by Bianca D’Arc
“The tip is appreciated, but you don’t owe me anything, sweetheart.”
The breath caught in her throat at his use of the endearment. He also stepped right up to her, not a foot between their bodies as he looked down into her eyes. She almost forgot to breathe.
“But…” She didn’t know what she was objecting to as his head drifted lower. Was he going to kiss her?
“Ssh,” he soothed her, drawing her under his spell. “If you really want to repay me for the sandwich, all I ask of you is a single kiss.”
What? Alarm bells sounded in her mind, but they were drowned out by the nearness of him. She could feel his warmth only inches away from her, and she wanted to snuggle up against him. She’d been so cold for so long…
Which was an odd thought for a mer to have. Mer didn’t feel cold. The oceans were their home. So what had gotten into her now?
And why was she suddenly so eager to snuggle up to a land dweller? Oh, he was a shifter—they had that in common—but he still lived on land, and she in the sea. Though she could survive very well on dry land too. In fact, she’d spent most of her youth on land, with her family, doing the normal things that humans and shifters did. She’d gone to school, had friends, drove a car, had a job, and even moved in with her boyfriend.
But the situation with Dirk was what had driven her into the sea. She refused to go down that path again. Dirk had been human, a little voice inside reminded her. Andrew was a shifter. Maybe things would be different with a shifter.
Did she dare try to find out?
As his lips touched hers, all thoughts fled in the face of his passion. What started as a simple kiss turned into something much more profound within a single heartbeat.
He took her into his embrace, and she did get a chance to snuggle up to his warmth, basking in the feel of his strong arms around her. He kissed her lightly, at first, then gradually deepened the kiss when she made no move to push him away. His tongue danced with hers, showing her new patterns of pleasure even as her knees threatened to give way.
He was holding her up, his hands around her waist, supporting her, not imprisoning. And that was the key. He held her firmly, but lightly. She could break free any time she wanted…which was why she stayed.
How long she stood there, swaying with the swells that rocked the boat and rubbed their bodies together, she would never know, but it was Andrew who finally broke the kiss. When she would have gone back for more, he frowned at her, his eyes seeming almost as dazed as hers for a moment, before he seemed to regain his footing.
“It’s coming this way. The leviathan. I feel it.”
Dread washed over her, replacing all the warm emotions of moments before. “We have to run.” She clung to his arms, fear making her voice shake.
He seemed to think for a moment, then nodded. “Do me a favor and reel in that line slowly. Don’t jerk it. Don’t draw any attention to us. Just move slow and steady.”
He was already doing the same on the other side of the boat where another rod had swayed lazily in its holder. She moved to comply, trying to regain some sense of calm. His competent stance helped her focus. For just a second, she felt like, if Andrew was there with her, nothing bad could happen.
It was silly, she knew, but that was the impression he gave. He was so tall and strong. He seemed to know exactly what to do at all times and had a plan to lead them to safety, while all she could really do was panic.
But how did he know the creature was coming? That was something she couldn’t sense out of the water. While she was in her mer form and in the ocean, she had instinct to guide her away from danger, but in her skin, on the surface, she was at a loss.
He’d said he could sense things. And shield things…
“Can’t you shield the boat?” she asked in as quiet a voice as she could manage. She knew sound carried over the water, and she didn’t want to attract any unwanted attention.
“I’m already doing it. But that only shields the magic. If we’re here when it passes, it might still see us and decide to fuck with us just for fun. Who knows how this creature thinks? Or if it actually thinks at all,” he muttered, stowing the rod, its line now fully spooled and out of the water.
Jetty followed suit with the fishing rod on her side of the boat. When it was stowed on deck, she tightened the loose knot on her robe. No way was she going back in the water until that monster had passed. Even she could feel the malevolence approaching now. The air was thick with a sense of doom that made her skin crawl.
She watched as Andrew started the engines and moved them swiftly away from the magical miasma that had been approaching their last position. He didn’t speed, but he moved the boat with quick efficiency that earned her admiration.
“It won’t follow the noise of the motor?” she asked, coming up beside him in the small wheelhouse.
“It might, but if it repeats the pattern of our previous encounters, it’ll ignore us because of my shield. I think it’s after magical targets, and right now, we don’t look magical at all. Just another boat with uninteresting humans on it. Nothing to see here.” He paid close attention to his instruments as he guided the boat away from the threat.
The heaviness in the air began to recede. She could feel the threat passing them by, off to the south.
“Almost there…” he said in a low, tense voice as he guided his boat away from the path of the creature with an expert hand.
Jetty couldn’t feel it anymore, but Andrew seemed to stay tense until a few minutes later, when he reached some point only he was aware of. They were within sight of the coast now, which suited her purposes well, though she wouldn’t tell him that, because she didn’t want him to know where her people were gathering…just in case.
“Did you feel that?” He was talking a little louder now, not quite as tense as he had been.
“Feel what?”
He cut the engine and let the boat drift. They were within sight of the shore, but not in danger of running aground any time soon.
