Walker nodded at Carly, then looked up at Tiger. “Thank you,” he said. “For the promotion and the command.”

Carly blinked while Tiger sat down with his usual stoicism and accepted the glass of juice Carly handed him. He’d resumed the fake Collar before coming downstairs, preserving the illusion.

“Promotion? Command?” Carly asked Walker, when it became clear Tiger wouldn’t speak.

“Because of Tiger, I get to trade my captain’s bars for gold leaves. And assume command of the detachment to the Shifter Bureau. Lieutenant Colonel Sheldon has disappeared.”

Tiger set down the glass he’d just drained. “Disappeared where?”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t have said disappeared. Seems that someone tipped off Shifter Bureau, the army, and the media that Sheldon ordered the fire to be set in the community center. He’s public enemy number one. Post vacant, and I was offered it, as I was XO and knew all about the training and projects at the camp anyway.”

“Someone tipped them off, eh?” Sean said at the stove. “I have to be wondering who did that.”

“Couldn’t say,” Liam said, coming into the room. “These rumors, how do they get started?”

He and Sean shared a conspiratorial grin.

“Anyway, I’m now in charge of all research concerning the tiger Shifter,” Walker said. “Who’s not to be harmed, by the way, because he’s become a freaking superhero.” Walker leaned forward, looking Tiger in the eyes, a gleam of excitement in his. “And I’ve figured out, my friend, what you were made for.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

Tiger lifted his head, waiting, his heart beating rapidly, but Walker only sat there, hands around his coffee cup, grinning.

“What?” Carly asked, fists on the table, her impatience heightening her scent. “Don’t keep us in suspense.”

Walker cleared his throat and moved his coffee cup on the placemat. “Sheldon thought Tiger was a weapon. A perfect soldier who never gets tired, heals right away, and doesn’t need to eat, drink, or sleep for long stretches of time. As I mentioned, Sheldon wanted to use Tiger as a prototype. He wanted to take Tiger to Afghanistan and demonstrate how well he heals from being shot up or burned. Sheldon’s plan was to breed more Shifters like Tiger, except ones more easily controlled than him, using Collars and other things. He regarded Tiger as his beacon, one guiding Sheldon all the way to brigadier general and higher.”

Liam sat down in his usual lazy way, holding a mug of steaming coffee. “The Fae bred us a couple thousand years ago to be the perfect soldiers,” he said conversationally. “We’d fight their wars so they wouldn’t lose so many Fae, who are, of course, the most important beings in the universe. The Fae found out the hard way that they couldn’t control us, when we fought a war with them and won our freedom. They’re still trying to control us, but in, oh, about a thousand years, they still haven’t figured out how.”

“But you wear Collars,” Walker said.

Liam’s eyes widened. “Well, now, that’s true, isn’t it? How about that?”

Connor snorted a laugh from the stove. “Too right.”

“Anyway,” Carly said. “Back to Tiger. Is that what he was made for, to be a soldier?”

“I thought so at first,” Walker said. “Then I did some digging, back to the original experiments. My old friend Dr. Brennan knew a few of the people from the research team way back when. He consulted with them, as a Shifter anthropologist. I hunted up a couple who were still around and talked to them. The project had been shelved and most of the files sealed, and more was lost when the building in Area 51 burned down. But the researchers had kept their personal notes, and they gave them to me.” Walker shot Tiger a look of sympathy. “They put you through hell, didn’t they? Believe me, I’d never do that.”

Tiger gave him slow nod. “I believe you.”

“You thought so at first,” Carly broke in, still watching Walker. “What do you think now?”

“That Tiger wasn’t bred to be the perfect killing machine,” Walker said. “Yeah, he has all those qualities I mentioned—stamina, rapid healing, a body that adapts to extreme stress.” He fixed his gaze on Tiger again, the excitement still in his eyes. “But you’re not a killing machine, my friend. You’re not a gun to point and shoot.” Walker stopped, letting them all stare at him, waiting, including Sean and Connor, who’d turned from the stove.

Kim came into the room with Katriona, dropped a kiss to Liam’s cheek, and sat down next to her mate. She fixed Walker with a steely glare. “Well, come on, then. Spill.”

Walker grinned. “Search and rescue.” He delivered the words, then sat back and drank his coffee.

They sat in stunned silence, until Liam said, “Ah. Yes.”

Tiger said nothing, but Walker’s words made something click inside him. Something right.

I know what I was made for. What I’m meant to be.

Carly, though, still looked bewildered. “Search and rescue? You mean like with people trapped after a disaster or missing out in the middle of nowhere?”

“More than that,” Walker said, animated. “Search and rescue, domestically, or behind enemy lines. He was going to be put in with A-Teams, to go deep into enemy territory. He’d find civilians hurt by the fighting, like kids and moms, fix them up, keep them safe. The same for civilians of allies or our civilians when war comes to them.”