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I bowed out of the Navy gracefully. I turned down what would have been my third set of sign-on papers. I held firm to the decision in the face of my commanding officer’s attempts to lure me back in with astronomical bonuses. And I requested all of my unused vacation days to be rolled over into terminal leave.
Within twelve hours, I was walking off base with a sea bag slung over one shoulder and with no one to answer to but myself. For the first time in recent memory, I was entirely at loose ends.
Yes, I was at loose ends...but I wasn’t without avenues to explore. After all, I’d been carrying a certain shifter’s business card around in my pocket for the better part of the last week, fingering the rounded corners like a good-luck charm. As a backup plan, Stormwinder’s proposed path didn’t seem like the world’s worst way to travel into the next phase of my life.
At least the avenue is worth exploring, I told my surly wolf. Unfortunately, he didn’t deign to answer. Ever since our close call the night before, he’d been unaccustomedly quiet beneath our currently furless skin.
I would have rather waited until both halves of my consciousness were on board for the step. But it was time to make a decision, any decision. So, I stopped on the street corner just beyond the base’s gates and input the strange shifter’s number into my cell phone.
The connection took a moment to go through, then it rang with truncated tones meant to suggest the other party was busy with a different call. Well, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all, I thought, preparing to hit the “end” button.
Honestly, I was a bit relieved not to be sucked back into the werewolf way of life. Sure, I’d need to find another method of keeping myself busy if I didn’t jump on Stormwinder’s offer. But I had some funds saved up and a hankering to see the world. Maybe I’d find a quiet wilderness area and change into lupine form, leaving both human and shifter concerns behind. Maybe I wasn’t really cut out to be anything other than a wolf.
But before I could hang up, the cultured tones that I so vividly remembered rang clear and cool through the speaker. “Stormwinder here.”
In person, the older male had seemed powerful and suave, yet still definitively dangerous. Now, though, Stormwinder’s warm voice suggested he was honestly glad to hear from me.
Or maybe he was honestly glad to hear from someone else. I hesitated, suddenly unsure what I’d meant to say when I initiated the call.
After all, what good would it do to throw my dilemma into Stormwinder’s lap? Our recent dominance contest had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the older male wasn’t strong enough to overcome my inner wolf. What made me think he’d be any more capable of keeping my monstrous side in check?
Still, Stormwinder was clever even if he wasn’t my match otherwise. Rather than waiting for me to spit out words that seemed unwilling to form on my tongue, he spoke quickly and crisply into the silence.
“I’ll have a bus ticket waiting for you at the station,” the older male said. “And my secretary will be in touch with directions to my club in the near future. I’m glad you called.”
I hadn’t spoken once. Hadn’t accepted the job. Hadn’t asked about benefits or duties. Hadn’t even said my name, although Stormwinder had probably gotten that information from caller ID.
Instead, I was left with the sound of a dial tone ringing in my ear and with more questions than answers running circles through my mind.
Was diving straight out of one chain of command and into another what I really wanted?
And who, after all, had been the winner of that recent staring contest?
For all my cockiness, I was pretty sure the victor hadn’t been me.
