In this latest Alpha Geek installment, an orphan with a chip on her shoulder and a geek tasked with protecting the world must come together against all odds.

Myra struggles to overcome the abandonment she faced in her childhood. It’s left her with less than stellar interpersonal skills, but that doesn’t stop Nick from tasking her with meaningful cases. Of course, she never thought she would be one of his agents who ended up protecting her fated mate… until she meets Tucker.

Tucker is a genius nuclear physicist and engineer who travels around the world disarming and safely disposing of nuclear waste. In short, he’s never met a challenge he was afraid to face. When he meets Myra? He’s ready to fight for love.

Too bad they’re being targeted by some very dangerous people. That’s okay. Tucker doesn’t mind playing the long game. This geek will convince his tigress that compassion and love aren’t weaknesses, and that love is worth taking a chance on.

Chapter 1

Myra

Sinking her fists into the weighted bag, all Myra could do was fantasize about how good it would feel to connect her fists with flesh and not this stupid-ass vinyl.

She’d been working the bag for a little over half an hour and could already feel the sweat pouring down her body. Normally she would’ve hit the showers by now, but some of the other trainees had pissed her off enough to stay after practice to get her aggression out.

In both her and Meghan’s opinion, this was a much better option than taking it out in the locker rooms.

Myra danced back on the balls of her feet away from the bag, holding her fists close to her chest, and shifted her weight back to toss a quick kick to the side of it. It jostled on its chain, tinkering like small bells.

It made her want to puff up her chest.

She never got to use her full strength most days while sparring with her fellow trainees. Meghan deemed her just a little too vicious early on when she’d first entered the program. Though, she never really found that fair.

There were plenty of others who were just as mean-spirited as her, if not worse.

It made her roll her eyes. What did she know anyway?

Over the loudspeaker, there was a long beep before an automated message played.

“Myra Hopkins, please report to Nick’s office. Myra Hopkins, please report to Nick’s office.”

She straightened and blinked at the speaker. Why did she need to go to Nick’s? Had someone ratted on her for staying late after training again?

She shook her head. Well, whatever it was, it better be a good enough reason to break her training. She felt like she’d been on a roll, and stopping now just annoyed her.

Grabbing her towel off the mats, Myra patted her face dry. She wasn’t going to bother changing before heading over. What was the point if he was more than likely going to give her another lecture about proper cool-down times?

She roped the towel behind her neck and strode across the gym, the bar on the door cool against her skin when she touched it. Stepping into the hallway, she breathed in the fresher air, no longer weighed down by the mugginess of the training center.

The trip to Nick’s office was a straight shot, leading her past the mess hall to where all the private offices of the other agents were clumped together. She could see Nick’s door was open, her heightened hearing picking up a low murmur of several talking.

It made her raise her brow. So … she wasn’t getting in trouble?

As she approached the open office, she could hear Nick say, “We need to act fast if we want to catch Fuller. He’s a slippery bastard.”

She poked her head into the doorway. “Who’s Fuller?”

Everyone in Nick’s office turned to her. “Ah, Myra. Come in and take a seat.”

She made a face at him, aware of the three pairs of eyes staring her down. It was then that she realized that halfway through her extra training session, she’d stripped down to her sports bra and boy shorts.

Whoops. Guess they’ll all be getting a good look at my ass.

Sauntering into the office, she weaved between the two men in suits who were directly staring at her chest and bumped into their shoulders roughly before taking a seat on the couch across from Nick’s desk.

He let out a small snort at the action but didn’t say anything before addressing the room again.

“Like I was saying, we need to act quickly in order to make sure Pillman has enough time to figure out what exactly they’re after.”

Myra leaned back on the couch, twisting the towel around her neck. “Thought you said his name was ‘Fuller’?”

“I did.”

She opened her mouth, ready to question Nick again, when one of the suits turned and gestured toward her.

“I’m sorry, Nick. But who the hell is this?”

Nick nodded at her. “This is Myra. She’s going to be assigned to the case.”

That made Myra blink and sit up straight. Case? He was giving her a case?

She couldn’t help the glee that rushed through her.

Finally! I get to get out of this place for a little while.

“You’re letting some Instagram model in short shorts protect our client?”

“My client, Senator.” Nick corrected, crossing his arms. “He called me.”

The other man scoffed. 

“Excuse me,” she let her voice pull the attention back to her, “I’m right here.”

The man … Senator Who Cared … glared at her. “We aren’t talking to you. This is a very important meeting.”

That had her gritting her teeth.

Okay, fuck this guy.

