Authors: Noah Harris
Sailing Deep (20 page)
They didn’t separate until the roar from the shifting dragons echoed across the field. The two shadows took flight, and Dylan looked up at them with horror. Time was up.
“We need to go,” Blake said, reluctantly stepping away. They stripped off their clothing in record time, and Blake hid them in one of the bushes that lined the door. “We need to warn your team. Now.”
“I know.”
“Do you still have the watch?” Dylan lifted his arm, indicating the watch. Blake nodded. “The wristband is elastic; it should stretch or shrink to fit your wrist in wolf form. It’s also waterproof, just in case. Make sure your superiors get it.”
“You’re coming with me,” Dylan said though he was feeling a tendril of doubt that sunk in his gut.
Blake shook his head sadly, giving Dylan a reluctant smirk. “I need to be here to hear what they say tomorrow.”
“But without me-”
Blake stepped forward and took his face in both hands, pulling him forward to kiss him deeply. “Without you, I’ll be sad and lonely, but I can do what’s necessary. This is my job, remember? Trust me.”
Dylan kissed him one last time, trying to memorize the feel of his lips and the curves of his body against his own.
Then stepped back and let the pull of the moon have its way. They shifted quickly, and Dylan gritted his teeth against the temporary burst of pain. When he opened his eyes again, relief flooded his system. Everything was in sharp details. Sights, sounds, smells. The earth beneath his paws and the taste of the wind on his tongue. He felt strong. He felt free. He felt the need to stretch his legs and run until he couldn’t run anymore. He wanted to hunt, to mate.
He shook his head. No. He couldn’t let the wolf have complete control. It tried, and it struggled, but he held his instincts in place. He had to get back to his team.
He led the way and Blake followed, easily keeping pace. They circled the castle, shooting past other shifters who were just getting comfortable in their second skins. He didn’t care if anyone saw them go. They would think the two lovers were eager for the night. No one would follow them, and they needed to go the fastest possible route. After seeing plenty of maps of the area and going on his daily patrols, Dylan knew the area well. He was confident in his ability to get back to his team, despite the fact that he was half drugged and under the influence of the full moon when he first arrived.
After what felt like hours, with the same familiar trees passing them by, and constant looks over their shoulders for the ominous shadows of the dragons in flight, they reached the outskirts of his SEAL team’s camp. He had smelled them before he saw them. They were familiar, despite his month away and being surrounded by hundreds of other shifters. Without stopping, he darted past the invisible territory line and headed straight for the center. Blake remained on his heels. They ran past several of his shifted companions, all of whom went on high alert when they saw the two dart past.
By the time they reached his non-shifter superiors, the rest of the SEAL pack was following them. The pack all gathered around them as they came to a stop. Dylan was panting heavily, his chest heaving. Squeezing his eyes shut, he dug his paws into the ground. With a tremendous amount of effort, he managed to shift back into his human form. The wolf fought him the entire time.
Then he was human again, naked and crouched on the ground. His instincts tore him apart as the wolf struggled to remain at the surface. He wasted no time. “Our position has been compromised. We need to evacuate now. Areal scouts will be flying over tonight. Weredragons.”
That caused whispers to start up immediately, but they didn’t have much time before orders for evacuation were being barked out. Dylan released his hold on his humanity and let his wolf have control again. The shifting was quicker this time, and he laid on the ground, panting as the pain from shifting back and forth faded. Blake hovered over him, licking his muzzle and keeping an eye on all the movement around them.
They packed up their camp quickly and efficiently. When it came time to leave, Blake didn’t move to follow them. Dylan rubbed against him, taking in his scent, licking his muzzle and his ears. They bumped heads, and then Blake stepped away. He nodded, and then turned and ran back into the forest. Dylan watched the white wolf go until he couldn’t see him anymore, feeling oddly empty inside.
