by Amelia Jade
Victor, the Delta squad leader nodded. “Yes sir. I jumped the gun.”
Kiefer tilted his head back and forth in a “so-so” gesture. “Perhaps. But they had four to your three from the start. Eventually they would have worn you down.”
“Yes sir,” Victor said glumly.
“The error was coming at them from behind. By doing that, you put a force superior in numbers to either of your elements directly between both of them. That’s not a recipe for success.”
Victor’s eyes came alive as he realized what Kiefer was saying.
“I should have flanked them. Hit them from the side and rolled them up.”
“Exactly. That way, your three-man team would have engaged one Beta at a time as they came at them from the side. Three on one would have likely reduced the odds very quickly and into your favor.”
Victor looked unhappy, but understanding. “Got it, sir.”
“I’d hope so, Victor. I’d hope so.”
He dismissed them to return back to base and then began to follow along in a more leisurely stroll, letting the warm breeze wash over him as he went. It was chow time when they got back, and the other instructor, his second-in-command, would organize both that and sending out the next two squads to meet Kiefer and begin the exercise.
“You’re getting good at this,” a voice said as a figure emerged from behind a tree to his right.
Kiefer kept walking, not wanting to let the other shifter know they’d gotten the drop on him.
“Don’t say that sir, I beg of you,” he said with a smile as Major Jarvis fell in step with him. “I just want to go back to the front lines, to help out my fellows.”
“You are helping them,” Jarvis said sternly. “This company is one of the best we’ve put through in a while, and it’s all thanks to you. They’ll be going right to Cloud Lake to reinforce our men already there.”
“Not yet though. They’ve got a while to go before they can be officially deployed.”
“Perhaps,” Jarvis said somewhat cryptically as they walked.
“I have no idea what that was all about,” Kiefer said in all seriousness. “But sir, they are not yet ready.”
“They’re further ahead than any other company that started at the same time. That, Lieutenant, is a direct reflection of you.”
“Thank you sir, I appreciate the compliment. But they aren’t ready.”
“Relax,” Jarvis said with a laugh. “They’re not going anywhere without you just yet.”
Kiefer sighed in relief. He’d been genuinely worried that Jarvis or someone higher up was going to rush his men into the Green Bearets before they were truly ready.
“They are, however, going somewhere with you,” the major continued.
“Pardon? Sir,” he added belatedly, caught so off guard he almost forgot proper etiquette.
“Things have changed, Kiefer. The war with Fenris has made us realize that we need to keep up with modern times. So, I’m tasking you to take your company and go to Cloud City. Once there Captain Korver will serve as your commander. He will pair your men up with those experienced in patrolling and fighting in a city environment.”
Jarvis shrugged. “It’s not something that they can get here, and it’s a component of things we need to be on top of. Your company has shown excellent progress thanks to your leadership, so you get the dubious honor of being the first training company to go through this new exercise.”
Kiefer didn’t immediately respond. He was appreciative of his superiors’ faith in him, and the praise was always nice, even if it was unnecessary. Kiefer didn’t do what he did just to make others compliment him. He did it because it was a job that needed doing, and because he knew he was good at it.
But taking his company to Cloud Lake meant he would be hours away from Base Camp.
Hours away from Peyton.
Kiefer grew angry. They had just shared a wonderful night together, staying up far too late, until his watch shift started. Nothing had happened, not physically at least. But that was the last of his concerns. If that was to come, it would come. It was the emotional connection that they had been forging over the past four or five days that truly mattered to him. Things were at a critical point just then, and he didn’t want to disappear.
By the time he got back, Peyton could very well be gone, having returned home.
“Something wrong, Kief?” Jarvis asked, slowing his walk. He turned to give Kiefer a concerned glance.
An idea popped into his head.
“Sir, I was wondering,” he began, then paused.
“Well, spit it out,” Jarvis prompted.
“I’d like to take one of the civilians with us, sir.”
“Oh?” Jarvis asked, raising an eyebrow. “Would this have anything to do with the broken door on the roof of the guest quarters that was magically replaced the other day?”
“No idea what you’re talking about sir,” Kiefer replied, deadpan.
“Right,” Jarvis said with a snort, willing to overlook the bald-faced lie. “Go on then.”
“Yes sir. One of the civilians we rescued from Fenris. Peyton Raine. She’s been here and hasn’t yet ventured back home to Cloud Lake. We’ve…um,” he hesitated as he tried to describe exactly what he and Peyton were.
Were they anything? To him they were more than just friends, and he was fairly positive she felt the same. The evening before had definitely been flirtatious and fun, more than something just friends would do. But at the same time, they hadn’t actually discussed anything. Were they dating? Seeing each other?
“You’re interested in each other,” Jarvis supplied.
“Sure. I mean, yes sir. Anyway, I think it would be good for her to visit. She’s been here nearly a week and a half. Her family and friends must be worried sick about her. I think it would help her as well if I were there.”
Jarvis looked thoughtful. “Has she mentioned anything about her family and friends to you?” he asked.
