Sean felt it, too. He gently wiggled his hips and created sweetly torturous friction against Emery’s erection. “You like that?”
“Uh-huh!”
Sean released his hands and sat up. He reached over to the bedside table and grabbed a towel and bottle of lube. He grabbed Emery’s legs behind the knees and hiked his legs up to his chest before sliding the towel under him.
“I don’t feel like changing the sheets tonight,” Sean joked. Then he squirted lube down Emery’s ass and slowly began working it into his rim with one finger.
Emery closed his eyes and moaned.
“You like that, too, don’t you?”
“Fuck, you know I do.” Emery’s eyes popped open at the almost stinging slap against his thigh.
Sean wore a playful smile. “I’m driving tonight. Don’t get pushy or I won’t let you come for a while.”
The words made Emery’s cock throb even more. Tonight he was more than willing to let Sean take the lead. It meant he could completely let go and let Sean fuck every last thought out of his brain.
Including the truth about his parents’ marriage.
Especially the truth about his parents’ marriage.
Emery’s eyes closed again and he let out a moan as Sean went back to thoroughly lubing him up, using first one, then two fingers to loosen his ass. He struggled not to rock against his hand even as Sean teased him by brushing a finger against his gland.
Finally, the hand disappeared. He heard Sean squirting more lube and knew it was going on his cock. Then Sean pressed the thick head of his member against Emery’s hole, slowly breaching and giving him time to adjust before sinking his entire length in him.
Sean lifted Emery’s legs to his shoulders and leaned forward, pressing him into the mattress. Emery had no problem seeing why Sean enjoyed the reverse of this position so much. When Sean grabbed his hands again and pinned them over his head, he felt safely cocooned in his lover’s arms.
He stared down at him. “How’s that?”
Emery nodded, beyond coherent speech. When Sean slowly started fucking him, never breaking eye contact with him, he squeezed Sean’s hands and held on for the ride, now struggling not to come from how fantastic it felt.
Sean picked up the pace, fucking him harder, faster, until he was pounding his cock into Emery’s ass. With Sean’s cock bottoming out inside him with every stroke, Emery couldn’t hold back any longer. His back arched as he felt his balls draw up tight. Then the explosion hit him, feeling like it would rip him apart from the inside out as his cock jerked, shooting his juices all over his belly.
“Yes!” Sean hissed, slamming into him until he buried himself with one final, throbbing stroke and emptied his cock inside Emery’s ass. Sean collapsed on top of him, breathing heavy. His grip on Emery’s hands relaxed.
Emery slipped his legs off Sean’s shoulders and wrapped his arms around him as Sean nuzzled his face in the crook of Emery’s neck. He kissed Sean’s forehead. “Love you,” he whispered.
Sean pressed his lips against Emery’s flesh. “Love you, too, buddy. You’re stuck with me.”
Chapter Three
Tropical Storm Franklin continued churning the waters of the Caribbean. It hadn’t moved much, but its path slowly nudged more and more to the north, into the Gulf of Mexico. The storm didn’t stop plans for the hunt, however.
Sean knew Emery wasn’t happy over his parents’ revelations, but he apparently came to grips with it over the next couple of days. Sean had tried to get his mate to talk to him about it, but Emery always deflected the topic to something else. Sean gave up, knowing if Emery wanted to talk about it, he would in his own time.
As the moon waned before Saturday’s hunt, Sean sensed something different in Emery. Anticipation, excitement.
Horniness.
Hell, he couldn’t bend over without Emery grabbing him from behind and trying to dry hump or fuck him, depending on whether or not either or both of them had clothes on at the time.
“Are you like this before every hunt?” Sean playfully asked him Friday night after their third round in bed that evening.
“Pretty much.” He grinned. “I can’t help it. I get eager to get out there. It’s okay if you can’t keep up with me. As long as you don’t mind me nailing you in your sleep.”
“Ah. Is that what happened to me last night? I thought I dreamed about hot sex with you.”
