by Bianca D’Arc
She wanted to jump into the water and swim away, but she couldn’t. Even here, she had to use the boathouse’s secret entrance to the water to hide her true form and abilities. They couldn’t risk being seen, and while there wasn’t much traffic on the road through Grizzly Cove yet, it was still a public thoroughfare, open to humans. Everyone in town knew they had to shift with the utmost discretion. They couldn’t afford strange tales of mermaids or werebears getting around and drawing a crowd of curious humans to the town.
She stood abruptly, half-fearing the Wraith would follow, but he made no move to stand. It was small comfort though, since the Wraiths were said to have uncommon speed and deadly skill. He could probably kill her in the blink of an eye…or worse.
“I’ve got to go,” she whispered, hoping against hope that he would let her. The adrenaline pushed her to walk away, and she managed a few feet before breaking into a run.
CHAPTER TWO
Trevor scratched his head as he watched the young mermaid run from him. He hadn’t meant to scare the poor girl out of her wits. He’d just wanted to offer some comfort. Instead, he’d made things worse.
He knew enough not to make a move until she was out of sight. A frightened creature didn’t need to think it was being chased. Any move on his part would have made her panic worse, though it went against his nature to let her go in such a state. If only there was something he could do to help her.
“Don’t take it personally,” a female voice said from farther down the beach. She was speaking quietly, but she must’ve known he could hear her even from such a distance.
She was walking with a man he recognized from his Army days. Trevor had heard Jack Chambers had found his mate, but he hadn’t realized he’d mated a mermaid. Trevor stood as they approached, and he saw the look of concern on the woman’s face as he shook hands with Jack. They hadn’t seen each other in years, but at one time, they’d been good friends.
“This is Grace,” Jack introduced the woman at his side. Trevor smiled at her, genuinely happy for his friend.
“Congratulations on your mating,” he said to both of them.
“Thanks,” Grace said, smiling faintly in return. “About Beth…” Trevor surmised Beth must be the woman who had fled. “She was the newest member of my hunting party, and she’s taking the move to the cove very hard.”
“It seems like more than that, I’m afraid. She was in a panic when she found out who I work for.”
Grace seemed confused, but her mate clarified.
“You’ve heard me talk about the mercenary group under Major Moore. Trevor is one of his guys. Is intelligence gathering still your thing, Trev?” Jack asked. Only with his former comrades would Trevor be so open about who he was and what he did. He nodded in agreement.
“Wait a minute. I never connected it before, but that mercenary group in Wyoming. They’re called the Wraiths, aren’t they?” Grace asked, realization dawning on her pretty face.
“Some call us that,” Trevor admitted. “I’ve never much liked that name myself.”
“You may not know this, but some mer scare their children with threats of the Wraiths,” Grace told them, frowning. “I think it started as an old folk tale, and then, when a real group of fighting men took that name, the legend just sprouted fins and swam wild.”
It took Trevor a moment to process the aquatic wording, but he got the gist of what she was saying. His unit’s existence had gotten tied up with some old wives’ tale, and now, they’d become the threat mer parents used to keep their children in line. No wonder Beth had freaked out and run.
“Just to be clear, we didn’t choose that name. It was laid upon us,” Trevor told them. “But the rest of the guys seemed to like it, so the major didn’t object.”
“Well, the legend seems to have grown,” Jack commented.
“Beth mentioned someone named Jonathan,” Trev put out there to see what kind of response he’d get. Jack’s expression didn’t change, but his mate frowned, anger sparking in her eyes.
“Jonathan is a shark,” was all she said at first.
“A bad guy, eh?” Trevor prompted.
“No. He’s really a shark.” Her words surprised him and her mate both, judging by Jack’s startled expression and the way he focused on her words. “There aren’t many that we know of, but we have crossed paths with a handful of shark shifters in the oceans, and on land. Mostly, they keep to themselves, but Jonathan is a right bastard. Beth’s mother lives with him. Whether it’s of her own accord or not, nobody can say. All I know is, Beth ran away from home and sought refuge in our pod. Nansee went to bat for her, and there was a rather tense standoff for a while before Jonathan seemed to give up and leave Beth to us. Her mother is still with him, though, and I don’t think Beth has had any contact with her since she left. I don’t think Jonathan would allow it.”
