Protected by the Pack

by Jade Alters

  “Not any more so than usual,” I said. “But those are the orders. Lt says they will kill her too if we don't bring her there.”

  “And you don't think that maybe she'd be better off dead?” Manny snapped. “You don't envy Mitchell...just a little?” We were all silent then. It was a horrible thought, but I did envy our friend. He was released from the hell we had all been living. Regardless, I couldn't let go of my own survival instinct, or my instinct to protect Courtney, or die trying.

  We left the conversation at that, for now, because Courtney came back into the room. She'd taken the bandanna off her face and had obviously used the dry paper towels to wipe at the dirt there. Unfortunately the stains on the clothes she still wore underneath that coat would probably leave permanent ones on her psyche. As she walked over to where she left her meal and sat down she said,

  “You guys are going to make a girl think you're talking about her if you stop every time she walks in.” Will laughed again. The rest of us continued to eat in silence. While I ate the tasteless, cold meal I thought about Grover. Lieutenant Colonel Grover Dayton, the reason we were even still alive. Of course he was also the reason we weren't quite human. Some days I respected and appreciated that, other days I wished I could rip out the man's throat.

  That fateful night we'd been in pursuit of a group of Taliban who had taken responsibility for a car bomb that had killed and/or injured dozens of American soldiers. We had tracked them up this very same mountain and before the night was over, each of the five of us, and the lieutenant had been critically wounded.

  Our Lt knew something we didn't however.

  He knew what was going on in “the Tower”. He'd made a decision to alter the course of our lives so that we could continue living. The problem was that we were no longer sure which world we belonged to...human, or animal. Being angry with the Lt was next to impossible however, since he was the only one who became perpetually trapped in animal form.

  The Tower became his home and now the only communications he had with anyone other than the handful of scientists assigned there were sent telepathically from his mind to mine. I suspected we all had the ability to receive the messages, but thus far I had been the only one willing to accept them.

  Walking with Courtney in tow to the tower meant that we were up for at least a two-day hike even as hard as she was pushing herself. Manny was right to worry about taking her there. But I knew they wouldn't take no for an answer. We would just have to figure out a way to save her once we were all there. Maybe, we could find a way to finally save us all. I didn't understand why I felt that way suddenly, but something about being around Courtney had given me a renewed sense of hope. I just didn't know how to explain it, or share it with my teammates. I just needed them to trust me.

  I looked over at Courtney again.

  She was looking at me. I didn't know anything about her other than that she was a reporter. I was curious as to why the army let her be there in the first place...I was even more curious as to why “they” hadn't chosen to kill her along with the other civilians. They wanted her alive and at the tower, but she was fully human...so why? The doctors had knowledge and abilities they wanted. But what did they want from Courtney?

  “Where are you from, Courtney?”

  “California, near LA.”

  “Is that where you work?”

  “No. I took a job in Atlanta about six months ago working for KTAT Channel 6 News. The opportunity came up to do a story on the medical clinic on base and it was given to me. We were told that the base was offering medical help to refugees from Kabul and it would make a great documentary.”

  “Were you invited here, personally?”

  “No, I don't believe so. I'm much too new for someone to ask for me, personally. The station manager offered it to me though He was looking for someone that didn't...well, someone who could spend a good deal of time away from home.”

  “Hmm.” I scratched my chin and held my hand out to Will who put the water canteen in it. After washing down the sticky meal I'd just eaten I said, “Just you, or did he offer it to others as well?”

  “Why all the questions?”

  I shrugged. “Just passing time, getting to know you.”

  She frowned. “No. If you wanted to get to know me, you'd ask questions like, “Are you married?” “Do you have kids?” “Where did you go to school?” Your questions sound more like you're insinuating I was sent here and set up somehow.”

  She was sharp. “That wasn't my intention,” I said. “Are you married?” She rolled her eyes but said,

  “No.”

  “Fiancé?”

  “No.”

  “Boyfriend?”

  “No!” she snapped out the last reply and Manny mumbled,

  “Shocking.”

  Courtney dropped the half-eaten MRE down on the floor in front of her and said, “I'm going in the other room to sleep.”

  “Courtney, wait...” I tried, giving Manny an angry look.

  “I'm just tired,” she said. “Good night.” We all said good-night, Manny sounding almost under protest as he did. Titan opened his bag of tricks again and took out a tightly rolled sleeping bag. He held it out to her and with a thankful look, she took it. “Thank you. Good night.” We all watched her go and then I turned to Manny and said,

  “She's right, this is not her fault. There's no reason to be so rude.”

  Manny shook his head and said, “That's rich, coming from the guy who showed her his fangs earlier today.”

  I looked at Will. “Sorry. I didn't know it was a secret,” Will said.

  “I'm going to go out and hunt for a while. I'll be back.” I needed to run off the lust I was feeling for Courtney, the grief I felt for Mitchell and the annoyance I felt toward my own teammates.

