Page 17 of Alpha Awakened

To kill time, Hazard had decided to chat with Ice over the squad’s communication link. Ever since the Minnesota op, Icehad been more receptive to his social overtures, so he no longer had any hesitance in pulling the captain into a conversation.

“Why do you wear the mask?” he asked.

There was a moment of quiet static in his ear piece before Ice answered.

“Because I like it.”

“Why do you like it?”

Silence was his answer to that question. Undeterred, Hazard tried again.

“Is it your way of making sure people know up front that you’re a wolf shifter?”

For humans, it wasn’t always easy to tell if someone was a shifter. They were generally bigger than regular humans and the color of their eyes could be more intense or sometimes unusual. And their irises glowed when experiencing strong emotions. But if a shifter was calm and not showing their fangs, humans wouldn’t know they were a wolf since they couldn’t scent their pheromones.

“No.”

“Are you hiding an ugly mug under there?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“I wouldn’t be this curious if you’d take it off every once and awhile.”

“Like I said. I like having it on.”

Hazard made a noise of frustration at the answer that did nothing to appease his curiosity. “Anybody ever tell you getting information from you is like talking to a brick wall?”

“Yeah.”

“Who?”

“The last guy that tried to interrogate me.”

“What happened to him?” Hazard asked in genuine curiosity.

“Keep asking me questions and I’ll take you out and show you.”

Hazard let out a gasp of mock delight. “Take me out? Like on a date? Hell, Captain, I didn’t expect things to move that fast between us, but I’m in.”

To his surprise, a huff of a laugh came over the comms before the captain spoke again.

“Shut it, Hazard. And look alive. Our target is on the move.”

Hazard had noticed. The front door opened and a guard stepped out. Behind him was a blond man in a color block Polo, followed by three more guards. Ortiz’s voice came over the comms.

“That’s him. On my count we move. Three. Two. One. Go!”

At Ortiz’s signal, Hazard pushed up to his feet and took off running toward the house in one fluid move.

Jax, who’d been stationed behind the topiary at the side of the house, reached the group first.

“US Legion! Down on the ground!” he shouted.

The guards didn’t listen of course. And they were good, well trained. They grabbed Lewis, took cover behind the vehicles in the driveway, and opened fire. The 448 returned it without hesitation. But they had to be careful. They could take out the guards, but their goal was to capture Lewis not kill him, as he had valuable intel.

While they were engaged in a fire fight with the guards, their target made an attempt to run back into the house. Hazard shot at the ground in front of his feet, deterring him from going that way. Lewis came to an abrupt halt to avoid the bullets, arms pinwheeling to keep his balance. He spun away and raced to the Cruiser instead, the only vehicle that was already running. Jumping in, Lewis floored it, tires digging in and kicking back smoke as he peeled off.

“Hazard, don’t let him leave!” Ortiz ordered.