“Do you know his last name? Or where he lives?” Trevor asked, mindful of including this intel in his next report to Moore and Kinkaid. The lion Alpha probably already knew about there being such a thing as a shark shifter since he was related to so many selkies, but Trevor was pretty sure Moore was as clueless as Trevor had been about their existence.
“Chase,” Grace replied. “Jonathan Chase. He has a mansion on Catalina Island. It’s at the southern end of our pod’s range, but we winter in the area, and that’s when Beth escaped and sought sanctuary with us.”
“A mansion?” Jack asked his mate.
“I said he was a shark. I mean that in every sense of the word.” Grace made a stern face. “He has some kind of import-export business, and he’s rich. He’s also a mean bastard who traumatized Beth. She doesn’t talk about it, but it’s easy to see she’s afraid of powerful men. I think that’s why she’s had such a hard time getting used to living here. The bears intimidate her, though she’ll never admit it.”
Trevor felt awful. He should have just walked past and left the poor girl in peace. Yet…he couldn’t have done that. It wasn’t in his nature to not stop and help someone in distress. And if he hadn’t stopped, he never would have learned all this interesting information about shark shifters. So, in essence, he wouldn’t have been doing his job if he hadn’t used the opportunity to gather intel.
Which only made him feel worse. Beth’s pain wasn’t part of his job. He hadn’t meant to cause her so much anxiety and outright fear. He felt like a creep.
He had to find some way to apologize to her and make her see that not all men were rat bastards like this shark fellow, Jonathan Chase. Of course, Trevor might just need some sort of miracle to get close to her again. She’d probably run the other way if she saw him coming down the street after their recent encounter.
“Well. I’d better go clean up,” Trevor said, realizing he still hadn’t made it back to the hotel for the hot shower he’d wanted after spending all day working.
“Do you have any plans for dinner?” Grace asked unexpectedly.
Trevor shook his head. “No. I was just going to grab a sandwich or something after I hit the shower.”
“Oh, I think we can do better than that for you,” Grace replied, looking at her mate and back again. “Why don’t you come to dinner at our place? Nothing formal, just old friends sharing a meal. I’m sure Jack would like a chance to catch up with you. Right, Jack?”
Her mate nodded, smiling at the idea. “Yeah, that’d be great. What do you say, Trev? Meet us back at our place after you get a chance to clean up?”
“If you’re sure. I wouldn’t want you to go to any trouble,” Trevor said politely.
Grace replied for them both, assuring Trevor that they’d be overjoyed to have him as their guest. The timing was set and arrangements finalized. Jack gave Trevor directions to their place, and then, they parted with promises to see each other again in a couple of hours.
*
Trevor found the house with no problem. As he approached, he noted the surveillance gizmos in the bushes. They were well-hidden, but not well enough for a pro like
him not to spot at least some of them. Good. Jack hadn’t lost his edge since quitting the service. With a new mate to protect, he’d probably beefed up security. Heaven knows, that’s what Trevor would do if he was ever blessed to find his mate and have a permanent home with her.
All the same, Trevor waved at one of the cameras, just so Jack would know that Trev was still on his game. Later, when Jack reviewed the tapes, he’d have a laugh. Then, if he was as thorough as he had been in the service, he’d go out and move that particular camera to a less obvious spot.
When Trevor mounted the wooden steps that led to the front door, it was opened. Jack stood just inside, a broad smile on his face and the soft tones of feminine conversation wafting from within the house. More than just his mate was in there.
“I thought it only fair to warn you, Grace decided to meddle. Beth’s in there. She’ll be joining us for dinner,” Jack said before Trevor could say a word.
