Table of Contents
Copyright
Title
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Author's Note from Madison
Author's Note from Willow
Also By
Madison Stevens Author Bio
Willow Hazel Author Bio
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents depicted in this work are of the author’s imagination or have been used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, locations, or events is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2020 Madison Stevens and Willow Hazel
No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without the prior written permission of the author.
Cover designed by Najla Qamber Designs
Maximus (Luna Lodge: Alpha Squad #1)
by
Madison Stevens and Willow Hazel
Freedom isn’t the end. It’s the beginning.
Escaping from the clutches of an evil organization didn’t mean peace and quiet for Maximus. The hybrid supersoldier has spent his time hunting those seeking to exploit and imprison his kind. He has little hope for the future as a final manipulation might leave him unable to find his destined mate. The only thing left is to throw himself into the mission.
Hope is where you find it.
Selena’s big plans to turbocharge her production assistant career backfire spectacularly when some local bureaucrats in Hawaii decide to make her simple attempt to get permits painful. Desperate to keep her job, she digs into their reluctance and stumbles into something far more sinister.
It’s time to make a choice.
When Maximus and Selena cross paths, he’s instantly drawn to her, but attraction isn’t the same thing as her being his destined mate. There’s little time to consider romance when bullets start flying. Now they’ll both have to put their lives on the line against a dangerous and ruthless enemy.
Chapter One
Maximus adjusted his sunglasses before stepping out of the convenience store and into the parking lot. It was barely illuminated by a single flickering light pole in the far corner. The darkness was welcome. It could serve as a part of his disguise.
He had meant to put in contacts to conceal his amber-colored eyes marking him as a hybrid before his trip into town, but it’d slipped his mind.
Sloppy. He couldn’t afford sloppiness. Things weren’t safe for him and his men, not yet. The happy reports on the news about hybrids being free of their past captors didn’t reflect the dangerous reality of secret groups still hunting them.
Quiet whimpering reached his ears. It wasn’t that close. From what he could tell, the source was across the parking lot, around the corner, and down a nearby alleyway. If he had normal human hearing, he might not have even noticed.
“Keep quiet, or this knife’s gonna go in your throat,” whispered someone from around the corner. “Now give me your purse, bitch. I’m getting really tired of holding this knife. My hand may twitch. Wouldn’t want something bad to happen.”
Maximus sighed. He should walk away. He told his men all the time to keep a low profile and that people knowing about hybrids wasn’t the same thing as their kind being safe. The news might have changed from depicting them as ruthless woman-kidnapping feral genetically engineered wolfmen to heroic super-soldiers, but that didn’t mean that everyone trusted them.
Some people were waiting for a chance when the hybrids got distracted. At that time, those humans would attempt to reclaim what they considered their property. Maximus’s group lacked the numbers of the now famous Luna Lodge hybrids, and even those hybrids retreated to their own secret island for safety.
The primary organization responsible for the creation and enslavement of his group of hybrids, the Phoenix Corps, hadn’t been destroyed, not completely. All it took was money and dedication to keep a sick cause going.
That brought him back to the moment. Walking away from the mugging would be the smart move. Humans preyed on humans all the time. That wasn’t his responsibility. Hybrids might have superhuman abilities, but they weren’t superheroes.
Maximus grunted and jogged through the parking lot and around the corner. Screw safety. Screw smart moves. There was no way he was going to leave a woman in trouble.
No, he wasn’t a human. He was better.
He turned the corner, unsurprised at the sight of a lanky thug holding a switchblade to the neck of a woman pinned against a wall. Tears ran down her reddened cheeks, with a thin cut marring her left one.
“Let her go,” Maximus growled. He reached over and grabbed a 2x4 lying in a stack near the wall. Shooting the man would be easier, but leaving a dead body would attract more attention than he wanted.
The thug’s head jerked toward him and his eyes narrowed. The man might be tall for a human, but Maximus made him look short. Maximus’s size might just convince the thug to run. That would be convenient.
“Get the fuck out of here,” the thug barked. “Unless you want some of this?” He waved the knife. “You ain’t nothing but a bigger target, asshole. You think I’m afraid of you?”
“The real question you should be asking is if you want some of this?” Maximus broke the board over his knee and tossed the pieces to the ground. He could take the man easily, but the best battle strategy was always to win without fighting. No fighting meant no risk. “I don’t like your face. How about I volunteer to rearrange it for you?”
The thug threw the woman to the ground. She landed with a yelp of pain. He raised his knife with a wide grin.
“It don’t matter how big you are, asshole,” the thug shouted. “I hope you like the hospital.”
Maximus raised his hand and gestured for the man to come at him. “I know a good doctor. She makes house calls.”
“Nah, not that. You won’t make it to the hospital. You want to be a hero? Maybe they’ll give you a medal at your funeral.”
The thug charged.
