He wasn’t about to ask. Probably no Alpha Force member would. Better that both units keep pretty much to themselves for now, till given orders otherwise to start whatever joint training was planned for them—although he had no doubt that these guys had at least some idea what made Alpha Force so special.
“They’ve got Salisbury steak as their special tonight.” Sara had returned, carrying a tray, and Jason inhaled the aroma of the dish she had mentioned. Smelled good. He figured he’d get some, too, instead of his usual T-bone here.
This cafeteria was used to serving Alpha Force members red-meat entrées.
“Did you get enough to treat these fellows?” Jason gestured toward the dogs, whom he’d given commands to lie down and stay. Their noses were in the air, though—both of them.
“I didn’t think people food was good for them.”
“Not as a general diet, but treats don’t hurt. I’ll get a little extra.”
He went inside. When he came out again with his tray a few minutes later, the dogs hadn’t moved.
A couple of those damned USFT guys had, though. They were close to Sara, apparently hitting on her. Both were in camo uniforms, and they also wore the insignias of a lieutenant and a captain.
Her rank and above.
She seemed friendly enough to them, too, chatting. He focused his excellent hearing on the conversation before joining them.
Sounded innocent enough—maybe. They were asking about her work for General Yarrow, what had happened to his Jeep, how he was doing.
Did these guys already know? Were they trying to learn how much Sara knew?
Oh, but she was cagy in the responses Jason heard, though. All she said was that so far she’d heard of no indication that the fire in the vehicle had been anything but some kind of weird accident. And since the general was okay, that was all she needed to know.
Jason took that opportunity to sit back down across from her.
Shadow and Duke stirred. He looked at them both and said, “Stay,” and they did.
“So how’s the Salisbury?” he asked Sara, ignoring the others.
“Pretty good.” She hesitated only a moment before saying to Jason, obviously for the benefit of the other officers, “So after dinner you’ll teach me the commands you use for getting these guys to fetch?”
“Sure will,” he said, and smiled at her.
And loved the way she smiled back.
* * *
Sara hadn’t imagined that having dinner with Jason would turn into a land mine of possible dangers, but it had, at least in a way.
She didn’t, couldn’t, trust those USFT guys until what had happened to the general’s car was explained, but she’d been trying to both answer their questions and interject some of her own to find out if they were just stringing her along while knowing the answers themselves.
But there’d been no indication of that.
And she had of course wanted to make it clear that she wasn’t simply fraternizing with Jason.
So why did the idea feel so good?
The USFT group returned to their prior table. Jason and she took their time finishing their meal. Jason even gave her some of the meat he’d saved to give to Duke, while he did the same with Shadow.
And then they left.
Sara would have loved to take Duke back to the BOQ as her companion that night, but Jason had already said that his master, Patrick Worley, would probably be back soon. No sense for her to get any more involved with the dog—either for her own sake or for his.
She enjoyed the way they sauntered, though—Jason and her and both dogs—back to the edge of the base and the kennel.
She felt almost mournful putting Duke back in his enclosure, even though he went leaping inside to be greeted by other base canines.
Then she walked back out again with Jason and Shadow.
It was starting to get dark. “We’ll accompany you to the BOQ,” Jason told her. “Not that I anticipate anything bad happening on the base, but in case you need backup we’ll be there.”
She didn’t need backup. But she appreciated their company—for more reasons than gentlemanliness on the part of Jason, which she figured wasn’t his normal demeanor.
Was he, after all, as attracted to her as she was to him?
On one level, she hoped not. It would only make it harder for them to stay apart, as they had to do.
On another level...well, why shouldn’t it be as difficult for him as it was for her?
“Lovely night tonight,” she said to make conversation as they strolled toward her quarters.
“Yeah.” By the location of his voice, she could tell he was looking at her, and she felt herself begin to blush.
“Glad the general might be here tomorrow.” She hoped that her change of subject would be a turnoff to him. It was to her.
Kind of.
She knew what would be a real turnoff to her. “So when will you be shapeshifting again? I’ve heard that you Alpha Forcers don’t always have to wait until a full moon.”
“That’s true. And I don’t know.”
When they reached the front door of the BOQ she looked around, hoping someone else would be there so the parting would be brief and simple.
They were alone.
She bent and patted Shadow. “Good night, guy.” She stood again. “And good night, Jason.”
She didn’t expect it...did she? But he leaned down toward her and planted just the hint of a kiss on her mouth—leaving her wanting more. Much more.
“Good night, Lieutenant.” He backed off, grinned and sauntered away, whistling an unidentifiable tune.
Chapter 7
Turning away from the BOQ, Jason yawned. He didn’t bother covering his mouth. No one was around except Shadow, and the dog wouldn’t be offended.
And besides, yawning in the face of an officer might only make him feel better.
Not if it was Sara McLinder, though. He’d much rather leave a favorable impression with her. Like that kiss.
Too bad he hadn’t dared more with her...yet. But his body was still reacting to that little peck.
