He continued to plod beside me, his breathing and scent unchanged.
“Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Olaf nodded once, but was it a reflex, or was there a part of him actually processing what I was telling him? Sarah was right to the extent that we couldn’t keep going around and around with this. If a person was trapped inside there, I had to hope I’d thrown him a lifeline. Beyond that, I needed to let it go.
I had a team to command.
I walked with Olaf for several more minutes to see if he’d say anything. He didn’t. When we cleared the back of the barracks, I noticed Sarah sitting out front. I gave Olaf’s thick shoulder a squeeze, said, “Consider what I told you an order,” and separated from him.
Other than the debriefing, Sarah and I hadn’t talked about her ordeal in the Wendigo’s lair. She’d been spending a lot of time working in her office, maybe so she wouldn’t have to relive what had happened.
“How goes it, Program Manager?” I asked.
“Captain,” she said.
I took a seat in the end chair, still angled from our conversation the week before. “Anything new from corporate?”
“They’re monitoring some patterns around the globe, but they haven’t told me anything specific. Our last client, Berglund, has been in touch with them, apparently. He wants to set up some kind of hardship fund to help with future mission costs. That should expand our reach.”
I snorted in surprise. The son of a bitch had actually followed through. I’d had my doubts.
“Other than that, nothing really.”
“I talked to Professor Croft this morning,” I said. “He apologized for not getting back sooner, something about being stuck in the faerie realm. Anyway, he can’t believe we took down a Wendigo, much less a primal one. He was seriously impressed. Sends his kudos. I told him about the Shaking Man. He said he’d alert his superiors. They’ll check him out when they’re up there.”
Sarah nodded.
“How about you?” I asked.
She blinked behind her glasses. “What about me?”
“How are you doing after the encounter?”
Her fingers went to the faint scar line where her head wound had been. She must have understood what I was getting at. “I’m an adult now, Jason. And a soldier. I was prepared for what happened. In fact, being captured might have been the best thing that could have happened from a mission perspective. It allowed me to give Ms. Welch early medical attention. I don’t know how much longer she would have lasted in the state I found her.”
Sarah had a point, but her scent hadn’t lied. She had been petrified when we’d reached her. Regardless, she didn’t want to talk about it. I peered around the compound, empty except for us misfits who couldn’t or didn’t want to leave. Maybe now was the time to have our other talk.
“How long have you known about the skunk database?” I asked.
When she turned toward me, a part of me was sure she was going to backpedal or outright lie, setting off a serious leadership problem. But she replied, “Shortly after joining Legion.”
“Why didn’t you ever mention it?”
“Because it holds suspect data. It’s quarantined so as not to contaminate our queries. As Prod 1s are verified, they’re transferred over. The database is a placeholder. Nothing more.”
I thought about how she had known Yoofi would need to cast a reveal spell.
“But you queried it,” I said. “That’s how you knew we were facing a Wendigo.”
As she watched me watching her, I braced again for the possibility of a lie. “I had some suspicions,” she admitted.
“But you kept them to yourself.”
“I didn’t want to contaminate—”
“All right, listen,” I interrupted. “We’re not computers. In the future, we’ll query the skunk database when the results from the main database don’t square with what we’re seeing or we hit a dead end. And you’ll share your suspicions. Agreed? If we’re going to co-manage this team, we can’t keep info from each other.”
“Like you did with the she-wolf?”
“What are you talking about? You knew about Nadie.”
“But not what she wanted.”
I felt my face grow warm. “It was irrelevant.”
“It had a compromising effect on you. That’s why you transferred command to Takara.”
I wanted to argue the point; instead, I cycled through my practice with Takara from the night before. “You’re right,” I said. “The environment had an effect, but her presence made my wolf more dominant. To the point, at times, that I couldn’t entirely control him. I should have told you.”
“I’ll share from now on,” she said.
“Yeah, so will I.”
She squinted past me. “I think I understand your concern for him.”
I followed her gaze to the distant fencing, where Olaf was little more than a dot now.
“You need for him to be sentient. Because if he isn’t, you’re worried the same thing could happen to you.”
I gave a neutral grunt. The woman was more astute than I’d given her credit for.
My ringing phone saved me from having to answer her. I pulled it out and checked the display.
“Mr. Purdy,” I said when I answered.
“I wanted to call and congratulate you on your second successful mission. I can think of worse forming habits,” he said with a chuckle. “Yes, I know it was a team effort, but you were my pick to lead, and you’re making that decision look better and better all the time.”
“Even to Beam?” I asked. Following the mission, the Director and I hadn’t communicated except through electronic reporting. That none of us had been reprimanded for the subnet hack told me he was keeping up his end of the deal. But that didn’t mean things were kosher between us.
“He got his payment and then some,” Purdy responded. “He’s fine.”
