Page 41 of Mated to Team Shadow

"What will we do?"

Damon shook his head. "I don't know. Can we even stay in the service?"

"No," said Kane. "I can't accept that. We worked hard."

"Well, that's just it, isn't it?" I said. "The average length of enlistment for a SEAL is fifteen years, but most of them deploy only a third of that and spend the rest of time pushing paper."

"Yeah," said Damon, "I know that."

"And we've deployed continually for like what? Close to ten years? Add it up. We're past our expiration date."

"If we were fully human," said Kane, "which we are not."

"That is what the DOD depends on."

"Yeah, we're the 'better soldier' they've always wanted."

"Or one form of it," said Damon thoughtfully.

"I think," I said, "it's time to retire."

"And do what?" snorted Kane.

"Work for another security company?"

"Like who?" said Damon.

"I don't know."

"Perhaps we just need to find those other shifters that Ryker says are out there?"

"Perhaps. There is one thing for sure," said Damon. "Jawing is not moving this op forward. Let's go find Ryker."

"And Jeanine," said Kane.

"Yes, Jeanine," said Damon derisively. "She's our North Star now, isn't she?"

Was she? Yes. Damon hit the nail just right.

Damon turned and headed back into the tropical forest, and we fell in side-by-side. Kane muttered which was never a good sign.

"This is not what I signed up for," he said. "What the hell happened? Why?"

"It's not important that you like it," I said spouting a SEAL truism and being a jerk about it. "It's important that you do it."

"Smart ass," he said. "Our creed also says, 'The ability to control my emotions and my actions, regardless of circumstance, sets me apart from other men.' This doesn't look like control to me."

"Who says biology isn't destiny?" tossed Damon over his shoulder.

"You think this is about biology?" I said.

"Mate? Yeah. Instinctual. Biology," he said definitely. "What do we know about our biology, eh?"

"Cats do not take lifelong mates," said Kane.

"But we aren't a hundred percent cat," said Damon. "Our genetic profile is mostly human."

"How do you know?" said Kane.

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