“I told you about the permanent wards, right? We just passed into the outer reaches of the ward. The leviathan and its mini-me’s avoid this area.”
She was fascinated by the idea of a permanent ward, but she hadn’t been able to feel anything specific. Then again, sensing such things was not her talent. She had good instincts, but that’s as far as it went. Andrew, though… He seemed to really be able to sense things much more deeply than she would have imagined.
No wonder her people had gravitated to a nearby spot. It didn’t just seem safer to their instincts—if Andrew was to be believed—it was safer. The bears of Grizzly Cove had done that. They’d made a small safe zone that extended out a short distance into the ocean. That went a long way toward convincing Jetty that the bears were honest in their offer of safe harbor. They seemed to care about the ocean beyond their land, which meant a lot to her.
Even before they knew about the mer colony that lived out here, they’d expelled the creature from their cove, but also did something to protect the shore and the waters just beyond. Sure, it made their settlement safer, but it also indicated a certain amount of concern for the deeps. Most land-dwellers never thought about sea life, unless they were fishermen or environmentalists of some kind. These bear shifters were like any other group, but they seemed to really care for Mother Earth—and all of Her bounty.
“One of our new residents cast the wards, but you should probably know that her sister is working on a better fix for the waters. She’s been brewing potions of some kind for the past few weeks, and when she’s ready, she’s going to attempt to purify the waters and make it so that only creatures of good intent can approach the cove from the ocean.”
Jetty wasn’t sure what to make of that.
“Do you intend to make it impossible for anyone to swim into the cove without your knowledge?” If so, that was a pretty rotten deal for the sea dwellers.
“No. From what I understand, it doesn’t work like that. The magic she intends to
cast will be to keep evil out. Like I said, as long as the intentions are good and the person or creature isn’t a servant of evil, they’ll be welcome in the cove. I don’t think any of us have any interest in monitoring every single creature in the ocean on their way into and out of the cove. Nobody’s got time for that. We all have a wild side, and we know what it means to be able to roam free.”
She heard the truth ringing in his words, but she was still skeptical.
“But what if your Alpha or town council decides otherwise?” she challenged, just to see what he’d say.
“Honey, I’m on the town council. And our Alpha rules at our pleasure. Bears aren’t like other shifters in that we follow the Alpha blindly. We chose John to be Alpha because he’s our best strategist, but we don’t do every little thing he says merely because he has the title. Bears are independent thinkers. The core group that makes up the town council is all ex-military too. We were all members of the same Spec Ops unit, and John was our commanding officer. We’ve spent a lot of years working together, and we’re like brothers. I know them like I know myself, and none of us have any interest in shutting off sea access to the cove. We’re more concerned about building a life here and finding mates. We just want to live in peace and be happy.”
His words ran true in her ears, and she realized the bears weren’t that much different from her people.
“Isn’t that what everybody wants? To live free and be happy. It’s a worthy goal.” Her tone was contemplative as she looked out over the water.
He’d given her a lot to think about, and she definitely needed to go back to her people and tell them all the news. Things were changing rapidly, and there were decisions to be made.
“Well. I guess this is my stop.” She untied the robe again and let it fall to the deck at her feet before diving swiftly off the boat.
“Wait!”
She heard him call out even as she hit the water. If she’d given him time to talk her into staying, she never would have left. Better to do it fast. Make a clean break. The bear-man was just too enticing.
She felt her change come over her, legs fusing into a tail, scales rippling over her skin. She worked her way to the surface again, just to get one last look at him, unable to help herself.
He was leaning over the rail, a look of dismay on his handsome face. His expression changed to relief when he caught sight of her again, which warmed her heart.
“Will I see you again?” he asked, warming her further.
She smiled, knowing he’d see the sharper teeth, the alien side of her being that she seldom put on display to outsiders. Sure, he was a shifter too. He had a beast half. But his beast was something humans were used to seeing. In her case, she was something mythological—and the mer had worked hard over the eons to keep it that way.
“I believe our paths will cross again, Andrew,” she told him, her words only slightly affected by the changes in her mouth brought on by the shift.
“How will I find you?” he wanted to know.
She couldn’t tell him. It was one of the most important rules of being mer. Mystery was their friend. It kept them safe. She could never reveal the secrets about where the mer lived or how to find them. Not to anyone.
“I’ll find you, my new friend. Your boat isn’t hard to spot.”
As she swam away beneath the waves, she couldn’t get him out of her mind. They would meet again, but she had a lot of things to do first. Briefing the others was the first task. Then, she’d have to do a little reconnaissance of her own. If all went well, she’d be seeking out the handsome bear shifter sooner than he might think.
Even her cold fish side warmed to the idea of getting close to him again. He kissed like a dream, and she had been unable to find any fault with his words or manner. If everything he’d told her checked out the way she thought it would, she would feel free to let loose a little more with him. It had been far too long since she’d been with a man, and she’d never been with a shifter.
