Chapter Two
Damn, Nolan is actually really fucking boring. Who knew?
Big, buff, beautiful, and boring. Okay, maybe that was a bit of sour grapes on Tim’s part. He still had a blister on his ego from when Nolan wouldn’t give him the time of day, turned his affections down flat, then married someone else in record time.
But that didn’t change the fact that in this moment, listening to Nolan go on about frequencies and output readings and blah blah blah, Nolan was really fucking boring. Tim had gotten himself invited to this meeting and was anxious about speaking to the group. He wanted to get it over with, but Nolan just kept prattling on. And on. And on. Tim suddenly felt compelled to torment him a little, if only to break the dullness of the lecture.
“So, you’re saying the sensors you spent all that time and money on don’t actually work,” Tim interrupted, then smiled when Nolan turned from the big screen and glowered at him. Maybe Nolan would get mad enough to kick Tim out of the presentation so he wouldn’t have to suffer through this tech-babble nonsense any longer. Tim could always catch up with them about his own issue once this yawn-fest was over.
“You have something valuable to contribute, Patterson?” Nolan asked. “Or do you just enjoy interrupting me?”
“I’m just saying, you’re wasting a lot of breath explaining to us all in intricate, excruciating detail that you’ve thus far gotten absolutely no results from these underwater sensors you built. Am I right?”
At the table nearby, Christian Boucher snickered at Tim’s comment, which made Nolan’s face redden as he turned his glare on his friend. But Nolan didn’t bark at Christian as he often did, and unfortunately, did not order Tim out of the room. He took a deep breath and cast his gaze back to Tim. “If you could hold your questions until I’ve finished my presentation, I’d appreciated it.”
“Okay, fine. Continue.”
Nolan huffed. “Thanks so much for your permission, Patterson.”
“You are absolutely welcome, Nolan.”
Tim shifted his weight where he leaned against the wall next to Myles, his foot falling asleep from standing in the same position so long. Myles nudged him. “Stop screwing with Nolan,” he whispered. “His veins are popping.”
“Fine. Just wish he’d hurry up.”
It was getting stuffy in the conference room, and Tim wanted to ask if there was a window to open but didn’t want to get snarked at for interrupting again. But calling this a ‘conference room’ was a stretch—he was standing in JT Warden’s basement, a home base for this group and their shady dealings. It was more like an underground bunker, with cement walls and a steel door and computers everywhere. Across the room, an enlarged photo of a blurry white creature running through a dark forest hung on the wall. It made Tim uncomfortable, so he looked back at Nolan, whose glare lingered a moment before turning back to his odd charts and diagrams.
“Ooh, see?” Myles whispered. “You made him mad.”
“I’ll try not to lose sleep over it.”
Nolan’s gaze—even when angry—still gave Tim a little shiver, and he unconsciously removed his ranger cap and ran fingers through his light blond hair. He cursed inwardly. Old habits died hard, and primping to look his best in front of Nolan was one of them. Which was ridiculous, because Nolan was now happily married, and his husband Elliot was sitting at the table three feet away.
Elliot glanced back at Tim and winked. His green eyes danced with humor, like he’d seen the primp, knew exactly what it meant, and was enjoying that his husband’s hotness still set Tim off-balance. Fucker. Tim countered with a steely glare, and Elliot chuckled softly and turned back around.
Elliot, JT, and Christian sat at the long table with their odd hippie supervisor Brett Mallory, all focused on Nolan as he continued to drone on about the new sensors he’d installed on the lake bottom. And it was boring, boring, fucking boring. But Tim couldn’t really complain. He’d asked to be included in any meetings that involved the land in the village, so the group agreed to allow him to participate now and then. Like they were doing Tim a big favor, clueing him in on things going on in the forest when he was the damn forest ranger. These assholes had kept him in the dark about seriously important shit for years, so letting him join in on meetings was the least they could fucking do.
But he hadn’t realized some of their day-to-day work was so dull.
“Are you sure you installed them securely enough on the lake bottom? Maybe they’re broken or drifted out of range from the currents,” Christian said, and even Tim winced, because Nolan was already annoyed at being questioned. But Brett Mallory came to the rescue before Nolan could explode.
“I helped install the sensors,” Brett said. “I was down there, and I assure you, they are solidly intact and functioning properly. Nolan’s done an amazing job with the design.”
Tim frowned at Brett. Prior to learning the truth about Singing Bear Village, Tim only knew Brett as the mild-mannered, new-to-town science teacher, though it was obvious now he had some major role in this madness. With his dreadlocks and wire-framed glasses, Brett seemed more the type to study astrology and attend Burning Man than deep-diving to install alien-monitoring equipment. “You did the lake dive with Nolan?” Tim asked.
Brett’s eyebrow cocked. “Uh huh. Why?”
“You just seem more like a brain guy than a...get in the action guy.”
“I was a Navy Seal and used to be an astronaut,” Brett said.
Oh. So much for judging by appearance. “You’re kidding me.”
