by Amelia Jade
“Rule Number Two,” he said to the crowd once more, punctuating each word, “Is Do Not Assault a Superior Officer. I am not your boss. I am your commander. This is Lieutenant Hartmann. He is also not your boss. You,” Luther said, spearing another shifter with a glare. “What is Lieutenant Hartmann?”
“A superior officer. Ah, sir.”
Luther rolled his eyes. “My name is not Ah Sir.”
“Yes sir,” the helpless recruit said immediately.
Luther waited.
“I mean, Yes, um,” he paused, looking at Luther’s shirt.
“THE CORRECT ANSWER IS ‘YES, CAPTAIN KLEIN,’ DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?” He roared, getting right in the unfortunate recruit’s face.
“YES, CAPTAIN KLEIN. I UNDERSTAND YOU, SIR!” The recruit shouted back.
“Perhaps there’s hope for you yet,” Luther said, stepping back.
“Lieutenant Hartmann.”
“Yes, sir?!”
Luther noted how, now that they were in a formal session, Kiefer played the part of a subordinate perfectly. Which is good, considering he is one. I need to make sure I don’t forget that in public.
“Assemble these men into formation, will you?”
“With pleasure, sir!” Kiefer saluted and then turned to the huddled circle of shifters with an evil grin.
Luther stepped back and watched the proceedings.
It was going to be a long day.
***
“Company, into the barracks. You have precisely three minutes to make yourselves presentable. Then Lieutenant Hartmann will take those of you who have managed to do so for some chow. For any of you that haven’t, tough shit.”
Luther turned to Kiefer. “The company is yours, Lieutenant.”
“The company is mine, yes sir.”
Luther sighed as he watched the forty men charge inside their barracks in a mad rush to shower off the mud and dirt, dry off, and get changed, all within three minutes.
They wouldn’t make it. They never did.
“They’ll never be ready in three minutes,” a voice said from behind him.
Luther turned to see Allix standing there. He’d seen her once or twice over the past three days as he and Kiefer worked with the new company, trying to whip them into shape. He’d also noticed her overlooking a number of different areas of Base Camp with unconcealed interest.
“Of course not,” he said. “That’s not the point though.”
Allix eyed him speculatively. “So, what’s the point then?”
“To make them try. Some of them will be ready. Some of them won’t. Those who are ready face a choice. Do they go get food while their unlucky company mates—who aren’t ready simply because there aren’t enough showerheads—go hungry? Or do they all go hungry together? It’s a team-building exercise, though they don’t know it yet. They’ll fail it tonight, but eventually they’ll get it together, and one of them will tell Lieutenant Hartmann that either they all get food, or none of them do.”
“I see,” she said, and something about the way she looked at him changed as he explained his reasoning behind his actions.
Luther nodded, his eyes never leaving Allix. They’d been extremely proper around each other ever since the first day. They alternated sleeping on the couch, but they’d never slept together. They’d never even kissed since then. The tension was there, as was the desire. But when Allix had recovered from the shock of their first kiss, she’d realized things were moving too fast.
He’d not fought it. Instead, they’d spent their evenings simply talking over dinner. He’d discovered that she had an excellent mind for card games, and so he’d taught her poker, much to his bank account’s dismay. But then he’d unleashed her on Major Eidelhorn and some of the other officers, and watched them wail with sadness as she took them as well. So far they still invited her to play in hopes of getting their money back, but he didn’t think that would last much longer.
“Are you free to get some food?” she asked suddenly, changing the topic.
“Yes,” he said tightly. This was the first time she’d asked him to do something, just the two of them, that wasn’t simply sitting and talking in private. This was public.
Base Camp was a fully co-ed facility. Female and male bear shifters trained alongside one another, and shared barracks and shower facilities. Sex was a common theme, and Luther didn’t have to worry about exposing Allix to sex-starved bears.
But she was human, and that was a rarity. He didn’t expect any trouble, but he also knew that by going and getting evening chow together, many mouths would begin to wag. He’d kept them from doing that so far, mainly because everyone had seen just how neutral Allix had been to him in public. This was definitely not neutral, however, and he wondered if she knew it.
Then he saw her lips curl upward slightly, and he knew for a fact that she was well aware of what she was doing.
So perhaps something had changed then.
“Are you just going to stand there and look at me?” she asked with a demure smile.
“Perhaps,” he replied. “It is quite a nice sight.”
Allix blushed slightly. She was wearing a jacket and thick pants to ward off the cold, which were bulky and not form-fitting at all.
But her face was visible, and Luther could stare at her for hours on end if he was allowed. It was the hazel eyes, it had to be. They sucked him in and then never let go.
“Come on,” she said. “I’m hungry.”
Never one to turn down a meal himself, Luther let his long legs carry him to her side. Before he could say anything, Allix looped an arm through his so that he could guide her to their destination.
“I’m confused,” he admitted, pulling the door open to the mess hall for her.
“About what?” she asked.
“This sudden change in you,” he replied after they had weaved their way through the crowd and through the internal doors to the officers’ section.