“It wasn’t a dream.”
“If you keep this level of horniness up, you’re gonna put me in the hospital, dude. You’ve been nailing me every day anyway.”
“Heh heh,” he joked. “You said, ‘Keep it up.’”
Sean rolled his eyes. “All right, Butthead. Ha, ha.”
Emery pulled him close and kissed him. “We’ve also been going at it like bunnies because we’re newly mated. Eventually we’ll settle down.”
“I hope so. Feels like I spend half my time washing sheets.”
“Are you complaining?”
He laughed. “I didn’t say that.” He stared into Emery’s eyes. “Are you really okay with what your parents told us?”
He didn’t miss the way Emery’s eyes flickered before he rolled onto his back. “Yeah,” he quietly said. “I’m okay. I’m glad they told me. And I understand why they don’t want to tell my sisters and brother. At least right now.” He looked at Sean. “Are you okay with me taking the pod over from him next year?”
Joseph had confessed that he wanted to make the declaration at the superpod congregation, if Emery would agree to it. As pod Alpha, Emery would have to know their full family history. He’d hear it from someone, eventually. Joseph preferred it come directly from him. Besides that, Emery would need to know relevant information regarding links between nearby pods and how to keep their relations cordial to prevent territorial bickering from breaking out.
“I’m fine with it,” Sean assured him. He laced his fingers through Emery’s and kissed the back of his hand. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Emery shrugged. It sent a delicious ripple through his muscles that set Sean’s mouth on automatic drool. “I know it’s a lot to take in. You’ve already had to deal with so many changes in a short amount of time. And it’s a heavy responsibility for you, being my mate. Human or not, people will be coming to you to talk to me.”
“Dude. Seriously?” He sat up. “You turn into friggin’ Flipper. If I can handle that, I think I can handle you getting a porpoise pod promotion.”
Emery smiled. “Dolphin.”
“Whatever. It’s okay.”
* * * *
Late Saturday morning, they headed up to the Nadels’ house to help Louise prepare the family’s prehunt meal. Sean had volunteered to take his boat out, too, a request gratefully accepted by Louise.
“I’m not as young as I used to be,” she quietly muttered to Sean outside of anyone else’s earshot. “I love the hunts, but swimming out and in from shore is a royal bitch.”
He chuckled. “Your secret is safe with me.”
“Oh, it’s no secret. Joseph knows I hate swimming out.” She smiled. “I’m no youngling. And I grew up on the East Coast, on the Atlantic, where we didn’t have long swim-outs like we do here in the Gulf.”
Sean finally met Emery’s other two sisters, and his sister-in-law. Upon realizing they were completely accepting of Sean’s relationship with Emery, he finally shed the worst of his nervous jitters. By the time they ate around four that afternoon, and then later caravanned down to Englewood, Sean started to feel like one of the family. Louise rode with Sean and Emery. She’d catch up with Joseph and her other kids later. Sean let her ride shotgun in Emery’s Mustang while he took the backseat, behind Emery.
“I appreciate you doing this, Sean. It’s nice of you to take your boat out.”
“Are you okay, Mom?” Emery asked.
Sean had wondered that himself during the afternoon. Louise had acted distracted. He watched with curiosity as she appeared to contemplate her answer before spe
aking.
“I’ve got a lot on my mind. I’m so happy for Olivia and Brad, you have no idea. And it’s good to have Reese and Laura home for the weekend.” She pursed her lips for a moment before continuing. “I don’t like the feel of the tropical storm out there. It doesn’t help that there was a storm moving in before the hunt when my uncle…”
A forced-looking smile slightly curved her lips. “He took advantage of the choppy water and the incoming weather. It wasn’t until the hunt was over that Joseph realized… I know this isn’t the same circumstance, and that the water is still nice out there, but it brings back bad memories. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t go tonight. I certainly wouldn’t let Joseph or any of you kids go. I’ve got a worrisome feeling in my gut that won’t go away. I don’t like it at all.” She turned in her seat, to look at Sean. “I might just spend the hunt with you, watching from the surface to see if I can spot any trouble before it occurs.”
