by E A Price
The Director took a small sip of water. “According to her file, she passed. That is enough.”
“But she’ll slow us down – she’s human for crissakes!” The Director was clearly losing it.
“We cannot be speciesist. A number of our employees are human.”
“But they’re either witches who can defend themselves, or they work in the office. Look, I have nothing against this… this… girl, but if you want her to work with me, then keep her here as a consultant.” Out of harm’s way.
The Director leaned forward and tented his fingers. “She will have a weapon.”
Gunner bared his fangs. “Oh! You mean a gun. Do you actually trust her to run around with a gun? It took her eight goes to pass the weapons training. She missed the target completely her first three attempts.”
The Director looked at him through narrowed eyes. “That wasn’t in her file.”
The bear had the good grace to look a little sheepish. Okay, so when he found out he had been lumbered with an untested human he might have put in a few calls to the Playa Lunar field office and the SEA training facility. He couldn’t get a bad word out of Sarge, but others had been more than pleased to co-operate. Bumbling, timid, weird – they were just a few words that were thrown around about the human woman. And the guy he spoke to couldn’t stop laughing at her inept attempts at shooting a gun, apparently she kept aiming with her eyes closed…
“Fine, I might have done some checking on her.”
“I’d expect nothing less from a conscientious team leader,” the Director said, patiently.
Gunner watched him for a few beats. Hmmm, he wasn’t going to touch that comment, it seemed like a trap. Instead, he focused on his many objections to his new recruit.
“Plus, the only gun training she has is from a shooting range; she hasn’t even gone through the simulator. By all means, if all the bad guys are paper silhouettes who don’t move while you’re trying to shoot them, she’ll be fine. But, in the real world, she won’t handle it.”
The Director gave him a ghost of a smile. “Then it’s lucky she will have you as a mentor.”
“So, my team and I are supposed to pick up the slack for her?”
“Your team has a sufficient number of agents who can rely on their natural speed, strength and agility to catch people. I don’t expect Ms. Jameson to chase an elephant shifter down Main Street and proceed to cause thousands of dollars of damage to city property, nor do I expect her to pose as an underground boxer and try to beat a rhino shifter half to death.”
Gunner winced; he wasn’t particularly proud of either of those things.
“She will be useful in other ways,” continued the Director smoothly. “Like I said, she has potential.”
“Potential? For what? If you want my advice, she should quit the Agency and marry a school teacher. She doesn’t sound like she could handle anything more exciting than that.”
The python shifter gave him a look that could freeze an active volcano. “I don’t want your advice.”
“It’s my team…”
“Of which I am your supervisor, and I don’t want another problem like we had with Branch.”
Gunner blanched at the mention of his former teammate, but he felt a stirring of loyalty to his former colleague. “Branch was a good guy at the start.”
“I’m focusing on what he did at the end,” hissed the Director.
“So because you’re worried about getting another Branch you’ve given me a girl scout?”
The Director smirked. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to buy any of her cookies. And like I said, she has potential.”
“She’s spent her life at a desk…” The bear had a bad feeling that he wasn’t going to get his way on this.
“And now is her opportunity to get out into the field. She has to start somewhere. The teams she worked with have an extremely high success rate, better than any of my teams…”
Gunner bristled as his bear roared in consternation. They did just fine!
The Director ignored his look of fury. “Not enough to make Playa Lunar’s success rate higher than ours, of course, but enough for me to notice. I’d like some of that success too.”
“Fine, then hire her as a consultant.” Why was this even an issue?
“I think she can be more helpful as a field agent. You’ve read her file, you know what she can do.”
“So what? Psychics are a dime a dozen.”
The Director curled his lips. “No, angry polar bear shifters are a dime a dozen. Psychics who can actually produce helpful and insightful visions are rare. Not to mention she can communicate with the deceased. We’re lucky she chose to work for us. I imagine she could make a lot more money in the private sector.”
Gunner scoffed. “Oh, so you’re pandering to her. You’re afraid she might run off and take her psychic powers with her if she doesn’t get her own way.”
“Not at all. I don’t believe she would do that. She’s not a short-tempered shifter; she has more sense. If I hadn’t offered her this job, I believe she would have returned to Playa Lunar and awaited the next opportunity.”
The bear growled impatiently. He didn’t want a human female on his team. Fine, call him speciesist, call him sexist, but he could give a crap. If she were there, he’d be constantly worrying about her, and he couldn’t afford that. He needed team members who could be trusted to take care of themselves. And just one read of her file proved that he couldn’t trust this girl even to put on a Kevlar vest without falling flat on her face.
He snapped his fingers together when a thought occurred to him. “Delta team needs a new field agent too.”
He knew because a she-bear on their team was going on maternity leave. He’d dated her casually until she gave up on waiting for a commitment and mated with a lion shifter from the tech division. They were still friends.
“Why don’t you palm her off on them?”
The Director stared at him with all the warmth of an icicle; Gunner had the good grace to squirm a little.
“One month,” declared the python.
“What?”
“One month probation, and if she doesn’t come up to scratch then I’ll reassign her.”