“I am not. So as you can imagine, I’ve done more than my share of underwater training, Mr. Patterson.” Brett gave him an overly-sweet smile. “Do you think maybe you could do as Nolan asked and remain quiet until the presentation is over? You can question everyone’s credentials later if you like.”
Tim scowled at Brett’s sarcasm. “Fine, whatever. My lips are sealed.”
“Good then. Nolan? Continue please.”
“Okay. As you can see on this chart, we did get some unusual spikes, but until we can fully analyze the data, we can’t be sure if these readings are being contaminated by boat interference or powerlines. But there have been some anomalies, it’ll simply take time to validate if we’re actually picking up signals from the underground base. Should have more definitive data soon.”
“You really think the Whites won’t disrupt our tech if it’s in the lake?” JT asked. “They have for everything else we’ve ever tried to do. They’ve obviously got some universal blocking-signal in place. Even our cameras don’t work, every photo ever taken of their craft comes out blurry.”
“I believe they’d notice and do something about it if we ever drilled into the ground. But with the significant depth of the lake, we can achieve the same goal without drawing their attention. I’m hoping whatever tech they use to block ours is limited to above-ground. The hope is that they’d never suspect we’d go this route to try monitoring them.”
“They’re a lot smarter than us, you realize,” Christian said.
“I know that, and I’m sure we’ll find out soon if they’re onto us,” Nolan said. “This is a test run. Ogden wants this, and he’s the boss. This is our job. We’re here to monitor the Whites, whether we’re on good terms with them or not.”
“But we are on good terms with them,” Christian said. “That’s why this feels deceptive. Shit, you and Elliot got a personal thank you from an actual, full White. You guys have the hybrids over to your house for social visits. Baz is supposed to be our ambassador to the Whites but we’re keeping this from him. It feels wrong.”
“They’re still an alien race sitting in our back yard, whether we invite Baz over for drinks or not,” Nolan said. “Personal feelings don’t factor into it.”
Christian snorted. “Okay, Ogden.”
“Cut the crap,” Nolan said. “This is what Ogden wants and we have to follow his orders. Anyone else have questions right now?”
Tim huffed. Apparently, everyone else was allowed to ask questions. Just not Tim.
“So, the Whites don’t actually know you’re doing this,” Myles said. “Putting sensors in the lake to try spying on their transmissions. You didn’t even tell Baz?”
“No, Sheriff,” Brett said, taking his glasses off and setting them on the table. “We may be at peace with the Whites, but Ogden still feels we have a right to make our own attempts at monitoring their activities. After what happened with the rogue hybrids taking over the base, we’ve learned we have to expect the unexpected and watch our own backs.”
“But the Whites acknowledged our assistance in that clusterfuck,” Christian said. “They’ve been sharing some of their knowledge with us in reciprocation. Do we really want to rock that boat when the waters are finally calm?”
“They’ve thrown us a few crumbs since then,” Brett said, “limited technology and what have you, but—”
“Because we saved their asses!” Elliot interrupted. “A few crumbs of technology is the least they can give us.”
“But at least it’s something,” Myles said. “Christian has a point. If they find out we’re trying to spy on them they could cut us off completely, or worse.”
“Worse?” JT shrugged. “The worst they’d do is tell Baz to yell at us. They’re not hostile or violent, Myles.”
“You don’t know that for certain! I’m still the sheriff of this village and I don’t like the idea of you poking the white tiger with a stick if the fallout could get people hurt.”
“Oh, here we go.” Elliot rolled his eyes. “Sheriff Hot-bottom gonna start lecturing us about safety again. Can I go get a bagel and come back when he’s done?”
“Glad you can be so flippant about safety concerns,” Myles said. “You of all people know the dangers. Inserting yourselves into the Whites’ affairs is what almost got your husband killed.”
“Wow,” Elliot said. “Christian, I think you must be slacking. Did you not give him his morning blowjob? He’s being mean.”
“I’m not being mean,” Myles said. “I’m doing my job.”
“Ignore Elliot,” Tim muttered to Myles. “He can’t help himself.”
“Oh, shut up, Patterson,” Elliot said. “No one asked you.”
“You shut up, Elliot,” Christian said. “Myles is just doing his job. And for the record I did give him his morning blowjob. And it was a good one. Wasn’t it, baby? You came so hard the Whites probably heard you.”
Elliot wheezed with laughter. “They probably thought it was a wounded bear.”
“Nah.” Christian grinned. “More like a really angry bear.”
“Christian.” Myles shot him a warning look. “Stop.”
“Yes, please, can you both stop?” JT grimaced, rubbing his eyes. “Now I’m picturing Myles roaring like Chewbacca while he comes and I do not want this in my head. Sorry, Sheriff.”
Myles’ eyes narrowed, his handsome Irish face flushing. “Moving on. Please, Brett.”
“Okay, listen,” Brett said, “we have no formal treaty with the Whites, no obligation to tell them everything we do, so technically we aren’t breaking any of their rules by trying to monitor their base.”
“We have an arrangement with Baz,” Myles said. “Anything regarding the Whites is supposed to go through him.”
