He stood in the midst of his also-shifted comrades. None chased Lieutenant Sara McLinder from where she had confronted them here, at the edge of the woods surrounding Ft. Lukman. Most of them had leaped in unison to scare her off.
Soon, though, since she was an aide to the general, she would be told, and shown, the truth.
Jason looked sideways. The wolf beside him was Drew, his cousin, who had coerced him to enlist in the military, to join Alpha Force, for his own good.
At this moment, despite his misgivings about the future, Jason couldn’t thank Drew enough.
His cousin nodded his canine head and turned. He began walking into the woods. So did the other shifters.
They were followed by their single human aide for the night, Captain Jonas Truro, who was a medical doctor like Drew.
He was not, however, a shifter, but as a member of Alpha Force he was an expert at helping them, including assisting in perfecting the Alpha Force elixir.
All shifters here would continue to prowl until dawn. That was when they normally would change back on nights of the full moon anyway, even if they didn’t have access to that very special Alpha Force elixir. His family had started to experiment with it, at least Drew had, and now, with the help of other Alpha Force members including Jonas Truro, he had developed some sophisticated and amazing formulas.
That elixir was one reason Jason’s thoughts were so clear now, while he was shifted.
Why he could wonder, so precisely, exactly what lovely Lieutenant McLinder thought about her recent confrontation by an entire pack of wolves.
Oh, yes. He would laugh, if he could.
But since he couldn’t for now, he would wait and look forward to a conversation, sometime soon, with pretty Sara.
* * *
Sara lay on her back in the dark, on the uncomfortable bed in her new apartment, willing herself to fall asleep.
She had closed the blinds, but a soft glow still penetrated between the slats. The light from the full moon.
Hell, she had trained her body as much as she had trained her mind. She never had trouble getting to sleep.
Except tonight.
Her thoughts kept returning to the pack of wolves she’d seen. They were wolves, weren’t they? They didn’t look like any breed of domesticated dog she knew of.
On the other hand, they had been so calm at first. Even when a few had moved quickly toward her, none had acted as if it intended to attack.
And then there’d been that soldier who shooed her away.
What was this?
Was the mysterious Alpha Force really composed of shapeshifters? Somehow, that didn’t seem as nonsensical now as it had before.
Of course it could still all be some kind of ruse that the military was attempting to impose on enemy forces—couldn’t it? That was the logical assumption. But if so, how had they tamed those wolves that way?
Sara turned over, trying to get comfortable. Maybe she should pull up a training manual on her laptop. Read something, at least.
But she knew that if she did boot up her computer, she would instead search for something else entirely.
Werewolves.
She had gone to bed in her usual sleeping attire—a T-shirt and matching shorts. She was comfortable in them. She kept telling herself that the room’s warm temperature was fine. So was what she was wearing. So was everything except for the outrageousness of her thoughts.
She needed sleep, but it wouldn’t come.
What time was it, anyway? She turned over and pulled her smartphone from the nightstand beside the bed where it was charging.
Really? Was it actually almost five o’clock? The night was nearly over.
And she clearly wasn’t going to sleep a wink.
Throwing the covers off, she flipped the light switch at the side of the bed.
She had an idea what to do next.
She was going to track down those damned wolves.
* * *
She had dressed in her camo fatigues. She once more used the stairs to get to the first floor of the BOQ, then slipped out the side door again.
This time, she was armed—with a camera. She had shoved it into her pocket.
Since this Alpha Force was supposed to be so covert, she suspected that if she took any pictures of the wolves she might be considered in breach of military protocol—at the least. She might even be doing something illegal. Certainly, it could be contrary to her security clearance.
But she didn’t intend to show anything to the world. No, if she found those wolves again, she would take pictures only for herself.
Darkness still hovered over the base—the darkness before dawn, since the moon was setting behind the trees. Soon, the sun would rise.
For now, Sara kept in shadows as she crossed the paths toward the woods where the wolves had emerged from among the trees.
