“That’s our ultimate plan,” Owen responded quickly and firmly. He was glad he had taken a seat at the end of the table. He was in charge, as he had to be. He had a sense, though, that he was facing some kind of small rebellion from Craig without knowing why. If so, it was bad timing, coming on the heels of his lack of protocol in telling Holly about their group. “For right now,” he continued, “we needed not only to get some of the elixir and instructions from Alpha Force, but also to get backup assistance—fast. It’s crucial that we rescue that hostage immediately without her being harmed any further. Once this operation is complete, we’ll have more time to learn more and train others, including aides, for the future.” If they were successful, of course, and didn’t have to deal with another kidnapping right away.
Craig apparently wasn’t satisfied. He looked Owen right in the eyes and belabored his point. “But we have two great potential aides right here with us.” He turned to face the others, starting with Sal. “Your sister, for one. She’s a perfect aide since she’s also a shifter. She might become one of us later, but for now there’s no one better to be there as an aide for us. And my Holly would be an asset, too, because she cares. A lot.” He looked toward the far side of the table, meeting Rainey’s gaze. “I don’t mean in any way to offend you, honest. You’ve done a great job, and you, too, Marshall. And, Jonas, it was great that you stayed to help Sal. But I love the idea of the CAs and what we can do and also what we can become—starting now.”
Owen stood up. “I understand your concerns, and we’ll certainly address them,” he said in a firm tone that brooked no argument. “But not until after the rescue of that hostage.”
“But—” Craig stopped and looked down at the table. “I get it.”
Owen decided there and then that if he had had more time he would have booted Craig off their team, or at least suspended him.
But he didn’t have time. He needed the full complement of these shifters. Craig’s insubordination would have to be dealt with later.
“Now it’s time for all of us to turn in,” Owen said, maintaining the tone of a senior officer in control. “Tomorrow will be another big day. We’ll meet here again early so you all, including Sal, can get in as much practice and training as possible.”
He was glad to see the whole group, including Craig, rise and begin the routine of saying good-night. Selena reentered the room just then, too, with the two women who would also accompany the CAs back to their hotel. She nodded as he gave her a quick look that he intended to convey his thanks.
This day, as good and as difficult as it had been, was finally drawing to an end. He could only hope that tomorrow would be better. It had to be, he told himself. They were running out of time.
* * *
Selena was dying to know what had gone on in the dining room while she’d acted as nursemaid in the kitchen to the two visiting women.
Okay, it really hadn’t been that bad. But she was glad to see the entire group of CAs get into their cars and head down the hill toward town for the night.
At least she was glad to see all of them but Owen go.
He said good-night to her before heading to his car. He also said good-night to Patrick, Jonas and the rest. Nothing appeared personal between Selena and him, and that was fine.
At least it should have been. But she was well aware that their days with one another were numbered. In fact, tomorrow would be the last one.
She wasn’t sure where Owen would be when the CAs were off conducting their designated operation the day after tomorrow. She assumed she and the other members of Alpha Force would hang out here to await the return of Jonas and Rainey. Or perhaps they’d go somewhere else, where Jonas and Rainey would meet up with them when done with the mission. Either way, she doubted she would be with Owen.
She walked Lupe for her last outing of the night and was glad when Rainey joined her.
“Boy,” her aide said in a muted tone, “too bad you weren’t with us in the dining room. Your buddy Owen had to assert his power over at least one of his minions—that Craig. He did a good job of it, too. No wonder you find him sexy, with all that testosterone and all.”
“What?” Selena exclaimed. She wanted to hear more, but Patrick caught up and started walking with them.
“Did you learn anything from the women?” Patrick asked Selena.
“Like what?” She watched Lupe squat though she would have preferred looking into her CO’s face to catch whether his expression was critical.
“Like how much they know besides the fact that the men they’re here visiting are shifters.”
“I didn’t find out much really, although I tried to. I still gather they know more than they were authorized to be told. But whether they know it all—that I can’t tell you. I at least tried to impress on them how important it was that they stay quiet about whatever they do happen to know.” Selena bent, a plastic bag in hand, to clean what Lupe had done, then rose again.
“Did they tell you they intend to become the aides to the shifting CAs?” Rainey asked.
Selena turned toward her. “They didn’t mention it. Is that the plan?” She looked at Patrick.
“It wasn’t ours, although it could wind up being the case. But there’s no time to train them for it now. Craig suggested the possibility, and I was wondering, too, if the women were already in on the idea.”
Selena shook her head. “If so, they didn’t tell me. And yeah, it’s a really bad idea, at least right now.”
“So they were told,” Patrick said. “Owen made it very clear it wasn’t going to happen.”
They all headed toward the house, Lupe included. Selena pondered what the women had told her. But even though Yvanne and Holly made it clear they were there for their shifting men, they hadn’t even hinted that they hoped to wind up as aides.
The idea was potentially an okay one for the future, Selena mused. But not now. Definitely not now.
