X-Ops Exposed

by Paige Tyler

  That terrifying image fueled her fear, and by the time she reached the bottom of the slope, she was practically running. That’s when the panting behind her stopped and the long, drawn-out grunting started. Halfway between a loud moan and a low roar, Zarina had never heard a sound like it. But it was loud and menacing, and she couldn’t imagine anything cute and cuddly making it. Whatever was back there, it was big and it didn’t like her in its territory.

  At the thud of heavy paws hitting the ground, Zarina abandoned caution and ran as fast as her legs would carry her. Playing it cool and calm hadn’t worked. Maybe giving in to panic might.

  She didn’t even attempt to head up the next slope, instead running along the flat valley she was in. But the creature behind her was fast, and she barely made it fifty feet before it caught up to her. It was so close, she swore she could feel its overheated breath stirring her hair.

  Knowing she wasn’t going to get away, Zarina slid to a stop and spun around, ready to shout at the beast that wanted to kill her. She’d seen Tanner let out a roar that could paralyze almost anything crazy enough to attack him, so perhaps she could do the same thing.

  But her cry of defiance died in her throat as she came face-to-face with a gigantic grizzly bear. The beast reared up on its hind legs, towering over her for one heart-stopping moment before dropping to all fours and roaring at her so loud, her bones felt like they’d turned to jelly.

  She vaguely remembered the store clerk in town trying to sell her a can of bear repellent. If she wasn’t so terrified, she’d laugh at the idea. What the heck would a can of pepper spray do to something this big?

  The bear took a step in her direction with another roar, showing off fangs large enough to bite right through her.

  For a split second, Zarina considered running again, but it would be pointless. She’d never outrun a bear.

  Rabbits get eaten.

  So instead, she screamed as long and loud as she could.

  The grizzly looked shocked for a moment, but instead of scaring the animal off like she’d hoped, all it did was seem to make him mad. Head low, the bear started toward her.

  She was going to die.

  But suddenly, the bear stopped, a look of what could only be confusion on its face as it focused on something behind her. A second later, a roar ripped through the night that shook the ground. She jerked her head around, almost collapsing in relief when she saw Tanner standing there in the dark, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, his eyes glowing vivid red, fangs bared as he let out a roar that sounded exactly like that of a lion. Which made sense, because those were the DNA strands blended with his own.

  Zarina stood transfixed. Tanner’s fangs were longer and looked more terrifying than the bear’s.

  The rage and anger on his face must have been enough to scare the grizzly, because the huge animal gave one more half-hearted chuff in Tanner’s direction, then turned and scurried back into the pitch-dark forest.

  To her right, she caught movement. Crap! Tanner was going after the bear. Not because he wanted to hurt the animal, but because by running, the grizzly had become the prey, and Tanner’s lion half simply couldn’t stop itself from hunting the animal down now that the rage had taken over.

  “Tanner,” she said softly. “Let the bear go.”

  He stopped like he’d hit a brick wall, then stood there, unmoving, for what felt like forever, facing away from her and staring off into the darkness in the direction the bear had run. Not that it was probably all that dark for Tanner. With his animal-enhanced eyesight, he could probably see the grizzly’s big, fuzzy rump bouncing off into the woods. And if his eyes lost the creature, then his keen sense of smell would fill in the details. Which was a good thing, since she’d have probably been a bear treat if it hadn’t been for that nose of his.

  After what seemed like an eternity, Tanner turned and looked at her. His fangs and glowing red eyes were gone now, replaced by a mesmerizing blue gaze and a ruggedly handsome face that had made her heart almost stop beating the first time she’d seen it. He had a bit more dark-blond scruff along his jaw and chin now. Actually, a lot more. Maybe it was because she’d grown up in a cold-weather environment where the opposite sex went all caveman in an attempt to stay warm, but she wasn’t usually a fan of facial hair. On Tanner, though, it looked incredibly scrumptious.

  His T-shirt clung tightly to his chest and shoulders, showing off all the muscles he had upstairs, while his jeans fought to contain thighs that looked poised to tear their way out at any moment. Had he actually gotten more muscular since he’d been out there?

  Zarina almost ran to him right then so she could throw her arms around him and hold him tight for the rest of the night. But she didn’t, because she knew he wouldn’t be ready for that. Not after she’d showed up in the forest out of the blue and almost gotten eaten by a bear.

  But damn, it was hard.

  Tanner looked better now than when he’d been living in the dorms at the DCO complex. He had been put up there since the agency’s covert agents had found him out here all that time ago. Even the stress lines that had been etched into his features had completely faded. It almost made her sorry she’d come out here to disturb the serenity he seemed to have found. But she couldn’t stay away, not with the way she felt about him. And especially not when she could finally help him.

  “What are you doing here, Zarina?” he asked bluntly.

  So much for him sweeping her into his arms and saying he was happy to see her. Clearly, he wasn’t. She tried not to let that hurt too much.

  “I’m here to help you,” she said, equally blunt.

