Her Perfect Mate

by Paige Tyler

  He frowned. “What’s your problem, Ivy? Is it me, or are you this nice to everyone you work with?”

  She looked ashamed he’d called her out, and for a moment he thought she might actually apologize, but then she turned and walked out the door.

  Landon snorted as he watched her go. Hell of a nice partnership they had brewing.

  ***

  Ivy swore. She should have gone easier on Landon, especially since he was obviously trying to be friendly. But it wasn’t like she could come out and tell him she was a shifter. She’d tried that approach with Dave and it had backfired. It hadn’t helped that her enemies had fed him a load of crap about her, all of which had been lies. Unfortunately, those same jerks were still at the DCO, so there was nothing to stop them from turning Landon against her, too.

  Ivy glanced at Landon as he fell into step beside her. Some damage control might not be a bad idea. She might have to depend on him for her life someday, and she didn’t need to get on his bad side—more than she already was.

  “What kind of training are we doing?” He gave her a sidelong glance. “Unless that’s a big secret, too.”

  She deserved that. “Something the DCO likes to call team building. Hope you’re not afraid of heights.”

  “Can’t be afraid of heights and be in Special Forces. What are we doing? Rappelling? Air assault ops?”

  “Nothing nearly that fun. You remember the last time you played on a confidence course?”

  Ivy smiled at the tortured expression on his face. Landon was clearly one of those people who thought the term confidence course was an oxymoron. Maybe this was going to be fun after all.

  Kendra and Todd were waiting for them along with a medic named Tim. Kendra smiled at Ivy while Todd immediately started briefing them on what they’d be doing.

  “You’re going to have to work as a team to make it through the confidence course, and how well you work together is as important as getting through it,” Todd told them.

  “Time is a factor, too, so no dilly-dallying,” Kendra added.

  Easy for Kendra to say. She wasn’t climbing up to the top of a forty-foot tower with a partner she just met and wasn’t sure she could trust to not slip up and drop her ass.

  Landon looked at Ivy. “After you.”

  Ivy turned to survey the confidence course. A series of balance beams, ladders, and towers, it was higher than anything Landon would have seen in the military, but he didn’t so much as blink at the prospect of climbing it. Self-assurance like that was attractive in a man, but it could also be dangerous. If he got too cocky, he could end up getting both of them hurt.

  Her heart was beating faster than normal as she led the way over the balance beam and up the ladder to the first real obstacle—an inverted tower. She hesitated at the bottom of it. Fifty feet high, it was a series of square platforms. It looked like the floors of a building, only with no walls. The problem was that each floor was wider than the one below it, meaning a person had to lean out over empty space to climb onto it. The only way to get up an inverted tower like this was for one person to boost the other up to the next platform. Then whoever was on top had to lean over the edge and help drag the other one up. It was simple enough—if the two people trusted each other.

  She poised to jump up and grab the edge of the first platform when Landon dropped down to one knee and laced his fingers together.

  “Here,” he said. “I’ll give you a boost.”

  She opened her mouth to tell him she didn’t need it, but quickly closed it. Another problem with this obstacle was that the floors got farther apart the higher they got. Higher up, she’d definitely need his help, and if she refused now, he probably wouldn’t help her later and they’d fail their first training exercise. Besides, she’d promised herself she would be nicer to him.

  Mumbling her thanks, she put her booted foot in his hands and allowed him to lift her up. Landon was tall enough to climb up to the first platform without help, but not the next. Though she didn’t think he’d take it—either because he didn’t think she’d be strong enough to pull him up or didn’t want to tarnish his manhood—Ivy reached down to offer him a hand. He hesitated a second and then jumped up to grab her hand.

  When he got up on the platform, he gave her an appraising look. “You’re a lot stronger than you look.”

  “I thought you figured that out yesterday.” She grinned. “Gonna give me a boost up or what?”

  Landon chuckled and laced his hands together.

