Protector Wolf

by Linda O. Johnston

  This guy certainly liked his java. “We could drive to a coffee shop, if you’d like.”

  “Why not?” Piers was in the driver’s seat and immediately backed out of the parking spot. The hotel had an adjoining coffee shop, but a big-name chain was only a block away, and had a nice-sized parking lot, too.

  About ten minutes later, they were back in the same positions in the car, this time with hot drinks in the cup holders between them.

  A few patrons got into their cars nearby, and others exited a vehicle parked in the row facing them. None looked interested in a couple of guys sitting in a car sipping coffee. The air outside was cool enough that the inside of their car felt pleasant, so no problem about the windows remaining closed.

  “Ready?” Ryan asked his aide.

  “Go for it.”

  Ryan immediately pulled his phone from his pocket and pushed the button to call Drew. He also put the phone’s speaker on since they weren’t hooked up to any Bluetooth in this vehicle.

  Drew answered immediately. “I’ve been waiting for your update. What’s going on there?”

  “A lot of interesting stuff.” Ryan began by informing their commanding officer that there were indeed other shifters around. Then he got into the apparent attacks on humans by wolves. “I don’t know yet if they’re shifters or not.”

  “I’ve heard something about that in the news,” Drew said.

  “I’m still trying to figure it out,” Ryan said. “In the meantime I’m also getting to know members of one family of shifters—both parents and their son, who’s in his early twenties. I met the parents in shifted form on the night of the full moon.” He quickly summarized how he had shooed them away when they had started harassing the representative of WHaM who was out trying to find the source of some howls that night. “And guess what?”

  “I have a feeling you’re going to tell me that there are other shifters around besides you who’re changing on nights when the moon isn’t full.”

  “You got it.” Ryan told Drew more about the Sharans, and how their son, Pete, who focused on science in school and apparently did a good job of it, had come up with some kind of formula that allowed shifting on other nights, as well. “We haven’t talked about it in any detail since, though I’ve told them I know about shifters and hinted I might be one, too, I wanted to get your okay before I mentioned Alpha Force under these circumstances. And I’m hoping, when things settle down here—and I figure they will—that I can convince Pete to come visit our Alpha Force headquarters. He might make a good addition to our unit.”

  “Maybe so. And, yes, consider this your okay to mention it to them as long as you get their promise of secrecy—and you reasonably believe they’ll comply with it.”

  Piers chimed in then. “If he hints at what could be in store for Pete based on the family agreeing to confidentiality, I’m sure this group will keep things quiet for their own sakes. Ryan’ll have to figure out who else around here are shifters, though, and determine whether it’s good for Alpha Force for information about us to go any further.”

  “Good point,” Drew said.

  Ryan looked at his aide and nodded. “I was going to mention that, too, but glad you beat me to it. I got a sense from the Sharans that they weren’t the only ones who came to town because the situation wherever they’d been living was getting tense, and I have an idea who some might be. I don’t see any as potential recruits yet, but who knows?”

  “We’ll see,” Drew said, “but I at least like the idea of the Sharans’ son.”

  Some people got into the car nearest Ryan’s side, and for a minute he talked about the weather around this part of Washington, taking a sip of his cooling coffee.

  Drew’s laugh echoed through the car, thanks to the speaker on the phone. “I take it you have company.”

  “Not sure if they could hear anything outside our closed car,” Ryan said, “but just in case…”

  “Got it.”

  In another minute, that car drove off. “Okay, back to our subject,” Ryan said. “Telling other people about Alpha Force.”

  “Other people—as in shifters or nonshifters?” Drew asked.

  “You guessed what I’m about to get into.” Ryan had been a member of Alpha Force for less than a year but he had come to not only like their commanding officer a lot, but to highly respect his intelligence.

  Not to mention who he really was. The guy was married to a nonshifter, a veterinarian, and they had a couple of kids who were too young for a determination of whether they, too, would be shifters, but Drew, and even his wife, Melanie, often expressed their hope that they’d have that in common with their dad.

