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“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 intoheat.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. Forsecurity 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.”
THIRTEEN
AX2
“W-What?” AX2, still trying to grasp the impossibility that hehad a chance at escape and didn’t take it,freezes.
“No woman will respect her alpha if he can’t put her in her place when it’s needed, least of all my Addie. Not being able to give you orders like you’re subhuman should sort her out quick enough.” He puts the tablet back in the satchel and reaches for his drink again.
There is no possible way any of this is real. None. “You’re not afraid I’ll kill her?”
