by Lynn Red
"Hello, Chloe," he said, closing the door behind him. He smiled warmly as he sat down at the table next to her. "You said it was urgent?"
Chloe bit her lip and gave him a sheepish grin. "Maybe urgent wasn't the best word choice, but it is important. At least to me."
He laughed gently. "Don't worry. It gave me a chance to get out of the lab. What can I do for you?"
"Have you ever heard of the Lycan Gene?"
Dr. Turner went still for a moment, his dark eyes regarding her carefully.
"Where did you hear of that?" he asked, his voice very serious. Chloe opened her book bag, pulling out the medical file. She had everything she had on her brother's disappearance in that bag: his letters, the files, even his picture. She paused for a moment, then slid the file she had stolen across the table to him. It was all or nothing now. If he called her out on where she got the file, she would have to tell him. He could turn her in and ruin her career at that point. She hoped that he would instead help her find her brother.
He opened the file carefully, his eyes reading the numbers and measurements carefully and then going wide at the notation of the gene at the bottom.
"When my brother went missing, one of his buddies told me to look for the Lycan Project. I need to know what it is so I can find him." She stopped, waiting to hear what he was thinking.
Dr. Turner's face was expressionless as he closed the file and slid it back to her. He reached across the table and took her hand in his. His hands were warmer than she had expected after coming in from the cold.
"I know that finding your brother is important to you, but you need to stop. Now." He let go of her hands and looked at the file as though it might turn into a snake and bite him. "I don't know where you got that file, and honestly, I don't think I want to know. You are stepping into an ocean full of danger and you aren't even wearing water wings."
Frustration welled up in her throat. He knew something but he wasn't going to tell her. "Please," she begged. "Please, I can't give this up. He's my brother and I have to find him."
The door to the study room creaked, and Dr. Turner was on his feet faster before Chloe even registered that the door was opening. Standing in the doorway was the very handsome soldier from the night before. She gulped hard.
He was more handsome than she remembered. She had dreamed about him the entire night before and felt like she already knew his body, inside and out. And there he was, standing in the doorway and looking even hotter, and angrier, than he had even in her dreams.
"She's already in too deep," Captain Wolfe growled. His dark hair was cut close in a military style that accented his scruffy jawline. Warm brown eyes with long lashes took her in and for a moment, she let herself get lost in them and forget to breathe.
"It's you," Chloe whispered, unable to look away from him.
Chapter 10
He raised his eyebrows and looked at the file still on the table. "You get those files to Dr. Vincelli?"
Chloe felt the hot rush of blood to her face at being called out at the lie, but she didn't back down. A low growl reverberated from beside her and she was surprised to see Dr. Turner with a menacing expression on his face. She didn't know that her sweet professor could look terrifyingly deadly; she was just glad that he was focused on the intruder and not her with that look on his face.
The tension in the room was thick enough to choke on. The two men stared at one another in a silent battle of wills, ready to fly at the other at a moment’s notice. Dr. Turner stepped forward, effectively shielding Chloe from Jackson. Chloe knew she needed to break the tension before one of the men decided to do something stupid.
She cleared her throat, suddenly feeling very vulnerable as both men turned with brown eyes flickering to golden. "Hello again, Captain Wolfe." She was just glad her voice didn't shake. The Captain's eyebrows raised, but his attention was still on Dr. Turner.
"I don't remember giving you my name, Chloe." the Captain said quietly. His voice was rough and masculine and even given the tension in the room, in made Chloe's body give a slight thrill to hear her name.
"I can read a uniform. I definitely don't remember giving you mine," she returned with just a bit of defiance. He didn't scare her.
"I can use a school directory." Captain Wolfe focused on Chloe, the heat of his golden eyes burning straight into her soul.
"And I'm Dr. Quentin Turner," Dr. Turner announced, his voice pleasant but his eyes never leaving Captain Wolfe. "Now that we've all been introduced, perhaps you would be willing to step out into the hallway with me for a moment?"
