Her Wild Hero

by Paige Tyler

  “My doctor has me doing it now and then.”

  “Yeah?” Carter said. “Is it working?”

  “Not so much.”

  “Then maybe you should think about getting a new doctor,” Butler suggested.

  The telltale red glow that came with a shift flashed in Tanner’s eyes. Angelo tensed. Had Carter and Butler seen it, too? Maybe he could say it was the reflection of the setting sun in the hybrid’s eyes. Right. That excuse would only last until Tanner fully flipped the switch and went nuts. What the hell had set him off anyway?

  Angelo looked around for a little help, but Ivy and Landon were nowhere to be seen. Clayne was leaning against a nearby tree watching the scene unfold like it was a damn movie. And Derek was standing there with a pissed-off expression on his face, no doubt wondering why the hell everyone was screwing around with these stupid-ass macho games when Kendra was out there in the jungle with numerous monsters chasing her.

  Shit.

  Angelo took a step toward the hybrid. “Tanner, before you lose your temper and kill Lieutenant Butler, I think you should consider how disappointed Zarina would be.”

  According to Landon, Zarina had a magical ability to calm the DCO’s one and only hybrid. Hopefully invoking her name would snap Tanner out of the rage that was starting to build.

  It worked like a freaking charm. Tanner blinked several times, took a deep breath, then nodded. The red slowly receded from the hybrid’s eyes. But not before the two soldiers saw it.

  “What the hell…?” Carter muttered.

  Angelo stifled a groan. Why couldn’t Landon have made things easy on everyone and filled Carter and Butler in on what a hybrid was?

  “Okay,” he said. “Time for a security briefing. Landon told you this mission would involve some strange shit, right?” Both men nodded. “Good, because the strange shit just started. Consider anything you see and hear over the next few days to be top secret. It goes to the grave with you. Hooah?”

  “Hooah,” Butler and Carter said in unison. No shock there—Special Forces guys saw so much classified crap, they flushed it without too much thought.

  “The people we’re going up against are…well, they’ve been genetically modified to make them meaner and nastier. When they’re in control of themselves, they’re your basic hair-trigger soldier. But once they start fighting, they go into a battle lust like nothing you’ve ever seen. Bottom line, at that point, they’re essentially berserkers, pure and simple.” Angelo jerked his head in Tanner’s direction. “He’s one of them, except he’s on our side. If he lost his temper and accidently killed you, he’d feel really bad about it later. The ones we’re going to be running into out there in the jungle, not so much.”

  Butler’s gaze swung back and forth between Angelo and Tanner. No doubt the lieutenant was trying to convince himself that the red glow he’d seen a few seconds ago had been nothing but a reflection of light, or that maybe he hadn’t seen anything at all.

  “You’re shitting us, right?”

  Angelo should have known they wouldn’t believe him. The whole thing sounded like something out of a sci-fi movie. Hell, he probably wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen those hybrids out in Washington State with his own eyes. But if Carter and Butler waited until they came face-to-face with a real-life nasty-ass hybrid, there was a good chance they wouldn’t live long enough to help rescue anyone.

  He glanced at Tanner. “This has to come out sooner or later, and sooner would be better. Could you show them, so we can get on with this?”

  Tanner didn’t move.

  “Well?” Angelo prompted. “You gonna, you know, go a little tooth and nail for me?”

  “I can’t. It doesn’t work that way. I can’t control it.” The look Tanner gave him was almost apologetic. “It’s an all-or-nothing thing. And you really don’t want me cutting loose here in camp.”

  Carter chuckled. “Okay, real funny. I like a good joke as much as the next guy, but it’s time to get serious. Who are we going up against? Drug runners, Revolutionary Commandos, People’s Vanguard, what?”

  Angelo swore under his breath. He was just about to say the hell with it and let the two of them find out the hard way, but Clayne pushed away from the tree and came over.

  “We call them hybrids,” he said. “And they look a little like this.”

  Clayne had his back to Angelo but whatever he did got the Special Forces guys’ attention. Both men almost fell on their asses they stepped back so fast. That had been Angelo’s reaction the first time Clayne had gone all shifter on him, too.

  “Holy shit,” Carter muttered.

  The wolf shifter let his claws and fangs retract. Carter and Butler were still staring at him as if they were wondering what the hell they’d gotten themselves into.

  “It’s like Angelo tried to tell you, only a bit more complicated,” Clayne explained. “I have a few animal-like traits. Tanner has a lot more. He occasionally needs a little help with his control, but he’s dealing with it. The things you’ll be facing once we get out in the bush are rabid animals with a few human traits. They’re vicious, psychotic, and would rather rip out your throat with their fangs or claws than shoot you—though they probably won’t have a problem with shooting you, either. They’ll go down if you put a round through their heads or their hearts, but anything less will leave them standing long enough to finish you.”

  Butler exchanged looks with Carter. “How many of these things do you think we’re up against?”

  “Based on what Tate told us, there could be as many as thirty of forty of them,” Angelo said.

  Butler let out a low whistle. “Forty against eleven? Not real good odds.”