  Will stood up too. “I'll go get the water.” Titan and Manny looked at each other and Titan said,

  “You wanna go with Will, I'll stay here.” Maybe a run would clear Manny's head too and he wouldn't be such an asshole, I thought. Manny was right, I had been extremely frustrated with Courtney earlier myself. But since the explosion, she'd given me...or any of us, no reason to treat her poorly. I didn't know why I felt so over-protective of her. Of course I was there to protect her physically, but the thought of Manny hurting her feelings had rattled me way too much. I had to stop thinking of her like she was a prospect for a mate and remind myself that she was simply a human who needed us to watch out for her. I wished I knew what we were watching out for...and why the Lt wanted us to take her to the tower. I left the hut, hoping that some time under the moon would clear my head enough that I might be able to communicate with Grover, and make sure that we weren't walking her into a trap.

  5

  Courtney

  I lay in the dark room, in the sleeping bag, on the hard ground and willed myself not to cry. I was learning quickly that the men in the other room could smell weakness and fear and I didn't want them smelling it on me. I thought about each one of them then, Clay...gorgeous, masculine, snarky but with a sensitive side. Will...the one that seemed to find everything funny. Titan, the quiet one, and Manny, the dark, brooding one who obviously didn't like me, but I wasn't sure why.

  For some reason, he blamed me for everything that was happening. But that didn't make any sense. I was in Afghanistan as a reporter on assignment. I had done everything I was told to do, even when I didn't like it. So, there was no way that I caused or perpetuated any of this, and how dare he insinuate that I did? I got the feeling there was something else they were hiding as well.

  For starters, I still couldn't get the picture out of my head of Clay's eyes changing and his teeth seeming to grow when he was angry with me earlier. That was just too weird, and it was before I'd been thrown by the blast and hit my head, so I couldn't even blame it on that. I wanted to ask him about it again...but I wasn't sure I wanted to hear the answer.

  I could hear them all talking after I first lay down, not what they were saying, but the
sounds of their voices. Now it was quiet...too quiet. I'd heard the sounds of one or more of them leaving and for a few seconds I felt panic settle in my chest. What if they left me alone? I shook that thought off quickly.

  They might be a lot of things that I had yet to discover, but so far, the one thing they all seemed to have in common was that they took their job very seriously. I'd at least been able to shake off my worries that they might decide to have their way with me. They'd had plenty of opportunity and no one had lay a finger on me...other than in a comforting or stabilizing way. I felt a tingle in my belly when I thought about Clay touching me in the car.

  I'd been angry the first time he lifted me up and carried me, and terrified the next. But in the car, his touch had been so gentle and sweet...and warm. For just half a second, I almost forgot where we were and what was happening. I had a burning desire to touch him back, to put my hand on the side of his face and feel the beard that seemed to be growing almost as I watched.

  That was another strange thing that I didn't think about until exactly that moment. Their beards all seemed to be growing, quickly. Will's had been stubble in the car earlier, I was sure of it. But, by the time I left the room, it was at least half an inch thick. Clay's beard was blonde, like his hair and he'd already had a full one when he stuck his head in my tent. But it seemed to be longer by the end of the day...Titan's and Manny's too.

  I pondered that and was just about to put those thoughts to rest and try to sleep when the sound of a wolf, howling, sent a shiver through my body and down my spine. My eyes flew open and I looked around the tiny space, wondering if the slats in the walls were big enough to allow one through.

  I thought about getting up and going back into the other room. The men had guns and if a wolf showed up, they could at least shoot him. If one let himself into my room, I'd simply be dinner...surely the wolves that lived way out here were hungry.

  The entire time we'd been walking I hadn't seen one animal...not a squirrel or a rabbit or even a desert mouse. That was strange too...wasn't it? We were in the desert, on top of a mountain covered with shrubs and rocks, shouldn't I have seen at least one pair of glowing eyes? I sighed.

  My brain was going too fast and my thoughts weren't making much sense. I needed to turn it off and get some sleep. If these guys expected me to keep the pace they'd gone tonight, the next day under the desert sun, I was going to have to get some rest.

  I closed my eyes again...and another howl ripped through the night. This time, it sounded close and it brought me up out of the sleeping bag and without any more thought than that, I practically ran back into the other room.

  “You okay?” Titan was there, alone, parked in the same spot he'd been when I left the room earlier. He had his flashlight still burning so I could see his face...and his beard. It was longer now, touching the front of his shirt. I was sure that it hadn't been that long before.

  “Wolves,” I said. “Can you hear them?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, but you don't need to be afraid.”

  “There are holes in the walls and that last one sounded awfully close. What if they're hungry?”

  “Wolves don't often attack humans, as long as the humans leave them alone, they do the same.”

  I wasn't sure that I believed him. I went over and sat down across from him and looked at that beard again. I had to ask. “Why does your beard grow so fast? All of you. All of your beards have grown just since this afternoon.” So far, Titan's face hadn't shown much emotion, but the question about his beard made him frown.

  The line between his eyes deepened and his amber colored eyes looked off to the side before looking back at my face and saying,

  “Just a lot of testosterone, I guess.”

