Born with nothing and to no one, Jebadiah Shadows was one of the lost boys. Lost in poverty and raised in a trailer park by parents who lived off the government and never worked outside of the home. Inside the home, they blew their government checks on drugs and booze.
There was never enough food on the table for him and his sister, so Jeb took care of her as best he could, feeding her food from neighboring women who took a liking to him.
When his sister fell prey to the vicious cycle of drug abuse, she also fell in with the wrong crowd. Drugs and depression took her to a place she could not return from. And when she died, Jeb lost his mind and his desire to get out of the park.
After hospitalizing four men for a heinous crime, he was incarcerated. The judge, a retired Navy officer, made Shadows do his time, but when he got out of juvenile detention, the judge took him under his wing.
Jebadiah Shadows worked his ass off to get into Annapolis Naval Academy. Then he worked even harder to get through it. While there, he met three men whom he bonded with: Jaxson Irons, a third generation Naval Officer whose family’s political ties and aspirations would lead him to the White House. Tanner Titan, whose academic testing scores were in the top two percent of the country and who was a genius, but he only aspired to be a Navy officer, a pilot, a hero. And William Cruz, a third-generation Mexican-American, whose family was stronger than any Shadows had ever known.
When William Cruz was killed during a training mission, the brotherhood of four became three. The plans they had made to follow Jaxson to the highest position in the United States of America, to be his support and confidants, to make the changes our country needed didn’t change. It was still what they all wanted...until last year.
When Jaxson fell in love with William’s sister, his parents objected. They demanded he stick with the plan. Therefore, a marriage to Francesca Cruz was forbidden. When Jaxson went against their wishes, though, all hell broke loose. Francesca was stalked and attacked, and Jaxson’s helicopter crashed, yet he survived. However, due to his injuries and circumstances, he had to take a medical retirement, and his family’s deepest, darkest secrets were revealed, causing Jaxson to turn his back on the plans they had made for him.
Still, the brotherhood the men had formed was stronger than any threat, and the plan was altered, but not forgotten.
Shadows and Titan continue to serve the country, and they deploy tomorrow. They will fly two by two for the first time ever while Jaxson stays ashore and tries to figure out what comes next.
***
A lamb is a sheep under a year old. As with most young animals, they depend on their mothers during that time for food, leadership, and nurturing.
Unbeknownst to a young, pure, innocent creature, they are protected from the dangers lurking around corners, and in the shadows. When they grow and become aware, they exhibit a flocking behavior, following their natural way, believing there is safety in groups of like kinds. Their almost blind instinct to follow a leader is so strong it sometimes fails to produce the effect they seek—refuge from their predators.
Wolf pups are born in litters, underground, visible to no one outside of their den. They are blind and deaf. Their survival is dependent on their mother. She regulates their body temperature and feeds them every four to six hours. She doesn’t leave them, because if she did, they would die.
Members of the pack bring food for her to eat while she takes on the task of keeping her pups alive.
Wolves are believed to mate for life. Once sexually matured, a wolf will leave their birth pack with their mate to find new territory. In the case of a true Alpha wolf, they seek to start their own pack or take over an existing one. If they are not the strongest, they become part of a new pack, their new family by choice or circumstance.
Both animals know there is strength in numbers, but only one instinctively leaves to become the strongest, to become a leader, to capture its prey with a clear and distinct focus on devouring it in order to survive.
Mary Ward was one of two college roommates of my best friend and fellow soldier, Jaxson Irons’ new wife Francesca at Old Dominion in Norfolk, Virginia. Francesca, or Frankie, is also the sister to another friend, a brother, a fellow helicopter pilot who died during a search and rescue mission, William Cruz.
Jaxson, Titan, William, and I formed a stronger bond than even the military could provide. Although we were all property of the United States Navy, we were friends, brothers, and family first.
I met Mary when shit got ugly for Frankie, and she got jumped. Jaxson needed to find out if it was her ex or brought on by his family’s political ties.
I ended up staying with them while he went in search of answers. Being left behind to look after the women aggravated me. The annoyance passed, however, when the five-foot-three, raven-haired, blue-eyed, pale-skinned vision made my chest rumble as our eyes met.
Women look at me in many ways: lust, want, desire, appreciatively, with excitement, with anticipation, need, even hope. No one ever looked at me the way she did that day. No one looked at me with the type of fear I saw in her when she first saw me. No look ever affected me the way that one, in that moment, affected me.
For months, I have caged my desire and fought back the need to capture my prey. I have watched her fight her own desire, mask her confusion, and listen to the words she says, yet doesn’t mean.
I have studied her. I know who she is and what she is running from. I know what she is running to and why. I know what makes her the way she is, and I want to show her how to leave behind the false protection of the flock she surrounds herself with.
I want to dominate her and break her down, and then I want to build her up. I want to slaughter the lamb and watch Mary rise from the ruins, a strong, unbreakable woman who will never be a victim again.
The time to hunt, capture, and play is over. There is no time. Tomorrow, I leave for a mission, but first, I will finish what I started here.
Tonight, I will slaughter the lamb.
Tomorrow, I will leave to defend my country.
Does this make me a selfish bastard? No. It makes me exactly who she needs me to be.
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