Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Goddess (Kindle Worlds Novella) (SEALed Fate Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Text copyright ©2017 by the Author.

  This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Stoker Aces Production, LLC. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Special Forces: Operation Alpha remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Stoker Aces Production, LLC, or their affiliates or licensors.

  For more information on Kindle Worlds: http://www.amazon.com/kindleworlds

  Dedication

  To SFC Darrell J. Newton, Ret

  Thank you for your service, love, and care. There is no greater pride in the world I have, than being your daughter.

  HOOH!

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Other Books by LeTeisha Newton

  Chapter One

  Snake

  Torrents of air buffeted his face as he leapt from the plane. It wiped everything from Viktor “Snake” Franklin’s mind but the mission and tucking Ahote against his body tighter. The eighty-pound Dutch German Shepard’s tailed whipped in the air, and Snake pinned it between the dog’s body and his. After a year of training with the animal, the two of them had been on ten missions together, and Snake trusted the dog with his life, and the lives of his team.

  That meant a lot.

  Especially when Xavier “Heim” Spencer decided to marry the damn Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy’s only child, Katya “Princess” Amerson. There was no such thing as not bringing her man home, not if any of the team didn’t want to eat their teeth for breakfast. Or see her cry. Tough as nails, Princess didn’t mind using coercion to get the five men on Heim’s team to do her bidding, and every single one of them broke their backs at the sign of a single tear. It didn’t matter that they’d seen her survive torture most people would buckle under. No one made Princess upset. No one.

  The dark water rose at rapid speed and Snake wrapped his arms around Ahote, extended his legs, and pointed his toes. The water would be cold and hard, but he’d slice through and push back up.

  “Geep,” he commanded to Ahote in Dutch. The word for hold alerted the dog he’d be hitting water. They couldn’t make the dog hold his breath, but he’d be aware of what was happening. The small mic on the back of Ahote’s custom bullet proof vest could carry Snake’s commands over four football lengths and through concrete to make sure the dog heard every command clearly. Snake felt, rather than heard, Ahote’s low growl in response to getting the command and braced for impact.

  1, 2, 3.

  Snake took a breath and held it as he sliced into the water. On reflex he exhaled slow as he kicked back toward the surface and propelled them up. A few seconds later, they broke the water’s surface.

  “Alpha team, move out. That drone needs to get up,” Heim ordered.

  “Roger,” Snake sent back.

  Thomas “Welsh” O’Connor tapped on his right shoulder, signaling he was in place. The man hated his name, of course. No good Scot wanted to be referred to as such, but the name stuck from BUD/s training. They sped to the inflatable boat waiting for them and piled in swiftly. The mission tonight was straightforward and dangerous. Two humanitarian members had been snatched and held for ransom by the same ISIS group that had taken Princess just two years prior. Though the SEALs knew the group operated out of Qatar, they’d been unable to find the money that financed them, a situation that kept them all on high alert. This attack, and subsequent ransom video, didn’t feel right. As the boat slipped to the shore, Snake got off and unlatched Ahote from his harness. The dog shook his head, ready to be free of the muzzle on his mouth set up for safety. Snake tapped Ahote’s shoulder and the dog lay on the sand while Snake adjusted his vest and engaged the night vision camera on his back so that Snake could see what he saw.

  “Drone up,” James “Cry Baby” Alvarez said along their mics. Snake huddled near Heim, Cry Baby, and Welsh to view the feed. Eric “Hawk” Standing and Oh “Glitz” Byung-Lee cased down the beach and protected the perimeter.

  “Intel was a bit off,” Heim said, looking at the screen.

  “Five insurgents to the front, ten more at the back, with four casing within the compound,” Cry Baby said.

  “Nothing we can’t handle, fellas,” Welsh said, his Scottish brogue twisting the words.

  “We can send Ahote in further when we get closer, and he can scope out any traps they may have laid out,” Snake said.

  Syria wasn’t the best place to have this battle, but the war-torn country had seen enough battles that their entrance would be concealed. They’d entered through Latakia from the Mediterranean Sea. They’d travel under darkness toward Ghmam until they came across the compound and got the captives out by helicopter. The sea battled with fragrant spices and fauna as they traveled inward toward the convoy. Ahote circled around his legs, eager to get on, and Snake soothed him with a pat on his head before he looked back at the screen. The dog whined and Snake looked down at him.

  “What is it, boy?”

  A soft growl was the only response.

  “Get Glitz and Hawk back here now!”

  Too late. The blast went off, rocking through Snake and sending him to his knees.

  “Fuck, move. Move,” Welsh yelled.

  Sand exploded around them and pelted Snake’s face as he dove for cover. The sea at their back and a stretch of shore before them, there was nowhere to hide.

  “Situation has gone black. Hostiles active. Three in site, another six on the nine. Captives are fake,” Hawk shouted over the mics.

  Snake found Heim and collapsed next their leader. “Beet, Ahote. Beet!”

