Siobhan Muir - Hot SEALs: Darwin’s Evolution (Novella)

Master Sergeant Sadie Hawkins came awake with a jolt, her heart pounding. She froze, listening and feeling the environment around her. The transport she rode rocked back and forth in a regular rhythm with a low rumble of wheels on rails. The air around her smelled vaguely like upholstery cleaner and body odor, but every few moments the scent of pines in summer sunshine wafted through. Someone breathed evenly close by and a warm, heavy weight pressed against her left shoulder.

Despite the plethora of data, she still didnt remember where she was. After a few more breaths of the same information, she opened her eyes. She leaned against the window of an Amtrak passenger train and the ponderosa forest sped past in a dark green blur. She tried to shift to an upright position when her back complained, but the warm weight leaning on her left shoulder wouldnt be budged.

She turned her head and scanned what lay against her.

A pair of black cowboy boots rested crossed over each other under faded blue jeans stretched across thick thighs. A broad torso wrapped in a green plaid short-sleeved button-down shirt leaned against her side, breathing steadily. She couldnt see the mans face, but his hair lay silver at his temples and his biceps strained the sleeves of the shirt.

Usually, she didnt like to be touched, particularly by unknown men who appeared to be strong enough to give her a run for her money. But something about this man suggested he needed his rest and found her as a safe harbor. She tilted her head just enough to catch the sight of dog tags resting on his chest beneath the shirts collar and nodded with understanding.

Another soldier.

She didnt always feel kinship with members of the armed forces. Many of the young punks were still jackasses despite the general camaraderie of the military. Shed had enough men, young, dumb, and full of cum, try to assert their strength, misogyny, and stupidity on her because she had a pair of obvious tits and a pretty face. But she was as much a Marine as she was a woman, and they learned the hard way that she could hold her own.

But this man smelled like leather, cedar, and a hint of cinnamon, and his weight against her was surprisingly comforting. She snorted softly. My inner romantic is getting out of line. Or her nostalgia over her time in the military. Shed been in the Marines since just after her eighteenth birthday and now, after twenty years, shed stepped away into her new life.

The problem is, I dont know what that entails.

As a marine she was used to uncertaintyin where shed go, in what shed be asked to dobut the one constant was the order and protocols. Now shed retired from it, with no certainty in anything. Shed packed up her shit, loaded it into actual trunks and crates, and headed for her mothers place in Williams, Arizona on the train, like a World War II vet.

She glanced out the window at the pine trees sliding past and tried to let go of the concern over her precarious position. No use in borrowing trouble. Wont know what Ill face until I get there. The pep talk helped, but the uncertainty still grabbed her gut. Usually she had men and women behind her, watching her back. Now she faced the unknown alone.