Chapter 14
The next day, Ice walked back in to the barracks carrying a bag of Granny Smiths. When he’d woken up earlier that morning, he’d still had a taste for the tart apples. The mess hall hadn’t had any, so he’d made a run to the grocery store.
Major Ortiz was sitting on the couch, a clipboard and pen in hand. She looked up when Ice walked in.
“Morning. We’ve got mission debrief in twenty.”
Ice nodded. He went over to the kitchen and grabbed an old plastic mixing bowl from the cabinet. It wasn’t a fruit bowl but it would do. He upended the bag of Granny Smiths into the bowl, gently, so as not to bruise them.
Grabbing the one on top, he polished it on his shirt and bit into it. Tart juice burst onto his tongue and the sweetly crisp scent of apple hit his nose. He sighed with pleasure as he chewed. The fruit was hitting the spot. Exactly what he needed.
Hazard came out of his room. Their eyes met and Hazard offered him a smile in greeting. Ice nodded in return. The omega went and joined Ortiz on the couch. Ice listened to their conversation reviewing yesterday’s mission, but didn’t join in. When he finished the apple, he tossed the core into the trash.
“I’ll see you up there,” he said to Ortiz before leaving to go to HQ.
Outside, he’d barely gone a few steps when the door to the barracks reopened behind him.
“Wait up, Captain,” Hazard called out. “I’ll walk with you.”
He didn’t respond. But he slowed and waited for Hazard to join him. Hazard didn’t say anything else. They walked to HQ in companiable silence. Inside, the building was busy as usual. Soldiers greeted them in the halls as they passed by.
“Ice. Hazard.”
“Good morning, Captain. Morning, Corporal.”
Ice acknowledged each greeting with a nod, while Hazard responded with a friendly greeting of his own.
It was a different feeling to be greeted as a pair. He was usually on his own. People called him a lone wolf. And perhaps he was. Just not in the way shifters used the term. Growing up the way he had, pack bonds had never been a part of his life. The few times he’d felt that something was missing living among humans, he’d reached out to his mentor looking for answers. He’d been told to focus on his training. And that’s what he’d done. He didn’t need pack or scenting to get his job done. He had skills and training.
The strategy room was empty when they arrived. Ice sat down on one side of the conference table and Hazard took the seat directly across from him. They chatted about the new shifter only football league starting next year — Hazard chatted and Ice listened with the occasional nod — while they waited for the others to arrive. Once the other half of the 448 and Lieutenant Colonel Gibbs showed up with his aide, they started the debrief.
Ice usually gave his full attention to the speaker during meetings. But today he found his attention wandering. Wandering to Hazard. The light from the screen fell on his face. Ice admitted to himself that Hazard was a beautiful man. His beauty was rugged, with intriguing contrasts. Golden skin and full, sweetly curved lips. A firm sculpted jaw with a hint of dark stubble determined to beat his morning shave. Pretty, long-lashed green eyes. Thick, strong neck.
The collar of his T-shirt was just low enough to expose his scent glands above his clavicle on either side of his throat. They weren’t required to wear gland covers although some shifters did according to their home pack customs. Hazard wasn’t in heat or trying to attract a mate, so his scent glands were barely noticeable bumps the same tan as the rest of his skin. Still, Ice’s gaze lingered there for a second longer than necessary before moving on.
His arms, muscled and lightly dusted with dark hair, carried several scars. Ice wondered where he’d gotten them. Most were undoubtedly from missions. But maybe some had a personal story.
He raised his gaze from his arms and saw Hazard was looking at him. When their eyes met, Hazard didn’t look away and neither did Ice. The colonel droned on in the background, the light blinking every so often as the image on the screen changed. And still they watched each other. Until Colonel Gibbs addressed him directly.
“Ice, what do you think?”
Ice returned his attention to the screen. “I think our job would be a lot easier if reconnaissance team put in more effort on surveillance. They’re too focused on being quick to report back. So what if our mission is delayed by an hour? Would rather not get shot because they rushed recon instead of taking their time.”
“Good observation, Captain. I’ll speak with Captain Lowe and see what he needs to do to tighten up. Maybe he needs more bodies on his squad.”
They moved on to the next topic, but now Ice determinedly kept his eyes on the screen and off of his squadmate.
* * *
Three weeks had passed since their last mission. They’d filled the time with training and reviewing tactics. But the sudden lack of field activity was starting to get to Hazard. He was bored and itching for some action. He was about to get up and see if he could join in on training some of the new privates when Ice came out of his bedroom.
Today the alpha was dressed in a black hooded sweatshirt, green and black camo pants, and combat boots. He didn’t have on his wolf mask but his balaclava covered him from the top of his head to the base of his throat, disappearing into the folds of his hood.
Hazard watched as the captain went into the kitchen and grabbed an apple from the bowl on the counter. This was the second bowl of the fruit. The team had quickly worked through the first bag of Granny Smith’s Ice had brought. Then yesterday, he’d bought another.
