Green Bearets: Kiefer (A Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Base Camp Bears Book 5)

by Amelia Jade

  Another piece of debris, or perhaps it was lava itself, brushed against her right shoulder, and left a huge divot as it simply plowed its way through skin, muscle, and bone. Her arm sagged to her side, both useless and pulling at the wound, constantly reopening it. Blood flowed down her arm and her chest.

  “Fuck you!” she screamed, the air scorching her lungs, making her cough, which only enhanced the problem.

  But Peyton never stopped. She took another step.

  And another.

  And another.

  ONE MORE. DON’T YOU GIVE UP. YOU WALK UNTIL YOU DIE.

  She set her foot down, and hauled her right foot after her. Then her left.

  And then without warning, even as the heat seemed to reach out with a physical grasp to hold her tight, Peyton’s foot encountered solid ground.

  She tried to take another step, but her left foot was caught. The ground wasn’t giving it up.

  Even as she pulled on it, she could feel the skin stretching, heated to a rubbery texture by the air.

  Peyton fell to her hands and knees. The ground in front of her was blissfully cool and solid. If she could just free herself, she could make good her escape. She could live!

  But her foot was there, caught. She tugged hard, and watched part of her skin rip apart. Pain slapped her across the face and she screamed. That ignited her lungs, and she screamed again.

  Her foot was caught fast.

  If I pull much harder, it’s going to rip right off.

  Peyton considered her predicament. If she stayed where she was, she died. If she tried to escape, she would rip her foot clean off her body.

  If I want to live, I’m going to have to leave a part of me behind. A part that I’ve known my entire life, something that I’ve always lived with, and wouldn’t know how to live without.

  But she would live.

  And if she lived, she could see Kiefer once again.

  Her eyes blazed with a fire that rivaled that of the lava behind her. She directed her gaze at the wall of heat, and it seemed to recoil away from her. Peyton pushed herself to her feet and sent her anger and her determination out to scour the lava, actually halting its progress.

  “You. Will. Not. Have. ME!”

  And with a scream Peyton pulled on her leg until her foot, with a sickening, disgusting ripping sound, came free of her body.

  Pain wrapped her in its cocoon, and she stumbled back, onto the cool ground behind her.

  ***

  Blinking, she sat up.

  The pain was gone. The absence of heat was so blatant she almost shivered, despite the room temperature of the air around her.

  Peyton swiftly looked down at her feet.

  Feet. Plural. They were both there!

  “Okay, this is getting weird,” she muttered as the realization that she wasn’t in reality hit her.

  If this isn’t the real world. Then I’m dreaming.

  Right. The Turning. Kiefer had said she’d encounter two things. A fever. And then my bear.

  He said it would manifest.

  What did that mean again?

  She stood up, feeling keys jingle at her side.

  “Huh?”

  An old-school keyring, fully four inches around, jangled from her pants. Peyton unclipped it and held it up. A quick count revealed ten different keys, of varying sizes and shapes, were clipped there.

  “Ooookay.” She muttered the sound even as she looked around. There was light, and she could see everything.

  Which helped, because she was in a room.

  A room with one door.

  With a shrug she walked over to the door and tugged on it.

  It was locked.

  “Okay, fine.”

  One by one she tried the keys, until one fit. With a flick of her wrist she unlocked the door and pulled on it once more.

  Almost instantly there was a huge crash behind her. Peyton looked over her shoulder and her eyes bulged. The far wall of the room she was in had given way, and a massive bear was currently coming to its feet.

  “Not good,” she squeaked and slipped through the door.

  A last glance behind her proved to be a mistake as the bear made eye contact with her. Its eyes were red with rage. Without hesitation it charged across the open room. Peyton pulled the door shut after her and flipped the lock.

  Not waiting around to see what happened, she ran forward. There was another door, off to her right. She dashed over to it, fumbling with the nine remaining keys as she went. Behind her the thick wooden door trembled and planks split as the bear threw itself at the barrier.

