by Dessa Lux
Zoey waved her tiny fists in what seemed to be agreement, and Lir strode off to meet Devon, who had joined Mar and Harry at the water’s edge. Devon scooped Zoey out of Lir’s arms as soon as she was in reach, kissing and nuzzling the top of her head.
When he’d satisfied himself that he had her scent again, Devon looked up at Lir with a smirk. “Harry and Mar have a bet about which of them can get her to shift first, and whether she’ll take a wolf shape, first, or a sea creature.”
Lir and Devon had made a similar bet, but given what they’d wagered on it, Devon obviously wasn’t going to mention that in front of anyone else.
“Oh,” Lir said. “Well, I guess it can’t hurt to let them try if they want to. If she’s not ready she won’t shift.”
Devon nodded. “That was my feeling too. What do you think, princess, you want to let your uncles show you what shapes they can make and see if it looks like fun?”
Zoey gurgled and babbled and squealed, and Lir looked up from watching her and nodded to Mar and Harry. “Go ahead, then.”
They promptly shifted. Harry took on his reddish wolf shape, less rawboned than when Lir had first seen him; Mar changed into an impossibly black shark, circling in the shallows with a telltale fin protruding from the water.
Devon and Lir crouched down at the water’s edge, lowering Zoey half into the water, which made her kick her legs and wave her arms, shrieking happily. Harry and Mar both approached, nosing at her playfully, and Zoey’s excited flailing turned into a surprisingly agile twist. Devon nearly lost his grip on her—and then he did lose his grip as her shape changed under his hands.
Lir started laughing, and after a startled yelp Devon did too; they both wound up slumped in the water as Zoey splashed around in her first shifted shape, letting out excited little puppy-barks. She had a wolf’s face and excitedly pricked-up ears, and soft fur of the same dark brown as her hair... but only over the front half of her body. The back half had sleek-looking skin that was rough to the touch, a tiny dorsal fin, and a wide flat fin that served very well for slapping against the water as she flailed around.
One of the little kids wading a few yards away under the supervision of the rest of Harry’s pack caught sight of her and yelled, “Puppyshark!”
Devon laughed harder, and Lir curled an arm around him tugging him close, as they watched Zoey test out her chosen shape. Mar came back into his land-dweller form, standing waist deep in the water as he joined them in laughing, and Harry shifted back last, pressing a palm to his face and shaking his head slowly as if that would hide his smile.
Zoey seemed to feel abandoned when everyone else was in a land-dweller shape. Her excited yelps turned to tiny cries, and Lir immediately scooped her up against his chest. He ran a hand down her shark half, keeping it comfortably wet, while Devon closed his hands gently around her puppy paws.
“Hey, princess,” Devon said softly. “Come on, come back to us. You know how, I know you do.”
She whimpered and wriggled, and Lir hummed soothingly and bend his head to kiss between her ears while Devon kept talking to her. A moment later she shifted in Lir’s grip, becoming a pink-skinned land-dweller baby again, minus her diaper.
Devon laughed and covered her face with kisses, and Lir nuzzled at her hair and murmured, “Well done, moonlight.”
They would have to sort out their bets later, Lir thought, perhaps in the house while wrangling her back into a diaper. But for now, here on the beach, they were all together, just where they should be, and that was enough.
THE END
A Note from Dessa Lux
Thank you for reading Surrendered to the Sea! I had a lot of fun exploring Lir and Devon’s world, and I hope you enjoyed it.
If you’d like to know when I have a new story out, you can sign up for my mailing list (I won’t send tons of annoying messages, I promise!), follow me on Twitter at @DessaLux for occasional updates, or on Tumblr at Dessa’s Blog, which includes all the latest on my new stories plus pictures of attractive naked guys (that’s basically what Tumblr is for, right?)! Or if you don’t mind having my books show up in between updates from your high school friends and random relatives, you can like my author page on Facebook!
I’d be really thrilled if you would consider reviewing Surrendered to the Sea, even if you only have a few words to say. I appreciate all reviews, positive or negative!
Cover design by Morgan Wilcox. Thanks also to Morgan (no relation) and Trisha Black for editing help, and to all my alpha readers for keeping me going!
More Stories by Dessa Lux
The Protection of the Pack:
The Omega’s Bodyguard Sparks fly when a protective alpha meets an omega in danger, but there’s a catch: this omega is still human, and doesn’t know what he could become with a bite from the right wolf.
The Omega’s Pack Rusty and Sam are now alpha and omega werewolf mates, forming a pack along with Mike. Every night brings the new pack closer to the full moon and Sam’s first omega heat, but there’s still someone missing...
The Beta’s Test A werewolf who’s spent his life without a pack meets a werewolf whose pack is the only reason he’s alive. When these opposites attract, they both find out what they’ve been missing all along.
The Omega Learns a Lesson Sam may be a genius, but he still has a lot to learn about being the perfect omega for his alpha and their pack...
The Alpha’s Home An omega forced to mate an alpha he hates turns to his beta best friend for help to escape—but the only way out is to be stolen by another alpha.
The Sheriff & the Shifter Series:
The Sheriff and the Shifter
You Get What You Need
Meeting the Wolf
Sheriff Ray Prescott has a weakness for dark-haired younger men—but when he finds Tom London stranded on the side of the road, he gets a chance to show just how strong he can be. Tom is the last survivor of the town’s shifter pack, and at twenty years old he’s not prepared to be anybody’s alpha, even his own. Luckily the very human sheriff is there to give him just what he needs...
Short Stories:
Taught to Take It Jason is staying after class to ask for help from his favorite teacher, Mr. Connor — help learning to take something even bigger than what he’s used to. Luckily for him, Mr. Connor is always happy to give one of his students a hand...
Spring Break Seduction After a busy year at school, Jason is off to meet up with one of his oldest friends for spring break. Ford still thinks of Jason as a kid, but it doesn’t take him long to learn that Jason is all grown up and ready to show Ford everything he’s learned!
The Freshman Gets Filled Christophe has a big study session today—and at St. Sebastian’s College, that means he’s getting his first gangbang under the watchful eye of his coach. Christophe knows if he does well, he’ll get more than Coach’s eyes on him by the time it’s over...
Dessa Lux Writing as Dira Lewis:
Gun to My Head Sin is a vampire at the end of his rope. Having escaped forcible conversion by a vampire cult, he temporarily kills himself and rises again only to immediately imprint on a human: eighteen-year-old Dominic. Thanks to the cult’s conditioning, Sin can’t bite Dominic, but because of the imprint he also can’t leave him alone. Protecting Dominic from a local vampire named Oriana puts Sin between a rock and a hard place. With nowhere else to turn he does his best to convince Dominic to like him—but finds himself becoming just as attached to Dominic, which definitely isn’t making his life any easier.
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