It had been a long day. A lot had happened—starting from when the general’s car had caught fire.
Jason knew he was dog-tired. Loved that expression. It certainly fit.
But feeling that way wouldn’t stop him from what he still had to do.
He stepped up the pace as he and Shadow headed back toward the building housing the kennels...and the labs. While hurrying, he called Noel Chuma.
“Is Simon Parran doing anything tonight?” he immediately asked when the guy, not a shifter but one really good aide to some of those who were, answered the phone. At the moment, Noel was assigned both to Lieutenant Simon Parran and to Sergeant Jason Connell.
Jason never had to guess who had priority in the case of a conflict.
“Nope,” was Noel’s response. “Are you?”
“Yeah. You near the lab?”
“I can be there in five minutes.”
“Me, too. See ya there.” Jason ended the connection.
He had lied to Sara. She’d asked if he planned to shapeshift anytime soon. He’d claimed he hadn’t decided on a time.
But he had already intended to shift tonight. He still needed answers about the damage to General Yarrow’s Jeep. They all needed answers. And his plain, ordinary human senses weren’t nearly as much help as his enhanced wolfen senses might be.
“Hey, boy,” he said to Shadow as they finally reached the door to the building they’d been heading toward. The dog’s tail wagged. “I’ll leave you with your buddies again. If all goes well, I’ll be back for you in a little while and you’ll go home with me.”
Not that his quarters, in the building housing the base’s NCOs, were especially lush. But he liked having Shadow around for company and believed that his dog, too, preferred being out and about, at least some of the time, rather than hanging out with his canine pack.
Jason swiped his key card and they ente
red the building on the main floor where the kennels were located. By the time he had let Shadow into the large enclosure with his closest canine friends—including Duke, who greeted him nose to nose once more—Noel Chuma had caught up with him.
Noel had dark-toned skin. Though he was on the short side, he had the build of a guy who worked out a lot. Maybe that was how he made up for not having all the abilities of the Alpha Forcers he helped. He hadn’t bothered putting on his uniform that night, but instead wore a black T-shirt over equally dark jeans. The better not to be seen when Jason left him in the woods later.
He’d also thrown a backpack over his shoulders. “Hi, bro,” he said. “Let’s go downstairs. I need both a light and some elixir.”
“Sounds good.”
At the door to the stairway, as Jason prepared to swipe his other key card, he noticed some scratches in the paint. “You seen this?” he asked Noel.
“No.” The other man bent down to scrutinize the area. “You think someone tried to break in? One of those USFT guys?”
Alpha Force had beefed up security in this building when they’d anticipated the arrival of another unit to be stationed at Ft. Lukman. There were two types of key cards—one to enter the kennel area upstairs, which were given out to nearly anyone who might need to help out with the dogs, and a second kind to get down to the highly classified lab area. Not many of those were available.
And it now appeared that someone who didn’t have the second kind of key card had gotten frustrated about that.
Too bad they’d decided against using security cameras—but there was too much of a chance that pictures taken of shapeshifters could get into the wrong hands. Or even on the internet.
“Could be one of them—although as far as I know they’re not aware of the importance of the lab facilities down there. Tell you what. You tell my cuz about this while I’m shifted, okay?”
“Yeah.”
They headed downstairs and emerged about five minutes later with all Noel needed in his backpack, closing and locking the door carefully behind them. Without discussing it, they both walked straight into the depths of the woods nearest the building, which was in a remote site on the base.
There, Jason drank the elixir and stripped while Noel aimed the light at him. Immediately, Jason felt the initial throes of his shift.
“Have fun,” Noel called. “And be careful. I’ll call Major Connell and hang mostly near here, but I’ll be around if you need me.”
Jason answered with an acknowledging growl.
* * *
Jason bounded even farther into the cover of the thick trees then followed the inside of the base’s fence around its perimeter. He didn’t have time to revel in his wolfen state. Not at this moment. But he loved the feeling. Always.
Right now, he needed to get to the area around the main entrance where the fire in the general’s car had first been noticed.
It was dark, late enough that not many people were out walking the grounds either on official security patrols or otherwise. Good. He barely had to hide. And some of those he saw were part of Alpha Force so there would be no repercussions, even if they noticed him.
He reached the area closest to the BOQ, though there was another building paralleling it that was nearer to him. He spared a quick glance and sniff in that direction.
Too far and too late to smell the appealing scent of Sara McLinder. She had to be inside, in bed.
Alone? Probably. Even so, he uttered a low growl at the thought she might not be, then made himself hurry forward. He had much to accomplish.
There were more bushes for camouflage near the entry drive and its security kiosk. He waited for a minute, his long, smooth muzzle in the air, inhaling the smells. He doubted that any useful scent would remain, though it had appeared that the general’s car had first started to burn in this area, or just beyond.
Vehicle odors here. Some human scents. The nearest trees and other vegetation. The merest hint of the residue of the smell of fire.
Nothing helpful.
