“All right, listen up, guys,” Captain spoke the next morning while we were finishing up our breakfast. We all peered at him in curiosity, so he continued. “I have something special arranged for us all later today, so if you have any work to do, try to wrap it up before two o’clock.”

“What is it?” Ash asked, his eyes shining already.

“Maybe it’s a surprise?” Captain said teasingly.

“What kind of surprise?” Ryan asked tentatively.

“Don’t worry, it’s one of your favorites,” Captain told him reassuringly, and Ryan relaxed.

“It’s a surprise for Riley, right?” Reid guessed.

“Indeed,” Captain said, giving me a smile. “He’ll get to witness how us true elites train.”

“Hell yeah!” Ash said, grinning widely.

“Can’t wait,” I said truthfully, grinning as well.

Because the way Captain said it made it sound like this training session was going to be far from formal. And normal. And since everyone got increasingly excited as the day went by, I got excited as well. It was contagious, really. It was also quite endearing to watch all these elite soldiers, these big strong alphas, behave like kids.

Two o’clock arrived pretty quickly, and right on the dot, everyone was done with their work and ready to go, myself included. Captain was waiting for us by the entrance with five large bags resting at his feet. He stood with his arms crossed, looking like he was ready for war. He did a quick headcount, then nodded in approval.

“Ready to go have some fun?” he asked.

“Yes, sir!”

“Good! Grab the bags, but don’t look inside,” he said, and stepped outside.

His Jeep and a large van were parked outside, waiting for us. While I raised my eyebrow at them, the others got increasingly giddy at the sight of them.

“We’re going on a trip?” I asked.

“Just a short one,” Captain said while walking to his car. “You’ll see soon.”

Damn, my curiosity was growing, but no one tried to even guess where we could be heading. If they did, they made sure I couldn’t hear them. Although, if Captain wanted it to be a surprise, I let him have his wish and stopped trying to figure it out. We’d find out soon enough.

Reid and I took our seats in Captain’s car with Chandler and Keita, while the rest followed us in the van. I tried not to stare at Chandler, who barely fit in the front seat with his six foot fucking ten frame. There was a mere inch of air between his head and the roof. I felt so, so tiny sitting behind him. I was the only one who could sit comfortably behind him.

I raised my eyebrow at Reid when we left the inner base and headed to the old training grounds at the very back of the whole Fort Morgan. He only shrugged, so I turned to look outside again. I’d been in that part of the base maybe three times in my entire career because it was pretty much abandoned. There wasn’t much left besides the old, rotten training equipment, large, unkempt fields, and several warehouses and hangars that had been converted into training facilities, then forgotten long before I was even born.

I raised my eyebrows at Reid again when we parked next to one of the warehouses. He still only shrugged and gestured for me to exit the car. And for some reason, everyone had gotten even giddier on our way here. Many of them were bursting with energy, not just Ash.

We grabbed the bags and followed Captain to the main entrance. Once he found the right key, he opened the door and let us into a dark, small, dusty hallway. There were nothing but a few long benches in it, and quite a lot of spider webs. I chose to keep my first impression to myself when we followed Captain to a staircase leading to the second floor on our left.

There were a few doors on the second floor, and we entered the closest one of them. The room we stepped in was a changing room, and even though it was just as uninviting and barren as the entrance hall, at least there wasn’t much dust or webs anywhere.

“You can leave your stuff here in these lockers. I strongly suggest not taking anything noisy with you,” Captain told us with a grin, so we all hurried to get rid of our wallets, keys, phones, and whatever chains and rings everyone was wearing.

“All right! Let’s go have some fun,” Captain said with a grin.

“Yes, sir!”

We exited the locker room through another door, which led us to a small spectating area with seats and a forgotten cafeteria. But here, behind the railings, was the hangar. I could see the whole area from where I stood, and I had to admit, I understood the excitement.

The whole hangar had been turned into a huge maze, made of tall warehouse shelves, containers, boxes, walls, and chain-link fences, among other things. The lights were mostly off, so the dim light gave the whole place an eerie feeling.

I could feel a friendly set of eyes on me, so I turned to face Captain, who was watching me with a smile.

