Chapter 24

24

A fter they'd spent a delightful evening together, they finally left right before the club closed. They hadn't planned to stay that late, but they'd all had so much fun. Demetria and Everett drove Fisher and Kira to her apartment.

"We'll pick you up and have breakfast at our place in the morning, and then we'll take you to the headquarters to do the training," Everett said as they wished them a goodnight.

"We had a blast," Kira said.

"We did too," Demetria agreed.

"I agree," Fisher said.

Having breakfast in the morning with the Andersons worked out well for Kira because she had hardly any food in her fridge since she hadn't been home for a while. It was going to be so nice living with her mate now with a stocked fridge and an extended family to enjoy visiting when she and Fisher weren't off on a mission. She loved how beautifully decorated his place was, when hers was really sparse because she hadn't felt settled there and she hadn't even hung pictures yet.

Kira and Fisher carried their bags into the apartment. She had already rented a van and they would pack everything up as soon as Everett finished his training.

Her apartment was a little messy. But not too bad. She always had a clean kitchen, and her laundry was done, but sometimes she was in a hurry to catch a flight when she was on a case, so her bed sheets had been washed, but she hadn't had time to make the bed before she left this last time. She groaned when she saw her bedspread on a chair, and all her pillows on top of it—without their pillowcases.

He laughed and they grabbed her clean fitted sheet and quickly covered the mattress with it. They tugged pillowcases on two of the pillows. Then he began pulling off her dress, and she kicked off her heels. He was trying to unbutton his shirt in a hurry, but she was working on them too.

Then she pulled his shirt off his shoulders and kissed them with tender kisses. "Shower first?"

"Yeah." He unbuckled his belt, and she ran her hand over his arousal.

He was ready for more action this time. He yanked off his pants and the rest of his clothes while she pulled off her panties and bra. They headed into the bathroom, and he took her hand to help her climb into the bathtub and joined her.

"Boy, when I left home and ended up with that last mission, I sure didn't expect to return here with a mate." She started the shower, then poured bodywash out of her bottle and began lathering his body up. She loved the feel of him as she felt his soft skin and hard muscles tense and then relax beneath her fingers. She set the bottle down on a small bath shelf and began running her hands over his taut nipples.

"I know. I never thought I would be leaving Greystoke with my mate and doing shifter training so I could stay with her in my new job!" He grabbed the bottle of bodywash and started running it over her body. His hands lingered on her breasts, fondling them, his fingers circling over her nipples.

His touching her was titillating, making her ache between her legs and grow wet in anticipation.

"You will do stupendously on the mission." She groaned as his fingers continued to play with her nipples.

She rubbed her whole, slippery body against his, feeling the hard planes of his torso and his huge erection against her body and she loved this. She had never imagined being with a mate could be this beautiful.

She rubbed the soap over his back while he wrapped his arms around hers and began soaping her up. This was nice, front to front, washing each other's backs. The next thing she knew, his hand slipped to her front, and he began sliding his hand between her legs.

"Oh," she moaned as he began to stroke her sensitive nub. She thought they would be doing this in bed, but she suspected he didn't want to wait that long and that was fine with her.

His mouth covered hers and she kissed him deeply, but he introduced his finger between her legs and stroked and pumped with it, and she cried out. If she hadn't mated him already, she would have now! He lifted her up so she could wrap her legs around his hips and then he inserted his full erection between her legs and began to thrust.

"Love you so much, honey," he said, then kissed her mouth again, continuing to thrust into her as deeply as he could.

"Love you too, with all my heart."

Fisher tried to slow his pace as he pushed into Kira, but she had her hands on his hips, pulling him tighter, encouraging him to keep going and he couldn't stop. He growled with satisfaction as he filled her with his seed. He continued to thrust until he was finished, and he released her to finish their shower. Being with Kira like this was the perfect way to end the great night they'd had. Though cuddling together for the rest of the night was really nice too. They washed and rinsed off.

Even though he loved the job he was doing for the USF, being with Kira made it the perfect job. He loved being with her on the job and off. They dried each other and then returned to the bed to finish making it. They climbed into bed and snuggled together.

"You are going to do great tomorrow," Kira said, kissing Fisher's naked chest.