  The dog shot off into the night with the ‘bite’ as Heim readied his riffle. “He can’t get them all.”

  “He can get what he can. Let’s do this, Heim.”

  Snake scanned for a clean area, doing a hasty search of a safe location to set up. He pointed and Heim was on the move. They ducked behind the edge of the combat boat, and Snake waited for Heim to get into position before he set up the tripod and scope over Heim’s legs. Once set, he tapped Heim’s foot, ready to go.

  “Hawk, get a flag out there for me,” Snake said. “Reference points, to the left, 500 meters, is a light on the top of a crumbling building. See it?”

  “On target,” Heim responded.

  “To the right of that, at 800 meters, a yellow flag. Hawk’s signal,” Snake continued.

  “On target.”

  “To the left, 1000 meters, a tent.”

  “On target.” Heim moved his scope at each point Snake gave him.

  “Sector one between building and yellow flag. Section two between the flag and tent.”

  “
Got it.”

  “Sector Alpha is from the shore to us. Sector Bravo is from the grass outcropping and beyond.”

  “Shooter ready,” Heim called.

  Snake gazed down his scope toward the delicate horizon the blast had come from. Three dark spots. He looked over to the screen with the feed from Ahote’s camera.

  “Three targets. One with RPG in sector one bravo, two others with rifles in sector two bravo. 3 o’clock, 750 meters.”

  “On target,” Heim replied.

  “We’re moving. We will clear what’s left,” Welsh called. He and Cry Baby disappeared in the darkness, but Snake didn’t move his attention from the scope and screen.

  “Range is 750 meters,” Snake told Heim.

  “750.”

  “Go to glass. Fire when ready.”

  Heim took a steady breath and then inhaled before holding it. After a moment, he turned the dial on his scope then exhaled and took another breath. The bullet whistled through the air, cutting away the silence with deadly precision. Snake held on, watching. Between one second and the next, a combatant fell. Snake didn’t close his eyes, he wouldn’t. Killing someone was a part of their job, and it was never easy. If Heim had to shoulder it, he’d help his best friend, no matter the destruction.

  “Target down…ready.”

  Snake didn’t congratulate Heim. There was nothing but the mission between them, the target in front of them, and the absolute success of getting out alive behind them.

  “RPG holder down. Next target, sector two bravo between three and four o’clock and 880 meters.”

  “Contact.”

  “Range 880 meters.”

  “880. Next to target is a small tree with a building in the background.”

  “Go to glass. Fire when ready.”

  A second shot broke the silence.

  “I’ve got the last. Target down, move,” Hawk called.

  As one, Heim and Snake broke down and raced up the shore toward Cry Baby and Welsh. Ahote barked in the darkness and they followed his lead until they reached the three downed bodies Hawk and Cry Baby pulled together. Blood oozed from Ahote’s bite marks on the bodies.

  “Goed, Ahote. Goed,” Snake praised the dog.

  Ahote yipped and spun in a circle before he settled at Snake’s side. Snake clipped the dog on a small lead before he readied his weapon.

  “Something doesn’t smell right. The fuck is this?” Cry Baby asked.

  Heim shook his head as he triggered the drone camera back on. “We need to call for an evac. There are no captives, and they wanted us out here for a reason. Check the bodies.”

  Hawk, his long black hair tied into a bun, did as Heim asked.

  “Snake?” he asked.

  “Yeah, Hawk.”

  “Describe for me, again, what Goddess looks like.”

  “This is not the time for games, Hawk.”

  “And I’m not playing them. Describe her.”

  How did one describe the sun without losing sight while staring at it? Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her. He could taste her on his lips, and smell her warm chocolate skin when he dreamed of her.

  “Dark skin, short hair, almost like mine, with deep eyes. She’s got a narrow nose with angular eyes on each side. And a wide bow mouth she usually likes to wear a plum color lipstick on.”

  How many times had he kissed it off after one of her shows, when her heart thumped from the spotlight and adrenaline raced through his veins? He had never loved a woman like he loved her. And losing her, even after all this time, still broke his heart. But the demands of both their lives had taken a toll neither of them had been prepared for.

  “Snake, I think this is her.”

  Snake’s stomach bottomed out as he reached out with shaky fingers to take the photograph. It was creased and worn, but her presence blazed through. Her signature plum lipstick was smeared over her cheek and her mascara made her eyes like a raccoon. He thumbed over a deep bruise marring her cheek as his heart stopped.

  Because her eyes held none of the life she held tight in her little frame.

  “No,” he whispered. His knees met the sand and he buckled over until each breath pushed sand in little gusts around his face. No. Ahote lay beside him, whining softly, but he couldn’t reach out and pet his teammate. He couldn’t breathe. Someone tried to pull the photo from his hand but he clenched his fingers tight, unable to let go of this small piece of her. Not yet. He needed it close to his heart. Needed to look again and make sure it wasn’t her.

