of unpacking, though, Selena called Captain Worley. When she got his voice mail, she left a message, asking him to call with his expected arrival time.
Then she quickly opened her suitcase and pulled out a few items that she hung in her closet. Almost everything was civilian casual, to maintain their cover.
She next went to the entry and got both of the backpacks. She unpacked the remaining bottle of elixir stored in an insulated container and secured it at the back of the refrigerator.
Then she said to Lupe, “Ready for a walk, girl? When you’re done we’ll go back to the others.”
But as eager as Selena was to get started, she had a feeling it would be a long afternoon.
* * *
Owen had returned to where the constables who now reported to him still surrounded Rainey in the small and crowded living room. They were asking her questions about Alpha Force.
Too bad he hadn’t stayed around to listen to her answers. The more he knew about the group that would be helping to train these raw new candidates, the better.
Instead, he had gone off to spend time with Selena. Not that he regretted it.
He felt more than saw her enter the room a short while later. His nerve endings tingling, he looked up as she and her dog joined the group. But then he noticed that Tim Franzer seemed to sit up straighter. He even moved over on the sofa and waved at the empty spot for Selena to sit down.
The guy wasn’t especially tall or muscular, and he didn’t appear particularly good-looking to Owen, not with his round face and prominent nose.
Even so, Selena gave him a big smile as she joined him.
Which irritated Owen.
If she ever smiled at him that way... She wouldn’t. But it was definitely hot. She was definitely hot—no matter what else she was.
“So, Selena,” said Craig Neverts, getting her attention. He was a nicer-looking guy than Tim, with dark hair, a wide mouth and prominent chin. “I’m finding all the stuff that Rainey’s told us to be amazing. She said you guys shift when the moon isn’t full and you’re going to teach us how.”
“Soon,” Selena said. “When our other Alpha Force members arrive. But maybe tomorrow we can give a brief demonstration of what I’m like while shifted even if they’re not here yet.”
She glanced toward Owen, her expression challenging as if she expected him to say something about how she had done the same for him and his commanding officer—shifting remotely. Not demonstrating the actual shift.
He remembered the demonstration and his lame offer of getting naked with her. Feeling those stirrings again, he banished the images that the mere thought brought to mind.
“Well, I, for one, don’t appreciate just hanging around here like this,” said Andrea Willburn. But she must have sensed that Owen, her new commanding officer, was glaring at her. “Sorry.” She appeared somewhat chastised. “But if it’s okay, can we maybe...well, go into town now rather than waiting till later? Party a little, as part of our cover? I mean if we’re not accomplishing anything useful today?”
To Owen, she somewhat resembled a falcon, the kind of animal she apparently shifted into, with her cap of dark hair and large, beak-like nose.
He thought about her suggestion. It might be the best thing to give everyone the afternoon in town. He’d stay behind, alone, and get some much-needed distance from the woman who was getting under his skin. He looked at Selena as he said, “Why not? Go ahead.”
* * *
That was fine with Selena.
As everyone left the room, she sat there. She had no particular interest in shopping or partying. Besides, she needed time away from Owen. Time to get her mind away from X-rated fantasies and back on the assignment. She took Lupe out on the porch, where she planned to sit and rest.
“You’re still here.”
At the sound of his voice, she turned to see Owen. Why was he still here? “Why didn’t you go with your troops?” Selena challenged him.
“Why didn’t you?” he countered.
“I—I need to take Lupe for a walk.” Not that she hadn’t, just a little while ago.
“I’ll go with you.”
He wasn’t her commanding officer, and she could have responded in the negative. But what the heck? Nothing would happen on a little walk in the woods.
There were worse things than hanging out a little more with Owen, her inner voice said.
Yeah, like not getting to be with him at all...
Now, where did that come from? She liked the guy, sure. But only as a temporary colleague. And if he truly didn’t like shifters despite believing in them, as he’d hinted before, that was even more reason not to spend much time with him.
So was the fact that she was sexually attracted to him.
Without looking at Owen, she grabbed Lupe’s leash and started out. The woods behind the houses smelled rather like citrus from the fir trees that formed a tight canopy, which nearly blocked out the sun. A carpet of downed needles crackled beneath their feet.
“Good area for shifters,” Selena told Owen, wanting to hear his reaction to her touch of goading.
“Glad to hear it.” She looked up to find him grinning down at her. Grinning? He now accepted the idea of her being a shifter?
Heck, that was what she was and why she was here.
Lupe didn’t have much to do except explore, sniffing the ground and air. They nevertheless stayed in the woods for twenty minutes or so.
“Ready to go to town, too?” Owen asked as they headed back.
“Sure,” Selena said, glad she’d survived the walk unscathed. Then she tripped over a branch and Owen grabbed her arm to steady her.
She found herself smiling in thanks up into his handsome, rugged face and saw that there was more than concern in his eyes. Not just casual heat, either.
More like lust.
She opened her mouth just a little as she attempted to thank him...and Owen’s lips came down on hers.
The kiss seemed to ignite the cool forest, especially when his arms went around her and pulled her close. She held him tightly, too, tasting him with her tongue as his teased hers.
Her eyes closed, and for a moment she was aware only of Owen. And herself. Here. Together, in the wilds, where anything could happen.
Before she could conjure any steamy scenarios, he pulled away. His breathing was hard and irregular, as was hers, and his expression was still full of heat, but his words were just normal and friendly, as if nothing had happened.
“Let’s drive into town, shall we?”
“Right.
