The Recruit: Book One (7 page)

He bent his head to kiss her again and she leaned back.  He
frowned, his eyes glowing softly at her.

“Why are your eyes a different colour, Will?”  She asked
quietly.  She touched his beard lightly, feeling the coarse hair under her
fingers.  “And how is it possible that you can grow a beard in minutes?”

He let go of her and turned away, staring at the wall behind
him for a moment.  When he turned around his eyes were their normal shade of
blue and, while he still wasn’t clean-shaven, the hair on his cheeks had
thinned considerably. 

“You’re imagining things, Hannah.”

That made her laugh.  “Bullshit, Will.  When you walked into
the room earlier you had light blue eyes and were clean-shaven.  Then your eyes
were yellow and you had a beard.  Now,” she folded her arms across her torso,
“your eyes are back to blue and you’re only scruffy.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”  He lied.

She stared at him for a moment.  Her eyes went hazy as a
memory of a lesson Isabelle had taught them tugged at her brain.  He could
pinpoint the moment she realized exactly what he was.

“You’re a werewolf.”  She breathed.

“Lycan.”  He corrected automatically.

“How?  When?  Were you bit?”  She sputtered.

He shook his head.  “No, I was born a Lycan.  Both my
parents were born as Lycans, as were their parents before them.”

“Jesus Christ, Will.”  She said weakly.  “You should have
told me.”

“Why?  It’s none of your concern.”  He said dismissively.

“None of my - ”

She stared at him incredulously.  “We had sex.  If we hadn’t
just been interrupted, we would have been having sex again.”

“So?  Lycans have been mating with humans for years.  It’s not
encouraged but there are plenty of us who find human females attractive.”

“You still should have told me.”  She said angrily.

“Let me guess.”  He gave her a tight grin that didn’t reach
his eyes.  “Your delicate sensibilities are offended by the fact that you’ve
mated with a half-human, half-beast.” 

He rolled his eyes.  “Before you freak out, let me assure
you that sex with me won’t turn you into a Lycan.  Only a bite during the full
moon will do that.”

“That isn’t the issue, Will.”  She said through clenched
teeth.

“Then what is?”  He raised his eyebrow at her.  “You would
prefer to fuck your way through the program with someone who’s completely
human?  I would suggest Mannie then.  He’s as human as they come.”

“I hate you!”  She shouted furiously at him.  “I was just
making a stupid, awkward joke.  It’s what I do when I’m nervous!  I didn’t have
sex with you to try and earn my place in the program.  I was lonely and sad,
and I made a huge mistake that night.  One I deeply regret, believe me.  And
I’m not some sort of goddamn Lycan racist – I just prefer to know who or what a
person is before I sleep with them.  It’s called getting to know someone, you
asshole.”

“Then you must know everything there is to know about Jeremy.”
 He said sourly.

“Fuck you, Will!  You touched me first tonight!”  She shouted
foolishly and stormed out of the room.

Will sighed and rubbed his hand wearily across his
forehead.  He would never admit this to anyone, but he was badly shaken by his
lack of control when it came to Hannah.  She was quick, too damn quick, and the
fact that she had figured out he was a Lycan was bad news.  Not that they kept
it from the new recruits forever, but he preferred to tell them when he could
control the situation.

He grimaced with disgust at himself.  He was acting like a
prepubescent Lycan pup.  Only teenage boys and old men had trouble controlling
the shift when they were mating.  He had slept with human women before and had
no problems controlling that side of him.  At this point, all he had to do was
think about Hannah’s naked body and he could feel himself wanting to shift.

He sighed again and thought about the way Hannah reacted
when he touched her.  He had never been with a woman so responsive to him, and
he was being driven mad by the memories of how she had tasted and felt.  He
smelled her scent everywhere now.  It seemed to be permanently lodged in his brain,
and the last four weeks had been pure hell trying to stop from touching her. 

He had taken his frustration and anger out on her and the
other recruits.  Although, if he was honest, mostly her.  A week after they had
slept together, on a morning after a long and brutal run, he could see her
desperately trying not to vomit as she stood panting with the other recruits. 
She hadn’t vomited after a run in four days and he had singled her out,
taunting her and calling her weak in front of the others, until she was pale
and shaking violently.  Finally, she had turned and escaped into the trees,
vomiting miserably as the others stared at him with a mixture of fear and disgust.

