by Dahlia Rose
Army Beasts Resurrection: Stavros Returns
Copyright © April 2012 Dahlia Rose
Cover Art by Mina Carter
ISBN 978-1-936668-79-3
All rights are reserved. No part of this may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Chapter One
Casey sighed. “Zane, take command of the unit. Nia… Tell her I love her so damn much and I will watch over her…”
“I got this man. It’s good, you can step back,” Stavros said. It was a lie, but of course he couldn’t tell Casey that. His best friend needed to go home to Nia, and Stavros was going to make sure that she wouldn’t grieve for her man.
Casey moved, letting out a long sigh of relief, but then horror filled his voice. “Well thank god for that…fuck, Stavros. What did you do?”
Zane ran into the building at that time and stopped short. “What did you do? Shit, Stav. Why do you always have to be the brave one?”
“Because you idiots have women who love you to go home to.” Stavros sighed and ran his hands over his face tiredly. “I never expected to live as long as I have, I always knew I would die on the job. You guys are my family, I would do anything to protect you.”
“What the fuck did he do?” Camden’s voice broke in on all their headsets.
“I wish people would stop asking that,” Stavros said with a shaky laugh.
“He has the wire secured by holding the lynch pin in place,” Zander replied. “You crazy son a bitch, we’d have figured something out.”
“I love you too, Zander, but you know we don’t have the time,” Stavros said with some humor. “Take Casey and get the hell out of here. This thing is slipping, I can feel it.” He grimaced. “You guys are the best and, Nia, when you transcribe this, I love you too. Take care of Casey.”
“I’m not leaving you, man. Not like this…” He heard the grief in Casey’s voice. His best friend began to fight. “Let me go you bastards. I’m not leaving him in there! God, I can’t leave him in there!”
Of course he wouldn’t, Casey would have held the wire with him if he could. They had been so close for so long. Along with Zane they were like brothers. What better way to go that protecting your brothers?
“Bye, my friends,” Stavros said.
He watched them pull Casey from the room even though he fought like a madman. His friend’s shift to his beast rippled across the muscles of his face. Stavros ripped off his headset and closed his eyes and let the string slip from his hand. Nothing happened, and he opened his eyes in wonder.
Taking no chances, he stepped away and gave a little laugh. “Thank God for shitty insurgent bomb makers.”
He spoke too soon, because he heard the tick of a secondary bomb, and then another, and the sound sped up rapidly. He knew that sound all to well it was a Bouncing Betty, a landmine that was filed with shrapnel for maximum damage. Stavros began to run, but a hidden door in the floor popped open and he felt a hand grab his leg. Kicking wildly, he got whoever it was in the face and flipped easily. He came face to face with an insurgent. The man’s bloody face was clean-shaven and he wore an American uniform. Jesus, they were going to use him to get on base, Stavros thought. The instinct to survive kicked in, and just as he pulled the man from his hiding place, the bomb exploded. The first wave of heat him as he rolled into the small crawlspace and pulled the trap door down.
He heard the screams of the insurgent as the shrapnel hit him. Pieces of metal tore through the floor and hit Stavros, searing into his flesh. The second wave destroyed the Afghani citizen. Stavros knew nothing could stand up to that kind of explosion. Heat bit at him as he tried to curl into a small ball to protect himself. It didn’t stop the pain as hot metal rained into his hiding place and the house crumbled around him. A sharp pain went though his head, and he opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out. The combination of smoke, dust and heat choked him. Stavros felt himself slip into blackness and thought this was the end of his life. Only thing left was silence as he welcomed the darkness.
* * * *
Pain, Pain, Pain… He didn’t know if it was the sensation or the thought that woke him. Still, he was pulled out of the dream and he sighed gratefully while he lay in bed. The dull aching throb of his left side let him know he was still alive and kicking. If you could call what he was doing living.
