Page 7 of Mated to Team Shadow

Damon raised his hand. "Here."

"Yeah. We're acquainted. He told me I spoke shitty French."

I glanced at Damon, who, courtesy of his shifter hearing, easily caught her words over the roar of the boat engine. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Mr. Charm has his own way with women," I said.

"Who does?" said Kane, as he climbed back on deck and handed Ryker his backpack.

"Now," groused Ryker, as he slipped it on ahead of time for contingencies, "if we'd worked this efficiently on the yacht—"

Damon shifted the boat into a faster gear making us all stumble on the deck. He wasn't in the mood for Ryker's complaints, because we all knew the plan had a high probability of failure. There were too many moving parts and too few of us, and the only one surprised it went into a ditch was our team leader.

We'd put our all into it, but sometimes, despite your best efforts, the op blew apart.

Doesn't mean we won't try again.

Kane's eyes nearly popped when he saw Jeanine's top pulled down. She wore a bra, but it was a very sexy black lace, and the way Jeanine glared was hot too.

And I liked her much better as a brunette.

"Here," he said, offering another backpack to her. "We have extra clothes in there. Cover your body."

"Why?" she snapped.

"Because we are near the equator and your fair skin will burn redder than a boiled lobster by the time we meet the cutter."

"Oh," she said. Her indignation deflated, and her shoulders drooped. She had been up all night, and her drawn eyes revealed Jeanine's exhaustion. The morning sun glittered in her tired eyes as dawn broke on the ocean.

"Do we have food?" I asked.

"Here," said Ryker pulling out a package of beef jerky from his backpack. He held it out to me.

"Not me. Her. And water too."

And that wasn't a smart move on my part because Ryker's eyes glowed before he offered her the jerky and the water. My jaguar growled inside me disliking the predator's gaze Ryker gave her.

Mine,said my beast.

For the record, I was not a one-woman man. As jaguar shifters, our beasts were normally solitary creatures. We took our pleasures as they came, and I had no problem with that. Traveling the world like we did from one dangerous assignment to another didn't leave lots of room or time for a human-style relationship.

But the woman ticked all my boxes. She was cute, adventurous, physically fit, and smart. It took a special woman to keep up with me since jaguar shifters were energetic creatures.

Jeanine shivered, so I took the backpack and fished out a gray hoodie. It was a shame to cover her sexy dress, but I hated to see her distress.

"Here you are."

She pulled it from my hand and slipped it on. I watched her every move. Her fingers and wrists had the most graceful bend I'd ever seen, and I was fascinated. She'd painted her nails in sparkly gold to match her dress.

"Gunner," snapped Kane standing behind me. "Find something else to do besides staring."

My jaguar growled within me again, and I whipped around to face Kane. I stepped toe-to-toe to him, using my natural feline sense of balance to keep me upright.

"Mind your own business, Doc."

"Maybe it is my business."

"Knock it off you two," said Ryker with his voice low. "Sit down, shut—"

---