He smiled at her and wrapped his arm around her back. "I will do my best to prove to Martin that I can do it." No way did Fisher want Kira to have to leave her job if he couldn't hack it. Not that he really thought he couldn't. And if he did fail? He was signing up for the training to do it again—until he got it right.

The next morning, Everett and Demetria made breakfast of pancakes and sausages and Kira asked, "Has Martin said anything about any more missions for us?"

"No," Demetria said, bringing them all cups of coffee. "So far, nothing has come up. During the holidays, we always hope things will be quiet."

"Has anyone said anything to you about what roles you'll play in my training?" Fisher asked.

"No. The trainers will tell us when we get there." Everett poured some more maple syrup on his pancakes. "You'll do fine."

After breakfast, Demetria and Everett drove Kira and Fisher over to the jaguar facilities where Fisher would take his test. The place was surrounded by pine woods, and they took quite a drive through them to actually reach a complex of buildings.

"The largest building with all the glass windows is the headquarters," Everett said.

"The secure building off to the left is the prison. They have room for two-hundred prisoners," Demetria said. "They only have forty-five incarcerated."

When they arrived at the tactical training and testing facility, Demetria parked, and they all got out and headed for the door. Inside, they were met by the instructor in charge, David Patterson. "Since you are an Army Ranger and qualified with the training you had already done and after helping to take down three rogue wolves as an agent—even in your wolf coat, Martin said you only have to do the shifter testing, no training. Otherwise, you would be here for a week of the exercises."

Fisher was glad he wouldn't have to do all the rest of the training, so that he could actively work on missions with Kira.

"You can use the changing room and then once you've shifted, meet me out here and I'll start you on your journey," David said.

Kira went with Demetria, and Everett and Fisher went to a different group of changing rooms connected by a hallway that led to a couple of different doors.

"Wolves have trouble with some of the jaguar course, naturally, because we can leap higher than you can. When wolves began to join our forces, the headquarters added different obstacles that would allow wolves to take different paths to reach their objectives. The courses are designed to test everyone's ability to reach their goals whatever way that works best for them," Everett said while stripping off his clothes. "Which is just like it would be in real life."

"Good. I'm looking forward to it." Though Fisher loved a good challenge, he was a bit worried he wouldn't pass the test, just like anyone might be. This would be a unique challenge that he couldn't have prepared for, but while working on a real-world assignment, he would have just as unique challenges to accomplish.

Both men finished stripping and shifted, then headed out into a small, unfurnished room with a map covering one of the walls showing forests, houses, a river, creeks, and a few roads.

"Your mission, should you accept it, is rescuing a teen jaguar who has been taken hostage. The warehouse is a maze of rooms and obstacles, and you'll have to use your wits to find the teen and rescue him. You have three hours to accomplish the mission." David held a sweatshirt out to Fisher to sniff. "Parker was wearing this shirt the day before he was taken."

Fisher realized that Everett had slipped away. Kira joined Fisher and nuzzled his nose and then she left the room through one of the doorways.

"You'll be able to smell everyone's scents that have been in the building or might be in the building. You'll find water stations to stay hydrated. They are in safe places where no one will bother you. Clocks with the countdown are in every room you go into, so you can keep track of your progress. Do you have any questions?"

Fisher shifted. "Are there any penalties?"

"If you make wrong decisions, you could end up back at the beginning, or worse—failing the mission. If you don't have any further questions, you may begin, and I'll start the timer."

"I'm ready." And anxious to rescue the teen and solve the mission.

"Good luck. I know you can do it. By the way, as a wolf going through this part of the exercise, Kira has the fastest record of solving the mission. You'll have to ask her how she did it."

Fisher smiled. "I'm not surprised."

Then Fisher shifted, David left the room, and Fisher saw the countdown on a clock on the wall. He headed in the direction that he'd seen Kira go and then he smelled she had gone down a hallway to a room that had four doors. Two doors were in one wall, and two more walls each had a door.

Fisher took deep breaths, smelling everyone's scents. Everett had gone to the far-right door. And that's the way the teen hostage had gone also. Fisher suspected he would be attacked anywhere along the way. If that was the most direct route, it could be heavily guarded. Or traps might be set. Then again, guards and traps could be all over the place.