  “No, it isn’t,” Angelo agreed. Understatement there. “But when the sun comes up in the morning, we’re going out in that jungle anyway.”

  Chapter 5

  Kendra couldn’t believe she’d slept so well. She definitely had Declan to thank for that. Not only had sleeping in those big, strong arms of his allowed her to completely forget the dangers existing outside the confines of their shelter, but the warm cocoon he’d created had kept her snug and dry the whole night. It might have been her imagination, but she swore she could still feel the heat of his body, and they’d been on the move for a couple hours already this morning. That was the kind of warmth she could definitely get used to—she was a sucker for a warm, muscular guy to put her cold feet on at night.

  She kept her gaze moving from side to side as they crossed a semi-open patch of jungle. It was nice to actually feel the sun on her skin, even if it was only for a short time. Between the trees and the rain showers, there wasn’t a whole lot of sun. But on the upside, they hadn’t caught a whiff of any hybrids. Maybe Declan’s plan was going to work. Maybe all they had to do was slip through the perimeter the bad guys had set up and they’d be home free. They were still being careful anyway. Declan kept his ears open for any sign of trouble while she depended on her eyes. She appreciated that he took her contribution to their protection seriously, checking every few minutes to see what she thought and letting her know what his ears were telling him. She just wished he would have treated her as his equal last night. She was still miffed that he hadn’t woken her up to take her turn standing guard.

  “The sun came up before I realized it,” he’d said.

  As excuses went, it was pretty lame. It was more likely he hadn’t wanted to wake her because he knew how zonked out she’d been last night. She hadn’t called him on the oversight though, mostly because he was probably right. She had needed the rest. She hadn’t realized how crappy she’d been sleeping out here until last night. And whether she liked admitting it or not, she had to keep herself fresh if she was going to keep up with Declan.

  “I’ll pull extra duty tonight,” she told him before they left the shelter.

  He just grunted in that typically male fashion that meant I heard you; I just don’t really agree with you.

  As they moved back into the deeper c
onfines of the jungle, the early day sun disappeared again to be blocked almost entirely by the thick canopy over their heads. She shivered at the sudden drop in temperature. It only served to remind her how warm she’d been snuggled in Declan’s arms.

  She glanced at him as they walked. How the heck had she been so wrong about him? She’d thought because he was quiet and introspective that he was boring. But that wasn’t true. The conversation they’d had last night had been the most insightful she’d had with a guy in a long time. And, okay, the topic of their conversation wasn’t the stuff of first dates, but neither was the situation they were in. But she couldn’t think of anyone she’d rather be stranded with than Declan.

  Kendra glanced at him again, her gaze lingering a little longer this time. Since they’d started out that morning, she’d spent as much time sneaking peeks at him as she had keeping an eye out for hybrids. It was dangerous, but she wanted to make up for lost time. Even covered in the remnants of their impromptu mud bath yesterday, he was still a sight to behold. Dark blond hair that looked as if he ran his fingers through it all the time, captivating blue eyes, and a square jaw with the perfect amount of scruff. Not to mention a body that wouldn’t quit. Even now, his thigh muscles bunched and flexed under his uniform pants. She’d never noticed how graceful he was for a man his size.

  She was still marveling at that when Declan suddenly stopped and held up his hand, fist closed in the universal sign for halt. Kendra immediately dropped to one knee behind the closest tree, her finger curling around the trigger of her M4. She followed Declan’s gaze but didn’t see anything except trees. That was when she realized he wasn’t really looking at anything. Instead, his eyes had that unfocused look he got when he was listening intently. She remembered Ivy telling her once that shifters could get so absorbed in what they were doing that they literally lost connection with the real world.

  Crap. If Declan did that in the middle of hostile territory, what the hell was she going to do? Somehow, she didn’t think that smacking him across the face would be a very good idea.

  She was just about to softly call his name when he spoke.

  “There’s a small group of hybrids moving in this direction. We need to find cover.”

  Declan started through the jungle. She immediately followed, checking to both their left and right as he focused on finding them another place to hide.

  “Any chance we could just circle wide around them?” she asked.

  He shook his head as he veered left and headed up the side of a rocky slope. She had to run to keep up with his long strides.

  “There are at least two separate groups out there, maybe three,” he told her. “They’re scattered pretty wide, but we’d have to essentially thread the needle to get past them. We think the hybrids’ sense of smell isn’t very good, but I don’t have a clue what their hearing is like. It’s too risky to try to move past them in broad daylight until we know more about them.”

  That answered the other question she’d been about to ask—whether Declan thought they could fight their way through the hybrids. God, she hoped the orchids they’d rubbed all over their clothes this morning still covered their scents.

  Declan stopped when they got to a group of palm trees. Low growing, they had thick, brownish fronds hanging down to the ground. It wasn’t as good a hiding place as they’d had the previous night, but based on how fast Declan was moving, the hybrids were too close to give him time to find anything better.

  They pushed their way into the palm trees carefully, trying not to break or dislodge any of the hanging grass. There wasn’t much space inside, so she and Declan were forced to crouch side by side.

  Kendra slipped the muzzle of her M4 through the cover of their hiding spot, ready to shoot. “How close are they?”