“You like it?” he asked.

“I do, though I still don’t understand why we’re here,” I said.

His smile grew wider. “My boy… We are here to play hide and seek, of course.”

“Hell yes!” Ash immediately shouted.

“Hide and seek,” I repeated with a short chuckle. “But in that case, what are these for?” I asked, tapping one of the bags with my foot.

“Ah, I’m glad you asked,” Captain said, crouched next to one and opened it.

I peered in. “Of course it’s toys,” I muttered when I saw all the stuffed animals and balls in it. “But for what?”

“The balls are grenades, and toys are trapped civilians you have to save,” Captain explained with a grin, giving me a tennis ball.

I stared at the ball, then turned back to Captain when he stood.

“Let’s get the place ready, shall we?” he asked.

The guys got really excited as they grabbed the bags and headed to a long walkway that led to the other end of the hangar. I had to admit, this game of hide and seek did sound like a lot of fun. I watched as the others started throwing the toys down to the first floor, trying to get them stuck in the weirdest places that were hard to reach.

“This should be right up your alley,” Captain told me while we waited. “You get to show us your assassin skills.”

“I’ll probably make a fool out of myself. With all you bunch of elites…” I muttered.

“None of that, my boy,” Captain muttered gently, and I looked up at him. “This is not an evaluation. We’re not here to rate how well you do. No one is keeping score. We are here so you can have fun while showing us what you can do.”

“Yes, sir,” I said quietly. “It does sound like a lot of fun.”

“Good,” he said, patting my shoulder. “And I have the feeling you’ll learn a bit about how good your skills actually are today.”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Uh-huh,” he said, giving me a confident smile. “It’s all about that fire in you. The look.”

“Sure,” I said with a chuckle, while the guys returned to us with empty bags.

He nudged my shoulder playfully, then turned his attention to everyone else.

“All right, listen up! We have this place reserved for us for the rest of the day,” he said, and got cheered at. “We’ll get food delivered to us after six, so we get to stay here for as long as we want. There are plenty of drinks in the fridge, and you can take a break whenever you want.”

We all nodded, and he turned to me.

“The rules are simple. Everyone works with their partner, so you’ll go with Reid. Every team takes one of these bags with them and gathers as many toys as they can in thirty minutes,” he told me.

“Sounds simple, yes,” I agreed.

“Good,” he said, and grabbed a tennis ball. “Every other team will be hostile to you, and they will try to steal your toys. Tennis balls are grenades, so if you get hit by one, you have to give up all the toys in your bag, and start all over again.”

I tried not to grin too widely when I nodded. “Got it.”

It actually sounded really fun. I was getting hyped as hell.

“If you don’t have any questions…?” Captain asked me, and I shook my head. “Great! Grab your bags and spread out in the maze while I set up the alarm. When it goes off, time is up, and we meet up here.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Come,” Reid told me while he grabbed a bag for us.

We all headed down the stairs and entered the maze. The obstacles looked much larger and taller now as I stood in the middle of them. It wasn’t going to be easy to find the toys and stay hidden from others.

“Ready?” Captain asked. “Set… Go!”

“Run,” Reid told me shortly, and started running. I was quick to follow him as he headed deeper into the maze, grabbing every toy he came across. I followed his example and got every toy that was easy to reach, though there weren’t many of those. By the time we reached the middle of the hangar, we had maybe ten or eleven toys in our hands. We stopped to put them in the bag.

“Right. That’s a good start, but now things get tricky,” Reid told me in a quiet mutter.

“Yeah?”

He nodded. “Listen…”

Both my omega and I listened as carefully as we could, but we heard nothing. The silence in the hangar was almost surreal. There were supposed to be nine other people with us, but we couldn’t hear any of them.

“You follow my lead,” Reid whispered. “We’ll only use signs from now on. Let me know if you spot something. A toy or an enemy. And stay quiet.”

I nodded, and we continued our way, keeping our pace slow and silent. And fuck, it was spooky. I couldn’t hear or see anyone. The hangar was large, sure, but I should’ve detected at least something. Even my omega couldn’t sense them.