  Drew obviously trusted some nonshifters, some being the operative word. And could Ryan be certain that Maya was as trustworthy as Melanie Connell?

  He had a sense she would be. After all, she already knew what he was, had seen him shift and hadn’t gone crying to the world or even hinting at it to the media. She seemed to be willing to protect him the way she protected nonshifting wolves.

  He said to Drew, “There’s someone else here I want to tell about Alpha Force.”

  “That WHaM representative?” his CO immediately guessed.

  “That’s right. She’s seen me shift—accidentally—and fortunately she has been discreet about it. Her appreciation of wildlife, especially wolves, seems to be what drives her.” Not necessarily any appreciation of him, he told himself—notwithstanding the kisses they had shared, the way they sometimes looked at each other…

  “Well…under those circumstances I guess you have to trust her some anyway. Just lead into it like you did with those Sharans, getting promises of secrecy before saying more. But I don’t really think it’s as critical that she learn about Alpha Force. You’re not going to recruit her or anything like that.”

  “No, but someone else who gives a damn and looks at the situation of those attacks from another angle might be helpful.” He described in greater detail how Morton Fritts had been attacked on the night of the full moon, and his nosy and careless wife had done as he had, apparently chased after whatever wolf was howling in the distance last night and had also been injured. He just hoped it wasn’t Pete Sharan.

  He had continued to ponder that possibility, often replaying in his mind his meet-ups with Pete that night, and still didn’t believe the attacking wolf had been Pete. He had seen the Frittses on the hillside around that time, but not close to either instance when he had been with the wolf that was Pete. The wolf he’d seen had run off in a different direction from those humans, and Pete had said he’d shifted back right after Ryan and he had met up.

  Therefore, it was more likely a feral wolf—or another shifter with some way to shift outside the full moon. He’d keep the possibility in mind but for now wouldn’t let it deter him from possibly recruiting the smart young shifter.

  “We need to prevent that from happening with anyone else,” he finished.

  “Yeah,” Drew said. “You do. Okay, I’ll trust your judgment about the WHaM lady. I just hope you’re thinking with your head and not any other part of you.”

  Ryan felt his eyes widen. He looked over at Piers. Had his aide mentioned anything about the apparent attraction between Maya and him to Drew? But Piers just shrugged.

  This could just be another example of their commanding officer’s intelligence and intuition.

  “Well, I can admit that the woman is attractive in ways beyond just her appreciation of wolves,” Ryan said. “But I’m not giving in to any impulse—or I won’t unless I think it’ll help me protect shifters or other wolves, and that would be a stretch.”

  “Yeah, it would,” Piers agreed, grinning at his superior officer.

  “Well, okay. You’ve got your orders. Revealing a bit to shifters, and this one particular nonshifter, as long as you receive believable promises of secrecy, is okay, but only if you really think they’ll keep things to themselves.”

  “Yes, sir,” Ryan said, still looking at Piers
. “We’ll report in again soon, let you know how things are going.”

  “No need to send any other representatives of Alpha Force there now, right?” Drew asked.

  “Right,” Ryan replied, and Piers expressed his agreement. They hung up a minute later.

  Ryan didn’t say anything to Piers at first. His mind was churning.

  Could he trust the Sharans? He still felt fairly certain that Pete hadn’t been the attacking wolf. The Sharans had an agenda of their own, and all three of them would want not only to protect the idea of shifting, but also potentially help Pete find a new and highly appropriate career. The answer, therefore—as long as he was right about Pete’s innocence that night—was yes.

  And Maya? Was Ryan thinking with body parts other than just his brain, as Drew had suggested?

  “What do you think?” Ryan asked Piers. “You’ve been with Maya when I’ve been shifted. Can we—should we—trust her with more?”

  “I’ve got a feeling that she is one smart and trustworthy woman—but it’s up to you, sir.”

  “I’ll sound her out when I get her alone, soon, and decide then,” Ryan said.

