by Sara Summers
“Wow.” Sam raised his eyebrows.
“Yeah.” I nodded again, then was struck with a random thought. “Does your cotie feel tight or itchy?”
“Yes…” he frowned. “What does that mean?”
“Your body wants to shift.” I hurried to say. “We can get to the ocean in just twenty minutes or so.” I offered. “Do you want to go swimming?”
Sam hesitated.
I waited patiently; being a merman was still a foreign concept to him, and he was undoubtedly more than a little worried about seeing himself with a tail again.
“Alright, let’s do it. We can’t stay out too long though.” He finally agreed.
I couldn’t help the smile that took over my face. The idea of going back to the ocean… it filled me with energy.
“Let’s go.” I grabbed his arm and pulled him out the door, practically bouncing with excitement. I couldn’t wait to swim again, to be back in the ocean, back in my place. The ocean was my favorite place in the world, and though I’d only been away from it for two days, it called to me.
When we got to the bottom of the stairs, Sam was grinning.
“You’re excited about this, aren’t you?” he chuckled.
“I love the ocean.” I admitted, not trying to hold back the smile that took over my face.
“I’ve never seen you this happy before.” My soulmate noted.
“There are a lot of sides to me that you’ve never seen before.” I shrugged. “I can say the same thing about you.”
I walked up to the man at the desk, who was focused on the computer screen in front of him. When we stopped in front of him, he looked up.
“Is there anything I can do for you?” he asked.
“Yes. We either need a rental car or a taxi.” I nodded.
“No problem. You’re with the summit, right?” he checked, though it seemed like he already knew the answer.
“Yes.” I nodded again.
“There are two cars already parked in the garage, ready for anyone with the summit to use. Here’s the card, just give it to the valet and he’ll help you out.”
We took the card and thanked the man, heading for the parking garage. There, we found the valet. Since he wasn’t busy helping anyone else, he brought the car out and handed us the keys in less than two minutes.
Sam handed him a few bucks, and we were driving away two minutes later.
Chapter 17
“Pull over here.” I instructed. Sam pulled the car over onto the side of the road, putting it in park right there.
I opened the door and stepped out of the car, more than ready to lose my legs.
“This is a cliff.” Sam folded his arms, standing next to me. I flashed him a devious smile.
“Don’t you like cliff jumping?” I challenged. He narrowed his eyes at me.
“This isn’t safe, Ava. The water could be shallow.” He folded his arms.
“The ocean will take care of us.” I promised. “Take your clothes off if you don’t want to lose them. When we shift back, we’ll be in swimsuits.”
“Alright.” Sam looked a little unsure, but he did what I told him. We turned to face opposite directions, and I tugged my clothes off as fast as possible, leaving on my underwear. Those didn’t matter.
“Meet you in the water.” I smiled, taking a few steps backward. Leaving him with that, I raced forward, launching myself off the cliff.
Adrenaline surged through me, and I couldn’t hold back a grin. Air raced past me as I launched toward the water, my hair flying everywhere as I went.
The water rose up to catch me, the transition from air to water as smooth as it could be. It tugged me out to a deep-enough part of the ocean as I swapped my tail for legs.
When I finally surfaced, I looked up to see Sam watching from the land. He had his arms folded, and it looked like he was shaking his head.
“Come on!” I called out.
“I’m good.” He yelled back.
“Don’t be a chicken!” I teased him.
Sam shook his head again, but took a step closer to the ledge.
“The water’s great!” I called up to him, sending a wave of water up to splash him.
“Fine!” he finally gave in. With two big steps, he jumped out into the usually-dangerous area below.
I didn’t even have to nudge the ocean. It leapt up to catch Sam, rising of its own volition.
When he finally came up out of the water, he coughed and sputtered.
“You can breathe water now, remember?” I reminded him. He shook his head, spraying me with water.
“Still not used to that.” He said, serious. I shrugged.
“You’ll have to eventually.”
His frown reminded me that he wanted to give up his tail. He didn’t want to be a merman, why would he have to breathe under water?
I refused to let the idea bother me.