He had gone too far and had immediately regretted it.  He
was about to go to her, to apologize and carry her to the infirmary, when he
had forced himself back to reality.  Doing that would raise more than a few
eyebrows, and he couldn’t afford to let anyone find out that he had slept with
Hannah.  She’d be dismissed from the program and his reputation would be
destroyed.

He had instructed Selena to help her to the infirmary. 
Hannah had returned two hours later, still pale with dark circles under her
eyes and her long limbs trembling with exhaustion, but she had dropped gamely
to the ground to join the others in sit-ups.  He had scowled at her and ordered
her back to her dormitory for the rest of the day.

He shook his head and left the training room, heading
towards his room and doing his best to ignore Hannah’s scent in the hallway.

“What happened?”  Selena whispered as soon as Hannah had
crawled into the bed next to hers.  Across the room Hannah could hear Alison’s
soft snores and she turned and faced Selena, propping herself up on her arm.

“The usual.  He screamed and yelled and threatened to kick
me out of the program. “

“He should be happy you’re trying to improve your
hand-to-hand combat.  It’s your weakest area.”  Selena pointed out.

“Thanks, Selena.”  Hannah said sarcastically.

“Just keeping it real.  Besides, you’re way faster at
running now than I am, and you’re probably as strong as Jeremy and Tyler.” 

“Stupid hand-to-hand.”  Hannah grumbled.  “It’s pointless
anyway.”

“It’s not.”  Selena insisted.  “It’ll come in handy for us
later.”

“Do you really think so?”  Hannah asked.  “A human would
never win a hand-to-hand combat fight with a vampire, and all the instructors
know it.  They waste this much time on it when Will himself told us the best
defense against vampires is to run and hide.”  She rubbed the small round scars
on her neck, remembering Nathan’s terrible strength.

“I’m sorry he yelled at you, Hannah.  You didn’t have to
take all the blame yourself.”

“I might as well.  He already hates me and the feeling is
mutual.”  She finished darkly.

Selena stared thoughtfully at her.  “I used to think he
hated you, but now I’m not so sure.”

Hannah’s stomach dropped to her knees but she forced herself
to look questioningly at Selena.  “What do you mean?”

“I dunno.  You know what they say about boys in the
schoolyard.  They always torment the girl they like the most.”

Hannah laughed.  “We aren’t children anymore, Selena.  Trust
me – Will hates my guts.”  She flopped down on her pillow, hoping it would be
the end of the conversation but Selena was on a roll.

“I know he’s plenty mean to you, but he watches you all the
time.”

“He watches all of us.”  She protested.  “That’s his job –
to weed out the weak.”

“Yeah well, all I know is I’ve never caught him looking at
me like he’s wondering what colour my underwear is.”  Selena said tartly.

Hannah rolled her eyes.  “You’re imagining things.”

“Nope, I’m not.”  Selena said calmly.  “Will wants to screw
your brains out.  You can deny it all you want, but I recognize lust when I see
it.”

“I’m not even remotely interested.”  Hannah lied.

Selena frowned.  “Really?  Not one tiny bit?”

“Nope.”

“I’d do him.”  Selena announced.

“Selena!”  Hannah looked at her in shock, and Selena wiggled
her eyebrows at her.

“What?  He’s hot.”

“He doesn’t yell at you 24/7.”  Hannah said grumpily.

She shrugged.  “He’s yelled at me plenty.  Besides,” she
grinned at Hannah, “I don’t believe you when you say you’re not interested. 
Every woman at this place is interested in sleeping with Will.  Honestly, you’d
have to be half-dead not to be.  Those broad shoulders and tight ass – yummy. 
A girl could get lost in those dreamy blue eyes of his.  And that mouth…”
Selena fanned herself.

“Maybe it’s different when those dreamy blue eyes are
burning holes into you, and that mouth is screaming about how weak you are.”  Hannah
butted in.

Selena grinned.  “Honey, in bed he could scream whatever he
wanted at me.”

