Call of the Wild (17 page)

Still, they left him the option to come back, figuring he’d grow bored being a house husband, before sending him to meet a lieutenant in Human Resources. He spent the next several hours filling out paperwork. Getting out of the Army was a lot harder than getting in. At least the paperwork was a hundred times more. If there was one thing he was looking forward to getting rid of, it was the necessity to fill out reports for everything. If it wasn’t reports, it was reviewing reports other people had filled out—or requisitions, or other documents.

In the back of his mind, a part of him thought it wouldn’t be that much of a change. That he could convince Marsha to let him continue to go out on missions. Even though they had agreed after this one in West Virginia, they’d both stay in Montana and stop actively fighting. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure he could give it up. What he liked best was being out in the field; he was still in great shape. He supposed he had his changeling mother’s genetics for that. Of course, his old man wasn’t exactly decrepit.

Out of his ACUs, he padded barefoot to the kitchen for a beer. He wondered when Marsha would be coming home. He missed her. Opening the beer, he decided to send her a text. He took a few sips as he walked back to the bedroom. He had emptied out all of the pockets and put everything on top of his dresser. When he picked up his phone, he remembered he had turned it off before seeing his commander and hadn’t turned it on again.

Once he did, he saw there were multiple text and voicemail messages. Going through them, he found out why Marsha wasn’t home. He was supposed to be meeting them for dinner at his father’s house. He had twenty minutes to put on his shoes and get over there. He grabbed his loafers, dumped the remainder of his beer down the sink, and put the bottle in the recycle bin. Yes, he was a bit of a neat freak. So far, Marsha hadn’t said anything. Thinking back, he remembered her quarters were fairly neat.

Didn’t matter, he wasn’t the type of guy who felt cleaning the house was woman’s work. He knew how to wield a broom when he had to. He was out the door in two minutes. He was going to be about an hour late. When he was under way, he used his Bluetooth connection to call his father’s house hands-free. The last thing he needed was to get pulled over. Once he got off the phone, he put all of his skills on maneuvering through the commuters and using a traffic app to find shortcuts. He got stuck for a little bit of traffic and ended up only a half hour late.

The first thing he did after entering his old childhood home was track down Marsha; it had been too long since he’d touched her.

“Glad you could make it,” said his father as Aaron kissed Marsha hello.

All Aaron wanted to do was be alone somewhere, buried balls deep inside her soft curves while kneading that fine ass. After the day he’d had, he deserved a treat. However, he would have to wait. He’d hang in there…barely.

“Sorry I’m a little late. Like I said when I called from the road, I had my cell phone off all day,” he said to his father.

Then he whispered his desires into his mate’s ear.

Marsha knew just how he felt. Their quickie earlier in the morning had only whetted her appetite. She remembered reading somewhere that if a couple put a penny in a jar every time they had sex the first year of their marriage, and thereafter took a penny out each time; the jar would never be empty. She knew that old wives’ tale wouldn’t hold true for her and Aaron.

One of the myths about shifters was they were highly sexual…it was true. She and Aaron could fill a jar with pennies, and they’d still run out and have to start over.
Hmmm, sounded like a fun project
!

Arms around each other’s waist, they followed Doug into the kitchen where Matt and Carrie were already sitting.

“Actually, your timing is perfect. The food arrived about five minutes ago, and we just finished setting the table,” said Carrie as they sat down.

Aaron looked at the dishes while he helped Carrie with her chair.

“I’ve had a day filled with nothing but paperwork. This makes it all better. Please pass the barbequed ribs. Did you get the extra spicy sauce?”

“Here, Aaron, none of us have your steel lining in our stomachs. This double order of ribs is just for you,” Matt said as he passed over a blue dish piled high.

Carrie had given each of them a stack of paper napkins. There were ribs, barbequed chicken, and Doug’s favorite—brisket. For side dishes, they had sweet corn, coleslaw, green beans, and garlic mashed potatoes.