“Baz is great, and it’s beyond cool that we even have the hybrid ambassador as a go-between,” Brett said. “But the Whites are stingy with sharing anything, and it’s still our job to keep an eye on them, especially after we had to save their asses. They’ve got adversaries, and we have no idea if the Greys or the...angry nasties or whoever are only ones. What affects them potentially affects us because of their proximity. They just don’t share enough information with us to allow complacency. It’s not deception on our part. It’s self-preservation.”
“Brett’s right,” JT said. “If Ogden’s crew hadn’t been monitoring their signals from space and noticed that weird static...if he hadn’t ordered us to put cameras up in the woods we’d never have seen that baby White running around unsupervised. None of us would have known something was wrong in the first place. We’d have missed it. More monitoring isn’t just a good idea, it’s crucial. I agree with Ogden and Brett on this.”
Myles shrugged, then nodded. “Okay. Good point.”
“No more questions now, all right?” Brett said. “Please, Nolan. Continue.”
Christ, how do these assholes get anything done? All they did was bicker. But Tim supposed it was the seriousness of their jobs that made them second-guess every damn decision. His own job, when these idiots weren’t dragging him into their shit, was pretty mellow lately—night shifts excluded. This afternoon he had to meet with his team about new tree growth in a protected part of the forest, then later lead a troop of schoolchildren on a field trip to learn about birds in the nature preserve. Not exactly life or death, alien invasion caliber importance, but at least he and his team didn’t scream and shout over each other.
Myles claimed the people in this room were effective when it counted, that he’d seen them perform miracles when it came to squashing threats to the village. But Tim had only ever seen them snipe at each other, so it was hard to believe.
Nolan’s ample muscles flexed within his tight tee shirt as he tapped a wooden pointer on the screen and continued speaking, his chin-length dark hair tucked behind his ears. Tim still found Nolan hot as fuck, but the impossible crush he’d harbored for so long had since faded, and not only because he’d stood witness while Nolan married Elliot on the beach behind JT’s pub.
Everything changed for Tim the month before that wedding. His entire life turned upside down when he discovered Baz, an alien-human hybrid, critically injured in the forest one morning. Tim had no clue aliens existed then, so at first, he thought he’d discovered a plane-crash victim—half-submerged in the ground, body stretched and distorted, skin paler than death. Strangely tall with long white hair, huge, swollen eyelids, an extra joint in the fingers...he’d initially told himself the victim must have fallen from a great height, frozen, and this explained the physical anomalies. But Baz hadn’t fallen from an airplane. And Tim soon got confirmation of what his instincts had been screaming the moment he’d laid eyes on the creature.
Not fucking human.
Not entirely, anyway. Shortly after calling Myles to report his gruesome find, the group sitting in the room with him now had all shown up on the mountain. That’s when Tim learned that the wounded creature he stumbled upon was half human, half alien. Human DNA mixed with that of the tall Whites that used Earth as a stopover base in their intergalactic travels—information Tim was fed in a top-secret briefing and forced to accept as part of his life now, in the space of a single afternoon.
What followed in the weeks after entailed a lot of late nights and whiskey while Myles did his best to fill him in. Baz the hybrid was a second-generation offshoot of an experiment conducted by the Greys—yeah, those Greys. The big-eyed, bobble-headed aliens of lore were real. According to Myles’ history lesson, the Whites found out the Greys stole some of their genetic material and were playing mad scientist mixing it with human DNA.
The Whites then executed a surprise raid, slaughtered every Grey they found in the lab, and took the hybrid babies with them. That group of hybrids grew up, had their own babies, and Baz was a product of that. “The Greys are the Dr. Frankensteins of the universe,” Myles explained to him. “Everyone hates them, even the Whites. They’re always screwing around with other species’ genetics without their permission.”
Yeah, okay, sure. Fucking hell. As jarring as that revelation was, Tim was almost more freaked out to learn that this crew here, who he’d thought were nothing but a bunch of random villagers, knew the alien hybrid personally. That studying the alien presence in Singing Bear Village was their actual line of work, and everything he thought he knew about them was a façade. Nolan wasn’t just a bartender. JT wasn’t just a pub owner. Elliot wasn’t just the village DJ. Same went with Christian’s marina, and the newcomer Brett’s teaching job at the middle school. It was all a front to hide the work they really did in Singing Bear Village. And although conceptually Tim understood the need for secrecy in such matters, emotionally it pissed him off and made him feel duped. Part of him still hated them for the deception.
It gave him some comfort that at least Myles, who he’d known since childhood, was almost as new to all of this as he was. And he supposed it was good that Myles of all people knew the reality of things in the village, since he was the sheriff. They’d only brought Myles into the fold when he started fucking Christian Boucher and had inadvertently found himself in the path of an extraterrestrial threat to the village. Such threats to the village had occurred more than once, apparently, and though this crew appeared to be taking that somewhat in stride, the knowledge kept Tim up at night.
In truth, he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since that day in the forest, the day he was ‘brought through the door’ as Elliot put it. The day he learned the world he knew was not as it seemed.
