“You handled him well,” Captain Hale said with a smile as we walked down the stairs.

“I was sure he’ll rip my head off…” I muttered.

“He’s a good man. They all are,” he said reassuringly. “Of course, I would’ve preferred to give my boys a proper heads up, but sometimes these things just don’t go the way we want.”

“I could’ve waited, sir,” I said. “I could’ve stayed back at my old base.”

He gave me a weird look when we stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “No. That wasn’t an option. Come. This way. Let’s start from my office.”

“Sir? What do you mean, it wasn’t an option?” I asked as I followed him.

“I know how omegas are treated here,” he said quietly. “If those people had learned you got accepted into their dream unit… I feared I’d have to pick up your pieces from the infirmary.”

“It’s not that bad here, sir,” I said, laughing lightly so he wouldn’t think I needed his pity.

He gave me a quiet look. “But it is,” he said.

We reached the end of the long hallway, and he opened the door for me. The office was just like any other military office with large file cabinets, massive bookshelves, walls filled with maps and pictures of the public enemies, and a big, sturdy mahogany desk below the windows. But the office wasn’t empty.

“Sir,” greeted the young guy with a black, curly mohawk …Nico? “I’m almost done with his clearance application.”

“Thank you,” Captain Hale said. “Like I said, Nico here deals with these things for me.”

“Because someone is bad with the email,” the younger alpha said with a grin.

“That’s what I keep telling him so I don’t have to deal with all that,” the captain told me, then turned back to his partner. “Did you find a laptop for Riley?”

“Yup. Brand new,” he said, patting a cardboard box on the edge of the desk, then turned to me. “If you don’t mind setting it up in your room. Just turn it on and let it download whatever it needs so I can come configure everything else for you.”

“Yes, sir,” I said with a nod.

He waved his hand at me. “Don’t sir me. I’ve got less years in this army and in life than you.”

Yet he still got accepted way before me…

“All right,” I only said.

“Let’s finalize your paperwork before we continue,” the captain said, and gestured for me to take a seat in front of the desk. He shooed his partner out of the way and took his seat behind the laptop. “It looks like I just received your records. Let’s go quickly over your personal details first to make sure everything is correct.”

“All right.”

Everything was in order, as expected, but there was one little detail that caught the captain’s eye.

“Your blood type is O negative?” he asked, then glanced at his partner.

“Wow, that’s a match made in heaven,” Nico grinned. “Reid is also O negative.”

“So is Ethan,” the captain said, looking at me. “Now I have three hero donors.”

“Already stealing my blood, huh?” I said, and they laughed.

“Just saying,” the captain joked. “No, seriously. It’s good to know if one of you three needs blood, I’ve now got two of my own who can donate. I’ve had nightmares about it…”

“Also helps that all three of you can donate to everyone else,” Nico added.

“So uh… How often do people here lose so much blood they need transfusions?” I asked tentatively.

They both opened their mouths, glanced at each other, and turned to give me a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry about that,” the captain said.

“Great…” I muttered, though I wasn’t worried about it. I knew where I got myself into, after all.

“Anyway, here’s your tag,” the captain said, changing the subject and giving me a small, round badge. “Your entire life is in that tag, so if you lose it, you let us know right away so we can kill it.”

“It has everything you need,” Nico added. “It’s your key card, your wallet, your ID, everything. Without it, you won’t even be able to leave this building. It has a built-in credit card you can use at the stores here at the base, and gives you access to the common facilities around the area. Also you should know it will track your movements at the base, so don’t be anywhere you’re not supposed to be.”

“And by that he means we have a curfew. You have to be inside this building between twenty-two-hundred and zero-four-hundred when not on a mission. Not a minute too late, or you will face disciplinary actions.”

“Which means cleaning toilets,” Nico grinned.

“Curfew’s at ten?” I asked, frowning.

“I’m afraid so. Is that a problem?”

“No, it was at eight in my old unit,” I explained.

“Yeah, I remember…” Nico muttered. “It sucked.”

“Let’s move along. It’s almost dinnertime and I still haven’t shown Riley around,” Captain Hale said.

