by Anya Nowlan
“Is he going to be alright?” Prowler asked, scratching the back of his neck as he looked at the prone form of his squadmate, paler than he’d ever seen the man.
“He’s a Tyren. He’s gonna have to,” Ryker gruffed in response, batting away the third medic who kept wanting to dab at the wide-open head laceration that he was sporting. “We got kids and a wife at home. Kayla would never forgive him if he dared die now.”
Prowler met Ryker’s mild attempt at humor with a watered-down smile and patted the side of the fuselage as the engine was turned on and he had to take a few steps back. The door closed in time for Prowler to see Ryker slouching back against the wall, that dead look of worry shining in his eyes that Prowler had had a few times over the years, looking at the body of his own twin brother.
He’ll be alright, Prowler decided, turning his back on the rendezvous site and walking toward the command outpost.
Dice was propped up in a seat, obviously deep in an argument with two more yokels from the medical emergency dispatch teams who had been trying to get him to leave on account of his giant thigh wound for the better part of an hour now. Their squad lead was having none of it.
“Listen, the moment I fucking pass out, you can haul me out of here. But if you try and touch me one more fucking time, I swear to all the spirits that I’m going to take that head right off your shoulders and I don’t care who your goddamn daddy is,” Dice snarled.
Prowler half-grinned, half-cringed. The medic Dice was verbally abusing was the son of Colonel Hemingway, the man who was technically one of the highest-ranking officers in The Firm. No one fucked around with his son.
Then again, no one fucked around with Shifter Squad Nine either, so it seemed they were at a slight impasse as things currently stood.
“You alright, Slicey?” Prowler asked in a leisurely way, stealing a look at the bandaged-up thigh that was causing such grief for the squad lead.
“Just fucking peachy,” Dice snarled, pausing for a moment to bark commands into one of the walkie-talkies that was used to keep in touch with the fire control squad. “Have you seen Thor anywhere? And where’s that Marguiles woman who flew in here with guns a fucking blazing?”
“Thor skipped out on the first chopper that headed out. He showed me where he stacked the bodies, though,” Prowler explained.
Their resident sniper had a way about him. Not only was he one of the deadliest shots on the planet, but he wasn’t exactly right in the head. None of them were, though, so that didn’t bother anyone. It had become sort of a thing for Thor to simply drag together all the kills he made during a mission and build a little pyre out of them.
Made it easier to set them on fire and dispose of all the bodies. Who could complain about that?
“And that Marguiles woman is right here,” a voice came from behind Prowler, rooting him in the spot.
He turned slowly, in time to meet the cool, gray eyes of the woman who walked past him. That voice snaked through him like honey and when he caught sight of her, he had to work double-time to keep his mouth from lolling open.
She was, in a word, breathtaking.
Tan skin that went perfectly with her honey-caramel hair and those mesmerizing eyes only framed the perfection of her face, the high cheekbones, the cute little nose and the dose of freckles that Prowler caught himself counting without having noticed he was doing it. She was on the shorter side, maybe 5’6’’, with a thick-set body that spoke to Prowler of strength and stamina.
Their eyes remained locked for a moment that might have been a tiny bit too long, before she broke the contact and strolled right past him. Prowler was left in her wake, feeling like he’d just stared into the face of Aphrodite.
His wolf was about ready to break out and claim her right there and then.
Keep it cool.
With his head abuzz, he turned to look at Dice and her, Marguiles. He was getting ready to step in for her rescue, expecting Dice to try and tear her a new one for being reckless and flying in with her guns blazing. Instead, Prowler found his chivalry entirely unneeded.
She was leaning forward, hugging Dice where he sat, and an immediate, almost vitriolic jealousy flashed through Prowler. It was palpable. His hands rolled into fists and it was only when Price came up behind him, tapping him on one elbow, that Prowler could relax his hands.
“Weird day, huh?” Price murmured, his eyes as glued on her as Prowler’s.
“You can say that again.”
“Amy, you goddamn wench. I thought we had a deal and you’d stay out of my sandbox and I’d stay out of yours,” Dice said with a grin as she pulled back.
They were both covered in blood and grime and neither one seemed to care the least bit.
“Yeah, well, what can I do if you boys can’t stop getting your asses handed to you?” she said with an over-exaggerated roll of her eyes that made Prowler want to go and scoop her up and carry her away.
It was unfair how damn scrumptious she was.
“So you two know each other, I assume?” Price asked, apparently finding his voice far faster than Prowler could.
“We do,” Dice said with a nod, Amy’s attention turning from him to the wolf twins for a moment.
Her gaze made Prowler stand up straighter, as if he was being inspected for worth. If there was one person he wanted to find him worthy then it was her, no doubt about it.
“Amy and I go way back. Afghanistan, if I remember correctly. Though all that sand in my head of course slows down my cognitive process,” Dice scoffed, making Amy break out in a wide grin.
The Latina slapped a hand on Dice’s shoulder and squeezed it in a friendly way.
“Well, you’re an old man who never had a chance to begin with. It’s a small miracle that I found you here alive instead of in more pieces than this,” she said, motioning at his wound.