She stayed just outside the foliage. Canines, whatever their nature, had keen hearing. They’d hear her anyway, but she didn’t want to make it any easier by tromping on dry, fallen leaves.
She found the base interesting in its layout. From where she was, most buildings—nearly all low and two-or three-story—were to the left, and the woods were to her right. It wasn’t hard to stay in shadows, but that was changing with almost every minute.
Dawn was breaking.
She— What was that?
She heard a noise in the woods, as if someone else stepped on those dry leaves. Was it the man who had shooed her back inside before?
Or was it an animal?
A wolf?
Okay, if she was going to have any chance at all of seeing what she sought, of taking pictures, it was time to move. Slowly, so she didn’t make any more noise than absolutely necessary, she slid between the trees.
It was darker here than in the open, but the fact that sunrise was beginning made it easier to see.
There. She heard something again.
A howl?
No...it sounded more like a moan. A human moan.
Was someone hurt? Had those damned wolves attacked someone?
Less inclined to be protective of herself when someone might need her help, she walked faster in the direction of the noise.
The moans sounded louder, accompanied by other noise, as if something thrashed in the underbrush. Was it a person being attacked?
Damn, she really should have brought a weapon. She had her phone in another pocket and could call for help if necessary, but the first minutes during an attack could be critical. She needed to find out fast exactly what was going on.
She started running in the direction of the sounds.
She emerged into a clearing among the trees where daylight was beginning to glimmer.
Sara blinked in confusion and disbelief as she looked at the source of the sound.
Only one being was present in the clearing. It definitely wasn’t a fight but—what was it?
That wasn’t one of the wolves. Or at least the furry being didn’t look like one—not exactly. It was larger, more elongated, and as Sara watched, the hair on its body appeared to be sucked in until only flesh remained except on the head—and in certain private areas where humans also had hair.
Male humans—and hair wasn’t all that was private that Sara observed.
This couldn’t be. And yet, it was.
As she watched—and, fortunately, had the consciousness to start shooting pictures, including a video—the wolf-like creature disappeared, replaced by the form of a man.
Not just any man.
She realized quickly that it was Sergeant Jason Connell she watched, changing from a wolf back into a human.
She couldn’t stop staring at him, and not just because of the incredible metamorphosis she had just observed.
Jason Connell stood there, breathing hard as if shedding final discomfort at what he had gone through. He flexed his body—his arms, his chest and yes, his most private areas, riveting Sara’s gaze there as she, too, started breathing a bit harder. Lord, was he generously endowed there. Was that a factor of who, or what, he was?
She continued to shoot pictures, but only for a moment.
Jason grinned then and looked straight at her. He flexed once more, and she swallowed hard. How long had he recognized that she was there?
He certainly did now.
“Good morning, Sara...er, Lieutenant,” he said. “Like what you see? I’d be glad to demonstrate some more.”
With a strangled cry, Sara turned and ran back the way she had come.
* * *
Jason considered just letting her go.
She wasn’t supposed to be out here, anyway. But he didn’t have any clothes here to slip on.
He had purposely separated from the rest of his pack a while ago. He had wondered if the lovely lieutenant would return to the area where she had found them to follow up on what she thought she had seen.
Sure enough, she had appeared where he had anticipated. Just by running into the pack last night, though, she really hadn’t seen much of anything...then.
If he went after her now, he would only emphasize what she had seen this morning. Him.
Not that he minded. But even if he wanted to, he doubted he’d be able to slip into the BOQ nude to do—whatever.
He found the lieutenant hot. Presumably, she now found him hot, too. He hoped so. He hated to think all that moving and flexing, purposely giving her an eyeful, had been in vain. Not that either of them ever could, or would, act on it.
No, he would head back to his own quarters first. He would run into her casually on the base, anyway.
Hanging out with Alpha Force was why she was here.
“Hey, where’ve you been, Jason?” Jonas Truro slipped out of the woods. He held out a T-shirt and jeans toward him. “Not a good thing to wander around here like that, especially now.” He nodded toward Jason’s crotch.