There was no talking at all for the next fifteen minutes as a testament to how good the food was. Ready to take a break and let the food settle a little, Aaron picked up his beer and leaned back in his chair to take a drink.

“I put in my papers today. I officially retire in seven and a half weeks,” said Aaron.

“Are you going to join the Reserves?” asked his father.

“Nope, a Lieutenant Colonel, a Colonel, and a General tried to talk me into staying in. If I joined the Reserves, they’d pull me back into active duty in a flash. It’s going to be a clean break. I’ve got so much leave accumulated, I won’t have to return to base until I’m ready to sign final release papers and receive my Honorable Discharge.”

“I’m not surprised they wanted to keep you. I’m keeping you,” said Marsha, leaning over for a kiss.

Carrie just beamed at the two of them. She was so happy to see one of
her boys
settled. She had always been grateful to Luce for sharing the joys of parenting their children with Carrie and Matt. It had filled the hole inside her when she found out she couldn’t have children of her own.

“So, are there any other single ladies you can fix up Aaron’s brothers with?” Carrie asked Marsha, making her laugh. More than one female shifter had spent time with his brothers.

“They were all quite popular. Speaking of the other hunky Donahue men, shouldn’t they all be arriving tonight sometime?” Marsha asked her new father-in-law.

“Yes, I’m expecting them anytime. They called from the road, checking in during the day. Mostly because they wanted to be included in the action in West Virginia, and we needed to coordinate a few things,” said Doug, with Matt nodding his agreement.

“It’s too bad they couldn’t join us for dinner,” Marsha said wistfully.

“I’m not sorry. They’d only want to eat all my ribs. You don’t need to be thinking of my brothers as hunky. You’ve already got the best in the bunch, babe,” put in Aaron.

“How many brothers and sisters did you have?” asked Carrie, addressing Marsha and ignoring her eldest nephew. They had gone over her devastation in losing her family earlier in the day. They hadn’t gotten into specifics on each individual family member.

“I had two brothers and two sisters. The Society killed them all. I was staying overnight in my friend’s dorm room, checking out the college to see if I wanted to go there. The Society knew about me of course so I had to move. I’ve been on their hit list ever since,” she said.

“Well, you have a big family now,” Carrie reminded her.

Aaron put an arm around her shoulder. He could crack a joke to lighten things up, but he didn’t. In this instance, it seemed better to let her have a moment of silence to remember her family.

He leaned over to whisper in her ear. “We’ll be talking about this ‘hit list’ later babe.” His protective instincts had gone on high alert at her news. Memories tried to intrude and he fought them back. Nothing would happen to her, nothing!

“Okay, enough tears. You’re right, Carrie; I have a wonderful new family. It was a long time ago, and soon we’re going to kick their asses. Aaron, why don’t you clean up with your Dad and your Uncle Matt? Carrie and I need to go through all our shopping bags and divide hers from mine.

“You guys are just dying to talk about all the mayhem you’ve been planning anyway,” she said, before turning to her new aunt. “Come on, I want to take another look at some of those baby outfits we bought. I’m probably going to get a few more things for Laura. That store had such cute stuff, and I don’t want to duplicate anything.”

“She’s having twins, so two of something wouldn’t be horrible, but I know what you mean,” said Carrie, getting up. “I’ll make some coffee in a bit,” she said, giving her husband a kiss on top of his head.

Before Marsha got too far away, Aaron grabbed a hold of her wrist. “It’s not
my dad
and
my uncle
. It’s just Dad and Uncle Matt. They’re yours now too, remember?”

Marsha leaned in for a long, deep kiss. “I’ll remember,” she said, and then bent over to whisper in his ear, “Don’t spend too much time going over stuff; I’ve got designs on your body for later.”

Aaron hugged her. With him in a chair and her standing next to him, his head was level with her neck. Bringing her down for another kiss, he gave her ass a pat before finally releasing her. When she wobbled a little as she left the room, he was satisfied.

