Linda O. Johnston - Loyal Wolf

Its emptiness made it a good place to conduct what they now needed to do.

Ralf had pulled behind the structure, just in case. They didn’t want their car to be seen from the road if any of the people they wanted to surveil happened to drive by.

Plus, what they now needed to do could not be done with any normal, non–Alpha Force human around.

It was a secret from all other eyes. It was the heart of their supercovert military unit.

They both were out of the car. Click had remained locked in the rented cabin next door to theirs. He was vital to this part of their assignment—but only because he closely resembled the wolf into which Jock was about to change. If anyone happened to see Jock, Ralf and he would laugh it off. Show off the dog later and say it had always been Click.

“You ready, sir?” Ralf asked. He had pulled his large backpack out of the rear seat of the car and was holding out a vial of the very special Alpha Force shifting elixir.

That elixir alone was enough to entice shapeshifters to join Alpha Force. It had been developed by some of the unit’s members, starting with its commanding officer, Major Drew Connell, and enhanced by formulas that other members had created independently that provided additional qualities.

“‘Sir’? You’re too military, bro.” Ralf was a staff sergeant. Jock, as a lieutenant, was, in fact, his superior officer. But Alpha Forcers worked together too closely to stand much on military protocol. “But yeah, I’m ready.”

They had decided, to save time, to have Jock shift outside the house, at least for this change. Then, when he was off performing his recon, Ralf would find a way to get inside and check the place out.

Now the only illumination was from the penlight that Ralf had taken from his sack and turned on, plus a bit of natural light from the starlit sky, visible now and then through the canopy of trees and over the road where they had been cleared. No full moon, not for another couple of weeks. Jock took the bottle of elixir and downed it slowly. It tasted somewhat minty and a bit like citrus fruit. Drinkable, but that didn’t matter.

When he had finished it, he handed back the empty vial, took a deep breath and said, “Now.”

Ralf aimed the other light he had taken from the backpack toward Jock, the one that, turned on, resembled the illumination of a full moon.

Jock immediately felt the stretching and pulling sensations begin. He smiled, then growled, as his body began morphing into the form of a wolf.

* * *

He prowled through the forest, in the direction of the distant sounds and scents of a large human habitat.

The one that was his target. The target of Alpha Force.

Tonight would be an overview by a wolf seeking information—one with the perception of a human, thanks to the elixir—to see what was there, to help plan what would come next.

He smelled the aromas of the woodlands—the trees. Small creatures whose sounds he heard in the underbrush, fleeing from him. Larger animals—a bobcat. A bear. Perhaps a wolverine. He scented them all, but none was near him.

A good thing. He wanted neither to flee nor to fight.

Not this night.

He soon arrived at his destination. He smelled a legion of humans. Saw the compound surrounded by a tall chain-link fence.

He slowly began circling it, careful to stay far enough away in the trees not to be spotted by curious human eyes.

He smelled fire and approached the wooded area closest to where it seemed to originate. Yes. Beyond the fence, a group of humans sat around a large campfire, apparently talking and drinking. He could smell beer and some harder stuff. Despite his keen hearing, he could only make out a hum of conversation, not specifically what they were saying.

Was it true? Were these men bent on evading—or toppling—authority and harming other humans? Or were they just a group of hunters banding together in a bond of yearning to kill wildlife?

As much as he despised that, it would not be something that merited Alpha Force intervention.

Killing or even threatening other humans did.

He needed to learn more. But he had done most of what he had intended for this night.

Observing, using his other senses that were much keener than those of a human, he nevertheless waited for another twenty minutes, but that yielded little further useful information except for the scent of gunpowder, which fit with who these people were. Explosives? Maybe, but if so they had been set off a while back.

But what he sought could still be on the property, hidden, perhaps being stored without being utilized, for now. This was not the time to check—but he would in the near future.

He had determined where the gates to this property were, including the one staffed by a guard. Other areas where the fencing was not rooted as well. Ways he could enter if he had to.

Still others where the trees and bushes and undergrowth did not end at the fence line but extended onto the property—and could hide a wolf who happened to stalk into them and hide.

He would return here.

Soon.

And then, as he began to leave, he inhaled a scent. A familiar human scent, one that trumped all he had smelled previously.

He had to be wrong. And yet his special senses were never wrong about things like that.

A woman with the anarchists?

No. Near them.

Kathlene.

* * *

What was going on?

Kathlene had headed back to the area of the cabins and arrived just in time to see the car driven by Ralf exit through the motel’s gates and head in the direction of the anarchists’ area. She’d had to stay far back, even drive without using her headlights, to ensure that she wouldn’t be seen.

She’d watched as their car pulled into the driveway of what appeared to be an abandoned house along the road. She had decided she’d better park along a nearby turnout and walk, rather than drive, to keep an eye on them.

And, potentially, protect them. She had taken her weapon from where she had locked it in her glove compartment and now wore it at her hip.

The night was dark, especially with the canopy of trees looming overhead, obliterating the light from the half moon and the stars that, in as remote and unlighted an area as this, usually lit up the sky in identifiable constellations. And she had been right. It was unpleasant to come to this area at night, especially alone. But she had little choice.

She had carefully stayed on the road, walking slower than she would have liked but trying to make as little noise as possible, staying off the cover of dry leaves on the ground yet trying to remain invisible at the edge of the road. Making her way in the darkness. Staying careful, and as aware of her surroundings, and her solitude, as she possibly could.

That way, it took her a long time to catch up.

She had finally reached the house, looked inside a window, saw Ralf there in the faint illumination of a flashlight—but not Jock.

Had he tried to get inside the compound alone?

Bad move, she’d thought. What if he were seen?

Maybe he’d only intended to walk the perimeter outside the fence, just to take an initial look in the dark when he was less likely to be noticed. That made sense to her.

She’d decided to go check, just in case.

Still careful to walk as silently as possible, she had left the house with Ralf inside and hurried toward the road to the compound.

She’d wished she could use a flashlight, but at least her eyes had acclimated to the darkness. She had soon seen the light from the guardhouse and slipped behind the nearest trees, still carefully drawing closer to the area.

Then she’d started to slowly walk the perimeter. But then she had stopped. What was that?

Some kind of canine. It looked, from where she’d stood, like a German shepherd mix of some kind—but tawnier. Furrier. Like a wolf. A wild dog, maybe, that was part wolf.