Prowler couldn’t take his eyes off of her and he was certain Price was going through the same thing, standing next to him. In fact, it was his brother clearing his throat that seemed to snap Dice back into the moment and off of memory lane. Though the look he gave both Prowler and his brother, the one with the knowing smirk, made the hairs on the back of Prowler’s neck stand up.
Dice looked like he’d figured something out that would take Prowler a while to entirely understand. He hated being out of the loop.
“Amy Marguiles, may I introduce you to Prowler and Price Renard. They’re my hacker and my pilot, respectively.”
“Ah yes, the wolf twins,” Amy said with a nod, taking a step forward and offering her hand to Price first, who was standing closer to her. “I’ve heard all about you two.”
“You have?” Prowler asked, feeling slightly dazed as he watched the handshake between her and Price.
She took a moment to answer and Prowler caught the moment where the contact lingered between her and Price. He could feel the electricity passing between his brother and the sexy squad lead. For a split-second, he worried it wouldn’t be there when their hands touched, but that worry was quickly made away with when she managed to tear herself away from the handshake.
Price’s somewhat shell-shocked expression was exchanged for a mild smirk as he shoved his hands in his pockets. Prowler took Amy’s hand and it felt like lightning coursed through him, like his wolf had grown twice as large in an instant, reared up and claimed control over the whole damn planet all in one go.
He could see it in her eyes that she felt it too and when she pulled away, she passed a surprised look at her palm.
So I wasn’t imagining it.
She clapped her hands behind her back and turned away from him enough so that she could look at Dice as well. He was leaning back now, barely containing the smile spreading over his features as his gaze flicked between Prowler, Price and Amy. The smugness was almost too much to bear, but luckily Prowler was way too preoccupied with falling to pieces over Amy.
The hell is it about this woman?
“You were saying, Amy?” Dice queried, his vo
ice low and amused.
“Huh? Oh, right. Well, I’ve seen the files on all of you. For some reason, I get to clean up after the Nines more than I’d like,” she said, some of that sharpness Prowler had seen in her eyes before returning now.
He was suddenly very aware that his own eyes had flashed golden yellow and glancing at Price, Prowler could see the yellow slowly retreating from his brother’s gaze as well.
“I didn’t even know you were in the service, or that you’d left the Navy.”
Dice crossed his arms over his chest. For an instant, Prowler wanted to ask if they knew one another again, only to realize he’d already asked that question.
Spirits above, get a goddamn grip!
When she took a few steps away from him and towards Dice’s ‘command center’ again, Prowler felt the fog slowly lifting from his mind. It was like when she was close, all he could think about and focus on was her. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling.
“Oh yeah, I’ve been here a while,” Amy explained, tapping her fingertips on the desk in front of Dice in an absent-minded way. “Longer than you have, anyway.”
Dice seemed to come to some kind of a conclusion based on that and he nodded quietly, considering her.
“So I guess we know some of the same people then?” he said evenly.
Amy’s gaze snapped to Dice and Prowler scowled, feeling the tension rise all of a sudden. He crossed his arms over his chest, wondering whether he should be on alert. It was ridiculous, of course. If Dice and Amy were friends then there was nothing to worry about, but the way Dice had posed the question still got his scruff up.
“I’d say so,” she replied with a nod. “If you’re thinking about who I think you’re thinking about.”
“I am,” came Dice’s simple response.
“You two going to keep playing coy or are you going to start dishing about Spade while we’re all still alive to hear about it?” Price asked, cutting through the bullshit far faster than Prowler could.
Realization dawned and Prowler shook his head, cursing himself for being so damn enthralled that he’d missed it. Everyone in Shifter Squad Nine knew that Dice and Spade had served together in the SEALs way back when. Now with Amy thrown into the mix as well, it meant that there was a chance to find something out about their ‘beloved’ lord and savior.
Spade was the intel lead of The Firm. No one knew much about him, aside from the fact that he was deadly, knew far more about what was going on both outside and inside of The Firm than anyone had any business to, and that getting on his bad side meant that you’d end up dead if you were lucky. If you were unlucky, it was your mate that would end up with her veins shot full of a deadly toxin.
He was also Shifter Squad Nine’s boss and the one man who kept their merry band of broken psychos employed and off the streets. Don’t think that any of them found it in their heart to show him much gratitude for that, though.
“I think it’s time for you two to go help out with the clean-up efforts,” Dice said sharply, both him and Amy giving them measuring looks.
So they’re not talking. Big surprise.
“Actually, we were going to grab a chopper and go get some R&R,” Price said, baring his canines in something that could have passed for a smile, but was really a snarl at best.
“I guess your plans have changed,” Dice said, the brown of his bear creeping slowly but surely into his eyes.
Amy just looked slightly amused.
“Come on,” Prowler said, grabbing his brother by the arm. “We can’t win this one,” he added with a lower voice.
Price didn’t want to budge at first, but then gave in and turned around, scoffing.
“You had to bring him up, didn’t you?” Prowler asked with a smirk as they strolled further from Dice and Amy, leaving the two to their conversation.