As she led Lupe to their room on the ground floor, the other Alpha Force members, who’d fetched bottles of water from the kitchen, trooped upstairs.
As she started getting ready for bed, her mind was not on the two women and their future use, but on the recruits who’d be facing their last day of training tomorrow.
Yes, tomorrow was going to be an important day.
But what if it started out with the same kind of problems as today?
She might not be able to ensure it didn’t...but she had to try.
* * *
Selena hadn’t been able to sleep. She’d lain in bed and developed a plan that she intended to accomplish very early in the morning, waking before the rest of the household.
But she could do it now instead—although it would undoubtedly require a follow-up, at least for her peace of mind.
The time was approaching midnight, only an hour since she had headed into her room while the others went upstairs. She could still get a reasonable night’s sleep—depending on what she found.
“Stay,” she whispered to Lupe as she exited their bedroom. She dressed in a dark long-sleeved T-shirt and black jeans and did not turn on any lights. She did, however, carry a small flashlight in case she needed some illumination to get her where she needed to go.
She wished she could shift now so she could make full use of her sense of smell. But even when she was in human form, that sense was still much better than that of most people. She’d noticed that a lot over time, and it had been proved to her on Alpha Force exercises.
She was glad the other Alpha Force shifters hadn’t brought their cover dogs. If they had and they’d heard her open the front door, they might have assumed the roles of watchdogs and barked, alerting their humans that someone was on the move. Fortunately, Lupe was good about following commands—including stay—and she would know it was her mistress she heard.
Outside, there was very little light on the cement-covered area between the houses, but the moon was building up to being full soon and that illumination was enough for her. Sh
e kept her flashlight in her pocket as she approached the other building, then extracted her key card from that same pocket.
Once inside the meeting house she used her flashlight to get to the stairway to the basement.
And stopped at the closed door.
She had thought she wouldn’t need to use her acute sense of hearing much that night, but she had nevertheless heard something downstairs. Who was there?
Someone tainting the remainder of the elixir?
Knowing she should run for help, she wanted to know first what she was dealing with. She reached carefully for the door and pulled it open just a little—and saw that a light was on downstairs.
She was about to turn and hurry out to seek assistance when she realized that those same enhanced senses of hers told her who it was. She smelled the light, masculine tangy scent that had become familiar—and delicious—to her.
Owen’s scent.
Really? What was he doing here? Or was it someone else who knew how shifters thought and was attempting to smell like him?
She decided to find out rather than run away. But as quietly as she started down the stairs, it was almost as if Owen had enhanced senses, too—or at least his hearing.
“Is that you, Selena?” he called quietly. “I’ve been expecting you.”
Chapter 20
Selena felt her heart rate accelerate. What did Owen mean?
And was anyone with him...or was she going to be alone with him in this unoccupied house?
She straightened her shoulders as she walked down the well-lit stairway in a manner that she intended to look cool and professional.
“What do you mean you were expecting me?” she demanded. “I didn’t know I was coming here until a few minutes ago.”
He waited at the base of the stairs, dressed, like her, in black. His smile was anything but nonchalant or impersonal. His gaze rolled down her body, making her tingle with desire.
No. That wasn’t why she was here. She had a goal to accomplish this night. She couldn’t allow herself to be diverted from it.
In moments, his eyes rose again to capture hers, and his smile disappeared. His abruptly serious expression seemed to rob her of the sexual interest that had permeated all of her only seconds before.
Well, it wasn’t completely gone. But she realized that no matter what he felt, that wasn’t what he was about to discuss.
“As good as it is to see you alone in the middle of the night again, that’s not what I’m talking about,” he said. “I’ve gotten to know you a bit in the last few days, Selena. I know how dedicated you are to Alpha Force, and thanks to your devotion you’re clearly concerned about the success of my CAs’ mission. I figured you’d want to check on the condition of your elixir before anyone else drank it tomorrow—and the best time to do that was the middle of the night.”
She found herself laughing. “Yes, it does sound like you know me. Is that why you’re here, too?”
He nodded. “I wanted to check out the elixir. I was hoping you’d join me. I even planned to call you in a few minutes after I did my initial assessment. I can look at the stuff and even smell it, but I figure you’d be a lot more skilled, with your senses, in confirming whether there are any problems or not.”
“You definitely know me,” Selena said. Or at least he understood some of the abilities of shifters, even when they weren’t in shifted form.
She remained on the next-to-last stair, with Owen facing her at the bottom. She had an urge to reach out, to pull him close and kiss him...but they both had work to do. Instead, she moved sideways and stepped onto the floor.
She looked around. She hadn’t been in the basement here before, since the only shifting she had watched in this location was Andrea’s, upstairs. The male CAs had come down here for their changes.
There appeared to be only one large room with cement walls and several long, upholstered ottomans where the nonshifting aides could observe their charges as the elixir began to work on them.