Fucking elite soldiers, man…

Reid stopped behind a corner of a large container and pointed up at storage shelves close to us. I saw a rabbit toy on one of the shelves, too high off the ground for us to reach without climbing. I wanted to go get it, and I told him that by using sign language. He nodded, then carefully peered around the corner to make sure we were still alone. Once we were sure the coast was clear, I sneaked to the shelves and climbed up to grab the toy.

The second my fingers touched the plushie, my omega finally alerted me. I immediately let go of the shelves and fell just in time to avoid getting hit by a tennis ball. I could almost feel it tousling my hair as I dropped down. When I hit the ground, I only had half a second to gather myself before my omega alerted me again. I jumped hard to my right to avoid getting hit. Whoever it was, they were somewhere behind me, so I sprung around. I saw no one, but Reid covered me by throwing a ball in their direction, and I quickly returned to him behind the container.

He threw another ball, tapped me on my shoulder, then ran. I followed him quickly with the plushie tucked under my arm. We found a new hiding spot behind a brick wall and crouched behind it to check our surroundings. No one seemed to be following us, so while Reid tried to decide where we should head to next, I put the rabbit in the bag.

Since there was nothing but absolute silence around us, we decided to leave our hiding place, but this time, we headed toward the front of the building. We found two more easy toys on our way and put them in our bag. A bit later, I spotted a bear stuck between a container and a tall fake wall, and no one saw me when I went to get it.

But as I stood on the container, I heard a noise somewhere in the distance, and hid behind the wall to see what was going on. I saw movement quite far away from us… It was Keita and Chandler who ran behind another set of large storage shelves, trying not to get hit by tennis balls. Once they’d vanished, I saw a glimpse of Captain and Nico chasing them.

So two teams were preoccupied…

I hurried back to Reid and gestured for him to follow me this time. He nodded and stayed behind me while I led him away from the two teams I saw. We could hear them a little bit longer, but finally, the hangar fell silent again.

The next few minutes were uneventful. We found no toys, nor did we encounter anyone else. But then, my omega told me to stop and listen. I pulled Reid with me behind a big pile of junk, and we hid deep in the shadows.

And we listened. I couldn’t hear a thing, but my omega was sure someone was close by. It must’ve smelled someone close by, since I couldn’t sense anyone. And lo and behold, Rio took a careful step into our view, his partners following right behind him.

I turned to Reid, who grinned at me, and gave me a tennis ball while holding one himself. I took it and turned to face our enemy. They still hadn’t noticed us… It was such an easy kill I almost felt bad…

Almost.

I threw the ball as hard as I could, aiming at Ash on his shoulder. There was just one thing I’d forgotten.

These were elites.

Ash easily sprung out of the way while his partners ducked left and right, balls in hand and ready to fight. I quickly hid behind a fallen desk to avoid getting a ball in my face, while Reid jumped up to attack them instead. I grabbed a few more balls from our bag and got back up, but our enemy had already hid behind another wall of desks, chairs, boxes, and other crap. Suddenly, Daz got up in a flash and threw a ball at Reid. I took advantage of that and threw my ball at him, but he retreated too quickly.

And that immediately escalated. It was Reid and I versus the three of them. We kept lunging balls back and forth, trying to deliver the final hit, but it turned out to be almost impossible with their alphas and my omega alerting us of incoming balls. It was actually fun, I had to admit.

“Come on! Give up!” Reid shouted and laughed when yet another ball was a miss.

I had to crawl after balls in our hiding place since we’d already run out of them. I gave Reid a bunch so he could keep fighting while I gathered the rest of them into our bag.

“You give up! We only have seven toys anyway!” Ash shouted back.

“Give me more, give me more…” Reid hastily said to me.

I gave him half of the ones I’d found, and together, we jumped up to launch a new, strong attack against them. They couldn’t do anything against us two. If they dared to get up, we immediately hit them with balls. Well, tried to. Their damn instincts were still too fast… And we ran out of balls really fast.

It was their turn to attack, and ours to hide.

Watch out! My omega suddenly alerted me, but I failed to understand what it meant. I thought I was fine hiding from Ash, Daz, and Rio. I’d completely forgotten there were six others prowling about as well.

I got hit in the back.

"No!"