As always, 24/7, there was a guard inside the kiosk. Of course the guards had high security clearances. Although none were Alpha Force members, they knew that some delicate and highly covert training exercises were held inside this fence. They also knew to ignore anything...unusual. And absolutely to keep it to themselves.
Even so, Jason was cautious as he slunk under the fence and outside the base. He knew the most likely way the general would have approached the entrance. He stayed hidden in the surrounding trees as he trotted along that route, once more using all his special senses to identify anything unusual.
Unlikely, of course. He’d found nothing in the car that explained what had happened. It was improbable that someone had hidden an incendiary device inside the Jeep before the general left D.C. The idea that a person just outside here could have somehow done something to set the fire...
He had driven past this area before, seen and sensed nothing unusual, but he’d been in other vehicles and not particularly close.
Now though—
Wait! Jason found himself coughing, his head nearly touching the ground as he inhaled...what?
He had just reached the corner almost a half mile from the base’s entrance where the general would have turned off another road. There was a stop sign. Stones on the street and at the roadside that Sara and he had noticed before.
Had they been thrown onto the road to slow the general’s car?
There were lots of trees around. Places where someone could have hidden, then somehow lobbed something into the back of the slowed vehicle?
Jason couldn’t focus on his speculation, since he had not stopped gagging. Fortunately, whatever it was did not negate the effects of the Alpha Force elixir that allowed him human consciousness, but there was something on and in the ground that reeked. Made him feel ill.
Was the area rigged for this purpose: to prevent an Alpha Force shifter from scenting someone, something, that would give a clue to what had happened to the Jeep?
Jason was sure of it—as sure as he could be about anything while feeling so miserable. Too bad he couldn’t hold his breath. Would that help?
It was dark here, no streetlights, so he couldn’t even attempt to use his most vital human sense and look around for anything causing the problem.
He would come back, in daylight, in human form.
Then maybe he would find answers.
For now, he coughed some more, and headed slowly back toward the base’s entrance.
* * *
Sara felt exhausted after such a stressful day—a day that had ended with that kiss, admittedly fairly tame, by Jason Connell.
She’d tried lying down on her sofa in the BOQ, reading to put herself to sleep by the light of a table lamp. She had even chosen another complicated book on military strategy.
It didn’t help—not any more than her attempts to sleep on the night of the full moon after seeing the pack of wolves she now knew to be Alpha Force shifters.
Was that why she couldn’t sleep now? Was she thinking too much about Alpha Force? Shapeshifting?
Jason?
Of course not. She was worried about General Yarrow and what had happened to him earlier that day.
Not that she could do anything about that now...could she?
Hell. She wasn’t sleeping, anyway. She hadn’t even changed out of her camos.
Why not just go outside and take a short walk to exercise and wear herself out?
She slammed the book down on the low coffee table, stood and headed for the door.
She didn’t want interaction with other people, so she took the same set of stairs she’d used before to avoid the main doors.
There was a light outside the door where she exited. Off to her right was the building’s primary entry, so she decided to go left.
Especially since a couple of officers she recognized stood just outside the main door, talking. One was Lieutenant Manning Breman and the other was Captain Samantha E
verly, both members of the Ultra Special Forces Team.
But before Sara started off, she heard something in the distance. Someone coughing? It sounded more like a sick animal.
Not only that, but she saw a movement in the gap between the two low buildings between the BOQ and the trees that lined the base’s outer boundaries. Something low.
The size, perhaps, of a wolf. A wolf that resembled Shadow, Jason’s cover dog.
Which meant it resembled Jason, too, at times. Not that her brief glance could tell her that for certain....
Making an immediate decision, Sara changed her mind and approached the two from USFT. No sense taking chances about their noticing the creature sneaking around in the not-too-far distance.
Just in case.
“Hi,” she called, loudly enough for the wolf—or whatever—to hear. “I couldn’t sleep. You, too?”
In the artificial light, Manning Breman looked moderate in height and chubby-cheeked, and he immediately smiled when she approached. “Yeah, I just came out here to—”
“To meet with me,” Samantha broke in. She, on the other hand, wasn’t smiling. She was about Sara’s height but a lot curvier in her uniform, and her light brown hair was gathered with a clip on the top of her head. “We had some planning to do for our next USFT exercises.” She looked tellingly at Sara, as if ordering her to leave. She was a captain, so she could actually give that order if she chose to.
For the moment, though, she didn’t—and Sara wanted to waste more time. “Really? What kind of exercises do you do? I know you’re special forces, but I have to admit my ignorance. I don’t really know anything about your unit, and—”
“Well, it’s nothing like your damned Alpha Force,” Samantha said. “No claims, or actuality, of any woo-woo stuff. We’re just damned good soldiers with strategic and fighting skills that are highly classified. All I’ll say is that we’re the best, in fact, chosen from other special-ops teams. But we’re not about to tell you anything else, Lieutenant.”
Sara felt affronted. On the other hand, it was in the best interests of General Yarrow, Alpha Force and even herself not to antagonize any members of this unit—for now.
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