Page 94 of Wolf Bound

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.”

25

Kira was so proud of Fisher for accomplishing the mission in the same amount of time as she had taken. She’d set the record for wolves, but she was happy to share it with her mate. She had been serious when she had told him to leave her and rescue the boy instead. But she was glad her mate hadn’t left her behind in the event the coordinators had decided to use her as bait again.

They headed to the dining room, and she asked, “What made you go in the same direction I had gone in?”

“First, I felt going in the same direction as the teen had was probably the wrong choice because it would make the quest too simple. But also because I had smelled that you had gone the way I had planned to go and I knew you wouldn’t try to entrap me.”

“What if I had? I would have been obligated to do what they had told me. Even if I had wanted to help you, they had cameras everywhere watching what we did.”

“Yeah, right.” He sounded like he didn’t believe her.

She really would have helped him in any way that she could have if she had been able to if her role had been to thwart him in his mission. She suspected they knew that and would have wanted to see how she had reacted to helping him. But she knew he had to do it alone—unless of course she had needed to jump in and assist him.

They walked into the dining room where Everett and Demetria were sitting at a table waiting for them. A buffet bar was set up and long tables accommodated maybe sixty or seventy people but no one was there eating yet.

“They have a great buffet here, free of charge for new trainees,” Demetria said, motioning to the food bar. “Let’s get something to eat. Maybe during the next phase of your mission, I can even play.”

Everett shook his head, smiling. “I didn’t get to play either. I did a lot of pacing, leaping around, and sitting on top of boxes. I thought I heard Fisher going through the maze but when I checked it out, I didn’t smell him or see any glimpses of him. I figured I had imagined he had come my way. I never expected him to slip by me without me even noticing. Even when he went through the doorway, I thought that would have alerted me.”

“I was sweating it out a few times when I heard you draw close,” Fisher said, “and I wasn’t really sure I was headed in the right direction.” He served up some lasagna and garlic toast, salad, fried chicken wings, and grabbed a bottle of water. “If you had heard me go through the exit door, would you have come after me?”

“No. I would have had to stay in the maze until I was given the okay to move in the event you backtracked. Others were supposed to stop you in the next area,” Everett said.

“Where were you, Demetria?” Fisher asked.

“I was in another part of the building where we thought you might go. It was a much longer route and five of us were monitoring various sections there. We should have figured you would take the path that led away from where the teen had gone.” Demetria got a lunch similar to Fisher’s, minus the chicken wings and she added cantaloupe and honeydew melon to her plate.

Everett picked up a hamburger, french fries, and some strawberries and blueberries. Kira dished up haddock and chips, tomatoes, strawberries, and pineapple and they all grabbed bottles of water and returned to their table. Other jaguars began drifting into the lunchroom, looking like they had been having a workout in another part of the facilities while they joked about their successes and failures.

Kira thought everyone looked like they were glad to be here no matter what the rigorous training they were going through entailed.

“Those are jaguar enforcers here for training. Some are new, some are learning to be teachers who train newbies or are retesting for other purposes,” Demetria said.

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