They were probably sitting there earlier, too, when Sal started to react to the liquid he had drunk. Selena suppressed an angry shudder. “I see a refrigerator over there.” She pointed to a tall metal unit against the wall. “I assume that’s where the elixir is being stored.”
“Yes, that’s where Rainey and Jonas and the others have gotten it from.”
They both walked quickly along the concrete floor toward the refrigerator. Owen reached it first and opened the door. Inside were a dozen vials in the shape that had become familiar to Selena since she had joined Alpha Force. All the vials contained clear liquid that had to be the special shifting elixir.
“Let’s check them out.” Selena reached for two on the top glass shelf. They both had metal screw-top caps that were easy enough to open and close. Maybe from now on Alpha Force should package its elixir differently. She held up the vials before her eyes one at a time with the ceiling light in the background. Both appeared still to be clear.
Next, she unscrewed the caps and inhaled. They seemed the usual mild citrus scent she was used to.
No indication of any kind of contamination, let alone ipecac.
“They’re okay?” Owen asked.
“They seem to be. Let’s check the rest.” She put the two she held back into the refrigerator on one side. Owen removed the rest one at a time and she similarly checked each of them.
All seemed fine.
“Then the one that hurt Sal was a fluke?” Owen asked her.
“Is that what you really believe?”
He pursed his lips. “No, but under the circumstances it’s what I hoped.”
“We can check them out again tomorrow before any of the shifters drink them, but I know you’ll lock the house again now, so it’ll probably be fine.” Or so Selena said, even though she wished she could be certain.
The house had been locked up before, too, yet a vial had become contaminated. That hadn’t happened on its own. Nor did she believe that the supply Patrick and the other Alpha Force members had brought from Ft. Lukman had been tainted there or somewhere on the way.
What was the answer? Did the CAs all have keys to this meeting house? Even if they did, surely none of them would have tainted the elixir—would they?
She wished she knew.
“Too bad your elixir isn’t somehow primed to let people know what’s happened to it,” Owen said, echoing her thoughts.
She laughed nevertheless. “I know you must think of shifters like me as woo-woo kinds of entities, but that idea out-woo-woos everything. A liquid that communicates with people around it? I’ll have to relay that idea to our superiors who formulate the tonic and see if they can figure out a way to do it.”
“Guess you’ve opened my mind to possibilities I’d never imagined before.”
“Then you’ve really got an imagination,” Selena responded, still smiling. “Got a million dollars? I’ll sell you shares in a company that’ll make that imaginary elixir.”
It was Owen’s turn to laugh. “Wish I had that million bucks, but I don’t think I’ll buy in to your company. Sorry.”
He remained standing near her, beside the refrigerator. His expression was lighthearted as he looked down at her. He appeared both boyish and all adult male. All gorgeous, sexy adult male.
Selena knew she had to get out of there. Go to bed, since they’d need to awaken early the next morning for their regularly scheduled breakfast and discussion of what that day would bring—before any shifting took place.
She was tired, and it was the middle of the night.
Yet all she was telling herself was nonsense. What she really wanted was to stay right there with Owen. Throw herself into his arms and take advantage of this completely unanticipated opportunity to make love with him yet again.
She made herself take a step backward. Putting her hand up to her mouth, she feigned a yawn. “Anyhow, it’s definitely late. We’d better get to bed.”
“My thoughts exactly. How about here?” Owen’s tone was
low and rough and filled with suggestion that made Selena’s insides heat up and churn. She didn’t resist when he closed the short distance between them and took her into his arms.
She threw her head back, eagerly awaiting the kiss that came immediately. His lips were hot, his tongue more than suggestive as he pressed his lower body against hers.
She could feel his hardness and could not keep herself from moving her hands from behind him and forward, caressing everything in their path outside his warm clothing—his back, then his buttocks, his hips and, finally, his erection.
His moan made her move even more, one hand finding its way inside the front of his pants until she could grasp his hot stiffness. His readiness made her gasp against his mouth—or was it caused by his hands stroking her similarly, starting with her back and behind, then moving to her breasts?
How did he get her shirt and bra off so quickly without her even realizing what he was doing? Or had her movements assisted him in his efforts?
She had a fleeting thought, as they moved in unison toward the ottomans, that their privacy here might be limited.
But it didn’t matter. Not when she easily stripped Owen of all his clothing, too.
Hadn’t she believed they would never have this kind of opportunity again?
Was it part of the woo-woo auras around them somehow that they did, just this once more?
Again he had come prepared. In moments, his erection was encased in a condom and she was lying on her back on top of two of the ottomans pushed together against the wall. They were firm and velvety against her bare back, not the best place to make love but certainly adequate.
Selena stroked Owen outside the condom even as he gently pressed his hand against her heated moistness and thrust one finger, then two, inside her.
She wanted to scream out her need. Instead, she once more gasped and said, “Please.”
Canadian Wolf (Paranormal Nocturne Romance) Page 18
