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

by Amelia Jade

  “It’s corporal, sir,” Aksel said, and it was only then that Nina clued in to the fact that Captain Klein had called her shifter—and she no longer doubted that he was hers—a lieutenant.

  “Not anymore. This was supposed to happen shortly after the invasion, but, well, we’ve been busy,” Captain Klein said. He hurled something at Aksel, which when he caught, and proved to be a new T-shirt. “Congratulations.” He looked over the two of them again.

  “Your squad is waiting to congratulate you, but I’ll tell them you’ll be a bit,” he said, moving to leave the room.

  “Wait, sir!” Aksel said, still staring at the shirt in shock.

  “Yes?”

  “What happened out there? How am I alive?” he asked, forcing a smile to Nina’s face.

  She’d been wondering when he would ask that question.

  “Nina knows all the pertinent details. I’ll leave it to you to interrogate her properly.”

  Her jaw dropped open even as her face flushed with heat. The captain simply tossed them a wink, and then he was gone.

  “Well, that’s certainly not awkward,” she said into the silence.

  Aksel grinned and pulled her back into him. “Maybe a little, but the man has a point. So, tell me, Miss Palerno. Are you willing to reveal the facts of what happened last night?” His voice was a low growl, but it was stuffed full of humor.

  “Never!” she said with an arrogant toss of her head.

  “Then I suppose I’ll just have to extract it from you,” he threatened, pulling her on top of him.

  “Okay, I give, I give!” she said through the laughter as he began to tickle her.

  “I thought so.”

  She settled down onto his chest, legs straddling him, intensely aware of how similar to a certain sexual position she was.

  “Now, tell me,” he prompted, only after she’d been kissed thoroughly by him once more.

  “It’s not too crazy a story,” she said. “They were about ready to kill you, and then a man basically fell out of the sky. It was amazing, Aksel, the entire roof shook, and even bowed under him! He called out the bad guys, and then went through them like a hot knife through butter. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “Are you telling me a dragon shifter came to my rescue?”

  Nina giggled at the half-gratitude, half-groan in his voice. “No, you don’t owe your life to a dragon,” she said.

  “Phew,” he replied with a smile.

  “You owe it to that gryphon shifter, Andrew Rascal, or whatever his last name is.”

  Aksel groaned. “Raskell. Why did it have to be him?”

  She frowned. “He seemed like a nice person. He even carried you back here in his paws.”

  “Oh lovely. He brought me back here like a stork. I’m sure the squad will let me live that down sometime this decade,” he complained.

  “Be nice,” she told him, bouncing a hand off his rock-hard chest.

  “Andrew’s a good guy, for a gryphon. I just don’t know his motives for helping us, which makes me wary. Gryphons are notoriously picky in why they lend aid.”

  “Maybe he’s just a good person, trying to do the right thing?” she suggested.

  “Perhaps,” Aksel agreed. “But until I know for sure, I’ll never completely trust him.”

  He held up a hand to forestall her protest. “But don’t worry, I will properly thank him for saving my life. You don’t have to worry about that.”

  “Good,” she said. “Because if he hadn’t, I wouldn’t be able to do this.”

  And she lowered her mouth to his once again, this time with no intent to move back anytime soon.

  Chapter Nine

  Aksel

  “Nina,” he whispered into her ear.

  “Mmm?” came the wordless reply, sounding overly happy.

  They were curled up on his makeshift hospital bed, just rising from a nap. He eyed her body, still clad in the clothes from the day before, and felt a stirring inside him. Things were progressing with Nina now, and he knew there was a chance they would take it to the next level as well.

  Although they’d kissed passionately for quite some time as she straddled him earlier, neither of them had been willing or interested in going farther. The idea of only a curtain as a door, and the sounds of footsteps outside had deterred any ideas of getting intimate. On top of that, Nina was exhausted after having spent most of night at his side, waiting for him to wake up.

  Aksel, for his part, was still tired from all the energy he’d expended, both in the fight, and while healing. He’d known a meal was necessary, but at the time, cuddling with Nina had been exactly what the doctored ordered. Now, however, he could no longer ignore his stomach.

  “I need food.”

  “Dinner?” she asked blearily, raising her head from his arm, which she’d commandeered as a pillow.

  He eyed the little bit of drool on it and simply smiled. She’d been far more exhausted than she let on, and even now she blushed while wiping it off.

  “I’m glad you were able to sleep,” he said, grabbing hold of her chin and forcing her to look at him. “Nothing to be embarrassed about. Happens to the best of us,” he promised with a wink, before kissing her swiftly.

  “Now, food,” he said, his mind locking onto the concept.

  “I recognize that tone,” she joked, sliding from the bed with a seductive grace that almost distracted him from the idea of eating.

  Almost.

  Later. Once you’re reinvigorated and can do a proper job of making sure her first time is a good one.

  Aksel followed her from the bed like a puppy dog, eager to be on his way as she stretched and took her time putting her boots back on.

  “Okay, okay,” she joked as he tried to edge around her. “I get it, chow time, stop moving so slow.”

  He laughed. “Am I that obvious?”

  An arched eyebrow was his only response at first. Then, “Well, you did forget to put your shirt on.”

