He shoved open the door and entered the room. The first person he spotted was his new partner. His initial impression was that of calm, control, and confidence. Much different than his previous partner who had gone rogue. They still didn’t know for certain that Hubert had been selling women for marine blood sport, but he had plenty of proof that his ex-partner had taken money for nefarious deeds. What those nefarious actions were and who funded them remained a mystery, despite the work he put in last week to discover all of Hubert’s misdeeds.

Now, gazing at his new partner, Malcolm would bet his boat on this man’s integrity. Mac had stated that the man was a longtime friend and would never turn on them. Malcolm had no difficulty believing that. His new partner’s rock solidness could nearly be discerned.

With brown hair and green eyes, he looked as solid as a monolith. The man had a face that would look even better carved in stone. A good many of Malcolm’s worries disintegrated. He nodded to the man who returned the gesture.

The second person he noticed was a woman who made his breath catch. So beautiful he had to blink a couple times to determine if she was even real. A Black woman with gorgeous natural hair and mesmerizing golden eyes, he took a long moment to enjoy the view. With bone structure that couldn’t possibly be real, yet here she was.

He moved on because he didn’t want to be pegged as a creep. The third person in the room sat in front of one of the tall windows in the training room. The light diffused behind her so perfectly that all he saw was a burst of light haloing her. As though she was an angel or some higher being.

He scoffed at his own ridiculousness. Yet he couldn’t discern her features. She was definitely a woman. There was enough of her shape to confirm the person seated in front of the window was female.

That’s all he could tell though. He sent her and the other woman a quick smile of welcome before Marcy bounced across the room to squeeze him. A vibrant, intelligent woman, Marcy looked to be about fifty years old. Which meant she was way older. She was a great-grandmother, maybe a great-great-grandmother by now.

She brought vitality and enthusiasm to her job as a trainer. You had to be really grim to not appreciate this woman. If people didn’t respond to her—definite red flag.

She wrapped him in the arms of grandmothers around the world. Strength, gentleness, and love encased him for the moment, and he enjoyed her vanilla and cinnamon scent. “Malcolm, you made it.”

“I heard you baked. Of course I made it.” He sent her his best smile. The same one she swore got him anything he wanted.

Marcy laughed and hauled him across the room. There, nestled inside a plastic container he recognized, were the coffee cake muffins he adored. Nothing this woman produced was bad, but these were favorites. He scooped up one and headed for the coffee machine in the training area.

“I love you, Marcy.”

“I know.” Her delighted laugh echoed around the room and if that didn’t help calm the nerves of the three trainees in the room, nothing would.

“Malcolm, this is Calhoun Hunt, your new partner. The women are Adanna Ward and Skylar Addison. They were among the ten women kidnapped.” That had happened the same day he and Mac took down Hubert, his former partner. Mac gave him the rest of that awful week off, so he hadn’t heard about the kidnappings until the following Monday morning. He’d spent much of the time off as his beast.

Malcolm swallowed a large bite of his first muffin and nodded at all the trainees.

“This is Malcolm Vasquez. He’s been here nearly as long as Mac and Logan, and he’s a stellar agent. He’s going to do your training this morning as he actually works in the field.”

With that, Marcy slid into a desk beside Calhoun, clutching a spiral notebook and her trusty pen and offered him a devilish grin.

He sent her a droll look before washing his muffin down with coffee. “Thank you, Marcy.” No one would guess this woman shifted into a massive hammerhead shark.

She smelled like the sea, but most would likely guess her other form was a tuna. Or a seahorse. Nope. The woman turned into one of the fiercest predators in the sea.

He shook his head. “Now that Marcy is making me do her job…”

A polite round of laugher from his new pupils. The light still diffused around the second woman. He caught the impression of blonde hair but couldn’t discern the exact shade. Just that her hair was lighter than anyone else’s in the room.

Marcy had the classic cap of silvery curls one might expect from a grandmother. The mystery woman, Skylar, did not have silver hair. Although, the light caught in the strands, and he spotted silvery tones. Maybe platinum?

He swallowed again and launched into the information these three would need in order to do their job. From what Marcy just told him, Cal had apparently come in late last week to complete his paperwork and do some orientation. The women had been through the rounds of paperwork and shown the most basic things last week. Such as where to find the rest rooms, the cafeteria and cafe downstairs, as well as where the various break rooms were. In addition, they were shown the rudiments of the job. What they could expect from the day to day, and he heard they’d done a preliminary boat and safety training that Cal should already know.

Now, it was time to get into the nitty gritty of the actual job. Malcolm had been doing this for forty years. He could teach this training session in his sleep. While in his beast form.

His beast form might make things a little more complicated. His beast spoke a form of English. And Spanish, like he did. But he sometimes mashed together those two and all of the other languages he had picked up over the years.

Malcolm had the trainees open their training material and started the class. Wishing the light would change so he could see the mystery woman. His beast’s nudges felt more like rams now than simply trying to get his attention.