  Ivy couldn’t believe how fast they were moving, probably because they were working as a team. That was a different experience for her. She had to admit having a guy as athletic—and hot—as Landon helping her get through the confidence course made it more fun than it should have been. When Landon planted his big, strong hands firmly on her ass to boost her up onto the topmost platform, she found herself breathing a little harder. And when it was her turn to help him, she couldn’t resist grabbing his butt to drag him up. His ass was muscular. He must do nothing in his off time but work out, which made her wonder what the rest of his body looked like underneath that uniform. She had to force herself to really focus as they completed the rest of the course.

  When they reached the ground, Ivy had to catch herself from high-fiving her new partner. “You were good up there,” she told him.

  He seemed surprised at the compliment. “Thanks.”

  Kendra glanced at something over’s Ivy’s shoulder. “Yikes. Clayne’s here. I’ll go intercept him.”

  Ivy stiffened. Dammit.

  “Problem?” Landon asked.

  “No,” she said. “He’s just a friend of mine.”

  “Friend, huh?” Landon glanced at Clayne, sizing up the tall, muscular shifter the way a man would an opponent he was about to fight. “The way he’s looking at you makes me wonder if he knows that.”

  Clayne was assessing Landon like he wanted that fight.

  “Okay. Break’s over,” Todd called. “Time to move to the next tower.”

  Ivy sighed with relief. Putting the cap back on her water bottle, she set it down and fell into step beside Landon as he headed for the tower. She needed to focus on their next challenge, not Clayne, especially since the obstacles on this part of the course were tougher and higher.

  Again, Landon let her go first, and Ivy quickly climbed the rope to the first level, then ascended the ladder to the top of a tower and waited for him there. He made it up almost as fast as she had.

  Landon frowned at the next obstacle—a thirty-foot solid wood wall. On a normal military confidence course, the same wall might be ten feet high. Tough to get over by yourself but doable for a two-person team. Nobody could get over this one, even with teamwork. No average human anyway.

  Landon glanced at her. “I don’t suppose you can fly, can you?”

  “Not quite.” She hesitated, then added, “But I can climb it.”

  He raised a brow. “Climb it? You’ve gotta be kidding me.” When she didn’t answer, he folded his arms across his chest. “This I’ve gotta see.”

  Ivy’s pulse quickened. Part of the reason the DCO made them do the confidence course was to expose Landon to her true nature so he could recognize its value. Or cringe in revulsion.

  Time to see if he could handle it or would go running off for a psych evaluation.

  Turning to face the wall, she let her fingernails extend until they were as long as those of the great cat with which she shared her DNA. Then she took a deep breath and ran toward the wall. Jumping onto it, she dug her claws into the wood and climbed hand over hand all the way to the top. Heart pounding, she peeked down at Landon, praying she wouldn’t find the disgust she’d seen so many times before. But he just stood there with an amused expression on his face.

  “If you expect me to climb the wall like that, we’re going to be here awhile,” he called. “Hope you
brought lunch.”

  Huh? No shock, no freaking out, no fear in his eyes. She couldn’t believe it.

  “Well?” he prompted.

  She gave herself a shake. “There’s a rope up here. I’ll toss it down.”

  Just because he hadn’t freaked out didn’t mean he wouldn’t demand answers when he got to the top, and Ivy braced herself for a barrage of questions. But he only reminded her that Kendra and Todd were timing them so they’d better hurry.

  Since Landon hadn’t freaked out after seeing her sprout claws and scale a thirty-foot wall, Ivy didn’t see the need to hold back anymore, particularly when they got to a rope bridge stretched between two towers fifty feet high. She could get across the bridge in the dark with one arm tied behind her back, so she didn’t need to use the safety rope above her head, like Landon did.

  She didn’t know what happened. Maybe she wasn’t paying as much attention as she should have. Or maybe she was showing off for Landon. The next thing she knew, her foot slipped off the rope and she fell. She instinctively tried to grab the rope bridge, but missed it.

  Crap. The fall wouldn’t kill her, but it would hurt like hell—her pride most of all.

  Suddenly, her hand hit something. She grabbed whatever it was, hoping it was strong enough to stop her descent, when she felt a hand wrap around her wrist. Amazed, she jerked her head up to see Landon holding on to her.

