Shifting Fates (Urban Fantasy Shifter Romance Book One) by Aubrey Rose & Nadia Simonenko

Author:Aubrey Rose & Nadia Simonenko [Rose, Aubrey]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2014-04-12T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Cage

“Attention!”

I snap to attention at the head of my platoon and salute as the Major arrives at exactly 0800 hours. It’s Christmas morning and even though the troops are all supposed to be on leave today, he’s ordered us to report for duty. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last four years, it’s that you do what the Major tells you to do, period.

Major Harkut is a good twenty years too old to still be in his current rank, but even the first time I met him, something about the way his eye right eye twitched as he looked me up and down told me everything I needed to know.

He’s still a Major at his age because he’s insane.

Not strait-jacket, padded-room insane, mind you… a different, more dangerous type. He’s the type of insane who would knowingly send a company on a death mission if it’d advance his cause even the slightest bit, casualties and morals be damned.

In other words, he’s exactly the sort of crazy person the Lazaretto Containment needs right now.

“Captain Jones, at ease,” he barks. I relax my posture and approach him as my platoon watches on, my breath shallow in my chest. He’s my commander and I’d obey his orders to the end of the world, but I’d be a liar if I said he didn’t creep me out a little.

“Jones… were you briefed on today’s operation?” he asks, lowering his voice as he looks up at me. I’m a big guy—6’2” and 230 pounds—but something about Major Harkut’s confident glare tells me he ain’t cowed in the slightest. He’d break me in half in a second, given the chance.

“No, sir.”

“We’re retaking the Harlem Sector at noon today,” he tells me. “Radiation levels came back low enough that Central Command’s declared it salvageable. Platoon Alpha will be accompanying the engineers and protecting them while they evaluate functional infrastructure, Beta is covering Amsterdam Avenue, and…”

I nod silently, hanging onto his every word as he points at the enormous map of New York City plastered on the wall of the barracks. The Harlem Sector encompasses the territory between 125th and 175th up along the Harlem River, and, at least according to this map, the area we’re going into around 155th Street is densely packed with civilians.

“Sir,” I interject as he pauses to take a breath, “may I ask what we’re doing about the civilian population?”

He shoots me a long, almost disdainful stare, and then he turns back to the troops.

“Men… this little patch of sunlight is our target today,” he announces. “Harlem Sector—memorize it, because you’re all going in today. We’re taking back the functional infrastructure, salvaging whatever we can, and establishing a permanent presence in the area. Any objections?”

“No, sir!” shout two-hundred soldiers in unison, their voices so loud in the cramped barracks that my ears ring.

When the troops finally go silent, I clear my throat and speak up again.

“Sir… the Harlem Sector is heavily populated,” I repeat. “What are your plans for the

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