A year later and he was not completely healed. He’d spent weeks in his shift, hoping it would help him heal him more quickly. But even after that was accomplished his body was scarred: down his left arm, burns on his face and thighs and shrapnel marks all over his back. He was a broken man, not good enough to be a soldier and too weak when he was in his beast form. He longed to see the faces of his friends again, but he couldn’t stand the thought of them pitying him or taking care of him.
A tiger that can no longer hunt goes into the wild to die. The words echoed in his head and that was what he’d done. He’d gotten into the desolate woods of Alaska and rented a cabin. Each night he went out in his shift and waited for the tiger inside him to give up and let them both slip into the afterlife. But his second side was stubborn as hell and each morning he came home.
A groan of pain escaped his lips as he rolled from the bed. He looked for the pain pills and popped two, swallowing them without water, before he went to the bathroom. It never took so long for him to heal in his life, but a few cuts or a bullet wound was nothing compared to what his body went through in that house. He shouldn’t have even survived to crawl away and shift, but somehow he did. Being found in tiger form by Russian mercenaries was another miracle. Luckily there was one in the group of armed men who thought a white tiger would make a good pet, and they carried him back to their boat and worked on taking the pieces of metal out of him.
In the weeks that followed, as they floated across the vast expanse of water, he was in and out of consciousness but too weak to shift into human form. He heard them talking, a few of them teased about skinning him for a coat. Stavros doubted that he could have stopped them if they had tried. Over the intercom he heard the captain call out that they were crossing into the Bering Sea close to Alaska. He wanted all guns and any illegal drugs taken from Afghanistan secured.
Stavros got out of the small room they kept him in and leaped into the ocean. He would rather drown that live in a cage for the rest of his existence. But fate intervened once again and he found himself on the Alaskan coast, alive. He could hear his father’s voice in his head urging him to give up with a sickening laugh. Maybe Stavros didn’t want to die, or just the thought of shoving into his father made him move, but he got up on four shaky legs and moved inland.
He found an old fisherman’s shack and some clothes, and when he had more strength he made his way into a small town and accessed his hidden bank account. That was where he’d met Amari, a beauty that made him her personal mission. She noticed instantly he was injured and found the little cabin he’d bought. He’d even bought a broken down little truck and drove it back to the cabin. She was a nurse at the small clinic in the little Alaskan town outside Dutch Harbor. And it was because of her that he made it. Amari wouldn’t let him give up.
He bought a cell phone, and opened it up and fixed it the way Camden had shown him to make the phone and the SIM cared untraceable. He ran his fingers over the buttons of the cell and punched in a number that was imprinted in his memory.
Two rings, and the familiar voice answered. “Hello?”
Stavros opened his mouth to speak and nothing came out. He disconnected the call and sat staring at the phone in his hand. It wasn’t the first time in the last few months that he’d reach out for a conn
ection to his previous life. But as usual, when he heard Casey’s voice he couldn’t bring himself to say “I’m alive.” Those guys didn’t need a burden, they needed a brother in arms, and he wasn’t one. Not the way he was now. This was his life, and the only saving grace of it was Amari.
He’d fallen for her big time but kept it to himself. She was the reason he lived, a breath of fresh air in his life. How could a gorgeous, ebony goddess want anything to do with a broken scarred man like him? She felt pity for him and nothing more, yet that didn’t make the longing to hold her and kiss her any less.
Standing in front of the mirror, he closed his eyes and brought her face into his memory. The soft chocolate-brown eyes that always held laughter and caring, the sweet, oval shape of her face, and her full bottom lip that made him long to kiss and nibbled the tender flesh. Her skin was an amazing brown that looked like satin fabric. The time he held her hand, when the pain became almost unbearable he never wanted to let go. She even knew what he was and didn’t bat an eye. Stavros’s lips curved in a smile when he thought back to the first time she saw him shift.
“You’re in so much pain, Stavros. You should let me get you to a hospital in Anchorage.” Amari touched her hand to his forehead. “I don’t even need a thermometer to feel you’re feverish. Your skin is flushed.”
