by Amelia Jade
Aksel gritted his teeth at the idea of Nina being at the mercy of people like that, and his bear came fully to life, its anger flowing through his blood as it gave its own thoughts on the matter.
“I suppose so, sir.”
“Did you ever look at a map of Cloud Lake?” the major asked, pointing to a huge image on the wall to his right.
“Yes sir, many times.”
“And do you recall where you found Miss Nina?” the major probed, gesturing to Aksel to point it out on the map.
“Of course, sir,” he said, pointing out a location about a third of the map in from the eastern border of town. “Right there.”
“And I assume by now you’ve found out where she lives?”
“I have, sir,” he replied, confused, pointing out another section of the map, in the northwest quadrant.
“We’re still working on clearing out the west part of the city, though only the southwest is really of any concern. The more into it we go, the more it’s obvious that is where the shifters based most of their operations from,” the major explained.
“I know that, sir,” Aksel said, still not understanding.
“So tell me this, Corporal. If these men wanted nothing from your Nina, why were they on an almost direct line from her house”—the major stuck his finger on the map and dragged it along to where Aksel had said he’d found her—“to the Town Hall? Where this human so coincidentally happened to work?”
The finger continued, passing through where Aksel had rescued her, all the way to the Town Hall. It was almost an entirely direct route.
“No idea, sir. Could just be coincidence? We did, after all, find evidence of shifters living here,” he said, indicating a warehouse even farther to the east. “If they were aiming for there, this is one of the faster routes that would avoid major streets.”
“Fair point, Corporal. But until I’m convinced that she has absolutely no idea why they took her, then the guard stays.”
Aksel opened his mouth to protest, but the major held up his hand. “Unless…” he said, trailing off.
Aksel knew a prompt when he heard one. “Unless what, sir?”
“Unless you want to do it?”
“Do what, sir?”
“Get close to her. Follow her, keep an eye on her. Gain her trust, and find out just what it is she’s hiding.”
“She’s not hiding anything, sir,” Aksel said in protest.
“Perhaps not, Corporal,” the major said, stressing his rank, to let Aksel know he was getting dangerously close to being out of line. “But until I’m convinced of it, those are the options.”
Aksel inhaled sharply, prepared to continue to argue, but the major spoke first.
“Be very, very sure that the next words you speak are ones you won’t regret, Corporal,” he said, his voice so deep it was almost a growl as he leaned across the desk toward Aksel. “Are you absolutely, positively, one hundred percent sure that she’s telling the truth?”
And there it was. Aksel was fairly positive that Nina was telling the truth. But the very first time he’d asked her, the night before just after releasing her from her bonds, she’d hesitated. It had been so slight he’d almost not seen it. But it was there, and it meant he couldn’t be completely positive.
“I don’t like it, sir,” he said with a snarl. “We’re not like this. All cloak and dagger, spying on people. That’s not our way!”
Major Eidelhorn stood up straight, taking in a slow breath. “If it helps, Aksel, I don’t like it either. But we have the safety of not only those of us here in Cloud Lake to worry about, but everyone back in Cadia as well. Not to mention anyone else Fenris might go after if Cadia were to fall. Are you truly prepared to gamble that future on a woman you met less than twenty-four hours ago?”
Aksel almost said yes. The word came to mind and his mouth began to form it. He wanted to believe Nina, and he knew if he asked her to do something, she would. Of that he had no doubts at all.
But he couldn’t escape that little nagging part of his brain that kept replaying her slight hesitation. She had just been scared of him, hadn’t she? It had been a long, traumatic night, and she hadn’t known him. Of course she would hesitate before answering at all.
He was conflicted. His bear and his emotions said to go with Nina, that she was telling the truth. But his gut wasn’t in complete agreement, and his loyalty to the Green Bearets and to Cadia was a powerful thing, one that he wasn’t sure he could shake so easily.
“No,” he said at last, his voice a ghost of a whisper as he caved unhappily, angry at being forced into such a situation.
“So what’ll it be then?”
“I’ll do it. Sir.” He waited an extra heartbeat to add the sir, to let the major know he was extremely displeased with what was being asked of him.
“Good. The sooner we find out, the sooner she can be free to go. I’ll notify the man assigned to her that you’ll be handling those duties from here on out. Now, is there anything else?” The major seemed prepared to let the slight insubordination slip.
“No, sir.”
“Then you’re dismissed.”
“Yes, sir,” Aksel said, throwing a sharp salute and exiting the office, leaving the door open behind him.
Chapter Seven
Nina
They left the platform together, walking out into the city.
“Well, that was interesting,” Aksel remarked.
“I think it was nice,” she told him, punching him lightly in the arm. “I’m sure it wasn’t overly ego-swelling talking about being thrown out of town, or the men you lost both during that and while retaking it. But for us humans, it was something we needed to hear.”
Aksel grumbled but didn’t argue.
“And the fact that Cadia has agreed to pay the bill for any damages inflicted by Fenris is remarkable. On top of that, all of the shifters you’ve brought in are already working miracles on helping clean up the city.”