She shifted into her saber-tooth tiger and jumped across both men standing in front of Nick’s desk. They both let out high-pitched yelps and dropped to the ground.

She landed on top of the desk, scattering the papers that had been placed there only moments before. 

Next to her, Nick sighed. “I needed those.”

Smugly, she sat back primly and let her claws perforate holes through the remaining few pages left on top of the wood surface.

Across the way, both men in suits slowly lifted themselves off the floor, their eyes wide while they stared at the giant fangs protruding from her upper lip. She let out a low growl, making them both scoot away from the desk.

Assholes.

“Since we’re waiting on our client,” Nick went on, merely watching the two men slowly rise to their feet again. “I’m going to tell you about what you’re being assigned to, Myra.”

She moved her head around to face Nick and shifted back into her human form.

“Go on,” she said while crossing her legs.

He shook his head at her and turned, grabbing one of the silk robes off the back of his office chair and tossing it at her.

“Tucker Pillman. He’s going to be your charge. Right now, he’s under threat from a group we don’t have a lot of information on other than their name. Their leader is named Silas Fuller. All we know about him is that he’s proven dangerous.”

“Okay,” Myra draped the robe around her and loosely tied it around her waist. “So what did this Redpill guy do?”

“Pillman,” Nick corrected. “He didn’t do anything. He’s a nuclear physicist and highly sought after for his work. I can only guess what Silas wants with him, or rather, why he wants to get rid of him.”

Myra frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, where is he now, this Pillman guy?”

“He should be here soon. He’s headed back to the US from another country. He was attacked over there, and that’s when he called us.”

“Was he injured?”

“No, but his bodyguard was. That’s why I’m calling you in.”

That didn’t sound good. How much trouble was this guy in? She didn’t think nuclear physicists were capable of getting into that much trouble, but maybe she hadn’t been keeping up on her science-gossip trivia lately.

Right then, there was a knock on Nick’s door frame before another man poked his head in.

“Am I all set to come in?”

Nick waved his arm. “Tucker, good to see you’re back. Come in and let me give you the rundown.”

Myra couldn’t help but stare at the man as he moved away from the doorframe and edged his way inside of the room.

He was very different than she’d expected. He was around average height with a lanky build that made him look almost dwarfed in his oversized pullover. And he wore a fanny pack. Really? Who wore those anymore? 

His thick-rimmed glasses covered beautiful gray eyes that Myra couldn’t help but follow while he looked around the room at everything and everyone.

He ran a hand through his dark hair and finally settled his eyes on Myra.

His focused gaze made her heart stutter in her chest.

… Oh no …

She wanted to jump up and run out of the room.

No … no, no, no!

She’d heard of this. That every person that had gotten assigned recently had ended up being matched with their fated mate. They’d all started joking about it at the training center, some of them even dubbing it “Nick’s Curse.”

She felt her arms tighten around her chest while her heart hammered. There was no way she just so happened to be paired up with her mate. Not this guy. This guy was … so … not her type.

He gave her a smile. “Hey.”

She swallowed thickly, not being able to look away from him.

Fuck, I’m screwed.

“Tucker, this is Myra Hopkins. She’s going to be assigned to you until we can figure out what’s going on. Myra, this is Tucker Pillman. He is going to be in your charge. I’m going to give you a file that you’ll need to read up on by the time you get to the safe house. Got it?”

She blinked, her eyes ripping away from Tucker’s and settling on Nick’s. “Alone?”

“Yes. That’s where you’ll be staying for the time being.”

Nick turned and looked around at the paper-covered floor behind his desk, bending to pick up a few sheets.

“Here, this is some of the paperwork you’ll need. I’ll find the other sheets before you both head out.”

Her fingers plucked the pages out of Nick’s hand, busying herself with running her nails over the edges of them and poking the corner of them at the sensitive skin under her nail.

 “We’ve set you up with a ride out. Something safe to travel in.”

Myra felt herself nod vaguely.

“With both of you there, it’ll give us time to figure out just what the hell these peoples’ motives are for attacking as they did and seemingly at random.”

“The only thing I can think of,” Tucker put a hand on his hip, “is that they were trying to interrupt us from removing those buried warheads. But I have no idea why. They’re too decrepit to be used anymore.”

“Well, whatever the case is, we’re going to keep you protected.”

Tucker nodded at Nick. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

Nick simply shrugged. “That’s what we’re here for. You call, we act.”

Tucker laughed. The sound made Myra drop her arms and fist her hands along the hem of her robe.

“Tell me that isn’t your slogan.”

Nick snorted at him before turning to the men in suits. “You got everything figured out on your end?” They both nodded. “Great. Let’s get this party started.”