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“First floor, toward the back. It’s a good spot to take Rocky into the yard if he needs to go. How about you?”
“Third floor,” she said, “around there.” She pointed toward the right, glad that the windows there indicated multiple rooms so she didn’t exactly tell him which was hers.
They proceeded up the walkway to the steps and, crossing the porch, entered the quaint-looking lobby. There were only a few people there, mostly in line at the reception desk. Piers stood nearby reading a newspaper. He joined them.
Ryan lifted his arm with the loop of the dog leash over it and Piers slipped it off him. “You can put him in my room,” he told Piers. “I’ll be right there.” He then said to Maya, “I’ll walk you to your room, just in case.”
In case her new enemies were around, she assumed. She hadn’t seen any sign of them on the road and didn’t really need Ryan accompanying her—she hoped—and yet she didn’t object.
They soon were in her room, which was as charming as the rest of the inn. He even went inside, glancing around, walking past the bed with a fluffy, lace-trimmed coverlet.
She had a momentary urge to ask him to stay. Just to talk a little longer, of course. About wolves and other wildlife.
Not about a wild life. The guy was one delicious-looking man and had started to get her internal juices flowing when they were together. But he was mostly just a nice guy with similar interests to hers. And he’d given no indication he thought of her in any sexual or other way—a good thing.
That meant she didn’t have to worry about any interest on her part that could lead to disaster, as her recent relationship had.
Even so, she found herself asking, “So do you have any plans for this evening?”
She couldn’t quite read the odd look that quickly passed over his face, replaced by a smile that almost appeared pleased. “Sleeping,” he said. “I intend to order in pizza later for Piers and me. I brought food for Rocky. I’m already a bit tired and may do some hiking tomorrow, so I’ll go to bed early.” He looked her over. “No offense intended, but you appear a little sleepy, too. Maybe you should do the same thing.”
That had been what she was considering...unless they worked out a dinner date, which would undoubtedly be a bad idea.
She noticed that he didn’t suggest that she join them for pizza, either.
“I just might do that,” she said. As he walked to the door of her room she added, “Have a good evening. And thanks again for all your help.”
* * *
Rocky was well trained, but even so he wasn’t staying alone in Ryan’s room that night.
No, right now Piers drove all three of them, in the sedan they had rented at the Sea-Tac International Airport, along the remote, twisty roads outside Fritts Corner, beyond the park and beneath the forest’s overhanging trees to a clearing they had previously scouted out.
Near an area where wolves had been spotted over the past months.
The ride was bumpy, and Ryan was conscious of every jolt. It was getting close to twilight now.
It was nearly time.
And since this was the night of a full moon, Ryan would be shifting.
But thanks to that wonderful elixir that had been formulated and modified over time by Major Drew Connell, the founder of Alpha Force, and other members, Ryan would not only have some limited choice as to when the shifting started and a lot of choice about when he shifted back, but he would additionally retain his human cognition.
Unlike the other shifters he anticipated meeting on this night.
“Here we are,” Piers said, stopping the car. Rocky, in the backseat, let out a small woof, as if he understood where they were and what was about to happen.
This wasn’t his first time, after all, to be around when Ryan shifted—and it wouldn’t be his last.
Piers parked, and Ryan immediately exited the car. There was hardly any light in the sky, and the clearing was vast enough that Ryan knew the full moon would soon appear.
There were plenty of times in his past when that would have caused him to shift into a feral wolf as soon as darkness fell. But now—
Now, he couldn’t have been more delighted that Alpha Force had found and recruited him into its amazing military unit. He was starting to give back, including by being here. And he loved it.
If he was correct about the nature of at least some of the people here, he might even be able to give back more to his cherished organization by recruiting others who, in turn, could add to its very special mission.
He’d already done some of that while being trained and working directly with other shifters located by senior Alpha Force officers.
Piers pulled the large backpack out of the trunk and approached across the hard dirt of the clearing to the area several feet from the car where Ryan had stopped. Ryan began to remove his clothing, even as Piers extracted the cooler in the backpack and from it one of the vials of elixir that they had brought. He also pulled out the light that, turned on, resembled the light of the full moon, although, since it would not be necessary tonight, he returned it to the backpack.
“You doing okay?” Ryan’s efficient assistant now stood there with the vial in one of his large hands, assessing his superior officer.
“I’m fine, Piers. And how are you?” Ryan kept his tone light, even though he knew exactly what he was about to go through.
The elixir helped shifters in so many ways—but nothing could totally eliminate the discomfort of a shift from human to animal form—and back again.
“Okay, buddy. The moon’s a-rising. Let’s get this thing started, okay?” The stocky young guy grinned as if he couldn’t wait for his superior officer’s shift to start. And maybe he couldn’t.
Ryan was now nude. He felt the pulsing sensations inside him that presaged a natural shift.
It was definitely time for the elixir.
“Bring it on,” he told Piers, reaching out for the vial.
* * *
His initial shift was over. He was standing again, this time on four canine legs, the discomfort behind him.
Just in time, he thought—since he heard a howl in the distance. Followed by another, and some barks. They all sounded far away, but he would have heard them even without his enhanced hearing.
Shifters? Most likely. Natural wolves might howl and bark like that, of course. But why would they do so tonight? And not just one or two now, but several of them.
Ryan could tell—thanks to that enhanced hearing—not only the direction from which the sounds came, but he had a sense of distance, too.