She grabbed his elbow and shook him. “We appreciate that, and this little ceremony was the perfect way to ensure that people knew about it, and to perhaps more formally acknowledge the ties between Cadia and Cloud Lake. We’ve been neighbors for decades…heck, centuries actually. But we barely know anything about you.”
“And you can see why we tried to keep it that way,” he said, kicking at the snow in the direction of a burned-out building as they walked the streets.
It had been three days since the invasion, and the town was coming back to life around her. People were resuming their jobs, and even now, most folks were comfortable enough to walk in the streets.
“You’ve done a wonderful job,” she chided, trying to pull him out of his funk.
“Except for the southwest,” he muttered.
“That wasn’t your fault,” she said, starting to get angry.
The day before, a three-man patrol had been jumped by Fenris holdouts. One man had been lost, one badly injured in the retreat. A full squad of Green Bearets had gone in after them, but they’d not been able to find their quarry.
It wasn’t the first patrol to be attacked, but it was the first one to lose a man, and the remaining Fenris shifters in the town were beginning to get organized. Aksel had already told her he expected it only to be a matter of time before they lost an entire patrol.
“I know,” he said, deflating at her words. “But I know if I’d been there, it wouldn’t have happened!”
They’d been over this several times now, and Nina wasn’t interested in discussing it again. So she just fell silent as they wandered through the streets aimlessly, her arm locked in his.
She wasn’t sure just how they’d become a “thing,” but Aksel seemed to be around all the time. Nina had told her boss at work what had happened, and she was on stress leave until she felt comfortable enough to resume her working duties. As an archivist, she wouldn’t be horrifically missed if she took a week or two off. It would just mean extra work when she got back.
That had
meant plenty of time for her and the shifter to spend together. Although he’d been busy during the day, Nina had found that she enjoyed pitching in and helping out. While she couldn’t do the same labor as the shifters, her eyes were just as keen when it came to helping tear apart burnt houses, and dictating what should be junked and what shouldn’t.
If anything, they had seemed grateful to have a human helping them decide, as it took any pressure off them for having made assumptions as shifters about what was valuable to the former occupants, and what wasn’t. Anything these shifters could do to ease the tensions it seemed, they would do.
During breaks and in the evenings, they’d spent their time together. Nothing physical had happened between them yet, and she’d been careful not to leave any openings for it. She wasn’t the type to just let herself be swept off her feet and give herself to a man she just met, even if she’d never met anyone like Aksel before.
There was something about him that placed her so at ease, made her so relaxed, that Nina had found herself wanting more and more to be alone with him. With just him. It was a growing urge that wasn’t entirely founded between her legs either, but had support in her heart, and scarily enough, in her brain as well.
“Sorry,” Aksel said after a few minutes, interrupting her inner monologue.
“It’s okay,” she said, relenting. “I know you’re only upset because you care so much for the men, even if they weren’t part of your squad.”
His head turned to the side to glance at her, and he smiled, though no words came.
Nina returned the look, and then laid her head on his shoulder for a moment, moving with the slow bounces as they walked together tightly.
“Nina,” he asked, and she straightened, recognizing that tone.
“Yes?” Her voice was wary, her eyes narrowing as he glanced over at her.
“Do you ever wonder why those shifters took you? What their purpose was? I just can’t figure it out.”
Her heart raced.
This was her worst nightmare. He was pressing her for information. Information that she could share! If she told a soul, they would know about it, they’d said. They would find her…
Could Fenris have wanted the information for another purpose?
There are only so many options on what the Fenris shifters might do with that information. Don’t be naïve.
But if she told him, then he’d know she’d lied to him. And he wouldn’t want to be with her again, and leave her. Of course, on top of all that was the fact that she’d been hauled into a room by men in suits and threatened with all sorts of horrific retribution if she so much as hinted about what she’d found. Word was the federal government wanted to negotiate for the information, for money, or perhaps something else, Nina didn’t know.
Either way, they’d frightened her into silence with an efficiency that scared her even more than the threats.
“I’m not sure,” she said at last. “There were several other disappearances during their occupation. We couldn’t figure out any of them.”
That was the truth. Nina knew one of the men who had gone missing, and she assumed he’d gotten drunk and mouthed off to a shifter. It was his way. But the other three men and two women, she couldn’t explain the reason why Fenris might have been after them, and nor could anyone else. But their houses had been burned down just like hers, so obviously they must have done something to piss Fenris off.
The real question was what?
That was a mystery for another day though. Right then she needed to be concerned with Aksel and his prying into her secrets.
Secrets she wished she didn’t have to keep. Why hadn’t the government just come out and told Cadia about everything? It would have made her life so much less complicated, trying to juggle her terror and promise to them against her burgeoning feelings for Aksel and the desire to simply tell him the truth.