Their relationship had been purely business and purely physical. At least, that’s what he tried to remind himself. Deep down, he knew that wasn’t true. Still, he knew who Blake was now. He could find him again. If Blake wanted to be found.
Turning on his tail, he went to help his team. They worked together, shifter and non-shifter, to carry their things far west of their original camp site. Once they were miles away, they hid their equipment and themselves amongst the trees and waited for morning. To his relief, Dylan didn’t see the dragons come this far west. In the morning, a ship arrived to evacuate them. Dylan felt sick as he watched the shore fade into the horizon.
Epilogue
There were many things Dylan was prepared for.
His team was prepared for the hasty evacuation. They had pulled it off tremendously well. He was prepared to stand with his superiors and relate his tale. He was prepared to tell them of his entire experience with the Shadow Pack, starting with why the quick evacuation had been necessary before starting over at the beginning. He was prepared to be questioned. He was prepared to answer questions about Blake, and he was proud when he answered them as easily and evenly as he did the others. He was prepared to hand over the watch Blake had given him, telling them it contained a memory chip with information about the Shadow Pack. He was prepared to leave the pack and the people he had come to know. And he had thought he was prepared to leave Blake.
He was wrong. So very, very wrong.
He quickly slipped back into he rhythm of life as an active Navy SEAL. Years of training will do that. He easily went through the motions. He had always been quiet, so no one questioned him when he said little. But he felt empty. He hadn’t felt this empty in ten years, and as far as he could tell, this was worse. Luckily, he had a strictly enforced routine that helped him take his mind off of it. For the most part anyway. His thoughts and his emotions tended to catch up to him at night when he had nothing to distract himself.
It was a week before they got further news from Blake. Having been on the inside himself, they called Dylan to join them when they received a message from the mole. When it was announced that Blake had made it safely out of the Shadow Pack without incident, Dylan breathed a sigh of relief. He felt the tension run out of his body, leaving his legs feeling like jelly. He hadn’t realized how much it had bothered him, leaving Blake and possibly compromising his position. A weight on his chest and his shoulders lifted.
It was also said that this would be his last message for a while. He had gotten out safe, but he needed to go dark for a while. It wasn’t too surprising, but Dylan found he was disappointed. He had been hoping, in the recesses of his mind, that Blake would join them after the job was finished. That didn’t seem to be the case.
Blake’s final message also contained all the information he had been able to gather in his last few days. Most of it pertained to Lyphnia and Arulean. Dylan sat through the rest of the meeting where the information was discussed. He found it hard to pay attention, and he was caught off guard several times when he was asked questions about what he knew. In the end, it was determined that the Shadow Pack didn’t pose a threat as of now, but they would be keeping an eye on them just in case. Lyphnia’s pack, however, they would need to know more about.
Dylan left the meeting thinking just one thing: Blake was safe.
The next several weeks were tough. He moved through his days in a daze. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop the empty feeling in his gut. He had given up trying and accepted his state of emotional numbness.
Three weeks after his hasty escape from the Shadow Pack, Dylan was laying in his bunk and checking his email on his phone when it suddenly buzzed with a new text message. It was from a number he didn’t know.
“Hey babe, miss me?”
Dylan stared at the text, his eyes wide. He was fairly sure he had stopped breathing, and his heart skipped a beat before pounding into overdrive. His fingers shook with the sudden shock of adrenaline, and he found typing to be hard. He had no doubt in his mind who the text was from.
“How did you get my number?”
“All information is free if you know where to look. Besides, I couldn’t let my mate get away that easily, could I?”
“We’re not mates.”
“Aren’t we?”
“We’re not undercover anymore.”
“But that doesn’t really matter, now does it?”
“I suppose not.”
“That’s more like it. So how’ve you been without me, love?”
Dylan rolled onto his side to hide his face from his roommates. More specifically, to hide his smile. Blake was infuriating and cocky, but he was also kind and caring.
Dylan was prepared for many things, but one thing he could never have been prepared for was getting a mate.
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