Page 78 of Sigma
“Your measurable alpha markers are higher than an average alpha. Not as high as these council alphas, but close.”
“So, practically a super-alpha,” Cicely puts in and smiles. “My super-sigma male.”
She winks.
“And there are unnatural reasons for that,” Mitch says, which wipes the smile from my mate’s face.
“Unnatural?” Cicely asks.
“Right around thirty-two years ago, your father participated in a clinical trial with a group of betas. It was an experimental drug that would give betas the same strength as an alpha, but with a caveat that it wouldn’t result in mutiny. It’d lend strength and cunning to the beta’s pack without a threat to leadership.”
I straighten up.
He keeps going. “The experiment was unsuccessful. The betas increased in strength and came into strong alpha traits, but the behavioral aspect changed with it. Almost every one of them challenged their alphas or behaved with excessive aggression. Some wound up dead, some became alphas. Some were run off from their packs and became lone wolves, which presented problems in every single case.”
Shit. Cicely gets closer, looking to lend me strength. Fuck, I adore this woman.My woman.
Mitch continues, “My understanding with your father is that he was butting heads with his brother, the alpha, and stayed away most of the time.”
“Yep.” Exactly that. I was close to my old man, but he was a visitor in my life rather than a fixture.
“You are one of the few surviving alpha shifters who are offspring of this group,” he says. “There’s a high level of a particular protein showing up in your labs illustrating that the results of the drug your father took was passed on genetically. The resulting chemistry, coupled with severe trauma just prior to maturity is what I believe resulted in your current situationwith your animal. A variety of ends were met by other alpha offspring in the control group. To our knowledge, you are one of three surviving male alpha offspring out of seven from the group. One is a well-adjusted alpha who leads a pack. He has a healthy relationship with his wolf. The other has violent tendencies, is missing and wanted for crimes against his pack. You’re the third.”
“Just three out of seven? I have a question,” Cicely states and Mitch gestures for her to go ahead.
“Why the fuck are the SCC playing with peoples’ lives through medical experiments?” she demands.
Mitch’s expression changes. He doesn’t like her tone, obviously. “The SCC has many medical trials on the go on an ongoing basis. It’s one of the many ways we support supernaturals. Breeding programs to breed stronger beings, smarter ones. Clinical trials to help eradicate illnesses. A variety of programs for very strong and gifted supernaturals. Highly classified projects that I can’t talk about, some I don’t even know about. The trial Jeremiah Stone participated in is also highly classified. Anything we discuss with respect to SCC medical trials mustn’t leave this building. And that’s non-negotiable.”
“Threats? Nice. So Jared has to keep the reason for his wolf’s nature a secret?” she asks.
“Top secret,” he confirms.
Cicely looks affronted.
“Where’s my father now?” I ask. “Linc said he’s alive. My uncle told us he died while away on assignment for the pack.”
“Your father is alive, incarcerated, and all I can glean thus far is he was deemed psychologically unfit for release. He’s in a maximum-security supernatural prison. I’ve requested therecords and I’ve yet to receive them. You were the first alpha offspring to reach maturity in that group. Any betas born from group participants are all fine, no issues. Same with the few omega children that came from that group. By the time the investigation got to your pack with the death of your alpha and dots were connected about you being wanted for killing him and several betas from the pack, you were missing. There was a leadership change at the SCC, I wasn’t on the council then, but it seems likely that the transition process meant the case closed without adequate attention to finding you after the pack had been dismantled. There are no active warrants for you, likely because you were still considered a child by your age and didn’t cause any further trouble after you disappeared. The file was officially closed three years later. They assumed you were dead or reverted to wolf and stayed that way.”
“Does Jared’s dad’s wolf behave like Jared’s wolf?” Cicely asks.
“Given the testimony about the state of that pack under the leadership of Michael Stone, I believe Jared’s wolf behaves as it does because of trauma response. As I said, there’s an alpha offspring from the control group who does have a scentless and rather lethal wolf with physical similarities to Jared’s, but he’s got full dominion over it.”
He reaches for a bottle of water and takes a sip before continuing. “Imagine shifters being given something to make them more alpha. Crossing through DNA, offspring omegas might develop beta traits. Betas would have alpha traits. Alphas would have extra-alpha traits. If he’d been raised in a healthy environment, he could still have the wolf he does but he’d have a connection to it like that alpha I mentioned. Our wolves protect this form. We’re designed to leverage our wolves to optimize our chances of survival. Your wolf emerged to protect you from your tyrant alpha uncle, feeling the need to protect your familyfrom him. All accounts point to the likelihood that a switch was flipped when you’d reached your limit for abuse as you reached maturity. Your first shift resulted in the alpha being killed. Then… the betas who harmed your mother and sister.”
“Wait,” I say, and ask, “What do you know about what happened to my mother and sister?”
“It’s likely that’s why your wolf came back a third night. To avenge their deaths,” Mitch says.
Does he know this for a fact or is it being assumed? I don’t ask. I’m assuming nobody told him what I’ve said about my wolf murdering my family.
Did my wolf murder them? Or did it avenge them?
I work hard to pay attention to the rest of what he’s saying, though it’s not easy.
“It’s highly likely your wolf emerged early as a result of the abuse you endured leading up to your maturity. It emerged to protect you. Extra-large, more teeth, more strength. With most alphas, a first shift presents an adolescent wolf. Sounds like your first shift emerged a fully-grown wolf. And it’s likely the trauma of loss surrounding those days around that first shift disconnected you from your wolf. Without connection to this side of you, your wolf continues on in that state it first emerged in – one of fighting for your life as well as for revenge.”
This is a lot to take in.