The food was much better than what the recruits were served.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the past few days,” she said, placing her order and turning to face him.
Luther followed suit, opting for the steak instead of the chicken she’d gotten.
“I’ve noticed you all over Base Camp, examining everything,” he told her.
“Oh, been watching me, have you?”
Luther grinned at the teasing tone. “Yes. Every chance I get.”
Allix looked away, but not before he saw a smile flash across her face.
They received their drinks and went and found a table. Base Camp wasn’t formal enough to do table service, but the food for officers was cooked fresh. Their number would be called when it was ready in a few minutes’ time. The place was mostly empty, with only three others currently present, so it wouldn’t take long.
“This is an interesting place you have here,” she said at last.
“Yes, yes it is,” he said, looking around. Luther still wasn’t sure how he felt about his earlier treatment, and the way it had shaken his faith in Cadia. But there was something to be said about being back at Base Camp, back in the fold with the Green Bearets.
Yes, there was something to be said about that indeed.
***
Allix
She stayed at his side as they wandered back from dinner, neither of them speaking, lost in their thoughts. Allix knew Luther was thinking about his life in Cadia. She’d picked up on his loss of purpose when they’d fired him. It had really shaken him, and she had wondered how he would respond.
But after several days of watching him work with the recruits, she was beginning to see a re-emergence in that faith, even if he wasn’t ready to acknowledge it yet. Despite all the insults, shouted commands, and even physical violence, it was clear to her that he wanted nothing but the best from the recruits.
Each of his lessons, she’d learned, had an ulterior purpose. One that may not necessarily be visible on the top of it. The sheer amount of violence had sho
cked her, but she’d asked one of the other officers, a Major Eidelhorn, about it at one point. Major Eidelhorn had replied that bear shifters were a naturally violent lot. Sometimes it was necessary to get points through to the animals as well as the human side of it.
She’d found that particularly interesting, noting that at Base Camp they trained the bears as much as they did the humans. That had caught her by surprise, but she supposed it made sense. It still shocked her to see an instructor shift and take a recruit to task, but nobody else seemed fazed by it, and she was trying to learn to deal with it.
Allix was confident in time she would. Every day she felt more comfortable in Base Camp, and that was one of the driving things behind her actions that night. She’d cut herself off from Luther after they’d shared that first kiss, letting her human mind guide her as she got to know him more.
There was still plenty of things she didn’t know, that she was sure she would discover. But something about the way he’d explained his lesson to her earlier had struck a chord. She was ready to re-explore things with him.
It hadn’t happened abruptly. She’d almost let herself fall into him the night before, when they got ready for bed. But she hadn’t, stopping herself before she made a move. But there was no denying the connection between them. She’d met more shifters than she cared to count in the past five days, but not a single one of them held a flame to Luther.
He was all she ever thought about, was constantly on her mind, and every time she saw him, part of her just wanted to jump him then and there.
The question that kept pressing her though, was how? How had he managed to become so important to her in such a short period of time? She’d answered many of her initial questions about him, however, and now she was ready to extend her trust farther than she ever had before with him.
This would be the next test. Nothing was operating like she’d expected a relationship to, but Allix found that she wasn’t that concerned. Never having had relationships with her parents growing up, or anything besides company for the night with boys, she had no prior experience to draw on. Nothing to compare to what was happening. She was almost a blank slate, and everything she’d ever read or heard about shifters said that they did things far differently than humans. To them, moving this fast was natural, she gathered.
So if it was natural to them, why couldn’t it be natural to her? What was he going to do, hurt her worse than some of her drug-addicted flings had in the past? Allix knew he would never do that; she’d seen the way he flung himself into harm’s way to protect her. He cared about her, and she sensed that on a level far deeper than anything she could explain.
“What did you want to do tonight?” Luther asked as they walked down the shoveled pathway through the middle of the training grounds. “Cards? Catch a movie? Hit the gym?”
They reached the entrance to his quarters and Luther moved ahead a step, pulling the door open for her.
“Thank you,” she said politely and moved inside. “And all of those ideas sound fun, but…”
She kicked her boots off, revealing her bare feet.
“But what?” he asked, not facing her as he took off his light windbreaker jacket. She sometimes hated he never got cold.
But then again, I’m going to be making good use of that.
“I have another idea.” Her voice dropped a level and became thick as she started to unzip her coat.
Luther glanced over his shoulder at her. She watched as his eyes tracked down from hers, following her hands as the zipper came undone, revealing to him that she was wearing nothing underneath but her bra.
“Oh,” he said, swallowing noticeably and standing up. His boots came off easily and he came close to her, wearing nothing but his pants and T-shirt. “Are you sure this is what you want?” he asked her, one arm reaching behind her back to hold her still.
Allix shivered as his skin touched hers, his blazing warmth banishing the cold in that particular spot. She mentally urged him to run both his hands all over her body, to share the warmth across every square inch of her skin.
But he didn’t. Instead he stood there, gazing deep into her eyes as he awaited her answer.
