Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
14
Leila leaned on the railing of the porch surveying the grounds around the cabin. One would never know that an entire camp had been set up anywhere in the vicinity. She’d pictured the tents right outside the cabin, maybe surrounding them, but they were unseen, just like the GhostWalkers seemed to be when they wanted.
Diego stood close to her. Very close. She wasn’t a woman who had ever felt the need to be protected, but she found herself liking the way Diego had such a protective vibe when he was near her. He liked physical contact. She would never have thought she’d want to be affectionate around others or have Diego hold her hand or put his arm around her waist, pulling her close in front of his friends, but she did like it. She wanted it. Maybe needed that closeness with him.
“I can disappear in a wilderness,” she admitted, “but I couldn’t hide an entire camp the way your friends have.”
“Does it bother you to have them all here?”
When he asked the question in that low, velvety voice, his palm slid up her back to curve around the nape of her neck. The movement was a slow caress that sent little flames flickering over her nerve endings. She decided it was Diego, not Mordichai, who was the leading authority on women, but she wasn’t going to give him more of an advantage than he already had.
She thought his question over before she answered. “It isn’t that they bother me. How could it? They came here to help. They’re willing to put their lives on the line for us. I’m just not used to being in such close proximity to so many men. I trained alone for the most part. The men who did come near me were usually those who were having trouble with the enhancements, and their aggression and dominant levels were out of control.”
Diego’s fingers moved on her neck, a slow massage that sent that burn flickering through her veins. At the same time, she felt tension she hadn’t known she had easing.
“These men are all enhanced,” he said, bending his head close so his lips whispered over her ear. “They are aggressive and dominant. Each of them. Some admittedly more than others, but they are. They consider you family, Leila. They would never hurt you or Grace, and they would fight to the death for you.”
She pressed her lips together, leaning back into his massage. She knew he was trying to reassure her, but her experience with many of the enhanced soldiers hadn’t been positive.
“Why do you suppose these men have been able to live with the enhancements when some of the other soldiers from Chariot’s lab have been affected so negatively? It doesn’t make sense. Chariot’s people were careful in their selections. The men they chose were good men. I don’t think any of them have the number of enhancements you and your friends do, and yet often they can’t handle it.”
“Whitney does a pretty thorough mental evaluation before he selects soldiers for the GhostWalker program. He prides himself on finding the men who can deal with the genetic enhancements. We weren’t told that would be in the works. All of us had tested for strong psychic abilities, and we were on board for enhancing those abilities. But Whitney was looking for men he could enhance genetically as well. I think the evaluations played a large part in finding those of us who could take the levels of aggression in the predatory DNA he put into us.”
“It’s scary to think that every one of these men have such predatory traits.”
He turned her to face him, tipping up her chin so her eyes met his. “I do, Leila. I have so many aggressive predators in me it isn’t funny. In certain situations, I feel more animal than human. I can’t say to you that aggression and dominance aren’t a huge part of me. I need to hunt. I don’t have to kill, but it is entirely too easy for me under the right circumstances. Most of us are that way. We have a code we strictly adhere to. And we help each other. We realized that there were no advocates for us, so if we wanted to survive, we would have to form close bonds between all the GhostWalker teams and back each other up.”
Leila wasn’t sure why she found it reassuring that Diego was so honest about the dominant traits in him, but because he shared with her so openly, she felt more comfortable with him. Trusted him more. It didn’t make sense, but there it was.
One of Diego’s more dominant traits was his protective nature. She wanted that for Grace and any future children she had. She wanted the stability of a home. Many of these GhostWalkers were married. According to Diego, they were devoted to their wives. She had paid close attention to the way they harassed one another, and it was always with affection. Each man had been introduced to her, and they had treated her with care and respect. Not one of the men had acted as if they were interested in her sexually. They didn’t make her skin crawl or raise alarms. They treated her more as if she were a sister than anything else.