Undefeated Love (Black Swan Book 8), page 1
UNDEFEATED LOVE
KATLIN & ALEX
BLACK SWAN
BOOK EIGHT
KALYN COOPER
CONTENTS
Note From Author
Acknowledgments
About the Black Swan Series
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
More Books by KaLyn Cooper
About the Author
Undefeated Love
KaLyn Cooper
Cover Artist: Drue Hoffman
Editors: Trenda London, Erica Scott
ISBN: 978-1-970145-39-7
Published 2023 by Black Swan Publishing, LLC
Copyright © Published 2023 by Black Swan Publishing, LLC
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.
NOTE FROM AUTHOR
Welcome to Undefeated Love, the eighth book in the Black Swan series. Although all my books are stand-alone, you may wish to read the entire series so you are familiar with all the characters. I strongly suggest that you read Unending Love because this book picks up at the end of that book.
If you are a fan of the Black Swan series, then you’ve seen Katlin and Alex from the very beginning. Undefeated Love concentrates on their continued fragile relationship after she suffers a traumatic brain injury in Unending Love. Parts of this book were written at the same time I wrote Unrelenting Love, the first Black Swan book but I decided to end the first book in the series when they committed to each other and give the other members of the Black Swan team their Happily Ever After. Although this will be the final book of Black Swan Team One, you haven’t seen the last of these five ladies and the loves of their life. Black Swan Team Two starts their adventures with Unrestrained releasing September 2023.
Thank you for purchasing Undefeated Love. If you enjoy this book, consider purchasing the other books in the Black Swan series as well as the related Guardian ELITE series.
Always,
KaLyn Cooper
DEDICATION
I dedicate this book to the men and women who, like my husband and I, make relationships work for decades. It’s NOT easy but like the hero and heroine in this book, our love cannot be defeated.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to thank the Ladies of Black Swan Book Club who encouraged me to write this book even though I had several others in line before this one. Thank you, Ladies, for also selecting Grace’s wedding dress from over one hundred entries. A special thanks to Beverly Black for suggesting the winning wedding dress.
Many thanks to my Beta reader, Teresa Christianson for catching several items I missed.
My sincere thank you to Drue Hoffman for my wonderful cover. To Trenda London, THANKS for your story guidance and insistence on rewriting in the KaLyn-style. Thank you to Erica Scott for cleaning up all my “Dragonisms” and typos.
I want to thank my husband who has learned to stay away from my office when I’m on deadline and to politely ask me about my work-in-progress.
My heartfelt thanks to all of you who have followed the Ladies of Black Swan Team One as they’ve found their Happily Ever After! Now to include Katlin and Alex.
ABOUT THE BLACK SWAN SERIES
Rara avis in terris is Latin for “a rare bird in the lands.”
In the ancient world, it was believed that the landing of a single black swan created a change that would affect the entire world.
Fact: A woman can get a man alone within hours...and kill him in seconds.
Fact: Men always underestimate beautiful women.
Fact: There are a lot of entities in our military that very few people know about.
Fact: Women are involved everywhere in our military.
CHAPTER 1
“Good morning, Ladies.” Katlin Callahan, code name Lady Hawk, stretched her stride to catch up with the other two Navy lieutenant commanders on her team: Grace Hall, known as Lady Eagle, and Nita Banks Callahan, called Lady Harrier during missions. With them were Army Major Tori Denton, nickname Lady Falcon, and Air Force Major Lei Lu Sorensen, whose handle was Lady Kite.
These five women were the first to proudly break the glass box military women had been forced into. They not only broke ceilings but sides and floors when they surpassed all training thrown at them through the highly secret Joint All-Female Special Operations School.
But the Ladies of Black Swan had graduated several years ago and proven themselves worthy of the title special operators during missions all over the world while working for Section 7 of Homeland Security.
During the past several years, they’d rarely been asked to wear their uniforms to work. In the email last night, they’d been instructed to do exactly that this morning.
Nita pulled down her skirt that seemed to creep up with each step. “I wasn’t sure I was going to fit into this uniform this morning. I don’t quite have the same body that I did before we started in the JAFSOS.”
“Mine doesn’t exactly fit the same either,” Katlin admitted. She wondered how much weight she’d put on since she had her traumatic brain injury a few months ago. She hadn’t been able to work out as vigorously as before, but she also hadn’t been able to eat anywhere near as much as she used to. Most days, she couldn’t keep all three meals down. Dr. Tobias, her neurologist, had assured her that was normal for her stage of recovery. She just wasn’t as sure as he was.
“Mine fits fine,” Grace smiled smugly. She slid a glance to Lei Lu.
