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In any event, Jason took a sip of soda water and continued to watch the gorgeous, hot—and unapproachable—lieutenant who had only arrived at Ft. Lukman that night. She obviously wasn’t armed with the knowledge she needed to fit in here.
Those rumors said she was a very important aide to General Yarrow. So why hadn’t her boss informed her about what she was in for at this base?
“So tell us something about yourself, Lieutenant,” he said, addressing her. She was slender, with short, blond hair, a pale but perfect complexion, and high cheekbones that underscored eyes of an unusual blue-green shade. “Have you worked with General Yarrow long?” Those were nice, neutral, friendly questions, weren’t they?
Jason was still on probation here. Probably would be for the rest of his life unless he figured out a workable way to resign.
On the other hand, he would be leaving behind some stuff he really liked along with the military regimen he despised. Some stuff he’d grown used to and didn’t want to do without.
So he’d made his decision. He was staying—for the time being, at least.
He glanced at his cousin to make sure there was no angry scowl on his face, the result of every misstep Jason made in Drew’s presence.
Fortunately, Drew just regarded the lovely lieutenant expectantly, as if awaiting her answer, too. So were all other Alpha Force members here—those who were like him, and those who weren’t.
That was something damned special about this unit. They all worked together—and those who weren’t like him were actually assigned to help those with the same characteristics as he had.
What would the lovely lieutenant think if she knew that half the members of Alpha Force were shapeshifters?
Oh, yeah, real dogs and other appropriate animals were kept on base as covers for them. Jason had even started helping to train the dogs in his spare time. But the reality was that Jason, and a lot of others, would be changing tonight under the full moon. By choice these days, which was especially cool.
“I’ve been in the army for nearly two years,” the pretty officer was saying.
She was Lieutenant McLinder. Sara, she’d said during introductions. She didn’t look as if she’d be thrilled for a mere sergeant to address her by her first name, even here.
“I’ve been an aide to General Yarrow for about five months,” she continued.
Jason knew that the general had obligations in addition to being the commanding officer of Alpha Force. This lieutenant really could be as ignorant about the unit as she seemed.
Jason smiled. Wouldn’t it be fun to see her expression when she finally realized the true nature of Alpha Force?
Maybe he could figure out a way to do that—although he would not be in a position, he was sure, to comfort the beautiful officer.
Not then, at least.
Would she run away screaming?
Somehow, he didn’t think so. His first impression was that she was no-nonsense, all by the book. Her duty was to help the general, no matter what.
But Jason would bet she’d never anticipated this.
Perhaps he could help to educate her. Really educate her about what Alpha Force was about.
He would definitely try.
* * *
“Time for us all to go.” That was the major talking, and clearly no one was about to contradict him.
Sara watched as everyone at the table rose almost in unison. She did the same.
So did the sergeant beside her. “Are you staying in the BOQ?” he asked.
Why? Did he want to accompany her there? Tear off her clothes the way his suggestive looks seemed to do, never mind the rules?
The idea made her private areas react in ways she hadn’t felt in a long time—even as she shoved the very idea out of her mind.
“That’s right. I assume you’re not.” She kept her tone brusque, not unfriendly but not anything but professional, either.
“Right. But...well, you’d better stay in your quarters tonight, Lieutenant.”
Was he presuming to give her, a superior officer, orders? She glared—but at that moment his look wasn’t sexy or suggestive... It seemed concerned.
Odd.
Although it was the night of a full moon. Maybe the general hadn’t been playing her completely and this unit’s members spread the word that they were shapeshifters to hide what they really did. But would anyone sane actually accept that?
“We’ll walk you there.” Colleen Hodell gestured toward a couple of other lieutenants who’d been sitting with them.
In a short while, Sara was walking toward the BOQ with Colleen, and with Lieutenants Marshall Vincenzo and Jock Larabey. Marshall was the tallest of the group, with a shock of dark brown hair and thin but surprisingly sensual lips. Jock looked as if he might live up to his name. He seemed quite muscular, judging by the way his uniform hugged his arms and chest.
“So tell me something about Alpha Force,” Sara said lightly as they trod the path toward their residence. Something real, she hoped.
“I think that’s up to the general,” Colleen said.
“In fact,” Marshall added, “I think Jason—Sergeant Connell—was right. You should just stay in your quarters tonight. It’s safer.”
“The base is safe,” Jock contradicted. “But if you’re not familiar with it, you’d be better off not wandering around at night, and definitely not tonight.”
Okay, they did seem to be playing the general’s game. But did they all really want her to hide in her BOQ unit tonight, maybe put her head under a pillow and pretend she wasn’t here? Were they going to put on some kind of act tonight? If so, she wanted to see it.
Or maybe this was completely a sham, so they could actually do something else under cover of darkness.
They all separated at the elevators. “Good night,” Sara said, wondering what each of the others was thinking.
When she reached the second floor, she noticed a female captain and male lieutenant down the hall. She went to greet them.
Neither was part of Alpha Force, they told her. They were Captain Samantha Everly and Lieutenant Cal Brown. Did she want to hang out in Samantha’s unit with them?
Had they, too, been directed to stay indoors that night? If so, what story had they been told? But she didn’t ask.