  She’d learned a long time ago that dancing around a subject wasn’t the way Tanner did things. It wasn’t the way she did, either, so that was okay. She didn’t bother mentioning that his disappearance had caused her more sleepless nights than she could count and had nearly driven her insane with worry. That would have been emotional blackmail, and she wasn’t going to do that to him.

  His jaw flexed. “I don’t need any help. I’m doing a good job of controlling my hybrid impulses all on my own.”

  She looked pointedly in the direction the grizzly had run. “It doesn’t seem like it to me.”

  Tanner flinched, and she immediately regretted her choice of words. Dammit, she was out here to help him, not push him further away.

  “I haven’t lost control in the two months I’ve been out here,” he said through clenched teeth. “Not until you decided to do something stupid like wander through the middle of a grizzly’s territory by yourself.”

  Zarina wanted to point out that she hadn’t planned to be out here this late and that there was no way she could have known she was in a bear’s territory. But she bit her tongue and focused on trying to defuse the situation.

  “I’m sorry I made you lose control again,” she said. “But I’m here to make sure it doesn’t happen again…ever.”

  She waited, expecting Tanner to ask her what she meant by that, but he didn’t. Instead, he stood there regarding her and looking way better than any man should considering he’d been camping in the woods for two months. She had met plenty of guys who couldn’t pull off his level of masculine perfection after primping in front of a mirror for an hour. That was one of the other things she’d learned about Tanner. He didn’t have to work hard at being so amazing. It came naturally to him.

  After another minute of silence, Zarina accepted that if they were going to talk, she was the one who would have to get the conversation started. “I finished the hybrid drug antiserum that will return your DNA back to what it was before Stutmeir’s doctors experimented on you. You can be a normal human again.”

  She waited for some reaction—relief, doubt, elation. Something. But Tanner looked as interested as if she’d told him it might rain tomorrow.

  “I’ll never be normal again,” he finally said quietly.

 
“Yes, you will.” She stepped closer, anguish coursing through her when he immediately took a step back. “I worked on the antidote every minute since you left. It will work. It will keep the beast from ever slipping out again.”

  “I don’t want it, dammit!” he shouted, making her jump. He cursed and ran his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice softer. “For yelling at you. And for making you come all the way out here and hiking halfway across the Wenatchee Forest to find me. But I don’t want the antidote. Just go home, okay? Leave me out here where I can’t hurt anyone.”

  Zarina’s heart tore in two at the pain in his eyes. She had no idea why he was turning down her offer, but she wasn’t leaving without him.

  “I’m not going home,” she said, standing her ground and leveling her gaze at him.

  Having this conversation would have been a lot easier without holding a flashlight. Then she could have folded her arms to emphasize her point.

  “Then you’d better have a lot of books on that e-reader of yours, because you’re going to get bored damn fast waiting for me at whatever hotel you’re staying in.”

  “I’m not going to a hotel,” she told him. “I’m staying out here.”

  Red flared in his eyes but faded just as quickly. “Like hell you are.”

  “I’m not leaving,” she said firmly. “You can run off into the woods—we both know I can’t keep up with you—but I still won’t leave. I’ll keep walking all over the forest looking for you.”

  His eyes flickered red again, and he muttered something under his breath she couldn’t catch. “You irritate me like no one else on the planet, do you know that?”

  “Yes,” she replied, even though it was probably a rhetorical question. “So, which way to your camp?”

  * * *

  Tanner was so mad, he could have punched a hole through a tree trunk. Getting a grip on his temper, he took a deep breath and forced himself to walk slower. If he moved too fast, Zarina wouldn’t be able to keep up, and while he might be pissed as hell, he wasn’t going to leave her alone out here in the dark. They could have made better time if she’d let him carry her pack, but even though it was obviously too damn heavy for her, she adamantly refused.

  He bit back a growl. For a brilliant scientist, Zarina did some frigging stupid stuff. Like hiking out here in the middle of the night looking for him. She could have gotten herself killed, and probably would have if he hadn’t jerked awake from the middle of a deep sleep, one hundred percent sure he was picking up a trace scent that was impossible for his nose to miss—or ignore. He’d almost convinced himself he’d been dreaming. God knew he’d been thinking enough about her over the past two months for that to be possible. His hybrid sense of smell had been jerking him around a lot lately.

  It kind of sucked when you couldn’t even trust the stuff your head was telling you was right there in front of you. Then again, that was why he was alone in the forest in the first place. He couldn’t trust himself anymore. Not his hybrid side or his human side.

  Even so, he’d dragged himself out of his tent just to be sure. It was a good thing he had, because he’d picked up the grizzly’s scent at the exact same moment he’d figured out Zarina’s scent wasn’t an illusion. He had no idea what she was doing in the woods, but he had no doubt it was her. No one on the planet had a scent quite like hers.

  He’d slowed only long enough to pull on his boots and T-shirt, then sprinted across the mountainous terrain like his life depended on it. He’d smelled that bear a few times over the past several weeks. The grizzly had been getting bold when it came to following campers around looking for food. The animal probably had no desire to hurt Zarina, but a grizzly could do strange things if it thought its territory was being poached. Tanner thanked God he’d found her in time.

