by Amelia Jade
Recently Fenris had begun making advances, and then progressing to full-out attacks on Cadia. They had yet to attack its lands in a full-on declaration of war, but the attack on Cloud Lake was close enough.
Aksel wondered how the humans were taking it. For the most part, shifters stayed in their strongholds, and humans stayed out. The borders were guarded almost fanatically to prevent humans from entering, or unauthorized shifters from leaving.
Now they were about to wage war in human-held lands. That should be…interesting.
“I’m sure some of you are wondering how this will affect our relationship with the humans of Cloud Lake. Sending so many troops into their town is bound to attract notice.”
Heads nodded around the room. It appeared Aksel wasn’t the only one concerned by such a drastic shift in policy.
“Well, take a look at this,” Colonel Richter said, and behind him a wall lit up with images projected onto it.
There was a muted growl that started somewhere, and it grew as picture after picture of ruined, burnt, and wrecked buildings scrolled across the screen. Pictures of firefighters desperately fighting blazes, and news headlines of disappearances of humans.
“As you can see, Fenris hasn’t exactly been treating the residents well. So I think we can expect a cautiously warm welcome when we kick their asses out of there.”
Aksel felt his blood heat. In Cadia, shifters were generally expected to treat humans indifferently at worst, while preferably being amicable to them. That was why only certain groups were allowed outside the borders. There were very few incidents. And nothing like what he’d just been shown.
Fenris was tearing the town apart.
“Now for the OP’s plan,” Colonel Richter said. He gestured to his right. “We’ll be going in with two full companies’ worth. Major Eidelhorn will command the operation on the ground. Captain Klein will take First Assault Company, and Captain Korver will head the Second. Mr. Raskell will coordinate our heavy weapons teams.”
Colonel Richter gestured to Andrew Raskell, a gryphon shifter who lately had been spending a lot of time at Base Camp.
Aksel sat back and listened as the assault was planned out in detail. He hoped he would be picked as one of the members for the assault companies. There were still at least two assholes from Fenris who needed to learn a lesson in manners, that he wouldn’t mind teaching.
“…Corporal Muller will take Second Squad, Corporal…”
He sat upright in shock as he heard Captain Klein speaking his name. Aksel looked at Lieutenant Kiefer to his left. “Did he just say my name?”
Kiefer smiled. “Welcome to the command of Second Squad, First Assault Company, Corporal Muller.” He stuck out his hand.
Aksel, still in shock at being given a command position, something he’d trained for and dreamed about, took it.
He was going back to Cloud Lake!
***
Aksel
His bear leapt up and bore the fleeing man to the ground. Huge jaws opened and clamped shut around the man’s neck and he shook his head violently until he heard something snap, and the body lay still.
Flinging it away, he charged forward, eleven men following as stealthily as they could in his wake. It was tough to be completely hidden when each member of his squad was a two-thousand-pound gigantic bear, but they did a remarkable job.
It was, after all, what the Green Bearets trained him for. How to be a soldier, both as a human and as a shifter. It was remarkable what one could accomplish when they went through rigorous training.
The Green Bearets were the bear shifter elite of Cadia. Each race had its own school. The bears had Base Camp. The Green Bearets were a bit of an anomaly, as not all the races had formal names and organizations for those that graduated their schools.
But the bear shifters, as the most populous, had drawn upon human military organizations to model themselves after to keep everything organized. They had made changes to it, amalgamating several other organizations into it as well. It was from the Green Bearets that the Guardians of Cadia were chosen. The Guardians were the force responsible for protecting the borders of the homeland, and for carrying the fight to the enemy.
Many of the men in the two assault companies were also Guardians, including Aksel. It was his greatest achievement so far in his life, and probably would remain that way unless and until he found a mate.
But he didn’t expect that to happen anytime soon. Not while there was a war going on.
The other squads surged forward as well, eliminating the few sentries Fenris had left on the eastern border of Cloud Lake. They’d gotten overconfident in their position, and the Cadian teams moved right up to the edge of the city without an alarm having sounded.
Now is where it gets tricky, however.
Each shifter, as it hit an invisible but predefined boundary, slowed their headlong run and stood up.
Moments later, they all gathered around in human form, looking outward as the assault force began to ready itself for the ugly street fighting that was to come. Outside of Cadia, the places where one could appear in bear form were very, very limited.
Any human town or city was strictly off limits for their animals, unless they were attacked by another shifter who had already assumed their animal form. As the Cadian assault team didn’t know how Fenris would react, they had to go in human form.
“Okay men, you know the plan. Stay together, keep an eye out, and don’t get cocky. We’re not here to earn individual awards. We’re here to show Fenris a lesson, and we’ll hammer that point home as a team. Understood?”
“Yes, Corporal,” came the quiet, but firm response.
Aksel smiled. He’d only had a week to train his squad before the assault began, but he’d made the most of it. His men were all professionals, and they would do the job, he was confident of that.
His belief in his team, and his ability to lead them, was unexpected. He’d planned to be terrified, and while he was, that seemed to be taking a back seat to his desire to bring his men home safely. That was Aksel’s biggest desire, and he knew if he was going to do that he would need his wits about him.
