Page 22 of Protector (Alpha Ties)

TWENTY-TWO

AX2

AX2’s chip sparks, and he turns to follow the elder alpha. Out the corner of his eye, the doctor jerks her head toward them, eyes widening. “Wait?—”

“I’m just taking your mate to the parlor, darling. He’ll be close. You’re safe.” The general gives her a gentle look before he pushes through the French doors, leading the way.

She doesn’t protest again, but the tightness in their bond as AX2 exits the room makes him wish she would. He’s as reluctant to put doors between her as she is to lose sight of him, but an order is an order. Rubbing at his chest to soothe the barbed wire hooked there, he wonders how far he could be commanded to go before that bond would either anchor his feet in place or shred him apart from the inside.

General Thompson leads him through another set of French doors on the other side of the hallways, these carved from wood. Behind them is a room paneled in the same dark wood and dominated by a large, unlit fireplace. Tufted leather armchairs are angled around a coffee table, and in the corner, a gilded bar cart holds several bottles of amber liquor.

“Some days, I regret spending my life climbing the ranks,” General Thompson rumbles as he drops his satchel by one of the chairs and makes his way to the bar cart. “Once you hit one-star, it seems our entire Defense Department would collapse at the merest hint of trouble, unless you personally handhold every idiot below you.”

AX2 doesn’t respond, doesn’t know if he’s expected to, but the general doesn’t seem to notice. He fills two etched crystal glasses with liquor and then flips the lid open on a wooden box on the mantel. “Cigar?”

“No thank you, sir.”

“Suit yourself.” General Thompson cuts the end of a cigar, places the filled glasses on each side of the table, and flops down into a chair. When he lights the cigar and takes a swig of his drink, his eyelids close with pleasure. “Ahh . That hits the spot.”

AX2 stays quiet, unsure what is expected of him.

This time the older alpha notices his silence. He opens his eyes and nods at AX2. “Sit down, son.”

AX2 obeys, perching straight-spined on the edge of the chair in front of the untouched glass.

“Drink. God knows you’ve earned one.” General Thompson rubs a thumb over his forehead and takes a drag of his cigar. “After what you did for me, for Addie—top-shelf liquor is the least I can offer you.”

“I was following orders, sir,” AX2 says. He takes the glass, eyes the amber liquid, and takes a sip. It burns pleasantly on his tongue and all the way down his throat, warming his chest.

“Ha,” the general grunts. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s what Addie’s been telling you. She’s brilliant, of course, but if she’s got an idea stuck in her head, no amount of logic’s gonna sway her. Always been stubborn as a mule. Probably still claims you’re just a piece of machinery, eh?”

AX2 takes another swig of his drink.

“Hmm.” The other alpha nods, taking his silence as confirmation. “You’ll need a firm hand with that one, I’m afraid. She’ll come around once she learns to respect you as her alpha.”

An uninvited flash of her crumpled form on that stained mattress, ankle rubbed raw from her shackles, spikes through his brain, turning the liquor sour on his tongue. Carefully he puts the glass down and frowns at the general. “I am under her control. She would choose death before allowing anything else.”

General Thompson’s mouth twists, a look of regret passing over his weathered face. He’s silent for a long moment, then sighs and pulls a tablet from the satchel by the side of his chair. “You better not give her a choice, then. I love my daughter, but I saw the security tapes from her lab the day she went into heat. She wasn’t like that as a kid—bright and mouthy, sure, but never cruel. Her devotion to her science has twisted what was once a gentle heart.”

“Heat?” Something other than the whiskey tightens and warms in his gut at that unexpected word.

The general glances up from his tablet. “You didn’t smell it on her? The day you pinned her in her office and, by the looks of things, were planning on strangling her to death, triggered a heat.”

AX2 blinks. His fingers thrum with the memory of her rapid pulse and warm scent. He’d wanted to rub his face against her neck, inhale her into his lungs until she filled his bloodstream, but it hadn’t clicked for him that she was going into heat. The idea that the cold doctor is even capable of that is nearly impossible to imagine.

Nearly.

“As I said—Addie needs a firm hand from her alpha, much as she might disagree,” the older alpha sighs, returning his focus to the tablet. “All I’ve ever wanted for her was to be happy. Mind, I’d have preferred her to come to terms with what’s between you two on her own, but once she decided you were a robot with a pulse, that was it. No changing her mind.”

“I don’t understand.” His brain is itching again—he knows he’s missing something, something obvious, but the pieces refuse to click into place no matter how much he tries to force them. “Between us, sir?”

General Thompson shakes his head and draws another pull from his cigar as he taps the screen in his lap. “Ever wonder what happened with your predecessor? The prototype for your class?”

His spine straightens further. That’s the second time someone’s mentioned AX1 in relation to him today. It cannot be a coincidence. “AX1? I assume he perished under conditioning.”

The general chuffs through his nose. “Hardly. The crafty fucker found a way to break free of the mind control and went hunting for Addie. Not her biggest fan, you might say. But when he broke into her lab to murder her, he found you in there with her.

“You were still new. Still fighting her control. According to her report, AX1 kicked in the door while she was working on you and went straight for the kill. But before he could get to her, you got in the way. I wish I could have seen the fight, but one of you shattered the surveillance camera in the lab, so alas—we only have my daughter’s somewhat dry description of events.

“You’re evenly matched warriors, and AX1 clocked this pretty quickly. She says he pulled back, told you to let him crush her windpipe and he’d take you with him. You told him you’d rip his spine out if he laid a finger on her. He took the hint, fled the facility. Left her alive.”

There’s a whooshing sound in AX2’s ears. He stares blankly at the general for several long moments.

“That… That can’t be true,” he finally whispers. “I have… no recollection of any of this.”

“Well, you wouldn’t have,” General Thompson rumbles. “Addie wiped your memory the second she could—did a full factory reset. For security reasons. Ask her about it. She’ll be furious I told you, of course, but I doubt she’d lie if you pressed her hard enough.”

AX2 stares at the older man’s face, downturned as he scans the screen and taps it a few times—entirely unconcerned with the grenade he’s thrown into AX2’s entire existence.

“AX1… escaped?”

“Sure did.”

“He’s still out there?”

“S’far as we know. No one’s seen or heard so much of a whisper on the wind since he went into hiding. And trust me, we’ve looked. But that’s the problem with coding the best weapons technology we’re able to produce into combat-trained men—if those men decide to fuck off, they’re gonna stay gone.”

AX2 narrows his eyes ever so slightly. “And why are you telling me this, sir?”

General Thompson shrugs one shoulder. “You’re Addie’s mate. If things ever go sideways, I want to know you have all the knowledge you need to keep her alive. There’s a lot of noise out there, son.

“My daughter may be smart, but she’s not an alpha. She’s not going to make it without you keeping your wits about you. Which means you need to be able to operate without her foot on your neck.” He taps the tablet one more time and finally looks up to meet AX2’s eyes. “There. I’ve disabled her direct control.”