by T. S. Ryder
Nope. She wasn’t going to sit here mulling in her thoughts. She laid back down and resumed paddling out to the surf. She was going to work these thoughts from her mind one way or another. Besides, he’d said he was a novice anyway.
So are you, a voice in the back of her mind whispered, but she shoved it aside.
She reached the surf quickly again. The other surfer’s words proved to be right. It was much rougher than it appeared, and the first couple times she attempted to ride a wave it knocked her off her board. The cold water buffeting her in its waves invigorated her. Just as she’d hoped, her thoughts and frustrations with her family faded away.
At one point, she was startled by the lifeguard blowing his whistle, but he was dealing with some people on the beach, not her. Hours passed until she was out of breath and her limbs were all starting to feel like lead.
One more.
She jumped onto her board into a standing position. When the wave flowed at her, she was tipped off balance. Only something went wrong. Instead of righting herself and surfacing quickly, as she went down, the back of her head hit her board. She gasped instinctively, ending up with a mouthful of water. Stars burst over her vision. She kicked hard, getting herself above the surface. But another wave hit her at once and she went under again.
She surfaced again, vision blurry and heart pounding. Ocean water muffled her ears as she kicked to get to her surfboard. Something dangled in the water just out of reach and she realized that it was her ankle lead. It was broken. She was no longer connected to her board.
She pushed herself harder, propelling herself toward the board. A wave crashed down on her. It pushed her beneath the surface again. When she rose, she couldn't even see her board.
And a distinctive triangle shape was headed for her. She froze at once only to go under the water again. The shark swam past her, its huge, muscular body just an arm's length away. It dipped under the water. Charity turned so she could keep an eye on its dark shape. She tread water furiously, trying desperately to keep her panic under control.
Then, impossibly, the shark surfaced again. It opened its huge jaws and closed them around her board. Then it turned around and swam at a leisurely pace toward her.
It was only when her board bumped into her that she remembered that the shifters on the island weren't like the ones on the mainland. Instead of shifters like bears and wolves, these ones were sharks. And just as she thought it, the shark’s form rippled. The grey-blue skin turned to a golden-bronze color. Thick hair clung to his scalp. It was the lifeguard. He was even more attractive up close as he was from a distance.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I am going to tow you to the shore now. That bump on your head is bleeding.”
Charity opened her mouth to thank him but another wave drowned her words. She scrambled onto the surfboard and clung to it while the lifeguard shifted again. He took the lead in his mouth and headed back for the shore. They moved swiftly, but not so fast that she felt like she was drowning. She watched in awe as his powerful body worked. He cut through the water like a torpedo.
When they were close enough to shore to stand, he shifted once more. She slid from the board and picked it out of the water. Her head spun and he caught her again. She glanced down, but he was still fully clothed. Ah. That was why he has stretchy shorts. If she had been paying attention, she probably would have seen them on his shark form.
“Are you okay, Miss Gatiss?”
He knew who she was. Humiliation poured through her body. She wasn't sure if she should answer or apologize for her family. In the end, she did neither. Instead, she raced up the beach and away from him.
Like a coward.
Chapter Two – Devin
Devin sat on the beach, face turned to the ocean. This beach was incredibly rocky – undesirable to the tourists. And since it was on pack territory, it was undesirable to the humans in town, too. The water was rough. There were unseen riptides in the water and kelp waiting to grab and drown anybody who got tangled up.
But he wasn’t there for the scenery. He sat on the rocks next to Hannah, one of the young women of the pack. She had asked to speak with him privately, so he had come out here, where there would be no prying ears to overhear what she had to say.
Tears streamed down her face as she twisted her hands. “And so I slept with him. Two hundred dollars seemed like . . . like all I’d need. My children were going hungry, I couldn’t find work. And I never thought I’d have to see him again. He was just some tourist.”
Devin didn’t speak. He put his hand gently over hers to show that he wasn’t judging her and continued to watch as the sea savagely beat the shore.
“He came back the next year and introduced me to a friend. Then another. Then there were people phoning me and I . . . I didn’t know what else to do. It was money, and I needed to feed my kids. At first, they came when I was in the middle of a crisis. Heat shut off, electricity bill due. Then they were always there, and I just . . . accepted anyway.”
It was, unfortunately, a story he was hearing quite a lot these days. Over half of the men, including his own father, in the pack, had been killed in a fishing incident ten years ago. It was right at the time that the former leader — known as the alpha, even though their small group didn’t operate the same way as the land-based packs of bears and wolves and the like — had vanished. The humans in town refused to hire the widows for whatever reason, and so many of them had turned to prostitution.
“I hate myself so much. Some days I think my children would be better off without me.” Hannah bent her head.
Devin shook his head. “Don’t think like that, Hannah. You love those children and you provide for them. Circumstances were what they were. You can’t blame yourself for seeing only one option.”