“Yes,” she replied. “I’ve wanted it since that first time, but I needed to know you. To truly have an idea of who you are. There is something…between us, Luther Klein. I don’t get it, and I’m still somewhat scared by it. I’ve tried denying it, but that was useless. You’re in my every thought, my every dream. I’m not sure what spell you’ve cast on me, but tonight, I am yours,” she told him forcefully, letting her eyes do the talking for a moment as she returned his look.
“It’s…different, with shifters,” he said slowly.
She frowned. “What is, sex?”
He laughed, the sound tickling her soul with delight. “Well, maybe. But no. I meant the way we feel attraction and interest. It’s like a candle versus a blowtorch. One is slow and steady, taking time. That’s humans. You have to heat it, and wait for the wick to catch fire, burning through a small coat of wax.” He shrugged. “But with us, a spark and the flames are there, burning brightly nearly instantly.”
“And the spark,” she said slowly. “That was the night at the bar?”
To her surprise, he blushed. “It was when I first turned and saw you. I felt it. I didn’t realize it at the time, and then things got so crazy. But part of me knew the minute I first looked into those big brown eyes of yours that I was hooked worse than a fish.”
She giggled at his analogy. “So I’ve sunk my talons deep into you, have I?”
He nodded, and his hand tightened slightly on her back, pulling her tight to him.
“Yes,” he said thickly, his voice deepening. “I’ve restrained myself, thrown myself at work. But these past five days with you so close, but yet unable to touch you, have been torture.”
“Thank you for respecting me, for letting me take the time I need.” Allix’s voice was practically a whisper, but even she could hear the hunger in it now as his body pressed against hers.
Heat from his core reached out and caressed her skin, and goosebumps ran down her spine at the sensation.
“For you, I would do anything,” Luther said, and the truth rang pure in his voice.
“Will you kiss me?” she asked.
And just like that, the dam was broken.
Luther replied with actions, not words. Both hands grabbed her now, gripping her waist. Then she was in the air, her legs wrapping around his waist as she was raised to his level, and then some. Allix’s head dropped. She kissed Luther hard, not holding back anything as their lips touched, hungry for each other.
One of his hands stayed wrapped under her ass, holding her aloft with practically contemptuous ease. The other slid across her ribs and cupped her breast, gently tweaking her nipple, forcing a gasp from her at the strength of the sensation.
Allix had never been one to overly enjoy having her nipples played with—she didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t the arousing sensation many of the girls she’d talked to over the years claimed. But perhaps she’d just had the wrong men touching her. Luther’s fingers were making her harder than she’d been from anything but the cold.
Though she noticed that every time she cried out, something else was getting hard as well. Taking advantage of the ease with which he held her aloft, she began to grind her hips against his, pressing herself to him through the material of his clothes.
She hadn’t had time to drop her thick snowpants, but she was only wearing her underwear beneath those, also in anticipation of this moment. The fabric of the pants kept her warm, but it was soft enough that she could feel just about everything through it, including the growing bulge between his legs.
“I want you so badly,” he whispered in her ear.
The sheer desire laced in his words made her moan in anticipation. “You can have me,” she told him softly. “Any way you like. Take me.”
He growled, the deep, primal sound turning her on further as he all
but threw her down on the bed. Allix gasped as he literally ripped the pants from her, tearing them off in one smooth move and hurling them across the room.
Muscles bulged as he lowered himself atop her, his eyes drinking in the sight of her nearly naked body. She’d not been able to acquire any new underwear, and felt slightly self-conscious in the black bra and thong, the same ones she’d had on the day he rescued her. They were clean, thankfully, but she wished for something a little lacier, a little more flirtatious.
But now, with the way he bit his lip, the green of his eyes burning bright as he continued to stare at her, Allix found she just didn’t care. It didn’t matter with Luther. He would want her the same no matter what she was wearing.
“Fuck, you are sexy,” he said, even as his hands began to run up her legs and across her body, touching her everywhere, leaving nothing except the garment-clad areas of her body untouched. He began to kiss her as well, but he was again careful to avoid anywhere that had clothing touching it.
Her body writhed under his touch, and her back arched, her breasts rising up to him, practically begging him to bury his face in them.
And yet he resisted somehow, not giving in to her non-verbal demands.
“Why won’t you strip me bare?” she asked, biting her lip in tortured agony as he touched everywhere but the one place she wanted him to.
“Well, I feel like we’re a little uneven here,” he said with false innocence, indicating his own level of clothing versus hers.
Allix laughed and threw him aside. It was more like he fell aside, letting himself be manipulated by her, but she was okay with him just playing along. Her hands tugged at his shirt as he sat up, and she pulled it over his head.
It was almost up over his head before she stopped helping and bent to kiss him, his face still partially concealed by the shirt, though his lips were exposed for her to kiss. And kiss them she did, flicking her tongue against them gently before her mouth met his.
Luther growled in delight, but she didn’t let him savor the moment. Instead she put both hands on his chest and shoved hard, so that he fell back onto the bed. Then she slid her body as lithely as she could down his, trying not to tremble at the way his muscles felt to her bare skin.