Her Wild Hero

He pointed toward the bottom of the slope they’d just climbed.

As if on cue, three figures came into view. She didn’t have to see the red in their eyes to know they were hybrids. They prowled more than walked, swinging their heads back and forth, noses in the air as if sniffing for something. Crap. One of them was the captain who’d killed his own man on the bank of the stream the night before simply for challenging his authority. The automatic weapon he carried looked like a toy in his hands, a waste of time compared to the claws he possessed.

She and Declan were barely a hundred feet away and upwind, as best she could tell. There was no way the hybrids wouldn’t be able to smell them, no matter how crappy their noses were, orchid perfume or not.

Her heart racing, Kendra slowly sighted the lead hybrid, ready to shoot the second he swung in their direction. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Declan doing the same. They had to put down the captain first—and fast—or they wouldn’t live long enough to worry about the other two. But even if they somehow managed to kill all three of them, the sound of gunfire was sure to bring every other hybrid in the area running.

This so wasn’t the kind of action she’d wanted to see on her first official DCO mission.

But while the creatures continued to sniff the air, they never moved any closer. After a few minutes, all three of them disappeared into the jungle.

Kendra slowly let out the breath she’d been holding. Carefully lowering her M4, she leaned back against Declan’s shoulder, the fear she’d been keeping in flowing out of her until she was shaking all over. That had been too close.

She closed her eyes, feeling Declan’s solid strength and warmth behind her. She didn’t care if he thought less of her because of it. She needed to steal some courage from him. He didn’t say anything or pull away from her. Instead, he sat there quietly and gave her time to get herself together. She sat up but didn’t look at him.

“We should probably get going,” she said.

“We’ll stay here a little while longer,” he told her. “Let the hybrids move completely out of the area.”

Kendra suspected the real reason Declan wanted them to wait was because he didn’t think she was ready to go back out there yet. She wanted to tell him he was wrong, but honestly, she wasn’t so sure. She peeked between the palm fronds to make sure the hybrids hadn’t come back, then relaxed.

“Does your family know you’re out here?” Declan asked quietly.

She turned a little so she could look at him. Her thigh pressed up against his and she could feel the heat of his skin through her pants.

“No way,” Kendra answered. “I mean, my parents know I work for Homeland Security, but they think I have a nice, safe desk job. Which I did up until a few days ago.” She gave him a small smile. “I told them I was going on a business trip for a couple weeks and that I’d call them when I got back. They’d be terrified if they knew I was running around the jungles of Central America with an automatic weapon in my hands.”

“Do they live in the DC area?” he asked.

She nodded. “Virginia. My mom teaches eighth grade history and my dad is a dentist.”

“Any brothers and sisters?”

“Just me.” Kendra pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. “What about you? Does your family know you work for Homeland?”

Declan shook his head. “My parents don’t know what I do for a living. They don’t even know I’m a shifter.”

She tried not to let her jaw drop, but she wasn’t sure she succeeded. “How is that possible?”

He parted the palm fronds enough so he could see the surrounding jungle, then let them drop into place. “My family is…well, reserved is probably the best way to put it. Image has always been very important to them. My mom teaches at Rhode Island College and my dad is the senior scientist for an independent bio research lab. Having letters after your name is a big deal where I come from.”

Kendra frowned. “So what does that have to do with your mom and dad not knowing you’re a shifter? They’re your parents. How could they miss something like that?”

He shrugged. “I was home alone when I changed the first time and by the time my parents came in, I was back to normal. What was I going to say? ‘Hey, Mom; hey, Dad. While you were out, I turned into a werewolf’?”

“You thought you were a werewolf?”

“I was seventeen and sprouted claws and fangs. Plus, I watched a lot of TV. What was I supposed to think?”

Okay, back before she knew about shifters, she probably would have thought the same thing. “And it honestly didn’t occur to you that maybe you should tell your parents?”