“If I had been stronger—”
“You were strong.” Devin turned to her, looking into her eyes. “You did what you had to for them. You’ll find nothing but admiration from me for that. I have a few numbers you can call, and there is a support group in the pack run by and for people who have found themselves in your same position. I’m working with the town hall to get our people employed. It’ll be hard work, but it’ll pay enough to keep you going. And we are looking into making a coalition for a small shop on the popular beaches, selling local crafts rather than the knockoffs that the humans like to sell.”
Hannah nodded. Her eyes welled with tears and she brushed them away. “Thank you. You know, you ought to make a bid to be the pack’s alpha. You’re already there in everything but name.”
Devin smiled at the suggestion but didn’t respond. They walked back to Hannah’s bicycle, and he watched her ride away. His heart sat heavy in his chest, like it was made of a tangled web of kelp rather than muscle.
Ten years ago, he was too young to understand how it would affect things when the previous alpha vanished. Whether he had died or merely run away, nobody could know. But he had left, and nobody had stepped up to be the alpha after that. The pack, already in a bad spot, had only gotten poorer. Over the last year Devin had stepped up, trying to turn things around, but it was difficult. Even though he had support from his mother and four younger brothers, the opposition from outside of the pack felt overwhelming at times.
Sometimes he wondered if the humans just wanted them all to disappear into the surf and die.
Some of them were worse than others, though.
A sleek red car came down the dirt road. It slowed down when it got closer to him, and he saw who it was inside. Charity Gatiss. He wouldn’t have known who she was if her sister, Honor, hadn’t been so effective in disrupting his efforts to get his pack members proper jobs – even when they were undesirable, like picking up garbage from beaches and cleaning out the pit toilets. Apparently, these were jobs that they were ‘stealing’ from humans, though they’d sat without anybody applying for the job for months and in some cases years.
The car stopped and Charity jumped out. Devin kept his expression smo
oth, though he would have liked to glare at her. Given her response to him saving her life the previous day, she was just like her sister
She rounded the car and stopped a few feet from him. “Hi. Um . . . Hi.”
Devin nodded at her. There was something to be said for killing them with kindness. While it wasn’t a tactic he used on a lot of the people who were so opposed to the shifters having employment or a decent standard of living, this wasn’t one of those times. He wasn’t going to risk that she didn’t have some sort of camera or something to prove what ‘monsters’ shifters were.
It was a real shame that someone so beautiful was related to Honor Gatiss.
Charity had looked good in her wetsuit the previous day. Today, in a pair of jean shorts and a flowing green tank top, she looked even better. Her arms were thick with muscles, her blonde hair hung in curls, and her figure . . . Even though the loose top somewhat hid what her breasts looked like, it was clear that they were huge. Devin had always considered himself a breast man, and seeing hers could have made him lose all control.
“Hi,” she said again. She bounced from one foot to the other, wringing her hands. “My name is Charity Gatiss. I was at the beach yesterday.”
“I’m Devin Luthor. I remember. How’s your head?” He kept his tone polite but disinterested.
Charity brushed her fingers through her hair. “I got a bit of a nasty bruise, but nothing too bad. Thanks to you. If you hadn’t come out for me, I probably would have drowned.”
“I doubt it. You’re a powerful swimmer. Once I was out there I wondered if you even needed help.” Appreciation slipped into his voice despite himself.
Even with her injury, she had been holding her own against the surf. Most people who ended up floundering out there couldn’t keep themselves above the surface. That’s why there were multiple signs stating that shark-shifters patrolled the beach. It kept the real sharks away and allowed them to help the tourists who got themselves over their heads in the water.
“Well, anyway . . . ” She took a deep breath. “I acted atrociously. I’m so sorry for running off like that. I was . . . I was being stupid. So . . . that’s why I came out here. So that I could thank you and apologize.”
Devin’s brows rose at that. He considered her, with her flushed face and twisting hands. It seemed genuine. He hadn’t expected that at all. “Well, then you’re welcome. As for when you ran away . . . I really didn’t expect anything else from the sister of Honor Gatiss.”
Charity’s head jerked up. “What is she doing?”
There was such dread and anger in her voice that it surprised him. But how much could she actually be ignorant of? Then again, she hadn’t been on the island for a few years.
“She’s making it very difficult for my pack to find jobs where we can make living wages. I had to fight for months to get that lifeguarding job, and when city hall agreed to pay us to clean up the beaches, she organized a volunteer group to go do it. Stuff like that.”
Charity’s eyes flashed. Her hands clenched. “That stupid little — I am so sorry. She’s a racist little bitch.”
Devin snorted. He would never have put it that way — out loud at least. “She’s dangerous. She’s hurting my pack. If you’re really angry about this, you’d talk with her. Try to make her understand that we’re just people trying to escape the cycle of poverty. And get her to stop doing her soapbox speeches for the newspapers. Last week, we had two teenage boys get beaten so badly that they ended up in the hospital due to her little ‘editorials.’”
