Strength of the Pack (13 page)

“Yes, sir,” Noah said and obediently turned back toward his Humvee.

Lucas watched him walk, relaxed and loose-limbed, hips rolling with each step. Surprised at the turn of his own thoughts, Lucas shook himself out of his stupor. Noah was an NCO under his command, and lusting after him in a non-werewolf-related way was inappropriate.

He pushed those thoughts from his mind as he headed toward his own Humvee.

The sun had fully risen when Captain Madison led one of his platoons into the village.

“Good work, Lucas,” he greeted, stripping off his Kevlar and running a hand over his sweaty hair. “Things must be working out well between you and Sergeant Hammond.”

Lucas froze, momentarily taken aback. He started breathing again when he realized Madison was speaking of their professional relationship.

“We seem to have found a rhythm, yes,” he hedged.

“I thought you would,” Madison said with a smile. “Now let’s get your prisoners loaded and go meet up with Battalion.”

By mid-afternoon, they were reunited with the battalion on a wide plain surrounded by tall berms. They were staying put for the night, so Lucas issued orders to circle the Humvees and dig in.

Lucas couldn’t seem to settle down when Noah stood watch. Even now, he should be in his grave trying to sleep. Instead, he was sitting in his seat in the Humvee, head tilted back. Lucas could just make out Noah’s form when he opened his eyes slightly.

They were on twenty-five percent watch, but they always augmented the humans with a shifter in each quadrant. Noah was taking his turn along with three other weres. When he came off watch and slept, Lucas knew he’d be able to crawl into his own grave and get some rest as well.

It wasn’t as though Noah needed Lucas to keep an eye on him; quite the opposite, in fact. It made no sense, but that’s the way it was.

“Fox-two-actual; Fox-two-one.” Noah’s voice sounded softly in Lucas’ ear.

“Go for Fox-two-actual,” he answered, just above a whisper.

“Be advised, I’m hearing sounds in the distance. I detect slight movement. Nothing I can pinpoint yet, but it’s unusual. It doesn’t belong.”

This was why the shifters stood watch along with human Marines. They could see and hear so much better; they were a phenomenal early warning system.

“Roger that.” Lucas sat up and opened his eyes. “Do you believe it’s a threat?”

“I got nothing concrete, but all my instincts are telling me yes.” Noah sounded distracted. Lucas could just make him out on the berm, scanning the horizon with his night vision scope.

“Good enough,” Lucas replied, preparing to switch frequencies and raise the alarm with Battalion.

The quiet of the night was shattered by a mortar landing just feet from the front fender of Lucas’ Humvee. Adrenaline spiked through his system, and he kicked open the door and tumbled to the ground.

All around him, Marines scrambled out of their graves with their weapons and ran to take up positions along the berm. The radio crackled to life with sitreps and orders being handed down. Mortars landed all around them, dangerously close to Humvees and Ranger graves.

Lucas belly crawled toward the berm. He scrambled quickly up the hard-packed dirt until he reached Noah’s position. He stuck his head up over the berm to get a look at who was assaulting them.

Small dust plumes rose around him. Lucas heard the high-pitched sound of bullets ricocheting around him.

“Get down, sir,” Noah shouted over the din of battle, shoving Lucas’ head down below the level of the berm and practically holding him in place with the weight of his own body.

McAlister scrambled up beside them. “We’re taking mortar and sniper fire!” he yelled.

Noah darted up to glance over the berm, and immediately several shots landed within inches. He quickly ducked back down.

“We’re taking accurate mortar fire, and they’re keeping our heads down with snipers,” Lucas surmised. “We’re fucking pinned down!”

All around him, Marines shouted at each other as blast after blast of mortar fire chewed up the earth.

“No one can stay up long enough to pinpoint a location,” Vince said. “If we can’t identify where they are, we can’t take ’em out.”

“Fuck,” Lucas hissed. Dirt and debris from a nearby strike rained down on them. Again, Noah used his own body to shield Lucas.