“No sir, we haven’t really talked about it,” Kiefer replied. “Is there some reason she can’t, sir?”
There was a brief hesitation while Jarvis thought, but then he shrugged. “No, I just hadn’t heard she was well enough to leave. She had a rough go of it at their hands. I’m not sure if she’s told you that or not.”
“Not yet, sir, but I did get that impression the one time it came up.”
Kiefer thought back to the way he’d nearly lost Peyton before getting to know her by bringing up that particular subject. It was one he didn’t intend to do again, not without her blessing at least. It was likely that she would be the one to bring it up, whenever she felt comfortable talking to him about her time spent in captivity. If she ever did.
“Okay Kiefer, I’m going to authorize that. But she’s being discharged into your direct care. Understood? If so much as a hair on her head is harmed, you had better be a dead man.”
The steel in Jarvis’s voice almost forced his eyebrows up, but Kiefer had been well trained to keep his face schooled into impassivity if necessary, and he utilized that to its fullest now.
“Yes sir,” he said in perfectly neutral tones. “Thank you, sir.”
Something was going on with Peyton, but Jarvis wasn’t willing to disclose what it was. Kiefer would need to be aware of that, and to try and find out whatever it was. He didn’t want to be surprised.
Chapter Nine
Peyton
She was just returning from dinner when he caught up with her.
“Peyton!”
The voice rang out across the wide, flat ground in front of the mess hall as she crossed it, escorted as usual by her faithful sidekick shifter. He didn’t so much as look over his shoulder as full-out spun on his heels as Kiefer called out her name.
“Kiefer,” she said in delight as he came alongside her.
“I’ll take it from here, Private,” the bearded shifter told her bodyguard.
“Ah, yes sir,” the other shifter said and faded into the background
quickly.
“Thanks,” she said. “He’s plenty nice, but I hate being shadowed all day.”
Kiefer frowned. “I don’t know why they force him on you. It’s not like there’s anything top secret going on around here,” he told her with a laugh.
“Maybe not to you,” she suggested, trying to switch the subject. “But I don’t know much about all your sneaky secret shifter stuff,” she said, winking conspiratorially at him.
The walking colossus of a shifter laughed, his massive arms shaking. “Yes, because we shifters are so easily camouflaged.”
Peyton couldn’t restrain her laughter—a common theme when she was around Kiefer it seemed.
“Okay, point made. But regardless, it’s nice to be without him, even if I know it’s only because you’re here.”
“Well, I have some news about that.”
Steeling herself, she tried not to let her voice quaver. “Oh?”
He nodded, and she saw how happy he looked.
This is going to end up bad.
“My company is being deployed to Cloud Lake,” he said, explaining to her the reasoning behind it.
“That makes sense. But what does that have to do with me?” she asked cautiously.
“Well, I had a lot of fun last night,” he said.
Peyton glanced up at him, and she was positive that under the layer of light-brown hair on his cheeks, that he was turning a lovely shade of pink.
“I did too,” she said, glad to be able to say that honestly.
“And I didn’t want to just up and disappear for who knows how long right now.”
He was taking a long time to answer her question, but Peyton was pretty sure she had an idea of where he was going with it. The problem was, she had no idea what to tell him.
Maybe try the truth? He’s a good, reasonable person.
“So, I guess what I’m getting at,” he said with an endearingly awkward finale, “is that I asked, and they said you could come with me.”
“Really?” she asked, mildly surprised despite having seen it coming. Peyton hadn’t expected anyone to approve her leaving just yet.
“Yep.” He looked thoughtful. “Though Major Jarvis seemed somewhat apprehensive about letting you go home. He wouldn’t say why though.”
She noticed he politely didn’t say anything further on the subject, leaving it open for her to explain what was going on.
“Well, that should be fun,” she said, trying to inject as much false delight into her voice as she could, all the better to hide the terror currently infecting her veins.
“I think so,” Kiefer replied.
She had to tell him. Even though it might risk him deciding to stop seeing her, something that Peyton realized she really did not want to happen. But if she lied to him, then he might never forgive her when he eventually did learn the truth.
“Did, ah, did they mention anything about where I would be saying?” she asked tentatively, trying to segue into what she needed to say.
Kiefer looked at her in confusion. “Well, wouldn’t you be staying at your home? That’s kind of what I figured. But no, nobody said anything.”
“That’s not going to work,” she said.
“What? Why not?”
Peyton sighed. “Look, Kiefer. There’s something I need to tell you. I was too afraid to tell you before, because it’s something I’m still trying to adjust to, to come to grips with.”
His perfectly measured strides came to a halt as he turned to face her. They were standing on the eastern edge of the parade ground, and there were few people around, which was ideal.
“Okay,” he said cautiously. “I don’t like when people start off sentences like that.”
She smiled. “I know, I’m sorry. But there’s a reason I can’t go home.”
“Why? What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know why you can’t go home?”
“No, Kiefer, I don’t know.”
“You don’t know what?” He scratched his beard as he regarded her.
