Chapter 16
It actually was. Once the staff and guards had been neutralized in the building, it was as easy as keying one door at a time, greeting the shocked individual or couple inside with a few sniffs and words of reassurance.
They brought out their Packmates one and two at a time, gently and calmly, and they all remained docile for the most part as each tried to get over the amazement of seeing their Alphas very much alive.
Amara and Nick had practiced, together, exactly what they would say to each male and female. It was actually quite simplistic.
You are not to harm any human being. You are not to make any public display of your Morphate traits and nature. You will wait patiently during this transition for this Pack to reassemble. Watch the news. Exercise every human right you have within the letter of the law.
But that was only building one.
Nick chose the children’s labs next. The building bore six separate floors and this was the first warning they had that they were going to encounter six different protocols in each building.
Paulson had batched the children to match their adult guinea pig counterparts.
Nick and Amara could display dominance over at least one floor, the one that matched their protocol.
Once that floor was evacuated, the officials puzzled over what to do next.
“We would have to recruit the Alphas from each protocol,” Devona advised them from Amara’s side. “Unfortunately, two Alphas in a room together will be a death match.”
“Maybe not all of them,” Jamie spoke up as he held out a clipboard one of the doctors had handed him. “Look who is Alpha in building four.”
“Fuck me.” Nick laughed. “Kincaid Gregory! God, I bet that pissed Paulson off.” Despite his relishing the joke, Nick’s reaction was harsh and obvious with relief. Amara felt her throat closing in sympathy when she saw him turn his head to hide the emotion in his eyes from his boss.
“Yeah, well, now he knows how I felt trying to manage the two of you on a daily basis,” Mulloy retorted.
“Nick,” Devona interrupted with a soft warning, “pack mentality doesn’t account for brotherly bonds. Wolves dominate their siblings all the time. Siblings will war for Alpha just as any others might.”
“The difference is,” Nick retorted sharply, “we’re not a bunch of goddamn wolves.
We’re human beings. Or at the very least that’s the way we were raised.
” He frowned and Amara instinctively reached to touch him on his arm.
The simple contact seemed to relax him a bit, clearing his thoughts.
“I’m just worried about what made the difference in each protocol.
What did they do to him that they didn’t do to me? ”
“They won’t figure that out from the medical notes for a very long time,” Devona informed. “Only way to find out …”
“I figured as much,” he said grimly.
“But if you can do this, get two Alpha males to coordinate, you can tag team the rest and control their evacuations. It might still get hairy, but it’s better than the alternatives.”
“Well, then, better go get this brotherly reunion started. Amara,” Nick said, “you better stay here.”
“Excuse me?”
Nick frowned at the attitude in those two words and took in the aggressive hand on her curvy hip. “I don’t want you in the middle of this, Mara. He could be seriously altered. If I can’t control what he has become, you could get hurt.”
“I see. You can control me, right? Keep me in line right here?”
Nick hesitated when she snapped the words off at him very sharply. He glanced at the assortment of cops and scientists surrounding him. He saw Jamie grinning smugly as he waited to see what he would do next.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he said uneasily. “I just don’t want you hurt.”
“And I’m supposed to sit here and watch you potentially get killed by your own brother? Watch you get hurt? That’s different somehow?”
“Lordy, Amara,” Devona sighed, “preaching sexism to an Alpha male is like climbing Everest on roller skates. You aren’t going to get anywhere you want to go.”
“Stop it!” she cried, slamming a fist on the table near her and making the entire room of on-edge people jump in their shoes. She pointed sharply at Nick. “You’re a human being, too, damn you! You have a responsibility to act like one and to treat me like one!”
“I thought I was!” he shouted back at her. “One that I care about and want to keep safe! I won’t get you killed twice in one day. Not when neither of us knows just what might end up being permanent!”
“Get me killed?” she echoed. “You didn’t get me killed.”
“Yeah, man, she looks pretty much alive to me.”
“Shut up, Jamie,” Nick snapped. He turned on her again. “Paulson blew your brains out because he was trying to control me. Do you have any idea how that felt?”
She wasn’t the only one who looked at him like he’d lost his mind.
“I mean emotionally! I know you know how it felt physic—God! You drive me insane! You have since the moment I met you. I’ve been on an emotional bender for days now and it’s all connected to you.
I just need twenty minutes so I can talk with my brother without being afraid someone is going to take you away from me! ”
Amara stood there with her arms wrapped defensively around her lower ribs, her expression troubled but unreadable otherwise.
“Fine,” was her only response. Then she turned and left the room, pushing her way past the thick ring of people.
As soon as she left, Jamie said, “Nick, that girl is not ‘fine.’”
“Yeah. I can see that,” he responded, pushing away to go after her.
“Hey, what’s the wolf term for being pussy-whipped?” Carl asked snidely. “Bitch-whipped?”
“How about I show you the wolf term for what my fist down your throat feels like?” Nick snarled, turning on his former compatriot so nastily that nearly the entire room gasped to see the as-yet reasonable human male shift into a fanged, clawed creature.
“How about it, freak?” Carl egged him on.
“Nicky! Whoa!” Jamie stepped between the two men, eliciting another indrawn breath from those around them.
Nick realized the balls it had to take to step in front of such a frightening unknown as he had become.
Then he realized that to Jamie he’d never become an unknown.
Fangs, claws, or otherwise, Jamie had still seen him as the same man he’d managed for years.
It was why he’d looked away and given him a head start with news services. It made Nick feel instantly human.
It reminded him he hadn’t exactly remembered that Amara was a human female at heart. With very human needs. “I’ll be right back,” he sighed.
Jamie didn’t realize Nick could still hear him when he turned to Devona and asked, “Think it’s in bad taste to make a crack about him being ‘in the doghouse’?”