Guardian Wolf

  There was hunger in his gaze. Lust.

  “We have a lot in common, Grace.” He smiled. “And not only because we’re shifters.”

  She had managed to control the desire she felt whenever she was with Simon. But now, her passion flared, as if it had suddenly burst into flame.

  Impulsively, she reached up—and she was suddenly in Simon’s arms.

  His lips met hers, claiming them. His tongue penetrated her mouth, entering into a sexy duel that made her knees weak.

  His scent was raw and masculine and hypnotic. His body was hard and skilled. His growls and sexy rumbles were as wild as their feral natures.

  But she knew once he took her to bed, there would be no turning back.

  Books by Linda O. Johnston

  Harlequin Nocturne

  *Alpha Wolf #56

  Back to Life #66

  *Alaskan Wolf #102

  *Guardian Wolf #118

  LINDA O. JOHNSTON

  loves to write. More than one genre at a time? That’s part of the fun. While honing her writing skills, she started working in advertising and public relations, then became a lawyer…and still enjoys writing contracts. Linda’s first published fiction novel appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and won a Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for Best First Mystery Short Story of the Year. It was the beginning of her versatile fiction-writing career.

  Linda now spends most of her time creating memorable tales of paranormal romance and mystery. Linda lives in the Hollywood Hills with her husband and two Cavalier King Charles spaniels. Visit her at her website, www.LindaOJohnston.com.

  GUARDIAN WOLF

  LINDA O. JOHNSTON

  Dear Reader,

  Guardian Wolf is the third full-length novel about Alpha Force, a highly covert military unit comprised of shapeshifters. It features Lieutenant Grace Andreas, M.D., an Alpha Force member—and shapeshifter—who is sent to an Arizona military hospital on a special assignment. There, she runs into Dr. Simon Parran, the man she once loved. A man who’d hidden from her the fact that he was also a shifter.

  I enjoyed writing about their mutual suspicions, emotional baggage…and hot sex life! How easy is it for two werewolves to hide what they are from each other, and everyone else, while both attempting, for their own reasons, to stop the thefts of some highly dangerous biohazards? Throw in a fiery attraction they can’t deny, and that’s Guardian Wolf!

  I hope you enjoy the story. Please come visit me at my website, www.LindaOJohnston.com and at my blog, KillerHobbies.blogspot.com. And, yes, I’m on Facebook, too.

  Linda O. Johnston

  Thanks to Dr. Ken Zangwill for ideas about some of

  the diseases referenced in Guardian Wolf.

  Of course, I approached the plot fictionally,

  and any inaccuracies are due to my imagination,

  in the interest of enhancing the story.

  As always, this book is dedicated to my husband,

  Fred, who enjoys that sometimes

  wild imagination of mine!

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Prologue

  No way. It can’t be her.

  That was Dr. Simon Parran’s first reaction as he moved uncomfortably in his seat in the medical center’s small, crowded auditorium.

  His second was to visualize Grace Andreas in his mind. That gorgeous face with her high cheekbones, full, inviting lips—and soft brown eyes that flashed each time she asked a question. Too many incisive questions, nearly all about him. Questions he wouldn’t answer. That had been the problem, back then.

  “Lt. Andreas is a physician,” continued Colonel Nelson Otis, M.D., the commanding officer at the renowned and well-regarded military hospital where Simon worked. Speaking into a microphone, he stood at the podium at the front of the room, clad in a lab jacket like most of the staff here, including Simon. “Her specialty is infectious diseases.”

  Simon wouldn’t have guessed the Grace he’d known would go into the military—if this was her. But her specialty made sense. Not only because Grace gave a damn about people—or at least she used to—but she was also prone to take on any cause and fight till she won, no matter how badly the odds were stacked against her.

  Almost any cause.

  Okay, what if this was the Grace Andreas he had known for a short, intense while, during their early pre-med studies in Michigan? He didn’t need to do more than be civil to her. No chance of avoiding her, though. He was an infectious diseases specialist, too.

  “With Dr. Andreas will be a nurse, Sgt. Kristine Norwood,” the commander continued.

  Most doctors and other medical staff had gathered in the lecture hall at Charles Carder Medical Center near Phoenix, Arizona, for the short, monthly update about pending matters at the facility. One item always covered was the frequent comings and goings of staff members.

  Because the hospital was a military facility, the fluidity of personnel was a fact of life. Most of the time, Simon didn’t care one way or the other.

  This time was different.

  Well, even if he couldn’t help seeing Grace during her tour of duty here, it wasn’t like he didn’t think of her a lot anyway, despite the passage of so many years since they’d last been together.

  But what if she was still as inquisitive as she’d been back then? His primary reason for being here, his secret experiments, were finally beginning to pay off. They were the direct result of who and what he was—and the information he had refused to admit to Grace, no matter how hard she had pressed him. She had hinted more than once that she was like him, making it look as if it shouldn’t matter if he disclosed everything.

  So had those SOBs who’d feigned unity and friendliness with his family—till they had run amok and killed two close relatives.

  If it was his Grace, she might try to repeat the past. It wouldn’t matter. He was older. Things didn’t bother him as much as they had back then. He had learned many ways of protecting himself, his family, their friends.

  Now, if she dug in, demanding answers in her sweet but unyielding way, he could laugh it off more easily. Better yet, turn it on her, since she had hinted of her own secrets. Threaten to harm her and her career by reporting her harassment via official military channels. Not that he’d carry through, of course, unless he could do it in a way that wouldn’t invite more questions.

