Undercover Wolf. Linda O. Johnston

especially if there were any he felt to be needless or ludicrous?

       Could he, as he had been promised, ever use all the prized abilities that he had carefully honed over his years as a private investigator?

      He would have to wait and find out.

      Eventually, he began to feel tugs beneath his skin, a sure signal that he would soon change back. Reluctantly, he turned in the direction from which he had come.

      The woman who had helped him remained there, sitting on the ground near where he had left her, a softly lit electronic reader on her lap. She was reading. Waiting for him.

      He wanted to greet her. Thank her.

      Instead, what poured from his throat for now was a soft growl.

      She immediately looked at him as if startled.

      And then she nodded.

      “That’s great stuff,” Quinn said. “The shifting formula.” He had hardly stopped grinning since changing back from his wolf form.

      He looked entirely human now. He was also fully clothed. Kristine, walking beside him on the path to the center of Ft. Lukman with her backpack again over her shoulders, resisted glancing toward the private areas of him that she had glimpsed—and considered potentially great stuff. They were all hidden now anyway.

      And staring wouldn’t be professional.

      Of course, the heated stirrings inside her, being close to this man again, were anything but professional.

      “Once we’re back at the main building, I’ll conduct a recorded interview with you and enter your description into our computer database.”

      “I’ll have a lot to say,” he responded. “All of it complimentary.”

      Her thoughts, too—about him—but of course she didn’t mention that. She would be a lot more comfortable when Grace returned and she could get back to being her regular charge’s aide. She didn’t know who would be there for Quinn, but at least it wouldn’t be her.

      Ft. Lukman was a fairly large base, but it didn’t take long to return to the building where they had started their trek earlier. The aboveground portion held quite a few dog kennels for the canines that acted as partial cover for the wolfen shapeshifters headquartered here.

      Quinn and she immediately headed for a stairway down to the lab areas, clean rooms and primary Alpha Force offices. This, Kristine knew, was where those supposedly magical formulations of the Alpha Force elixir were mixed and changed and improved. She sometimes wished she knew more about how they worked, how they acted to enhance the process and conditions of shapeshifting.

      But she never wished that she were a shapeshifter. Oh, she admired them. Liked working with them. But when all was said and done, she preferred being … well, herself.

      At the bottom, Quinn reached around to open the door for her. She appreciated the gentlemanly gesture. Maybe there was hope for him to be a real soldier yet.

      Not that it really mattered to her.

      She gasped as a backlighted body clad in a camo uniform loomed before them in the hallway. It was late, and she hadn’t expected to see anyone there.

      “Glad you two are finally back,” said Maj. Drew Connell, commanding officer of Alpha Force. “Come with me. There’s something important going on that I need to brief you about.”

      Kristine had thought it interesting and fitting that a shifter had been designated to command this covert unit. At first she had wondered whether she would accept taking orders from those who were so different from her. Now, it was second nature.

      If Drew said something significant was happening, that meant it was definitely critical.

      He ushered them into the small office off the main lab facility where he and others worked on the shifting formulation. He was not only the one who had developed the prototype, but he had also stayed closely involved with its modifications.

      “Sit down. Please.” It was an order, but people around here tended to give orders more politely than the rest of the military, as if Alpha Force was different.

      Which it was.

      “What’s up?” asked Quinn, as he settled his large frame into the designated seat across from Drew’s desk. “Sir,” he added when Drew’s suddenly chilly golden eyes reminded him where they were and who outranked whom.

      Was this some kind of alpha thing, too, among male shifters? Interesting, Kristine thought.

      “Yes, please tell us what’s going on, sir,” she added in a respectful tone, one she hoped Quinn would use himself in the future.

      “A couple of people were killed two nights ago in Acadia National Park,” he said, his face grim.

      That had been a night when the moon was full, Kristine realized.

      Before Drew could continue, Quinn interrupted. “That’s near Bar Harbor, Maine. Where Simon and Grace went on their honeymoon. I haven’t been in touch for a couple of days—didn’t want to bother them. Are they okay?” He had stood abruptly, and Kristine empathized, although she remained seated. She was worried, too.

      “Unknown so far,” Drew said. “The victims have been identified and aren’t Grace and Simon, so you needn’t worry about that. They were apparently attacked by some kind of wild animal, and the first assessment indicates the wounds could have been caused by canines.”

      “Are there wild wolves in that park?” Quinn demanded.

      “Used to be, a long time ago, but not now,” Drew said.

      The three of them were silent for a long moment, staring at one another.

      “Could the attackers have been … werewolves?” Kristine asked quietly.

      “That’s not been proposed officially, even by those who know about Alpha Force,” Drew said.

      “But—”

      “Has anyone talked to Simon?” Quinn demanded. “To Grace?”

      “Several of us have tried to call them on their cell phones and at their hotel,” Drew replied. “We haven’t been able to reach either of them.”

       Chapter 2

      The time was 0930. Kristine was surprised that this group of people, which included both brass and nonmilitary honchos, could come together so quickly here in such a remote location, but it had happened. Around twenty people were gathered in the assembly room on the first floor of the building at the heart of Ft. Lukman, where the offices of the commanding officers and others were located. Of course most were familiar Alpha Force members, including Lt. Autumn Katers, a shifting hawk, and her aide, Sgt. Ruby Belmont, who had been on a mission with Kristine and Grace in Arizona when Grace had met Simon.

      There were also some relatively new recruits, like Lt. Colleen Hodell, a cougar shifter, and Sgt. Jason Connell, a wolf shifter related to one of the unit’s commanding officers.

      Then there were the others.

      Kristine had entered the room fifteen minutes before and taken a seat out of the mainstream of the Alpha Force group, on one of the theater-style chairs mounted on the concrete floor. She had left a chair empty beside her in case Quinn decided to join her.

      Quinn had just come in with Maj. Connell and Lt. Patrick Worley, the hands-on commanding officers of Alpha Force, whom he’d probably waylaid in the hall. He stood with them now at the front of the room, apparently attempting to pump them in advance for information. But he didn’t seem overly pushy, at least not from Kristine’s perspective. His expression seemed interested, his nods deferential. Had he decided to accept where he ranked in the military, or was he just acting that way to get what he wanted? Or was she entirely wrong in her interpretation from