Green Bearets: Aksel (A Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Base Camp Bears Book 3)

by Amelia Jade

  “Yes?” he asked, his eyes glancing down at her hand and then back to her.

  Conscious of the prolonged contact, Nina reluctantly dropped her hand away.

  “Umm, just, ah. Be careful, okay?” she said lamely.

  Aksel’s eyes narrowed, but he tilted his head down at her.

  “I’ll try my hardest to come back,” he promised.

  His hand came out, brushing his fingers against her hand lightly, and then he was gone before she could react. Unthinking, her hand came up to her face, touching it just as lightly as he’d done to her, running back along her cheek and jaw as she watched her rescuer race after his men.

  From her position Nina could see the battle unfold. Bodies littered the field already on both sides, and more men went down as she watched.

  “I don’t get it,” she said, only half-aware she’d said the words out loud.

  “Get what?” the injured shifter asked, his arm taped to his body and useless, while his pants were in tatters, revealing several massive gashes on his legs.

  “Well, you’re shifters, aren’t you?” she asked rhetorically.

  “Yes…?”

  “Well, why are none of you in your animal form?” she asked in confusion.

  “Ah,” the man said, understanding at last dawning in his voice. “I’m mildly surprised that none of the Fenris shifters have done so yet, but to do so in human territory would be a big violation of the rules. It could potentially bring down a massive government force upon us. That, in general, is something we want to avoid.”

  Nina looked over at him, then back at the huge fight going on in the park, and then back at him.

  “You don’t think this will bring massive government attention either?” she asked dryly, eyes flitting across the battlefield.

  “No. By morning, there will be little proof of what happened here tonight. We will see to that,” the man said, but she was barely listening to him, her attention elsewhere.

  The Cadian forces were starting to push the Fenrisians back with the aid of the newly arrived shifters. A knot of men at the center of the Fenris formation was working to rectify that. Even as she watched, one man strode through the center of it, entering the field of battle.

  “Oh my God!” she exclaimed as bodies began to fly through the air.

  “Shit, that’s a gryphon shifter,” her guard cursed.

  For the first time, Nina realized the difference in power between various shifters. This single man sent a massive bear shifter hurtling twenty feet through the air with little more than a casual backhand. Others scattered from his path and the Cadian lines wavered, on the verge of collapsing.

  “I knew there were rumors of heavy artillery, but this is ridiculous,” the shifter at her side said as another man started forward into the Cadian lines, clearly of the same blood as the first.

  Overhead there was the sound of something flapping, and Nina looked up into the dark sky just in time to see what appeared to be a dragon, complete with blue scales, disappear into a storm cloud. There was a brilliant flash and a thunderclap shot out across the park as the storm cloud seemed to become pure lightning and shot into the ground in front of the two gryphon shifters.

  “Oh, wow,” the hurt shifter said as the cloud, now at ground level, dispersed to reveal a single man rising slowly from where he had crouched on one knee.

  The newcomer’s head lifted, and all around him the Cadian lines solidified, pushing back.

  The park lights showed her the tanned skin of the newcomer, who like the others, also wore a simple T-shirt and pants.

  “Who is that?” she asked.

  “That,” the guard said with a barely contained grin, “is our answer. His name is Dominick Carunno, and he’s an Electro Dragon.”

  “Oh,” was all she could say in a small voice. Nina had never met a dragon shifter before. They were mostly the stuff of legend, though over the years photos of them taken from a long distance had surfaced. Still, to see one up close was something else entirely.

  She watched as Dominick stalked across the distance between him and the two gryphon shifters. Where at first those two had wreaked death and destruction on the battlefield, they were now retreating as fast as they could.

  But it wasn’t fast enough.

  Quicker than she could follow, Dominick the dragon moved. One moment he was a dozen feet from his foes, the next he was in the midst of them. Fists and bodies blurred, the blows coming so rapidly she couldn’t keep up.

  And then one of the white-haired gryphon shifters fell backward, collapsing onto the ground, his head hanging at an unnatural angle. Moments later the second one followed.

  With the appearance of a dragon in the opposing forces, the remaining bear shifters from Fenris tried to retreat. But the Cadians were having none of it, and they simply swept over their foes like a tidal wave, bearing them to the ground.

  “So, did we win?” she asked as the scene in front of her seemed to calm slightly.

  Around them, shifters began to tend to the wounded, setting bones and saying silent words over fallen friends and foes alike. It astonished her at the change. From bloodthirsty savages who would have killed anyone in their way, to silent, stoic types who mourned any and all loss, a transformation that had taken mere minutes at most.

  It was…humbling. She didn’t know if there were many humans out there that could turn their savagery on and off like that.

  “We won,” her guard said, hobbling forward on his injured legs to help, leaving her alone.

  But not for long, she realized, as a blood-covered figured emerged from the group and made its way toward her.

  “Aksel?” she asked in horror.

  “I promised I’d come back,” he said, reaching down to grab a handful of snow and use it as a makeshift scraper/towel to start removing some of the blood from his face.

  “You’re hurt!” she gasped, noting the various injures on his body.

  “A little,” he admitted with a wince.

