Alpha Squad: Boot Camp

Chapter Ten

Chapter TenEver since the first night of survival training, Eric had been even more conflicted than before. Touching Janine's wrist—after that little incident he found it hard to think of her in less personal terms—had revealed a lot more to him than he had let on.

Yes, it was confirmed now that despite being human, she heard him in his head too. What he had not told her since was that during that all too brief touch, he had somehow received a massive info dump of memories from her.

From the moment they first met, to her initial briefing with the general when she had arrived on base. Even the issues she'd had dealing with Oliver Teese, the politician.

Eric knew now what she had meant when she had first thought about her true orders. Eric knew that Alpha Squad was meant to fail.

And as disappointing as that realization had been, Janine still was his mate. He had nobody to turn to; he could not betray her trust. Her secrets were now his secrets.

Eric supposed it made sense. He himself had not believed in the cause at first, so why would the military? It was just disappointing, considering how everyone had given their all, and in the end, it would be for nothing. He could tell that Janine shared this disappointment.

Nobody, especially not someone as ambitious as her, enjoyed heading up a losing team. Not that anyone could guess any of these things by looking at her. She conducted herself as professionally as she had done from the start. After their first night in the wild, they had done an endurance march lasting a full day and almost a full night.

After that, they had been split into two teams to act out a rescue and extraction mission.

They had performed well and passed the survival stage of their training. Janine had told them as much. Everyone, even Bentley, looked pleased by the end of it all; tired, but satisfied.

Eric knew better, of course. For all the improvement their team had shown, what was the point of it all? He could understand Janine's dilemma all too well. If her orders were to let Alpha Squad fail, then what could any of them do about it? Nothing.

They were just cogs in a much bigger machine which someone else operated. Worse, that someone higher up could simply pull the plug if they wanted to. They were powerless.

After a couple of days of rest on base, the next stage of advanced training was the only one Eric had dreaded as soon as he'd found out about it. Parachute training.

A bout of bad weather had delayed their first jump by a day, but the extra theory lessons had not been able to endear Eric to the idea.

This was going to be infinitely more difficult than anything they had been through so far, and that was by design, as Eric had learned from Janine's memories. This was perhaps the last chance for the team to truly fail, if they did not get their nerves under control.

As the cargo plane took off, Eric and Adam stared at one another. This was well outside their comfort zone. The New Alliance didn't have any budget for airplanes, and the brothers had not traveled much outside the country either. This meant that right now was the first time they were going to be in the air.

Bentley, of course, looked smug. Cooper didn't seem too fazed, and Blackwood was excited as usual. After weeks of physical dominance by the two bear shifters and Blackwood, perhaps now the tables were going to be turned.

The demonstration and theoretical training they had undergone leading up to this point had explained exactly what they were supposed to do. But theory was a lot easier than practice.

The military plane had no windows, so Eric had no idea how far off the ground they were already. This was probably for the best.

Eric's ears popped a couple of times before the plane seemed to stabilize. He instinctively checked the straps on his parachute harness. They had calculated things properly, right? He could hardly believe that this little contraption would be able to hold him once the time came.

It's going to be fine, he said to himself.

The door leading to the cockpit opened and Janine appeared. Eric noticed she was wearing the same harness and backpack combo as everyone else.

They were all going to jump? The realization sent his imagination into overdrive. What if something went terribly wrong?

"Listen carefully. In a minute, I will open the hatch and we will jump out one by one. You will keep an eye on your meters and engage the parachute by pulling the strap, just like I demonstrated earlier. If you fail to do so, or something goes wrong with the main parachute, the backup will engage automatically. Understood?" Janine said.

What if the backup fails?

But Eric didn't say that out loud. Instead, he merely nodded.

"Yes Ma'am." Blackwood all but cheered.

Bentley nodded curtly as well. Of course, he already knew everything as usual.

"Then, when your parachute opens, you will navigate to the large X on the ground. Callahan is already waiting on ground, and I will meet you there as well."

Adam folded his arms and tried to look tough, but Eric could see in his eyes that his brother was scared. As was he. But his ego didn't allow to show it in front of Janine especially. Of course, if she was listening in on his thoughts now, she already knew…

He rested his hand on Adam's shoulder and stared straight ahead.

Janine walked up to the hatch and opened the levers, which seemed to groan in protest. As soon as she finished, the outside noise became deafening. It was like a hurricane passing by.

Bentley jumped up. "I'll go first," he shouted.

Janine pursed her lips and smiled, then she gestured at him to sit back down. "You're the most experienced one here. You'll go last."

As soon as she finished her order, she adjusted the strap of her helmet and stepped up to the exit.

Don't do it! Eric's inner bear screamed. But she seemed oblivious to his protests—or perhaps she just ignored them—and took the jump a split second later.

He jumped up and followed. No way was he going to sit around here wondering whether she had made it down in one piece. That was not how he functioned.

"Oi!" Adam shouted behind him. He shrugged it off.

With his woman hurtling toward the ground below, it was every man for himself right now.