Gunner breathed in and out heavily. He didn’t like the sound of that at all, but he doubted it was going to get any better than this.
“Fine,” he said through gritted teeth.
The Director chuckled. “Oh, that wasn’t a question, that was me telling you what I’ve already told Ms. Jameson. Don’t think for one second that you have any say in the matter, because you don’t.”
Gunner fought back a snarl. The guy was his boss after all.
The python leaned forward and softened ever so slightly. “To be clear, I want Ms. Jameson here. But, if for any reason she doesn’t work out, then the blame is mine. It’s my decision, so the consequences – both good and bad – are all on me.”
The bear rolled his eyes. Whatever. “Are we done?”
His boss pursed his lips to keep from smiling. “As I recall, you burst into my office, you’re free to leave anytime you want.”
Gunner grunted and made as if to do just that.
The Director coughed. “Just to keep you in the loop, Zeta team have reported four missing shifters in the past two months.”
The polar bear turned back. “That’s not unusual? You know how shifters are.”
A number of shifters tended to be quite flighty and not given to take commitments like jobs and rent contracts seriously. They tended to let their animals make the decisions, and so when their beasts told them to travel south for the winter – off they went. Zeta team handled missing persons, and Gunner did not envy them one bit.
“Indeed I do,” replied the Director smoothly. “However, they have raised concerns over four as they all seem to have left a similar note and a couple of them had strong ties to their clan and packs. Zeta are concerned and are investigating. I’m keeping you in the loop should the case come t
o you.”
Meaning should the missing shifters turn up dead. Gunner grunted in acknowledgment and headed to the door.
“Give her a chance,” called the Director in a steely voice. “I’m sure she has a lot to offer.”
The big bear huffed and slammed the door behind him with as much ferocity as he dared. The last time he broke the Director’s door he had to pay for it, after all.
He stomped through the halls of the Agency offices. Everyone knew him well enough to get the heck out of his way. Shame. He could have done with a nice, juicy fight at that moment.
He’d go to the gym and work out. He’d pound the faces of some of the other agents, and that would make him feel better. Besides, he needed to be in tip-top shape. After all, he now had a human to chase after.
Chapter Two
A week later
If Tom ‘the hammer’ Murphy didn’t despise this person so much, he would be tempted to reach down the phone and give them a huge kiss. “Say it again,” he croaked.
“I’ve found what you need,” replied the voice disdainfully.
Tom didn’t care; they could be the biggest asshole on the planet at the moment but he didn’t care. This was it; this was finally his chance at a real life again.
“How soon can I have it?” he demanded impatiently.
“I can make arrangements for tomorrow night, however, if you need more time to get the money…”
Tom felt a sharp stab of pain to his heart; his face twisted in agony and his bored nurse rolled her eyes before making her way to him. He waved her away.
“No, tomorrow night is fine. I’ll bring the money with me.”
“Good, I’ll call back with the time and address. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you about the risks…”
“I’m not a fucking amateur,” snapped Tom, prickling in anger.
“For your sake, I hope so.”
They hung up on him. Again! Oh what he would like to do to them…
His beast, his poor suffering beast raised his head and let out a small hiss of annoyance. It was the most animated he had been in weeks and Tom cheered a little at that. Soon, he soothed his animal. Soon everything would be back to normal.
*
Erin smiled sweetly at the security guards. One remained stony and uninterested while the other leered at her. She could have sworn he was looking at her like he wanted to gobble her up, and it was actually starting to worry her. He must be some kind of shifter, nearly everyone in the building was, and most shifters didn’t tend to cover up their more, ahem, lascivious urges. No, most put them out there for the world to see. Not that she had experience in that area. At Playa Lunar, her co-workers steered clear of her.
She wasn’t used to garnering attention of the opposite sex. She looked okay enough, if a little forgettable, with long brown hair, unremarkable brown eyes and cheeks that tended toward the pink. It was a source of annoyance to her that she was a little on the curvy side and at five-foot-six, her legs were a little short. Both factors she was sure contributed to her numerous failed attempts to pass the physical. Although, it didn’t help when she kept getting visions that caused her to topple off the monkey bars, and those ghosts that kept appearing when she was trying to climb the rope were no darn help either. Still, she got through it eventually. Ultimately, she was just a non-descript young woman who men rarely gave a second glance to. For the best, most likely. Those who did give second glances usually regretted it.
A tall, gorgeous woman glided into the lobby and the security guards, even stone face, immediately took notice. Took notice? They were virtually drooling! Not that Erin was surprised. The woman was a vision. She was lithe but toned and moved with the easy grace of a dominant predator, and holy crap, she was making her way over to Erin.
Erin gulped at the woman towering over her and a gurgle came out.
The woman wrinkled her brow. “Erin Jameson?”
“Uh-huh.”
The woman gave her a toothy smile. All white teeth that looked like they ripped into innocent prey on a regular basis. “I’m Avery Jones; I’m a member of the Alpha team, it’s nice to meet you.”
Erin staggered to her feet in a very uncoordinated fashion. Think of a dog on roller skates. “It’s nice to meet you,” she squeaked.
