by Zoe Chant
“He’s the one who left you on the beach?” Arlo growled.
Kenna’s eyes flashed. “He’s taking us to Hideaway Cove! Where we’ll be safe! No one else—”
“Our parents died,” Dylan said quietly.
“I’m so sorry.” Jacqueline reached out for Dylan automatically and he wriggled over to her. Arlo put a hand on Kenna’s shoulder and she sort of sagged into it.
“They were in a car crash,” Dylan whispered.
“So it’s just us.” Kenna was scowling again and this time Jacqueline was convinced it was to stop herself from bursting into tears. “And we got put in a home, which was fine, except Tally started shifting early and they were going to find out.”
“You have to keep yourself safe from humans.” Jacqueline’s heart dropped.
Kenna nodded angrily. “Eric told us about Hideaway Cove, he said we’d be safe there—”
“And you will be,” Arlo rumbled. Jacqueline was struck by the certainty in his voice. “Hideaway Cove is a sanctuary for all shifters. You’ll be safe there, and welcome, and cared for. Your whole pack.” He paused and frowned. “Eric, too.”
Dylan and Kenna exchanged a look. “Really? That’s actually true?”
“One hundred percent.” Arlo hesitated again, his eyes flicking to Jacqueline. She couldn’t read the expression in them. “They took me in when I was just a bit older than you. I lost my family, too. Hideaway Cove gave me a new one.”
Jacqueline let out a short breath. So many broken pasts, she thought, her heart aching.
“Anyway,” Arlo muttered. “We’ve got an early start if we want to make it to Hideaway and call your work, Ms. March. There’s no phone on board, I’m sorry. I’ll just get this cleaned up—”
“I’ll help!” Kenna said quickly.
“—and then we’d better pack in for the night. You kids can take the bed. Ms. March…” His voice went gravely, and Jacqueline felt another blush start to prickle across her skin. “The seat in the kitchen booth isn’t much, but I can pull some extra blankets out.”
“That’ll suit me fine. But what about you?”
Jacqueline regretted asking the moment the words were out, because as soon as she’d spoken them, she was imagining Arlo in bed. His long body stretched out across the blankets. His head resting on one arm, his chest the perfect pillow just begging for her to…
Jacqueline squeezed her eyes tight. What is wrong with me? He’s made it clear he’s not interested, anyway.
…Which maybe makes this all right? There’s nothing wrong with imagining, right? And if it’s not going to go anywhere…
“I’ll sleep up here,” Arlo said, and Jacqueline’s mind immediately filled in the dots.
“Er, won’t you be cold?” she asked, mentally dodging the images her brain was throwing at her.
Arlo half-smiled. “I’ve got my own fur coat. I’ll be fine.”
“Oh. Yes. Of course.” Jacqueline felt like she’d just stuffed her entire foot in her mouth. Her cheeks might as well have been on fire.
Tally was still asleep, so she stayed up on deck with Dylan while Arlo and Kenna dealt with the dishes. Dylan was full of questions about Hideaway Cove, most of which Jacqueline couldn’t answer. Everything she knew about the town could have fit on the front of an envelope.
Everything true, at least. The rumors could have filled a phone book, but she wasn’t about to tell Dylan that people back home thought Hideaway Cove was full of telephone-cursing witches.
Suddenly, Dylan sat up straight. “They’re all done!” he chirped, and hopped over to the hatch.
“Be careful with that—and how do you know?” Jacqueline balanced Tally over her shoulder and got to the hatch just before Dylan hauled it open and, she suspected, threw himself headfirst down the steps.
“Arlo said.” Dylan tapped the side of his head. “In here.”
“Right. Well, go down backwards, okay? I don’t want you to slip.”
“Shifters don’t slip,” he said, and Jacqueline raised her eyebrows at him.
“Someone needs to tell Tally that, then,” she said. “Before she slips off any more rocks.”
“She’s a baby! She doesn’t count.”
Jacqueline’s eyebrows shot up. “Don’t listen to him, honey,” she said facetiously to the slumbering Tally, and Dylan cackled.
She held the hatch open as he clambered down, then climbed after him and found herself back-to-chest with Arlo.
