The large soldier squirmed a bit, and Sara knew he was the one who’d spoken—especially when Jason confirmed it.
“And yes, the special talents of many Alpha Force members include shapeshifting,” General Yarrow continued, as if he were describing the features of an outstanding new car. “What some of you USFT personnel thought was just a ruse on the recent night of the full moon was real.”
No one spoke, but Sara sensed a lot of discomfort in the room. As she turned to look, she saw a number of personnel from the other unit moving uneasily in their seats.
Greg Yarrow didn’t offer details about the shifting elixir, but he said that the next few days at Ft. Lukman would be critical. Obviously, those within the two groups had not yet bonded simply because they were fellow members of the military. That had been the hope when the USFT unit was first sent here. Neither group had passed that test. They had stayed separate and even seemed somewhat antagonistic.
But that had to change. Now they needed to show they could get along under many different kinds of conditions—conditions that each group would be permitted to manufacture.
If all went well, they’d then be put through joint exercises...and only then would they be told what their real assignment would be.
“Only if you’ve convinced us you can work well together,” General Yarrow finished. “Right, General?” He looked at Myars.
“That’s right,” the other man said. “Otherwise, we’ll call an end to the experiment, and both units will show a failure on their records.”
“Permission to speak, General Yarrow?” That was Colleen Hodell, who’d sat in the second row. She was on her feet, saluting.
“All right, Lieutenant,” Yarrow said.
“I know this isn’t a question that’ll lead to better relations between the two units, sir,” she said, “and none of us wants any failures on our records. But everyone in Alpha Force will want the answer.” She pivoted, first toward the people at the front who were in her unit, and those more toward the back rows who were not. “Has anyone found an answer about what happened to your car, General Yarrow? I mean—are we sure it wasn’t damaged, and your life endangered, because of the lack of...well, camaraderie here?”
* * *
Jason felt the tension in the room rise. He didn’t need his enhanced senses as a shifter for that. Even so, he inhaled the heated scents of anger enough that he felt his whole body tense.
Beside him, Sara also stiffened in her seat. He glanced at her and saw that her eyes were wide and worried, her full lips pursed in concern.
She looked as if she’d have shut the Alpha Force member up if she’d been able. And she clearly wasn’t going to do what they’d discussed previously: hinting that they’d found a clue on the Jeep implicating USFT.
She didn’t need to. Not now. Colleen had come pretty close to doing so, and the tension in the room could be sliced with a combat knife.
He didn’t turn around to look at the USFT troops, but their scents suggested anger.
Of course they were all real military sorts. Unless ordered to fight—or otherwise given official approval—they’d hold it inside. And stew. And say “yes, sir” and “no, sir” and bite their tongues.
And potentially find underhanded ways of avenging their unit’s honor.
Jason expected General Yarrow to respond, possibly even to scold his own Alpha Force member, to keep the peace.
General Myars beat him to it, stomping forward at the front of the meeting room. “Is that intended to be an accusation against anyone within USFT, Lieutenant? If so, you’d better be more specific—and have proof, not just insinuations.”
“Sorry if I was out of line, sir.” Colleen hung her head so that her light brown hair spilled forward over her face for a moment. But then she looked around again, a smile that looked rueful momentarily lighting her felinelike features. “I just meant that I would much prefer it if we weren’t so—isolated here. Wouldn’t it make more sense for our two units to mingle more?”
And was the fact that they hadn’t before a factor in what had happened to General Yarrow—and to him, for that matter? Jason thought that was too simplified.
But sometimes the simplest answers were the right ones.
General Yarrow stepped forward, taking his place again beside the other general. “I think Lieutenant Hodell is right in what she just said.” Yarrow was much too polite to hint that she might have been right before, too. “In fact, it’s also my opinion that we all need to commingle more, and that has been my opinion for a while. That’s one reason I came here, to Ft. Lukman, to set things right before we attempt to meld the two forces for an exercise—and then, if all goes well, in the field. So here’s my order for tonight. I want each of you to pair up into groups of two members from your own unit, then hook yourselves up with one of the pairs from the other unit. You’ll eat dinner together. Then later tonight, we’ll conduct a preliminary exercise here at Ft. Lukman to see how your respective strengths can complement each other.” He looked at General Myars. “Are you in agreement, General?”
The flabby officer said nothing for a moment, appearing as if he were trying not to throw up.
But then he answered, “Yes, General, let’s give it a try.”
And it would just be a try, Jason thought. He glanced toward the woman beside him. Sara looked as skeptical as he felt.
“Then...everyone, dismissed,” called General Yarrow.
Interesting, Jason thought as Yarrow immediately stomped into the crowd and confronted Lieutenant Hodell. The conversations around him were immediately too loud for him to focus in on that particular one, even with his superior hearing, but he’d have loved to catch what the general was saying to the lady shapeshifter.
Congratulating her for bringing the issue to a head—or reaming her for not staying in her place?
The conversation he did hear loudest, since the participants stood beside him, were among other officers in Alpha Force, including Sara. They stood near the front of the room, keeping their voices low.
