Page 13 of Their Marked Mate

“Everyone is disrespectful at fifteen,” Luna objected. “Did Jax call the police? The old man was still legally responsible for Alex.”

“After the beating he’d taken, Alex didn’t want to go home. Jax was in his early twenties, but he was smart and ambitious. He agreed to let Alex stay, but he had to work at the warehouse Jax managed every day after school.”

Luna tensed and wariness shadowed her expression. “That sounds like a reasonable compromise. Why do I feel like things are about to go from bad to worse?”

“Because they usually do.” Nate paused, his gaze lingering on her face. She was attentive, but was the story having the desired effect? They needed her to see that there was more to lupine shifters than brutality and bloodshed. Alex would likely be pissed when he realized how much Luna knew, but it was worth whatever price Nate was made to pay. “Criminals often take advantage of street kids. And Jax and Alex were ripe for manipulation. The warehouse Jax managed was a distribution center for stolen merchandise. Jax called his boss and asked for assistance dealing with his battered brother. The organization sent a doctor to Jax’s apartment.”

“Are you talking mafia or just a street gang?” Luna shivered then held her hands out toward the fire.

“Somewhere in between. I don’t think they had old world ties, but the network was widespread and extremely organized.”

“And I thought my childhood sucked,” she muttered as she faced him again. “How did Alex end up at Nuevo Biotech?”

“The organization took care of Alex, so the brothers owed them a debt.” Nate paused, debating which details to include in the next section of the story. “Alex started out as a courier but ended up running a massive territory. He was reckless and ruthless, and not afraid of the police. He’d been arrested six times when he turned twenty and was looking at a ten-year prison sentence at twenty-three.”

“It’s hard to blame the outcome on Alex when all of his role models were so flawed.” Her dark brows drew together as she absorbed the information. “Did you and Alex meet in prison? Is that how Nuevo got their hands on you?”

“To my knowledge, none of Nuevo’s test subjects were taken from prison. That was just the story they liked to tell. The vast majority came from the military, and that’s where I met Alex.”

“How did Alex go from prison to the military?” She slipped her hands into the back pockets of her jeans, which thrust out her breasts.

Nate enjoyed the display, but was relatively sure she wasn’t doing it to arouse him. She seemed distracted by the events he was listing. Distracted and upset, a combination that surprised Nate. She didn’t even like Alex. Why should she care if his past was filled with adversity?

“He never made it to prison,” Nate told her. “The judge read through Alex’s history and insisted that the system failed him. She offered Alex military intervention as opposed to long years in prison. To no one’s surprise, Alex chose the military. The program he belonged to was strict to the point of brutality, but Jax had received the same option a few years earlier. Alex didn’t hesitate. He was chipped and supervised, but there was freedom he wouldn’t have had otherwise and an outlet for his rage.”

She studied him thoughtfully for a moment then asked, “Were you in this intervention program too?”

He shook his head. “I belonged to a highly specialized team.”

“That sounds impressive.” She smiled at him. “Was this black ops shit or something less dramatic?”

“Definitely black ops shit,” he admitted. “My team was supported by Alex’s, but we were technically in different branches of the Planetary Defense Force. Our commanders knew each other and had enough seniority to influence the mission assignments. They liked working together and the two teams meshed well. There wasn’t a lot of down time, but bonds form fast in the military.”

“How did you end up at Nuevo?” Before he could respond she added, “You don’t have to explain if you don’t want to talk about it.”

“Alex’s entire unit was sold to Nuevo.” He paused, not sure how she would react to the next revelation. “I volunteered.”

Her eyes widened and she stared at him in stunned silence for a moment. “Did you know what they intended to do?”

“The short answer is yes, but the long answer makes more sense.”

“I’ve got time,” she encouraged.

He’d already stayed longer than he’d intended, but earning her trust was more important than securing an alliance with Soko. “My unit was subcontracted to provide off-world security for Nuevo Biotech. We weren’t allowed to interact with the hybrids, but it didn’t take long for us to find out about them. One night while patrolling the hallways, I spotted Alex and several others that I knew.”

“Would you have been court-martialed if you blew the whistle?”

“I had no way to blow the whistle. Our mission was considered Top Secret. We weren’t allowed contact with Earth.” He accented the word mission with finger quotes. “The Griffen Project was funded by a military consortium. Anyone who threatened what they were trying to accomplish simply disappeared.”

After a brief pause, she asked, “When and why did you volunteer?”

“We’d been there almost a year when Babcock asked for volunteers. He was honest and direct with us, which made the rumors about forced captivity seem unlikely. He explained that he was working with wolf DNA and that the targeted mutation would be excruciating. He admitted that there was only a sixty-four percent chance of survival, but we would likely be able to read minds and sense emotions.”

“Knowing all that, you still agreed to do it?” Disbelief filled her voice. “Why?”

“I wanted to shapeshift and read minds.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Why does that surprise you? Alex’s life story might as well be mine. I went from poverty to crime to the military. Becoming a hybrid just made it all more interesting. Besides, my friends were now wolf shifters. I wanted to rejoin the team.” He could no longer read her expression, and he wasn’t willing to scan her mind.

It took her a long time to respond, yet her reaction pleased him when she finally spoke. “You’re braver than I am, but I get it. I never had a problem with what Babcock did. I was horrified by how he did it.”