“Oh,” she said, stupidly, and turned around, also stupidly, because now she was still pressed against him, but in a way more awkward position.
Why, why, why hadn’t she put her bra back on when she got changed?
She climbed a step back up the stairs, but that only put her boobs level with his eyes.
Arlo’s eyes darted either side of her. “Excuse me,” he muttered in his gravelly voice, and dodged around the ladder.
“It’s small with us all down here, huh?” Jacqueline said, trying to ignore her blazing cheeks. “Cozy.”
“Uh-huh.” Kenna had scooted into the booth to get out of the way. “Um, you can have the bed, if you want. We’ve got fur coats, too, so we don’t need—”
Jacqueline fixed her with a mock glare. “How long have you been camping out in that ancient concrete block?” she demanded.
“Um, a few weeks, I guess…”
“Then it’s definitely your turn to sleep in a bed. I’ll be fine on the bench.”
“Here you go.” Arlo grabbed an armful of extra blankets from the cupboard at the end of the bed. He handed a few to Jacqueline, and spread the others on the mattress, making a sort of nest on top of it. “It’s a few hours down the coast to Hideaway. By lunchtime tomorrow, you’ll be in your new home.”
“Isn’t that a bit—” optimistic, Jacqueline had been about to say, but managed to stop herself at the last minute. “Quick? I mean, I don’t know how shifters do things, but they’re just kids. Won’t you have to wait until Eric is here to decide a place for them to live?”
Arlo shook his head. “This isn’t the first time the town’s taken in strays. There’ll be more than enough houses open to them until this Eric gets here. And anyway…”
He pressed his lips together, his eyes shadowing. Whatever he’d stopped himself from saying, it looked like an old hurt.
Dylan raised his head quizzically and Jacqueline decided to interrupt.
“And anyway, now that they’re here there’s no way you’re letting them get away, right? No more camp-outs in derelict buildings.”
“Exactly.” Arlo flashed her a relieved smile and her heart lifted. Maybe this all was going to be all right after all. It wasn’t the fling she’d been hoping for this weekend, but it was something. A tiny sliver of magic, and helping people, before she headed back to her own life.
Or whatever it was she was going to make of her life.
“No more baths in a sink,” Kenna muttered. She caught Jacqueline’s eye and blushed, her hand going to her tangled mop of hair.
“What’s your house like?” Dylan piped up.
Arlo frowned. “My house?”
“Yeah, where we’re going.”
Arlo straightened. “Well, it’s…” He ran his fingers through his hair and closed his eyes in a silent groan. Jacqueline thought she saw his lips moving as though he was saying something under his breath. “You know I’m not taking you to stay with me, right?”
Kenna folded her arms, her face settling into mutinous lines. “Then where are you taking us?”
“Well, maybe my parents—my foster parents. Dorothy and Alan Sweets. They’re all set up with the county to take in kids that need a home. They’ll look after you until Eric gets a place set up for you.”
“But—” Dylan began, and Kenna shushed him. He stared at her, bewildered, and then turned to Jacqueline. “But what about…”
Jacqueline was confused. “Me?”
Dylan nodded, his eyes huge. Kenna growled something and Dylan swatted t
he air as though he was trying to bat away an invisible fly.
“I live in Dunston, not Hideaway Cove. I doubt you want to live there after everything you’ve been through to get to Hideaway,” Jacqueline said, smiling, and Dylan’s face fell.
“You’re going back to Dunston? But I thought you and A—”
“Shut up, Dylan!” Kenna screamed, jumping to her feet. “Just shut up for once, will you?”
“Hey, now—” Arlo began, as Tally stirred in Jacqueline’s arms and began to grizzle.
“But I thought we were going to—” Dylan’s face creased with confusion.
“Stop talking!” Kenna bawled at him, pink spots spreading like a fever across her cheeks. “Stop—they—you can’t just—and we—you’re going to ruin it!”
Tally’s grizzle blew into a full-out wail, and she kicked her legs like she was trying to swim out of Jacqueline’s grip. Jacqueline got a better hold on her and just managed to fling her other arm in front of Kenna as she threw herself down the cabin towards Dylan.
