Unlocked (The Alpha Group 3)

His lovemaking was different now. Every time before, I'd seen a new side of him; sometimes dominant, sometimes soft, sometimes hungry, but this was all of those things together; fierce strength combined with loving tenderness. I felt like I was finally getting all of him, no more shields, no more secrets, he was finally letting it all go, and it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever experienced. In that moment I knew that I was his and he was mine.

As his rhythm reached its crescendo, the pressure building in my core began to swell. I wrapped my hands around his neck, fingers digging into his flesh, his body tightening in time with mine as we came together.

"God, I've missed you," he said, laying his forehead against mine as we caught our breath. Standing there above me, dishevelled and bathed in sweat, he looked absolutely radiant.

I nuzzled my nose against his. "Me too."

We moved over to the bed and lay, for a while, in each other's arms. The bliss I felt in that moment almost made it possible to forget everything that had happened; we were just an ordinary couple, snuggling together, after making love.

"I love you," I said again, turning to stare him in the eyes.

He smiled. "I'll never get sick of hearing that." His expression slipped a little, and I knew we were about to come hurtling back to reality. "I hate to break the moment, but we aren't done talking. If we're really going to do this, there's some things we need to think about."

"Okay," I replied cautiously, half afraid he was going to go off the deep end again.

He took his time choosing his words. "Even when we get through whatever is going on right now, I don't know exactly how we make this work." He raised his hand to cut off my objections. "I'm not saying we don't try. I can't deny this anymore, Sophia. I love you, and for some stupid reason you appear to return the feeling."

"I'm a slow learner, I guess," I replied.

He shot me a half smile. "The fact is, you're here and you're involved and you know things you shouldn't know. And my brothers... some of them are already worried about you. They're distracted now, but when things settle down, and we're still together, they're going to start asking questions of their own, and I don't think they're going to like the answers."

I'd been wondering about that. I may have been saved from immediate danger, but the longer I spent in the Alpha house, the more I realised that I wasn't as safe as I'd thought. I couldn't just forget everything I'd seen, and these people knew it. "So what do we do?"

He shook his head. "I don't know."

"You kind of make it sound like we're doomed, no matter what."

"No, no, that's not what I meant." He exhaled sharply. "I'll figure something out. For now, we just need to tread carefully. We both know a lot of people don't approve of your presence here, so let's not give them any reason to take it further."

Once again I felt an uneasy feeling settle in my stomach. "Are you sure about the people who kidnapped me?" I asked carefully. "Because if there's any chance it was someone here, we might wind up playing right into their hands."

"I'm sure," he said firmly. "These men are my brothers. Besides, whoever took you also killed Charlie and Simon. Nobody here would do that."

His certainty put my mind at ease; well, as at ease as was possible with some kind of rogue terror group trying to kidnap me. "You've used the word 'council' a few times," I said, spotting another chance to sate my curiosity, "is that like the Alpha board or something? I've been trying to work out how you make your decisions."

His jaw tightened a fraction. "I'm not sure I should talk about that."

"Oh come on. They're already going to be super angry if they find out what you've told me so far, right? So how much worse can it get?"

He hesitated, but eventually gave a resigned smile. "I guess you have a point. Yeah, in a nutshell, the council runs things in this area; it's in control of the Asia Pacific region. Other regions are run by different groups."

"And you're on it?"

He nodded. "Almost everyone here is, except the muscle, drivers, and house staff."

"So that makes you kind of a big deal, then?" I asked with a grin.

He laughed. "Kind of."

It made sense. I struggled to picture Sebastian anywhere but the top of the ladder, regardless of what he was doing.

"So it's like a democracy? You all just vote on everything?"

"Yes and no. For most decisions, the whole council has a say, but ultimately there still needs to be a figurehead, to settle disputes and keep the group operating smoothly. The official title is Archon."

"Archon?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

He shrugged. "Blame the Greeks. We're stuck with it now."

I laughed. "And who is this Archon?"

His face took on a strange expression. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" I said slowly. "How can you not know?"

"It's a secret, even amongst the group. The heads of each cell have an immense amount of power. For example, they're the only people with access to the full list of Alpha personnel worldwide. If that sort of power fell into the wrong hands, the damage would be catastrophic. So they stay hidden, just in case."

I licked my lips as I tried to process this. "But how does that work?"

"Well, the council has sixteen members, one of whom is in charge. By all appearances, they are just a regular member of the group. Anything that requires their attention as the Archon is dealt with through the Alpha computer network. The commands come anonymously, so nobody but the Archon and their lieutenant know the source."

"Lieutenant?"

He nodded. "The Archon chooses a second in command, someone to take over if anything happens to them. They're like a backup. Otherwise, there would be no way to choose a new leader when the existing one dies. The lieutenant is the only other person that knows who runs the show. It's a little eccentric, I know, but it works."

"I was going to say paranoid, actually."

"Maybe that too. We didn't always do things this way, but about five hundred years ago, one of our enemies managed to infiltrate the group and, through the Archon, they learned everything. We lost hundreds of members and years of progress. So we devised a system to stop that happening again."

It all seemed incredibly mysterious, but then again, that was true of the entire situation. Besides, on some level, that just added to the coolness of it all. I was basically living in a conspiracy theory!