  “C’mon, c’mon,” she said, fumbling through the keys until the next one slid into the lock.

  Pulling the door open, she made it inside just as the bear crashed through the previous one. She locked the door and moved on. There was another door, and another. Each time she managed to get through before the bear got to her, but it was getting closer and closer.

  Peyton had no idea what was going to happen when she ran out of keys. Would the bear catch up with her? Each door was in a different spot in the room, as if it were a maze that she was being guided through, despite there only being one path.

  She darted through the last room. There was only one key remaining on her ring. The marauding animal burst into her room before she’d gotten the door unlocked. But with only the single key, there was no time spent fumbling. She jammed it into the door and pulled it open. This one was made of thick metal, and it was hard to move. But Peyton tugged and pulled, until there was just a large enough crack for her to fit through.

  Her body was scarcely through the opening when the bear hit the door. Its titanic weight slammed the door closed, the metal hitting Peyton before she’d had a chance to move clear and sending her tumbling into the room beyond.

  This room was dark. There was no ambient light showing her where to go, except for a little halo of white ahead of her. Gingerly, feeling her way along as she went, Peyton approached the light. As she got closer, she saw there was a table, upon which sat a model house.

  Behind her the door trembled as the bear hurled itself at it.

  As she came near, Peyton realized it was a model of the house she’d just gone through. It was accurate, including broken doors, and a miniature bear moving around.

  “Ummm, okay.” She looked at it once more. The rooms were all identical in size, set out in a grid of three by four.

  Except one was missing. A blank space. A closer inspection showed her that the rooms appeared to be mounted open some sort of rail. Gently, Peyton tugged on the edge of one of the rooms next to the empty spot.

  Without any resistance the square room slid along the rail until it stopped in its new position. Then she pulled on another. And another. The rooms moved with ease.

  “It’s a maze,” she breathed.

  The metal door bulged slightly as the bear hit it again.

  “I need to get the bear out of here.”

  She looked down at the layout, and started shuffling rooms around rapidly until she could move the one the bear was in away from her current room. The rooms reorganized, she sat back and relaxed.

  But the bear didn’t. It simply spun and started running through doors until it once again came to her room.

  “Damn,” she hissed.

  She moved the rooms around again, but the bear seemed to know exactly where to go.

  It’s in my mind. It can read my mind. So it knows where to go. What I need is to randomize it. To keep it constantly guessing unless I decide to stop. A nice little “randomize” button would be perfect.

  As if in response to her wishes, a button appeared on the table next to the miniature model.

  “Oh.”

  Without hesitation Peyton slammed her palm down on it. By their own accord the rooms began to move. Unlike when she did it though, they never stopped. The bear ran from room to room, but the pattern kept changing every time. It never knew where to go.

  It was trapped. Only Peyton co
uld choose to set it free now if she so desired.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Kiefer

  Peyton blinked.

  Then she began to sputter and thrash around.

  “What the hell!” she yelped as more water cascaded over her.

  Kiefer tossed the bucket aside and scrambled to help her sit up.

  “Are you okay?” he asked in a rush, touching her as gently as he could.

  “I’m not made of glass,” she said, putting a hand on his chest and pushing him away.

  He yelped as he was thrown backward, bouncing and rolling over the ground until he slammed into the far wall.

  Peyton looked at her hand. “What the hell?” Her eyes returned to him. “Who are you?” she asked with a blank stare.

  Kiefer had been in the midst of pulling himself up to a seated position when her words hit home. He stared at her.

  “Do you remember me?”

  A shake of the head.

  He slumped back against the wall, his eyes slowly closing. This had been the worst-case scenario. Where Peyton would wake up, and she would remember nothing of the past two weeks, only having memories up until whatever had happened to her.

  “Who are you?” she asked. “And how did I just throw you across the room? And why do I feel so…so weird? And what’s in my head?”