“Mine too, but with all the scuba diving Shakespeare and I have been doing lately, that’s a full body workout.”
“Oh, shut up,” Nita snapped. “I don’t want to hear about all the fun in the sun you have with your new man. I have a toddler and a tiny tot who demand my attention the minute I get home. Once they’re in bed, that’s the only place Daniel wants me.”
“La La La La La.” Katlin stuck her fingers in her ears. “I don’t need to hear about your bedroom escapades with my brother.” She swung her arm around her sister-in-law and kissed the top of her curly head. “But I still love you.”
Nita threw her arm around Katlin’s back. “It’s so good having you back on the team. We missed you.”
“I missed you guys, too.” She glanced around the group as they dropped their arms. “That goes for all of you.”
The five women turned the corner toward the designated conference room and smiled in unison. Coming from the other direction was Black Swan Team Two, their younger counterparts.
“Fancy meeting you here,” Army Captain Kayla Scarlatto, team leader, welcomed as they exchanged handshakes. Under other circumstances, they may have hugged. Inside the halls of Homeland Security, they were expected to maintain the utmost professional demeanor, especially in a busy hallway filled with agents.
“Does this mean you’ve been transferred to Homeland?” Tori asked excitedly.
Navy Lieutenant Kira Frost shrugged. “We don’t know. We were ordered to show up in uniform at that conference room at eight o’clock this morning.”
“Same.” Lei Lu looked at her watch. “We have a few minutes.”
“My three cups of coffee this morning are warning me to take advantage of this ladies’ room.” Air Force Captain Mia McCormick headed two doors down the hall.
“Sounds like a good idea. I’d hate to embarrass myself and have to leave in the middle of the briefing my first time at Homeland.” Army Captain Ashlin Cartwright disappeared into the same door.
When Navy Lieutenant Piper Knight didn’t follow them, Katlin decided to pull her into their conversation. “Any idea what you guys are doing here?”
“None.” Piper stepped in closer to the other women and lowered her voice. “Do you think since Jack Ashworth is gone, they decided to pull us under the same umbrella as you?”
“Maybe, but we don’t have any idea whether they’ll keep us here or move us completely under the Joint Special Operations Command.” Until this moment, Katlin had wondered if it was just a rumor or if Jack Ashworth had truly retired.
Katlin sincerely hoped that he’d left Homeland Security and found a more peaceful life elsewhere. Secretly, she wondered if he’d taken Nikkole Chernakov with him. Or if her doppelgänger had killed Jack and set up the ruse that he’d retired. She had plenty of reasons to eliminate the man who had used her to replace Katlin in his life, right down to his attempt to implant her with Katlin’s eggs fertilized by Jack. The man was insanely obsessed with Katlin.
As soon as Mia and Ashlin returned to the gr
oup, as though by unsaid agreement, they all entered the conference room. Each team took one side of the table. Before they could sit down, Marine Major General Ava Standish entered the room.
All ten women came to attention.
“Take your seats.” General Standish walked to the head of the table and hit a button darkening the windows so no one could see in. “Ladies, we are all here in uniform today as a reminder of who you work for: the United States military. Black Swan Team One, except for your recent time in Quantico, or when USSOCOM pulled you for a specific mission, you have been at the beck and call of Homeland Security Section 7. As I’m sure you’re aware, the former director has resigned. This morning, the Director of Homeland Security will be announcing that I am taking over as acting Director of Covert Operations while they undergo a thorough interview process. I’ve been told it might take a year or even longer.”
Oh, my God. Aunt Ava is my boss. Although she’d been before on several different occasions, such as while undergoing training at the JAFSOS, which she helped create, this was different. She could now order teams into the field anywhere in the world.
The general took a drink of water. “As my first act as DCO, I’m moving Black Swan Team Two under my command with the approval of General Lyon at USSOCOM. You all know me but more important, I know you. I don’t know any of the other Section 7 teams. Until I’m comfortable with them, your two teams are going to get the most important missions.”
Katlin slid a glance down the line of her teammates. They had a hundred percent mission success rate since they’d been brought under the control of Homeland Security over two years ago…until their last mission when they’d been paired with an all-male team. Several of the men had been severely injured, all because of bad intelligence ending in an ambush. The dual team leader had been killed in action. Katlin had been pinned inside the armored SUV and had received a traumatic brain injury, pulling her out of active-duty missions. Today was her first day back on full duty.
General Standish looked directly at Team One. “I’m sorry, you might not be sleeping much at home for the next several months.”