Hannah rolled her eyes again as Selena rubbed at a large
bruise on her arm.  “Unfortunately, they say that Will never sleeps with
recruits.  He prefers to keep his personal life separate from his job.  Damn
shame that is.”

“One – it’s against the rules for instructors to sleep with
recruits and two – who are “they”?” Hannah asked.

“‘They’ are just the people here.”  Selena waved her hands
vaguely.  “If you didn’t keep to yourself so much you’d be hearing all the
rumours too.  It’s like a goddamn soap opera at this place.  Everyone is
fucking everyone - I swear to God.  Besides, you can’t tell me you haven’t
noticed how practically all the women recruits start drooling when Will walks
by?  The rumour is that Leanne from the recruit group before us actually snuck
into his room one night.  She was planning on slipping into his bed, but I
guess he woke up the minute she stepped into his room.”

“What happened then?”  Hannah asked, curious despite
herself.

“Well, I heard this from Alison, who got it from Melanie,
but apparently Leanne basically stripped off her clothes and threw herself at
him.  Will politely declined and escorted her back to the dorms.”

“And she wasn’t kicked out?”

“She’s still here isn’t she?  We ate breakfast with her this
morning.”

“No.”  Hannah shook her head.  “I don’t believe it.  There’s
no way that the instructors are sleeping with the recruits.”

Selena grinned.  “Get your head out of the clouds, Hannah. 
Apparently Will’s the only instructor who
hasn’t
slept with a recruit.”

She checked to see if Alison was still sleeping and lowered
her voice conspiratorially.  “Alison and Mannie have been having sex at least
once a week since our third week here.  Alison calls it her ‘stress reliever’. 
And apparently Isabelle hits on every new male recruit that walks through the
door.  Jeremy’s the only one out of our group who hasn’t slept with her yet. 
And that’s only because he has a crush on you.”

“No he doesn’t!”  Hannah said indignantly.

Selena laughed.  “Yes he does.  Why do you think he was so
eager to help you out tonight?”

Selena lay back down, and Hannah was just breathing a sigh
of relief that the conversation was over when she said, “I wonder what Will’s
like in bed?  I bet he’s rough and demanding.  He probably shouts out the
different positions he wants you to get into.”  She giggled softly to herself.

“What do you think, Hannah?”  She frowned when there was no
reply and glanced over.  “Hannah?  Hello…earth to Hannah?”

Hannah was staring at the ceiling.  Selena’s comments about
Will being rough in bed had unwillingly shoved her right back to the night in
the gym.  Despite their desire and their almost frantic need for each other,
Will had been surprisingly gentle.  She could still remember how he had stopped
immediately, concern etched across his face when he thought he had hurt her.  Just
remembering the way he had waited so patiently as she adjusted to him, and the
warmth of his mouth as he had kissed her was sending shivers down her back.

She forced herself back to the present as Selena reached
across and tapped her on the arm.  “Hello!  Hannah, what do you think?”

“About what?”

“What do you think Will is like in bed?”  Selena repeated
herself impatiently.

Hannah sighed.  “I think it’s late and I’m too tired to have
this conversation.  Go to sleep, Selena.  We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.”

* * *

Hannah quickly gulped down the grilled chicken and heaping
plate of vegetables.  The morning had been filled with exercises that had
tested their endurance and strength.  She had thought she would be nervous but
she quickly realized that the tests were pretty much the same as their everyday
exercise routine, only with Richard attending and less screaming from Will and
Mannie.

After lunch they would be tested on their hand-to-hand
combat skills, and Hannah felt her stomach clench a little.  She was confident
she had done well enough on the testing this morning, but she knew that failing
even one section would be enough to kick her out of the program. 

I can’t let that happen.
 She thought fiercely. 
Not
after everything I’ve gone through to get this far.

The final stage of training was weapons, and she wanted
desperately to make it through.  She knew she would never have her revenge for
Sara if she didn’t learn how to use weapons.

She forced herself to concentrate on her lunch and on the
others around her.  She stared fixedly at the tiny redhead sitting across from
her.  Until last night she had shown no interest in Leanne.  She had just been
another face in the crowd but now, after what Selena had told her, Hannah found
herself glancing repeatedly at her.