Page 31 of Mated to Team Shadow

"Oh, no," said Ryker. We all dove for her and grabbed a piece of her as she shrieked in her fright.

"Let me go! Let me go!" she screamed.

"Shh, shh," Ryker said using his Alpha voice to calm her. But it didn't work. She thrashed under Ryker's, Gunner's, and Kane's grip.

"Let her go," I said.

"But—"

"Where's she going to go, eh? In the ocean? After she's seen what's in the water?"

Jeanine stilled perhaps as reason dawned and the guys released their grip. She whipped around though and faced me with a fierce look on her face as if she'd take me on and take me down too.

She looked terribly cute at that moment.

"What?" she retorted. "What are you smiling at?"

That she directed her attention to me made me stupidly happy.

"You," I said.

She crossed her arms and huffed.

"You didn't answer my question?"

"He's a jaguar shifter."

"Shi—what? You turned into a big cat?"

"Yep."

She turned again as if to launch herself over the side again, but this time Ryker caught her around the waist.

"Stop. No one will hurt you."

"That's right, baby," said Gunner. He sidled next to her. "We want to protect you."

"I don't understand what's happening. I must be hallucinating. That's it. Maybe I bumped my head, and I'm unconscious, and you are all products of my overactive imagination?"

Ryker shook his head. "No, doll, you aren't imagining anything."

"Ha," she huffed. "I'm sure my unconscious mind will say anything to get me to keep this delusion going."

"It might," conceded Kane, "if you were unconscious but you aren't."

She pointed a finger at Kane. "You're a delusion."

"Now, babe," said Gunner.

"Don't 'now babe' me. The only thing that makes sense is that I'm unconscious or dreaming. I don't know what's going on here but grown men do not turn into jaguars.

"We do," said Ryker.

"You all?"

"Yes," said Kane. "We do."

"Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no," she babbled.

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