  But he was fairly certain he knew what the answer would be.

  Chapter 18

  Dinnertime. Maya felt more antsy than hungry, but she was ready to eat—or at least meet Ryan and Piers for dinner.

  Walking down the stairway to the lobby, she thought once more that it was a shame they were staying in a hotel like this. She enjoyed cooking and wouldn’t mind putting a meal together for them.

  Only—what did people like Ryan really enjoy? She’d seen him eat steak as well as breakfast food. Red meat might be his favorite kind of meal, but maybe not.

  Maybe it was just as well that they were eating out and he could order whatever he wanted.

  They were waiting in the nearly empty lobby for her. Rocky the wolf-dog was with them and made Maya smile.

  Would she smile as broadly if that was Ryan sitting there on the floor in his own wolf form?

  To her own surprise, she thought the answer was yes. But she remained a bit confused. Not that she expected a bunch of detailed websites on the reality of shapeshifters and how they lived and shifted and all, but she had spent an hour or so that afternoon online after her conversation with Cheryl researching as much as she could about what Ryan truly was.

  All the sites referred to the whole idea as myth or legend, or horror movies—nothing with any truth to it. But she knew full well that shifters were real. She’d seen it, more than once.

  Kind of admired it…

  She also admired how shifters had apparently been able to keep who and what they were as secret as they did. For surely Ryan wasn’t the only one, and he had hinted at others.

  “Hi,” she said immediately as she reached them. Ryan and Piers sat on chairs in the center of the lobby with Rocky lying on the floor between them. “You guys hungry?” She looked directly at Ryan as if to ask if he was ready for some meaty food—and found herself flushing. He did appear hungry—but the kind of hunger she thought she saw in his hot glance toward her didn’t suggest he was ready to eat a meal.

  Instead, she had an urge to invite him to her room. Into her bed.

  Which was ridiculous. She wouldn’t do that with any guy she was interested in without knowing him better. And getting more involved with someone with—well, secrets—like Ryan made no sense at all.

  “I’m definitely hungry,” Piers replied. “We thought we might try another restaurant tonight, if that’s okay with you.”

  Not the steak house? “Where did you have in mind?” Maya asked.

  “The local pancake house, Griddle Junction. It’s just a few blocks from here.”

  Pancake house? For dinner? Well, the ones Maya was familiar with served other meals besides breakfast. There might even be steaks there, if that was what Ryan—and Rocky—wanted.

  “Fine with me.” Maya wondered why they had chosen that place. From what she had gathered, these two didn’t do anything without a reason. Was there something there they could learn about wolves? Or shifters like Ryan? She might never find out, and she knew better than to ask questions here, in the hotel lobby. Or there, at the restaurant.

  Well, maybe as they walked there. But when they got on their way and she started asking questions, Ryan, who strode beside her, said, “Look, there’s a lot I want to talk to you about. But it’ll have to wait for now. We need to find a place with no one else around again.”

  Back at the park? Maybe. But that wasn’t going to happen tonight.

  Just be patient, she ordered herself, though that wasn’t in her character. Yet if she wanted answers to her questions, she needed to wait.

  And, yes, be patient.

  *

  Ryan let himself enjoy walking with Maya to the restaurant despite the frustration she apparently felt, too, though for different reasons. She didn’t talk much on this stroll, just appeared to look around and take in the sights, such as they were, of the downtown area of this small city.

  He’d already told her he wanted to talk with her but hadn’t said when or where. Yet despite his receipt of permission to tell her more, this wasn’t the time. Not that everyone on downtown Fritts Corner sidewalks was a shifter with hearing acute enough to eavesdrop on what he said, but he didn’t want to take any chances with the few regular people who were also out there, shifters or not.

  Not when it came to talking about his covert military unit, Alpha Force.

  For one thing, Piers, now walking behind them with Rocky, had done additional research online about the Sharans, such as when they had arrived in Fritts Corner—about ten months ago—and who else had moved here around the same time.