“Maybe it’s because I’m around such a beautiful woman,” he teased weakly.
“You’re such a charmer,” Amari said with a smile. “Seriously, I would like to get you evacuated by chopper to the hospital. You need a full course of antibiotics for your injuries. I don’t understand why you aren’t in a military hospital.”
He’d told her about how he got hurt in Afghanistan, and she was like a dog with a bone and wouldn’t let go of the fact that he could be getting better care. He didn’t tell her all the rest. But for him to get past this stage in his healing, he would need to be in his second skin in order to speed up his body’s restoration.
He cleared his throat uncomfortably before speaking. “Listen, I need to do something to help me get better and to take away some of the pain.”
Amari frowned. “You mean drugs, don’t you? I know a lot of soldiers come back and get messed up, but I can help you with cravings and even get you methadone if you need it to take the edge off.”
Stavros shook his head. “No, nothing like that shit. I’m not a drug addict.”
She looked at him with apparent confusion. “Then what?”
“I’m something more than just a man, I’m a shifter.” Stavros explained.
Amari laughed. “Okay, your fever has you hallucinating, Stavros. There is no such thing.”
“Don’t freak out, okay? Please don’t,” he begged and slowly moved from the bed to stand. “I’m still me even after you see this.”
Stavros, you shouldn’t even be up. Get back in bed please.”.
He didn’t listen but called out to his second nature as quickly as he could. Shifting was causing a great deal of pain over wounded muscles and skin, but he embraced it and let it flow over him. He heard a small scream come from her lips, and saw her scramble up on the bed against the headboard. He thought she would run away as fast as she could, but Amari sat where she was with her knees pulled up to her chest and watched him with wide eyes. When he was in his tiger form he gave a sign of relief, already feeling his body trying to heal itself. He sagged to the floor and stared at her, waiting to see what she would do next. She moved toward him slowly until she was on her knees on the hard wooden floor.
“C-can I touch you?” She reached out a hesitant hand and then pulled it back. “Will you bite me?”
Stavros gave a low purr and butted her knee with his head. She laughed in surprise and ran her fingers through his thick fur.
“You’re as white as the snow around here. My God, you’re gorgeous.” Amari laughed again. “How is this possible? Do you need to stay like this to mend your body?”
He gave a small purr in response. He liked her hands on his fur, stroking him. He closed his eyes half way as she watching him with amazement. There wasn’t horror on her face, not like his father said would happen when anyone found out about him. No, she saw him as beautiful and wondrous.
“This is why you wouldn’t go to a hospital. You can’t let them see you like this,.” she said to him. “Your team, the ones you spoke of, are they are all like this as well? I―I guess we all have secrets.”
Stavros wondered what kind of secrets she could possibly have. She was the sweetest person he’d ever met, with a heart of gold.
“Do you want to get on the bed?” she asked. “Meat., You probably need red meat protein to help in healing. I’ll go in to town and buy us some steaks and stuff and make yours medium rare. I don’t think I could watch you eat it raw. But that’s okay. That’s what tigers do, eat raw meat, so if that’s how you want it you paw the ground or something.”
Her idle chatter amused him. He knew it was because she was still dealing with the shock of seeing him change. Still, she handled it very well. He certainly didn’t want raw meat, so he climbed on the bed without pawing the ground and looked at her calmly.
“Okay, I’m going. Do you need a blanket? Of course not. You have all that amazing white and black fur. You are so beautiful.” She shook her head and gave a laugh. “I’ll be back soon.”
From there she became accustomed to seeing him in his tiger form and asked a lot of questions, including why he didn’t contact his team mates. One night over dinner the subject came up, and that first inkling of attraction came into play.
“You’re healing well, Stavros. You should contact your friends,” she said, and took a forkful of pasta from her plate.
“They are better off thinking I’m dead,” he said, and looked down at his plate.