  She began to tap the side of her skull, her head thrashing about.

  “Peyton!” he said. “Stop it. You have to calm down!”

  “Get it out! Get it out of my head!” she screamed.

  He practically flew across the floor to be at her side.

  “Peyton, you need to listen to me—”

  “Listen to you? I don’t even know your name!” she screamed.

  “My name is Kiefer Hartmann. We’ve known each other for the past two weeks. It’s…” he hesitated. “Complicated? I guess that’s the best way to put it. Anyway, if you just calm down, I’ll tell you everything that’s going on. There’s no need to freak out. If you do, things will get worse. If you calm down and just let me speak, then you’ll be okay.”

  There was no response.

  “Peyton?” he asked tentatively. Her head was ducked low, so he tried to get low to the floor next to her, so that he could see her.

  “Stay away from me!” she snarled, and tried to hit him again.

  Kiefer was ready this time though, and he grabbed the blow and directed its power elsewhere. Peyton may be strong, but she wasn’t combat-trained like he was.

  “Stop it,” she yelled. “Just leave me alone.”

  “I can’t do that,” he said sadly.

  “Why not? Just go away!”

  “Because, Peyton Raine. I am your mate.”

  She jerked, and her head came up. He saw that her eyes had glassed over, and she was currently staring through him.

  “Come back to me, Peyton,” he whispered. “Please. I need you. I-I love you.”

  It was cheesy. Oh hell it was the cheesiest thing he’d ever said. But damn it if he didn’t mean every single word of it.

  And to his complete and utter surprise, it worked.

  Her eyes flickered back into focus, and he saw them alight with recognition.

  “Kiefer?” Peyton whispered.

  “Heyy,” he responded, putting his arm around her. “Welcome back.”

  She glanced down. “Why are my clothes soaked?”

  He felt his face heat rapidly. “Uh, well. Your skin started burning up, and I needed to keep you cool. So, um, there was a bucket. And the sink. So I kinda…yeah,” he finished lamely with a helpless shrug of his shoulders.

  “Right, the volcano. I remember,” she said dreamily. “So did it work?”

  “I don’t know,” he responded. “You tell me. Did it?”

  Peyton frowned in concentration. Then a smile lit her face. “I remember!”

  Kiefer kept his excitement down. That was only half the battle.

  “And…your…feelings toward me?” he asked tentatively.

  She grinned. “I love you too,” she said, throwing her arms around him and tackling him to the ground, planting kiss after kiss on his face.

  There was a clatter of boots outside, and four Green Bearets charged inside.

  They stopped short, staring at him, Peyton, the body of the dead Fenris shifter, the unconscious woman, and the general destruction of the place.

  “What the fuck…?”

  “In the back,” Kiefer said, pointing through the steel door. “You’ll find Allix and Mia there. Tranq-gun. They’ll be fine.”

  The nearest Green Bearet hesitated at the names.

  “It’s okay, I’ll take the blame for it,” he sighed. “Tell anyone who asks it was Kiefer’s fault.”

  The shifter nodded and without another word two of them ran into the back and emerged with the women, carrying them back to base, where Luther and Garrin would undoubtedly work themselves into a rage before he returned.

  “Come on,” he said, lifting Peyton to her feet. “Let’s get you back, into some dry clothes, and then you can tell me all about your life.”

  “No time, sir,” one of the remaining Green Bearets said, reaching down to pick the blonde up in a fireman’s carry.

  “What do you mean? And careful with her. We need her in one piece.”

  “Who is she, sir?” the Green Bearet asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Kiefer replied with a glance at Peyton. “But she’s important. Same with the short man back there,” he said where the fourth and final shifter had disappeared.

  “Her name is Susan Cheffield,” Peyton said as they exited the room. “She was a senior operative with the Institute.”

  “You know who they are now?” he asked, not wanting to bring up her past with them.

  “I know who they are,” she said slowly. “And I know who I truly worked for.”