  “I’ve got it, Viktor. Let me have it.”

  Heim’s voice rang low in his ears, but he let the photo go. For Heim he’d do anything.

  “It’s her. They knew we were coming. This was about us. How’d they know about her?” Heim asked.

  “The same way they knew about Princess. We’ll make them pay,” Hawk promised.

  Snake didn’t want them to pay. He wanted it not to be real. This should have been a rescue mission. A simple extraction. But now the darkness choked him, and he couldn’t stand. He couldn’t fall back on the training he’d received to get to his feet. Forget everything around him. His goddess was gone.

  Goddess.

  “Heim, I want to leave them in pieces,” Snake whispered.

  “I can make that happen,” Glitz said. He slipped from the darkness, his ordinance vest full of explosives. “I checked the compound and the ‘captives’ are ISIS members. The ones they took are long dead.”

  Snake forced himself to his feet and gripped Glitz’ shoulder. “You get me to them, brother, and a bomb is the last of their worries.”

  Glitz looked into Snake’s eyes before he nodded. “I’ll promise you like I promised Heim a couple of years ago. I’ve got you. No one will work harder than me.”

  Standing in the middle of his brothers on a wet shore and bodies at their feet, Snake swallowed that promise and swore something to himself.

  Whoever touched his Goddess would pay. In blood, tears, and pieces, they’d fucking pay.

  Chapter Two

  Snake

  Two months later

  Sweat slid down his spine as he balled his fist. He wished he had his K-Bar in his hands. Or his gun. Even his rifle would have worked. Instead he sat, a fine tremor racing down his arm. He could see it. The way his skin shrank back, afraid of impact. Of damage. The pain. His receptors were turned off. Training had taught him how to deal with agony. Body memory, ingrained so deep he could survive torture, made him catch his breath. Had he stopped breathing? Doing a mental check, he noted his chest had a boulder pressing into it, his head felt light and the world spun on its axis. Yup, probably held his breath for too long.

  Needles played wiggle along his fingertips. This wasn’t good. It was his uniform. It was too tight. He didn’t often wear his camo anymore. Too many missions kept him away from base, and that’s just how he liked it. Now, though, he wished he could rip it off and race to the sea. Take a glide through the cool, dark depths and clear his head. Al-Saif, the well-funded branch of ISIS in Qatar, had taken responsibility for the USO Concert attack that took Akwasi’s life, and they enjoyed smearing pictures of her beaten body in their message videos. She was an infidel and harlot, showing her body to men, and the face of America's headlong rush into moral darkness.

  For Snake, she had been everything, and this lawyer added another layer.

  “I want you to repeat what you just said, real slow. I don’t think I heard you right the first time,” Snake said.

  “Sir, I have been ordered, by the final Will and Testament of one Akwasi Onwuachimba, known by her stage name of Goddess, to let you know that you are the father of her child Kondo Franklin, and a paternity test is expected. As his father, you will be deemed his guardian and the caretaker of Ms. Onwuachimba’s estate until Kondo reaches his majority. At which point, he will be the successor of his mother’s estate. You will have a trustee that will help maintain Kondo’s inheritance.”

  Yep. He’d heard it correctly. Listen
ing to it a second time didn’t lessen the blow at all; instead it enhanced it. He didn’t care about the money. He had a son. A son. And she’d never told him. After everything, all they shared, she’d never told him.

  “Wh—” He stopped and cleared his throat. “Where is Kondo now?”

  “Right now, he is with a foster family as we attempted to find you.”

  “She had no one who could care for him? How long has he been there?” Snake leapt to his feet. He had to move. He knew the answer, of course. Two months ago he’d found a picture of her and knew what it had meant. But a SEAL was a SEAL, and he’d had missions back to back to ferret out how ISIS had found out such personal information about his SEAL team.

  Two month of nothing but death and rage.

  “For two months. It took time to get in touch with you. Your commander stated you were deployed.”

  Deployed. Right. His job as a Navy SEAL, and the mission he went on, were not open for discussions. What he did was classified, and no one knew, besides his team and commander, what exactly he did most of the time.

  “I’m back now,” Snake said. Two months. His son had been in some foster care for two months. “Where is my son, and when will he be with me?”

  “There are some contingencies we have to make. As a full-time soldier, they will expect a care plan for your son, in the event you are deployed again. He has to be provided for.”

  “Sir, I understand, and please don’t take this the wrong way, but I could care less about a care plan right now. I want my son, and that is final. My care plan will be made in accordance with the EEO Officer, along with my commander.”

  “Ah, well, of course. I’ll make the arrangements immediately. He was placed here in California as we knew you were stationed here.”

  “You’re still talking, and he’s not here yet.”

  The lawyer pulled back and closed his mouth. Finally.

  “I’ll wait outside. I’ll be happy to go pick him up, if necessary.”

  “If I may?”

  Snake sighed. He needed to get his anger under control. “Yes.”