“How should we pair up?” Sara directed the question to Drew.
His cuz’s golden eyes narrowed. “I don’t know whether General Yarrow intends that any of us do some shifting tonight to show these...fellow soldiers...who we really are and what we can do, but just in case I think we should have a shifter and nonshifter in each group. Not necessarily our usual group of shifters plus aides, although that would be all right, too.”
In what seemed like moments, they’d chosen their groups: Drew with Jonas Truro, Simon Parran with Noel Chuma and so forth.
Was Sara intending to work with Colleen when the general was through with her?
Jason decided not to wait to find out. “Would you join up with me, ma’am?” he asked, trying to act as subservient a soldier as he could. “Unless, of course, your preference is to work with Lieutenant Hodell.”
He caught the horror in her glance as she looked around and saw that most of the other Alpha Forcers had decided on their partners. “I may just sit this out, Sergeant,” she said.
“Whatever you say. Only...” He let his voice trail off.
“Only what?” Her lovely brow puckered.
“Well, for one thing, if we...” He leaned closer and whispered, “If we do shift tonight, all the usual aides already have paired up for this, so I’ll need some help. And even if we don’t—well, I’m really interested in how this works. How we get along with members of the USFT, see them strut their stuff, try to work out the camaraderie that General Yarrow’s so eager to promote.”
That got Sara’s attention. Her blue-green eyes glanced upward, then glommed on to his as if she had been struck by what he said.
“Wouldn’t you like to be part of that, too?” he pushed. “So you can report to the general how it all seems to work out. I’ll bet he’d love to have an insider like you tell him about it.”
Her smile was wry as she looked up into his face and shook her head slowly, as if in amusement. �
�You really know how to pull my chain, don’t you, Sergeant?” He didn’t like that she wasn’t using his name, but in this location he definitely got why.
And her chain wasn’t all he’d enjoyed pulling before.
Although, judging by the heat in her look, she didn’t need a reminder.
“Okay,” she said. “We’re a team for this evening. An official Alpha Force team.” She paused. “It might be good this way to have an officer in charge as well as a subordinate, to show whoever we get from the USFT how Alpha Force is an excellent, smoothly functioning military unit.”
Jason read into what she said. In other words, he was to follow her lead. Her orders. Be a good member of the damned military and follow all the rules.
Not to mention showing the other guys what a great soldier he was.
Could he do it?
Hell, yes.
Especially if it got him extra brownie points with his cousin and the commanding general...
And Lieutenant Sara McLinder.
Chapter 14
This was becoming unnerving to Sara. But she could, and would, handle it. Even though it seemed contrary to most protocol she had learned since joining the military.
The protocol she had been comfortable with.
Right now she stood on the periphery of the improved areas of Ft. Lukman, beyond the buildings and at the edge of an outdoor parking lot—near where the forest within the base’s boundaries began to grow.
Not far from where she’d gone her first night—and been confronted by that apparent pack of wolves.
The early-evening air was crisp, but her discomfort wasn’t the result of her camo uniform not being warm enough. No, it was more internal.
Especially because she stood beside Jason, who was acting all soldier, all professional. Seeming even to enjoy it.
To enjoy being her partner in what was to come.
That only made her even more uneasy. And not just because being with him stoked her heated recollection of the time they had spent together. And how sexy he was. And how she lusted after him no matter how much she doused those thoughts with the iciness of reality checks.
That was much easier to ignore when she wasn’t with him. But she’d been, and would continue to be, in his company a lot of the time she was here at Ft. Lukman.
She wasn’t alone with him, of course. She was among all these teams of soldiers who had been ordered to work hard to get along together. Ranks didn’t matter.
Their units did.
And as to members of Alpha Force, the preference was that one of the pair be a shapeshifter, and the other not.
She could have said no when Jason asked to team up with her. It was probably a bad idea.
Especially since she might have to not only watch him shift, but help him, too.
“All right, everyone.” That was Major Drew Connell shouting to be heard above all conversations. From what Sara could tell, everyone was at least making an effort to achieve the camaraderie that they’d been ordered to do. “Here’s what we’ll do.”
“My cousin likes to give orders,” said Jason to the two members of the Ultra Special Forces Team who were now part of their team: Samantha Everly and Manning Breman. How odd—or contrived—was it that they’d been the ones Sara had talked to in the middle of the night to keep them from seeing Jason in wolf form?
But Sara liked that Jason was acting as he should— trying to make friends with these two.
Samantha looked offended, though, at the friendliness of a mere sergeant. She kept her chin raised, which made the brown hair clipped at the back of her neck seem to dig into her. Her arms were crossed over her full chest encased in her camo uniform, and her expression seemed...well, haughty.
To Jason’s credit, he didn’t appear to notice.
Manning, on the other hand, seemed all graciousness. The tall, pudgy guy laughed at what Jason said. “Isn’t it a downer to have to report to your own relative?”
“Sssh.” Samantha scowled at them both. “We need to hear this.”