For a month afterwards, he’d remained in a state of quiet rage, furious that he’d been left in the dark about something so enormous regarding the town he grew up in, the place he called home, the mountains he tended and protected as forest ranger. Only to discover in a span of hours that those very forests harbored something unimaginable: a vast, underground alien base hidden beneath the mountain range around Singing Bear Village—The Whites. All these years it had been literally right under Tim’s nose as he went about his daily work, and these fuckers here had known. As they passed him on the street. Drank beer with him in the pub. When he’d seen them hiking up on the trails and told them to be careful not to startle any bears. They’d known.
His fury at being tricked overshadowed his shock initially. But that was only temporary. The shock eventually hit home at the most inconvenient of times—the night of Elliot and Nolan’s wedding.
At the private party after the reception, Tim had suddenly, and quite disgracefully, begun to fall apart. Only Tyler, one of Ogden’s young soldiers, noticed when Tim started to crack. Everyone else was too busy partying—partying with Baz and his equally freaky hybrid boyfriend. Partying with fucking aliens, while Tim’s equilibrium dizzied and turned the room sideways, his heart beating so fast he couldn’t breathe.
Baz looked quite different at the wedding party than he had all broken and barely-alive up on the mountain when Tim found him. The hybrid had been a mess that day, swollen eyes purple with bruising, cuts visible along his shredded garment, trails of blood under his nostrils. But when Tim saw Baz that night at the party, his injuries had completely healed, powder-white skin smooth and clear.
And until the party after the wedding, Tim hadn’t yet seen Baz with his eyes open, which added a whole new layer of shock. Those mesmerizing, terrifying alien eyes, extra-large with a double ring of blue and green around an oval pupil. Baz was crazy-tall and certainly strange-looking, but in truth he was a gorgeous creature when he wasn’t injured. But that made it almost worse, seeing Baz all dressed up and fancy with his long white hair smooth and combed, a similar-looking hybrid companion at his side, like a pair of tall, thin gods carved of marble. Dressed up, hair combed, cocktail in hand, it didn’t fucking matter. Tim’s mind could only see their otherness, a siren warning his humanity on some deep, survival level that this was wrong and did not belong.
But the hybrids were welcomed in like they were just people. Everyone there acted like it was normal to have two tall white aliens show up to congratulate Nolan and Elliot on their nuptials. Not just that their arrival was normal, but like it was something to be celebrated. Guests shook their hands, even gave them hugs. The aliens drank fucking martinis. The one with the shorter white hair, Baz’s companion, squeezed in next to Tim at the bar, offered his long-fingered hand, and said, “I am Joff. To happy to meet?”
No, Tim was not ‘to happy to meet.’ He’d stared up into that white face, those odd, luminescent alien eyes, and nearly shit himself.
The panic attack came so suddenly he barely made it out the door without losing it. He’d come dangerously close to simply curling up in a ball and screaming uncontrollably right there in front of the entire loft full of party guests. But Tyler saw what was happening. And Tyler followed him outside.
Tyler.
Just the name made Tim’s breath catch, even now. Tim hadn’t seen Tyler in months, but that hadn’t stopped him from thinking about him more often than was probably healthy. He could still picture the gorgeous young soldier clearly in his mind. Military-style haircut a dark, dusty blond that looked almost brown until the sun hit it. Big gray eyes that didn’t match his boyish face because there was something hard and haunted behind them. And the body. Tyler was shorter than Tim, but perfectly proportioned with tight, rippled muscles. Even though it was chilly autumn weather that night, Tyler had a soft golden tan, not just on his face, but everywhere. No tan lines, so Tim assumed that was just Tyler’s normal skin-tone. How did Tim know Tyler had no tan lines? Because he’d seen all of him—briefly. Only very briefly.
They’d initially not hit it off at all at the wedding reception. Wanting to get his mind off the pain of having to watch Nolan marry Elliot, Tim was determined to hit on the hottest guy he saw, and that was Tyler. Eerily quiet and mysterious, the cute soldier caught Tim’s eye and that was that—he simply had to have him. He’d met him twice before, but until that night, Tyler didn’t really draw his attention. The first time they met was at the haunted attraction in October, but Tim had barely noticed Tyler since he’d been too busy trying and failing to woo Nolan. Next time was up on the mountain the day he discovered the wounded hybrid. Part of the team that came to retrieve Baz, Tyler had been hostile and all-business that day, eyeing Tim like he was nothing more than a mess that needed cleaning up. Tim didn’t like him. At least he thought he didn’t.
But seeing Tyler again at the wedding in a black tailored suit? It gave Tim a pleasant chill, like viewing a dangerous but beautiful predator all wrapped in silk. Tim knew instantly that he was going to try his best to get into Tyler’s expensive pants, but he was also hesitant. He’d inquired, and heard that Tyler was into guys, so that wasn’t a problem. And it wasn’t that he felt Tyler was out of his league. Just in a completely different league, a weird, other league. Tyler answered directly to Ogden, the big boss in charge of all the alien shit. And though Tim wasn’t exactly sure what Tyler’s job was, he’d figured out quick enough that it was something spooky.