“Lieutenant, sir,” Noah said, lowering his head to speak nearly into Lucas’ ear. “Permission to shift and take the pack after our attackers?”

“Negative, Sergeant,” Lucas replied. “Even as a werewolf, you’re not impervious to bullets.”

“No, but I won’t be a primary target,” countered Noah. “They’ll keep targeting Marines and ignore what they think are wild animals.”

MK19 and 50-cal fire erupted around them as men were able to scramble up into the turrets. They couldn’t stay up long enough to range the weapons accurately, though. Mortars continued to blast all around them.

They needed to find a way to slow down the rate of fire they were taking.

“Please, Lucas, I’m asking. You have authority over this,” Noah cajoled.

A mortar landed at the base of the berm, just feet away from them, but it was Noah’s use of his name that got to Lucas.

“What’s your plan?” he asked.

“To take the pack into the desert, track down the enemy and eliminate them, sir,” replied Noah. “They’ll never see or hear us coming, so they won’t be able to target us. Once we start to thin their numbers, the battalion can start to return fire.”

Lucas glanced at Vince, who shrugged in response. “We’re pinned down, Lucas. We gotta do something to break the impasse.”

Glancing at the Marines taking cover around them, Lucas finally nodded his assent. “Fine, Sergeant. But you had better bring all your werewolves back unharmed.”

“Goes without saying, sir,” Noah quipped as he started to unfasten his Kevlar.

Lucas watched Noah slide down the berm. At the bottom, he set down his Kevlar and removed his armor. He quickly stripped off his uniform blouse and skivvy shirt, tossing it all aside. He pulled the chain of his dog tags over his head and dropped them on top of his clothes. Lucas watched Noah drop into a crouch, head bowed.

“Has he shifted for you before?” Vince asked.

Lucas hid his startle at the sound of Gunny’s voice. He shook his head in the negative.

He didn’t know what he’d expected, but the subtle blurring of Noah’s shape wasn’t it. There was no dramatic crunching of bone, no violent shift in Noah’s features. One moment, Noah was crouched down, and the next, a medium-sized white wolf was shaking itself free of the rest of Noah’s uniform. Lucas remembered the dream he’d had during the last full moon run and how he’d been a wolf covered entirely in white fur.

Lucas was vaguely disappointed. With Noah’s extreme height in human form, he’d expected a larger wolf. Even as this crossed Lucas’ mind, he watched in amazement as the wolf continued to grow. It padded easily up the berm and lay on its belly beside Lucas.

The wolf turned silver eyes on Lucas. Those eyes were so familiar. They were unmistakably Noah’s, even though they now looked at him from a wolf’s face. The animal began to pant, and Lucas saw its canine teeth were easily as long as his thumb.

He stared dumbly at Noah, trying to absorb what he’d just witnessed. Lucas should have known Noah would shift into a silver-eyed Arctic wolf. It made perfect sense.

“He’s waiting for your order, Lucas,” Vince shouted. “You’re his Dominant; it has to be you who orders him into action.”

“Sergeant Hammond,” Lucas said, and the wolf’s ears snap forward. “Go execute your mission.”

Noah was on his feet and over the crest of the berm in one single bound. To Lucas, it was nothing more than a gigantic white blur. He had no idea how Noah was going to make a stealth approach. There was no way his bright white fur would blend with the pale sand or the dark of the night sky. As much as he dared, Lucas looked over the edge of the berm and watched Noah lope off into the distance. To his utter surprise, the darkness swallowed Noah up, and he disappeared completely only several meters out.

“I should’ve seen the white-fur thing coming,” Vince said ruefully. Lucas had to agree.

In the distance, rising above the cacophony of the attack, Lucas caught the sound of a howling wolf. It raised the hair on is arms and the back of his neck. Lucas shivered as the sound repeated, carried to him on the desert wind.