As good military officers, they all answered, “Yes, ma’am.” Over the past two years, every woman on her team had found their soulmate, but they understood that as active-duty military their first commitment was to the service until their contract ended.
General Standish moved her attention to Team Two. “I don’t know how much time you spent in this building, but for the remainder of this week the eleven of us are going to learn every department, nook, and cranny.” Her gaze swept the table. “You are the best minds in all the military. We’ll meet in this room every morning and discuss everything from impressions to what we’ve learned. I have no intention of changing anything until I’ve been here several months. Today, we’ll do a brief overview of everything that affects the covert operations department. Tomorrow, we’ll deep dive, starting with Section 7. Katlin, where do you want to start?”
Shit. I have to conduct the tour? Even though she’d called Major General Standish “Aunt Ava” all her life, the woman was testing her. In her place, she would do the same thing. Katlin had only been back on full duty a couple of weeks. She had to prove herself as being fully capable of commanding Black Swan Team One once again.
Katlin pasted on a smile and stood. “Ladies, if you’ll follow me, I believe the best place to start is the heart of DCO, the operations center.”
All the women stood but Katlin stopped and turned to face them before she opened the door. “General Standish, are you aware that everyone on Team One has a tracker embedded next to her heart? Do the members of Team Two have trackers?” Katlin wondered if they’d be forced to get them if they didn’t already have the device operating inside their bodies.
“Yes, we do,” Kayla answered for her team.
The general glanced at Team Two. “Yes. Team Two actually has a higher version of the tracker than the five of you. We have not yet moved to embedding trackers in all special operators military wide. Too many of them leave the SpecOps field after one or two tours. Only certain teams have them and even though the ten of you have an extremely high security level, you have no need to know who those people are.”
“Understood.” Katlin started making a mental list of who probably had embedded trackers.
“It might be easier when we’re in the operations room to have them scan your trackers and start your baseline,” Nita suggested. “When we get to that point, I’ll explain how Section 7 uses the trackers to monitor your personal health.”
“Anything else I should know about before we head into working spaces?” Katlin was pleased that her executive mental functions seemed to be working just fine. When everyone shook their heads, she announced, “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 2
Four Days Later
“Take care of yourself.” Alex Wolf tenderly laid his lips on his fiancée’s, Katlin Callahan. She and her team, the Ladies of Black Swan, were headed out on another mission. He, like the other men who dared to love an active-duty woman, weren’t allowed to know where they were going, how long they’d be gone, or what they were assigned to do. Operational security, and the women’s lives, depended on secrecy.
Alex and Kat sat in the Guardian Security SUV in front of the insignificant-looking hangar at Marine Corps Base Quantico. No one would ever guess that inside was one of the military’s best kept secrets: the Black Swan jet.
“Take care of my heart.” He laid his hand between her luscious breasts over top her engagement ring that she wore on a titanium necklace while on missions. “I love you.” He leaned in and kissed her one more time.
She laid her hand over his and gave it a slight squeeze then placed her fingers over his heart. “My heart is right here with you. Don’t let anything happen to it.”
It had been months since he had gone through this routine. While she recovered from her TBI, she’d traveled with him, spent every night in his bed, worked out in the gymnasiums of their ten jointly owned Guardian Security offices. Although he’d never try to influence her into leaving the Navy, he privately wished that she would surrender her commission to run their company at his side.
They both exited the SUV at the same time and met at the trunk door. Aware that no one could see them, he pulled her into his arms one last time. “I’m going to miss having you with me every day and every night.” He nuzzled her neck and kissed her just below her ear. He felt the shiver run through her whole body the way he knew it would.
“I’ll miss you, too,” she whispered into his ear.
Damnit tried to nuzzle between them, whining as though to say don’t forget me. Katlin leaned down and put her face nose to nose with her hundred-pound rescue dog. “I’ll miss you, too, big boy. Alex is going to take good care of you while I’m gone, but you have to be a good boy for him. Will you do that?” As though the dog knew exactly what she’d said, he licked her face in one big swath. She ruffled the fur around his neck and scratched his ears before standing straight and wiping the slobber off with her sleeve.
She then stepped back and hoisted her two heavy duffel bags, one over each shoulder. She reached up and gently touched the side of Alex’s face. “I love you.”
“Love you, too.” Alex watched her walk toward the only door on that side of the scarred green hangar. He couldn’t follow her. The armed Marine Lance Corporal standing guard at the door had orders to shoot anyone other than Katlin’s Black Swan team who came within twenty-five feet. The fact that Alex used to be a Marine Raider commanding officer with over a hundred enlisted men under him meant nothing now. At this point in his life, Katlin was the valued military officer, along with the other women on her team.
