Page 30 of Protector (Alpha Ties)

THIRTY

ADDIE

He strokes my hair. My back. To soothe me, at first, but he keeps moving his warm palm over my scalp and down my spine long after my breathing has slowed and my body is limp against his.

At the back of my mind, I know I should be scared of this closeness to an alpha I can’t control. I am scared, but I’m too exhausted to feel anything but the comfort of his warmth. Wrung out. Even the awful, searing guilt is numbed as I lie against his chest and listen to the slow, steady drumbeat of his heart.

I remember holding that heart in my hands when he first came to my lab. He was so badly injured, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make use of his body. But when I held that strong, beating muscle… I still remember the surge of absolute certainty that I would bring him back, despite the odds.

I brush a thumb against his uniform, over his heart. No matter how many parts of his body I replaced with superior technology, in the end, I didn’t take his humanity.

Soft lips ghost against my scalp before I have time to register the muted throb of guilt attempting to reawaken low in my chest. I’ve done unspeakable things to him, telling both myself and him that he wasn’t a person, and yet he has capacity to feel empathy for me.

Once the exhaustion lifts, I don’t know how I will cope with that knowledge and remain intact.

I’m almost fully asleep when Jacob tenses beneath me, his arms constricting around me.

I’m too drowsy to feel alarm, my instincts lulled by the unwavering certainty that my alpha will protect me from any and all threats, but it does tip me back into semi-alertness.

I hear soft footsteps that quickly come to a stop, followed by a rumbled, “What the fuck?” It’s AX21.

“Shh,” Jacob whispers. “Don’t disturb her.”

“Don’t disturb…? Did the bitch make you cuddle her?” Despite AX21’s lowered voice, the shock in it is plain.

“Watch it.” Jacob’s warning tone is equally unmistakable.

“Beg your pardon?”

AX2’s warm fingers brush against my nape to move my ponytail out of the way.

AX21 sucks in a sharp breath, and I know what he’s seen, but there’s no responding sense of shame or horror in my gut. A throb of pride from my alpha ghosts through our bond as he shows off his claim, making me nuzzle into his chest, the sensations of warmth and comfort filling any crevice still capable of feeling anything but exhaustion.

There is silence in the lab for so long, I’ve nearly drifted off again when sounds of movement pulls me back from the cliff once more. AX21 sits next to Jacob, huffing a breath.

“Why would you…?” There is worry in the other man’s voice. Concern.

My alpha scoffs. “She would have died if I didn’t.”

A long pause.

“And that would have been… a bad thing?”

Jacob’s snarl is immediate, but he tempers it when I shift against him. He hugs me closer.

“Did they mess with your wiring? Do you not remember what she is?” The other alpha’s vice is low, urgent.

“She is my Fated.” Jacob breathes deeply and skims a couple fingers over my scalp. It feels luxurious—too good to allow any panic to reemerge. “Whatever else she is doesn’t matter.”

Another sharp inhale. Then, “I’m sorry, brother.”

I halfway expect another defensive growl, but Jacob only sighs and strokes my back.

I drift off to sleep, too exhausted to feel anything at the knowledge that being bound to me is something that draws condolences.

“Adelaide.”

I blink my eyes open, confused for a moment at being semi-upright rather than lying down. Strong arms tighten around me, bringing me back to the present, and I pull back from the hard chest I’ve been sleeping on to massage the crick in my neck.

There’s a patch of my drool on his uniform. Lovely.

“Someone’s coming,” Jacob says, his voice low.

“Oh.” I straighten and wipe my mouth in an attempt to regain a smidgen of dignity, but neither his nor AX21’s focus is on me. “More AX soldiers?”

“Possibly. I hear two sets of footsteps, one significantly heavier than the other.” He releases his grip on me and offers me a hand to support myself as I get to my feet.

Once I’m off him, he follows with significantly more grace, then pushes me deeper into the lab and turns to the door. AX21 follows suit.

But there is no need for protectiveness. The man walking through the lab door is my father, followed closely by AX6.

“Ah, good to see you got him back on his feet so swiftly,” my father says, nodding at AX21. “We need them all battle ready until the initial unrest has been quelled.”

I pinch my lips, refusing to dwell on what using AX soldiers to quell unrest within our own borders means for the population, and focus on AX6. His face is expressionless, but there are several bullet holes in his chest, dark red blood smattering his uniform. “Right. Get in the stasis chamber, AX6.”

AX6 makes to obey my command, but my father halts him by holding up a hand. “I’m afraid we don’t have time to deal with superficial injuries just yet. The new president will be addressing the nation at ten, but first we have a meeting with all the key players. They all need to see the scientist who made this day possible.”

There’s a fervor burning in his eyes, and I’d like to think that in the midst of the stress and excitement of seeing his plans come to fruition, he’s forgotten his assumption that I’d resist being part of his coup. But I know better. It’s the same as it’s always been. He tolerates me kicking up a fuss and fighting him tooth and nail when he brings up an idea he knows I’m opposed to, but once he’s forced his will through, he expect me to fall in line like everyone else.

“There is no point fighting what’s already happened, Addie,” he used to tell me when I, as a little girl, would throw myself on the floor in a tantrum over whatever injustice he’d decreed. He took the same approach all through my childhood, until I eventually learned that fighting him was pointless.

I eye AX6 again. From the pattern of the bullets and the blank expression on his face, it looks like he’s avoided any serious damage to his vital parts. He’ll be in significant pain, though. That’s not something I used to concern myself with—the AX units are trained to withstand much worse—but…

I glance at Jacob. If I accept that he is a person, I have to acknowledge that the rest of them are too.

I force down the clenching in my gut at that thought. “I don’t need acknowledgement. Let me check over AX6—I’ll send him to you once I’ve got the bullets out. You can bring AX21 as a bodyguard.”

“Don’t be silly.” My dad pats AX6’s arm and turns to the door. “They’re made of sturdy enough stuff to deal with a flesh wound or two. You saw to that. And you deserve the credit, Addie. Not Green. Let’s go.”

I deserve the credit, he says, but I know why he insists I accompany him. I’m his daughter, and if he parades me in front of his co-conspirators, he gets to claim my value to them as his own.

All my life, all I wanted was to prove to my dad that I was worthy of his pride. That my brain was more of an asset than an alpha son would have been.

Now I finally have it.

As I walk through the corridors between three of the soldiers I created, I know he is proud of me. Proud of the power and position he now has because of me.

I thought, once this day finally came, I’d be proud too.

I just feel numb.