Prowler fought real damn hard to keep from glancing over his shoulder to make sure whether she was watching them leave or not.
“Had to stir the pot a little,” Price said with a shrug.
“Not really.”
“Fine, so I guess I wanted to know more about her,” Price said with a shrug. “And I didn’t have a lot to go on.”
“That makes more sense,” Prowler chuckled, the laughter cackling across the woods, drowned out at the edges by the fire.
Price definitely was not the only one who wanted to know more about the badass squad lead who’d traipsed into their lives suddenly.
Five
Amy
Amy was hurting all over, and she hadn’t even gotten all of her armor off.
Rolling back her shoulders, she slouched down in a chair next to Tatiana and accepted the shot glass that was passed to her.
“Long day,” Tatiana commented, not a hint of question in it.
They’d all been there, the whole squad. ‘Long’ didn’t begin to describe it.
“Sure, that’s one way to call it,” Amy agreed, throwing back the shot in time with Roy, who was sitting across the table from her.
His right leg was stretched out, bandaged up. He’d taken one in the thigh. Sirra was gone, probably still helping out with one of the Shifter Squad Nine guys who’d been trying real hard not to die for the last couple of hours. Titus and Solder had headed in for the night and Amy was thinking about doing the same when the door to the mess hall was thrown open and rowdy voices tinted with laughter spilled in.
She twitched visibly in her seat when she heard Prowler’s laugh. It had a ghostly quality to it that she hadn’t heard ever before and it made her turn around to look at him.
It was only the wolf twins who were walking in. She’d been expecting to see Dice with them, or the rest of the squad, but a quick calculation in her head told her that those two were really the only ones she could have expected.
The squad’s sniper had skipped the safehouse way before the rest of them got in, having rushed home because of his kid’s ear infection with the first transport that headed toward California. Dice was probably strewn up somewhere, sleeping off his painkillers. That only left the lion twins, one of whom had suffered serious injuries and the other one had to be by his side to help with the healing.
“Look here, it’s the cavalry,” Price called, spreading his arms in a welcoming fashion. “Boy, were we glad to see you guys.”
The sarcasm was dripping off his tongue as he pulled up a chair and plopped down next to Amy, Prowler finding a seat to the right of Tatiana. Amy conjured up a smile, ignoring the twisting in her stomach that seemed to arrive right along with them. She wasn’t sure what it was about those two, but even when she’d read their files for the first time more than a year ago, she’d gotten a feeling about them.
Somehow, they were different, and it bothered her that she didn’t know why they made goosebumps appear on her skin and her throat to go dry when they were around.
It can’t be just because they’re hot as hell, she mused quietly, letting her eyes roll over the twins as they poured themselves and everyone else at the table another round of shots. I mean, they’re smoking, sure, but I’ve seen better.
It sounded like she was trying to convince herself of something that wasn’t entirely true. In fact, the more she looked at them, those devilish grins and those pale green eyes, the more she began wondering if they were in fact the hottest men she’d ever seen. Being a career soldier, first serving in the Navy and now in The Firm, she’d seen a lot of delectable men in her time.
These two? They seemed to stand head and shoulders above the rest for some reason. Another thing that she couldn’t put her finger on.
Though I’d love to run my fingers all over these guys, she thought, biting down on the inside of her mouth to keep from blushing.
“What about it, Marguiles? Will you drink with us? For saving our asses?” Prowler asked, raising the glass in toast.
He didn’t sound quite as ironic as his brother had and with a sigh, exchanging glances with Roy and Tatiana first, Amy took the glass and held it up. Nothin
g quite like some alcohol to burn the memories of a shitty day out of her head.
“Salut. And here’s to hoping I never have to bail another Shifter Squad Nine out of some deep shit,” she said.
“Here’s to hoping you do,” Price added with a shit-eating grin that got him a quick punch in the arm by Roy.
He ignored it valiantly, even though some of the tequila sloshed over the edge.
“Watch it, buddy,” Prowler warned. “You’re going to make us drink more that way.”
Amy let out a breath before she kicked back the shot. At least they didn’t seem to be in the mood to actually pick a fight, just josh around a little. It happened far too often, that if an elite squad – and all of the Shifter Squads were the best that The Firm had to offer – required any help, even the most minuscule of support, then the team providing said assistance would be met with a wall of machismo bullshit in the aftermath.
Amy was in no mood to deal with any bullcrap today. At best, she wanted to drown the day in tequila and try to forget about most of it. Seeing Dice and meeting these two jokers had been the only upsides so far.
She’d racked up a decent kill count over the short mission and though it was something that she’d come to be quite accustomed to, it never got any easier. Sometimes she wondered if being a shifter helped with that. They were built to kill, seeing as all of the elite forces and soldiers in general tended to be predatory species.
The biological imperative to kill or be killed had to help a little, right?
I bet they don’t stay up at night, tossing and turning, thinking about the lives they’ve snuffed out.
Looking around at the laughing faces around her, she was damn sure of that.
Guess it’s just me, then.
It called for another shot.
“I think I’ve had enough,” Amy said a couple of hours later, covering her shot glass with her hand as Prowler moved to pour her another.