Page 15 of Protector

When I return with a tray of coffee and cookies—the chocolatey kind my mother doesn’t allow him at home—he is sitting on my couch. But rather than relaxing into its plush comfort, he seems to be scanning the room.

Even though I scrubbed every square inch of my space from top to bottom, twice and with bleach, the knot in my stomach still pangs.

“What are you looking for?” I manage with a casual ease I don’t feel. I sit on the edge of the armchair facing the couch, the muscles in my back too tense to allow me to lean back.

He flicks his eyes back to me, briefly, before he reaches for a cookie. “A stomach bug, hmm?”

I swallow around a lump in my throat. “Yes, I?—”

“Addie.” He dunks his cookie once into the coffee—black, no sugar—and lets out a weary sigh. “I watched the security footage from your lab.”

There is a ringing in my ears. I can barely focus on it through the sinking feeling traveling down my chest and landing somewhere by my tailbone. “What? W-Why would you?—?”

His steely gray eyes flick up to mine again, this time holding my gaze. “Because my only daughter went near-radio silent, and my wife was losing her mind. Is that really what you think we should discuss?”

It sure beats the alternative. I glare at him, because anger is the only shield I can grasp for. “Uh,yeah.If a three-star general uses the internal security systems at a government facility to spy on his daughter, I think that warrants some discussion.”

My snippy tone merely makes him raise his eyebrows. “Let’s not touch on what a three-star generalshouldbe doing after he witnesses what you did to that man, Addie.”

“He’s not a goddamman!”I snarl, but the rage that flames up through my esophagus is not from his continued dismissal of my repeated explanations that the AX class aren’t men. I expect that of him—all he’s capable of seeing is the alpha nature remaining.

“Addie.” My father puts down his cookie before he folds his hands and sighs again, the sound much like a patient parent indulging their toddler’s tantrum. It only infuriates me further.

“Don’t!”

“Did he trigger a heat?”

And there it is. I open my mouth to spit out a denial—tell him he is delusional —but the words won’t come. It’s what I told myself over and over again after I fled the compound that night. All the way home, while my stomach cramped and sweat soaked my car seat and thoughts ofhishands on me swarmed my mind, and right up until slick flooded my thighs and there was no more refusing the truth.

It took three days before the feverish, agonizing need subsided and my cognitive function returned, flooding me with the horrific truth of what had happened.

“Sweetheart.” My father’s voice is uncharacteristically soft. “There’s no need to be ashamed. I know this isn’t something you’ve ever been interested in, but sometimes nature just takes things into its own hands, hmm? You’ve spent years on your career. This is only your body reminding you that it’s high time you start looking for a husband.”

Of course.Of coursethat’s his angle. It’s been his shitty mantra since before I came of age. I just bet that behind the concerned facade, he’s fucking delighted that out of nowhere, my body’s decided to commit mutiny. In his primitive brain, it’s proof that all his obstinate daughter really needs for eternal happiness is for a big, muscles-for-brains alpha to take her in hand.

In some way, it’s almost a relief to return to the familiar argument. As much as it infuriates me, there is comfort in this one known factor amid the scary new reality that I can no longer trust my own body.

I glare at him. “You really believe that, don’t you? It doesn’t matter that I have spent fifteenyearson becoming a leading expert in bioengineering—not even when I use that expertise to giveyouthe most powerful weapons the U.S. military has seen since the atom bomb. To you, my only true valuestilllies in becoming a broodmare, doesn’t it?”

“It’s got nothing to do with your value,” he sighs. “Your mother and I just want you to be happy, sweetheart. You’re a brilliant scientist, but do you really want to keep coming home to this empty apartment every night? What happened between you and that soldier—that’s the kind of stuff that can bring you true happiness, if you let it. No one can deny biology, Addie. Not even you.”

I suck in a sharp breath when it finally hits me what he’s really saying. “Are youinsane?Are you actually suggesting that because my body reacted when I wasattacked,it means I’m supposed to give up everything I’ve worked for to settle down and play housewife? With amachine?

“You get that’s what he is, right? He’s not a human, no matter how much you insist otherwise. I should know—I’m the one whowiredhim. I’ve welded every inch of metal that keeps his body together. I programmed the chip that controls his entire brain.Me.Whatever remains of what he was before is no more than you’d find in any animal. Are you really so desperate to see me married off that literally any alpha who’ll sniff in my direction will do?”

My father shakes his head, a sad draw to his mouth. “I’m sorry you see it that way. I’d have hoped experiencing a heat would have softened you, but I guess I should have known better. You’ve inherited that stubbornness from me, after all.”

He stands up and gives me a smile that twists my heart. However much he infuriates me, I hate seeing him upset.

“I’ve got to get back to your mother.”

I nod. “Tell her there’s no need to worry about me.”

He snorts as he walks to the hallway. “I might as well ask a hurricane to be less windy. She loves you, so she worries. You know that.”

I do. I open the door for him with a sigh. “Does she know about… what happened?”

My father gives me a long glance. “I don’t keep secrets from her.”

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