  He pointed toward the bottom of the slope they’d just climbed.

  As if on cue, three figures came into view. She didn’t have to see the red in their eyes to know they were hybrids. They prowled more than walked, swinging their heads back and forth, noses in the air as if sniffing for something. Crap. One of them was the captain who’d killed his own man on the bank of the stream the night before simply for challenging his authority. The automatic weapon he carried looked like a toy in his hands, a waste of time compared to the claws he possessed.

  She and Declan were barely a hundred feet away and upwind, as best she could tell. There was no way the hybrids wouldn’t be able to smell them, no matter how crappy their noses were, orchid perfume or not.

  Her heart racing, Kendra slowly sighted the lead hybrid, ready to shoot the second he swung in their direction. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Declan doing the same. They had to put down the captain first—and fast—or they wouldn’t live long enough to worry about the other two. But even if they somehow managed to kill all three of them, the sound of gunfire was sure to bring every other hybrid in the area running.

  This so wasn’t the kind of action she’d wanted to see on her first official DCO mission.

  But while the creatures continued to sniff the air, they never moved any closer. After a few minutes, all three of them disappeared into the jungle.

  Kendra slowly let out the breath she’d been holding. Carefully lowering her M4, she leaned back against Declan’s shoulder, the fear she’d been keeping in flowing out of her until she was shaking all over. That had been too close.

  She closed her eyes, feeling Declan’s solid strength and warmth behind her. She didn’t care if he thought less of her because of it. She needed to steal some courage from him. He didn’t say anything or pull away from her. Instead, he sat there quietly and gave her time to get herself together. She sat up but didn’t look at him.

  “We should probably get going,” she said.

  “We’ll stay here a little while longer,” he told her. “Let the hybrids move completely out of the area.”

  Kendra suspected the real reason Declan wanted them to wait was because he didn’t think she was ready to go back out there yet. She wanted to tell him he was wrong, but honestly, she wasn’t so sure. She peeked between the palm fronds to make sure the hybrids hadn’t come back, then relaxed.

  “Does your family know you’re out here?” Declan asked quietly.

  She turned a little so she could look at him. Her thigh pressed up against his and she could feel the heat of his skin through her pants.

  “No way,” Kendra answered. “I mean, my parents know I work for Homeland Security, but they think I have a nice, safe desk job. Which I did up until a few days ago.” She gave him a small smile. “I told them I was going on a business trip for a couple weeks and that I’d call them when I got back. They’d be terrified if they knew I was running around the jungles of Central America with an automatic weapon in my hands.”

  “Do they live in the DC area?” he asked.

  She nodded. “Virginia. My mom teaches eighth grade history and my dad is a dentist.”

  “Any brothers and sisters?”

  “Just me.” Kendra pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. “What about you? Does your family know you work for Homeland?”

  Declan shook his head. “My parents don’t know what I do for a living. They don’t even know I’m a shifter.”

  She tried not to let her jaw drop, but she wasn’t sure she succeeded. “How is that possible?”

  He parted the palm fronds enough so he could see the surrounding jungle, then let them drop into place. “My family is…well, reserved is probably the best way to put it. Image has always been very important to them. My mom teaches at Rhode Island College and my dad is the senior scientist for an independent bio research lab. Having letters after your name is a big deal where I come from.”

  Kendra frowned. “So what does that have to do with your mom and dad not knowing you’re a shifter? They’re your parents. How could they miss something like that?”

  He shrugged. “I was home alone when I changed the first time and by the time my parents came in, I was
back to normal. What was I going to say? ‘Hey, Mom; hey, Dad. While you were out, I turned into a werewolf’?”

  “You thought you were a werewolf?”

  “I was seventeen and sprouted claws and fangs. Plus, I watched a lot of TV. What was I supposed to think?”

  Okay, back before she knew about shifters, she probably would have thought the same thing. “And it honestly didn’t occur to you that maybe you should tell your parents?”

  “I thought about it,” he said. “But then at the dinner table that night, while I sat there eating everything in sight, I listened to my mom explain how shocked she was that one of the other professors at the college had worn white after Labor Day. She literally went on about it for thirty minutes.”

  His mother would really have a problem with Kendra’s clothing choices. She wore whatever she felt like, whenever she felt like it, including white in the middle of winter. “What about after she finished going on about that?”

  “I figured that if my mom got worked up about something as stupid as that, she’d probably pass out if she discovered her youngest son was a monster. And what if other people found out what I was? How would my parents deal with it? The longer I sat there, the surer I was that they wouldn’t handle it well.”

  “So you never told them.”

  He shook his head. “Six months later, I went off to college, so it wasn’t all that hard to keep hiding it from them.”

  She sighed. “So, what do they think you do for a living?”

  “They think I work for the USDA, tracking various conservation programs. Let’s just say they’re not exactly thrilled with my career choices. Which is why my mom and I don’t talk much anymore.”

  Wow was the only word that came to mind. She couldn’t imagine going through the changes a shifter did that first time and not having someone to confide in. “What about your dad? Or your brothers and sisters?”

  “We still talk occasionally, but we’re not as close as we used to be,” he admitted.