Safari Island Shifters: The Complete Collection(31)

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

“You’ve annoyed me, Lily, and I want to make sure you don’t contact anyone until I’m very far away.”

“You can just let me go. No one will even know where you’re going. I don’t know anything.”

Lily started to swim toward where she thought the dining area of the yacht was. She needed to get someone’s attention.

“Probably, but this is a personal task for me.” To her astonishment, Angelsen began to transform. “You’re an awful worker. I only hired you so I would have someone to take the fall for me, and you messed that all up. The least you can do is die quickly. I’d feel a lot better if that happened.”

Lily watched in horror as her former boss turned from a hulking man into an even bigger shark. She’d known he was a water shifter, but she’d always imagined he was a turtle or a tuna or something.

A shark? A freaking shark? She started to thrash in the water and scream loudly for help. She turned and swam as quickly as she could.

She could feel the shark getting closer. Suddenly there was a giant splash in the water behind her. She didn’t take time to turn and look. She swam to put as much distance between herself and the shark as she could.

“Lily! Lily! Over here!”

She looked around and saw Max’s friend Shane hanging off the side of the boat on a flimsy ladder. There was thrashing behind her and she turned to see what it was. There were two giant crocodiles snapping at the shark. She was so shocked she couldn’t move. If she’d thought the shark was big, the crocodiles looked like something from a pre-historic era.

“Come on!” Shane called. “Just keep swimming.”

Lily tore her eyes from the fight and swam for Shane. She was exhausted by the time she reached him. He plucked her from the water and she clung to his back while he climbed onto the ship. As soon as she was on board, Addison wrapped her in a towel and Addison’s mother pulled her close. Her teeth were chattering from fright.

“Are you okay? I can’t believe this happened. I am going to sue the pants off this company. Was the railing loose? What happened, honey?” Addison’s father was shaking with rage. “Are you okay, honey?”

Lily nodded. But she was anything but okay. She could hear Max and Finn fighting with Angelsen in the water below. She was too terrified to even look at them, so instead she looked at Shane.

“That shark is croc food. Don’t worry.”

Her own parents were running down the deck toward her. Lily struggled to keep her eyes open. Hearing that her mates had killed her boss was too much for her. The world turned gray around the edges and then black as she lost consciousness.





Seven


“Hey.” Finn was stroking Lily’s hair as she opened her eyes. “You’re having a nightmare.”

She sat up fast and threw her arms around his neck. “Is this ever going to stop?”

“Don’t worry,” he soothed. “It’ll get better.”

Even though she had no injuries, Ward had insisted that she stay overnight in the hospital to be safe, with the company covering all the costs. Finn and Max were allowed to stay with her even though it was technically against hospital policy. Max had been able to sweet talk the nurse into agreeing that it was better for Lily if she had her mates close. Since the nurse was a shifter too, she had agreed.

Her crazy boss had made a bad choice when he came after her. Finn was surprised that Angelsen hadn’t just ridden off into the sunset. His stupid vendetta had cost him an arm and a leg, literally. Finn didn’t feel bad that he and Max had done so much damage to the man. He had come after their mate, and he deserved everything he got.

It turned out that he was cheating his clients and was trying to run off with their cash. He was trying to blame it all on Lily, but that hadn’t gone as planned. After she’d quit, she had emailed several of his clients telling them why she was quitting.

Angelsen was recuperating under armed guard in the same hospital. When he was well enough, he would be taken back to the States to stand trial. The twins would have to speak to the police a few more times and give statements, but they weren’t in any trouble. At least not with the law.

Ward was pretty irritated that his grand fairy tale wedding had gotten overshadowed. Someone had gotten a video of the big shark-on-croc fight and it had gone viral.

Finn was ridiculously proud that the video of him defending his mate was so popular. He wasn’t going to tell Ward that, but he and Max had high-fived over it frequently. If anything, Finn thought this would make the wedding even more memorable.

“Go back to sleep,” Finn told Lily. He climbed in bed with her on one side and Max got in on the other. “No one is going to get to you without going through us.”

“Good.” Lily lay back down. “I love you guys.”

There was a lump in Finn’s throat. “I love you too.”

“And I love you too,” Max said.

“This is nice.” Lily closed her eyes. “I’ll never be afraid when you two are around. I’m such a lucky girl to have two strong mates.”

Finn didn’t need to say what he was feeling. From Max’s expression, he was thinking the same thing. They were the lucky ones. It was difficult to find a mate to complete a triad.