Page 86 of Not Your Ordinary Shifter

The Mudskipper’s Mate

DANI CARR

Chapter

One

BECK

“Let’s go over the plan one more time,” Will said. “We can’t afford any screw ups on a job this big.”

Kato rolled his eyes. “Calm your shit, bro. We’ve gone over it a million times!”

“Everything has to go perfect,” Will said with a growl. “There’s zero room for fuck ups.”

My elbow bumped Will’s stomach as I walked past him on our way to the beach. “Don’t get your panties in a knot. We’ve got this.”

He wrapped his arm around my neck and pulled my head down to rough up my hair in retaliation.

“I’m your big brother. It’s my job to keep you fuckers in line. And Dad’ll kill us if we don’t get the information for Roy. You know he’s our most important client and if we do good here?—”

“We know,Dad!” I laughed at the pissed off expression on Will’s face. He fucking hated it when I called him Dad, but I hated it when he acted like him, so it’s a good trade. “If we do good, Roy will throw more business our way, which will be good for the entire shoal.”

Kato snickered at my attempt to mimic our dad’s voice.

Will looked like he was getting ready to lose his shit, so I cut him some slack. “Seriously, we got this. We’re taking the zodiac to park half a mile away from the Nova, then we’ll swim the rest of the way. The yacht will be anchored for the night, so it’ll be easy to slip on board.”

Kato picked up where I left off. “You are going to climb up on the starboard side. Beck’ll be climbing up the port and I will take the stern and then keep watch on the deck. You and Beck will split up and find the old man’s office.”

Will takes over. “Once we find it, I’ll work on downloading the files we need while you stand guard. Once we’ve got the information, we’ll get back to the zodiac and be home before morning.”

Nervous energy was building in my stomach, so by the time we reached the boat, I was amped up and more than ready to get going. Our night vision far surpassed normal humans, so we had no problem navigating in the dark. Once we’d arrived at the decided upon location, Will tossed the anchor overboard.

After pulling my henley over my head, I folded it and placed it on the bench seat.

“Ready boys?” I couldn’t keep the excitement out of my voice.

My brothers followed suit, each of us stripping down to our boxers before changing into our other form. Jumping out of my boxers, I leapt over the side of the boat and into the cold water, swimming in a tight circle. Unlike some of my fellow mudskippers, I loved being in the water.

There was a small splash, and Kato joined me.

“I’ll race you to the boat,” Kato’s human voice sounded inside my head.

“No, you won’t,” Will stated firmly. “We are staying together.” He shifted and jumped from the boat. “Let’s go,” he said, using our mind link.

Knowing he was playing it smart, I got in line and Kato soon followed. We had work to do.

We skimmed across the water silently. Our unique eyesight made us perfect for these kinds of missions. One of my eyes focused on our destination, while the other scanned behind us, ensuring there were no predators nearby. We took turns diving under the water to make sure nothing was going to attack us from below.

Once we reached the boat, I followed the plan and easily scaled the side of the yacht. I scanned the deck, noting that there were two guards, one sitting watching an outdoor TV and another near the stairs leading down below.

“We got bad intel. Two armed guards,” I warned my brothers.

“Fuck,” Will replied. “Watch yourselves. Kato, let us know if either of them heads our way.”

Carefully circumventing the thugs on deck, I used my pelvic fins to scoot my way to the stairs and then down. There was another man across the room from me, so I stayed close to the edge of the wall and silently slunk forward, hoping that if he glanced my way, he wouldn’t look down. Most people didn’t.

“Another guard down here,” I reported. “This place is insane!”

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