There really wasn’t much to go through, except for some house rules: no loud activities after curfew. Foods without names in the common area are free game. Everyone keeps their own rooms clean and helps to take care of the common areas and all the spaces downstairs. Basic stuff like that.

“You’ll have to stay here at our home base until you receive your clearances,” the captain told me when the two of us made our way out of his office, leaving Nico with my paperwork. “Unless you’re with me. I’m sure you’ll get yours on Monday, Tuesday at the latest, but I can show you around this weekend if you want.”

“I think I have enough to do and get used to right here, sir,” I said, peering at the larger rooms along the hallway.

And I wasn’t sure if I wanted to show myself to the rest of one-hundred and twenty alphas living in the inner base just yet.

There was one lonely door at the end of the hallway with a sign saying ‘Captain Hale’ on it.

“I thought that’s your office,” I said, nudging my head toward it.

“No, no, that’s my private area. My home here at the base. Come, I can let you take a look,” he said, and walked to the door.

He showed his tag to the keypad next to it, and the door was unlocked. He pushed it open, revealing a nice, clean, one-room apartment behind it. I spotted a bed in the furthest corner, a small living room area on the left, and a well-equipped kitchen on the right.

“I don’t really use it,” Captain Hale said. “Captains don’t usually have partners, but I made an exception with Nico. I live with him upstairs with everyone else, so I don’t have much use for it.”

“Got it,” I said, retreating from the door. “But now I’m curious why.”

“Why?”

“Why do you have a partner?”

He smiled at me and closed the door. “Like I said. I fix problems.”

I nodded and didn’t ask again. It was none of my business. I wasn’t even sure why I asked. I guess something about this man just edged my curiosity. He also made it feel like it was all right to ask.

Fuck, I liked him already…

“I should probably tell you I was studying to become a psychologist with a focus on natural behavior therapy. But then I joined the army, and never left,” the captain said while leading me to one of the larger rooms. “Which is why I still feel the need to fix people.”

“Makes sense. Are you good at it?”

He shrugged. “You’ll have to ask my boys.”

I nodded. “And what makes a shrink to become a soldier?”

He laughed lightly. “Everyone has asked me that same question,” he said, then sighed. “There was no demand for natural behavior therapy back in my day. This was back when True Order groups weren’t yet considered terrorist organizations. When they were still ruling the politics. Alphas had to be tough and manly and strong. True leaders. No one cared how our natural alpha and omega instincts affected our mental health.”

“Right, back when omegas were still nothing but enslaved baby factories,” I muttered.

“Exactly,” he muttered while opening one of the doors. “I’m glad to see the times are changing, but we still have a lot of work to do.”

I followed him in and stopped to look around.

“Right then,” Captain Hale said. “This is where we work.”

The room was filled with equipment and electronic gadgets. There were a dozen big, beefy computers, all with three large monitors and own printers. I spotted a few drones on their docks, plenty of cameras and recorders and phones, and whatever else needed to gather information from unsuspecting targets.

“Wow…” I whistled.

“Rule number one. Nothing leaves this room without my explicit permission. Not even a single flash drive, understood?” the captain asked, and I nodded.

“Rule number two. Everything we do here is strictly classified. You are not allowed to discuss or relay any information to anyone outside this room and your team. No matter who it is, no matter how high in the command chain they are, you are not allowed to tell them anything without my permission. It could be the president of this country, but you may not share any information. And if someone does try to get information out of you without consulting me first, you let me know. These people know you’re not allowed to say anything, so if they do try, I want to know.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Rule number three. Do not mix work and personal life. Everything work related must be done here. Every time you need to handle reports, papers, intel, anything, it happens here, using this equipment. There is absolutely zero tolerance for using social media and other sites considered for free-time activities on these computers. You will get in serious trouble if you try to open your twitter in this room. That’s what your personal laptop is for. And vice versa, if you get caught handling work related things on your personal laptop, you’ll get in even bigger trouble. You may use news sites and other informative sources on these computers though, even if they’re not related to your current job. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Great,” he said, and gestured for me to follow him back out. “I’ll make sure to fill you in with other rules, but these three are essential to our work. You’ll never know who is trying to spy on us, and where they lurk.”

“Understandable,” I said, and our tour continued.