Plus, he wouldn't have a hope in hell of ever impressing her if he didn't step up and do the job. Eric paused for a moment at the door, but then threw himself headfirst into the noise. All or nothing.

The feeling of free-falling for what felt like an endless thirty seconds was unlike anything Eric had felt before. He closed his eyes for a bit to get used to the sensation, but that did not help. There was no getting used to it. It was alien, terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.

He pulled the cord exactly when he was supposed to; the chute deployed and caught him with almighty jerk.

This had to be something of a record. Never before had he heard of any bear shifter jumping out of an airplane before. And today, provided he didn't chicken out, there would be two. And a wolf.

He looked down and saw the X Janine had referred to, and a chute, presumably hers, navigating right toward it. Up above, a couple of figures appeared at lightning speed; the others, whose chutes had not opened yet. One by one, they seemed to stop in mid-air as their backpacks released the carefully folded up lengths of fabric. It was mesmerizing to look at. They floated so elegantly, navigating left and right to get the hang of how things worked.

It was magical and exciting. He felt invincible.

Then, Eric noticed one obvious odd one out. One team member whose flightpath had no elegance or control to it, and who seemed to just spin around his own axis again and again.

Adam!

Eric's heartbeat went into a frenzy as he watched his little brother falling just a bit faster than the others, despite his chute being out. Something had gone very, very wrong.

As Adam came closer and closer to his altitude, Eric could see the problem. He wasn't in human form anymore. Great big furry paws tried to hold on to the reins of the parachute, but were unable to operate them with the finesse required to steer properly.

That was when it happened to Eric as well. He felt the change overcome him so quickly he could do nothing to stop it. His protective instincts had disabled his conscious decision making processes. His brother, his flesh and blood, was in trouble, and his bear reacted.

He tried his best to get close to Adam, but it was no use. There was no way he would be able to help him like this.

Eric closed his eyes and forced himself with all he had to push the bear back into its cage. For Adam. Oh please, I can't let him down!

It worked, just about. He found himself somewhere in a half state that at least allowed him to get closer to his brother.

"You've got to focus, Adam!" he tried to shout, but it sounded more like a growl.

"It's not working! I'm going to crash!" Adam screamed.

"Trust me. Shift back."

"How?"

"Don't argue. Just do it!" Eric urged.

"I'm going too fast!"

"Pull both the cords at the same time," Eric said, remembering their briefing just before take-off.

Adam did so, clumsily, and sure enough, he slowed just a little bit.

Eric did his best to match his brother's speed, but he wasn't exactly an expert himself. Then, from the corner of his eye he spied Bentley, who started shouting instructions of his own. They could barely hear him over the sound of the passing air.

"Left!" Bentley seemed to say.

Adam turned his head, looking at the middle-aged human. "What?" he barked.

"Pull left!" Bentley repeated, louder this time.

Eric shook his head. "Shift back. You'll be able to do it if you shift back. Clear your mind."

It was Bentley's turn to look confused. The problem wasn't that Adam was unwilling to operate the chute properly, it was that he simply couldn't like this. It was hard to be delicate when you had paws the size of dinner plates.

"Clear your mind, dammit!" Eric shouted again.

Adam finally stopped flailing around and closed his eyes. The change was subtle at first, but when the fur started to vanish from his hands and arms, Eric could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"Bloody hell, you were right, bro!" Adam shouted, when finally the chute reacted to his much more subtle inputs. "It's working!"

Eric exhaled sharply. He knew in his heart that a lot could still go wrong. At least Adam was on the right track.

"Aim for the X," he said, and followed his own instructions.

It only took a few minutes for the bears to reach solid ground. They had landed surprisingly near the X, all things considered.

The major and private Callahan were already waiting.

That was too bloody close for comfort. Eric ran his hand through his hair and let out a nervous laugh.

Are you OK? Her voice, no, her presence, entered his mind, just like it had done up on the hill during the survival exercise.

Fine, but perhaps let's not do that again, he thought, then he diverted his attention back to Adam, who was still trembling, even though his feet were firmly planted on the ground now.

Eric scrutinized his brother's uniform, which was completely ruined and hanging off his now fully human body in tatters. That was when he noticed that Adam was looking back at him with an amused grin on his face.

"Made it. But I think we both need some new clothes."

Eric looked down only to find his own gear in much the same condition.

Then he looked up and saw that Callahan was stealing glances in his and Adam's direction. Awkward. Janine glanced up once before taking the clipboard from Callahan's outstretched hand and making a few notes. Had she taken a peek herself?

I'm so sorry, the same voice said.

He wasn't sure what she was sorry for, exactly, but at least he seemed to have gotten her attention again. His inner bear rejoiced at the thought of her checking him out, even if his human side still felt a bit embarrassed.

He hadn't shifted involuntarily like this in a very long time. In fact, not since that initial incident that had forced their family to move to East London when he had only just developed the ability to transform.

Perhaps now Janine would decide that she'd had enough time to think and let him get closer to her.