Cats Got Your Tongue (Shifter Squad Six) (2 page)

“What the—” Kelis murmured, feeling some eyes on her as she stood at the head of first class, her duffel still slung over her shoulder.

“Quite a sight, huh? This is a charter flight for two NCAA Division II teams. I’d never heard of them but I don’t mind being stuck on a plane with them for a while,” the stewardess said in a conspiring way, leaning over Kelis’s shoulder slightly to whisper in her ear.

Kelis glanced at the woman, who gave her an encouraging nod, and with her head full of questions, she trudged forward. The guys were hot as hell, there was no mistaking that. There wasn’t a single man on the airplane shorter than Kelis, something that was a bit of a rarity, and none of them sat next to one another, probably on account of their wide shoulders and long legs. Muscular, well-built, and looking like they were made for a life of being shamelessly fantasized about, Kelis could feel her core throbbing treacherously.

Stop it. You’re used to being around scores of mouthwatering hunks, so get over it. These guys probably can’t even defend themselves in a fight, all muscle and no strength,
she thought, trying her best to get her mind off of the hunks that were giving her long, appreciative looks.

She was an attractive woman, this much she knew. Long blonde hair, grayish-blue eyes, good complexion with a bit of a tan from spending so long in Afghanistan last year, she was a catch. But she was also a US Marine and she could kill a man in twelve ways without even needing a weapon, and that
really
cut down a woman’s dating pool.

Couple that with being smarter than the average jock, emphasized by the fact that she was a pilot and not a regular grunt, and most men in the service found themselves gravitating toward brainless bimbos that chased them down at the bars around Navy and Army bases.

Not that Kelis minded. She wasn’t the kind of woman to enjoy a meaningless fling. One day, she’d have a big family just like the one she’d come from, but until then? She was perfectly satisfied with
not
jumping from one relationship to another. Besides, it took a special kind of guy to be strong enough to stand by her side while allowing her to lean on him, a man of the right kind of character to make her want to have kids with him. Having children was not a decision to be made lightly.

“Wait, what seat should I take?” Kelis asked before getting too far in the aisle.

“Whichever one you prefer. You’re the last passenger,” the stewardess said with a smile, sealing the exit.

“Okay then,” Kelis muttered, her boots scuffing the carpet as she walked onward.

She ignored the few hushed catcalls she got, though she couldn’t help but smirk at them. Jocks, always the same. It didn’t help that when she looked around on the airplane, it became very obvious that she and the lone stewardess were the only women on board, stuck in a small space with a bunch of pumped-up, athletic men. It was the most bizarre flight she’d ever happened upon.

Kelis shoved her duffel into an overhead bin when she came to a row of seats that seemed mostly empty, there being no one ahead or behind her, and just two guys to either side. Finally sitting down, she let out a heavy sigh, her muscles practically melting into the seat. The exhale turned into a bit of a groan as she closed her eyes, thankful that she was on the airplane now and that the only thing she had to do next was get up when they got to San Francisco.

I’m going to sleep forever.

“Miss, I think you need to put your seatbelt on,” a deep, almost growly voice called suddenly, when Kelis was just about to pass out in well-deserved sleep.

She stirred as a hand touched her, sending a bolt of something hot and heady rolling through her like she was struck by lightning. Kelis snapped up, sitting up straight, her eyes wild.

“Jesus! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” the guy said, his dirty-blond hair worn slicked to one side, blue eyes laughing.

“Grim, are you scaring the locals again?” another voice said, on the other side of her.

Sleep still in her eyes, Kelis whipped her head in the direction of the noise and was met with the almost the mirror image of the playful devil who’d woken her up. He was equally as
blue-eyed
, though his expression was a smidge sterner, despite the amused smirk he was wearing on his lips. He was sitting across the aisle from her, looking up from the book he’d been reading. Their eyes met for far too long without Kelis really being able to say anything as she felt herself sinking into those
ocean-blue
eyes.

What the hell is wrong with you, Kelis!

“Grim’s right, though. You need to put on your seatbelt. We’re taking off,” he said mildly.

“What?” she asked, in a bit of a haze, not entirely sure if she was having the most convoluted daydream—complete with incredibly hot men—or if she was losing her mind because she was babbling like a schoolgirl with her first crush.

“Your seatbelt,” Grim noted, holding up the end with the buckle. “It goes around your waist so you wouldn’t bounce around the plane while it hits turbulence. Basic safety and all that.”

There was laughter in his voice, not mockery, but honest amusement as Kelis snatched the belt from him gingerly and clipped it over her thick thighs and soft stomach.

“Satisfied?” she asked, glancing at both of them, feeling a blush rising to her cheeks, with Grim sitting one seat left of her and the other man’s eyes still on her as well.

“Well, I don’t know. Grant, are we?”

“Not really, but it’ll have to do,” Grant said, tossing Kelis a wink.

She groaned inwardly.

Good going. You’ve made a fool of yourself and the plane hasn’t even made it off the tarmac. This is going to be one long flight!

CHAPTER TWO

Grant

Grant shook his head slightly, liking the way the young woman across from him was blushing at his and Grim’s teasing. The intercom was buzzing with endless chatter about flight safety, the kind of stuff he had heard so many times that it barely made him prick up an ear. You’ve been on one commercial flight, you’ve been on all of them, right?