  “I’ve got you,” he said, his voice calm and reassuring.

  Ivy didn’t know how he managed to get to her so fast. Or how he was keeping himself from falling. Dragging her gaze away from his soulful brown eyes, she saw that he was hanging from the rope bridge by his legs like a circus performer. That probably wasn’t a standard Special Forces move. Maybe he had some monkey DNA and didn’t know it.

  “Um, Ivy. Not to rush you or anything, but this isn’t really comfortable. Think you can find a way to climb up me without ripping me to shreds or knocking us both down?”

  That’s when she realized her claws were out and dug into his wrist like spikes. That had to hurt.

  “Oh God, I’m sorry!”

  She retracted her claws and carefully climbed up Landon’s back onto the rope bridge. Grabbing the top rope, she quickly moved forward so he could get back up on the bridge. But Landon didn’t bother. Instead, he swung hand over hand on the bottom rope until he got to the tower, then dragged himself up onto it. Careful to hold on to the safety rope this time, Ivy hurried across the rope bridge to join him.

  She grabbed his wrist to see how much damage she’d done. There were five bloody puncture marks around it that were already starting to swell. She winced. They looked painful. She might not be crazy about the guy, but she hadn’t meant to hurt him.

  “I really am so sorry,” she murmured.

  “I’m fine,” he said. “I’ll get it checked out when we’re done. You okay?”

  Ivy blinked up at him. He’d almost gotten killed saving her butt from her own stupidity, and he was asking if she was okay?

  “Yeah. I’m fine. Thanks. For catching me, I mean.”

  “No problem. What’s a partner for?” He flashed her a devastating grin. “Come on, let’s get moving. We’re eating up the clock.”

  ***

  As he and Ivy jogged to the cafeteria, Landon tried to comprehend what had happened up on the tower. Not the whole saving-Ivy-from-falling thing. He’d saved plenty of guys’ asses on training exercises before, and he’d had someone save his ass from a screw-up once or twice. What had him confused was the whole claws-and-wall-climbing thing. And that wasn’t even the most bizarre part, which had come when she’d looked up at him after he’d caught her mid-fall. Her eyes had gone from their usual dark, beautiful brown to an iridescent, light green, and her pupils narrowed to slits, like a cat’s.

  But that was impossible, right? Yeah, well so were claws.

  He glanced at Ivy. He wanted to ask her about it, but that wasn’t something they could talk about while they were jogging. So he shelved his questions for later.

  In the cafeteria, he and Ivy grabbed some food, then found a table. Although the chili he’d chosen would never be considered gourmet by any stretch of the imagination, it was better than the stuff he was used to in Afghanistan.

  “Thanks again for saving my ass back there,” Ivy said as they ate. “How’d you do that thing you did with the rope?”

  “You mean hang upside down from it?” He gave her a lopsided smile. “I don’t know. I saw you fall and instinctively leaped to catch you. I think hooking the rope with my legs was more luck than skill.”

  Landon studied her over the rim of his Gatorade bottle. Since she’d brought it up, he figured it was a good time to ask about her feline tendencies. Before he could say anything, however, Ivy mumbled something about talking to Kendra, then grabbed her tray and got up.

  A lot of people watched Ivy cross the room. That wasn’t a surprise. She was an attractive woman who made the DCO uniform look good. But not everyone eyed her with appreciation. Some of them were looking at her with hatred. What the hell had she done to earn that kind of animosity? Besides having claws that allowed her to scale a thirty-foot wall and puncture flesh? Not to mention eyes that seemed to glow. He could see how that would make some people look at her differently.

  Claws. Eyes that glowed. What the hell was he thinking? That Ivy was what…part cat? He took another gulp of Gatorade, trying to get the thoughts out of his head, but he had the puncture wounds on his wrist to prove it.

  “Mind if we sit?”

  Landon looked up to see two men standing in front of him. One was short and stocky, with curly hair. The other was a tall African American. “Go ahead.”

  “I’m Foley,” the stocky guy said. “This is Hightower.”

  “Donovan.”