“That’s so not true… I mean, they love you…”
“Amari, leave it alone please. I’m no use to them,” Stavros said. “Look at me. I’m scarred and I limp. Hell, I don’t even know how you stand looking at me.”
“I think you’re handsome, and a few scars doesn’t change that. You’re amazing inside and out.” She bit her lip and looked down at her food.
It was the most endearing thing he ever saw, but while she saw him as handsome, he saw himself as flawed. She was too good for him. A mutt like him, thrown away by his family as if he were nothing. What could he give her?
That thought brought him back to reality. A year later and she still came to the cabin to visit him in his seclusion. First it was to tend to him, and now because they had become accustomed to the routine. She was just as alone in the town as he. Stavros knew she was hiding something but didn’t know what. He wished she trusted him enough to tell him, but he didn’t pry. He couldn’t ask her to divulge her life story when he was living in anonymity.
He walked back into the bedroom and pulled a pair of sweats and a T-shirt from the drawer. He put on a hoodie and his running sneakers. He ran every day getting a little farther each time. He needed to strengthen the man and the beast inside him. The life he had with the Army Beasts seemed too far away. He wondered if Zander finally saw himself as an honorable man, or if Malachi settled down. Was Cam still pulling pranks, or Kale fixing a new bike? His best friends, Casey and Zane, both had women in their lives, married more than likely. Did they have children? Three hundred and sixty five days and some change without contact with people whom he loved. It felt like an eternity.
Even though his muscles ached and his body protested. He pushed on in his run and when he finally saw his cabin, he sighed in relief, collapsing on the wooden steps to catching his breath. Today was a little better, but he knew without a doubt his left leg would never be the same. There was just something that could not be fixed in human or shifter form.
He saw the black SUV coming up his rocky driveway and knew it was Amari. He knew her vehicle like the back of his hand down to the ladybug stickers on the back. An instant smile crossed his face and his heart leaped with joy. Seeing her was the
best part of any day. Today she was earlier than usual. She parked close to the tree line as she usually did, got out of the driver’s side and greeted him with a small wave.
“I brought you some groceries, including Oreos. And the Girl Scouts had a sale outside the supermarket.” She threw a smile at him before she pulled bags from the passenger side of the truck. “Can you say Do-Si-Dos?”
“Do-Si-Dos,” he repeated with a grin. “What do I get?”
“A pat on the head,” she teased and put the bags on the patio before sitting on the step with him. “You’ve been pushing yourself too hard again.”
“How do you know, smarty pants?” Stavros replied.
“Because of the pain lines around your mouth.” Amari touched his face. “You know, people take longer than a year to recoup from what you’ve been through.”
“Most people don’t share their body with a tiger, either,” he commented.
“Even he needs healing,” Amari pointed out. “But I came bearing gifts, get showered and changed.”
“Why, maybe I like being sweaty and dirty.” He smiled as she stood and held out her hand to help lever him upward.
“Sweaty, dirty men do not get to share a picnic with me in the clearing where the spring flowers are blooming,” she said simply. ‘There’s potato salad in there.”
‘Well, then that’s enough incentive for me.” Stavros grinned. “Picnic and a beautiful woman… Who could say no to that?”
“I thought you might say that, so I even stashed cake in the basket,” Amari said. “Now chop-chop, Stavros, let’s get a move on. I’ll keep the motor running.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Stavros saluted and limped up the stairs.
Spending the day in the middle of a meadow with Amari was definitely better than moping alone in the cabin. Maybe a day outdoors in the sun was just was he and his tiger needed.
Chapter Two
Amari didn’t know what would happen when she moved to the little small town of Hiko, Alaska. It was so outside what she knew from the city life in Boston, on a few occasions she wondered if she would survive. The cold bit into you and the winds howled. There was nothing to do but work and then go home and watch TV. The bars were not someplace to frequent, and it wasn’t as if she could go shopping unless she made a trip to Anchorage. Her life seemed to be at a standstill, all because of what she did. She knew it was the right thing, but she was the one exiled just so she could survive.