I stood and paced from the barracks. “Yeah, until the next mission.”
“Let me worry about that. The larger picture, remember?”
“As long as you’re handling things.”
I still didn’t know what was happening on his side of the curtain, and a part of me didn’t want to. I’d be done in ten months. But I bristled at the idea that he could be using me and my teammates as pawns, no more significant to him than Austin or his mother had been to the Shaking Man.
“There’s another reason for my call,” Purdy said.
“And what’s that?” I grunted.
“Are you sitting down?”
29
Four days later
I rolled onto my side and squinted up at the light falling through a pair of airy white curtains. I was on a soft, clean-smelling bed. A ceiling fan rotated slowly overhead. For a moment I had no idea where I was.
A slender arm slipped around my waist.
“I could stay in here all day,” Daniela murmured, her tumble of hair tickling my bare back.
I let my head rest back on the pillow, lifted Daniela’s arm, and pressed my lips against the soft flesh of her palm.
“Nothing stopping us,” I replied.
As dreamlike as it felt, this was real. Purdy’s news was that Biogen had made a breakthrough, a drug that could restore me for days instead of hours. The change to my human form had been excruciating, a process that involved a combo of IV gene therapy, submersion into a special suspension, and electric shocks. But it worked. After twenty-four hours of monitoring, Biogen cleared me to travel, to come home. And here I was, arrived late last night.
When I gave Daniela’s hand a playful nibble, she giggled and withdrew her arm.
“I’m surprised you have anything left after last night.”
“Hey, we have eight months apart to make up for.” I rolled until I was over her and gazing down on her beautiful, sleepy face. We kissed.
By the time we separated, her expression had turned serious. She reached up and ran a thumb over my bristly cheek. When I realized s
he was circling the scar that marked me as the Blue Wolf, I took her hand and held it.
“I was really worried this time,” she said.
I kissed her hand again and looked into her concerned eyes, remembering the dream she’d shared. But I was also remembering my hunt with Nadie and how close I’d come to allowing that part to overwhelm the rest of me, including my devotion to this incredible woman.
“What is it?” Daniela asked, watching me.
“I think it’s time you knew what happened to me in Waristan.”
“Really?”
I told her over breakfast and while we walked her dogs in the neighborhood. I described what I could about the bombing that had led to the old woman marking me. I spoke of changes coming over me. I told her the real reason I had left the military and taken my current position—for a cure. I explained why I had kept her in the dark, how I hadn’t wanted her to worry for me.
Daniela mostly listened.
By the time I finished, we were hanging up the leashes while her dogs panted contentedly on the kitchen’s tile floor. Daniela poured two cups of coffee, and we carried them to her living room sofa.
“How are you now?”
“Getting there,” I replied carefully.
“These ‘changes’ you keep referring to…”
Her words lingered like a question. I could see in her face that she knew I was leaving out an important piece. And I was. I’d told her a lot—probably too much—but I hadn’t been able to tell her about my transformation into the Blue Wolf. I still couldn’t bring that part of me into our relationship.
I tapped my head. “They’re up here mostly,” I replied, which wasn’t a lie.
She took my coffee mug and set both of ours down on an end table. She then guided me until I was on my side, head resting on her lap. She began running her fingertips through my hair.
“Whatever’s happening,” she said, “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Just ten more months and I’ll be back for good,” I murmured.
“How can I help you?”
“Marry me.”
She snorted a surprised laugh. “You already popped the question? I said yes, remember?” She showed me her left hand and wriggled the diamond engagement ring with her thumb.
“No, I mean this visit.” I sat up. “Today.”
She tilted her head, trying to read my face. “You’re really serious.”
“I’m not leaving without making that commitment to you.”
“But what about all the … the planning?”
“What planning? We already have the rings. Your parents are in town. The courthouse is open. We’ll have our reception in the spring, when I get back. Yes, I’m completely serious.”
Daniela looked around in a kind of dazed wonderment.
I took her hands and held them to the center of my chest, where my heart was pounding.
“What do you say?”
She looked at me for a long moment. Then, eyes glimmering, she kissed me and nodded her forehead against mine.
“Let’s get married,” she whispered.
More Blue Wolf Coming!
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Acknowledgments
The Blue Wolf Dream Team returned for the third installment, almost to the person. A big thanks to my beta and advanced readers, with special thanks to Beverly Collie and Mark Denman for their thorough feedback; to Orina Kafe for yet another inspired cover design; to Aaron Sikes for his solid editing; and to Sharlene Magnarella for final proofing. Let’s reassemble for a fourth! I also want to thank James Patrick Cronin for his excellent narration of the Prof Croft series and now the Blue Wolf audiobooks.
As always, many thanks to my readers for exploring this universe with me.
You’re the best!
Blue Howl (Blue Wolf Book 3) Page 23