* * *
Had he let her win? Jock didn’t think so, but he had allowed her to distract him enough with her so-sexy body in motion that the result had been inevitable.
Besides, he’d felt reluctant to fight a female at all. Could that have been his wolf side reacting? Unlikely. That part of him illustrated his wildness, not holding back when it was in his best interests. Even so...well, it was over now.
She had stayed for just a short while as they planned their next meet-up—lunch the next day. Meantime, Ralf and he would do a little recon on their own before getting together with her, studying the layout of Cliffordsville and its environs even more, maybe even doing an initial check of the area containing the anarchists’ habitat tonight.
Little did she know how he would check it.
And that was one of the biggest problems of her working with them as a team. That, and the potential danger.
He could protect her. Would protect her.
But what would she think if she knew what he was, and why he, rather than a member of any other military unit, had been sent here?
Now, after their brief discussion inside the cabin, he walked her to her car. She said goodbye to them—for now. It was getting late, darkness was falling and she said she was heading home.
She used her key to unlock the driver’s door of her SUV, and he opened it for her.
“Sorry I embarrassed you in front of your partner,” she said as she faced him before getting inside. Her lovely face was flushed a bit, too. Her smile seemed ironic, drawing her full lips up just a bit at the corners.
He couldn’t help it. He bent and gave her another kiss.
Oh, not as sensual as last time. It was, in comparison, just a peck. But it still managed to evoke the feelings he had captured before—feelings of her firm but curvaceous body against him.
She pulled away first. “Bye, Jock. I’ll be thinking about you tonight.” Before he could react, she said, “About our team. And how best to investigate the anarchists together.” She ducked into the car and pulled the door shut. She turned the key in the ignition and waved to him as she drove off.
“You’ve got an interesting way of sealing the deal, making her part of the team.” Ralf and Click had come up to Jock as Kathlene’s car vanished around a curve. “And I thought the last thing you wanted was for her to help us—and potentially learn what Alpha Force is all about.”
Jock turned and motioned for Ralf to follow him back toward the cabin. “I don’t know yet what kind of help she might be, but she does know people around here as well as locations. Plus, she was the one who revealed that there was a potential issue here and was credible enough for those in charge to follow up. Maybe she can help, and maybe not. But as far as her learning about Alpha Force—and me—we’ll just have to make sure she doesn’t. At least not unless we decide it’s to our advantage for her to know—which I doubt. Speaking of which, now that she’s gone, I think it’ll be time soon for some very special reconnaissance.”
* * *
The drive back to her home was a short distance along narrow streets now illuminated by artificial light, but Kathlene considered it a huge way from where she had left Jock. What had she been thinking?
Apparently, she hadn’t been thinking. A hand-to-hand combat battle to convince him to let her help in finding out what was up with those anarchists?
Well, he was military, she was in law enforcement, and engaging in that kind of confrontation may have made sense...may being the operative word.
At least it had worked out. He had acknowledged that she would be part of his team.
Kathlene reached the cottage-style redbrick house on the residential street that she called home. She pulled into the driveway and pushed the button for the garage door to open.
She knew she wouldn’t sleep much that night. She would be thinking too much about Jock Larabey, their workout together...and the feel of his body, and lips, against hers.
She made herself rehash their final conversation—and realized it felt too easy. They were going to look around. Preliminarily check out the town and the anarchists’ site that she had pointed out to them. Tomorrow morning?
Maybe. But she had a feeling that these men would not wait. She turned the key in the ignition, closed her garage door and backed out of her driveway again.
They might be checking out the anarchists’ location that night. If not, she’d just return here, no harm, no foul.
But if they were checking it out—well, she’d be checking them out.
* * *
“This should do it.” Jock had allowed Ralf to drive him back along the route they had taken when Kathlene pointed out the turnoff toward where she’d indicated the possible anarchists were living. Then they had cruised a bit longer until they had found what appeared to be a nearby solitary and abandoned home, at least from what they could tell in the near absolute darkness of this forested area. The place had been built of wood in a style that looked like some bygone era’s, and that wood was rotting.
Its emptiness made it a good place to conduct what they now needed to do.
Ralf had pulled behind the structure, just in case. They didn’t want their car to be seen from the road if any of the people they wanted to surveil happened to drive by.
Plus, what they now needed to do could not be done with any normal, non–Alpha Force human around.
It was a secret from all other eyes. It was the heart of their supercovert military unit.
They both were out of the car. Click had remained locked in the rented cabin next door to theirs. He was vital to this part of their assignment—but only because he closely resembled the wolf into which Jock was about to change. If anyone happened to see Jock, Ralf and he would laugh it off. Show off the dog later and say it had always been Click.
“You ready, sir?” Ralf asked. He had pulled his large backpack out of the rear seat of the car and was holding out a vial of the very special Alpha Force shifting elixir.
That elixir alone was enough to entice shapeshifters to join Alpha Force. It had been developed by some of the unit’s members, starting with its commanding officer, Major Drew Connell, and enhanced by formulas that other members had created independently that provided additional qualities.
“‘Sir’? You’re too military, bro.” Ralf was a staff sergeant. Jock, as a lieutenant, was, in fact, his superior officer. But Alpha Forcers worked together too closely to stand much on military protocol. “But yeah, I’m ready.”
They had decided, to save time, to have Jock shift outside the house, at least for this change. Then, when he was off performing his recon, Ralf would find a way to get inside and check the place out.
Now the only illumination was from the penlight that Ralf had taken from his sack and turned on, plus a bit of natural light from the starlit sky, visible now and then through the canopy of trees and over the road where they had been cleared. No full moon, not for another couple of weeks. Jock took the bottle of elixir and downed it slowly. It tasted somewhat minty and a bit like citrus fruit. Drinkable, but that didn’t matter.
When he had finished it, he handed back the empty vial, took a deep breath and said, “Now.”
Ralf aimed the other light he had taken from the backpack toward Jock, the one that, turned on, resembled the illumination of a full moon.
Jock immediately felt the stretching and pulling sensations begin. He smiled, then growled, as his body began morphing into the form of a wolf.
* * *
He prowled through the forest, in the direction of the distant sounds and scents of a large human habitat.
The