by Jade Alters
At first it seemed like an odd assignment. We weren't normally assigned to babysit anyone, especially civilians. The civilian men were doctors, a medical team who had come to Kabul to start a free clinic for the refugees. They'd been allowed to do that on base for their safety and the safety of the people they'd be treating. But the soldiers stationed there should have been protection enough. A team of Green Berets was overkill, in my mind.
Then a week after the doctors showed up, the reporter arrived. I had been told she was coming and their orders were to make sure she stayed on base and none of them were to touch her. That was like putting a candy bar in front of a five-year-old and telling him he couldn't eat it. The only women my team had seen in the past two years had been those dressed in traditional Afghani garb, covered from head to toe with only a pair of eyes showing.
Those pretty brown eyes had even become tempting after a while...but my team and I had orders not to touch any of them...and we were all good little soldiers.
I had spent many nights once the reporter arrived however, tossing and turning in my tent. The descriptions of her alone that the men had given me were enough to drive me crazy at this point. But there was also her scent. Even from three hundred yards away I could smell her...and sight unseen, I wanted her. And then I stuck my head in that tent and realized that my team's descriptions hadn't done her justice. If I had met her in a bar, at least a year and a half ago, I would have had one goal in mind, and that would be getting those baggy, khaki pants off of her. I felt a stirring in my pants just thinking about it. It had been way too long since I'd been allowed to spend any time with a woman...way too long.
The reporter's khaki pants and green t-shirt wasn't the sexiest outfit I'd ever seen by a long-shot, but it was definitely the sexiest I'd seen in this Godforsaken desert. I could at least see that she had a waistline, and a pair of breasts that I would like to see more of. She was about five-five or six and she looked fit, like she worked out.
Her hair was dark blonde, wild and curly. It had that untamed look to it that made a man...especially an extremely horny man, think about wrapping his hands up in it.
Her eyes were light blue, almost clear and when she turned to look at me, it felt for a second like she was looking right through me. I was suddenly worried that she could see who and what I really am.
I was a “normal” man when I joined the army right out of high school. I had always been athletic and adventurous and I was in good physical shape when I joined. After boot camp I was even stronger and more fit. I spent some time in Australia and Germany, which were pretty tame posts, but we still drilled every day and I kept getting stronger.
The great part about the “tame” posts was that I got to spend my time off in town, going to bars and clubs with my friends...and getting into a lot of foreign ladies' panties. But even that got boring after a while. The war was over and the only teams still seeing any action were the Special Forces.
So when the opportunity arose to try out for the Green Berets, I couldn't pass it up. I was 23 years old then, and I'd been a Green Beret for five years now. I was trained in unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance, direct action and counter terrorism.
I’d been involved in combat search and rescue missions, counter narcotics missions, counter proliferation and hostage rescue. And then one night in the midst of what the army called a “humanitarian assistance” mission...everything changed.
I hated my life now, most especially the cursed instinct to survive that kept me and every man on my team from ending it. I brought myself out of my thoughts and back to the assignment at hand. The reporter was dragging her feet, and we needed to move.
“Move! Now!” I yelled at her.
Her body jerked like I startled her and the glare she was shooting in my direction darkened and deepened. Somehow as much as I was annoyed, the fact that she recovered so quickly impressed me.
“Don't yell at me. I'm not under your command. I'm taking my stuff...”
I was impressed with her moxy...but we had to get out of there, and I was done playing. I took two steps into the tent, grabbed the reporter around her small waist, lifted her up off the ground and threw her over my shoulder. She was screaming and kicking and cussing, but I ignored her.
Everyone was busy, moving what they needed from the base into the trucks, so no one paid much attention to us as I carried her across the dirt lot and to the waiting truck. I dumped her into the back where the five doctors already sat and as soon as I let go of her, she tried to come at me like a wild banshee with her claws out.
I didn't normally show my wolf in the daylight, or to humans, but I really didn't have time for this one. I lifted one corner of my mouth and let my canines drop and I knew without being able to see them that my eyes were glowing.
She let out a loud gasp and stumbled backward into the truck right before I slammed the door and pounded my palm against the back of it, to let the driver know we were locked and loaded.
I double checked that everyone else was off base and then I climbed into the passenger seat of the Hummer we'd be chasing the truck carrying the civilian's. There was a Jeep in front of that truck. Everyone else on base, all Army personnel, were loaded into another big truck and already headed toward the next rendezvous spot. My team, for the first time in...the history of our team, was not following orders. We were taking these people in the opposite direction. We were getting the civilians out of Afghanistan and sealing our own teams fate in the process.
“We're good to go, brother,” I said to the driver, Will Blunt, another Green Beret and one of my teammates for the full five years I'd been a part of the Special Forces.
“That reporter gave you a bit of trouble I see?” Will chuckled and put the Hummer in gear, pulling out of the gates onto the dirt road behind the truck.
I sighed and said, “I showed her my canines.”
Will hit the brakes.
