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“My mother,” he said quietly. “She died thinking I’d been killed overseas. I was just wondering how my life would’ve been different if I’d stayed at home in Los Angeles like she wanted, maybe joined the LAPD like my sister. She wouldn’t have had to live through that. But then I wouldn’t have found the other half of my soul. I would’ve been missing something all my life and never been able to put my finger on what.”
“I see.” Her expression was understanding. “It’s natural for us to question the choices we’ve made, though. What we could have done differently. I’m a firm believer now that life turns out the way it’s supposed to, but I didn’t always buy that.”
“Me, either. But I’m coming around. I joined the SEALs, and there’s no changing what happened after that. And then it was just easier in some ways to let Mom believe I was dead, and have closure, than to face what I’d become. Better for her and Rowan.”
“The thing is, I don’t think your mom ever really gave up, not if her spirit’s visit to you in the hospital was any indication. Your sister certainly never bought that you were dead, from what I gather.”
“No. She never gave up searching for me, and that led her here, to Wyoming.”
“How did she find you?”
“She has a friend who’s an FBI agent, and he has contacts. Someone pried open the lid on our compound and let him tip her off. If Nick knows who’s responsible for spilling the information, he hasn’t told us.”
“That kind of leak could be dangerous.”
“And then some. Can you imagine what would happen if the world found out paranormal creatures are real? I mean, there are people who believe in the paranormal, like spirits and demons and stuff, claim to know it exists. But the general population has no clue what’s actually lurking in the dark.”
Jacee shuddered. “It would be mass chaos. The higher-ups in the government know, but they’d deny it. I’m picturing blanket persecution and another civil rights movement the likes of which we’ve never seen.”
“Jesus, let’s hope it never comes to all of that.”
“Yes, let’s.” She paused, studying him, her chin resting on his chest. He enjoyed her being draped on top of him like a blanket. “So how did you become a wolf shifter? If it’s too painful to talk about, I understand.”
“No, sweetheart, it’s fine,” he reassured her, brushing a lock of dark hair from her face. “There’s nothing I can’t tell you. As horrible as that day was, I was lucky. Many of our buddies didn’t make it out of there alive. . . .”
Afghanistan, seven years ago . . .
* * *
“Jesus Christ, I’m rank,” Raven bitched, scratching at his crotch. “When I finally get to change this underwear, it’ll probably walk off.”
Micah grinned at his friend’s grumpiness. For a tough SEAL, nobody loved being clean more than Raven DeLuca. How he’d survived Hell Week was anybody’s guess. “With assistance from the crabs you caught from that woman in the last village.”
“Shut up, needledick. She did not give me crabs.”
Micah laughed, and Aric and a few of the guys chuckled along with him. They kept walking, and Micah continued the conversation. Nobody was paying any attention to them, everyone else lost in his own thoughts.
“Hey, Raven?”
“Yeah?”
“You ever think of settling down with one woman?”
His friend shot him an amused stare. “What the hell for?”
“Right. Unrepentant man whore. Totally forgot, my bad.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Raven seemed genuinely puzzled.
“Nothing.” Micah just got lonely sometimes. Like maybe there was something more out here in the world that he hadn’t discovered yet. He’d thought perhaps joining the military would help him find whatever he was looking for, but so far he’d come up empty. He wasn’t about to say that to Raven, who’d probably make a joke out of his confession.
Instead he changed the subject. “Do you ever think maybe there’s something more out there?”
“Like what?”
“You know, stuff. Out there, in the universe,” Micah said, waving an arm at the sky in general. “UFOs, ghosts, shit like that.”
His friend shot him a bemused look. “You’re a weirdo—you know that?”