Captain Wolfe's eyes flickered for a moment. Then he relaxed his shoulders and stepped out into the hallway, making sure not to turn his back to the other man. Dr. Turner gently patted Chloe's back as he walked past her and followed Captain Wolfe out the door, closing it carefully behind him.
Chloe sat staring at the door in a daze. That was exactly the last thing she had expected to happen today. She could hear the men's voices as they stepped into the adjacent study room. She tried her best not to listen, but it was difficult and she finally just gave up and sat with her ear against the wall.
Chapter 11
Jackson stepped into a study room labeled with a big number four, wondering exactly what he had just gotten himself into. The doctor closed the door behind him, and Jackson struggled to keep his emotions under control. Now that Chloe's scent was in another room, his head was beginning to clear and the implications of the man standing next to him were starting to emerge.
He wasn't the only one. There were others like him. He wasn't alone. Jackson wasn't sure if he should be happy or terrified. The implications of having multiple shifting monsters running around the world was a bit terrifying.
The older man sat carefully on the edge of the table. He appeared calm, but Jackson wanted to be ready for anything.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" the older man asked, his voice low and quiet.
"My name is Captain Jackson Wolfe." Jackson's throat suddenly went dry. "You're like me... I've never met anyone like me."
"What do you mean, you've never met anyone like me?" the other man asked, his face confused.
"Your eyes. Your scent. We're the same," Jackson replied. He felt a bit of desperation climb up into his chest. If the other man dismissed his claims, he would know he was crazy. It was only the military training that was keeping Jackson from losing his cool.
Dr. Turner frowned. "You mean you don't know what you are? That's impossible. Your parents should have..."
"My parents abandoned me when I was born," Jackson said, cutting him off. "I was adopted when I was an infant. If they knew something, they never told me."
"Well, that changes things." Dr. Turner rubbed his forehead with his hand, as though the motion would help him think. "You went through the change alone then?"
That was a loaded question for Jackson. He stiffened slightly and simply answered, "Yes." There was too much to explain, especially to a stranger.
Dr. Turner's head tipped slightly as he appraised the young soldier. Then he nodded. "You were a late bloomer, then? It didn't happen during puberty, but rather a traumatic event triggered it?"
"How did you know that?" Jackson almost growled before he caught himself. There was no way the other man could have known about Afghanistan. It must have happened to others if Dr. Turner mentioned it that way.
"The way you hold yourself. You haven't been a wolf long." Dr. Turner stood up from the table. "You'll have to introduce yourself to the pack. We have a lot we need to teach you so you don't hurt anyone."
"I've already hurt people," Jackson said quietly, his eyes shying away from Turner's brown ones. He didn't want to share too much with this stranger.
Dr. Turner put a hand on his shoulder, a friendly smile crossing his face. "It happens. The trauma induced changes are the hardest. There's no shame in it."
Jackson shrugged Dr. Turner's hand off his shoulder at first and just stood there. This man
was a stranger. Why should Jackson trust him? After a moment, he raised his eyes to meet Dr. Turner's. There was nothing but warm acceptance. There was a moment where he felt like there could be no deceit between them. "You'd teach me how to control it?" he asked tentatively.
The small smile grew to encompass his whole face. "Of course. You may be a lone wolf, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't have an understanding of basic society. You might even want to join the pack. The full moon's coming up in a few days. We'll introduce you then."
Relief at finally belonging again flooded through Jackson. He didn't dare to hope too much, but he felt glad. Maybe he wouldn't be alone anymore. He wouldn't have to fight this struggle by himself. "Do I need to do anything special?"
"Like what? Bake a pie?" Turner laughed at his own joke. "No. Just come as you are and I'll walk you through it."
Jackson let out a sigh of relief. A weight he didn't know he had been carrying seemed to be lifted from his shoulders. He wanted to trust this Dr. Turner so badly, and he could feel his guard melting away.
"Now. We have other matters to attend to." Turner motioned his head toward the other room, to where Chloe was listening on the other side of the wall. "She stole the files then?"