She wondered what it would be like to be with someone from whom she didn’t have to constantly hide her dual nature. Would it be as freeing an experience as she thought? Or would such a relationship carry its own unique problems?
There really was only one way to find out. The next time she saw him, she was going to do all she could to seduce the man and see where it led. If she’d been a land dweller, she would have growled at the thought of getting him naked and seeing if his performance lived up to the potential advertised by his good looks.
If she’d been a shier creature, she would have blushed at her own thoughts, but Jetty was known for being one of the bolder of her people. She’d put that bold nature to good use the very next time she saw her bear, and she vowed, he wouldn’t know what hit him.
Chapter Three
Jetty swam into the cove, enjoying the splendor of the place. It really was a nice little inlet, protected from the ferocity of the ocean. The waters were calm, and even though the sky was overcast, as it often was in this part of the world, enough light filtered through to make the vista below the surface a lovely blue-green teeming with life and beauty.
She was a woman on a mission. She intended to spy on the land dwellers of Grizzly Cove to see if she could determine how truthful Andrew had been with her the day before. Telling the rest of her hunting party everything he’d told her about the ongoing battle with the evil creature in the sea that they’d all been hiding from for the past several weeks didn’t take long. Opinions were mixed on whether or not they could trust the bear shifters and their offer of safe harbor. Which was why Jetty had volunteered to swim into the cove and see what she could discover.
She had been told to use her best judgment on whether or not to make further contact with the bear fisherman. Since she was a proven scout, the elders left the decision up to her. Jetty was honored by their trust in her abilities, which made it all the more important to get this right.
She spent the entire day spying on the various residents on land, as best she could. She had better luck when she hid beneath the pier behind the small bait shop and listened in on the conversations between the proprietor and his customers. They were all shifters, as far she could tell, and they spoke freely among themselves about many topics.
The most interesting to her, of course, were the few mentions made about the new permanent wards and how much safer it was in the cove since they had been cast. Jetty discovered that the witch who had done the work was now mated to the Alpha bear. Andrew hadn’t told her that—probably wanting to keep the identity of such a powerful witch secret until he was sure of Jetty and her people.
She didn’t begrudge him that. They all had secrets to keep and judgments to make. And they both had responsibilities to their people, to keep them all safe.
From the way the shifters talked, it was clear the Alpha’s new mate had earned their respect. Jetty knew that shifters and magic folk rarely worked together in this day and age. That they had welcomed a witch into their town said something about this group’s tolerance and willingness to work together to defeat evil.
If they had forged an alliance with two powerful witches, then maybe they were serious about wanting to offer safe haven to the mer. And perhaps, the mer could work with these shifters to help fix the big problem in the ocean—what they had named the leviathan.
Jetty had kept an eye out all day for signs of Grace, but her friend hadn’t come near the water. If she really was newly mated, Jetty supposed Grace was probably spending a lot of time with her mate, on land…most likely in a bed. Jetty almost envied her old friend. Grace deserved a little joy in her life, and if she really had found her mate, Jetty was happy for her.
The jury was still out, though. Jetty would have to see Grace first, to believe it. So far, she’d been able to confirm a lot of what Andrew had told her. The town seemed exactly as he had said it was, and she was almost ready to take her reconnaissance to the next level. But first, she had to find Andrew’s boat.
Drew couldn
’t sleep. Again. So what else was new?
He levered himself out of bed, knowing this would be one of those days he spent out on the water, away from everyone, seeking solace in the peace of the ocean. He didn’t know why, but the water soothed him, even when the weather wasn’t ideal. Which looked to be the case today. He could smell fog in the air and moisture that meant rain later. Great.
But it wouldn’t deter him from going out. On days—scratch that—nights like these, he had to get out on the water.
He dressed haphazardly, grabbing a bag filled with sandwiches out of the fridge on his way out the door. The gals at the bakery kept him stocked. When he stopped in there each night, he walked out with a bag of sandwiches for the next day. It was just easier that way.
Drew headed out the back door of his house. It was a small place, close to the water. The best feature of the land he’d chosen to purchase and build on was the dock. He had built it himself, and it was in a part of the cove deep enough that he could easily keep his boat there, ready and waiting for him whenever he wanted to go out. The setup was ideal.
Fog wisped around his ankles as he walked out onto the dock. He was about to toss his stuff onto the deck when he realized he wasn’t alone.
“Hey, sailor, come here often?”
A mermaid was sitting in the mist at the end of the dock. Not just any mermaid. Jetty. Lovely Jetty with the dark hair and pretty eyes.
“Often enough.” He changed direction, walking the length of his boat, out to the end of the dock. When she didn’t move, he sat down beside her, his toes dipping into the water below. “I’m glad to see you again. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”
“I told you I’d find you.” Her tone was flirtatious, her scales glimmering faintly in the misty fog. It was still dark out. An hour or more left until dawn. “I’ve been checking out what you told me the other day, and I’m cautiously optimistic that we can take it to the next level.”