A loud commotion and surprised shouts from inside the camp caught Lucas’ attention. Two large wolves charged up the berm beside him. One was a dark, mottled gray; the other was a light brindle. Together they leapt over the crest and disappeared into the darkness just as Noah had done.

Lucas and Vince ducked down on the berm as the mortar fire suddenly intensified. He wondered how long it would take for Noah and the other wolves to execute their mission.

Tim Madison suddenly collapsed down on the berm beside Lucas. “Did you give Hammond permission to shift?” he shouted.

“Yeah, he had an idea to stop the attack,” Lucas replied. “Why? Shouldn’t I have?”

Madison chuckled. “Next time, just put out over comms that the Alpha Wolf is gonna shift and call the Pack. It’s a little unnerving when several men around you drop to the ground and step out of their uniforms in wolf form.”

“Shit, I didn’t know it would happen like that.” Lucas was mortified.

“The True Alpha called the Pack while in his wolf form, Lucas.” Madison looked at him incredulously. “He compelled them to shift. None of them had a chance to tell us what they were about to do, they just did it.”

“Fuck,” Lucas spat in frustration.

Madison clapped Lucas on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. What’s Hammond’s plan, anyway?”

“Swift and silent,” Lucas replied. “Don’t let the enemy see you coming, and drop them where they stand.”

“We don’t seem to have any other options at the moment,” Madison said, glancing around. “Just be careful in the future about letting him run off half-cocked every time he thinks you’re in danger.”

Lucas stared at the captain in confusion.

Madison noticed Lucas’ expression. “Christ, Hammond sure is taking his time explaining all this to you. It doesn’t help that Stanley got you absolutely no training on how to handle an Alpha were.”

“So explain it to me!” Lucas shouted in frustration.

“You’re Hammond’s Alpha now,” Madison explained. “If he thinks you’re in danger, he’ll do just about anything to protect you.”

Lucas’ shock was masked when they all ducked as a mortar struck within yards of them. Had Noah led his pack into battle because Lucas was pinned down and in danger?

It seemed the mortar fire was lessening, but Lucas didn’t trust his own judgment right now. Madison risked a glance over the berm, and sniper fire didn’t drive him back down. Even as Lucas glanced around him, listening, the sounds of the attack continued to recede.

Sounds of an entirely different battle rose up to replace them.

From out in the desert came the unmistakable sounds of screams. Human screams. Beneath the cries of the frightened and dying, Lucas could just make out the snarls and growls of the attacking wolves. It sounded bloody and violent, and he couldn’t suppress the violent shiver that ran through him.

It became obvious that the attack was all but over. Mortar and sniper fire were intermittent. The aggressive sounds of the wolves were shifting to playful ones. The cries of their targets had died out all together.

“I’ll be damned,” Madison muttered.

The wolves fell silent and suddenly the night felt very cold and very still. A ferocious bark and snarl carried to them. It was followed by a sharp yelp and whine.

Vince chuckled. “Money says that was Hammond disciplining one of the pups.”

“No bet,” Madison said with a smile.

A loud howl echoed through the desert and gooseflesh rose on Lucas’ arms. Where the first howl had been a call to arms, this one was imbued with arrogance and triumph. Several other voices took up the cry, and it circled around the outskirts of the encampment.

All three of them ducked as two wolves sailed over the berm and back into the circle of the Humvees. Others began to join them as they reentered the lines from various points. Lucas watched them begin to tussle with one another. The small pack moved amongst themselves, rubbing their flanks against each other. Others licked at the muzzles and throats of their friends. Happy and contented noises joined those of the play fighting.

“It’s just a suggestion, Lucas,” Madison said in a low voice, “but you might want to take Hammond’s clothes out to him. He doesn’t strike me as the type to join in that kind of activity.” He nodded in the direction of the fractious pack.

Lucas was watching the wolves lick at one another’s faces, and he realized, it wasn’t mere affection on display. They were cleaning each other. They were cleaning each other of the blood of their battle.