  “More than a little!” she said. “We need to get you to the hospital, before you collapse.”

  The big shifter cast his eyes down at her, a smile stretching his split lips. “Oh, I’ll be okay. Most of this isn’t mine,” he said.

  “And what about that?” she asked, pointing at a massive cut in his ribs that was still slowly leaking blood.

  “Ah, yeah, that. I was a little too slow,” he said pushing the skin together a bit, holding it closed.

  “Why are you so unworried? These are terrible wounds!” she admonished.

  “Because,” he said, and let go of the wound.

  Nina’s mouth fell open. The skin held together.

  “That’s impossible,” she said.

  “Not for us,” he told her gently. “The skin is already knitting itself back together. Three, four hours perhaps, and it’ll be just a big welt. By midday you won’t even know it was there. Trust me when I say I’ll be okay.”

  He frowned. “I do look like shit, however; I’ll agree with that.”

  Nina couldn’t help herself. She laughed, despite everything that she had just seen, and everything that had happened to her that night. It started a little snort, but a second later she was on the ground, bent over holding her sides as she howled with laughter. The joke hadn’t been that funny, but the simple lightheartedness of the quip had been just what she needed.

  As the laughs died away she inhaled deeply, a calming breath. Her eyes opened, and she saw a hand hanging in front of her face. Looking up she saw it was Aksel’s. With a smile she grabbed it and he helped her back to her feet with an ease that surprised her, though she should have known by now how strong he was.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  Aksel simply nodded, an answering smile on his face, even as he stared intently at her.

  “So, what now?” she asked, not letting his hand go, even as he guided her toward where a group of shifters were standing around a single man who radiated authority.

  “We f
ind a place for you to crash for the night,” he said without hesitation. “A safe place.”

  “Sounds wonderful,” she said, blinking rapidly as exhaustion seemed to hit her like a brick. “I think the adrenaline is fading.”

  Aksel nodded. “I’m not surprised. You’ve been running on it for a long time now.”

  “What will you do?” she asked.

  “Help the cleanup. There are probably any number of holdouts in the city, or still fleeing to the west. My squad will probably spend a lot of the night running missions. We’re one of the few to come through this whole thing with no casualties.”

  The big shifter turned unhappy as he mentioned the deaths of those he knew, and Nina squeezed his hand. Those men had been strangers to her, but to him some of them were likely his friends, people he’d known for years. And now they were just lying in the park.

  “I’m sorry,” she said softly as he let her hand drop and looked away, emotions working their way through his defenses in a show of vulnerability that caught her off guard.

  “Thanks,” he said gruffly.

  “Who is this, Corporal?” a new voice said.

  Nina glanced up, realizing that they’d reached the circle of Cadian shifters.

  “This is Nina Palerno. Nina, Captain Klein, and Major Eidelhorn,” Aksel said, his voice containing no traces of the pain she’d heard moments earlier.

  She shook the hands of the two shifters, noting the way her body didn’t react at all to their touch.

  Interesting. So it’s not an all-shifter thing. It’s just an Aksel thing…

  That thought bounced around her mind, even as Aksel explained briefly who she was and why she was there.

  What does it mean then? Why do I react so strongly to him, and not to any of these other men? They’re all good-looking, after all…

  But none of them looked at her the way Aksel did. Major Eidelhorn, for instance, was polite and not rude in the slightest. But he barely looked at her. It wasn’t the same as looking through her. That would have been impolite. But he didn’t see her in the same light. The way Aksel’s eyes focused on her was far more…interesting.

  Captain Klein gave her a moment’s longer look, and she noticed the way his eyes flicked back and forth between her and Aksel, and the lack of distance between them as they stood there.

  Could that be a little smile at the edges of his mouth? What did he find so amusing?

  She wasn’t sure, but he seemed to know something.

  Nina tried not to react when the other shifters quizzed her on why they might have tried to take her. The three of them looked at each other, and at last Captain Klein spoke as the major was pulled away by another shifter running up to report.

  “Well, let’s get her squared away then,” he said.

  “I’m sorry, get me what?” she asked, looking back and forth.

  “Ah, sorry. Military-speak. We’re setting up a command post in the old inn two blocks back. Do you know it?”

  She frowned. “The Mineshaft Motel?”

  “Yeah, that one. Corporal Aksel here will take you there and make sure you have a room set up for the night. In the morning the town should be secure enough.”

  Nina desperately wanted to go home.

  Your home was burnt down. You have nothing anymore.

  While she didn’t know that for sure, it seemed unlikely that she would have much of anything left, based on the flames she’d seen rising from it as she was hauled away earlier. The fire department had likely been more concerned with ensuring the blaze didn’t spread to other houses.

  “Okay,” she said with a helpless shrug of her shoulders.

  It didn’t seem like they were willing to let her go tonight, despite the far more polite way they were going about it.

  And be honest here. You have no idea if you’ll be safe now. They could still conceivably get to you. If whoever Rolden was supposed to report to wasn’t part of this fight, then they’ll know he failed to get me.

  If that happened, they might send another team.

  Suddenly Nina wasn’t so against the idea of spending the night in Aksel and his friends’ protection.