Tim had once dated a guy who dumped him after becoming a CIA operative. Ashton had tried to use the excuse that his job was just too high-level to share his life with someone as pedestrian as Tim. What a joke. Ashton desperately wanted to be seen as mysterious and behind-the-curtain, but Tim suspected most of his daily tasks involved nothing more dangerous than a paper-cut. Ashton certainly didn’t possess that genuine spark of danger Tim saw in Tyler’s eyes. Tyler was scary because he was silent about his job.
Even JT and the rest of the village crew seemed slightly wary of Tyler, though they’d obviously worked with him before. They weren’t affectionate with Tyler like they were with each other, but they were clearly familiar enough to accept his presence as a given. And he’d been invited to Elliot and Nolan’s wedding. Which turned out to be both fortunate and devastating for Tim in the end.
He almost aborted the mission and didn’t bother hitting on Tyler at all, but ultimately talked himself into it. His own wholesome, fair-haired good looks had always served him well enough in the village, so well that he was considered a bit of a slut, a title he wore proudly. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and his job kept his body in good shape. Strutting around town in his well-fitted forest ranger uniform, he’d never had any trouble attracting men—Nolan excluded. So with several cocktails goading his courage and an overinflated ego, he fooled himself into thinking he had a shot at wooing Tyler, this exotic, mysterious young beast in Armani.
He crashed and burned. Tyler, sounding somewhat bored, told Tim he wasn’t his type. Tim was already emotional—and a little drunk—after watching Nolan make out with Elliot all night, so the exchange made him angry, and he promptly told Tyler to go fuck himself.
Tyler had simply shrugged, unaffected, which pissed Tim off more. Then somehow, after several more drinks later in the evening, Tyler loosened up and became almost friendly. Or maybe it was because Tim got drunk enough to try approaching him again...he couldn’t quite remember. Either way, they talked, and Tim was surprised to learn that Tyler was in a similar boat, admitting he’d been smitten with Elliot, the way Tim was with Nolan.
With the two of them commiserating at having to watch their individual crushes marry, Tim and Tyler finally found common ground. Tyler allowed Tim to sloppily kiss him in the kitchen at the pub. Then later, Tyler was the one to follow Tim when he fled after Elliot and Nolan’s otherworldly guests arrived at the private after-party.
Tim winced now at the memory of his meltdown, a spark of anger returning.
The lot of them, Nolan, Elliot, JT, and Christian, seemed to forget that Tim had only just been made privy to the truth about Singing Bear Village. He’d been dragged in and made to sign a nondisclosure agreement the day he found the alien in the woods, but after that they all seemed to just...forget about him. None of this crew even considered that it might be jarring to Tim, parading two white aliens with kaleidoscope-eyes before him like it was no big deal—like they were just another pair of wedding guests. Even Myles, Tim’s most trusted friend, was casually laughing and drinking with those two...those two things.
Maybe in their drunken revelry they all forgot Tim didn’t have the experience with this shit that they did. That the only time he’d seen an alien was that day in the woods when he found Baz, and the hybrid was unconscious at the time. No one ever asked how he was handling it. They didn’t even warn him that Baz and his alien boyfriend would be showing up. Sure, the after-party was private, only those in-the-know attending. But Tim was nowhere near as in-the-know as everyone else. He wasn’t ready for it. He'd been hanging out, enjoying his buzz and flirting with Tyler, when suddenly a seven-foot-tall alien-hybrid was sidling up next to him at the bar, wanting to shake hands. So yeah. He freaked the fuck out.
He’d made it to the parking lot when Tyler caught up, attempting to calm him, to no avail. Tim was weeping without tears, gasping without sound, the air in his lungs suddenly absent. Every muscle in his body twitched uncontrollably. Tyler ended up having to literally pick Tim up off the ground when his body betrayed him and his legs gave out. He made Tim sit in the car with his head between his knees until he could breathe again, then drove him home and helped him into his house. Made him tea.
Fucking tea. Like a splash of Earl Grey could fix the issue of Tim’s entire reality blowing apart.
Never had he felt as weak as he did in that moment. As undignified. Once he’d calmed and somewhat gotten hold of his faculties again, his ego resented that weakness. That Tyler, this mysterious little military spook he hardly knew, had to scrape him up off the ground and tend to him while he trembled and fought for air and his own sanity. It was beyond embarrassing, losing control like that.
In hindsight, that was likely why he’d pounced on Tyler afterward. To try and reclaim some control. To take his power back. He’d aggressively thrown himself at Tyler in his kitchen, undressing him with trembling hands. And Tyler had let him. He allowed Tim to take all his fear and shock out on his beautiful body. Tim could still hear Tyler whispering ‘It’s all right’ over and over while Tim fucked him right there on the kitchen floor. Tyler on his back, legs wrapped around Tim’s hips, accepting his thrusting cock patiently while he stroked Tim’s face and tried to soothe him with his words.