A branch snapped loudly in the forest, followed by two more in rapid succession.
“There’s the signal, let’s go.”
Second Squad rose to its feet around him.
All along the eastern border of Cloud lake, the two other squads of First Company, and the three of Second, were doing the same. Over seventy shifters, all tall, hulking masses of deadly muscle, surged into the city to liberate it from Fenris.
The eastern edge of the town was mostly industrial, and they expected little resistance until they got closer to the commercial heart, and the residential western side.
Second Squad got its baptism of fire ten minutes after penetrating the city, when two Fenris shifters came out of a seedy-looking building that had all the markings of a brothel, laughing and slapping each other on the back.
They literally walked headlong into the leading elements of the squad, which included Aksel himself.
The pair of shifters saw the men, and without warning launched themselves at them, not bothering to look around and realize how outnumbered they were. Aksel found himself the target of one of the men’s alcohol-fueled attacks, and had to duck under blows and jump back repeatedly as fury overcame his opponent.
Around him other members of the squad closed in, but despite his earlier words, Aksel intended to do this himself. He had to prove himself to his men.
With a snarl he ducked under the wild left, and this time instead of backing away, he darted forward before lunging upward, driving his shoulder into the other shifter’s midsection. The big man coughed in surprise, and Aksel grunted as two meaty fists pounded on his back.
But he had the momentum, and the other bear shifter left his feet as Aksel stood up, stopping abruptly. The bear shifter kept going, flying up into the air. Moving with lightning speed that no human could match, Aksel slipped to the side,
grabbed the man’s face, and then dropped to one knee, using his supernatural shoulder strength to piledrive the shifter’s head into the ice-covered sidewalk below.
Bone cracked, and the shifter grunted in pain, his eyes rolling up into the back of his head. Aksel wrapped his massive hands around the man’s neck, and with a violent wrench, snapped it. The body gurgled softly as it settled.
Sniffing his disdain at being forced to kill, Aksel rose, noting the other body nearby as well.
“Put them behind that dumpster,” he ordered, indicating a big green garbage bin. “We don’t need any humans stumbling over them if we can avoid it. Mark this location down,” he said to a private.
Once the fight was over, the shifters would come around and collect the bodies to dispose of them themselves. They were not going to involve the humans in this if they could help it.
When they were ready, the squad moved out once more, heading down a mostly deserted street. Every now and then they heard the sounds of fighting in the distance. It seemed the word had gotten out to the humans. It was late at night, but even in a small town like Cloud Lake, there should have been more activity.
Smart move. Hunker low until it blows over.
The road ahead forked. “Lance Corporal,” he said, pointing at one of his men. “Take five men, go left. Two blocks ahead, take a right, we’ll meet you there.”
He didn’t want to stay split up for long, but it was imperative that they cover all the area.
Before his men could go, a figure came upon them from the rear.
“Friend!” the voice called in a Cadian accent.
“Come closer,” Aksel said.
“Message from Captain Klein. Fenris has more shifters in the city than expected. A squad from Second Company was wiped out in an ambush. Fenris knows we’re here, and is starting to organize resistance. Be careful.”
Aksel nodded and thanked the runner, who disappeared into the night.
With a nod at his lance corporal, the two teams split up and headed down their respective roads.
Jogging forward in the dark, the overhead lights barely helping in the gloom, Aksel only vaguely became aware of the sound of feet on pavement.
Numerous feet.
He slowed to a walk, just as six shifters darted out of a side street ahead of them. One of them was carrying something that looked suspiciously like a human.
“Well, well,” Aksel called out loudly, making sure his voice carried. “What do we have here?”
Chapter Three
Nina
The man who spoke instantly commanded her attention.
She had to crane her head sideways to get a good look at him, squinting in the dark, but there was something about the way he spoke that captured her.
He was tall, like all shifters, but taller than the men around him. Possibly as big as Rolden even. Brown finger-length hair pushed to the side sat atop a youthful-looking face. She couldn’t quite make out his eyes at this distance, but something about his body language told her he wasn’t as young as he looked.
His strong jaw moved as he spoke once more, never backing down even as Rolden’s gang arrayed themselves in front of him.
The numbers were even.
“Put the woman down,” the leader said.
“Just six of you?” Kane said with a laugh. “Do you know who we are?”
“No,” the leader said as Nina looked back and forth. “Do you know who we are?”
“Of course not,” Rolden said sarcastically.
“Good.”
The calm, utterly unafraid demeanor of the leader of the second set of shifters was playing havoc with Rolden and his men. Nina would have smiled if she wasn’t terrified. The men had gotten used to the citizens of Cloud Lake running in terror from them.
These men, it seemed, were not afraid.
“Go back to Cadia,” Rolden said peacefully. “And we won’t hurt you.”
“Put the woman down, and we won’t kill you,” came the unhesitating response.
Behind the leader, the five other shifters fanned out in a line, to match what Rolden’s team was doing.
“I don’t have time for this,” Rolden said.
“I have all night.”
