and glanced at Corbin before meeting my gaze again. “One of the group was losing the battle to stay calm. It would get him killed. Clearly, that was an act and—”

“No, I genuinely lost my cool knowing it was all an act,” Corbin whispered. “You made your point that I’m not ready to be a SAiC, Chief.”

I grabbed his arm when he turned away. “That was not my point, Corbin. You are ready. You are.” I waited until he met my gaze. “I’ve seen it destroy people when they become SAiC and they sent someone into danger. I’ve seen it tear up Brian. But then they’re in the fucking job and have to do it again without the support they deserve.

“And there’s no takebacks or graceful way to change your mind and the position wasn’t right for you. So people quit and we lose good people. Or they become useless like some we pushed out the door just doing their time on the government’s dime until retirement. I can’t even hate them for that, but it fucks the rest of us. I didn’t want that to be your story.”

He bobbed his head but pulled away and went over to Brian. He gave me a wink that he had it and I focused back on Cindy.

“What else?” I asked Cindy.

She swallowed loudly. “Even if they killed us, it would get them caught, so you could figure out what was really going on and at least they didn’t take anyone else. It kept us four as the only casualties.”

“Good. You need to understand that could absolutely be your future.” I gave her a sad smile when she blinked back tears. “I went into undercover knowing it would probably be how I die. You need to accept that and—”

“Chief Thomas,” the guy from IA snapped.

But I kept talking. “Understand that could absolutely be how you die. You also have to sacrifice. I barely dated until I was outed. You can’t bring kids into this life. Not while undercover.” I let out a slow breath. “And you will absolutely be sexually assaulted, possibly raped.”

“ Chief Thomas! ” he yelled.

“I’ve never met a female agent or undercover op who hasn’t gone through it,” I told her gently. “It’s the first thing bad men use against women.”

“Any good news?” she chuckled darkly.

“Yeah, I’m fucking rich, and I use that to save my people even over what the FBI can do,” I told her honestly. “I’m the adopted daughter of the queen of the wolves and leader of Greece. I’ve got connections and friends all over the fucking place. And I will use all of it if you are ever in trouble. I will do everything in my power to keep you from being one of those bad endings.”

“I want to punch you again,” she mumbled.

“Yeah, I bet you do, but you only get one,” I chuckled.

“Are you quite done?” the guy from IA about seethed. “That wasn’t what you were supposed to say to her as was our agreement.”

I glanced at him over my shoulder. “I promised I would say it and I will. I didn’t say I would immediately say it to her. I get your side of this, but you haven’t been on this side of things. I’m trying to keep her alive and give a real view of what she’s signing up for. This isn’t fun for me. I’m not a sadist. Please remember we’re on the same team.”

He snorted but then chilled when everyone else FBI gave him a glance that he was the problem.

The vamps had already been doing that.

I focused back on Cindy and cleared my throat. “I apologize for putting you in this situation without your consent. As your boss, it is my responsibility to always put your safety and well-being first—”

“I wasn’t in danger,” she muttered, glancing behind me.

“And in this instance, I have failed and acknowledge my failure,” I continued. “As is your right and in line with FBI regulations, you can file a complaint—”

“I’m good, Chief,” she said firmly. “If nothing else, it taught me not to be an idiot and be more aware of my surroundings. I didn’t remotely give them enough to chew on and—”

“Yeah, you did,” one of the vampires from off to the side drawled. “You broke my fucking nose, and I’m two hundred years old, so that’s not easy. Plus, not to get overly personal here, but I expect to pee blood for today. Awesome.”

Oh fuck, it was hard not to laugh, but… He wasn’t wrong.

She met his gaze with a smirk. “I could do better.”

His lips twitched. “I bet you could, and you’re going to have to train harder to go undercover. If she does, I hope you give her a pass to the supes-only gym, Chief. We can work with her on a lot.”

Yeah, they could. I nodded that I heard him.

“I forgot where I was at,” I admitted. “You can throw the book at me without any repercussions.” I shrugged. “I took this further than you agreed to since you didn’t sign up yet and were still deciding. I get that. Report me if you want and I won’t hold it against you. I’ll sign a transfer and give you a glowing review. No bad blood here.”

She studied me a moment. “You could report me for the punch.”

“What punch?” I asked innocently.

She chuckled and held out her hand. “I’m in. I think I needed to see I could handle something bigger, and—I needed to see to make the decision.”

That was what I’d thought and why I’d pushed for this, so I gladly shook her hand.

She glanced around me at the other people. “I’m fine. Nothing happened here. My boss just helped me with some training. I consented to that a lot. I didn’t see anything against the FBI regs or—thanks for dropping by.”

Jerome Curtis snorted. “She is so you seven years ago. Havers is right about that. I had a thought about that while she was in training, but she preferred to blend instead of being driven for the top.”

“They get bullied more and that’s headaches,” Cindy grumbled.

Fair enough.

Seriously… Fair enough.