But Tyler didn’t want him. Tim realized that now, and it was humiliating. Tyler had simply been giving Tim the medicine he needed in that moment. It was the epitome of a sympathy-fuck.
After that, Tyler was gone. Not just from Tim’s house that night, leaving him naked and curled up against the wall, weeping and sticky with cum. But gone from the village as well. The next day, he learned Tyler had been sent away. He’d been gone for months now on some job outside the village for Ogden. That was all the information Tim was able to garner in his attempted casual inquiries. But Tim was glad the only witness to his unraveling was no longer in Singing Bear Village. The only one to see his disgrace was gone. It made life easier—easier to pretend the entire thing had never happened.
This was what he kept telling himself—that he was glad Tyler was gone. But in truth, the guy was still stuck in his head. Tyler left the village months ago but refused to vacate Tim’s thoughts, because there was a moment during the sex when some gateway opened between them, like a shared connection. A least that’s what Tim felt at the time. In hindsight, he realized how stupid that sounded. But he clearly remembered the moment and how he felt in it. A few brief seconds where he’d become overwhelmed with adoration for the man in his arms, certain that the feeling was reciprocated and reflected back in Tyler’s smoky gray eyes.
But Tim was coming off a nervous breakdown at the time, so he’d likely imagined the entire thing. He’d had plenty of quick fucks in his life, along with a couple actual relationships, and never once had he found himself pondering moments of perfect sexual and emotional communion. The very idea was preposterous. He’d obviously been in the clutches of confusion that night, imagining Tyler’s role as sexual savior or something because he’d helped Tim while he was vulnerable. But if it was just a side-effect from a bad night, why the hell couldn’t he stop reliving it in his mind?
And why do I get so damn horny every time I even think his name?
Hearing Tyler’s name spoken in passing by the people in this room didn’t help either. Tyler had come up in conversation a few times, and the joking consensus was that he had no feelings. That Tyler was cold and emotionally impenetrable. Which made Tim’s fixation not only hopelessly one-sided, but even more humiliating.
“Hey, you all right?” Myles whispered, nudging Tim with his shoulder, jolting him from his memories. “You look tense.”
JT’s basement faded back into his awareness. Realizing he was twisting his hat in his hands so tightly his knuckles had gone white, Tim forced himself to relax, taking a deep breath. “Fine,” he muttered. “I’m fine.”
Tim and Myles were both in uniform—he in his forest ranger greens, Myles in his sheriff’s outfit, both ready to start the day at their real jobs once this ridiculous meeting was over. The rest of the people in the room were a sloppy mess as always. Christian was dressed in baggy jeans and an inside-out tee shirt, gold-streaked brown hair looking like he hadn’t bothered to brush it that morning. According to Myles, these guys were all geniuses, which was hard to accept as he watched Christian empty a bag of Skittles onto the table and arrange them into a penis shape.
JT and Brett Mallory were both in shorts and fleece pullovers, JT’s long blond curls tied back in a ponytail, Brett’s brown dreads hanging loose. JT and Brett’s eyes were focused on Nolan, but they both had droopy lids. Even Nolan’s husband didn’t appear focused— Elliot, in jeans and a black Devo tee shirt, scrubbed his short, dirty-blond hair with his fingers then yawned, stretching his arms and nearly falling over when he tipped his chair too far. The sound of Elliot’s chair slapping back down on the floor made JT jolt in his seat like he’d begun to fall asleep.
“Okay,” Brett said, interrupting Nolan mid-sentence. “Why don’t we continue this when you’ve done more tests and gotten more data. Anyone else have pressing concerns? If not, we can meet next week.”
“Hang on.” Nolan scowled, gripping the wooden pointer in both hands like he wanted to snap it in half. “I wasn’t finished.”
“We got the gist.” Brett smiled. “Send an encrypted email with all you’ve got and I promise to look it over later then send it on to Ogden. Okay?”
“Fine.” For a big guy, Nolan had a hell of a pout. He shut down the computer and noisily gathered up his notes. “Not like it’s important or anything.”
Christian caught Tim’s gaze and rolled his eyes, making him chuckle. As chairs scraped the floor and everyone made to leave, Tim stepped away from the wall. “I have something I want to discuss.”
Everyone paused and looked at him, surprise evident in their expressions. Tim never contributed to these meetings. He usually left as soon as they were over, if not before.
“What is it, Tim?” JT asked.
With all eyes on him, he grew self-conscious, and wasn’t sure he could jump right in with ‘I’m scared of the mountains now and here’s why’ so he decided to ease into things with something benign before bringing up his real issue. He was dreading it. “The spring equinox parties are happening this weekend. I assume you’re hosting your annual at the pub?”
“Yeah.” JT nodded. “And?”
“I told you we can’t do floating lanterns this year. The state is on my ass because the lake is too close to the forest, and they’re a fire hazard.”
“You told us this already,” Nolan said. “And we told you we ordered water lanterns instead.”