He paused on the top step, then continued forward. “Good. I wanted a chance to apologize to her.”
“Just tread carefully,” Jack advised. “And don’t expect too much. Beth barely tolerates me, and Grace and I have been together the longest out of her mated friends.”
“I hear you,” Trevor agreed, handing the bottle of wine he’d brought to Jack.
The dinner that followed was both delicious and filling. It was a surf and turf, appropriately. Grace kept the conversation flowing, though Beth was a bit subdued. Slowly, she seemed to get used to having Trevor seated across from her—especially when Jack brought up some of the non-classified stories about their time serving together.
After dinner, they retired to the deck, which had a great view of the ocean and the mouth of the cove. Jack and Grace had shooed Trevor and Beth outside, promising drinks after they did a quick cleanup of the table. Both Trevor and Beth had offered to help and had been politely, but firmly, refused.
“So, does the ward extend straight across the mouth of the cove?” Trevor asked as they looked out at the water. From this vantage point, they had quite a view.
“More or less,” Beth said. She’d warmed up to him enough during dinner to allow for somewhat easier conversation. “It bows in a few degrees at the apex, but those who know more about magic than I do say that’s to be expected.”
“When you’re in the water, what does the ward feel like? I mean, do you know when you’re getting close to the edge?” Trevor asked more factual questions to keep her talking and, hopefully, extend the easy camaraderie that was developing between them.
“Yeah, it’s pretty obvious. Even I can feel it, and I’m not really that open to sensing magic—or so I’ve been told. The water feels kind of…thick, I guess I would say. And you can see the creatures out beyond the barrier just waiting for someone foolish enough to swim out too far. They’re just awful.”
“So, the enemy is patrolling the other side, just like your people are keeping watch on our side?”
“There are a lot more of them than us,” Beth said candidly. “We have patrols, but they have an army right up against the barrier. It’s scary. If the ward ever fell, it would be disaster.”
“Except, you could swim for land, right? Most, if not all, of your pod could make it out of the water in case of a breach. At least, that’s what Big John told me when I asked him,” Trevor admitted.
He was feeling her out. Maybe he could work with her. Maybe that would be a way to put her a little more at ease around him. Or not. Either way, he still had a job to do, and she might just be able to help him do it.
“You’ve been asking the bears about us?” Beth asked, looking at him with suspicion.
Honesty was called for here, he knew. “It’s part of my job. I’m trying to get a feel for the place and a sense of the safety parameters for all the inhabitants. I was sent here to observe and report back to my commander and, ultimately, the Kinkaid Alpha, who’s paying the bills, but the information doesn’t have to flow just one way. I’m fully authorized to help out and offer advice if I think I can improve the situation here. The lion Alpha is very familiar—more familiar than I am—with water-based shifters because of all the selkies in his Clan. He has an interest in helping keep the oceans free of the leviathan menace, and aside from all that, he’s a decent guy. He doesn’t want to see innocents suffer.”
“But he’s a lion.” Beth looked as if she wanted to recall her words the moment they were out of her mouth.
It seemed she had a real problem with apex predators, and you couldn’t really get any higher up the food chain than the lion king himself. Of course, bears were just as ferocious, but they kept a lower profile as a general rule. The question was…how did he put Beth’s mind at ease about what must be a bunch of scary shifters all around her?
Then, a thought occurred to him. “Have you spoken with Moira Kinkaid?”
“The selkie?” Beth asked, frowning. “I’ve seen her swimming around a bit, but she’s newly mated and spends most of her time on land with Seamus.”
“You know Seamus?”
Beth’s voice didn’t hold the same fear when she mentioned the koala shifter’s name. He was the one and only koala in Grizzly Cove, having been abducted from his homeland of Australia. When he escaped the menagerie, he’d found his way to Grizzly Cove and had been something of the town drunk for a while…until he’d met Moira. He was sober as a judge these days and gave every indication of being a truly happy man.
