by Anya Nowlan
He climbed up quietly, his knife between his teeth, stalling with his fingers holding onto the edge of the platform as he waited for the footsteps above him to pass. Then, fast as lightning, the large werebear commando threw himself over the side with the grace of a predator on the prowl.
Dice grabbed the man by the shoulder and before he could do so much as grab for his sidearm, Dice had shoved the knife into his neck, severing his windpipe and making sure he wasn’t screaming for help any time soon. He dropped the man to the wooden floor of the platform, pulled the knife out and then shoved it in his forehead, ending the wolf’s misery. Blue-eyed and blonde. Must have been hoping to move up in life by hanging out in the dregs for a while.
“Lynx One, south tower clear.”
“Lynx Four, east tower clear,” came Price’s melodic voice over the comms, followed by Thor’s earthy drawl confirming that he’d cleared the remaining two.
“Lynx One, all units move in. Lynx Five, are we secure?”
“Tucked in like pigs in a blanket,” Prowler said, cackling his disconcerting chuckle at the end of it that made the hairs on Dice’s neck still stand up after a good ten missions together with the man.
“Lynx One, Lynx Five, callsigns,” he reminded tersely, privately rolling his eyes as he scooted down the tree and put his knife away on his hip, slinging the rifle back into his arms.
“Yeah, well, whatever,” Prowler said with a sigh. “I mean, Lynx Five, yeah, well, whatever.”
Smartass.
Dice threw himself against the outer wall of one of the three buildings that made up the inner circle of the compound, knowing his men would be taking up similar positions right about now. He counted to ten slowly, knowing that Thor would need some additional time to get there as Prowler was going to stay out of the fight due to having to monitor the transmissions. Dice was in no hurry to be made into Swiss cheese because he couldn’t lay back and wait a couple of minutes.
There were supposedly about ten more men in the buildings, seven or so of them armed with a couple of lab geeks, which was what their intel coming in had said and which they’d confirmed over the past week as well. It should have been a fast job and that was what Dice was banking on.
He took a deep breath, finding his thoughts going to Meredith every few seconds unless he was actively focusing on the mission, rather than her. He had thought-…
It doesn’t matter. Focus.
He gritted his teeth as he moved now, pressing past the corner and bringing his rifle up. His steps were sure and quiet, a silencer on the rifle in hopes of keeping things at least reasonably quiet since there could be other patrols in the area that weren’t necessarily part of this compound. They knew of two locations that The Arctics kept here, but the bastards were crafty with their camouflage and it wouldn’t be the first time for The Firm to get it wrong.
Dice had taken a few steps towards the front door when a guard came into his sights. His finger twitched on the trigger and the man fell into a crumpled heap on the ground, caught in the throat, as was Dice’s personal style. He ran to the man, grabbing him by the arms and dragging him out of sight behind the corner he’d appeared from before moving further.
“Lynx One, taking building one,” he spoke quietly, touching his earset as he swiped a code card he’d taken from the guy at the tower against the electronic locks.
He shouldered his way in and found the first room empty. Pushing further back, he came face to face with a lab tech who screeched in fear, only to be silenced a moment later. His friend suffered a similar fate, having come running to see what the fuss was about.
Dice shook his head, pressing his lips thin.
What a fucking waste of shifter life, he thought, catching the second guy’s eyes flash from blue to gold for a moment before they became perfectly still.
Even a man’s animal couldn’t heal a through and through bullet wound to the throat.
He scoured the rest of the building, finding it empty, while Price and Thor called in their own kills. By the time Dice made it out of the building, Prowler was already strolling leisurely through the compound, looking like he owned the place. He might as well have, since no Arctics remained on the sight. At least not ones who could object to what they were doing there.
“Do you have an ETA on the convoy’s arrival?” Dice asked raggedly, pushing up the thermal goggles he’d been wearing.
They were all dressed pretty casually for a major operation, wearing jungle camo pants and bulletproof vests, but otherwise all decked out in gear that they personally preferred. While Dice was a rifles kind of guy, Price seemed to be more about the sidearms and Thor, other than the sniper rifle he wielded like it was the sole means of bringing forth the Reckoning one day, he was very partial to his knives.
When Thor strolled out of the main building, wiping his bloody blade on his pants and grumbling to himself about how skull was a bitch to clean out of the ridges of the braided handle, Dice couldn’t help but sigh mildly.
His happy band of misfits. No better now than when he’d met them the first time, but now at least their insanity seemed to be targeted in a direction that was wanton destruction, but with palpable results, not just the joy of mayhem.
“Should be here any sec now, Slicey,” Prowler said with a wide grin, surveying the wolf Dice had taken out after the guard tower.
They’d taken to calling him Slice’N’Dice, or variations of that lately, after a particularly brutal show Dice had put on when they needed to torture an Arctics’ informant who looked a smidge too much like Spade. It had been the first time Dice had really let the crazy shine through, but apparently it had made his men trust him. Crazy knew crazy, after all, even if it sounded particularly dark when put that way.
“Good,” Dice said, crossing his arms over his chest as Price appeared as well, twirling his handgun around his index finger, whistling something while his face was speckled with blood.