  After all, she thought as she and Aksel made their way to the old motel, this way she’d get to see Aksel in the morning too…

  A smile ghosted across her face.

  Maybe this wouldn’t be all bad after all.

  Chapter Five

  Aksel

  “Junk. Junk. Junk. Keep that. Put it over there with the rest of the reusable wood. Junk.”

  A procession of shifters came walking by, following his orders on what to do with the various things in their hands. Around him, others were dealing with more rubble and debris that didn’t need a sorting hand to know it was useless.

  While another team demolished the remains around them, Luther and his squad were picking through it, trying to save whatever valuables and reusable items they could. The building itself appeared to have been a three-story townhouse, set right across the street from the old motel.

  With several squads already at work on the motel itself, he’d taken the initiative to begin the cleanup. Early that morning, after catching a few hours of sleep to recharge and heal, he’d gone out, found a local dumpster bin company, and had them drop off whatever they had in inventory.

  Most of them were being used to haul away items from the motel, which the Green Bearets were going to use as their headquarters building. It would undergo severe renovations to help secure it against attack, and to clear out all the useless junk that had piled up since it closed down a decade or so beforehand.

  But he’d commandeered two bins for his own project, and when the reinforcement Third Assault Company had made its way into Cloud Lake, Luther had been delighted to receive one of their squads to help.

  A familiar scent tickled his senses and he stood up straight, testing the air more delicately, trying to place it.

  “Nina,” he said softly.

  His back had been to the front of the building, but he turned now, trying to slow his rapid spin.

  Play it cool. Don’t appear too overeager. She might get spooked.

  Aksel took a deep breath to help steady himself as she came into view.

  A grin split his lips wide. She may have slept on a hastily cleaned bed, in only the clothes she’d been wearing the night before, but to his eyes she looked like a million bucks.

  “Good morning,” Nina said shyly, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear as he stared at her.

  “Morning,” he breathed, trying to contain his smile at the sight of her.

  She was gorgeous. All five foot eight or nine of her, if he guessed right. Long legs that just begged to be stared at, even in the winter pants she was wearing. He could see that she filled out the rear of them quite nicely. Her hair was down now, the brown locks hanging to her shoulder blades as she swayed slowly on her feet in front of him.

  “What are you doing?”

  He frowned slightly. “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know,” Nina said, stepping to the side as he came toward her, taking her hand gently without thinking and leading her back out of the building, into the street beyond. “I just figured that you would be, like, out looking for the bad guys. Making sure they don’t come back or something.”

  “Ah, that. Well, there are squads out on patrol, both in the city and to the west of it, watching for any further incursions. But more of us have arrived overnight.” He stopped on the sidewalk, coming to a halt but not dropping her hand.

  Nina’s eyebrows went up slightly, but she didn’t take her hand back from him. “Really?”

  “Really,” he said with a laugh, giving her fingers a quick squeeze before he could stop himself.

  You’re going to scare her off. Calm down!

  He almost let her hand go, but a swift tightening of the hand by Nina prevented him from breaking contact. Aksel wondered if that was purposeful on her part, if she’d known he was planning to let go or not?
Regardless, he didn’t fight it, enjoying the skin-on-skin touch. She was so delicate, and yet he knew her fiery personality was anything but weak. Such a delicious contrast; it was threatening to drive him wild.

  “How many more?”

  “A lot. We’ve got another company of soldiers already here, and I’d say there’s probably about two companies’ worth of mixed shifters here to help out on projects like this one.”

  “I don’t know how many people that means,” she said with an embarrassed laugh.

  “Oh, right,” he said, cursing himself mentally. “Call it another hundred plus shifters on top of the seventy odd that were already here.”

  “And mixed company?” she asked.

  “Not all bear shifters,” he supplied. “Wolf, tiger, leopard and others. They’re not soldiers, but carpenters, artisans, and the like. They’ve come to help rebuild after we sent word of how badly things had gone under Fenris’s occupation.”

  “That’s amazing,” she said, stunned. “So many of you outside of your borders.”

  Aksel nodded. “It’s rather unprecedented, at least in modern times, I know. But we feel this is something we need to do. I expect as word gets out, that number will only go up.” He smiled at her, hoping it was reassuring. “After all, we build all our own buildings. We’ve gotten pretty good at it. We’ll have this place looking shipshape by end of summer, for sure.”

  Nina gave him a little smile, though he could tell she was still shocked by the efforts Cadia was putting in to right the wrongs that they hadn’t committed. “So long to rebuild, so short to destroy.”

  He grimaced. It was true, after all. Fenris had had occupation of Cloud Lake for not even two complete months, and they’d managed to absolutely destroy it. Now it would take the better part of six to eight months to restore all the damage. Aksel secretly thought they could be done much swifter, but the winter weather would severely hamper those efforts.

  “We’re not going anywhere,” he promised. “Cadia will be here to stay, and in much greater strength. Word has it that there might even be a contingent of gryphons based out of Cloud Lake as a heavy deterrent.”

  Nina looked suitably impressed, but he could sense a question coming, so he simply sat back on his heels and waited.