Jackson nodded. "Yes."
Turner cocked his head to the side again. "But you didn't stop her?"
"No. I couldn't... I mean... I've never..." Jackson shifted uncomfortably on his feet. Despite liking Turner and knowing that they were the same, he just wasn't sure what was considered normal anymore.
"Ah. I see." Turner gave Jackson a wink. "She smells like nothing you could ever imagine and you have the most vivid and amazing dreams about her, right?"
"Is that normal?" Jackson swallowed nervously and Turner laughed.
"For a select few. I'll explain later. Right now we need to figure out what to do about those files." Turner moved to the door and paused before opening it to turn and look Jackson square in the eye. "You hurt her, though, and I'll kill you."
Chapter 12
Chloe heard the click of the door as Dr. Turner opened it and she hurried back into her chair, whipping out her phone and playing with her home screen icons. Wolves? She thought that the two of them talking about wolves and changing was incredibly confusing. She finally decided that she just must not have heard them correctly. That was the danger when eavesdropping in the first place.
The two men walked back into the room as though nothing had happened, but at least the she didn't feel like lightning was about to rip through the room. Captain Wolfe was looking much calmer and Dr. Turner was again behaving like his usual self. It was as if the entire first portion of their meeting had been all in her imagination.
The Captain sat down in the chair across from Chloe, his brown eyes settling on her and making her feel as though he could see right through her. She was having a hard time not checking him out to see if he looked in real life the way he had in her dreams. Dr. Turner leaned against the wall, picking up the stolen file and flipping through it once again.
"Why'd you steal the files?" Captain Wolfe asked, his voice low and gruff.
Chloe pushed her shoulders back and looked him squarely in the eye. He may be bigger and stronger than her, and incredibly handsome, but she wasn't about to let him intimidate her.
"I'm looking for my brother."
"In a file?" he asked with a straight face.
"Yes, in a file," she snapped back. She was having a hard time concentrating with him so close. There was something about him that she couldn't define that intrigued her. "He's in the military. He used to write me every week, but it's been months since I got a letter. He's missing and no one can tell me where he is."
Captain Wolfe shrugged and leaned back in his chair. His lithe body moved so fluidly that Chloe couldn't take her eyes off of him. "Maybe he's just out on assignment."
She tore her eyes from his perfectly sculpted arms long enough to shake her head. "No. I checked. Besides, he gave me our duress code. It's serious; that code is sacred."
His brows raised slightly. "What kind of kids come up with a duress code?"
"We had active imaginations. And he wanted to be in the military from the time he could say the word Army. I played a lot of 'war games' growing up," Chloe said with a smile.
Captain Wolfe sighed and glanced over at Dr. Turner, but the genetics adviser ignored him. He turned his attention back to Chloe. "Tell me about your brother. Maybe I can help."
Her face brightened. After receiving so little help this far, having someone, even someone who had threatened to turn her in for stealing, offer to help was encouraging. "Well, he's a year younger than me, and his favorite food is pizza..."
"No, no," he said, gently shaking his head. Dr. Turner snickered from behind his reading material but Jackson ignored him. "I mean tell me something I can use. Rank, MOS, unit, his last deployment. Things like that."
"Oh, right." Chloe giggled nervously. For some reason he had her flustered. She didn't usually have that trouble when talking to men. This one however had her blushing and stammering like a teenager on her first date. "Blake Madison, Specialist. He's a language specialist in the 994th Psychological Operations Company. His last deployment was to Iraq a little over a year ago. I think he was in Fallujah?"
He nodded, mentally taking note of her every word. "And why are you looking for him?"
"About six months ago, all communication with him stopped. He was supposed to be stateside, but then he just disappeared off the face of the map. It isn't like him."
"So you went hunting for files?"
Chloe nodded. "Yes. That's when I found that file. It says he has the Lycan gene. Do you know anything about that?"