“I know.” Tim nervously rubbed the back of his neck. “Just wanted to make sure. I saw a couple of them in the air last night, people setting them off on their own property.”
“Darwyn and I will help you keep an eye out for it,” Myles said. “Is that it?”
“No. That’s not it.” Tim took a deep breath. “I want to talk about the new ranger station.”
Brett stepped forward, slipping his glasses back on. “What about it? Is there a problem?”
“I just think it’s a waste of time, me sitting up there with my thumb up my ass.”
“I thought it was only a few short shifts a week. You think that’s too much? I was told Ogden was paying you for the extra duties,” Brett said.
“Yeah. I’m getting paid. That’s not the issue.”
They’d constructed the ranger station in question just last year, a small cabin on stilts about twenty yards from the field—the field that was apparently a place where the Whites’ ships entered the underground base when stopping off from their long journeys in space. Just another sickening new reality Tim was expected to treat as normal now.
The ships weren’t visible, at least not that Tim had seen, and that was good, because he wasn’t sure he could handle it if he did. But while the thought of the Whites always spooked him, it was the weird shit he’d been experiencing lately that had him speaking up now. He told himself to quit stalling and just spit it out, but now that they were all staring at him, he was hesitant. He didn’t want these guys to think he was paranoid and losing his mind. It had been bad enough allowing Tyler to see him fall apart. He didn’t need everyone else thinking he had bats in the belfry. Maybe he could just...get out of it. If he could convince them he didn’t need to be up there anymore...
“Okay,” Brett said. “Then what is the issue?”
“The area’s restricted to the public, and you said you already have cameras to monitor it.”
“The cameras aren’t close enough to your station to monitor that area, they’re closer to the field. And they’re not going to catch everything that goes on in the woods up there,” Nolan said. “Your presence at the lookout is just an added precaution.”
“I get that,” Tim said. “But standing guard for a bunch of aliens who are a zillion times more advanced than we are? I’m not qualified for that. What if those rogue hybrids you told me about come back?”
“You’re not guarding the Whites!” JT said. “We wouldn’t task you with that. And the rogue hybrids that took over the base have long since been either killed or taken in hand. You don’t need to worry about them.”
“Oh shit, is that what you’ve been worried about?” Brett said. “I’m sorry, Tim, I guess I should have been clearer. Your main duty is to keep any hikers or thrill-seekers out of the area. We still get random conspiracy theorists trying to camp up there because some of them, unfortunately, suspect extraterrestrial activity is going on.”
“I know all that,” Tim said. “I chased a lot of them out the first two months. But I haven’t seen anyone in a long time. Maybe word has spread that there’s a ranger stationed up there now.”
“Good, then it’s working,” Brett said.
“So...if no one’s going up there anymore, I don’t need to be there. Right?”
“We’d like to keep you up there just in case. It’s easy money for you, right?”
Tim shrugged. “I guess.”
Brett lifted his arms then dropped them at his sides. “So what exactly is the problem? You’re not being clear.”
Just say it, Tim. I hear things. I see things. And I’m afraid.
“You said you wanted to be involved,” JT said. “We involved you. What’s the problem?”
“Just forget it. It’s fine.”
He started for the door when Myles called to him, “Tim, cut the bullshit, what’s really bothering you? I know you too well, so talk.”
Pausing, he turned back. “Look, I have to ask. Are you guys screwing with me up on the mountain? Testing me somehow? Because I’m gonna be really pissed if you’ve made me one of your fucked up little experiments—”
“Tim, calm down,” Brett said. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I heard some guy calling for help one night recently but couldn’t find anyone.”
Brett shook his head. “That’s it? A guy calling for help?”
“No, not just that. I...I just don’t like being up there. Okay?”
Nolan approached, and his scowl was gone. His gorgeous brown eyes showed compassion as he gently grasped Tim’s shoulders. “I’m gonna ask you a question, and you can be honest, okay?”
“Sure.”
“Are you scared to be near the Whites’ base?”
“I’m not a coward.”
Nolan sighed. “Look, Tim. We’ve been doing this for years. We’re used to it, and it still freaks us out sometimes. There’s no shame in saying you’re scared to be up by the Whites’ base at night, now that you know the Whites are there. It makes total sense that you would be.”
“It’s not the Whites I’m afraid of.”
Nolan released his shoulders but stayed close. “But you are afraid of something.”
Glancing around, Tim noticed the entire crew had surrounded him, eyeing him expectantly. “I’ve heard things up there at night. I’ve...seen things I can’t explain.”
Brett closed in on him. “What kind of things?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“Is it white mist? Moving through the trees?” Elliot asked. “If so, it’s the Whites roaming around, and we’ll talk to Baz about it. They’re supposed to be staying underground, we had an agreement.”
“It’s not white mist. It’s dark. Dark shadows. Black shapes moving around below the trees. And noises.”
“What kind of noises?” JT asked.
“Weird hissing and...clicking sounds. Sometimes I hear it right outside the door, like they climbed the ladder and they’re right there.”
“Did you go outside and check it out?” Brett asked.