At the moment, his private parts were at ease. He’d been alone there long enough, in the somewhat cool morning air, to chill out.
“Not with that new unit here,” Jason agreed, taking the clothes and slipping them on. “Thanks.” He wasn’t about to mention that he’d been seen—especially considering who it had been.
Although it probably would have been worse had someone from the new special-ops group stationed here seen him. Though everyone was pretending cordiality, there’d been friction between Alpha Force members and the new unit, the Ultra Special Forces Team. They were here to engage, eventually, in some mutual training with Alpha Force for a so-far undisclosed covert assignment overseas. The team’s unique skills still remained secret from Alpha Force. No one outside their group was supposed to ask questions about their nature.
And no one in the Ultra Special Forces Team was supposed to ask questions about Alpha Force.
“Everyone else back in their quarters?” Jason asked. All the other shifters were brass—officers, from lieutenants up through Major Connell. That was partly thanks to General Yarrow, he’d been told. Although their nature was revealed only on a need-to-know basis, the shifters in Alpha Force were regarded with esteem, and their special abilities were to be recognized by the military, at least by their ranks.
Everyone but him.
“They sure are. Drew said we should all get a couple of hours’ sleep, then we’ll meet up in the lab to compare notes about last night.” Jonas yawned. “You okay on your own now?”
“Sure am.” Jason gave him an exaggerated salute. “I’m off to my quarters. See you later, Captain.”
Jason pivoted as if he felt like genuine, by-the-book military and headed in the growing light of dawn toward the better-than-barracks apartment building that housed a group of enlisted members of Alpha Force, not too far from the BOQ.
Jason was the only shifter in that building—the only Alpha Force shifter who wasn’t a commissioned officer.
Most shifters in Alpha Force had individual aides to help them, primarily enlisted personnel quartered in the same building as Jason. For the exercises tonight, though, the decision had been that only one aide was needed, and Captain Jonas Truro had been it.
Jason didn’t have his own personal aide, anyway. The only perk he’d been given was that he had been promoted to the rank of sergeant nearly immediately. Being a noncommissioned officer was better than just being a private, but he’d have liked the recognition given to the other shifters.
Of course he didn’t have a college education—yet—like the rest of them.
And then there was the reason his cousin Drew had twisted some arms to get him accepted into the military, and Alpha Force, in the first place....
He still had a lot to overcome, damn it.
But having gotten a figurative taste of Alpha Force and how it worked, and a literal taste of the elixir that helped to make Alpha Force what it was...well, like it or not, he’d probably stay with this unit for a nice, long time.
Which meant that disobeying what Jonas Truro might consider to be an order wasn’t in the cards. Not this morning, at least.
Instead of attempting to confront Lieutenant Sara McLinder after what they had—sort of—shared that night, Jason continued toward his small apartment.
The next time he’d see her would probably be at the upcoming meeting in the main building housing Alpha Force labs and offices.
There would be plenty of time then to embarrass even further the woman who’d watched him change that morning.
Chapter 3
Sara didn’t even try to get more sleep.
Each time she sat down, or stood, or did nearly anything, her mind kept returning to that scene near the woods.
And so she spent the next hour sitting on the uncomfortable brown sofa in her quarters, trying to read a book on military history to distract her—and failing dismally.
She remained dressed in the camos she had donned earlier to go look for those damned wolves that had confronted her last night—and what a mistake that had been.
Had she imagined it? Was she nuts? She had, after all, performed some absurd research on her own earlier, about shapeshifters, after seeing the wolves. Had the general’s strange attempt at humor and the innuendos about the unusual nature of Alpha Force left her susceptible to a really wild kind of joke?
But why would anyone here play a joke on her, especially Jason Connell? He didn’t know her. No one here knew her.
Whatever Jason’s reason, he’d at a minimum bared his very hot body to her. He had also somehow changed from a wolf to a man.
Impossible.