“What the hell? Clayton, you know how dangerous that can be.”
“Speaking of dangerous, the truck is getting too far ahead of us. Will accelerated and dust began to billow behind us as we caught up to the truck. The dust between us was so thick that it was like fog, but we were used to it. Thank God for wide open spaces and good eyesight.
“What were you thinking?”
“I wasn't. She just pissed me off. She was acting like a princess...like she thought the moving van was coming for her stuff and the limousine to take her to the airport.”
Will chuckled again. “I'll bet the back end of that truck is 115 degrees. Probably unlike any limousine she's ever ridden in.”
“Good. Maybe by the time we get her to the airport and on a plane, any romantic notions she had about visiting the Middle East will be out of her head. Women like her don't belong in places like this.”
Will cocked an eyebrow. “Women like her?”
“You know, pretty, soft...” I felt that stirring again. “Spoiled American women. She should be home making sandwiches and having babies.”
Will threw his head back and laughed.
“Boy, it's a good thing I'm the only one here to hear you say that. Women would chew you up and spit you out for talking like that, especially if you did it stateside where they pride themselves on being able to do everything men can do.”
God how I wished for just an hour with one who wanted to do what only a woman could do...I chuckled along with Will, but there was nothing happy about it. I needed a woman, but even more than that...I wanted to go home.
The mention of “stateside” made me sad. I missed my family...my parents, sister and my niece and two nephews. I missed my hometown and the friends I'd had for as long as I could remember.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and trying to push those thoughts away I said, “Whatever. You and I both know they're not made to withstand what we do out here. It's why none of us will ever have a mate too. No way even after...” Will frowned. “Sorry buddy, I know you hate to hear that
.”
All Will had ever wanted was to fall in love, get married and have half a dozen kids once he finished his tour. Now it looked like casual sex and one-night-stands was what we were all destined for. I wasn't happy with having to wait for that even, but I had no problem with the idea of not having a mate. The thought of being with one woman forever practically made my skin crawl. I'd been told that wolves mate for life, but the human part of me wasn't on board with that, even if it was a possibility out here, which I doubted.
The “5” of us had been a team for five years before all the shit happened, and another year and a half since the night that changed us all forever. Not a day went by since then that at least one of us didn't wish, out loud, that we'd been left up there to die. I thought it himself on a regular basis because now...even dying would be a long shot.
Luke “Titan” Bloomfield slid open the back of the truck. Luke was another one of my teammates, and best friends. We called him “Titan,” because he was six-foot-six, three-hundred plus pounds and his body looked like it was made out of steel. Luke was the kind of guy that would send people to walk on the other side of the street to keep from passing him on his side.
He kept his black hair so short that that what was left was more like stubble than hair. His black beard was quite often grown out almost to the center of his chest and he had gray eyes that were so dark they almost looked black. The ironic thing about Titan was that of the five of us, he was the nicest and the most sensitive if you gave him a chance. Even animals didn't fear him...unless he was in the mood to show them his fangs.
I shifted my focus to the inside of the truck once the door was rolled up. The six people inside looked tired, hot, and frightened. Well, five of them looked frightened. The only female, the little blonde, spit-fire reporter, just looked pissed. In her defense, they had all been crammed into a truck that was already full of military equipment. We'd gotten the call to move and to pack everything we could into the truck. The civilians had been sitting on top of tents and sleeping bags with their backs up against the walls that were filled with communications equipment, guns and other paraphernalia. But in my defense, if the woman hadn't been such a pain in the ass in the first place, I had planned on letting her ride in the Hummer with me and Will.
“Where are we?” She was the first one to speak, of course, and it was in a demanding tone that irritated me all over again. I ignored her and instead looked at the Doctor who sat covered in sweat and waiting patiently to be told what was going on.
“Dr. Steinbeck, you and your team can step out first, please.”
“Excuse me!” I was beginning to envision the reporter with a gag in her mouth. Unfortunately that turned me on a little bit, so I had to put that thought out of my mind as well. Ignoring her again, I reached up to help the doctor step down off the back of the truck. One at a time, five men, stepped down off the truck. Manny, team member number four was already leading the five of them toward our other teammate and the spot where they would soon be loaded onto an airplane and taken out of here.
“You can get out now,” I told the reporter.
“No.” She folded her arms and sat back against the wall of the truck. I rolled my eyes. I wondered if she was married or had a boyfriend. In other words, I wondered who I should feel sorry for.
“No?”
“No. I'm not getting out until you tell me where we are and what we're doing here.”
“We're in Afghanistan. The exact location is classified, but we're at an airstrip where we'll be putting you on a plane and sending you home.”
“Home?”
“Yes. Home.” Suddenly it was like a light had been turned on inside of her. She had been hot before when she was sullen and angry. Now, she was pure beautiful and for a second I forgot that I didn't like her. I stared at her until the look in her eyes changed slightly, almost like she recognized the lust in mine. Then it changed again, like she was remembering something. “Your eyes...they changed color earlier, and your teeth...”