Charity closed her eyes for a moment, inhaling deeply. She nodded. “I’ll do my best. You should know that Honor doesn’t listen to anybody but Honor, though. And she’ll have our whole family backing her up . . . But that doesn’t matter. It’s just an excuse. I will knock some sense into her.”
“Thanks.” Devin considered her for a long moment. There was a glint in her eye – a look that seemed determined. “So what are you here for? Come back for a visit?”
Why had he asked that? It didn’t matter. What he needed to be doing was ending the conversation. Then he could get back to his business and let her get back to hers. And yet, he found himself not wanting the conversation to end, despite who her sister was.
“In a way, yeah. Well, I am here to visit, but I’m also working on submitting a proposal to study the geology of the island and its surrounding islands. It’s really quite fascinating, and I think it could help with expanding the knowledge of geological events of the past. Maybe even help predict things like earthquakes.”
It was an earthquake that killed the men of the pack ten years ago. Well, the effects that the earthquake had had. From what they had discovered afterward, the men didn’t even have time to shift before they were killed.
“That sounds interesting.” Devin found himself relaxing despite himself. She just seemed so sincere in what she was doing and saying. A smile broke across his face. “So, I was pretty impressed by your surfing yesterday. Would you like to know where the best waves on the coast are?”
“San Onofre?” Her interest was definitely piqued.
Devin shook his head. “Nope. I have this little island that I go to. It’s got the best surf that I’ve ever seen. I’ll have to show you sometime.”
Charity glanced at her car with the surfboard tied on top. “Are you busy right now?”
Devin grinned.
Chapter Three – Charity
From the sounds coming from downstairs, they were in the hallway. Charity pulled her pack onto her back, considering. Devin would be waiting for her at the dock soon so they could rent a little motorboat to get out to ‘his’ island. He’d pulled her there while she was on her surfboard the previous day. And while she had loved every minute of it, they’d had to take turns using her board to surf. Today, they were going to go together with their own boards so they could be out in the water together.
She paused at her door at the sound of her own name. Honor was complaining about her attitude or something like that. They had gotten into quite the fight the previous night. Of course, the whole family blamed Charity for being unreasonable when she was the one who was bringing up actual facts and figures . . . Well, one day she wouldn’t have to look at them, right? She went to the window and threw it open. It used to be easy to sneak out this way. Things couldn’t have gotten harder, could it?
As soon as she slung a leg out the window, though, the door opened. Charity froze. But it wasn’t her worst fear entering the room. It was her twin sister.
Hope arched her brows as she took in Charity, perched on the edge of fleeing. She put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “Running away out the window? What are you, twelve?”
Charity retreated back into the room. “I just didn’t want to have to justify going somewhere I want to be. Mom was all over me for going to the beach yesterday instead of helping in the garden. I came for the ocean, not parsnips. I hate parsnips.”
“And here I thought you’d have come home for your family.”
“Don’t start, Hope. I’m not going to take that passive-aggressive crap from you.”
Hope had the decency to look ashamed. Charity couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for snapping at her. Out of everybody in the family, Hope was the one person who she was actually close to. If her life had gone differently, if she hadn’t had the opportunities to leave the island, she could have ended up exactly like her, after all.
The years hadn’t been kind to her. Stress lined her face, making her look several years older than Charity. There was a bone-deep exhaustion in her eyes that was impossible to miss. Something about the way she held herself spoke of wanting to scream into the void but being afraid that someone might actually hear her.
When Charity first started to talk about university, her parents had been dismissive, saying that they couldn’t afford it and that she’d never get anywhere with it anyway. At the time, her math teacher had been very encouraging. It was the only class that she and Hope hadn’t
shared. That teacher had helped her to apply to colleges, had even paid the application fees out of her own pocket. She had helped Charity with her student loans and to get a job in town.
Hope only had their parents telling her that she wasn’t good enough. Then she married a man she hardly knew who treated her like crap at the ripe old age of seventeen just to get away from them. Now, who did she have to rely on except for their family?
With all the stress and negativity, it was no wonder why her weight had ballooned while Charity had slimmed down. She was a beautiful woman, but she would never see herself that way. It was so infuriating that Charity wanted to kidnap her away and get her involved in something that she would love doing.
“I’m sorry,” Hope mumbled, looking down at her hands. “I just wanted to spend time with you today. I thought that we could go shopping.”
Charity sighed as she sank onto the bed and pattered the mattress beside her. “Hope . . . It’s not that I don’t want to spend time with you. I just can’t stand to be with them,” she gestured to the door. “Honor especially. I can’t hold my tongue when her ‘opinions’ actively hurt other people. I’ve been here for a couple days and I’m already exhausted by it. You can come to the beach with me, though.”
A red flush rose into Hope’s cheeks and she turned away. “Last time I was on the beach, people kept taking pictures of me.”
“Because you’re beautiful.”
“Because I’m a whale.”
Charity repressed a sigh. “What if we went to a private beach?”
“If I got into the water, a shark or whale is going to mistake me for a seal.”