Zarina blinked at him. “What’s—?”
Her words trailed off as he dropped down to one knee and slipped his arms under her, then scooped her up, sleeping bag, blanket, and all.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Keeping you from freezing to death,” he muttered. “I’m tempted to carry your blue butt into town and put you in a hotel room right now.” He knelt down to slip her through the open door flap of his tent. “Put your bag inside mine and zip them both up. That should keep you warm enough.”
“What about you?” Zarina asked.
“What about me?”
She unzipped her sleeping bag from the inside. “Aren’t you going to sleep in here, too?”
Tanner thought his jaw might have dropped, but he wasn’t sure. Before going to bed, Zarina had taken off her coat, along with her shirt, jeans, and boots, and was now wearing pajamas with cute cartoon moose printed on them. Holy hell, she’d brought pj’s with her? Apparently, the lightest, snuggest pair she could find. And holy hell part two, she wasn’t wearing a bra, either. She definitely hadn’t been faking how cold she was. Damn. It was all he could do not to cup her perfect breasts in his hands and kiss her until neither of them could breathe.
“That would be a no,” he said, working overtime to keep the growl out of his voice and the hard-on from showing through his jeans.
She frowned. “Take my blanket at least. It’s cold out there.”
Even though he didn’t need it, he snatched the blanket from her outstretched hand, then quickly ducked out of the tent before he could change his mind and climb in the damn sleeping bag with her.
Stomping over to the fire, he tossed another few pieces of wood on it, then stretched out on the blanket and tried to get comfortable. Fat chance of that with the tree branch throbbing between his legs. Well, he sure as hell wasn’t going to be cold tonight, that was for damn sure.
“Tanner?” Zarina called softly from inside the tent.
He tensed. If she suggested she needed him to come wrap his arms around her because she was still cold, he was seriously going to lose it.
“I left my pillow out there by the fire,” she said. “Could you bring it to me?”
He didn’t bother muffling his growl this time. Grabbing the pillow, he got up and walked over to the tent. The moment he unzipped it, Zarina’s scent hit him like a two-by-four. Hurriedly tossing the pillow to her, he headed back to his makeshift bed by the fire before he did something he’d regret.
Chapter 2
“I can’t believe Landon split up your team,” Trevor Maxwell said.
Tate Evers grunted. He’d joined the dark-haired coyote shifter and his partner/girlfriend, Alina Bosch, on one of the benches along the edge of the training area on the DCO complex a little while ago to watch his former teammates navigate the obstacle course with their new partners. Tate had worked with Brent Wilkins and Gavin Barlow, along with bear shifter Declan MacBride, for nearly a decade, but the DCO was currently going through a lot of changes, and that meant a lot of changes for his team, too.
“Landon needed veteran agents to pair up with the shifters they recently recruited,” Tate said. “Brent and Gavin are two of the most experienced field agents he has, so it makes sense to pair them up with the newbies.”
Some of Alina’s strawberry-blond hair had come loose from its bun, and the fall breeze toyed with it. She reached up to tuck it behind her ear. “That all sounds very professional, but aren’t you pissed you’re losing your guys?”
Tate opened his mouth to say he wasn’t, but then stopped. Why bother? He might have recently met Alina, but he and Trevor had been working together since he’d first come to the DCO. The coyote shifter knew him as well as anyone. Besides, Trevor had always been clever. He’d see right through the lie.
“Yeah, it does kind of suck,” Tate admitted, scratching his scruff-covered jaw. “I’ve always worked with a partner, even back when I was in the marshals. When the DCO started bringing in new recruits, I saw the writing on the wall and figured I was going to lose Brent or Gavin, if not both of them. But Declan, too? That’s tough.”
Trevor did a double take. “Wait, what? Declan has a new partner?”
“No,” Tate said. “Landon has him training the new recruits instead of going on missions so he can stay close to Kendra and the kids.”
Understanding lit Alina’s face. “Can’t blame him for that. I’ve heard the twins are a little wild. What are they, two months old?”
Tate couldn’t help grinning. “Yeah. They’re growing like weeds. I think they’re going to take after their dad.”
The mountainous bear shifter was like a brother to him, so while Tate was genuinely happy Declan was able to spend time with his growing family, he was also bummed not to be working with him anymore. Without his team, Tate felt damn useless at the moment. The DCO seemed like it was moving at a hundred miles an hour these days, and he was stuck in neutral.
“So is Landon going to team you up with someone new soon?” Trevor asked.
“Yeah, just not sure when. Kendra’s been working overtime with that fancy compatibility computer program of hers trying to find someone for me, but no luck so far.”
Trevor’s hazel eyes glinted with amusement. “Are you saying you’re a hard man to work with? Say it isn’t so.”
Tate snorted. “Yeah, I’m not too sure how to take that, either.”
If this were any other organization, Tate would probably go on missions solo, but that wasn’t the way the DCO did things. The whole purpose of the DCO partner program was to pair shifters and humans together. The shifters