“Come on or you're going to miss your plane.” She had that suspicious, curious look that I had seen on the faces of journalists before...but, it was obvious that she wanted to get home. She sighed and still clutching that laptop to her chest, stepped out of the truck and looked around. We were at a deserted airstrip in the middle of nowhere. There was one old hangar that looked like it had been built 80 years ago and never upgraded, a landing strip and a tower. That was the extent of it. No one had manned the tower in years. The airstrip was badly in need of repairs as well, every few feet there was a crack or a pothole. I could see her taking it all in and then she frowned and said,
“Where's the plane?” As if on cue, we heard the sound of the twin-engine, six-seat Cessna 206 coming in from the west over the mountaintop. The journalist frowned again when she saw it. “We're not flying all the way home in that, are we?”
I chuckled and almost told her they were, just to piss her off again. At the last minute however I said, “No. They'll fly you into Jalalabad and from there...”
“Jalala what?”
“It's a city in Nangarhar.” She shrugged and it was his turn to frown. “It's a province of Afghanistan. Didn't do too well in geography class, I'm guessing?”
“Must you be an ass?”
“You bring it out in me,” I said with a smile. She sighed and headed toward where the rest of the civilians were waiting. Manny, Will and Titan were in position to wave the plane in. Mitchell, who had driven the tank that led our little convoy was in place to keep the civilians back away from the small airstrip until the plane landed and they were ready to board them. My eyes moved to the sexy sway of the reporter's hips as she walked toward the others.
Damn, she was the finest thing Id seen in a long time.
I was thinking now that it was too bad that I hadn't taken security detail on that one before it happened.
My eyes were still on those sexy hips and my mind completely in the gutter when the explosion threw me to the ground, the plane circled around and left...and just like that, our plans were shot to hell...again.
3
Courtney
One minute I was walking toward the little cluster of people and the next, an enormous fist of orange and blue flames seemed to punch its way up through the dirt. The heat from the ball of fire was so intense that even from ten feet away, I felt like my flesh was melting. I couldn't move though, it was like I was frozen, and I couldn't look away either. I was riveted to the nightmare playing out in front of me. The explosion had come from directly underneath where the people had been standing, and the fire raged through what was left of them.
Dark gray plumes of smoke reached toward the sky with its long, skeletal fingers. The ash rained down on top of me and the most disturbing part of that was that I was sure what it coated me with was tainted by blood and charred flesh.
There was a loud ringing in my ears competing with the sound of my own heartbeat and I could see the man running toward me. I could see that he was yelling something...but no sound penetrated through the fog that filled my head.
The soldier scooped me up, without even slowing his step and I was lifted off the ground as if I weighed no more than a child. The whole episode felt so surreal, like I was flying through a cloud of smoke. I watched as another soldier yelled something to them and pulled open the door of the big, black Hummer.
My body was propelled through the door and I slid across the leather seat, only stopping when I hit the door on the other side. I sat there watching out the windows, as if I were witnessing a natural disaster after it happened on the 11 o'clock news. I had no idea how much time passed, if any passed at all...everything was in slow motion.
I did feel the vehicle move, like the earth underneath - it was rocking...another explosion maybe? I wasn't sure, since I couldn't hear anything. The loss of one of my senses was almost as frightening as what had just happened, it made me feel vulnerable.
Another slight shift of the vehicle and motion
from the back of the Hummer captured my attention and I turned to see someone tossing things inside. It looked like camping equipment...and guns, a lot of guns. There had been a lot of guns in the truck I'd ridden in earlier. I wondered why they needed so many guns...and then my mind went back to the explosion.
Those men I'd ridden in the truck with earlier had been on base with me for over two weeks. They were doctors and they'd come to Kabul to help people, and now they were dead. I felt my chest beginning to tighten.
Those men were dead...and one of the soldiers had been with them too, I'd seen shades of camouflage floating on the smoke.
My stomach lurched and I felt bile in the back of my throat.
Please God don't let me get sick.
I was distracted again, thankfully, by a huge man climbing into the driver's seat. I vaguely remembered him being on detail, “watching” over me a time or two on base, but I couldn't recall his name. He was really dark and intense looking...but sexy as hell. I did remember having a few indecent thoughts about him while I was alone on my air mattress late at night with the light from the stars penetrating through the top of the tent.
I felt ashamed of that now for some reason, like since people were dying all around me, I shouldn't be allowed to have thoughts about living. It seemed obscene somehow and the panic in my chest began to intensify.
The passenger door opened in the front and another soldier got inside. Then the door I had been tossed through opened and two other men got in. One of them was the soldier who had been so rude to me earlier, but had effortlessly saved my life only moments later. He slid in next to me, and the spacious vehicle suddenly seemed too small, and my chest was so tight that I could hardly breathe. I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing in and out...slowly. I felt the vehicle begin to move and then the soft touch of a rough hand against my arm. I opened my eyes and I was looking into the green eyes of the soldier who saved my life.