“I’ve never seen you nervous before a hunt before, Mom,” Emery said with a frown.
“Oh, I have been. But never like this. I don’t like it.”
“You sure it wasn’t Reese’s poor attempt at making jalapeño poppers from scratch?” Emery tried joking. “I know they gave me a bad feeling in my gut.”
Sean let out a belch of his own. “Seconded.”
“I wish, son.”
* * * *
They couldn’t have asked for a better evening. Warm, with a lingering late sea breeze to take the edge off the heat, accompanied by gentle rollers without any chop. As the sun dipped into a beautiful red-streaked sky to sink below the horizon, Sean guided his boat out to the designated area. Joseph and the rest of the family were already waiting there, shifted. Emery quickly stripped and dove in, reemerging shifted.
Louise waved to him. “Tell your father I’m going to stay up here on the boat with Sean.”
Emery chattered at her before swimming over to join the rest. Over the next half hour, more dolphins swam into the area to join the pod. By Sean’s best count, there were over sixty.
“They’re all shifters?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“There’s more here than at the full moon swims, isn’t there?”
“Everyone loves a hunt. They’ll come from all over. Some swimming in if they live close enough to the water. Others doing like Joseph and the girls, parking near the water, where they can slip in unnoticed and shift.”
“Do real dolphins ever join your hunts? Can you talk to them?” He couldn’t believe he’d never thought to ask Emery that before.
She smiled. “No more than wolf shifters can talk to dogs. And yes, sometimes we do pick up stray bio-dolphins for swims or hunts. Just because we don’t speak the same language doesn’t mean we can’t communicate. Think of two people who speak two different languages. That’s sort of what it’s like for us with bio-dolphins.”
“So where were you raised?”
“I was raised in the Miami pod. My family line, however, runs all the way up the eastern coast of the United States. I have cousins in New England, and even a few in old England.”
He watched as she scanned the water. Still more dolphins had arrived, taking the count to over seventy-five.
“Is there something you’re not telling me?” he asked. “Other than you’re just nervous?”
She didn’t turn from the water. “We’ve got three new younglings, kids, out for their first hunts tonight.” She glanced at him. “In addition to my nerves about what we already talked about, I also have a mother’s worry about the kids.”
“Is there a typical age when kids start to shift? How do they know they can?”
“Unlike some of the other shifter races, who can shift from when they’re born, our children don’t start until they hit puberty. If they can shift at all. Like with normal human children, puberty can range in age. The youngest I ever heard of was ten, but that’s rare amongst our kind. The oldest was seventeen.”
“They can’t all shift?”
“Not if one of their parents is human, no. But even so, there are sometimes children born of two dolphin shifter parents who can’t shift. My sister can’t shift, and both my parents are dolphin shifters.”
“That sucks.”
She shrugged. “That’s another reason for the full moon swims. If any of our kind who can’t shift wish to join us, they can. They usually don’t, though.”
“Why not?”
“Would you want to, if all your family could and you were the only one who couldn’t?”
“But I did join…oh, I see what you mean.”
She smiled and touched a finger to her nose. “You’re a mate. That’s different. You don’t know any different. You’re a human born to human parents. You weren’t raised by and among shifters. I mean, sure, some who can’t shift will come out on occasion. But it’s not that common.”
“So do the non-shifters still marry shifters?”
“Sometimes. And sometimes they’ll even have a shifter baby. Stranger things have happened.”
“How do you keep human mates from spilling the beans?”
Louise snorted. “Can you imagine someone going around and saying they married a dolphin? Not quite.”
It was full dark when the hunt started, heading out of Lemon Bay to the open waters. Sean turned on his running lights and kept a safe distance from the pod. Even if Louise hadn’t been riding in the bow to guide him with hand signals, he still could have easily followed the pod. The disturbed water in their wake faintly glowed with phosphorescence, similar to the wake from his engine only not as distinct.