“Until recently, it was hard to avoid him. He was always passing out on the beach, and the other girls used to move him farther ashore when the incoming tide threatened to drown him. We were all told to watch out for him. They said he’d been held prisoner and we should feel sorry for him.”
It was hard to tell from the tone of her voice whether Beth actually did feel sorry for Seamus or was too wrapped up in her own misery to have sympathy for anyone else. Trevor shook his head. He wasn’t sure how to reach someone who was so inwardly focused. Still, he had to try. He couldn’t leave her like this—scared of everything and acting out in a negative way.
“Seamus had a rough road getting here,” Trevor admitted. “I was on the team that discovered the menagerie where he’d been held for months in his animal form. It was pretty terrible. There was evidence that whoever was holding him—and several other shifters—was conducting some sort of medical experiments on them.”
“That’s awful!”
Finally, she was reacting in the way he would expect of any decent being. Maybe he was getting through to her with a few hard facts.
“Yeah, it was bad. Some of the worst I’ve seen, and I’ve been around the world, to a lot of hellish places. I’ve seen bad stuff before, and this was right up there with the baddest of the bad. Thing is, he’s doing a lot better now that he’s found his mate, and Moira is someone you should get to know if you really want to know what the Kinkaid Alpha is like. She’s his cousin, you know.”
Beth’s expression held genuine astonishment. “You’re kidding.”
“I’m not. The Kinkaid Clan is ruled by a lion, but there are many selkies in the Clan, as well. Their roots go back to both Ireland and Africa, and through a quirky twist of fate, Samson Kinkaid ended up the king of all lions. It’s not something he was born into, from what I understand. He was happy enough building his own little empire here in the States with his somewhat eccentric Clan, but when the leader of all lions in Africa was killed, along with all logical successors, the title fell to Samson—or so the legend goes.” Trevor shifted his stance, hoping to appear non-threatening, though he knew that was a lot to ask given his size. “I’ve met him a few times, you know. He’s a pretty nice guy, and he really cares for his people.”
“But lions eat their young,” Beth whispered, shocking a laugh out of Trevor.
“Oh, honey. No. Just no.” He chuckled. “Samson Kinkaid is a caring Alpha. He’s more likely to harm himself than anyone who comes under his protection, from the smallest cub to the frailest elder.”
; “Anybody for wine?” Grace asked as she walked out onto the deck, holding a bottle and a glass. Her mate followed close behind with more glasses for the rest of them.
Trevor felt he’d made some progress with Beth, but he had just one more thing to say before they rejoined the other couple. “Talk to Moira.”
Beth’s nose scrunched up adorably as she seemed to think about his words. Finally, she nodded once, decisively. “I will.”
They walked away from the rail, toward the patio table where the Grace and her mate were already pouring glasses of the wine Trevor had brought with him. It was a slightly sweet wine of good vintage from Maxwell’s world famous vineyard, perfect for relaxing after dinner.
*
A few days after the dinner at Grace and Jack’s house, Trevor was once again heading back to his room after a hard day’s work at the construction site. And once again, he spotted Beth sitting on that rock she seemed to favor. He’d just been thinking about how little he’d accomplished in the days since talking to Beth. The report he’d filed right after the dinner had been full of the information she’d provided about the ward and its limitations.
He was due to file another report in a few days, and he wasn’t sure what he was going to put in it. He’d been so busy helping the other bears build on to their town, he hadn’t had much time to really question anybody, or learn anything new. That was a problem. A big problem.
Working construction wasn’t why Trevor had been sent to Grizzly Cove. Oh, he was all for helping the guys build stuff while he was in town, but his primary focus—and his paying job—had to be gathering intelligence. Recon was his thing, and in the past few days, he hadn’t been doing much, if any, true reconnaissance. That had to change. Soon.
Since she’d been so helpful before, Trevor thought maybe he should try again with Beth. From what he could see as he approached her rock slowly, at least she wasn’t crying this time. She looked…wistful, he thought. Not really sad, but not really happy either. He figured that had to be better than tears, right?