But this, of course, was no commercial flight.

Grant could spy the top of Connor’s head about ten rows in front of him, sitting by the aisle as well. Tex was to the left and forward, and he knew Thatch and Dutch were further back while he and Grim were pretty much smack-dab in the middle of it all. He wasn’t on the manifest. In fact, none of the Squad Six men were, but six football players from unremarkable teams were.

Someone’s going to find those chumps in that bathroom soon enough and be real surprised,
Grant mused darkly, glancing over at the woman to his side.
I bet she shouldn’t be here either, so why is she? Doesn’t look like an Arctic terrorist… though the blonde hair might be a tell. Interesting.

Reflexively, he relaxed his hands, feeling them tense up. This was no time to lose his cool. The airplane was peeling up into the sky, hoots and hollers from the teams making the air thick. Grant wanted to look around, get a better control of the people around him, but he knew he had to keep it casual, keep himself unnoticed like the rest of the squad was doing. They weren’t entirely sure what The Arctics were planning, but the intel they’d received had been pretty damn adamant about it being something big.

That was fine with Grant; he liked a challenge.

“So, come here often?” he asked, offering his hand across the aisle to the flustered-looking young woman who he and Grim had chosen to tease a little. “I’m Grant. Sorry if we woke you. Safety first!”

“Kelis,” she said with a ghost of a smile, putting her smaller hand in his.

Immediately, Grant could feel a steady buzz hum through him, like someone had given him a Taser charge at low levels. Instead of making him pull his hand away, he deepened the handshake a bit, holding on stronger as his eyes widened in surprise.

What the hell…

She seemed to be feeling it as well, because when they let go, she was looking at him a bit oddly, her lush lips parted. They were entirely kissable. That much he’d noticed even before they’d shaken hands. Grim leaned forward in his seat while Kelis was looking away from him and raised his brows in question at Grant. Apparently the second Aldroch brother had not been immune to her explosive charms either. Odd.

“And yes, I make it to Boston every now and then. You guys? You’re Grim, right?” she asked, turning toward Grim slightly and giving Grant an opportunity to admire her long neck and the lovely way her hair fell over her shoulders.

His hand rolled into a fist for a moment, his pulse quickening. Reminding himself what he was there for, he gave one swift glance around himself again, coming to the conclusion that nothing much was going on at the moment. Their theory was that whatever was going down would happen when the plane was at cruising altitude and on autopilot.

Fucking Arctics. Can’t let me enjoy a good conversation without mucking something up,
he thought, releasing his fist.

“Yup, Grim. We were just here for a game. We won, too. Didn’t we, Grant?”

“We did. How does it feel, being in the presence of winners?” Grant asked, putting mock swagger into his comment, arching his brows.

She burst out laughing and it was a damned sexy sound, filling Grant with a pleasant tingle that ran through him. Fuck, she was sexy. And that was saying something, coming from a man who’d been on every continent fighting some kind of a war or another, finding women willing to swoon over him wherever he went. She was tougher, though, and different. He liked it.

“I think the ‘winners’ here are full of bullshit, but I’m glad you two had a good time,” she said, smiling wide.

“The lady mocks us! I don’t think that’s very nice,” Grim said with an overstated pout, putting his weight on his elbow as he twisted his body to face her slightly.

Both Grant and Grim, his twin, were big men. Six foot four, wide-shouldered, built for speed and action. Grant was slightly slimmer than Grim was, his work as the squad’s medic requiring him to be faster and lither, while Grim was a recon guy, ready to take down any enemy he came across. He was the first line of defense and the first man in, always.

The Aldroch twins were both ex-Navy SEALs. Honorable discharges for both of them, though the events that led up to it might not have been quite so honorable, depending on who you asked. It was Grim who walked in on a couple of guys from another squad forcing themselves on a woman from their squad. He put a quick stop to it, getting her out of there, but it was Grant who found the guys again, with Grim in tow.

They’d broken their legs, two grown werecougar shifters outmatching even the hardest soldiers the Navy SEALs could offer. Last Grant had heard, two of them had pretty much become crippled, while the other one would always walk with a limp. He didn’t regret doing it. Not at all.

The military had given them hasty honorable discharges as soon as the mission was over, a tactic they often used with shifter recruits. No one wanted a pissed off shapeshifter commando on their hands; even the US military was too smart for that. They were wanted and welcomed while the military thought they could be contained and used, but once a shifter went rogue, all bets were off.

So that was where The Firm came in. Grant and Grim were both members of an elite special ops team called Shifter Squad Six, led by Connor McLaughlin, a werebear with his own dark stories to tell. Every man on the squad had been a former SEAL and had their reasons, good and bad, to no longer be one. But they were a brotherhood now, brothers in blood, and though their employer didn’t always follow its conscience, the squad certainly did.

Since its formation, Squad Six had not lost a single man, and it didn’t intend to do it now. So despite them going off the radar occasionally, doing things for reasons other than money and greed which was entirely against The Firm’s policies, they were always allowed back into the fold, though sometimes their direct supervisor Colonel Hemingway spent a long-ass time making them wish they’d never stepped out of line to begin with.

Squad Six always got the best, and subsequently the worst, missions. The most dangerous, the most deadly, the most
fun
. By all accounts, this was supposed to be one of them. Kelis certainly helped with the fun side of it.