Dylan’s look of confusion morphed into mulish anger. “No, you’re going to ruin it all, because you’re yelling and you said humans couldn’t—”
“Shut up!”
“So it’ll be your fault anyway if—”
Jacqueline hadn’t been able to hear what humans “couldn’t” do over Kenna’s shriek, but her heart was breaking for both of them.
There were so many times she’d wanted to scream her heart out over the last few years. She knew how much they were hurting, and how much more it would hurt when they’d all calmed down and remembered what they’d said.
Arlo was still bent over double in the bed nook. He raised his head and clonked it on the ceiling. “Ah, blast—Hey, kids, that’s enough of that. Calm down.”
Kenna’s head snapped back like she’d been slapped, and her eyes filled with tears. She stared at Arlo, then Jacqueline, her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish. “I didn’t mean—you can’t—oh no…”
Behind her, Dylan’s face creased. Arlo rubbed his forehead and groaned.
“Damn it, kids, it’s not like that. You’ll be fine,” he growled.
“But—”
The kids’ distress whiplashed through the air. Jacqueline let her hand drop on Kenna’s shoulder as the tears in the girl’s eyes threatened to spill over.
“I’m sorry!” Kenna gasped. Her face twisted. “I wanted everything to go perfect and now…”
“Everything’s still fine,” Jacqueline reassured her, and Kenna’s face pinched shut in a way Jacqueline knew too well.
She’s not going to believe me that easy, Jacqueline thought. And Tally’s still screaming, and Dylan’s on a knife’s edge to start crying, too. How am I meant to fix this?
Oh God. Arlo was right. I can’t help them. I’m completely out of my depth. I don’t belong here at all.
She met Arlo’s eyes across the cabin. She wanted to yell “Help! Do something!” but what could he do?
Arlo climbed out from the bed nook. Standing straight, his head almost brushed the ceiling. “Kids,” he began, and when that had no effect on the thunderstorm-heavy atmosphere: “Kenna, Dylan, Tally—”
Tally stopped screaming. The look of relief on Arlo’s face was almost comical—and then he realized she’d only been sucking in another breath to scream even louder.
He ran his hands over his face and gave Jacqueline a look that was half-bashful, half-determined.
What’s he doing? she wondered, and then watched amazed as he grimaced and shook himself. The shaking rippled down his body and he transformed into a huge black and gray wolf.
Kenna squeaked with surprise and transformed, flopping to the cabin floor as a spotted seal. Dylan changed shape, too, slipping awkwardly down the ladder. It was as though their transformations had caught them by surprise.
In Jacqueline’s arms, Tally’s kicking legs were suddenly kicking flippers. She wriggled through her sweater and Jacqueline kneeled to catch her before she hit the floor. She eased the tiny seal pup to the ground and bundled the abandoned sweater against her chest.
It was only when she started feeling light-headed that she remembered to start breathing again.
The three seal shifter siblings were gorgeous. They all had the same thick, glossy coats with mottled brown, gray and white coloration. And Arlo…
Jacqueline gulped. She was still kneeling down, and her eyes were level with Arlo’s. He was a wolf, a huge wolf, with pointed ears and long legs tipped with heavy claws.
He should have looked like something out of a bad dream. The big bad wolf from a fairy tale. But…
Even in wolf form, his eyes were so… human. They were the same midnight-blue as before. But they weren’t as closed-off and wary as his human eyes had been. His wolf’s eyes practically overflowed with emotion.
Jacqueline’s heart was in her throat. She felt as though the wolf-Arlo was trying to communicate something with her, but what?
He broke eye contact first. Jacqueline watched, frozen, as he sniffed at each of the seal pups in turn and barked softly. He shook his coat and flicked his ears towards the bed.
The seals whined. Jacqueline blinked. There wasn’t any other word for it. Kenna made a grumbling noise that sounded so, so… teenaged. Even coming out of a seal’s mouth.
Regardless of how much they grumbled and whined, all three seals followed what were obviously the wolf’s instructions, and clambered up onto the bed. Tally was too small to make it by herself, so Arlo helped her, pushing his snout under her sausage-like body and boosting her up.
