A New Goal

“That will be all for now. Take her for testing and Talon…”

Talon turned from the doorway where he had opened it and headed out.

“You do not leave her side, understood?”

“Is that an order?”

“Yes.”

You could cut the tension in the room with a knife.

“Thank you. It was a pleasure to meet you…” She was still unsure of what to call him since he had not properly introduced himself.

“Likewise, my dear. I shall see you again when you finish your training. Now run along with Talon and do not let him bully you.”

Wren looked at the man who was once again sitting calmly at his desk. “May I ask a question?”

“You may call me Director, and you are the only other person, other than Talon, to ask that question, my dear,” he said. He smiled at her sweetly.

“Now run along,” he said, before letting out a raspy laugh at Wren’s expression.

“Thank you, Director. Have a nice day.” Wren waved as she followed Talon out the door.

Once they had left, he leaned back in his chair and turned to look out the window.

He had very high expectations of that pair. The power that had radiated in the moment of bonding was proof.

She and Talon might just be able to end the war that he and Mr. Lee had started.

He let out a sigh.

It was going to be a long and hard road for those two.

Maybe he should have told him the other thing he had foreseen.

He grinned.

Wouldn’t that just ruin Talon’s day or perhaps even his month?

He loved that boy to death, but he was too stubborn and pigheaded for his own good.

He let out a laugh in delight at the turn of events.

***

“This is Shorty.”

A very tiny man came bounding across the room and shook Wren’s hand. “Good day to you, miss.”

He grinned at her as he looked her up and down. “I will be your guide for the testing today. I am also in charge of all the combat sessions and programs, so we will see quite a bit of each other from here on out.”

“Well now, you are certainly not what I expected from Talon’s partner, but I think that you will do quite nicely. He needs someone to shake him about a bit.”

“Thank you,” Wren replied, then added under her breath, “…I think.”

Shorty laughed. He had very good ears.

“Trust me, hon, it is a compliment. We have been waiting two years to see what would happen to the big bad Talon when he finally got his partner.”

Shorty rubbed his hands with a gleeful smile on his face, jumping from one foot to the other in his excitement.

“Let’s get started!”

Wren followed Shorty across the room and sat in the offered chair.

For the next hour, Wren had x-rays, scans, a full physical—and it was a FULL physical—done to her.

Lucky for her, though, there was a female assistant there who did certain parts of the exam.

The only holdup in the process was that Wren refused to remove any article of clothing until both Talon and Shorty had left the room.

Not that it was hard to remove Talon. The moment he was told he needed to leave, he was more than happy to oblige.

~So why does that suddenly irritate me?~ Wren only had enough time to ask herself the question before she had to return her focus to not running from the woman touching her.

***

Talon stood outside the door and waited for the all clear.

His mind drifted for a moment back to the night before.

He had spent most of it in Wren’s room, watching over her at the command of Lily and Eric.

He had argued with them over the need to be in her room, but in the end, he had entered just to shut them up.

They were overprotective on the best of days.

He had spent his night gazing at the woman who was destined to be his partner and wondered how he had gotten himself into this mess.

She was nothing like he had imagined.

Her pale skin and petite frame frightened him.

She looked so fragile, and he had not been wrong.

She shook in fear at just his touch.

How was he going to be able to protect her?

Shorty and he waited in silence. Talon’s mind went over his first few days at the compound. He had not made it as easy as this one was.

He had immediately felt jealousy attach itself to him after witnessing the bond between Lily and Eric.

He had wanted to feel that connection with another being so badly that he had decided to continue down this road.

What a stupid reason to agree to this hell.

After he had finally stopped his self-pity and allowed Shorty to start his training, he realized that this life suited him well.

After years of fighting humans, it was easier to fight the Beings.

The fighting kept him focused and gave him a purpose that no one could take from him.

But no matter how many Beings he killed or how finely he tuned his skills, that knot of jealousy would not detach from him.

That first year was the hardest.

Every time Mr. Lee returned, he looked for his partner.

Every time, he felt the bitter taste of disappointment as the others in the house strengthened their bonds and made a family, yet he could only look at it from the outside.

Of course, he had given up on that dream after a year had passed, and he had been no closer to that dream.

Now she appeared.

He did not have the strength to let her in, only to tear his life apart.

~So why do I feel my desire for a connection and home so strongly?~

Damn if he did not know how to act around another person, let alone relate and speak to them.

It did not help that Wren was even more of a mystery to him than the others.

~Why does it have to be her?~

He wanted to stamp out the flame of hope that had alighted with their bonding but knew that it would only grow stronger the more he fought it.

Could she handle the pain she was about to go through by having him as her partner?

Was he wasting his last remaining hope on her?

If she failed… Could he protect her? Because he seriously doubted she would be any good at protecting herself.

He let out a sigh.

He had best keep himself apart from her so as not to make matters worse.

He was in no condition to help or protect another when he was so emotionally and physically messed up.

She needed a knight in shining armor, and he was just an assassin in the dark.

“I am done,” the assistant said, stepping out of the room.

“She is getting dressed now, but you may go in when ready.”

Shorty jumped up from where he had been watching Talon battling with himself.

“Great! I will go get the next test ready. Talon, could you bring her to me?”

“Yeah, sure,” Talon replied.

He pushed away from the wall and started to pace back and forth, waiting for her to appear. After a few moments, he decided that he had waited long enough.

He knocked once and opened the door.

He walked in to see Wren’s back to him, and she was struggling to button the back of her shirt. Talon sighed.

He walked across the room and brushed her hands away, starting to button her buttons.

“Let me,” he said.

He tried unsuccessfully to avoid touching the smooth skin underneath and even less successfully tried to ignore the tension and fear that radiated from her body at his touch. What had happened to her that she responded this way to him?

“You do know that no one wears these types of shirts anymore, right?” he said.

Wren felt his hands moving and brushing the back of her neck.

~He is not going to hurt me. He is not going to hurt me. He is not going to…~

“Stop moving. I cannot get this last button if you keep jerking around so,” he growled out, his hands caressing her skin again. It was smooth and warm to the touch.

“Sorry,” Wren muttered. “It is tickling.”

She could not let on that his touch, any physical touch, caused her to panic. Therapy had not worked.

Hypnotics had not worked. Not even medication had worked to help her overcome this response.

Wren tried to keep herself from moving while Talon finally got the last button done.

“Come on, Shorty is waiting,” Talon said, moving toward the door and taking a deep breath to steady his hands.

“Thank you,” Wren said as they headed down the hall to another room.

Talon shrugged in response, opening the door for her and allowing her to precede him into the room.

He did not know what to make of her. At times, she was quiet and skittish; other times, she was intelligent, asking just the right questions and giving her entire attention to the task at hand.

Still other times, he noticed that she seemed to be hesitant and unsure of herself, especially in the company of others. Even now, she seemed to be a bit afraid of what was happening to her.

She never seemed completely at ease in her surroundings, and he had to wonder if her personality would change the longer she was here. As she was now, she would not last long.

She would need to toughen up, and quickly, if she was going to make it to the end of her initial training.

“All right,” Shorty said, sitting back in his chair. “I am done with the mental testing.”

Wren let out a sigh. “Thank goodness.”

“Now on to combat.”