He found Demetria's scent at the middle door, and on the door on the wall the farthest from where the teen's scent was, he found Kira's scent. He figured he would have to shift to open the door Kira went through, but as soon as he approached it, the door automatically and soundlessly opened. Convenient for a shifter.

He noticed cameras were all over and figured he was being monitored to determine if he could take decisive actions under pressure.

He entered the room with a spiral-patterned, tiled floor of blues, oranges, and browns, and could smell chlorinated water beneath the floor. Up above were platforms a big cat could leap on to make his or her way to the opposite side of the room where there was another door. He suspected if he stepped on the wrong tiles, one would open and he would fall into a pool.

He carefully sniffed where Kira had gone. And smiled. She wouldn't lead him astray. He didn't think. He figured if he stepped on one of the tiles that would fall away, it wouldn't move unless he put more of his weight on it. So he just carefully moved from tile to tile, sniffing each before he took a step. He hoped he wouldn't make a mistake, wishing he could just leap across the platforms instead, knowing this was taking longer than he wanted it to. He smelled that other wolves had been this way, but their scents were fainter, as if the wolves had been there a long time ago.

When he was nearly to the floor next to the door that wasn't tiled, strong fans on the ceiling blew across the room, disbursing Kira's scent and he leapt to a solid rectangular blue tile in front of the door. He believed that was the safe place. When he landed on the tile, nothing happened except that the door opened for him, and relieved, he went inside the room. He wondered if the ones testing him thought that his mate was helping him, and they had to change up the game a bit by turning on the fans.

In this room, there were four doors, the one he had come through and one on each of the other three walls, all painted blue. He could smell the teen had come from the leftmost door and moved across the floor to the opposite door with two jaguars that he didn't know by scent. Or maybe the teen had been moved the opposite way. Fisher could only smell the teen's scent, but he couldn't determine which way he was going.

What if Fisher was being tested on taking the most direct route to the kid? Time was always of the essence in kidnapping cases, but the path that seemed to be the most direct route didn't necessarily mean it was. Again, he smelled Kira's scent and she had gone straight across from the door he had entered, not through one of the two doors that the teen had traveled through. Fisher took a gamble and went through the door she had entered. He figured that the testers were probably amused that he was following his mate's scent instead of the scent of the boy.

But it would be too easy just to do that, he thought. He raced across the floor to the other door and entered. Here, there was a narrow set of stairs, and he went up them. At the landing, he found a narrow walkway suspended two stories high, the chlorinated water rippling way down below. He could imagine falling off the walkway into the water and failing the exercise. He saw a clock telling him twenty minutes had passed. He felt he was wasting too much time, and he began to run across the walkway, feeling surefooted, but then he realized as soon as he did, it started to sway. He lost his balance, his feet slipping, his heart skipping beats, and he nearly fell below the ropes holding the platform up. He had to be more careful and slowed way down.

When he reached the other side, he took a deep breath, smelling Kira's scent and entered through the doorway. Inside was a maze of stacked wooden boxes at various heights from three feet to twenty. He smelled Kira's and Everett's scents inside the room. Again, jaguars and cougars could leap up on top of boxes to see where they needed to go. Even bears could climb up them, if they ended up with any bear shifters in the organization. As a wolf, Fisher could leap up to a lower box and he did that, but he needed to get to a higher elevation to see which path to take. He could shift and climb as a naked human, he thought.

But then he smelled Kira's scent and she had moved down in the maze rather than climbing on top of the wooden boxes so he jumped down to enter the maze too. When he began to navigate the maze, he discovered some of the boxes were open on one side. Fisher heard movement on top of some of the boxes and saw Everett pacing way up high, with his back to Fisher, waiting for him in case he showed up. With Everett up so high, he wouldn't be able to see Fisher unless Everett was walking on top of a box that was near the maze path Fisher was navigating.

When Everett moved in Fisher's direction, Fisher slipped into an open box to keep from being seen. He had to stay out of Everett's sight at all costs or he might end up in a battle. Everett had been in the middle of the box maze, but he moved off to the right of the boxes. Cats could move quietly, but even so, the boxes creaked no matter how quietly anyone walked, which helped Fisher keep track of the jaguar. Even though he could smell Everett, he had moved all over the crates watching for Fisher so his scent didn't help him keep track of the big cat.