At one point, she turned to him and called out, “They’ve found a school of Spanish mackerel. This is a good place to wait, but leave the engine running.”
He shifted the engine into neutral. A glance at the depth gauge showed they were in almost thirty feet of water, while the GPS showed they were only about two miles offshore. When he glanced behind them, to the east, he could easily make out a few lights on shore.
He walked forward to stand next to her. “How do you know what’s going on?” He faintly heard splashing overlaid with dolphin chatter.
“I can hear what they’re saying.” She pointed at one end of the pod. “They’re splitting off to go around the other side. They’ll herd the school into a tight ball and let the new younglings go through it first.”
“Why?”
“To let them get experience. Once they cut through the fish ball a few times, it’ll get progressively harder to keep it collected before fish start scattering. We like them to get a taste of the hunt the easy way first.”
They watched for thirty minutes, with Louise narrating the events to Sean.
“Can you tell where Emery is?”
She squinted a little, scanning, before pointing. “He’s in that area. I can hear him.” She pointed again. “Joseph is there.” Another scan before pointing. “Christopher, Suzanne, and the girls and Brad are over there. Brad’s sticking close to Olivia. That worrywart.” She broadly smiled. “He’s going to make a great daddy.”
Less than an hour later, the school was on the move again, heading south and running nearly parallel to shore. Within twenty minutes, they’d located another school of Spanish mackerel and were at it again.
He grew concerned when he heard Louise gasp.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Over there.” She pointed. “Let’s go. Move slowly. Be prepared to take the engine out of gear when I signal.” She knelt in the bow and used hand signals to keep him on track.
They edged closer and closer to the outskirts of the pod. Now, even in the dim starlight, Sean could make out individual dolphins.
She motioned for him to stop. He shifted into neutral and hurried forward to join her at the bow.
Three dolphins made their way toward the boat. The outer two looked like they supported the third, a much smaller dolphin, between them. Sean ran back to the console to shut the engine off as Louise made her way to the s
tern.
“Is he hurt?” she called out.
One of the larger dolphins chattered back at her.
When they reached the swim step at the back of the boat, all three shifted into human form. The two larger dolphins were a man and a woman. The third was a young boy.
“A damn bull shark,” the man said. “Came out of nowhere and broadsided him. Knocked the wind out of him. Denby and Emery chased it away. Thank the Goddess they were right there.”
Louise helped Sean lift the winded boy into the boat.
“I’m okay,” the boy said. “If you want me to go back and swim, I will.”
He didn’t sound very convincing to Sean. Louise grabbed a towel for Sean to wrap around him. Sean saw a large, ugly bruise on the boy’s right side, from his armpit to his hip.
“No!” the woman yelled from the water. “You’re done for the night. You stay in this boat with Ms. Nadel.”
“Kim,” the man said, “he’s okay.”
She wheeled on him in the water. “I told you to wait for another hunt or two to be his first, but oooh no.” She smacked his shoulder, hard, splashing water everywhere. “I told you I had a bad feeling, but nooo. You just had to parade him out there.”
“Mom,” the kid weakly protested, “I’m okay—”
“You stay out of this, Billy.” She turned on her husband again. “Just because your brother’s kid was out for his first hunt at twelve doesn’t mean Billy needed to be out here tonight at only eleven. You’re always too damn willing to compete with that blowhard—”
Louise cleared her throat. “Kim, Carey, do you two want to ride with us, or rejoin the pod and finish the hunt with them?”
Kim glared at her abashed-looking husband. “We parked over on Gasparilla. Genius here didn’t want to spring for a boat rental. Wanted Billy to swim out for his first hunt.”
Sean helped the still-shaky kid to his feet and maneuvered him to the seat in front of the console. “Ma’am,” Sean said, “I don’t mind him riding in with us. I keep my boat over at Thatcher’s in Englewood.”
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