Page 32 of Mated to Team Shadow

Ryker directed Gunner to get the bottle of whiskey he found on our abandoned boat, and he opened it and handed it to her.

"Drink this."

This strictly was not a good idea, especially in the heat of day, and with limited water supplies. But sometimes you measure one risk against another.

Jeanine gripped the bottle with shaking fingers and took first one swig, then another.

"Ugh," she said.

"What?" said Gunner with a quirky smile. "You don't like our whiskey?"

She took another and pointed her fingers at us.

"What the hell?"

"At least we got past 'no, no, no,'" said Gunner with a smile. She shot him a nasty look, and I didn't blame her. Gunner's smart mouth often got us in trouble.

"Drink some more," urged Ryker.

"Nope, you take one now," she said shoving the bottle at him. "You'll drink, and everyone else too."

Ryker sucked on his lips. Like the rest of us, he knew the danger of drinking alcohol on short water rations. But he also wanted to keep her calm.

"Okay," he said taking the bottle. He passed it to Gunner who took a swig and passed it Kane, who gave it to me. I handed it back to her, but she shook her head.

"Okay, spill. What are you guys? Some weird government science experiment?"

"No," rumbled Ryker. "This is top secret stuff. We shouldn't tell you but considering…"

"Considering what?"

"We'll get to that. From what we can figure, we were born this way. We didn't even know what we were until the government brought us together."

"Ryker," said Gunner, "thinks that our people lived in greater numbers before humans spread over the earth."

Right," she said with skepticism. "You'll forgive me for not believing you." Her stubborn jaw set, and I wanted to kiss that recalcitrance from her magnificent lips.

"What?" said Kane. "Government experiments to create a race of men who shift into cats is more believable?"

"It might be."

"Well, forget it," said Kane. "No one has the technology to make those kinds of hybrids."

"Chimeras," she said. "That's what they are called."

"Human chimeras, hybrids, what you call them, they aren't possible."

"Did some scientists create pig-human hybrids?"

Kane shuddered. "Embryos implanted into pigs, and they destroyed them after four weeks' gestation. It was to see if they could use pigs to grow human organs for transplant. But that's much different from what we are."

"Which is?" said Jeanine.

"Grown men," said Gunner.

"Who happen to shift into jaguars," said Ryker.

Jeanine

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