Fisher slipped out of the box and made his move toward the left most path. The advantage he had there was that he could remain quiet on the cement floor as he made his way around the maze. But he didn't know which way to go to get out of the maze to reach another door. Maybe the proper path was to the right where Everett had gone and that's why he was mostly focused on guarding that area.

Fisher kept moving, coming to a dead end that went left or right. He didn't smell Kira's scent this way but maybe more than one path could be taken to reach the door. At least he hoped. He went to the right, suspecting Everett might be watching the middle and right side of the maze to make sure that he caught Fisher if he tried to move in that direction. Why would Everett be there, instead of to the left of the maze, unless the path to the right was the correct path to take?

Fisher heard Everett coming and he took refuge in another box and waited. Everett was moving straight for Fisher's box, except five boxes were stacked on top of the one he was sitting inside. He just hoped Everett couldn't smell his scent down below. For several seconds that felt like minutes, Everett stood way up on top of the box. No more sounds were made. Fisher couldn't hear Everett's heart beating so he knew the cat couldn't hear his either. Thankfully .

Then Everett moved away again to the right side of the maze. Fisher breathed a sigh of relief but still he didn't move in case Everett knew Fisher was sitting inside that box, and Everett was waiting for him to leave the spot and move again. Fisher finally moved as stealthily as he could when he heard Everett leaping and landing on a box near him about seven boxes high and Fisher dove into the closest one to him. He waited, afraid Everett had heard or smelled him and knew just where he was. But then after a couple of minutes, Everett walked back to the right side of the maze. Fisher hurried out of the box and headed straight down the path, then to the left, no other option, to the right, to the right again, straight, to the left. All the while, Everett was pacing around the right side of the maze and Fisher thought he was getting closer to the middle of the wooden boxes again.

Then to his guarded relief, Fisher saw a tunnel of boxes with just a missing section in spurts. If he could get through those at a run, it would help him travel faster. But if Everett was anywhere near the open sections, he might be able to catch a glimpse of Fisher. At least Fisher could move through some of the tunnel sections without being seen as long as Everett didn't leap down into the maze.

Then Fisher realized this was probably the section that Everett had been monitoring when he moved back to the middle area. Fisher moved through the tunnel until he came close to the end of this part of the tunnel. He listened, hadn't heard Everett for a few minutes, so figured he was sitting and listening too.

The last he'd heard of Everett, he was still off to Fisher's right. Then a box creaked, but Fisher was certain he could dash through the open area to the next part before Everett could see him. Fisher made it to the next part of the tunnel and navigated to the end of it. Everett was still far enough away that Fisher chanced moving to the next tunnel. He leaped into the tunnel and then moved deeper into it so that Everett couldn't see him. He continued on his way, hearing Everett making his way to where Fisher had been, which gave Fisher the opportunity to continue moving until he was out in the open. The maze had made a right turn and straight ahead was the door. Everett was at the middle of the boxes. Fisher was northeast of him. Fisher ran as fast as a wolf could for the door. Then he heard Everett leaping on top of crates in his direction. Fisher could hide in one of the open boxes to his left or right when they appeared or take the chance to reach the door first.

Once he entered the next room, would Everett just follow him into it? Fisher wouldn't have any choice but to fight him. Fisher was so close to the doorway, he leapt the last few feet, hoping the door would open in time and he could leap through. And with any luck, the door would silently close before Everett knew Fisher had gone into the next room. The door magically opened, and Fisher managed to make it into the next room. He glanced back but didn't see any sign of Everett. The door closed without making a sound.

Fisher took a deep breath and let it out. He smelled Kira's scent in here and he wondered how she had gotten here. He hadn't smelled her scent in the tunnel of boxes. This room was furnished like a bedroom, and he heard a muffled cry behind a dresser. The teen? But Fisher didn't smell the boy's scent in here. An ambush? He didn't think so. At least he had to rescue the person if someone needed rescuing. He hurried to the large chest and behind it, he found Kira gagged and tied to a chair, not in her wolf form, but dressed and in her human form.

His brain couldn't assimilate what was going on at first. Then he shifted and hurried to ungag and untie her.