“Of course! I’m not a coward. I go out and search the whole area every time, but I never find anything. It’s like as soon as I step out of the station it disappears.”
“Bears can climb ladders,” Christian said. “It’s probably a bear. They can move fast.”
“It’s not a fucking bear, Christian! I’m the forest ranger in Singing Bear Village, I know bears!”
“Whoa.” Christian took a step back. “Okay, chill out.”
“I’m sorry, but I know those mountains like the back of my hand.”
“That phrase bothers me,” Elliot said. “Do any of us really know the back of our hand? I mean, could we pass a pop-quiz about it without cheating?”
“Elliot,” JT muttered. “Read the room.”
Tim rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean. I’m familiar with all the sights and sounds of the forest, even at night. I’m telling you that what I’ve been experiencing is unique.”
“Okay.” Myles nodded. “I’m sure this is frustrating, but we’re only trying to help.”
“I know. Look, I want to explain this away as much as you all do, and I’ve tried, believe me. But it’s not just the hissing and clicking. Sometimes I hear...a baby crying.”
Brett pushed his glasses up higher on his nose. “A baby? In the woods? At night?”
“Yeah, like an infant’s cry. You said you found a baby White in the woods in the past, right? And you said the Whites can move really fast.”
“Sure,” JT said. “One left their baby topside during the hybrids’ siege, for its own protection. Chances are slim they’d do so again though. Baz assures us the Whites are staying out of the woods. Plus, we haven’t seen anything on the camera feeds, have we, Nolan?”
“Nothing,” Nolan said. “I check them every morning.”
“It’s probably a cat in heat you’re hearing, or a coyote,” Christian said.
“I swear to God, Boucher...” Tim glared at him.
“Come on, relax,” Christian said. “I’m just supplying options.”
“I’ve spent my entire life up in those mountains. Do you really think I can’t tell the difference between an animal and something else?”
“But you said you see shapes,” Christian said.
“I do, but only when I look out the windows or go out on the deck. I see...something. Something’s moving out there at the base of the trees, I just don’t know what.”
Nolan squeezed Tim’s shoulder. “Could it be people up there rather than animals? You said you heard a guy calling for help. A person could take off once they saw you step outside. A person could hide themselves easily. And a person could imitate a baby’s cry. You said you’ve had to kick hikers out. You think someone’s screwing with you?”
“You tell me, Nolan.”
“It’s not us. We wouldn’t lie.”
“You guys lied to me for years about the fucking aliens! Why should I trust you?”
“Calm down,” Brett said. “I promise we know nothing about this. But you should have brought this up right away. How long has this been going on?”
“About a month.”
“Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
“Because I...” Tim blinked slowly. “Because I am scared to be up there knowing the Whites’ base is twenty yards away, okay? I’ve been freaked out ever since I found out about them. Because of that, I wasn’t sure if I was just imagining things. If my senses were playing tricks on me because I was already nervous and expecting something to happen. I’m still not sure. That’s why I didn’t want to say anything. But...”
“But it’s bothering you enough you felt you had to mention it,” Elliot said. “And you’re a cocky asshole who’d never normally admit to being scared, so now it’s bothering me too.”
“Fuck off, Elliot,” Tim said, but couldn’t muster any real hostility. He and Elliot hadn’t always gotten along, because Elliot was a snarky prick and they had bad history. But he saw no disdain in Elliot’s green eyes now, only curiosity. “Sorry, Elliot. I’m just stressed out.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Elliot said. “Can you be more specific about what you’re seeing? These shapes in the woods. Can you describe them in any detail?”
“There isn’t much to describe, but I’ll try.”
“Everyone, sit back down,” Brett said.
“Oh, man,” Christian whined. “I’m starving! I want to go get breakfast.”
“Christian,” JT scolded. “Shut up, this is more important than your stomach.”
“I have a high metabolism!”
“I’ll order something in,” Brett said. “Everyone sit down.”
“I’ve got to head out,” Myles said. “Work to do in the village.”
“Okay, Sheriff,” Brett said. “We’ll fill you in later.”
Myles slapped Tim’s shoulder. “It’s gonna be okay. We’ll figure it out.” He walked over and gave Christian a quick kiss, then looked at Brett. “You will feed Christian, right? He does have a high metabolism and he gets really cranky when he doesn’t eat.”
“I promise I will feed Christian and everyone else,” Brett said. “Go on, Myles. We’ll talk later.”
After Myles left, Brett called and ordered breakfast and more coffee, then things quieted as everyone found a seat at the table. Tim was sweating, but he also felt relief. These people annoyed him, but he’d been keeping this bottled up. The fear. The shame at being afraid. But they seemed to be taking him seriously, and he had to admit, it was a nice feeling, not being alone in it anymore.
“So,” Brett said. “Tell us exactly what’s been happening.” He flipped a page on his notepad and picked up a pen. “Start by describing the shadows you’ve been seeing. The shapes. Any detail could be important, so be thorough.”
Tim wiped his sweaty brow, then glanced around the table. “They slither.”