Why was Avery so perfect? Tall without being lumbering. Fit without being too buff. Blonde and blue eyed without it taking away an ounce of her predatory nature. She was undoubtedly a shifter, but what kind?
Avery looked her up and down, but kept her face neutral. It was worse than if she had sneered; at least Erin would have known what she was dealing with. Avery cocked her head on the side. “Come on, let’s get you sorted and then I’ll introduce you to the rest of the team.”
Erin plastered on her fakest smile. “Great.”
*
Avery was nothing if not thorough. She gave Erin a tour of the building, introducing her to everyone she came across. Erin was mostly glad she wouldn’t remember all of their names, most of them had gaped at her in disbelief, while others sneered. No doubt the agents who had been gunning for her job. One female in particular had looked at her with out and out hatred. Jeez, get over it. Some just seemed like they were in a hurry and couldn’t care less who or what she was. Erin liked those people.
She had a badge made; she was given a new cell phone and then she was given her gun. Avery saw the trepidation on her face but carefully ignored it.
Finally, Avery led her into a bullpen.
“Here’s your desk,” she motioned to a tiny cubicle. “You can do whatever you want with it, but we don’t spend too much time here anyway. You’re opposite me,” she told Erin with a smile.
Erin returned the smile and sat down, trying to forget the gun she had stowed in her purse. Her desk back in Playa Lunar was twice as big, but then she hadn’t really been allowed to leave it. Now, she would rarely be here. She thought of Fran’s words as she cleaned out her old desk – ‘you’re welcome to come back here anytime.’ Comforting and nerve-wracking. Fran expected her to fail. Well, she wasn’t going to. Hopefully, she wasn’t going to.
“All us grunts get a cubicle, and the team leaders get offices.”
Avery nodded in the direction of a row of doors. Judging by how close together the doors were, not very big offices. No, you had to make it to Director level before you got something cushy. She seriously doubted that was ever in her future, not that she wanted that. She wasn’t really ambitious. Maybe it sounded lame, but she just wanted to help people.
“The BBB is in the end office.”
Erin raised her eyebrows. “BBB?”
Avery grinned, showing an unnerving amount of teeth again. “Big Bad Bossman.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that.
To distract herself, Erin pulled out a ratty and worn stuffed cat. It was only small, about the size of her palm, but she’d got it in an Hola Sunshine kids meal when she was 4-years-old, and it had a place in her heart. She thought of it as her good luck charm, even though there had been periods of her life that could be described as anything but lucky. But, she countered, they could always have been much worse.
Avery stood up and peered over the cubicle, mirth dancing over her lovely face. Oh, Erin wasn’t used to feeling jealousy toward other women for their looks; in general she didn’t notice things like that, but Avery was disgustingly attractive, and it bothered her. When they were walking around the building, Erin might as well have been invisible next to the goddess-like charms of Avery. But, she suspected, that also might have been due to the fact that she was human. She knew that some shifters and witches mated with humans, but the majority stuck to supernatural creatures.
“Nice kitty,” smirked Avery, “but I doubt the BBB will approve of that. He doesn’t even like us having family pictures on our desks; he says it distracts us.”
Erin felt a flash of irritation at this Big Bad Bossman, or whatever he was called. People were allowed to have family picture
s for heaven’s sake. “Well, it’s not hurting anyone so he’ll just have to get over it,” said Erin primly.
She almost slapped her hand over her mouth when she said that. Where the heck had that come from?
Avery chuckled. “Couldn’t agree more.”
Erin blushed and decided to change the subject. “So, uh, when do I meet the rest of the team and the, ah, BBB?”
Something flicked over Avery’s face, but it came and went too quickly for Erin to identify it. Concern, maybe. “Soon, the BBB is in with the Director upstairs, can’t you hear that?” Avery cupped her ear exaggeratedly.
“Hear what?” whispered Erin, her eyes rolling upwards, imagining the Director’s office.
Erin frowned; there was a slight, sporadic banging noise.
Avery nodded. “Yep, that’s him.”
“What are they doing? Playing racquetball?”
The blonde shifter let out a bark of laughter and actually had to wipe her eyes. “No, the BBB is banging his fists and stamping his feet over you being on the team.”
Erin felt the blood drain out of her face. “Me?”
“Yep, the BBB doesn’t want a human on the team and he’s making a last-ditch attempt to get the Director to change his mind. Fat chance; the Director isn’t budging on this.”
“Oh.” Erin looked down at her feet. Hello super shoes – you’re no comfort right now!
Avery sighed and came round to her side of the cubicle. She perched her graceful frame on the edge of the desk. “Hey, I didn’t tell you that to be mean, I told you so you know what you’re dealing with. The rest of the team won’t be clamoring to be your best friend either, but they’ll get over it. No matter who got the job, the BBB would have found some objection to them. And, hey, I like you.”
Avery gave her a playful punch on the shoulder and Erin forced herself not to yelp. Playful for shifters was painful for small, human females.
Feeling a surge of friendliness towards the blonde shifter, Erin also felt courage. “Do you mind if I ask what kind of shifter you are?”
