Protecting Dove

PROTECTING DOVE (SPECIAL FORCES: OPERATION ALPHA) PREY SECURITY BOOK SIX JANE BLYTHE CONTENTS Foreword Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Also by Jane Blythe About the Author More Special Forces: Operation Alpha World Books Books by Susan Stoker This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. © 2022 ACES PRESS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED No part of this work may be used, stored, reproduced or transmitted without written permission from the publisher except for brief quotations for review purposes as permitted by law. This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own copy. Cover designed by Q Designs Dear Readers, Welcome to the Special Forces: Operation Alpha Fan-Fiction world! If you are new to this amazing world, in a nutshell the author wrote a story using one or more of my characters in it. Sometimes that character has a major role in the story, and other times they are only mentioned briefly. This is perfectly legal and allowable because they are going through Aces Press to publish the story. This book is entirely the work of the author who wrote it. While I might have assisted with brainstorming and other ideas about which of my characters to use, I didn’t have any part in the process or writing or editing the story. I’m proud and excited that so many authors loved my characters enough that they wanted to write them into their own story. Thank you for supporting them, and me! READ ON! Xoxo Susan Stoker Copyright © 2022 Jane Blythe All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, distributed, reverse engineered or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented without permission in writing from the publisher. All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Cover designed by Q Designs Created with Vellum I’d like to thank everyone who played a part in bringing this story to life. Particularly my mom who is always there to share her thoughts and opinions with me. The wonderful Amy Queau of Q Designs who made the stunning cover. And my lovely editor Lisa Edwards for all her encouragement and for all the hard work she puts into polishing my work. ABOUT THE BOOK He saw her at her most vulnerable and she never wanted to see him again. Dove Oswald never expected to come face to face with the man who saved her life ever again. Nor did she expect him to save her a second time. Surprised by the spark of attraction between them, when she realizes he's hiding something she's determined to figure out what it is. When she inadvertently puts both their lives in danger she'll finally get the chance to prove to everyone that she's every bit as strong as the rest of her family as she and Isaac fight side by side for their lives. Isaac Anderson fails the people he cares about. When he accidentally spots a crime scene photo and recognizes one of the perpetrators he knows he'll do whatever it takes to save someone he once cared about, try to even the score. Instead he winds up falling for the woman he used, and now he's faced with a whole new challenge, caring about someone means he could fail them, and he and Dove are going to find themselves in a danger neither of them saw coming. CHAPTER ONE August 7th 6:25 P.M. This dress was giving her major anxiety. It shouldn’t, it was no different than the dozens of dresses she’d worn to dozens of charity events just like the one she would be attending tonight. Yet as she studied her reflection, all she wanted to do was rip the gold material from her body, climb in the shower, and scrub her skin until it was raw. Not a completely new feeling for her, many times over the last almost two years she’d taken showers where the water was just shy of burning and scrubbed until she bled. It never helped. Dove Oswald shook herself, deliberately shoving the bad memories away. It wasn’t like showering was going to fix anything, it never did. She did a slow turn, taking in her reflection more objectively, setting aside the fact that the strapless gown fit her slender curves like a glove, the split up the side going most of the way up her thigh. In her more objective frame of mind, she saw that the gold color nicely complimented her very pale skin and long near-white hair. Her makeup accentuated her light blue eyes nicely, and the hint of red on her lips added just enough color. “That’ll do,” she told herself aloud. “You look fine. Stop worrying about it. You're not going to be alone with anyone, so you don’t need to panic about it.” Right. Because it was that easy to overcome the worst thing that had ever happened to you. Just tell yourself not to worry or panic and you wouldn’t. Sure. If only life was that easy. A knock at the door was the thing that finally broke the hold of the fear threatening to overwhelm her, and she turned from the full-length mirror