Yet... Her mind kept circling that impossible scenario over and over, which oddly gave it more credence.
She had never before hallucinated anything, let alone something so bizarre.
Yet somehow alluring...
She’d taken pictures. She looked at them again. Then put her digital camera away, hidden deeply in a drawer. It provided more questions than answers.
Once more she tried in vain to focus on the large volume she held on her lap. She barely got through the first ten pages.
At six-thirty, she headed for the cafeteria.
The temperature outside remained cool but comfortable. Once again, others in camo fatigues also strode across the base, a few heading in the same direction she was.
But no one she recognized.
Would she see Jason in the cafeteria this morning? If so, what would she say to him?
Heck, he was the one who owed her an explanation. Maybe even an apology for playing games with her that way.
Unless it was real....
No, she wouldn’t go there.
She was soon immersed in the crowd entering the cafeteria, then stood in line. Though not especially hungry, she decided that comfort food wouldn’t be a bad idea. Never mind that she usually scorned pampering herself in any manner.
She paid for her pancakes, bacon and coffee then scanned the compact eating area.
And saw no one she recognized.
She shoved away the pang of regret that Jason wasn’t there. She wasn’t looking forward to their inevitable confrontation—was she?
Well, maybe a little.
Maybe he would be kind enough to provide an explanation, one she could buy—and one that wouldn’t make her feel like an utter fool.
No Alpha Force members were eating here at the moment, at least none she’d met. Did that have some significance?
She would find out. She’d learn all she needed to restore her sense of sanity and well-being.
For now she headed, tray in hand, toward a small table where the folks eating there all wore lieutenants’ insignias. Were any of them members of the Ultra Special Forces Team, or could they be Alpha Force people she hadn’t yet run into?
“May I join you?” she asked, stopping at an unoccupied chair.
“Sure,” said a female lieutenant whose name tag read Swainey. She held out her hand as Sara sat down. “Vera Swainey.” She looked at Sara expectantly.
“I’m Sara McLinder,” she said.
The others at the table introduced themselves, too—three men and another woman.
“Are you all stationed here?” Sara asked.
“That’s right,” said Lieutenant Manning Breman. “You?”
“I just got here yesterday. I’m aide to General Greg Yarrow, who’ll be stationed here on temporary duty for a few months.”
The friendly atmosphere at the table suddenly seemed to freeze into icicles of stares.
“You’re with Alpha Force?” Manning asked, his tone stiff.
“That’s right.” It wasn’t exactly true, but she hated the antagonism that seemed to waft around her. Maybe they’d explain if she pressed. “Tell me what’s going on here. I get the impression that your unit and Alpha Force aren’t exactly buddies.”
“You could say that.” Vera’s voice was also chill. “We were recently assigned here and assumed that— Oh, wait. I see the person we were saving that spot for. Cal, come over here.” She sounded relieved as Cal Brown, the lieutenant whom Sara had met on her floor in their BOQ yesterday, approached with a tray of food.
There were plenty of empty chairs at nearby tables that Cal could pull up to their table. But all eyes of those seated there remained on Sara, as if demonstrating that she had outstayed her welcome.
“Here,” she said to Cal as she stood abruptly, picking up her tray. “Have fun with this group. I certainly didn’t.”
She strode away, chose a small table near the door and sat down by herself.
She glanced at her watch. It was seven o’clock. She would phone General Yarrow soon. Warn him about the extent of the friction between the two primary units stationed here at Ft. Lukman.
Find out when he was planning on arriving that day.
She wouldn’t, of course, mention what she had seen, or thought she had, earlier that morning.
But when he arrived, she would talk to him as soon as possible. Maybe even show pictures.
He could tell her more about Alpha Force. He had, after all, warned her to expect a different atmosphere and different kind of unit. Had even hinted at what she’d seen.
He knew what Alpha Force was about. She had just preferred not to imagine that what he hinted at could be real.
Now she knew better—and she hoped he would explain it to her.