  Yet…hell. It came to Simon suddenly, in a surge of awareness that nearly made him stand despite being in the middle of a crowded row.

  Her timing could hardly be worse. It would be one thing to deal with her almost any day of the month.

  But tomorrow night—the night of the day she was arriving?

  There would be a full moon. And he had plans.

  Chapter 1

  Freedom!

  Yet potential danger, too. Her control was less this night than most times while shifted.

  She reveled in it.

  Now, with unleashed pleasure, she ran beneath the full moon in territory unknown and vast. She inhaled unfamiliar, tantalizing scents of the desert, where military aircraft landed in the distance, and buildings filled with people squatted nearby.

  Around her were yuccas and cacti and gritty sand beneath her paws. Coolness, because it was night.

  All illuminated by the round, gleaming moon.

>   She had been in this area for hours, alone and out of the way. Pacing in her cherished wildness, yet not going far. It was long into the night now. The risk of being seen by people, even on hospital property, was smaller. She ached to release even more pent-up energy. Her last shift had been more than a week ago.

  But she was not here for pleasure.

  She had viewed her target before, a special building not far from where she stood. Now she needed to observe it with her heightened senses. Wolfen senses.

  She sought out an opening in the fence between the air force base and military hospital. She slipped through to the medical side, careful to test the scents in the air, listen, ensure she remained alone. Her aide, nearby, would not follow.

  The texture beneath her paws turned hard, uneven, warm—a paved road. She loped carefully at the edge so as not to be spotted in moonlight, toward the far border of the parking lot.

  She stopped abruptly as she neared the building. The scent—another wolf like her?

  Or a feral, nonshifting wolf? Perhaps. But why would it contain a hint of something so familiar? So…alluring?

  She waited, still testing the air with her keen senses. Listening. Hearing nothing out of the ordinary. Watching the building surrounded by concealing foliage and shadows. No movement anywhere around.

  Too uneasy to approach further, she slowly returned toward where she had crossed from one property to the other.

  She inched along the fence on the air force–base side, reaching an area in which shrubbery between the sites was thick.

  And waited. Soon, a hint of light over the horizon signaled dawn—and the waning of the full moon’s power. Ready? Yes. Pleased? No.

  She felt the tugging at her skin, her insides, that warned of her next shift. Her aide would seek her now, to ensure that, while most vulnerable, she was in no danger.

  As the pulling and aches increased, she glanced back through the fence.

  And saw what she had anticipated, lurking among parked cars in the large hospital parking lot, not far from the now-distant storage building.

  A canine form. Another wolf?

  Her change took over then, hurting, not unbearably, but inevitably intense.

  It would be over soon.

  In a short while, Lt. Grace Andreas, M.D., hunched along the edge of the sand on Zimmer Air Force Base near the fence separating it from Charles Carder Medical Center. She had been sent to the renowned military hospital on her latest mission for Alpha Force, the covert special ops force to which she belonged.

  Her knees were bent, her back arched, as she inhaled deeply with her human senses.

  She was still nude, and the cool breeze tickled her bare skin. Her assigned aide, Sgt. Kristine Norwood, would catch up soon, with her clothing.

  But—with special thanks to the elixir developed by Alpha Force—Grace recalled well the near-human sights and sounds and emotions that engulfed her while in wolfen form.

  Including the scent she had smelled near the building at the far edge of the medical center property—the site where, she’d been told, the biohazard materials taken from patients were stored temporarily until incinerated. The site where security was heightened and armed guards were always present, at least in the room adjoining the storage area. The site she had needed to check out, even cursorily, upon her arrival, while in both forms. It was the heart of her mission.

  A canine had begun prowling there in the parking lot, most likely a wolf. Another shapeshifter? One not part of Alpha Force?

  Dawn had now overtaken the area. She carefully edged along the air-base side of the fence, staying in shadows, especially since she remained unclothed. Other Alpha Force members had altered the base’s security cameras in this vicinity. She would not be photographed.

  She wanted—no, needed—to see the storage building from this angle, too.

  There. Another gap between some of the non-native, well-watered hedge plants—not much, but enough for her to view the hospital property.

  The scent she had inhaled before still seemed to fill the air. She was aware of it even in human form, partly thanks to her enhanced senses.

  She looked through foliage and fencing, and saw movement on the other side, a distance from where she crouched. Too far for her to be sure, but the glimpse of something—flesh, or perhaps light-colored clothing—from between cars suggested a person, not a wolf.

  One who had just shifted, like her, as daybreak arrived?

  She couldn’t see the person at all now. But the scent. It had been very like one she had known a long time ago, though never in shifted form. Perhaps its owner had not, in fact, been a shifter.

  She must be imagining that scent. But why now?

  Why, after all these years, did she believe she inhaled the musky, enticing aroma of the man she might have loved long ago, had he been 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 Kr
istine. 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 some odd happenstance, could either have been Simon Parran?

  She had seen no indication last night of anyone staking out the storage facility for potential thieves. Unless, of course, that was the intent of the person she had glimpsed so near dawn and so briefly. Or the person Kristine had seen just after sunset. He, at least, couldn’t have been a shifter, since they all changed as the full moon rose in the darkness of night.

  A lot to check into.

  As promised, she called Kristine. “You awake?”