Her Wild Hero - Paige Tyler Page 0,29

regarding Tanner, his dark eyes wary. Angelo didn’t blame him. With the long, blond hair and beard, the hybrid looked a little like the wild animal he sometimes turned into.

“I have anger management issues,” Tanner said. “I tend to go nuts and kill people at the slightest provocation.”

If Tanner expected the comment to scare off the two Special Forces guys, it didn’t work.

“Must be a bitch getting through a holiday with your in-laws,” Carter said. “Ever consider meditation?”

Tanner stared at the sergeant for what seemed like forever before he finally cracked a smile. It was small, but it was there.

“My doctor has me doing it now and then.”

“Yeah?” Carter said. “Is it working?”

“Not so much.”

“Then maybe you should think about getting a new doctor,” Butler suggested.

The telltale red glow that came with a shift flashed in Tanner’s eyes. Angelo tensed. Had Carter and Butler seen it, too? Maybe he could say it was the reflection of the setting sun in the hybrid’s eyes. Right. That excuse would only last until Tanner fully flipped the switch and went nuts. What the hell had set him off anyway?

Angelo looked around for a little help, but Ivy and Landon were nowhere to be seen. Clayne was leaning against a nearby tree watching the scene unfold like it was a damn movie. And Derek was standing there with a pissed-off expression on his face, no doubt wondering why the hell everyone was screwing around with these stupid-ass macho games when Kendra was out there in the jungle with numerous monsters chasing her.

Shit.

Angelo took a step toward the hybrid. “Tanner, before you lose your temper and kill Lieutenant Butler, I think you should consider how disappointed Zarina would be.”

According to Landon, Zarina had a magical ability to calm the DCO’s one and only hybrid. Hopefully invoking her name would snap Tanner out of the rage that was starting to build.

It worked like a freaking charm. Tanner blinked several times, took a deep breath, then nodded. The red slowly receded from the hybrid’s eyes. But not before the two soldiers saw it.

“What the hell…?” Carter muttered.

Angelo stifled a groan. Why couldn’t Landon have made things easy on everyone and filled Carter and Butler in on what a hybrid was?

“Okay,” he said. “Time for a security briefing. Landon told you this mission would involve some strange shit, right?” Both men nodded. “Good, because the strange shit just started. Consider anything you see and hear over the next few days to be top secret. It goes to the grave with you. Hooah?”

“Hooah,” Butler and Carter said in unison. No shock there—Special Forces guys saw so much classified crap, they flushed it without too much thought.

“The people we’re going up against are…well, they’ve been genetically modified to make them meaner and nastier. When they’re in control of themselves, they’re your basic hair-trigger soldier. But once they start fighting, they go into a battle lust like nothing you’ve ever seen. Bottom line, at that point, they’re essentially berserkers, pure and simple.” Angelo jerked his head in Tanner’s direction. “He’s one of them, except he’s on our side. If he lost his temper and accidently killed you, he’d feel really bad about it later. The ones we’re going to be running into out there in the jungle, not so much.”

Butler’s gaze swung back and forth between Angelo and Tanner. No doubt the lieutenant was trying to convince himself that the red glow he’d seen a few seconds ago had been nothing but a reflection of light, or that maybe he hadn’t seen anything at all.

“You’re shitting us, right?”

Angelo should have known they wouldn’t believe him. The whole thing sounded like something out of a sci-fi movie. Hell, he probably wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen those hybrids out in Washington State with his own eyes. But if Carter and Butler waited until they came face-to-face with a real-life nasty-ass hybrid, there was a good chance they wouldn’t live long enough to help rescue anyone.

He glanced at Tanner. “This has to come out sooner or later, and sooner would be better. Could you show them, so we can get on with this?”

Tanner didn’t move.

“Well?” Angelo prompted. “You gonna, you know, go a little tooth and nail for me?”

“I can’t. It doesn’t work that way. I can’t control it.” The look Tanner gave him was almost apologetic. “It’s an all-or-nothing thing. And you really don’t want me cutting loose here in camp.”

Carter chuckled. “Okay, real funny. I like a good joke