“Anything. Kiefer, I have no memory of my life before I woke up in the cell in the Fenris prison.”
There. She said it. She’d put it out there. Her hands were shaking and she felt her skin growing clammy as the realization sunk in.
What was he going to think of her now? Would Kiefer simply part ways with her, not knowing the truth behind her past? Question after question poured through her mind as she brought her condition out into the open.
Who was she? Where was she from? What had happened to get her locked up in that jail cell? Why did she have no memory?
Something clouded her vision, and it wasn’t until she felt the warm liquid tracking down her cheeks that Peyton realized she was crying.
Kiefer was there in a heartbeat, his arms wrapping around her, holding her steady as she swayed unreliably. His hand came up and stroked her hair gently in a calm, soothing manner.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled over and over again.
“Hey, it’s okay,” he whispered into her ear. “There’s no reason for you to be sorry. Something like that must be extremely traumatic. I couldn’t begin to understand the depth of emotions going through you right now. Seems only natural though that you’d probably be prone to crying. No shame in that. None at all.”
She looked up at him through the tears. His golden-tinged eyes of beautiful hazelnut peered back at her, full of concern and caring.
“I thought I’d come to terms with it,” she said with a flash of anger, directed at herself for breaking down so easily.
To her surprise, Kiefer laughed. “In a week? You coming to terms with having no memory of your previous life in a week? That seems unrealistic. I think you were just trying to accept it so hard you convinced yourself you had. Nobody is going to blame you if you’re shaken up over it, to put it mildly.”
Peyton nodded, and felt herself relaxing into his arms.
Another thought struck her as the warmth of his embrace began to seep into her.
What if I have somebody at home already?
Even as she thought it, the idea didn’t seem to ring with any truth. She wasn’t sure how, but she just knew that she didn’t. She’d been single, and she didn’t bear any signs of having given birth either, though that wasn’t a guarantee.
Children. She’d never thought about that directly before either. Did she have any kids who were missing? Again, she couldn’t be sure, but her body seemed to agree that she hadn’t had any kids.
The tears flowed fresh and strong down her face as Kiefer held her tight, never once letting her feel vulnerable or ashamed. The entire time he simply kept stroking her hair, taking the occasional break to brush away tears as they stained her cheek, or to rub her back instead. Peyton was sure plenty of passersby were giving her odd looks, but she put them from her mind. They didn’t matter right now.
Only Kiefer mattered.
“Do you think I could still go with you to Cloud Lake?” she asked an indeterminate amount of time later. “I’d like to get back out into the human world.”
Kiefer nodded. “I don’t see why not. I’m assuming this is the issue that Major Jarvis was referring to. And if he gave permission for you to come, then you can come. You just have to stay with me.”
She felt his entire body go rigid as he finished his sentence.
“Ah, I mean,” he fumbled. “Like, not stay with-with me of course. I just meant, you’ll have to stay under my watch while we’re there.”
Despite the flood of emotion threatening to overwhelm her, Peyton felt herself laughing as he tried to explain himself, even though she’d understood him properly the first time.
“I can handle that, I think,” she told him honestly. “If something comes up, I’ll be sure to let you know.”
Kiefer nodded. “Well, perhaps going there will jog your memories.”
She shrugged carelessly. “I doubt it.”
“Why’s that?”
“Kiefer, nobody reported me missing. Nobody from Cloud Lake came forward to say they knew me.” She looked up at him again. “Why do you think all the others have gone home, while I’m still here a week later?”
The powerful shifter looked helpless as he tried to come up with an answer. “Truthfully, I had no idea that the others had gone,” he said at last. “I wasn’t paying any attention to them.”
She smiled at the way he said it, implying that all of his attention was directed at her. There was no sleaze in his attitude, no smooth charm. It was just simple, honest truth that rang out in his words.
“So, I guess I’m coming to Cloud Lake then.”
Kiefer nodded slowly. “Unless you think you’d rather stay here. Maybe it would be better—”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence, Kiefer Hartmann,” she said, standing up straight and breaking his embrace for the first time.
The thickly muscled arms fell to his sides as he stared at her.
“Um, okay?”
But Peyton wasn’t done.
“The reason I’ve been okay spending time with you these past few days is because you didn’t treat me any differently than the others. You never patronized me, acted like I was weakened or soft, simply because I didn’t have any memory of who I am. It was endearing and so refreshing. I told you what’s going on with me, and yes I realize it’s a monumental thing to accept. But I’ve not suddenly become invalid or incapable since I told you. So don’t you dare treat me any differently, understand?”
He nodded, his neck muscles flexing as his head moved up and down stiffly. “Got it. You’re still a badass; don’t treat you like a child.”
Peyton punched him in the shoulder. “Don’t patronize me either just because you embarrassed yourself.”
She rubbed the back of her arm across her face, clearing off the last of the tears as Kiefer smiled ruefully at her.
“Now, I believe you were going to escort me back to my quarters?”
“Indeed. I believe you need to be packing for our upcoming trip to Cloud Lake.”