  He looked down at his bare chest and barked a laugh, turning back to the bed to slide into his new lieutenant’s shirt.

  “Well don’t you look fancy,” she teased, poking at his rank insignia.

  Aksel growled in delight and picked her up easily, careful not to squeeze too hard and carried a giggling Nina out the door, only setting her down when they encountered someone else for the first time. The private saluted, managing to keep the smile off his own face, albeit barely.

  “Carry on,” Aksel said lightly, letting the private know he wasn’t in any danger for showing his happiness at the sight of the two of them.

  With the hallway cleared for a moment, Aksel darted forward to where Nina was waiting. As she turned to continue walking he slipped his hand around her waist and let it drop over her rear, giving it a firm squeeze.

  “Hey!” she said, swatting him away with a laugh. “People might see.”

  “So?” he asked, bouncing his eyebrows suggestively. “Let them.”

  “You’re incorrigible,” she said with a sigh. “Behave, or else that’s all you’re going to get today.”

  Aksel came to parade ground attention, his spine ramrod straight, eyes focused on a spot somewhere on the wall behind Nina just above her head.

  He stood there, unmoving, until she sighed once more, this time only a little less theatrically. “At ease soldier,” she commanded.

  Aksel fell into parade rest; feet shoulder width apart, arms crossed behind his back, eyes still focused in a thousand yard stare behind Nina.

  “Chow hall, Lieutenant. Move it,” she said in her best command voice.

  “Yes, ma’am. On the double, ma’am,” he said formally, then ducked as Nina swung a palm at his head.

  “Knock it off,” she told him, grabbing his arm and forcing hers through the crook of it.

  “As you wish,” he teased with a wink. After a few strides he spoke again. “You know, you make a pretty good officer…”

  This time he didn’t evade her han
d.

  ***

  They entered the officers hall—he was a lieutenant now, so he was eligible for it—and followed the signs to the order desk.

  It wasn’t nearly as fancy a setup as they had back at Base Camp, but it was a temporary gig here anyway, so he didn’t mind. Just being able to eat in a quieter environment with Nina was all he was looking for. They could have served them food in boxes to go for eating in her room if that was necessary.

  But it wasn’t, there was a half dozen tables set up for them to eat at. They ordered and took their seats with a numbered sign. When their meal was ready, their number would be called. Simple and efficient, just the way he liked it.

  “So, Nina Palerno,” he said, leaning back in the heavy wooden chair. “Tell me more about you.”

  She eyed him. “What do you want to know?”

  Aksel shrugged. “Got any family?”

  He noted the way her eyes brightened immediately at the question.

  “Lots, actually. I have three brothers and two sisters. I’m the third of six. So life was always busy growing up, trying to balance the needs of six of us. Then my mom has five siblings and my dad seven.”

  His eyebrows rose. Human breeding habits astounded him sometimes. Aksel had been one of two children, the youngest. His older sister was twenty years older than him, a product of the prolonged lifespan of his kind, which resulted in a significantly longer reproductive stage than in normal humans. But even with that, one and two children were the norm.

  “Are you okay?” she asked. “You look kind of pale.”

  Aksel smiled weakly. “I have one sibling. My parents were the only children.”

  Nina laughed. “Well, I have seventeen cousins on my mom’s side, and thirty-one on my dad’s. Family get-togethers are a thing of legend!”

  “I can imagine,” he said, trying to picture such an event, and only coming up with chaos.

  “Oh come now,” she said with a wave of her hand. “It’s not that bad. We’ve got it down to a science. Besides, most of us are older now, and there’s some distance starting to grow.”

  “Are they all here in Cloud Lake?”

  “No, no. I’m the only one here. Port Dover, about three hours north of here is where most of them are still centered, though a few cousins and one of my brothers have moved to the East Coast.”

  “Got it.”

  Nina looked him right in the eyes, her face narrowing. “My, my. Mr. big tough bear shifter is intimidated by the idea of a lot of family?”

  He straightened his shoulders at the challenge. “Not intimidated, no. Just…unaccustomed to it. In shifter society, one or perhaps two children is the norm for bears and many others. Wolves are a bit of an exception. But for the rest of us, offspring are seldom come by, and while I wouldn’t try to say that less value is placed on human children, I think there is definitely a difference in the way they are regarded in my culture versus yours.”

  “Interesting point. I just don’t know enough about shifter society to argue for that one way or another.”

  They were interrupted by the call of their number. Nina made to rise, but Aksel shook his head, motioning her back into her seat as he slid smoothly from his chair. “Nonsense,” he informed her. “I’ll get them.”

  Nina looked down, but not before he caught the smile on her face.

  “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him through her eyelashes with that devastating face women are all somehow able to make.

  Aksel wasn’t sure how, but he managed to keep the shit-eating grin of happiness off his face until he was looking away from Nina, so that she wouldn’t know just how excited she made him. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her off by coming on too strong. If she were a shifter, he wouldn’t have thought twice, but as they’d just discussed, she was a human. There were a different sort of ethics, or rules, he supposed, that governed their relationships.