Captain Wolfe glanced toward Dr. Turner and Chloe saw the barest shake of her adviser’s head. She frowned. Why wouldn't he want Captain Wolfe to share what he knew about the Lycan gene with her? If anything it just confirmed her suspicions that there was something going on that she needed to get to the bottom of.
"So, why are you here, Captain Wolfe?" Chloe asked, changing the subject. If she was going to find out more, she might as well take the initiative. He was asking her more questions than she was really ready to answer to a complete stranger, no matter how handsome he was.
"Jackson, please." He smiled at her and her heart nearly stopped. It wasn't fair to make a man that gorgeous; a girl would do stupid things to see that smile. "I'm here because you broke into a military base and stole files. You didn't think you could just waltz in and not have anyone come looking for you?"
"Considering you were the only person to see me?" She paused for a moment, remembering the very vivid dream from this morning that had her wishing he would come looking, but she pushed it to the back of her mind. "What are you going to do to me?"
The corners of Jackson's mouth turned up slightly, but he ignored the possible innuendo. "Depends."
"Depends? That's not exactly very military or by the book sounding," she said, trying not to smile.
"By the book is not in my job description," he replied. His hands were on the table. Chloe was having a hard time resisting the urge to reach out and touch one. She wondered if it would feel as good as it had in the dream.
"So what is your job description, then?" she asked, forcing hands to still in her lap. Looking at his face wasn't much better as she kept thinking of what she wanted to do to those perfectly arched lips.
"I'm a Military Intelligence Officer. I interrogate people." He said it simply, as though it were an everyday, common kind of job.
Chloe gulped and looked at him in a new light. No wonder she felt like she was spilling her guts to him. He was trained to find secrets.
"With your skill set, you'd certainly be good at it," Dr. Turner mumbled. Chloe sent him an annoyed glance, wondering if he was going to participate in the conversation or just make comments.
Jackson gave her a warm smile that made her tingle down to her toes. "I have a knack for being able to tell what people are
thinking. It makes me very good at my job."
"You know what? I'm hungry," Dr. Turner suddenly announced. The change in subject surprised both Chloe and Jackson. "I know of a great little sandwich shop just around the corner. We can sit and discuss this as well as get something to eat. I know I think better on a full stomach."
There was a knock on the door and a student wearing glasses pointed at his watch through the rectangular door window. Dr. Turner smiled. "Also, our reserved time here is over."
"Um, okay." Chloe said, standing up and picking her coat off the back of her chair and gathering her things. Jackson held open the door and Dr. Turner and Chloe filed out, allowing a student with an armload of books to scurry in. The three of them walked in a strange line down the stairs, Chloe and Jackson following Dr. Turner like ducklings.
The cold winter air hit Chloe like a punch in the gut. She shivered and wondered how Jackson and Dr. Turner managed to look so warm. Neither one of them was wearing more than a light jacket and seemed unperturbed by the cold wind whistling through the quad. She sighed. Her brother never seemed to get cold either. It must be a guy thing.
Now that they were all out of the building, Jackson walked beside Chloe as they followed Dr. Turner to the sandwich shop. Jackson was close enough that if she had reached out her hand she could have held his and walked hand in hand. Instead, she tucked her hands into her coat pockets, afraid that her body would betray her.
The sidewalk narrowed as they walked by the mathematics building and Jackson's arm grazed hers. It was if a circuit had been completed and she felt a warmth rush through her, tingling down to her toes. Chloe's face went hot as she glanced over at Jackson, but he just stared straight ahead as though he hadn't felt a thing. A small twinge of disappointment went through her, but she shrugged it off. Maybe it was just static electricity from her coat and she was imagining the whole attraction to the soldier standing next to her.
She sighed, tucking her hands a little further into the coat pockets. She had never been this immediately attracted to someone before. The dream from the night before, and the fact that she hadn't seen a single thing to contradict it, wasn't helping. He sighed as well, looking up into the gray sky as if he were waiting for snow, when he suddenly stopped cold.