Page 1 of Homecoming

ONE

December 2024

Aiden wokeup out of a dead sleep, something jangling at his senses. It took him just a moment to recognize the room. It was his bedroom, and Angela was sleeping peacefully beside him, but something was wrong. Had he had a nightmare? No. There was no fuzzy-headed feeling. Instinctively, he turned to look at the monitor on the bedside table. A tiny black-and-white screen connected to the camera that watched Fallon’s bedroom. Fallon was quiet, but she was sitting up in bed, looking around like she was trying to hear something.

Aiden sent his senses wide, trying to discover what it was that had woken him. He’d almost given up when he felt the slightest presence at the very edge of his reach. It wasn’t really doing anything. It seemed to just be monitoring. But there was a shadow to the presence that he didn’t like. It felt… dangerous. And it was closer.

Fallon snuffled, and that was enough to make him swing his legs out of bed. Angela shifted. “You all right?” she asked, her voice sexy and husky with sleep.

“I’m fine. Just checking on something.”

Fallon was staring at the door when he walked through. She’d felt him coming. As soon as he was close enough, she lifted her arms to him. “Dada,” she said, her voice tentative.

Aiden picked her up, snuggling her close, and she burrowed in. She was a little sleepy, so he wasn’t barraged by a bunch of images, just a general sense of being unsettled.

The older Fallon got, the more refined her broadcasting grew. When she was littler, the residents of the Dog Pound would be blasted by general feelings of being uncomfortable. Sometimes the feeling was somatic. Stomach aches. Headaches. Hunger. Dr. Elizabeth had put out a memo for residents to report unusual issues, then she’d compared it to Fallon’s activities. They had all lined up. Anyone even minutely psychically sensitive in the building knew when Fallon needed changed or was hungry. It was one thing to teach grown men to control their emotions, but a completely different game trying to expect a baby to do it. She couldn’t even walk, at the time. As a parent, it put him on edge. Yes, she needed cared for, but he didn’t want to spoil her and jump to her every whim.

Who was he kidding? He did spoil her. Happily. She was a brilliant little star, and he was so infatuated with her. Caring for her was the most important thing he’d ever done in his life.

They’d also realized that Fallon’s ability worked in the reverse. She could broadcast, but she could also receive and broadcast, and it seemed like she did it without thought. Just yesterday, Aiden was hit with a strong need to see Haven. He’d no sooner exited the apartment door than Haven was running to meet him with some emergency. Since they were both in the Elton building, they could have spoken mind to mind, but Fallon had streamlined the process.

His little girl was a wonder, but she had a huge target on her tiny back. It was why they had a team on her, twenty-fourseven, monitoring her mental well-being, even when they slept. Once they realized how strong she was, they’d had to develop ways to guard her, because if the men in the building could feel her, there was a strong chance enhanced soldiersoutsidethe building could as well.

So, security practiced building a mental shield around her. It was difficult because of distance. It was one thing to build a mental shield against attack around yourself. It was a whole new set of worms to try to do one around someone else several feet away. Because he did not want men in his apartment. It was the only place in the building they could be a family and not be watched all the time.

Michael Vaughn and Carlos Diaz were outside their door now. Vaughn was Fallon’s full-time guard, and Carlos was an Elton guard. It was a ridiculous use of manpower, but it was what they had to do to keep her safe.

Are you guys feeling that?he asked mentally.

Yes, sir, Vaughn answered.Started about five minutes ago but hasn’t gotten any closer. I think they’re just pinging her.

Let me know if anything changes.

Vaughn was a good guard, and he’d been with Fallon for the past few months. He was one of the strongest men Aiden had ever seen, both physically and mentally. He’d been a Delta before Shu had gotten his hands on him, and he’d been given a later version of the Spartan drug. It had had remarkable effects on his physical body. Vaughn said he’d been strong before, growing up the son of a ranch foreman in Wyoming. After the drug, he could literally lift the rear of one of the SUVs. Aiden had only learned about that story after they’d had a few beers one night. Vaughn was still pretty young, and a little crazy, but he had a personal ethos like no other. Aiden trusted him to protect Fallon completely. And Fallon loved him.

Dr. Shu and Damon Wilkes had worked with the government on their super-soldier Spartan project, and they’d brought in other countries to supply test-subjects as well. The men had had camps all around the world where they tested on their subjects with a half-dozen variations of the drug. Shu and Wilkes were long dead, and the senator that had been backing the program was in prison. Aiden knew that former Senator Hall still had very dirty fingers, even though he was officially persona non grata.

The US government had disbanded the program, but they knew that the other countries were still actively following the tenets of the program. Aiden’s group, the Dogs of War, had taken in as many of the test subjects as they could, thanks in huge part to Dr. Elizabeth Wilkes, now Terberger, and her deep pockets. She had taken over the Silverstone Collaborative, Damon’s company, and refocused the company’s interests on legal pursuits. And she had vowed to take care of any man her husband had had a part in testing upon.

The Elton building housed more than sixty men now, with about twenty more down in North Carolina building the Foxhole.

Aiden knew there had to be a lot more men out there being tested upon that they hadn’t found yet. Shu’s information was spotty at best, and it seemed like he had to go along with the connections that Damon had brought and that the military suggested he work with. They all wanted to be the strongest, and they didn’t care who they injured. Least of all their own military men.

It was a constant struggle, taking in men they recovered. The building’s hospital levels were always full, and Elizabeth, a general practice doctor, was running ragged. He knew Wulfe worried about her. They’d hired a significant medical staff to take care of the men, but it didn’t always seem like enough.There were a few men that were so deep in their pain that they took a whole staff to themselves.

They were making headway, though. Over thirty men were on Joint Task Force Omega, now, with more in training. The Elton building was packed to the gills with testosterone.

And babies. Potentially enhanced babies. They’d just learned that Nurse Raine was pregnant with Noah’s baby, and Angela thought Jordyn could be pregnant, though she hadn’t come out and said. With every new life they created with the enhanced soldiers, the building became more of a target.

“I think she’s asleep,” Angela murmured, brushing his arm.

He hadn’t even heard her come in, he was so lost in his thoughts. Seems like she was always creeping up on him. She was one of the very few people that could. He wasn’t sure if it was because of her Marine and law enforcement training, or because he didn’t register her as a threat.

Very carefully, he lowered Fallon back into the crib, pulling a light blanket over top of her. Then he turned to Angela.

In the glow from the nightlight, he could see her gentle smile as she looked down at her daughter. Her arms were crossed, like she was keeping herself from touching her, but her shadowed blue-grey eyes shone with pride as they looked down at her. Angela had been more than beautiful to him before, but motherhood had given her an extra something that he couldn’t describe.

Aiden turned her toward the door, and they crept out.

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