* * *
Jason sat back on the uncomfortable folding chair, surrounded by colleagues, both shifters and not. He looked around the small basement office in the main Alpha Force building at the far end of Ft. Lukman.
This was where they always met on the morning after a full moon. Other meetings were also held here for Alpha Force members in the secured laboratory area.
On the first floor, dogs were housed—those used as the cover, when necessary, for wolf shifters. Jason had a dog assigned to him: Shadow. He also enjoyed helping to train them in his spare time, although not today.
All the dogs had remained in their nice, well-maintained kennels last night—unlike the shapeshifters of Alpha Force.
“We need your report first this time, Jonas.” Major Drew Connell, Jason’s oh-so-perfect cousin, stood at the front of the room. He looked worried.
He’d really worry if Jason told him what he’d done that morning. Therefore, Jason wouldn’t mention it.
“Everything started out fine,” Jonas Truro responded as he stood up from his seat in the first row of four. He glanced around the group of shifters and aides who were present. “All our wolf shifters chose not to take the version of the elixir that would keep them in human form. Instead, everyone drank the kind that helped with human cognition while shifted but didn’t stop them from changing. Our cougar shifter Colleen did the same.” He nodded toward the woman who sat in the same row as Jason, a few people over.
The elixir was good stuff. Both formulas were. Jason gave the unit, and especially Drew, a lot of credit for that.
Now premixed bottles of both kinds were stored in a special refrigerated room nearby, even as Drew continued to upgrade the formulas for each.
Jason listened with interest as Jonas described everyone’s change in the clearing in the woods that had been previously selected, then how he stayed with the wolf pack as they roved areas also designated in advance. With the Ultra Special Forces Team there for the last month, it had become impossible to have the run of the entire base while in shifted form when the moon wasn’t full. At least last night, with the moon full, the USFT personnel had been told to stay in their quarters...without being told why.
Jason had no doubt that some, if not all, of that unit already suspected the true nature of Alpha Force. They probably scorned it—or feared it. But the official position for both units, at least for now, was to stay separate in all training exercises and otherwise. No joint exercises yet, although that was intended for the future. When? Peons like him weren’t kept informed about such important matters.
“There was one incident,” Jonas said. “Minor, but everyone should be aware of it. Lieutenant McLinder was wandering around outside around midnight and saw the pack. I shooed her back inside, but maybe someone should talk to her about maintaining silence about what she saw.”
And about what she saw around five in the morning? Yeah, she definitely should stay silent about that, Jason thought. And probably would, even without being cautioned. He strongly suspected she wasn’t about to announce to the world, her world, what she had observed. Even though he’d seen her taking pictures.
She might talk to him about it, though.
If so, he was ready. Very ready.
“Our next exercise will probably be later this week,” Drew was saying. “We’ll decide who’ll shift and who won’t. That will also dictate which of our aides and cover dogs—and cat—are needed.”
He talked a while longer. Jason had started to tune his cousin out when a knock sounded on the office door.
It startled Jason, and probably everyone else in the room. They exchanged glances.
Before Drew could look outside to see who it was, the door opened.
Lieutenant Sara McLinder walked in.
Though she wasn’t extremely tall, her straight stance and the glare in her blue-green eyes had her dominating the room in that instant.
She was definitely a good-looking woman. Or maybe his opinion was colored by what he knew she’d seen...and, perhaps, enjoyed.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’m obviously interrupting something. But you all should know that General Yarrow will arrive here at Ft. Lukman around ten o’clock this morning.”
* * *
Sara wasn’t sorry at all about interrupting this meeting, whatever it was about. It clearly involved Alpha Force, since she recognized most of the people who sat staring at her.
Including Sergeant Jason Connell. He was as great-looking as she recalled, of course—even with his clothes on. Seeing him in person again only stressed that she couldn’t have imagined what she’d observed...could she? Under his camos, his shoulders were broad. His face was incredibly handsome, and the small streaks of silver in his dark hair only added to the appeal of the package.