But before she could begin to get a sense for whether he believed her or not, she felt his body language change. It wasn’t a slow, gradual thing either. Abruptly Aksel went from a soft, cuddly figure at her side that she could lean upon, to a mountain of granite-like muscles, tensing as his senses came to full alert, his spine straightening while his head craned around.
Her teddy bear had just become a weapon in the span of a heartbeat.
“What is it?” she asked warily, looking around them as well, though she didn’t see anything of note.
The sun was on the decline in the west, and shadows were beginning to play around them.
“We weren’t paying attention to where we were,” Aksel said, his feet coming to a halt as well.
Nina looked around and as it dawned on her where they were, she began to curse.
“Shit, how could I have been so blind to lead us here?”
This was her fault. She knew the city like the back of her hand, and should have been more aware of where it was that they were heading as they had wandered together. Instead, she’d let herself get wrapped up in Aksel while ignoring the potential danger they’d just thrust themselves into.
They were in the southwest part of the city, not far from where the patrol had been ambushed.
“Let’s go,” he said, pulling on her arm, turning them around. “Before it’s too late.”
“A little too slow, I’m afraid,” a voice said from behind them.
Nina froze as other figures emerged from in front of them and advanced menacingly on the pair.
***
Aksel
They were in big trouble.
He counted four figures surrounding them, all shifters. Only three of them were bear shifters, the fourth was either a wolf or a leopard. He couldn’t tell from this distance. The wind was blowing the wrong direction as well, preventing him from scenting the animal within. But the shifter was too lean and had a different sort of stride, one that marked him as a small, more agile shifter.
Wolf or leopard, it didn’t matter. He was highly outnumbered. Any two, he probably would have taken his chances with. Three would have required a miracle, though he knew he could have sacrificed himself so Nina could get away.
But four? That was just too many. The three bears could keep him occupied while the other one easily hunted Nina down.
Yet, what choice did he have? He couldn’t just allow them to be taken.
“When I give the signal,” he murmured, hopefully just loud enough for Nina to hear, but not to carry to any of the Fenris men around them, “you run for it. Start making noise. Patrols go through here fairly regularly. Someone will hear you.”
The same man who had spoken at first snorted, revealing he’d heard the words anyway. “I highly doubt that. You two picked the near-perfect time to come wandering into our little chunk of town. Your patrol is all the way out there,” he said, pointing in the direction Aksel and Nina had been headed, “out near the edge of town. The next one won’t be along for another half an hour.”
He grinned maniacally. “Plenty of time.”
Aksel had been listening to the man with one ear, while he surveyed the buildings around them. Now he glanced down at Nina’s feet.
Not heels. Thank goodness.
Pulling her in tight in front of him, he lowered his lips to her ear, making it look like he was kissing her. “It’ll be okay,” he said, just loud enough for his captors to hear.
“Actually no, no it won’t!” the same man called out with a laugh.
Which is exactly what Aksel wanted him to do. As his laughter rang out in the streets, Aksel kept speaking, but dropped his voice low and tried to disguise his actions as kisses. “I’m going to pick you up. It’s going to be fast. Please don’t scream or flail.”
Nina simply nodded.
“You can’t hope to defeat me,” Aksel shot back. “Do you know who I am?”
He was playing to the unknown shifter’s ego now. The leader of the four attackers paused and stared at Aksel. Then he just began to laugh, and laugh.
“You? Who said we were—”
Superhuman muscle pushed him off the ground and the two of them hurtled up through the air, leaving the four shifters behind as they cried out in surprise. It would be mere moments before they were after him. Even as Aksel descended to the roof of the building they had been standing next to, he knew he had to move, and move fast.
“Hold tight,” he grunted as his feet hit the gravel-covered roof and slid crazily as he fought for balance.
Nina’s arms were wrapped around his neck and squeezing hard. To her credit though, she gave her trust over to him completely and did not flail around. That allowed him to balance her, and once his feet stopped sliding he pushed off again, dashing across the rooftop.
“They’re behind us,” she said into his ear, and Aksel was once again surprised at how calm and collected she sounded, more like an announcer than someone whose life was being threatened.
He’d felt the impacts of the other shifters as they followed him onto the roof, but his surprise had given the pair a crucial head start, and Aksel was trying to put that to good use.
Ahead there was a gap between buildings, and another increase in height. With a snarl he timed his jump just perfectly. He took the raised lip around the roof at a run, his right leg pushing off it to propel them up and over the gap.
“Hold on!” he shouted as he saw the snow on the next roof appear below them.
His feet hit the roof and went flying out from under him, sending the pair into a crashing tumble. Aksel threw himself forward, Nina still in his arms, so that he could take the brunt of it.
Shoulder blades hit a protrusion in the roof and flesh ripped from his body as he bellowed in pain, but what hurt him badly could very well have killed or seriously maimed Nina. They slid across the roof as the snow and gravel bled their momentum—and his back—away. But the real damage came when he slid feet-first into an air vent of some sort, and his ankle twisted badly, forced at an awkward angle as the rest of his bodyweight piled onto it before he came to a halt.