  I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Bullshit. Why doesn't anyone want to tell me the truth about anything? Earlier today, I saw Clay's eyes change colors, and his teeth grew...right in front of me. I've been looking at the four of you all day, and I can visibly see that your beards are longer, and thicker. I'm not crazy.”

  Titan looked at me softly and said, “I don't think you're crazy.”

  “Then please tell me the truth. Testosterone doesn't make a man's beard grow down to his chest in a matter of hours, and what was the deal with Clay's eyes?”

  “I'm sorry Courtney. There are some things I just can't talk about.”

  “Who are we running from?”

  “Not sure, maybe Taliban.”

  “Bull shit. The war is over. American's are here to rebuild and help keep the peace. I'm a reporter, I'm not stupid.”

  “I don't think you're stupid.”

  “Obviously you think I'm both crazy and stupid. You give me answers to my questions that you'd give a five-year-old.” I could feel my blood pressure rising and my body heating up with anger. Titan continued to sit calmly, listening to me rant. I was about to go on when another howl ripped through me. It sounded even closer, like if I closed my eyes and held out my hand, I could touch it, or get it bitten off. I looked at Titan. He still looked calm...but his eyes were different somehow. I couldn't put my finger on it, but they suddenly looked brighter in the darkened room. “I know you heard that one.”

  “I heard it.” I waited for him to say something else, or get up and go outside with one of those guns of his and look for it. When he still didn't move, I was afraid I might get angry enough to bring my own teeth and claws out, so I spun on my heel and stormed back into the pitch-black room.

  I climbed into my sleeping bag once more and pulled it up over my head. Maybe if I went to sleep, when I woke up in the morning...if I woke up, I'd find out this was all a ridiculously bad dream. It was probably brought on by the horrible packaged thing I'd eaten for breakfast that had been marked “eggs and potatoes.”

  If nothing else, my dreams couldn't possibly be any worse than my current reality. I closed my eyes and prayed for sleep to come.

  The light touch on my arm startled me awake. I saw the glow of Clay's green eyes first before my own eyes adjusted and the rest of his face came into focus. “I'm sorry to wake you, but we need to get moving before the sun comes up.” Something about him was different. I couldn't put my finger on what it was at first.

  Finally, I decided it was the helmet that he normally wore. It was gone and for the first time I could see the hair on his head. He had dark blonde hair and it was cut short, military style.

  Slightly disoriented and oddly...aroused? I nodded my head and wiggled out of the sleeping bag as Clay watched, with as much lust in his eyes as I was feeling in my body. I wondered how it was possible for either of us to think of sex at a time like this. My hair was crusty from all I'd been through the day before.

  My mouth felt like I'd been grazing out in the field and chewing my cud. I could only imagine what I must look like. It made me lose a little bit of respect for him that he'd find me even the least bit attractive in my current state.

  As I rose slowly to my feet, Clay once again made me feel like his thoughts were much too attuned to mine. I only hoped he couldn't actually read my mind.

  “There's a stream a couple miles up the mountain from here. The water is cold as hell, but if you want to, we'll stop long enough for you to clean up?” That was when I realized the other thing about him that was different.

  His beard had been long enough to touch his chest the last time I'd seen him the night before. But since then it had been trimmed. It wasn't even hanging below his chin now. He saw me staring at it and said, “Titan had a pair of scissors in all that stuff he grabbed.

  We took turns cleaning up in the stream and used the scissors to trim up our faces so we didn't look and smell like cave men.” He smiled at me when he said that and his sexy grin made me forget, or at least forego all the questions I had about them.

  I picked up the sleeping bag and rolled it up against my chest and then said, “I'm ready...and I'd kill for a bath, I don't care how cold the water is.”

  He smiled at me again.

  I almos
t wished he'd stop doing that, it set my insides on fire, and confused me. Thankfully he finally turned away and I followed him into the other room. The other three men were there, looking as clean, and freshly groomed as Clay.

  “MRE?” Titan said. I chuckled and held the sleeping bag out to him.

  “Thanks, but not really a breakfast person.”

  “We ready?” Manny asked. I looked at him, wondering if he was still annoyed with me. His hazel eyes moved to my face as soon as I did, as if he sensed me looking at him.

  He didn't smile, but he wasn't scowling either. When he wasn't being an asshole, Manny was almost as hot as Clay. His skin was a dark olive color and his hazel eyes were pale brown with flecks of green in them that seemed to float inside the irises.

  His hair, or at least his beard which was all I could see, was jet black. I thought he might look like a movie star if he ever smiled.

  An exotic bad boy type.

  It was only when I realized that his pupils seemed to be enlarging that I realized I'd been staring at him too long...and I thanked God that none of them could read my mind.

  What was wrong with me?

  Maybe Titan had been right the night before, and the men were blessed...or cursed...with too much testosterone, and my own body was reacting to that. I cleared my throat and Manny finally turned away. He began moving out the door of the hut and the rest of us followed him. Once we were outside, we fell into the same formation hat we'd been in the night before. Manny led the way, Clay and Will flanked me as I followed him and Titan brought up the rear. I pulled the smelly camouflage coat I still wore, tighter up around me as we walked.