The others were likely in the hillsides here, beneath the trees, farther from town, perhaps farther along the road where Piers had driven them only a short while earlier.
Rocky remained in the car. Piers had returned to it to sleep, to wait for Ryan’s return early in the morning, when he would naturally shift back on this night of the full moon.
He also had some choice about when to change back, even under the full moon. But if he did not choose when, it would occur once the sun started to rise.
Another set of excited howls. They caused more excitement in Ryan, as well.
Time for him to run through these woods, let his wolfen side loose. Revel in his very special gift, his talent, the other, only partly human feature of his life.
His shifting ability.
He felt his mouth move as he allowed himself to express his emotion in what would have been a smile had he not been shifted.
He aimed one glance toward the car where his companions now sat and waited for him.
And then he ran into the woods.
* * *
Maya hadn’t been sleeping deeply, though she had been in bed for a while, reading at first, then nodding off.
But her mind had been tossing around all that had happened to her that day.
Her talk. The confrontations with those wild animal–haters.
The support she had received from Ryan, backed up by some of the other people in this small town near which wolves had begun to appear again.
And—
Hey. What was that? Was she imagining things because she was thinking about the local sightings of wolves?
Maybe, but she thought she’d heard not only some canine barking but also a howl. Yes! She had. It was followed by another.
And now there were even more of them, somewhere way in the distance. But close enough to be heard here, right in the downtown area of Fritts Corner.
She froze. If she heard them, so did those wolf-haters. She wasn’t in any kind of law enforcement. She had no weapons.
But might the US Fish and Wildlife Service be able to help?
She hadn’t gotten Ryan’s phone number, not even his room number, but she felt stressed enough to use the hotel’s phone to try to call his room even now, in the middle of the night. She did reach a hotel operator—after waiting several minutes. And then, when she was connected to his room, no one answered.
She tried the same with his friend Piers, but again no answer.
He’d said he was going to bed early—but maybe the sounds had awakened him, and now she couldn’t join up with him to check things out.
Heck. Maybe there was nothing she could do. Maybe the wolves wouldn’t really be in danger.
But if nothing else, she could bring her camera—just in case.
She’d already risen from her bed.
Now, she threw her clothes on, grabbed her purse and camera, and rushed out the door.
Chapter 4 (#ue3d16736-dda2-590d-85ee-109b922a7ca1)
He loved it, reveled in it, this unleashed, unfettered ability to run on four powerful legs, beyond the park, up hillsides and within woods that were entirely new to him, in darkness lit only by the full moon.
To chase in the direction where he would soon see others who were like him in one way or the other: wolves that were born as canines, or that were humans in shifted form.
Those whose howls he still heard—
But he nearly stopped running as he heard something else. Voices that weren’t wolfen but human.
Male and female voices in the distance, low but audible to him, with his highly enhanced keen hearing while in wolf form.
And that wasn’t all. He knew who was talking. He slowed his pace and inhaled and smelled, from the same direction, those humans with scents he had first sensed that day but not as intense as he could inhale now, as a wolf.
The smells included those of the two people named Fritts. And more. Another human scent emanated from that same area.
But they weren’t the only ones.
A different scent, but no sound, came from near them, as well. An aroma that was entirely familiar—now—to the wolf who was Ryan.
The scent belonging to Maya.
None of the humans should be here, not with wolves of any origin around, here in the woods in near darkness—except for that brilliant moon.
Most especially not Maya.
Was she not aware of the potential danger from the wolves she also revered and wanted to protect? She had sounded so wise, so knowledgeable before, when she had spoken to an audience and talked with individuals. But did she ignore her own wisdom when wolves were around?
And if they were shifters, without having access to his special Alpha Force elixir they would not have human cognition. They could be just as dangerous as wild wolves to mere people.
And what about those other people? Would they present a danger to the wolves—and, perhaps, to Maya, too? Or were they themselves in danger?
He turned to move more purposefully in the direction from which he scented Maya.
If Maya wasn’t cautious, he would have to be so on her behalf.
He wanted to protect them all, the wolves and the woman, and perhaps the other people, as well. If the wolves harmed them, then other humans might hurt those wolves.
But there was only one of him. And if he had to choose who to protect, he knew which it had to be.
* * *
Maya had arrived at the edge of the woods, and now debated what to do.
She had known from the moment she had heard the distant howls and barks, while still inside the hotel, the direction in which she had to go, and she had hurriedly driven that way. When she parked her car and got onto the sidewalk at the park where she had given her presentation, she’d stopped to listen even more.
The sounds now came from somewhere to her right, in the woods beyond the park. She had hurried in that direction.
At the time, she had felt somewhat surprised to find herself alone here. Surely other people heard the sounds and could figure out where they came from. And some of the people who’d attended her talk had seemed fascinated, too, by the reappearance of wolves in this area.
Plus some had claimed to be part of the media. Were they interested in wolves or not?
Was she the only one who hoped to actually see them? Or was everyone afraid?
Well, no matter. Although...well, she wouldn’t have minded some company.
Too bad she hadn’t reached Ryan. She couldn’t help assuming he was already outside, also trying to get a glimpse of the wolves. If so, they could have joined up, banded together, safety in numbers. And being with him in the middle of the night would be practical, nothing to do with the fact she found the man attractive.
No matter. For now, all she really hoped for was to see those wolves herself.