Kira shook her head. "I'm bait. You've got to hurry and get out of here. Leave me behind."

"Who did this to you?" he asked, his voice hushed.

She spoke in whispered words also. "The trainers. They told me I was supposed to stop you from reaching the teen. I just didn't expect to be a hostage myself." She smiled up at him, hugging and kissing him.

"My mission just became rescuing my partner and finding the teen. If you're being used as bait, you're now on my side."

"Okay, I'll go for that."

She and Fisher headed for the door on the other side of the dresser. "Do you know your way to where the teen is being held?" he asked.

"No, and they have changed the whole facility since I was here last year so it would be like the blind leading the blind."

"You didn't go toward the boy's scent," he said.

"No. I figured they would have everyone there, waiting for you to arrive. And I suspected you would know that and go in the opposite direction."

He shifted, then they entered the next room, and it was empty, save for stairs going down. He went first, since this was his mission, but also to protect Kira should they run into trouble.

He smelled the boy's scent again, but this time he followed it. A clock showed an hour and half had passed and he wondered how that had happened! When they reached the base of the stairs, they were in a room surrounding a swimming pool that looked to be about twenty by forty feet. It looked inviting. Across the pool, a teen was tied up and gagged. Fisher hoped he hadn't been confined for that long, but he suspected that the trainers would know exactly where Fisher had been at all times and would set up the hostage situation when he got close.

He hoped the same had happened for Kira. No guards were posted anywhere, which surprised Fisher. He could go across the swimming pool or race around the pool, which would be quicker. But when he took a step that way, the boy's eyes widened, and he vigorously shook his head. Fisher glanced up at the walls surrounding the pool and again saw platforms where jaguars could leap to and make their way to the hostage from up above. Jaguars were powerful swimmers though too. But wolves were excellent swimmers and would cross rivers and large bodies of water in search of new territories or food.

Fisher didn't see anything that would be an issue around the pool, but he wasn't chancing it since the boy was indicating that there was something amiss over there. Fisher jumped into the pool while Kira waited behind. As a wolf, he could swim five miles per hour, and he reached the other side of the pool in record time.

He couldn't get out of the pool as a wolf. Since the teen was a jaguar shifter, Fisher didn't have to worry about shifting in front of him. He shifted, climbed out of the pool, and removed the teen's gag and bindings.

"Are you alright?" Fisher asked, knowing this was a simulation, but if it was for real, he would have done the same thing.

The teen smiled at him and rose from the chair. "Yeah, they just tied me up before you got here. They said you were just as quick as Kira and didn't take the long way around."

So the way he took had been the shortcut? Fisher shifted back into his wolf, wondering now if he had to get the teen to safety without getting caught. David hadn't mentioned that part of the equation.

David came through the tunnel entrance and clapped his hands, smiling. "You tied with Kira's winning time to accomplish the mission. You can have a lunch break with your fellow friends and then we have the next part of the exercise. It was a good thing your hostage warned you about walking around the pool to rescue him. Alarms would have sounded, and the guards would have shown up. They're turned off now. You can go through this hidden passage that takes you directly to the changing room, shift, get dressed, and Kira will take you to the lunchroom."

Fisher was glad to have made it in the same time as Kira, which showed they thought a lot alike and that could help when accomplishing missions.

Fisher and Kira went together through the secret passageway then. "They're proud of you," Kira said. "And I'm sure they're glad they hired you. Though because of helping to capture the kidnappers that's a foregone conclusion."

When they reached the changing room, he shifted. "I had a time keeping out of Everett's sight. But that was half the fun." Fisher began getting dressed. "So what's the next part of the test?"

"You'll get to take the teen to safety."

Fisher laughed. "So it will be an escape and evasion exercise with the freed teen hostage." He slipped on his boots.

"Yep."

"As shifters?"

"Yep. You have proven you can do all of that as a human in a real-life situation and also as a wolf, but you'll have the new mission of getting the teen to a safehouse as a shifter."

"Will you be on the mission with us?" Fisher asked.

She smiled. "Probably not, unless I end up being taken hostage again. I don't believe they think I would be on their side."

He kissed her. "If the roles were reversed, I would have broken free and come to your aid."

"That's another reason why I love you."