She turned, “in character,” and stormed to the top of the trail leading down steeply to the water, yelling random insults picked up from domestic spats she had overheard from neighbors or on TV. She couldn’t see Luke or the dog anywhere. Hearing the helicopter rotors change pitch, she turned and looked back. As it rose off the ground, she counted four people inside. Military Guy was next to the pilot, and there were two more in the back.
The helicopter skimmed over them and headed off down the coast. Inga held her breath, waiting until the noise had faded in the distance. Then she hurried down the path.
“Luke, Luke, are you there? Are you all right?”
She didn’t even see him until he reappeared, accompanied by the dog, and she realized he had more or less stuffed himself into a crack in the rocks. Unfolding to his full height, Luke caught her arm. “They’re gone? Did they leave anyone behind?”
“No, they all got back in the helicopter. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to—well—I took a lot of liberties with?—”
“Inga, you were magnificent.” Luke grabbed her by the shoulders. “Amazing. Stunning. They didn’t know what hit them.” And before Inga had time to prepare herself or even realize it was going to happen, he kissed her hard on the lips.
Inga clutched at Luke’s arms to hold herself upright. The ground seemed to shift sideways under her feet. And then he was pulling back quickly, and her eyes snapped open; she hadn’t even noticed she had closed them in the all-consuming sensation of his lips on hers.
“That was—unplanned,” Luke said, staring at her. “I, uh. Thank you for helping me, Inga.”
“You’re welcome,” Inga breathed out. She took a shaking breath and steadied herself. She had just lied for this man, she reminded herself. She had possibly lied to the military for this man. “And I think you owe me a few answers.” She wiped her hands on her jeans. “Also, that coat is filthy.”
“You’re right.” Luke looked down at what he was wearing and wrinkled his nose, seeming to become aware of the smell for the first time. “On both counts. Let’s get back to your cabin.” He glanced over his shoulder, out to sea, and reached down to touch Rogue’s furry back as if for reassurance, then began to unbutton the ragged coat. “They might come back. I’ll feel safer with a roof over my head. And then I’ll tell you what you deserve to know.”
LUKE
It wasearly evening when they got back to the cabin, the sky graced with the first touches of sunset’s palette. Inga carried water from the spring, and Luke washed up and then kindled a fire to heat their supper.
He had spent most of the hike back feeling jittery and paranoid, especially when they had to cross large open stretches with nowhere to hide. He couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that those guys were still hunting him, and had narrowed it down this much. Inga had chased them off for now, and he was beyond impressed with her resourcefulness, but he couldn’t count on having it happen a second time. A man with a big black dog was too obvious. Even if he got himself to the point where he could stand shifting again, it wasn’t like he was less conspicuous as a polar bear.
They quietly made dinner together. Halfway through a meal he barely tasted, Luke started talking.
“The man in the helicopter was named Brockton,” he said.
Inga’s head jerked up. Her eyes rested on him softly, encouraging him to continue with wordless support.
After a moment he went on. “He was the head of security in a private facility at a place called Black Rock Island. It wasdestroyed last year, the person who actually ran it was killed, and most of the research subjects escaped, including me.”
“I know about that,” Inga said. Now it was his turn to stare at her. “I didn’t know you were involved, but I—know someone who was. Go on.”
He looked at her for a long moment. “I guess I didn’t have to keep as much of this a secret as I thought.”
Inga’s smile was soft. She reached out a hand, after a brief hesitation, and placed it on his. “Well, it’s good you’re telling me now. Whenever you’re ready, go on.”
Luke drew a breath and kept talking.
“So I—I was a soldier. Well, before that I was a kind of a washout at life. I told you that I bounced around a lot. It was mostly being shuffled around between different relatives. I lost my mom when I was young, and Dad was an older guy when I was born, and had a lot of health problems. He did his best, but I was in and out of various relatives’ homes when I couldn’t stay with him. Dad passed the year I graduated from high school.” He paused briefly; the sweep of grief that went through him never quite wore off its sharp edges. Inga squeezed his hand, and he continued. “I didn’t really see college in the cards for a guy like me. I bummed around, did some farm and warehouse work. Eventually I joined the military because I figured I’d get an education and see some of the world, and maybe figure out what I wanted to do with my life. It ... didn’t work out like I’d hoped.
“It was pretty good at first. I don’t think I’m cut out to be career military, but it gave me discipline and structure and even some adventure, all of which I needed. Then the word came that they were looking for some guys for a special international unit they were putting together. Some guys in my unit volunteered, and so did I. They gave us a whole battery of tests. Really hard stuff. Guys washing out right and left. It didn’t seem like it was even possible to do some of what they wanted us to do. Irealized later—a lot later,” he said slowly, “that they were testing for shifters. The tests weren’t just difficult, they genuinely were impossible for humans to pass.”
Inga’s warm fingers tightened on his. “But you were a shifter. Surely you couldn’t have had that much trouble?”
Luke looked up and met her eyes in the lamplight. “Inga ... I wasn’t a shifter then.”
Her eyes went wide. “But ... but that’s ...”
“Impossible?” he said, aware of his lips twitching in something like a smile. “Like people turning into animals?”
“Yes, but—but it doesn’t work that way,” Inga protested. “Shifters are born, not made. Even the ones who have their shifting come out later in life always had shifter potential.”
“Do you want to hear the rest of this or not?”
Her hand tightened on his. “Yes. I’m listening. Go ahead.”