Besides, he had plans for her body too. Adjusting the fit of his slacks as he stood, he started helping to clean the kitchen.

A week later Marsha and Aaron headed south. They would arrive a two days ahead of the rest of their team. It would help their cover and give them a chance to scout the area.

They were driving an SUV with their company logo, slogan, phone and website all painted on it. No easily removable magnetic signs, they needed to look like a legitimate, long-term business. The day before, Aaron and Steven had even taken the SUV off-roading to get it appropriately dirty and mud splattered. Steven needed to go back on duty so he was one of two Donahue brothers not participating in this adventure. Josh also got pulled back to active duty in the Marines.

Marsha and Aaron entered State Forest land and headed towards Dyer West Virginia. Others would be coming in via Valley Head to the north of them and Richwood to the south. And more would be coming from the east and south east. By entering the Seneca State Forest from different directions, they hoped to pass unnoticed by The Society’s watchers.

Marsha was driving because she was more familiar with the roads. It showed they were well matched when he didn’t backseat drive or grab the chicken stick…much. They timed their arrival for a Friday afternoon, midway between lunch and dinner when the entrance to the park would be jamb-packed with weekenders. Any watchers wouldn’t have a lot of time to look them over and suspect ‘shifter’ because they would have to keep the line of vehicles moving.

They also decided to argue a little. It wasn't that shifters didn’t argue like any other people, they sometimes got into disagreements. Mated couples however, usually didn’t sweat the small stuff. If they had an argument, it usually involved big decisions like whether or not a mate was acting safely (getting shot was a big no-no), what to name the children and where to have dinner on a Friday night.

When they were ten cars back, Marsha rolled down her window. She and Aaron had worked out a loose conversational outline with a few key points, if overheard would hopefully mark them more as human than shifter. All this was necessary because their team and several others would be staying in human form for most of the time. If the bad guys believed they were human then they’d hopefully hesitate in shooting at them. Those few seconds of hesitation could mean life or death.

They had been quiet for the last hour. Marsha fiddled with the radio and then snapped it off.

“So, I’m thinking we need to fix up your dad,” she said.

Aaron, bored with the bumper to bumper traffic had also rolled down his window and was idly tapping the outside of his door. Predators were all about being still and waiting, so the fidgeting was another ‘human’ characteristic. Unless of course you were a young boy or waiting in a long line at the movies. Then it didn’t matter if you were a shifter or not.

“Where did that idea come from?” he asked, turning to look at her.

“Well, I’m happy and I want everyone around me to be happy. Your dad’s been alone too long. It’s about time he found love again. Plus, he’s totally hot. I’m surprised he doesn’t have women beating down his door.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about you thinking my dad is hot. He’s my dad. The father of six children, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah, if you ask me, that only makes him more virile. After all, he had all the fun making them. It’s not like he had to push them all out. He’s kept himself in shape. What did your parents do anyway, get married when they were twelve?”

“I’m not going to have anything to do with fixing up anybody. Not my brothers and not my dad. Don’t mention it again, or any sentences that have my dad and the word ‘hot’ or ‘virile’ in them. And don’t think I don’t see why you’re bringing this up now.”

They’d moved up another two cars and were now five away from the booth.

“Oh really, Sir Wise Guy. What’s my motive for wanting to fix up your dad if it’s not his future happiness?”

“Simple, we’re trying to get pregnant and you want our kids to have both a grandpa and a grandma,” he said, nodding his head and crossing his arms over his chest.

Marsha sniffed a little. “Okay, you totally have my number on that one. Which reminds me, is that why you invited your brothers to come along and help train this group?” she asked working in their second topic, the first being a possible pregnancy.

“Well, the doc said you needed to start taking it easy. And if you do have a baby, we’ll need one or both of them to step into the business to help us keep it going. I don’t see you teaching survival skills with a baby sling,” he said.