“We all clear?” Dice asked.
“As clear as we’re gonna be,” Thor said with a shrug.
“Go do a sweep then. I want to be sure. Prowler, set up two rooms, one for your comms haul, one as our hub.”
“What do I look like, your maid?” Prowler huffed, poking at his tiny handheld laptop with a quirked brow.
“Do it.”
The way Dice’s voice lowered and seemed to resonate with a growl had Prowler and Price both snapping their necks up to stare at him, eyes squinted. Dice could practically feel the threat bubbling beneath the surface and his muscles flexed.
For the past five months, running Shifter Squad Nine had felt like corralling wild dogs and then playing a game of ‘Who’s the biggest, baddest Alpha?’ Dice had been winning so far, but it hadn’t come without a couple of tense moments. But Prowler should have remembered the tooth he lost the first time he gave lip to Dice and by the looks of him, and the fact that he wasn’t snarling yet, the wolf remembered.
“Fine,” he snorted, nodding at his brother to go with him.
Thor watched the twins pass with an impassive look on his face, sticking a cigarette in his mouth and lighting it slowly.
“You know you’re playing with fire, right?” he asked casually, flicking a look at Dice that the werebear met with a nod.
“I know. But I don’t think they’ll be the ones I really need to worry about.”
“I think you’re right about that,” Thor said with a wink. “I think your girlfriend’s about to get here.”
Dice heard it too now, the ominous rattle of two large vehicles drudging through the jungle. His stomach twisted and he must have looked like a lovesick puppy there for a moment, because when Thor turned around to go stalk after the wolves, Dice heard a very obvious chuckle pass over his lips.
The twins might think they’re all that, both sets, but it’s fucking Thor who could drop me like a rock from a mile away, Dice thought, watching the man leave before turning his attention back to the narrow road leading into the compound.
; His heart thudded in his chest as the cars arrived, parking right in front of him. When the door to the first one opened, Dice thought he wouldn’t be able to find any words to speak ever again.
It was her. It was Meredith.
And she was alive. And she was here.
“Meredith,” he whispered, staring at her dumbly while she seemed to be doing much the same in response.
What’s a man supposed to do when he’s reunited with a woman he thought he lost five years ago? Whatever it was, Dice couldn’t quite wrap his mind around it, so he did the one thing that felt natural.
He walked over to her, pulled her out of the car and into his arms and kissed her like she was the only oxygen he could ever breathe again.
Four
Meredith
The kiss still lingered on her lips, raw and passionate and almost angry in its energy. It wasn’t like she didn’t have enough to deal with after almost getting killed in an attack on the armored vehicle she was in and then being kidnapped from her previous kidnappers, but now to find the love of her life waiting for her back at the place she’d been held captive at? It was all a tiny bit much for Meredith, to be perfectly truthful.
She’d been in a haze as Dice had finally let her up for air, his eyes ablaze with desire and disbelief in equal measure. She vaguely remembered him taking her hand while Rio and Ryker catcalled and whistled at the impromptu makeout session, only to receive a threatening roar from Dice that sent them scrambling with smirks on their lips.
He led her into the second building and though she couldn’t spot any bodies, the blood splatter on the wall told her that the people she’d known and come to begrudgingly tolerate over the last half a year were no more. As if he knew – and he could probably smell it, if Meredith actually thought about it a little – Dice led her to her sleeping quarters, a bit messy and unkempt as they were.
She’d pushed two single beds together to form one bigger one, a scrap of luxury afforded her thanks to the fact that the compound was understaffed. They stopped in the middle of the room, Dice’s gaze going down to their intertwined fingers before he let go reluctantly, his body tense and loaded like a spring. Where he’d touched her, her skin tingled. She missed the feeling of his body against hers immediately.
Feeling her head spinning slightly, she went to the bed and sat down, staring at the man she’d known well, but had thought to never see again.
It’s like he hasn’t changed at all, she thought at first, though on closer inspection she had to change her assessment.
“Prowler, I need the laptop here,” Dice spoke into his headset, before looking down at his boots.
They both seemed to be rather at a loss for words.
His expression had grown harder and the lines that made up his stern, but to her also loving, expression were now deeper, as if he’d aged inward rather than just suffered the passing of years as she must have to his eyes as well.
It had been almost six years since she’d seen him. He’d left for a mission in Iraq and he’d never come back, disappearing from communications about four months into his supposedly nine-month stay. One day, it was like he’d never existed at all and no one would tell her a thing about where he’d gone or why she couldn’t get in contact with him.
“I thought you were dead,” Meredith said finally, and it seemed to be the perfect echo of Dice’s thoughts as well.
“So did I,” he confirmed, just as a knock sounded at the door, though the guy on the other side – Prowler, Meredith assumed – didn’t bother to wait for an invite, pushing the door open and shoving a slim laptop into Dice’s hands unceremoniously.
The man paused after handing over the computer, giving Meredith a long, grinning look. His bright eyes seemed to be almost haunted in a way. In fact, the more she thought about it, all of the men she’d seen so far had looked a bit off, like they were battling demons that could very well be stronger than they were.
Weird.