“Spare me,” Rolden said, then pointed at the shifter holding her and snapped his fingers.
The man pulled a pair of restraints from somewhere and slapped them over her wrists, while another shifter secured her legs.
“Deal with them,” Rolden ordered. The brute carrying her tossed her to the side of the street.
Nina yelped as she landed in a cold snowbank, flakes flying into the air and landing all over her. She struggled around to a sitting position, shaking her head to remove the snow from it while she watched, wide eyed.
The two groups of shifters ran at her. The newcomers were all dressed the same. She saw white shirts and black pants. Rolden’s group wore a hodgepodge of clothing items, easily allowing her to distinguish between them.
Her eyes were continually dragged back to the leader now, as he and Rolden closed with each other. Around them their men fought frantically. Bodies flew across the street, some of them the newcomers, most of them Rolden’s team. The fighting moved away from each other, devolving into one-on-one battles.
She flinched as Rolden hit the other man with a wickedly fast jab, sending him stumbling back. The nasty shifter closed in, but the man in the white T-shirt blocked both blows and then riposted, hitting Rolden with a one-two combination that split his eyebrow open and sent her captor dancing back out of range.
Nina grinned and tried not to bite her lip as she watched the unknown shifter begin to reveal his full arsenal of skills.
Rolden ducked, dodged, and even at one point dove out of the way of a blow, rolling easily to his feet.
“Who are you?” he snarled at the leader, but the man in white didn’t respond, focusing instead on the fight.
They closed and she cried out as blows landed on both parties. She heard something crack in her hopeful rescuer’s ribs, but he absorbed the blow. She realized suddenly he’d left himself open to it on purpose, as his forearm came up and slammed into the nose of Rolden, smashing it and sending the man reeling.
“Yes!” she yelped, then caught herself, squishing her lips together.
Quiet, you idiot. You have no idea who these new men are, besides likely being from Cadia. That doesn’t guarantee that they’ll be friendly. You have no idea if they are from there, if they’re friendly, and most importantly, what the hell they’re doing so far inside of Cloud Lake! They could be raiding the town for something, and they might just leave you.
Her eyes still stayed laser-focused on the leader as he finished off Rolden. The big man grabbed an arm and twisted into Rolden, hitting him hard with an elbow to the temple. The Fenris shifter wobbled and then the Cadian had him by the neck, cutting off his air supply.
A figure in white loomed up over Nina and blocked her view.
“You don’t need to see that,” he said gently, squatting down in front of her. “Trust me,” he said politely as she tried to look past him, but his bulk prevented it. “It’s better this way.”
Nina looked up at the shifter, who had blood streaming from a wound on his cheek. “Why? What’s he doing?”
The shifter just looked at her sadly. “What needs to be done.”
“He’s killing him, isn’t he?”
There was no response.
“Good,” she said bitterly. “I’m no fan of killing people, but these thugs have been terrorizing us for weeks, have killed a number of us, and were likely going to kill me too,” she said.
There was lots of motion behind the shifter, but when he finally stood up and gave way to the leader, Nina’s eyes went wide as she saw no signs of the fight. Two of the shifters in white came out from the side street she’d been dragged along, and she wondered what they’d been doing there as they wiped their hands off.
“Are you okay?” a new voice asked, and her he
ad yanked around as the leader sank down to his haunches in front of her.
“Y-y-yes,” she managed to get out, cursing herself for stuttering in front of this gorgeous man.
Stop it.
“Are you going to hurt me?”
The big man rocked back on his heels, blinking in surprise.
“Hurt you? No. Why would I do that?”
Nina looked away, embarrassed now that she’d asked the question. The pained look on his face at even the suggestion was enough for her to realize she’d impugned on his honor.
“They were going to hurt me,” she managed to get out.
“Why?”
She hesitated.
“I don’t know,” she replied, deciding to keep the information to herself for now.
The big shifter looked at her for a long moment, and Nina began to wonder if he could tell she wasn’t being entirely forthcoming. But could he blame her? She didn’t even know his name or who he and his men were at that point.
There was a pounding of boots and six more shifters rounded the corner.
Nina groaned.
“It’s okay,” the leader said with a little chuckle. “That’s the rest of my team.”
She brightened as the two groups exchanged nods and fist bumps, instead of trading blows. “Oh, okay. Is this all of you then? Just twelve? Are you just here to raid, or, umm, like, look around?”
“No. My name is Aksel,” he said, reaching forward and parting the plastic restraints around first her feet, and then her wrists, the material snapping with what barely seemed like any effort.
“I’m Nina,” she replied.
Nina massaged her wrists.
“Let me help you up, Nina,” Aksel said, extending a hand.
She eyed it for a moment, and then shrugged. What was the worst that was going to happen? It wasn’t like she would be able to escape, or even harm, a dozen shifters.
“Thank you,” she said, reaching out and taking it.
Aksel lifted her easily to her feet, and her eyes went wide, but not because of his strength. The moment her hand touched his, a burst of warmth and energy rushed through her system, flooding her brain with emotion and sensation that threatened to overwhelm her.