Sara said nothing. Samantha was right, but she didn’t want to acknowledge that to the bitchy woman.
“First thing, we’ll have our Ultra Special Forces Team members demonstrate their sniper proficiency,” Drew continued. “For those of you who don’t know, we have an outdoor shooting range near the fence at the back of this forest area.”
Sara hadn’t seen the area but figured that all shifting members of Alpha Force knew every inch of the base.
They’d have seen it while on the prowl.
“Let’s head there, and we’ll get a demo of the abilities of the USFT members. I’ve heard about them but really look forward to seeing it with my own eyes.”
Drew motioned for everyone to follow. The closest to him, his own temporary team, consisted of his aide, Jonas Truro, as well as USFT members Rynton Tierney and Vera Swainey.
Sara noticed some of the other teams, too—around six in all. One consisted of Simon Parran and his aide while shifting, Noel Chuma, plus two USFT members Sara hadn’t met yet. Simon’s wife, Grace, wasn’t included in this exercise.
Another team included Colleen Hodell and Rainey Jessop along with USFT member Cal Brown and another one Sara didn’t know.
They all trudged through the woods. It was still light enough to see their way around the trees, though the area was blanketed in shadows.
The shifting Alpha Force members would have no problem. The sounds of everyone’s footfalls on fallen leaves, and the twittering and shrieks of birds above, along with the smells enhanced by the sudden occupation of this area, would be child’s play to their keen senses.
Sara made sure to keep up with teammate Jason. For safety’s sake. Not because she was happy to be in his company.
When she tripped once over a fallen branch, she ignored her impulse to grab his hand and hold on. But he seized her arm and helped to keep her upright—before quickly letting go.
“Sorry, ma’am,” he said, the perfect soldier—for the moment. “You okay?”
“Yes. Thank you.” She managed a glance in the near darkness and caught his amused expression. He enjoyed the show that he and the others were putting on.
Sara couldn’t make out much of the conversations of the groups heading through the forest. For a moment she wished, as she sometimes had before, that she had the senses of a shifter—utterly absurd. She hadn’t even wanted to believe in them, and now that she did it wasn’t logical to want to share any of their characteristics.
In a short while, they reached the far side of the forest. There, Sara saw a long fence that marked the perimeter of this part of Ft. Lukman. It wasn’t standard chain link but was composed of some high, substantial-looking metal material.
Which made sense if this was a shooting range. She believed the other side of the fence was public parkland. No one would want any hiking civilians injured by unrestrained gunfire.
“Okay,” Drew said loudly then turned to his new team member Rynton Tierney. “Please tell us again what your unit’s special abilities are and explain what they’ll demonstrate here.”
Every team now stood in the clearing. Were they each getting along? Well, the members were all still alive and not shouting at each other, so Sara figured they were at least pretending to be buddies.
“This area is a good one, even at twilight,” Rynton began. He explained again that most of the special nature of the USFT members involved their perfect—no, better than perfect—vision and accuracy in aiming weapons. “We’ve all been vetted to make sure we can do even more than an ordinary sniper—and you all know that the military’s regular snipers are far from ordinary.”
He went on to talk briefly about how the USFT members’ accuracy in aiming and more had been recognized and lauded at the topmost echelons of the military—including its commander in chief, the president of the United States.
Then it was time for a demonstration.
The special M25 sniper rifles and ammo had already been brought to th
e area and secured there. Rynton opened the case that had been hidden at the edge of the woods. He also introduced a couple of privates who were members of USFT, and who had acted as sentries over the equipment.
For the next half hour, while the area grew darker as night fell, each USFT member provided a demonstration of his or her prowess, firing into wooden targets in the shape of people—and never missing the area of the heart or head, or wherever else they said they were aiming, even as each stepped back to be farther away in the blackening night. Then the targets were set to moving on their platforms. Fast. The perfection of the hits didn’t waver.
It definitely was impressive.
But soon—maybe too soon—it was over.
Time for Alpha Force to conduct its own demonstration.
Sara wondered how Drew intended to carry this off. She knew he’d discussed it with General Yarrow, but she hadn’t been included in the process.
She hoped that, for the sake of the modesty of Alpha Force shifters, they weren’t just supposed to drop their drawers and change in plain view.
Fortunately, that wasn’t the plan.
“All members of the USFT, please stay here. For security’s sake—and mostly because I don’t think any of you really want too much information here—we’ll head into the nearest building, then return in shifted form.”
“What if we want to see it all?” demanded Rynton Tierney. “That’s what General Myars expects.”
“The shifting process is highly classified,” Drew shot back. “We saw the results of your abilities and training. That’s all we’ll show you of ours.”
He gestured for the members of Alpha Force to follow.
Sara was glad she was among them. But was she about to see a lot more nudity than Jason’s?
If so, she’d handle it as she’d handled everything else in the military.
The nearest building, a storage depot, had already been organized for the night’s activities. Drew’s wife, Melanie, was there, and she had taken charge of the shifting elixir. There were plenty of vials as well as boxes of the lights used to trigger the shifters’ changes.
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