What did that mean?

***

When the man, Malcolm, walked through the door, Skylar’s heart performed a series of acrobatics. Her breath caught on a gasp. She managed to stifle the gasp, barely. Now she drank in the sight of the most handsome man she’d ever seen in her whole life. And hello, there were so many handsome, single men here her hormones had been cartwheeling.

He didn’t wear a wedding band and for that she was grateful.

She’d feel dirty if he was mated. The epitome of tall, dark, and handsome, he might not be to every woman’s taste, but most would agree he was gorgeous. This man’s face showed years of experience and honor. He showed up, solid and trustworthy, and got the job done. Malcolm Vasquez wouldn’t allow minor details to pass by him.

He would do the job to the absolute best of his ability and do so with cool confidence. He emitted not one arrogant or entitled vibe. Just a quiet certainty in his abilities. He knew who he was.

The way he moved seemed like magic to her. As though he was more fluid than solid. Graceful and yet tough at the same time.

Her breath suspended again, and she wrestled her breathing back into submission. Panting during training would call far too much attention to her.

But…

He’s so handsome. Her beast’s take on Malcolm Vasquez matched her own.

I agree. Skylar worked to keep all breathlessness out of her tone.

Then she thought about the possibility of this man even noticing her as anything other than a woman he had to train. Everything inside her deflated. No man—not one of the men in her village at home in Alaska or during college—had ever noticed her.

She was Skylar, a friend. Like a sister. Maybe an aunt. She winced. No longer a young woman, not when she stared fifty in the face this year—but looked twenty-seven or eight, thank you shifter genes—she had long given up on dreams of being anything other than single.

I have been on exactly two dates.

Both of those had been because the men in question wanted to ask about her cousin once and her best friend the other time. Her cousin and her best friend had both been mated for twenty-five years. They had kids in college.

As if this gorgeous man would ever look twice at me.

Her track record was not in her favor. Two dates and not because the men in question found her appealing. But because the men had wanted to learn about the more attractive women in her life. Those two times had done nothing to improve her confidence as a woman.

As a person and as her beast, she had plenty of confidence. She had lived long enough to understand her own self-worth. But as a woman, well let’s just say she understood she lacked something men found attractive.

Apparently.

Her village was small and the men there were mostly shifters. All of them except her twin brother and one older, mated woman, smelled of the sea.

They don’t like you because of me. Her beast spoke with a tinge of asperity.

They just don’t find me attractive. She had to stay truthful to herself. They didn’t find her attractive. It hurt. She didn’t lie to herself. Those years of spinning fantasies about herself were long past.

Her beast made a scoffing noise in her head. They know I can eat them so they’re afraid of me. Her beast sounded smug about this.

Skylar offered an internal laugh that ended on a snort. Her beast might be fierce, but she was also cute as could be. At least Skylar thought so.

Maybe. After all these years, Skylar had given up on the notion of being anything other than lonely. Yet when Arna had retired and moved home, she changed Skylar’s world. That fabulous lady from their village had lived here in Washington, D.C. for a century and a half. But Arna’s job remained a mystery to those at home.

Arna yanked Skylar in to help devise a plan to thwart the pirates who had taken to stealing their supplies. Skylar had thrown herself into the plan.

Arna had found her mate in D.C., and she assured Skylar that she would also find her mate, not in their small village, but in the big city. Arna shifted into a nightmare and understood Skylar’s dilemma as her Level Five beast had no name. Arna had reassured Skylar that the work here at Oceanic Shift suited her perfectly and she’d find plenty of single men who also shifted into impressive beings.

She had repeatedly reassured Skylar that “you mate when you find your mate.”

Skylar was still fuzzy about what Arna meant by that. Two dates. Neither of those two men had been interested in her.

She studied the magnificent specimen of man who invited her to open her training binder to the fifteenth page. He was everything she wanted in a mate.

If she even had one of those. Reality had long ago shoved that fantasy into the trash. She no longer fantasized about some man who would take one look at her and fall instantly.

Bah hum bug.

If such a man existed, he had gotten run over by the truck collecting the weekly trash. Skylar dutifully opened her binder and forced herself to concentrate on what the hottie said.

Her gaze landed on her new bestie, Adanna. And right there is why we won’t get this man. She internally pointed at Adanna, one of the most beautiful women she’d ever seen in her entire life.

Adanna was from Barbados, so she brought not only outward beauty, but she was fierce, intelligent, funny, and she spoke in a gorgeous Barbadian lilt. Please.

Skylar shoved all other thoughts out as she concentrated on what Malcolm taught them. Of course, in keeping with tall, dark, and handsome, his voice matched. Deep and sonorous, it sent dancing tingles up and down her spine.

She wanted to bathe in his voice. To see those gorgeous dark eyes darken in… Yeah, that’s never happened, so I can’t even describe it.

Her pen creaked in her hand, and she stopped exerting unnecessary force on the simple writing device.

Remember, you’re good at lonely, chickie.