  Generally things progressed slower with them, by a significant order of magnitude, than they did with his kind.

  But that’s not how things went with Captain Klein and his mate.

  Those two had taken little over a week to realize that they were meant for each other. Aksel wasn’t sure he’d seen a pair more in tune with each other after they finally acknowledged it. The entire Base Camp had been happy to see them get together. Captain Klein was one of their favorite officers, and everyone wished him and his mate Allix well.

  Allix had been Turned, and was even now going through the beginning stages of Green Bearet training, learning to master her bear and become a fearsome soldier in the defense of Cadia, her adopted homeland.

  Aksel wasn’t sure if Nina would want the same, nor was he positive he could go through with it even if she did. Turning was the process whereby a human was infected with his shifter blood, and fought through the side effects until they Turned, and became a full-blown shifter themselves.

  The only problem was, if they lost at any point along the way, they died.

  The idea of losing Nina was unbearable even now. If he continued to grow closer with her, Aksel wasn’t sure what he would do if she died. The sheer thought of such an event left him full of rage and sadness. Not emotions he wished to feel at the moment.

  “Thanks,” he said to the shifter on kitchen duty, grabbing their plates of grilled chicken, fries, and—yuck—vegetables from the counter indicated.

  He returned to their table and set them down with a flourish. “Dinner…is served!”

  “Thanks,” she said, already reaching for her napkin and utensils.

  “So, how would your parents feel about you seeing a shifter?” he asked casually as they dug in to the first few bites.

  Nina almost spit out her food, before comically trying to cover it up as a coughing fit. Aksel sat back and gave her an inquisitive look, but she simply reached for her glass of water and took a long sip.

  “Not well, I take it,” he said to break the silence.

  Nina didn’t respond at first, one moment becoming two, stretching into five.

  “No, probably not,” she said quietly at last, before spearing another forkful of chicken and chewing on it to avoid having to speak more.

  “Ah,” he said, looking down at his own meal, suddenly not nearly as hungry.

  Anti-shifter prejudice was far from an unknown thing. His kind all knew it existed; that didn’t come as a shock to anyone. But so few of his people actually spent time outside their strongholds where they might actually run into it, that it always seemed to rear its ugly head when they didn’t expect it.

  Like now, where the girl of his dreams had a family that hated him, simply for who he was, without even knowing a single fact about him besides the one where he had a two-thousand-pound animal living inside of him.

  It hurt.

  “It’s not you specifically,” she said quickly, her voice still quiet.

  “It never is,” he replied, his lips forming a smile that was devoid of happiness as his eyes slid down to stare at his meal.

  “Aksel,” she said apologetically, reaching across the table to take his hand.

  He glanced up.

  “I could take it well though,” she told him.

  “I believe you. I truly do,” he said, trying to phrase his words just right. “But I saw the way your face lit up when I asked you about your family. You’re all really close with each other, I can tell. I couldn’t come between that. Not and feel guilty about it all the time.”

  “That’s sweet of you, Aksel Muller,” she said, her sharp tone and use of his full name forcing his complete attention to her. “But I will decide who I date and what they’re allowed to do and not do in relation to me and my family. Is that understood?”

  He swallowed hard at the rebuke. “Yes, but—”

  “No buts. I will handle my family. If I judge you to be a good person, which I have so far, then they will have to accept that. I know how they are, you don’t. That’s my fight.”

  Aksel put his hands up in su
rrender. “Got it,” he acknowledged.

  Nina’s face softened and she smiled. “Excellent, so long as we’re clear.”

  He laughed. “Crystal,” he promised.

  “Good. Now eat your dinner. You need your strength.”

  Aksel tried not to look startled. Had he picked up a hint of intention in her voice, that he might need his strength for something? He hadn’t expected them to necessarily do anything further that night. They’d already taken things to another level earlier. He didn’t want her to rush it.

  However, Nina had just made it perfectly clear to him that she was the one who would decide what she was and wasn’t comfortable with. He wasn’t to do that for her, so if she decided that she wished to pursue things even further, then he would not object.

  In his mind, the entity of his bear roared its approval of all of those thoughts. It wanted her, and badly, and had been making no secret of it all day. Aksel was generally very good at ignoring his bear, but he had been having a hard time with it when it came to Nina. There was something about her that seemed to make his animal more restless and involved than normal.

  At least in this case, they seemed to be on the same page.

  “Whatever you say, ma’am,” he replied, spearing another large chunk of chicken.

  The meal was finished swiftly, and before they even rose to clear their table, he was already feeling the energy begin to return to his body. It would take several more hefty meals like that for him to be completely recharged, but he no longer felt like a walking mummy. His brain was even returning to more active levels.

  “You look a lot better,” she observed as they made for the exit, her arm automatically linking within his.

  “I feel a lot better,” he agreed. “Everything just seems sharper and more clear, and my body is practically humming. I didn’t realize how weak I was.”

  “Well, I’m glad you’ve got some energy,” she said, pulling on his arm as she made a beeline for the stairs. “Because you’re going to need it.”

  Aksel didn’t say a word; he simply let himself be pulled along.

  ***

  Nina

  She wasn’t sure she’d ever been this direct with a man before.