Page 18 of Operation Wolf: Eli
CHAPTER 11
Olivia
WE MADE IT ONto the train with barely fifteen minutes to spare, and nearly every bone in my body ached with pain and exhaustion.
I had changed into a fresh pair of clothes that Eli had purchased for me for the trip. Then I’d watched as he hauled the body of the mobster behind some bushes off to the side of the road before wiping the blood from the upholstery. We’d gotten back into the car, and he’d driven to the train station, abandoning the car a few blocks away and forcing me to walk the rest of the way.
A distant part of my mind knew that both the body and car would be found by morning, and we would be in a world of trouble, but the rest of me was completely numb, in shock from what had happened.
I allowed Eli to steer me into our luxury bedroom suite that looked like an excellent hangout to set off on an upscale hijinks train adventure. It was nothing like the stuffy, tight train quarters depicted in the movies. The train’s bedroom suite was brightly lit, with huge windows and fold-down tables for laptop work. On either side of the suite, the lower-level sofas looked like they could slide out into a bed, and there was another drop-down bed directly above it. Four beds in all, complete with their own linens, pillows, reading lights, and a beautiful view.
Exactly how rich is Eli?
I plopped down on the plush sofa directly across from Eli and stared at him. My mind snapped back to the image of him leaning across the front cab of the car and sinking inch-long teeth into our driver.
He’s a monster. A damn monster.
“Do you want anything to eat or drink?” Eli asked gently, shaking me from my reverie. He was looking at me with concern, and I realized he’d taken one of my hands in his own. “You’re ice-cold. I could get you some hot chocolate.”
“No, thank you,” I mumbled, withdrawing my hand from his even though a part of me was reluctant to do so.
His hand was strong and warm, and while it was a little meatier and more callused than I remembered, it was still the same hand I’d enjoyed holding all those years ago when we were high school sweethearts.
Except the muscles and calluses aren’t the only things that have changed.
I’d seen the claws sprout from his fingernails when he underwent his . . . transformation back in the car. It had been beyond horrifying.
But he saved my damn life. He saved both of our lives. That mobster is proof that Eli’s right, that the Outfit really is after me.
The train blasted a shrill whistle and then slowly started to ease out of the station, signaling our departure. I sighed and forced myself to look up to meet Eli’s gaze.
“I want you to tell me what you are,” I said quietly but firmly. “The truth, please.” I needed to understand who was sitting across from me, what kind of creature currently had my life in his hands.
Eli let out a sigh of his own, raking a hand through his hair. I found my fingers itching to touch the curls to see if they were still silky-smooth or if time and circumstance had roughened the strands. Instead, I forced myself to place my hands in my lap and sit up straight against the upholstery of the couch even though it hurt.
“I was on a Special Ops mission in the Bolivian jungles when it happened,” he finally said, staring out the window at the dark sky and twinkling city lights as we sped away from Birmingham. “In conjunction with the CIA, my squad and I were part of a platoon that had been deployed to search for a wanted man there.”
“Carlos Araya?”
“That’s right.” Briefly turning from the window, Eli blinked at me in surprise. “How did you know?”
I shrugged. “His capture and execution were big news at the time,” I said, picking at a stray thread on my pants leg. “I remember hearing about it on the news.”
Eli nodded. “Ah, right. Well, my squad and I were ambushed by a group of wolves one day. They were unlike any wolves I’d ever seen in my life, nearly twice the size of normal ones.” He laughed a little, though there was no humor in the sound. “Anyway, we shot and stabbed at them, but it didn’t seem to have too much of an effect, and they viciously mauled us. We should have died that day. But instead, the process changed us . . . made us become something different . . . something more like them. I blacked out, so I didn’t see what happened next. But later on, I woke up in a camp with another pack of wolves. They told us they’d driven the attacking wolves away and had taken us in. We’d been out cold for a week. We spent another two weeks with them, and they taught us what we were and how to control our animal.”
“And what exactly are you? What do you mean . . . you were changed?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
This larger-than-life story is something I never thought I’d hear from anybody in my wildest dreams, much less Eli.
“I’m a hybrid wolf-shifter,” he said, splaying his hands and staring down at his palms. “I’ve got two different souls inside me now. One’s my own, and the other one belongs to my inner beast. We’re distinct yet joined at the same time, a symbiotic relationship of sorts.”
I sucked in my breath—not wanting to interrupt Eli, but unable to hide my disbelief at what he was saying.
Eli looked up at me, his eyes steely blue once more. “When we got into that car accident earlier, my skull was cracked, and I had a few broken ribs, like yours. But they were already healing when I got out of the car, and the pain is totally gone now.”
Holy shit!
“So, you can’t die?” I asked, my lips quivering.