  Kiefer’s head whipped around, and he just stared at her in surprise.

  “Sir, we need to go,” the Green Bearet said from outside.

  “What?” he snapped, having totally forgotten he’d asked the man another question.

  “We’re mobilizing sir. We’re going after Fenris!”

  Peyton came to a halt, nearly yanking his arm from its socket as she tugged on him in urgency.

  “Kiefer, we need to stop them from attacking!”

  “What? Why? They wouldn’t be going after them if they hadn’t found a loophole or a way to make it work.”

  “You don’t understand,” she said, breaking into a run. “It’s a trap!”

  Kiefer didn’t know what she was talking about, but he took off at a run, following her back to the motel. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he had to trust Peyton.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Peyton

  “Sir!” he shouted over the clamor of squads assembling outside the motel. “Sir!”

  There was no response.

  “Captain Korver!” he bellowed from across the open section of roadway.

  All around him Green Bearets paused what they were doing, allowing him and Peyton to charge up the stairs to where Gabriel Korver was giving orders to one of the other lieutenants.

  “What is it, Kiefer? I’m kind of busy here, and I don’t have time for you to drop more drugged mates of my fellow officers on me.”

  Kiefer cringed at that, but he stood his ground.

  “Sir, Peyton has something to say.”

  “Captain,” she said, speaking up without waiting to be acknowledged. “You’re walking your men into a trap.”

  He scoffed. “Nonsense. Lady, we have assembled one of the biggest forces in the history of our species to take on these outcasts. We’ve gotten permission from the government to go after them. Fenris has nothing left to throw at us. We’re fine.”

  He shook his head and turned away from them.

  Or tried to. Peyton’s arm on his shoulder stopped him cold in his tracks. Kiefer saw him try to pull away, but her vise-like grip only tightened. Gabriel turned ba
ck, glancing at his arm, to Peyton, and then to him.

  “You Turned her?” he asked in disbelief. “She works for the enemy, and you Turned her? I should have you up on charges!” he roared.

  Peyton punched him in the stomach.

  “Listen to me, you pigheaded fool!” she bellowed right back at him. “These men are walking into a trap. Not one set by Fenris,” she added.

  Gabriel stopped the blow he’d been aiming at her head.

  “Okay. You’ve got my curiosity piqued. Thirty seconds, explain.”

  “It’s all a ruse by a rogue sector of the human government. You’ll go, you’ll kill the Fenrisians. They’ll kill a bunch of you. But somehow a human will get killed during the battle. It’ll be a plant or something, but they’ll use that as justification to move against you. And they will do so immediately. They have troops positioned to cover the Fenris remnants. Troops armed with weapons who will receive orders to tranquilize or kill you on sight.”

  Captain Korver grimaced.

  “How do you know all this? Are you working for this rogue sector?” he asked skeptically.

  “Yes,” she replied.

  Kiefer stared at her, his jaw dropping as she admitted to being an enemy of his people.

  Peyton turned to look at him, her eyes pleading with him to understand. “But I was only there because I was placed there by another organization. One without much government support, who are trying to stop them.”

  Gabriel shook his head. “I’m confused.”

  “Me too,” Kiefer put in. “So you’re telling me that you were sent by a group to infiltrate the Institute—that’s their name, sir—and then sent by the Institute to infiltrate Fenris and start a war?”

  Peyton sagged, but she didn’t avoid his eyes. “Yes.”

  “Why?” he asked, pained at all the deaths that had come about because of this human organization’s meddling.

  “Because it was going to happen no matter what. This way I could at least get myself into a trusted position within the Institute and perhaps have some good come of it.”

  She looked unhappy. “I didn’t want it to happen, Kiefer, Gabriel. You have to believe me. But they had other operatives lined up and ready to go. All of whom would probably have given Fenris far better advice, resulting in a far worse war than what there was. It’s not much, I know. But it’s all I could do.”