Guardian Wolf - By Linda O. Johnston Page 0,2

what she suspected—and honest about it?

The person she had glimpsed so briefly, in the distance, was surely not Simon Parran.

“This wasn’t where we planned to meet,” hissed Sgt. Kristine Norwood. Grace’s aide held a blanket around her while handing her a backpack filled with clothing.

“You’re right,” Grace agreed, observing Kristine’s struggle with Bailey, her dog, who tugged on his leash, straining toward the fence.

“Sit, Bailey,” Kristine ordered. The well-trained shepherd-Doberman mix obeyed, but Grace could see his eagerness to get through the fence. He must have smelled the same scent Grace had, with his permanently enhanced canine senses. Of course her senses were better than most humans’, especially right after a shift. But at the moment Kristine, acting like a mother hen—which was her duty—seemed oblivious.

Kristine was in her late twenties, with short, raven-black hair and a strong yet attractive chin that complemented her no-nonsense attitude. In addition to being a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Army, she was a nurse.

Most important, like Grace, she was a member of Alpha Force.

Unlike Grace, she wasn’t a shapeshifter. Her mission was to watch Grace’s back, in whatever situation, whatever form, Grace found herself. Like last night, and this morning.

“Sorry.” Grace finished pulling up her jeans. “I sensed something interesting over by the storage building. I’m still not sure what—who—it was.”

Kristine regarded her with piercing brown eyes. “Bailey growled when we were near there a little while ago, but I didn’t see anything. Some guy was wandering around the area earlier, though, after dark. I saw him in the moonlight. I kept Bailey and me way back like you wanted so you could do your special form of recon on the area. Was it the thief?”

“I don’t know,” Grace said slowly. She couldn’t believe she’d sensed who she’d thought she had. She’d never forgotten Simon but, even as often as she still thought of him, he’d never appeared in her imagination that way before.

Only in her dreams.

Somehow, she had to find out more about that wolf. More important, she had to learn who the person was whom she’d seen, and why he’d been so close to the biohazards storage facility. Logic suggested it was the thief.

Were the two beings one and the same? She’d caught only one scent from this distance.

As if hearing her thoughts, Kristine said, “Well, you’d better find out who it is and why he was there—preferably before we call Major Connell.”

Major Drew Connell was Grace’s superior officer in Alpha Force. He would expect them to report in soon about how things were going—especially after last night’s full moon.

“I agree, but it won’t happen immediately.” Grace strode off toward the residential quarters near the entrance to the air force base where Kristine and she, and the other visiting Alpha Force members, were staying while on this mission.

“When do you have to report for duty at the hospital today?” Kristine asked. “Do you have time for a nap?”

She could take the time but didn’t want to. “I’ll just walk Tilly, then shower and change clothes,” she told Kristine. Tilly, a German shepherd mix, was her cover dog—one who resembled her in shifted form. If anyone ever saw Grace while she was wolfen, she could laugh it off, say they’d seen Tilly. She had been left in Grace’s room last night and would need some TLC this morning.

They had reached the boxy, five-story residential building. Other military folks poured out, apparently ready to start the day at the base. Grace and Kristine waited, not wanting to buck the crowd. They received a few curious nods and other greetings, but neither was in uniform and no one saluted them.

Soon, as fewer people were exiting, the two used their key cards and went inside.

“I’ll call you when I’m ready to go to the hospital,” Grace told Kristine, and headed for her apartment.

Grace knew she should be exhausted. Instead, she was full of nervous energy.

Rather than a walk, she took Tilly out for a jog. There was a running track near the front of the base, where most living quarters were located. They were alone at this hour. Fortunately, although the Arizona day promised to be a hot one, the temperature was bearable for exercise.

When they returned to their quarters, Grace fed Tilly and ensured she had sufficient water, then took a shower and dressed. Adrenaline had awakened her enough to face the day.

That, and the intriguing identity of the stranger near the biohazard storage last night. Two beings, a wolf and a man?

And by