“You got a problem, Prowler?” Dice asked evenly, though Meredith immediately recognized the soft growl of possession in his tone.
She smiled slightly. She remembered it from way back when. Dice had always been a reasonable sort of guy but shifters got really territorial with their girlfriends and while he’d mostly restrained himself, she could remember at least one case where a guy who was too quick on the yap got his mouth shut really fast by the trained, steely fist of a US Navy SEAL. He might have lost a tooth or two as well.
Dice had never looked very guilty about it, though.
“Oh, just wanted to see the fabled woman, the special flower that has wrapped Slicey’s mind up in a lovey-dovey cocoon,” Prowler crooned, though he danced away quickly as Dice took a step towards him.
Prowler put up his hands in mock-defeat, grinning like the joker he was as he slipped behind the door. “Whoa there. Calm down, big guy. All in good fun. Try not to break the bed.”
With that, he was gone, and Meredith stopped holding in the almost hysterical giggle that had been building since she recognized who she was staring at when the car door had been opened. Dice Alderson. The man she’d thought she’d one day marry, whose babies she was going to have. Standing before her in the middle of a werewolf terrorist compound in Peru.
Meredith was sure that there were some ways to make this even weirder, but she was sort of running out of feasible ones that she could think of.
Dice grumbled under his breath, striding to the door and slamming the lock on, the little click having become very recognizable to Meredith. The Arctics could of course open it from the other side if they needed to, or they’d been able to when they were still alive, but luckily enough they’d never tried it on Meredith.
It had given her a false sense of security. One that was very obviously only imaginary, considering that the men she’d thought to be her biggest problems were all dead now.
“What’s so funny?” Dice asked, turning to face her.
He cocked a brow, but there were the makings of a smile on his lips, immediately putting Meredith at ease. Grabbing a chair, he sat across from her, balancing the laptop in his lap as he seemed to study her features, as if trying to ascertain whether he remembered her the right way and if the mental image he had lived up to the original. She felt entirely self-conscious for a moment.
“The everything.”
“The everything?”
“Yes, the everything is funny. You, me, here,” she said, motioning around herself and then straightening her round glasses a bit on her nose.
They kept slipping down a little because it was so damn hot all the time. It was better than the alternative though, seeing as they’d kept getting frozen to the bridge of her nose in the Arctic because of the metallic frame. It was funny how easily her brain traipsed off down that particular strand of thought, as if trying valiantly to avoid the very serious, very real problem she had in front of her now.
“I don’t think it’s so funny,” Dice said solemnly, wiping her smile away easily. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”
“Don’t you think you should start?” Meredith asked. “The way I see it is you must have known I was here, somehow, right? But I haven’t heard from you since that Skype call you did from base camp, when you were going to be out of range for ‘a few days tops.’ What happened then, Dice?”
The memory was almost too real. She’d kept waiting for the call, calming herself down like every girlfriend of a man in active service, telling herself that everything was fine and if it wasn’t then she’d still get a call, so if there was no call, there was no news and nothing to worry about! It was a vicious, maddening circle that seemed to coil around her and frankly drive her a bit nutty.
But the call had never come and there had never been any news. Dice Alderson had simply disappeared.
“I- uh. Okay,” Dice started, looking a bit sheepish as he pulled his hand through his hair. “I wasn’t lying. I was going on a mission and I was supposed to be back in a few days. But things g
ot sort of lopsided and I ended up getting captured along with half my squad. We spent three months in a dungeon prison somewhere under a metric fuckton of sand, bound and gagged for the most part, until we managed to break out of there.”
He looked at her and their gazes locked. He looked so… earnest and vulnerable. It always surprised her how a man who was a deadly weapon not only because of his training but because of his heritage could look almost meek at times, at least when Dice was dealing with her.
“After we got out, we got held for questioning by our own people. We couldn’t contact anyone, it was complete isolation until all the talking heads were properly satisfied that we weren’t double agents. They didn’t release any info on it because we were an elite team and frankly, we weren’t supposed to be where we were when we got captured. Not by any records the public could ever see.”
He quirked his nose and it made the bridge wrinkle a little like it had always had. While Meredith and Dice had not been together for very long, maybe half a year before he had shipped out for his second tour, it had been enough to learn those things about each other. Somehow, it seemed that their relationship had lived at least three lives during those six months while other people barely seemed to get past the ‘hellos’ and the rabid bunny sex phase by then.
Of course for them, the rabid bunny sex phase had never passed, something that was coming back to her in abundant detail now that she was sitting so close to Dice.
Her body seemed to hum on the same frequency as his and the kiss they’d shared only made it more painfully apparent.
She nodded dully, digesting the information. Deep down inside, she’d hoped for something like that but it was hard thinking about best case scenarios when the man you cared about suddenly disappeared without a trace.
“And when you got back, I wasn’t around anymore,” Meredith said softly, feeling tears well in her eyes.
Dice reacted immediately. He shoved the laptop on the table close to him and rose from his seat, crossing over to her. She was enveloped in a warm embrace, soft and firm at the same time, perfectly encapsulating her from the world and keeping her in a bubble that couldn’t be penetrated. At least for the moment.