The Captain’s Beast by M Garnet

It took Captain Jerilind Alger with a loyal crew and a handsome and rare shapeshifter to understand that their first assignment on an untried newly designed spaceship was meant to fail. Someone misunderstood Jeri and her people, with their determination as they fought against pirates, pulled stranded Marines from a spinning shuttle, examine ancient alien articles and rescue kidnapped children.
With her strong people backing her, Jeri found ways to repair and change the new ship, to bring it up to standards that surpassed any that the Navy had in the deep dark of space, while they completed a project that was meant to fail. Failure was not a word she would accept. Nor would the handsome male that turned into a beast to save her.