  “We thought we should come over and offer our condolences on being partnered up with Poison Ivy,” Foley said.

  Poison Ivy? He had to be kidding. What, were they in fifth grade again? Landon took another swig of Gatorade. “That so?”

  “Yeah.” Foley leaned back in his chair. “Got her first partner deep-sixed from the DCO. Got her second partner killed while they were on a mission. If she weren’t an EVA, she’d be out on her ass for the shit she’s pulled. Freaking bitch.”

  Landon had to tighten his grip on the plastic bottle to keep from balling his hand into a fist and punching Foley in the face. It was obvious Foley was a dumbass who liked to spread rumors about crap he didn’t know anything about. The man’s opinion of Ivy didn’t mean shit to him. When he wanted to know about her previous partners, he’d ask her.

  “Thanks for sharing,” he replied.

  Foley looked like he had more to say, but he backed off when four men casually sauntered up to the table. Three of the men looked nondescript, but the fourth guy was quite memorable. Easily six-foot-seven, he was blond and built like a pro wrestler. Or the guy from that Thor movie he’d seen over in Afghanistan. He was also the one Foley must have disliked the most. The curly haired man threw a scowl his way, then nudged Hightower.

  “Let’s go.” Foley gave Landon a pointed look as he stood. “Watch your back.”

  Landon didn’t say anything. The four newcomers sat down, the pro-wrestler lookalike sitting across from Landon.

  “Was Foley filling your head with lies about Ivy?” asked the dark-haired one with blue eyes and a neatly trimmed beard and mustache.

  “He tried to,” Landon said. “I didn’t buy what he was selling.”

  The bearded man nodded. “Good. Because he’s full of shit. Ivy’s one of the best operatives at the DCO, and if Foley wasn’t such an asshole, he’d realize that. I’m Tate Evers, by the way.” He nodded at the two men sitting next to Landon on each side. “That’s Brent Wilkins and Gavin Barlow. And this big guy”—he jerked his thumb at the pro wrestler—“is Declan MacBride. He’s
the EVA part of our team.”

  Landon looked at the big blond man. He couldn’t imagine him growing claws and scaling a wall. “EVA?”

  “No one told you what that stands for yet? I’m not surprised.” Tate snorted. “The DCO always does a lousy job of explaining stuff. EVA is short for extremely valuable asset.”

  Asset. As if the DCO didn’t think of Ivy and Declan as people. Landon swung his gaze back to Declan. “You can do what Ivy does?”

  Declan laughed. “Not on a good day.”

  Tate grinned. “Declan’s skills are different than Ivy’s. You two didn’t have the talk yet, huh?”

  The talk? That sounded ominous. “Apparently not.”

  “Then I won’t be the one to steal her thunder. After this morning’s training, I’m sure you’ve already figured out she’s special, right?”

  “Very.”

  All four men regarded him thoughtfully, but once again, it was Tate who spoke.

  “Look, you’re going to run into people like Foley who’ll tell you people like Declan and Ivy are freaks. That’s bullshit. She and Declan and people like them aren’t any different than you, me, Brent, and Gavin. They just have special skills that make them unique. Regardless of what Foley told you, you can trust Ivy to have your back. And she needs to know she can trust you in return.”

  “She can,” Landon said without hesitation. That was a given, regardless of what happened with her previous partners.

  “Good,” Tate said. “Because in this job, both your lives depend on it.”

  ***

  It was cowardly to use Kendra as a buffer between her and Landon, but Ivy couldn’t help it. Her new partner might not have freaked out at the sight of her claws—or that she’d dug them into his arm—but she wasn’t quite ready to have the talk with him yet.

  “What do you think of Landon?” Kendra asked Ivy.

  Ivy’s gaze strayed to her partner to find him looking at her. She quickly turned her attention back to Kendra. “He seems okay. You could have warned me he’s military.”

  “Why? So you could obsess about how awful he’d be every waking minute until you met him?” Kendra bit into one of the two chocolate chip cookies on the tray in front of her. “So what if he’s Special Forces? You two obviously work well as a team. And he’s definitely nice to look at.”