The kids cuddled together in a heap, their fat bodies making a cozy dent in the middle of the mattress. Jacqueline’s breath caught as Arlo leaped up on the bed and trotted around them, gently pressing his nose to each of their snouts in turn. Tally gave a whuffly bark, and he licked her forehead. Then he picked up a corner of the blanket between his teeth, dragged it up over the seal pups, and lay down curled around them.
It was the strangest, sweetest picture of family love that Jacqueline could have imagined. And it hurt more than she could have imagined.
I have to get out of here.
She stood up so quickly her head spun.
“I, er,” she muttered brokenly as Arlo raised his head and pinned her with those too-human eyes. “I just need to…”
Jacqueline gave a stupid smile and climbed, practically flew, up the stairs to the hatch. She wrenched it open and barely managed to stop herself from slamming the door shut behind her.
Up on deck, all her breath rushed out of her at once. She closed the hatch—slowly, carefully, not wanting to interrupt—made it to the side of the boat, and folded over the railing like a wet towel.
“What the heck was that about?” she asked herself when the world stopped spinning around her. As though she didn’t know.
She stared out across the water for she didn’t know how long. Darkness had properly fallen now, coating the world in inky black. The boat lights made rippling golden lines on the water. Far away, past the darker texture of black on the horizon that she assumed was the coastline, the sky glowed faintly.
Dunston, she thought. Home.
Her whole life was there, somewhere under that faint yellow glow.
And here on this boat, in the dark, gently rocking ocean…
“Jacqueline?”
8
Arlo
Jacqueline wiped her eyes before she turned around. Arlo’s chest clenched.
“Are you all right?”
Jacqueline smiled and shook her head slightly. “I’m fine.”
Arlo frowned. His wolf was confused—the smile was an obvious lie. It didn’t go to her eyes. It looked like it hurt, and that was wrong. His wolf wanted to go to her, to give her the same simple comfort it had offered the pups. They were asleep now, after all. And his mate needed him. Why wasn’t he already at her side?
Humans are more complicated than that, he told it, and cleared his throat.
&n
bsp; “You moved pretty quick back there, I was worried—”
“Are the kids okay? They got to sleep?” Jacqueline’s voice teetered on the edge of brittle. Arlo took the hint.
“They’re out like lights. It’s—” he paused, and then added: “Things are simpler, when we’re in our animal forms. Human worries don’t seem so important. It’s easier to let them go for a while.”
Jacqueline’s eyebrows pulled together. “That’s good. But—what about their animal worries, are they—” She stopped, grimacing. “Sorry. This is none of my business. I shouldn’t have—have forced you to bring me along.”
You screwed it up. Now she thinks you hate her. Arlo’s mouth was dry. He had to fix this. He’d panicked, before, but everything was under control now. The kids were going to Hideaway, and he could… try to make this work.
God, she was so—so—he bit back a groan. The sweater and pants she was wearing didn’t cling to her body like her soaking wet dress had. What they did was a thousand times worse.
He knew what her body looked like. He knew what she felt like, those warm curves pressed against his side.
And now she was wrapped in his clothes. He knew that sweater like the back of his hand. Its fabric was softened by years of wear, but still warm and cozy. There were a few loose threads that he’d meant to darn but not gotten around to yet, because he only remembered them when they tickled.
As though the universe had heard his thoughts, Jacqueline wriggled slightly and slipped one hand under her—his—sweater. It was too easy to imagine his own hand sliding under the soft fabric to brush away the stray thread and resting, just for a moment, against her even softer skin…
She was gorgeous. Gorgeous and inquisitive and so brave.
His heart sank. She was perfect. She clearly had her life together. He’d have to be arrogant beyond belief to imagine there was any room for him in it.
He cleared his throat. “Is there anyone waiting for you back home? Like I said, I don’t have a phone on the boat, but I can radio in and ask for a message to be sent through.”
Jacqueline’s face went carefully blank. “No,” she said quietly. “I’d better call in to work about the kids’ missing friend, and there’s my work, but… I don’t think they’re likely to check in on me until morning at the earliest. I’m free as a bird.”