  He had learned that Buck Lesterman, owner of Berry’s Bar, had arrived around the same time. Plus, the owners of Griddle Junction had bought a home here, as well as the restaurant, at nearly the same time as the Sharans. Their names were John and Georgia Maheus, and there had been no indication they had lived here prior to that time. Ryan hoped to meet them this evening.

  Had they and Lesterman come with the Sharans? For similar reasons? He would try to find that out, and hopefully learn if they, or anyone else in the area, were shifters, though he might not get all that information tonight.

  And if they were, could they shift the way Pete did? Had he shared his formula?

  Had any of them shifted—and attacked the Frittses?

  For now, it would be a bonus to share another dinner with Maya. He certainly wouldn’t be able to talk with her in private at the restaurant, but he’d find a way to do so as soon as possible since he now had permission to tell her more. Maybe they could walk Rocky together after they ate, not around the park but someplace a lot more private than the sidewalks of downtown Fritts Corner.

  He already had plans in mind for tomorrow. He’d decided he’d remain hungry after breakfast, a good time to visit the Corner Grocery, buy some snacks and find a way to speak with the Sharans again, especially Pete. They, at least, had a private office.

  But for now—well, he’d find a way to talk with Maya, if not tonight then tomorrow.

  After passing Berry’s Bar, some clothing stores and a couple of gas stations, they soon reached Griddle Junction, a single-story restaurant with lots of windows that occupied nearly half a block. He listened as they headed inside and heard a lot of conversations, as with a typical restaurant. He also inhaled scents typical of a pancake house at dinnertime—including sweet syrup and eggs, as well as hearty red meat. And that wasn’t all.

  “Cute place,” Maya said. “I even see a couple of other dogs here.”

  Ryan had smelled them, too. Both were small and lying on the floor inside the place, perhaps not permitted by law here but no one was complaining, which made Ryan like the place immediately.

  “Hi,” said a fortysomething woman carrying menus and smiling her welcome. Her graying hair was caught up in a clip on top of her head. Ryan caught another scent as she approached.
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  One that suggested she could be a shifter.

  “Hi,” he returned. “Are you one of the owners of this place?”

  He wasn’t surprised when she said she was Georgia Maheus. “Have you eaten here before?” she asked.

  “I haven’t,” Maya said, “but I’m sure I’ll enjoy it tonight.” She looked toward Ryan for his response, her expression somewhat quizzical as if she realized he had an ulterior motive for coming here.

  “We’re just visiting town,” he replied, “but we’ve heard good things about this place.”

  Georgia showed them to a table in the middle of the moderately busy restaurant, notwithstanding the fact they had a large dog with them. That emphasized Ryan’s belief that they might have good reason to welcome canines here.

  So did their hostess’s scent.

  It wouldn’t hurt to meet her mate, too. “Is the rest of your family involved with this restaurant?” he asked. “I travel a lot and enjoy seeing how families work together running businesses in so many locations. I’m with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, by the way.”

  The woman’s brown eyes widened as she regarded him. “I’ll bet you have an interesting job,” she said, then added, “Are you here because people around this area have been seeing wolves?”

  “That’s right.” He continued to watch her reaction, which she clearly attempted to keep blasé.

  “And I’m with WHaM,” Maya added. “That’s Wildlife Habitat Monitoring. I’m interested in learning more about the wolves, too. What do you think about them?”

  Ryan was both amused and pleased that Maya seemed to work as a team with him, and with Piers, too, who was watching them all.

  “Oh, we like wild animals,” Georgia said. “But I’ve heard some people were hurt by the wolves. That’s truly sad, from both the people’s and the wolves’ perspectives, I’m afraid.”

  “Do you know of anyone who’s going after the wolves?” Piers asked, his tone just as Ryan hoped to hear it—interested, but not too interested.

  “No—but if I do, do you gentlemen have a card so I can let you know? I assume Fish and Wildlife would be interested.”