“Thanks,” Sara said. “I just got here today and I’m really tired. I’ll take a rain check, though.”
She used her key to enter her apartment. There, she unpacked the scant clothing and other things she had brought, then sat down in front of the television.
She sat there for maybe an hour, but she was bored. And curious. She rose and walked to the window.
Lights illuminated the part of the base that she could see. So did a full moon that had just risen above the trees that surrounded the back portion of the base.
She saw no movement. No Alpha Force members or otherwise.
Hell, she was used to following orders, but the cautions she had been given didn’t amount to orders, did they?
She wouldn’t stay out long, and she would remain where the base was well lighted.
Would she need a weapon? Hardly. No matter what those Alpha Force members really did that night, they surely wouldn’t hurt anyone, least of all the aide to the unit’s officer in charge.
She stayed as quiet as she could, locking her apartment door behind her and taking the stairs rather than the elevator. She exited through the BOQ’s front door.
The spring air was brisk but pleasant. She moved out of the artificial lights toward the shadow of the nearest building, in case anyone was watching her.
Hell, she’d already determined that she wasn’t disobeying orders. She was just outside for...for health purposes. The night air would help her sleep.
She walked around for twenty minutes, seeing nothing. Hearing—well, she wasn’t sure what she heard. There were noises in the distance that she couldn’t identify. Were there some kinds of wild animals living in the woods surrounding the base? Sometimes she thought she heard a howl.
Or was this all piped-in sound effects to make the gullible think there were werewolves out there? She wasn’t about to buy that.
She drew closer to the edge of the woods, just to peek, not that she would get close. Had they really loosed some kind of wildlife, something feral, on the base?
Not likely. Not animals they couldn’t control. Well, five more minutes out here and she would return to her quarters. It did feel a bit eerie after all, being alone at such a large facility.
What was that? She heard something—not howls, but a growl. There was no breeze that night, but she also heard crunching of leaves, as if something was walking in the woods.
Okay. Her imagination really was working overtime. Or maybe there were some kinds of animals out there. She’d better go back—
She stopped dead as something emerged from the woods. Not just one creature, but maybe half a dozen.
Wolves.
Should she freeze? Should she run?
An African-American man she hadn’t met before suddenly appeared from behind them. He wore camos like her and didn’t seem frightened by the wolves.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded. “Everyone was told to stay inside tonight. Go back to your quarters. Now.”
“But are you safe with—?”
In unison, several of the wolves leaped toward Sara.
“Run!” called the man.
And Sara did.
Chapter 2
He wanted to chase after her, that foolish woman who hadn’t listened to him or anyone else.
Didn’t she know how dangerous it could be, wandering around on the night of a full moon in an area where shapeshifters prowled?
If he had been in his human form, he would have laughed.
But Jason was in his wolfen form, loving it. Especially because the time of his shift tonight had actually been his choice.
He stood in the midst of his also-shifted comrades. None chased Lieutenant Sara McLinder from where she had confronted them here, at the edge of the woods surrounding Ft. Lukman. Most of them had leaped in unison to scare her off.
Soon, though, since she was an aide to the general, she would be told, and shown, the truth.
Jason looked sideways. The wolf beside him was Drew, his cousin, who had coerced him to enlist in the military, to join Alpha Force, for his own good.
At this moment, despite his misgivings about the future, Jason couldn’t thank Drew enough.
His cousin nodded his canine head and turned. He began walking into the woods. So did the other shifters.
They were followed by their single human aide for the night, Captain Jonas Truro, who was a medical doctor like Drew.
He was not, however, a shifter, but as a member of Alpha Force he was an expert at helping them, including assisting in perfecting the Alpha Force elixir.
All shifters here would continue to prowl until dawn. That was when they normally would change back on nights of the full moon anyway, even if they didn’t have access to that very special Alpha Force elixir. His family had started to experiment with it, at least Drew had, and now, with the help of other Alpha Force members including Jonas Truro, he had developed some sophisticated and amazing formulas.
That elixir was one reason Jason’s thoughts were so clear now, while he was shifted.
Why he could wonder, so precisely, exactly what lovely Lieutenant McLinder thought about her recent confrontation by an entire pack of wolves.
Oh, yes. He would laugh, if he could.
But since he couldn’t for now, he would wait and look forward to a conversation, sometime soon, with pretty Sara.
* * *
Sara lay on her back in the dark, on the uncomfortable bed in her new apartment, willing herself to fall asleep.
She had closed the blinds, but a soft glow still penetrated between the slats. The light from the full moon.
Hell, she had trained her body as much as she had trained her mind. She never had trouble getting to sleep.
Except tonight.
Her thoughts kept returning to the pack of wolves she’d seen. They were wolves, weren’t they? They didn’t look like any breed of domesticated dog she knew of.
On the other hand, they had been so calm at first. Even when a few had moved quickly toward her, none had acted as if it intended to attack.
And then there’d been that soldier who shooed her away.
What was this?
Was the mysterious Alpha Force really composed of shapeshifters? Somehow, that didn’t seem as nonsensical now as it had before.
Of course it could still all be some kind of ruse that the military was attempting to impose on enemy forces—couldn’t it? That was the logical assumption. But if so, how had they tamed those wolves that way?
