Xander shoved the thought aside before it completely distracted him and concentrated on the only thing that really mattered—Khaki’s training. Moving through buildings like this was SWAT’s bread and butter. She had to get good at it, and she had to do it fast.
But he had to admit, shewasgood, and shewasfast. After only a few minutes of instruction, Khaki picked up how their werewolf SWAT team cleared a room. A few minutes after that, she had their four-person team moving through the building nearly as fast as they’d ever moved. He could practically feel her confidence grow as she used her nose, ears, and werewolf intuition to figure out where people were before she even entered a room.
Khaki also proved very adept at quickly distinguishing who was playing the good guys and who were the shooters. Time after time, she slipped quietly into the room and put a paintball right in the middle of the bad guy’s chest before they even got off a shot of their own.
At this rate, Khaki would be considered a “go” at this task before lunch.
“Okay,” Xander said after they’d completed the exercise for the tenth time. “Let’s do it with the lights off this time.”
Xander cut the lights, then got in position behind Khaki and put his hand on her back. Her heart thudded beneath his palm as hard and fast as it had the first time they’d entered the house. He didn’t know why she was so nervous. Werewolves could see in the dark.
But when Khaki kicked in the door and entered the house, she didn’t move with the same confidence as before. Instead, she slowed down, working her way through the rooms at half speed. She was still new to all this, so it wasn’t surprising they’d finally stumbled over something she had a problem with. Even as slow as she was, she navigated the house much better than a regular SWAT officer equipped with night vision goggles would.
Despite knowing that, Xander still ground his jaw in frustration when she came to an abrupt halt outside one of the rooms. He took a deep breath, trying to get a grip on his sudden irritation when he realized he wasn’t the only one who was tense. The strange scent-slash-emotions connection he’d developed with Khaki told him that she was just as frustrated as he was. The anxiety and embarrassment was practically rolling off her in waves.
He didn’t realize how much it was truly affecting him until he heard himself growl under his breath.
Whatthehell?This had gone beyond picking up on Khaki’s emotions. Now it was as if he was experiencing them himself. The worse she did, the worse he felt.
He tried to fight his way through the feelings and emotions, but it was tough, like swimming upstream through fast-moving water. If he could just understand what had changed when he shut off the lights, maybe he could help her calm down. Which would hopefully calm him down as well.
It didn’t make sense. Werewolves could see in the dark just as well as they could in the light. There was absolutely no reason for Khaki to be having so much trouble.
Xander was so focused on what was tripping up Khaki that he didn’t realize they’d moved into another room. Off to the right, Trevor was standing behind the hostage tied to the chair—in this case, Becker—with his paintball gun pointed at Becker’s head. This was a standard training scenario for them. Step into a room, make an instantaneous assessment of the situation, then take out the shooter before he shot the hostage.
Even though Cooper and Alex were in the room with them, neither of them would take the shot. This was all about Khaki.
But when she swung her paintball gun in Trevor’s direction, her pistol was aimed too low. Either she didn’t know Becker was there, or she didn’t know he was playing the part of the hostage. Regardless, she was about to pop Becker in the head.
Xander reached out to signal a cease-fire by tapping her shoulder, but it was too late. There were two clicking hisses from the pressurized air gun and it was over. Xander couldn’t determine if the spike of adrenaline he felt had come from him or Khaki. Regardless, he ended up yelling a lot louder and harsher than he’d planned.
“Lights, dammit!”
Someone hit the switch outside, lighting up the room. Becker was tied to the chair with a shocked look on his face and a line of orange paint streaking the side of his head.
The emotions Xander had been feeling boiled over and finally broke through the wall he’d put up around them. He caught Khaki’s arm and spun her around. “What the hell just happened? You killed the frigging hostage!”
The words came out so fast and so furious that it was as if someone else was saying them. Khaki opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again. Face red, she dropped her head and stared down at the floor. The emotions that flooded Xander now weren’t anger or anxiety. They were shame.
Fuck.
Xander wanted to howl in frustration, but he couldn’t do that in front of his team. They’d think he was losing it, although it was probably too late for that. Cooper, Alex, Trevor, and Becker looked at him like he’d already lost his mind. Shit, with the way things were going right then, maybe he had.
But there was no way to explain his outburst. He growled and pointed at the door.
“Everyone downstairs. We’ll run it again with the lights on, then with the lights off. And we’ll keep doing it until Khaki gets it right.”
* * *
“So, how’s Blake working out?”
Xander practically jumped at Mike’s question. He’d been so lost in thoughts of Khaki that he hadn’t even heard the other squad leader come into the showers. That woman had him so messed up, he wasn’t even aware of his surroundings anymore. Someone could have ridden through the compound on an elephant and he wouldn’t have noticed.
Hopefully talking to Mike would get his mind off Khaki and all the crap that had happened in the House of Doors, at least for a little while.
Xander dumped half a bottle of soap in his hand and started washing the sweat and grime from that day’s training off his skin. “A lot better than I’d thought she’d be doing at this point.”
“You sound surprised.” Mike glanced at him as he lathered up a bar of soap. “You know if Gage went to all the trouble of bringing her here as the first female on the team, she had to be good.”