The alpha crossed his long legs at the ankle and leaned back against the counter. He bit into the apple, the crack loud in the quiet room. The scent of apples drifted into the air. Behind the mask, his jaw worked chewing the fruit. Without meaning to, Hazard stared at the captain as he ate. It didn’t take long for Ice to question him about his staring.
“What?”
“You like apples,” Hazard said in answer.
Ice shrugged. “I’ve had a taste for them lately.”
“Hmm.” Hazard didn’t want to make any assumptions, but it was an awful big coincidence that the captain had a sudden taste for Granny Smiths. He chewed his cheek to hold back a smile. “I’m restless. Let’s go for a workout. Get some cardio in.”
“Sounds good.”
He finished off the apple with a few more bites then uncrossed his legs and straightened. Once he threw the core in the trash, they headed out.
They walked side by side, heading across the base to one of the PT buildings. The sky was orange from the setting sun and dotted with gray from incoming storm clouds.
Inside the gym, there were a few people working out on the free weights. Other than that, the space was empty. All of the cardio machines were available. There was a quartet of treadmills on the other side of the room, facing three big windows that looked out over the course training grounds.
“Treadmill okay?” Hazard asked.
“Yeah.”
Ice stepped onto one. Hazard hopped on the one next to him.
“Thought you didn’t like to run,” Ice said as they began with an easy pace.
“On two legs? Not really. But I love to run when I’m shifted. So I go out for a wolf run about once a week. How often do you shift?” He’d run with Jax once and seen Ortiz coming back from a shifted run twice. But he’d never noticed Ice shifting.
“On the full moon.”
Hazard’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline in surprise. “That’s it?”
“That’s all that’s necessary per regulation,” Ice said matter-of-factly.
“True. But it feels good to let the wolf out more often than that. It’s our other half.”
“Hmmm.”
“I think I’d jump out of my skin if I only shifted once a month.”
Ice responded with another non-committal hum. Clearly he didn’t see shifting often as important as Hazard did.
Outside, the storm finally broke. Rain came down in heavy sheets, fat drops hitting the window and sliding down the glass. They jogged silently for several minutes while watching the rain. But there was something else Hazard had been curious about it so he decided to bring it up.
“What about scenting?”
Ice turned his head slightly toward him. “What about it?”
“Can I ask why you don’t want to?”
“Just did, didn’t you?”
Hazard laughed. “I guess I did.”
“I haven’t done it since I was a kid,” Ice answered the question with an unconcerned shrug.
That answer had Hazard snapping his head around to look at the alpha next to him with his eyes wide and mouth agape. He nearly lost his footing at the abrupt movement and had to steady himself on the treadmill’s handrails before he spoke. “At all?”
“Not intentionally.”
Hazard was floored. How in the world had Ice lived his entire adult life without scenting? That was incomprehensible to him. Scenting was important to wolf shifters for many reasons. It established bonds. It helped to familiarize wolves with a pack mate’s scent so they could quickly find them when they were lost. Scenting soothed like a baby sucking on a pacifier. It calmed like a hit of nicotine from the first drag of a cigarette. It warmed you like a grandmother’s hug. And Ice hadn’t done it in years. Hazard stared straight ahead, debating if he should ask why Ice hadn’t scented another wolf in so long.
“What?” Ice asked.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You want to.”
He looked at Ice’s reflection in the window. Those dark eyes were watching him. “You sound certain of that.”
“Your nose twitches when you have something to say but you’re holding yourself back.”
That observation had laughter breaking through his stunned surprise. “Learning my tells, Captain?”
“Hard not to notice. You look like a bunny when you do it.”
“Hey! I’m a predator. Not a cute little bunny.” He bared his teeth in a mock growl.
“I never said you were cute.”
“You didn’t.” He waited a beat. “But I am.”
Ice chuckled, husky and low. “Is this a workout or a senior citizen mall stroll? Kick up the speed, Corporal.”
Hazard grinned and followed the order. He always felt as if he’d accomplished a Herculean feat whenever he made the older shifter laugh. Their feet pounded harder on the treadmill belts as they went from an easy jog to a light sprint.
Hazard let the conversation turn teasing and light as they finished their run. He could tell that Ice didn’t want to share his reasoning behind not scenting. But the captain was right. He was curious. The little pieces of Ice’s history that he’d been given had him curious to know more. To know it all.
Ice was raised among humans, in a military school. He didn’t scent. He didn’t shift except during the full moon, when their bodies practically demanded they do so. Why was he raised with humans, instead of in a wolf pack? Even if something had happened to his immediate family, pack members should have been the ones to take him in and raise him. Was he from one of the shadow lands where shifters lived not in packs but scattered and isolated?
He wanted to know the answer to all of those questions but he had a feeling Ice wouldn’t be telling him his life story anytime soon. That was fine. He wasn’t usually the most patient person. But when it came to Captain Ice Anderson, he had all the patience in the world.