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Walker nodded at Carly, then looked up at Tiger "Thank you," he said "For the proer sat doith his usual stoicislass of juice Carly handed hi downstairs, preserving the illusion

"Proer wouldn’t speak

"Because of Tiger, I get to trade old leaves And assume command of the detachment to the Shifter Bureau Lieutenant Colonel Sheldon has disappeared"

Tiger set down the glass he’d just drained "Disappeared where?"

"If I kneouldn’t have said disappeared Seems that someone tipped off Shifter Bureau, the army, and the media that Sheldon ordered the fire to be set in the community center He’s public enemy number one Post vacant, and I was offered it, as I was XO and knew all about the training and projects at the camp anyway"

"Someone tipped the who did that"

"Couldn’t say," Liaet started?"

He and Sean shared a conspiratorial grin

"Anyway, I’er Shifter," Walker said "Who’s not to be har superhero" Walker leaned forward, looking Tiger in the eyes, a gleaured out, er lifted his head, waiting, his heart beating rapidly, but Walker only sat there, hands around his coffee cup, grinning

"What?" Carly asked, fists on the table, her i her scent "Don’t keep us in suspense"

Walker cleared his throat and er was a weapon A perfect soldier who never gets tired, heals right away, and doesn’t need to eat, drink, or sleep for long stretches of tier as a prototype He wanted to take Tiger to Afghanistan and de shot up or burned Sheldon’s plan was to breed er, except ones s He regarded Tiger as his beacon, one guiding Sheldon all the way to brigadier general and higher"

Lia coffee "The Fae bred us a couple thousand years ago to be the perfect soldiers," he said conversationally "We’d fight their wars so they wouldn’t lose so s in the universe The Fae found out the hard way that they couldn’t control us, e fought a ith the to control us, but in, oh, about a thousand years, they still haven’t figured out how"

"But you wear Collars," Walker said

Liam’s eyes widened "Well, now, that’s true, isn’t it? How about that?"

Connor snorted a laugh froer Is that what he was ht so at first," Walker said "Then I did soinal experiments My old friend Dr Brennan knew a few of the people from the research team way back when He consulted with theist I hunted up a couple ere still around and talked to them The project had been shelved andin Area 51 burned down But the researchers had kept their personal notes, and they gave theer a look of syh hell, didn’t they? Believe ave hiht so at first," Carly broke in, still watching Walker "What do you think now?"

"That Tiger wasn’t bred to be the perfect killing machine," Walker said "Yeah, he has all those qualities I , a body that adapts to extreain, the excite un to point and shoot" Walker stopped, letting the Sean and Connor, who’d turned from the stove

Kim came into the room with Katriona, dropped a kiss to Liam’s cheek, and sat down next to her lare "Well, corinned "Search and rescue" He delivered the words, then sat back and drank his coffee

They sat in stunned silence, until Lia, but Walker’s words ht

I knohat I was h, still looked bewildered "Search and rescue? Youout in the middle of nowhere?"

"More than that," Walker said, animated "Search and rescue, do to be put in with A-Teao deep into ene, like kids and moms, fix them up, keep them safe The same for civilians of allies or our civilians ar comes to them"