  Now he was taking her back to his campsite. But just for the night. First thing in the morning, he was dragging her cute ass back to town and sitting it down in the first bus or cab heading for the airport.

  As angry as he was with her for coming after him, he’d be lying if he said it wasn’t good seeing her. He hated his traitorous heart for going there, but the beautiful Russian doctor had stirred something inside him from the moment he’d opened his eyes and seen her leaning over his bed in that damn place where those assholes had turned him into a monster. She’d saved his life in that hellhole—and saved his soul several times since then. But as beautiful and mesmerizing as she might be, she was also the most stubborn woman he’d ever met. That damn grizzly would have killed her if he hadn’t found her in time, and she barely seemed to care. He’d told her she needed to go home, and she’d firmly refused. When he’d threatened to leave her out there on her own, she’d called his bluff.

  Damn, she could be irritating as hell when she wanted to be. That made it damn hard to protect her from the most dangerous thing in all these woods—him.

  Tanner did his best to ignore Zarina as they headed northwest along the top of the ridgeline that led to his campsite. Of course, that was useless. It wasn’t like he had to even look over at her stomping through the darkness beside him to know exactly what she looked like. Her perfect skin; plump, kissable pink lips; and long, wavy blond hair were permanently etched into his mind. He’d never forget a single part of her as long as he lived.

  “I can’t believe John Loughlin let you come out here on your own,” he grumbled, needing something to distract him from thoughts of how insanely gorgeous she was and how much he’d missed seeing her since sending himself into exile, even if it was for the best. “Didn’t he have anyone available to send with you? Declan, or Landon, maybe?”

  There were plenty of other operatives and shifters at the Department of Covert Operations, people who could have tracked him down easily enough. But Declan MacBride was the big natural-born bear shifter who had found him when he’d been wandering these woods after being turned into a hybrid, and Landon Donovan, a former Army Special Forces A-Team Commander, was the best operative in the DCO. Sending either of those guys with Zarina would have made perfect sense. Sending her out here alone had been crazy. What the hell had John been thinking?

  “Well, Landon couldn’t come because he’s busy running the DCO now,” Zarina said, waving her flashlight from side to side in an effort to keep from falling over the rocks along their route. “And Declan is spending most of his time close to home. Those twins of his are a handful. Neither he nor Kendra are getting a lot of sleep.”

  Tanner completely got the part about Declan needing to stay near his wife and kids, but the stuff about Landon having a new job caught him off guard.

  “What do you mean, Landon is running the DCO now?” He frowned. “What happened to John? He’s okay, right?”

  Two months ago, he and everyone else at the DCO had thought John had been killed by a bomb. Thankfully, the director of the DCO—former director now, Tanner guessed—had a guardian angel out there in the form of a shifter named Adam who’d gotten him out of the building just in time. Tanner had been relieved to see John alive and would hate to think something had happened to the guy after he’d left.

  “Yeah, he’s fine,” Zarina said. “But all the stuff he and his family went through convinced him he needed to reprioritize his life. He took a sabbatical from the DCO and made Landon deputy director. No one really knows if he’s coming back or not. Heck, I’m not sure if anyone even knows where he is right now.”

  Tanner shook his head. Apparently, a lot had changed at the DCO since he’d been gone. “If Landon is deputy director, who’s the new director?”

  “Some political mover and shaker named William Hamilton.”

  Zarina reached out to grab his arm for balance as she stumbled over a rock. The feel of her hand on his skin immediately sent tingles racing through him. Tanner cursed silently, hating how his body reacted to her touch.

  “I don’t know anything about the man, but he
seems capable,” she continued, squeezing his biceps as she made her way over the uneven ground.

  Tanner stifled a groan. She was doing that on purpose, wasn’t she? Considering she was smarter than he’d ever be in his life, she had to know the effect she had on him. He hated to think she’d manipulate him like that, but he wouldn’t put it past her. She knew he didn’t want her here, and she was going to fight him every step of the way when he made her leave. But he had to do it. It was too dangerous for her, and it had nothing to do with him or the grizzly. There were things going on in these woods he didn’t want her getting mixed up in.

  He was still pondering that when she slid her hand to the top of his shoulder before moving it away, all the while acting like she was unaware of what she did to him.

  He moved to the right a little, putting some space between them and focusing on what she’d said.

  Landon Donovan as deputy director. Tanner hadn’t seen that coming. The guy was a dirty boots soldier through and through, built from the ground up to spend his life fighting the fight and leading his troops. Trying to imagine him behind a desk running a covert organization didn’t seem to fit.

  “So Landon’s the one who let you come wandering around out here on your own, huh?” he asked Zarina.

  From the corner of his eye, Tanner saw her throw him a withering glare. “It wasn’t up to him whether I came or not,” she said sharply, reminding him yet again that she was a woman who did whatever she felt was right regardless of what anyone told her. Which had a lot to do with him being alive at the moment, he supposed, so maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.

  “When I told him I was coming to find you, he wanted to send someone with me, but I pointed out you’d only run again if he did,” she explained. “I convinced him I could find you on my own and talk you into coming back.”