Page 3 of Coming Home

“I’m fine, and we both know it,” I argued.

“I know this, you know this, but neither of us can afford for them to know this. You think it’s easy to hide this division in plain sight in the United States Army? Well, it’s not. If I sign off on release forms only two weeks after an injury you weren’t supposed to walk away from, we’re going to get investigated.”

“Fine, then document it however you feel is necessary and send me back in. As long as it looks right on paper, no one will even know I’m gone, and you know that’s true.”

“You’ve been a pain in my ass for the last nine years, you know that?”

I laughed. “Yeah, you don’t let me forget it.”

“I inherited this command because those in the know knew I could handle it and be discreet about the slightly less-than-human soldiers running about. Shifters were discovered on the war front back in World War II. Eyewitnesses say they were saved by various animals that appeared out of nowhere amongst the smoke and flames. Other reports said there was a batch of either zombies or vampires that rose from the ashes after having been shot dead.”

“It’s not impossible to shoot and kill us, but we do heal quickly, so if it’s not a perfect kill shot, it just hurts like a son-of-a-bitch and takes a couple days to recover. Or, as you know, a quick shift and I was good to go within twenty-four hours. It nicked my spine at most. This isn’t a big deal.”

“That’s because you’re not human.”

“Exactly,” I argued.

“And that’s exactly what I’m trying to do, to save your ass from others finding out.”

We’d been having the same argument for days.

“Look, I called you in here to tell you that I’ve requested a doctor to verify your progress. He’s one of my guys, human, but he’ll keep his mouth shut about your miraculous recovery. He’s seen others walk away from worse in this unit. On paper he’s going to find you safe to move and recommend you rejoin your unit due to depression.”

“Aww, man, not depression. They’ll assign me a damn shrink,” I grumbled.

“That’s the best that I can do, Ben. At least you’ll be back with the boys and if you happen to sneak out during that time and join the team, well, let’s just say heads will roll if any of you are stupid enough to put that in a report. You were never there, are we clear?”

“Crystal. And for the record, shifters have been battling in wars alongside humans from a lot longer than World War II.” I grinned when he rolled his eyes.

Finally, I was getting sprung from this hellhole.

“There is one final thing, though. He’s not coming until tomorrow, and you’re taking one of the new recruits back with you. So, I can pick him, or you can. You’ve been working with these guys for the last two weeks. I trust you. You know better than anyone who and what we need on the team,” the major said.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m stuck with one of these morons?”

“Officially, he’ll be your temporary replacement.”

“What?”

“Shay, I have to do this so it looks like you’re a normal human recovering at least on paper. You know this. I’m not going to sit here and keep repeating myself. You have until tomorrow morning to decide, or I will do it for you.”

“Yes, sir,” I said as I turned my chair around and wheeled towards the door.

“And do me a favor and take a close look at Jake today,” he said as I was about to exit.

I sighed and nodded without even bothering to turn around. Jeff had made up his mind and that was his passive-aggressive way of letting me know. Of all the people Jake would have been my last pick. I wasn’t sure what his animal spirit was, but the kid was cocky and overly confident. I was certain he’d never failed at anything in life and he let everyone know it. It didn’t make him much of a team player. Plus, he talked too goddamn much for my taste.

I didn’t like the new plan, but if it got me away from this hellhole and back to my team, I’d take it. I hated this wheelchair more than I could possibly say in words. It wasn’t even a regular one, but a damn electric chair, because with my spinal injury, I wasn’t supposed to have full use of my arms yet, just enough to operate the stick on the arm of the thing.

The depression thing wasn’t entirely off base, and I knew I would feel better just being around the guys. I hated being separated from them. Someone had to cover their asses, and that someone was me.

Plus, anytime I had too much downtime on my hands, my mind wandered back to a period in my life that would likely haunt me until the day I died. I knew I had done the right thing in leaving, but that didn’t mean it didn’t feel like a part of me had been severed in the process.

No matter what I did or how I tried to rid myself of the memories of her, nothing ever worked. Staying busy was the only thing that kept me from going crazy. And these last two weeks, I hadn’t had much work to do. I tried not to even think her name.Shelby Collier. I sighed, trying to push my demons back into place.

She was the one thing I had never shared with my brothers in arms. They knew I still carried a stack of letters from her on me at every mission. We weren’t supposed to ever bring something so personal on a mission, but I had blown up enough times over the years about it that the guys just looked the other way.

I knew they all assumed she was dead. It was easier than the truth, so I let them believe it. She had written every day for the first two years, then she finally stopped. Never once did she mention him in any of them. She’d hinted about something important she needed to tell me when I was still in boot camp, but she hadn’t, and I’d asked her not to come out with my parents on graduation day. In some ways, that had been even harder than telling her I had joined the army.

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