“Alright, so, mermaid lesson number one. We can swim very fast. It’s part of the magic that we’re born with, so when you’re swimming just... try not to speed up too much. It can be disorienting at first.” I explained.
“Uh, okay.” Sam grimaced. “Can we just start with, like, diving down to the bottom and breathing water and stuff?”
“Sure.” I shrugged, feeling a little bad that I’d tried to jumpstart him. Mermaids were completely foreign to him, and there I was trying to force it all down his throat.
Sam submerged himself under the water. It took a few tries, but he got used to breathing water again. From there, we were good to start exploring.
I turned toward the bottom of the ocean, but Sam had a bit of a struggle figuring out how to use his tail to point himself in the direction he wanted to go.
“How do you do this?” he grumbled.
It couldn’t have been easy for him, being so clueless. I felt bad that he had to be, but everyone had to start somewhere.
“As a merman, you’ll do everything with your abs. To get to a certain place, you’ve got to point your head, and to do that you’ll have to use your abs. If you want to go to the ocean floor, you’re going to have to point your head toward it.” I instructed.
“Alright.” Sam struggled for another minute or two, but managed to get his head facing the ocean floor. From there, he tried to start swimming, but was flapping his tail all around like a fish on land.
I bit back a smile.
“Don’t try to tell your body how to move. Let instinct take over. You might not know how to swim, but the merman part of you does.” I told him.
“That doesn’t make sense.” Sam ground the words out, and I nodded.
“I know. You just have to go with it. Maybe stop moving and feel how the ocean rolls. That’s how mermaids swim; we roll with the ocean.” I said.
Sam stopped moving, but as he let the ocean tug him a little, he only got more frustrated.
“This is ridiculous.” He groaned.
“You’re overthinking it.” I shook my head, then had an idea. “I’ll be right back.” I said, diving down to the bottom of the ocean.
I searched through the plants and coral and boulders until I found a fist-sized rock. With it in my hand, I swam back up to where I’d left Sam. He was jerking around awkwardly again, trying to swim but failing horribly.
“Hey, Sam,” I waved the rock at him. “catch.”
The first time, I threw it right to him. He caught it, though he looked angry that he did.
“Why are we playing catch?” he asked me, throwing the rock back.
I caught the rock easily, then swam back a little.
“Like I’ve been saying, just go with it. Ready?” I checked.
He nodded, so I threw the rock. This time, I aimed it just a little to his right.
Sam had to tilt sideways to make it, but he managed to catch the rock. When he did, he looked over to me in surprise.
“Like I said, it comes naturally to the merman side of you. Just don’t think about it.” I shrugged.
“Alright.” He
nodded, tossing the rock back to me.
I threw it again, this time to his left. He caught the rock, and a grin broke out on his face.
“This is cool.” He told me, tossing it back. “Let’s keep going.”
We threw the rock back and forth for probably half an hour before Sam seemed ready enough to try to get to the bottom of the ocean.
“Ready?” I checked.
“I hope so.” He shrugged, letting go of the rock.
“Remember, just let your body do it for you. It knows how to swim.” I said.
With that, we started off toward the bottom of the ocean. We went slow, but luckily the area we were in wasn’t too deep. A few minutes later, we reached the ocean floor.
“Whoa.” Sam raised his eyebrows, looking around in awe. “It’s incredible.” He admired.
I had to agree. The ocean was amazing. The plants that grew around us, the creatures that swam by, the bits of coral and other rock formations decorating the ocean. They were beautiful in a way that I was convinced nothing on land could compare to.
“I thought the ocean was supposed to be full of trash?” Sam asked me, though his eyes continued to follow the fish and other animals that passed us by.
“In some places it is.” I admitted. “But my people are learning how to get rid of what’s down here, while people on the land are trying to get others to keep it cleaner as well.”
“That’s good, I guess.”
“Yeah.” I nodded.
We swam around for the next hour or so, just enjoying the beauty that the ocean had to offer.
“We should probably get back to the hotel. We’re supposed to be politicians again tomorrow.” I finally said, knowing it had to be at least 2 or 3 AM.
“Probably.” Sam agreed.
It took him a few tries to remember how to swim with a tail, but when he did, we were back to the surface in just a few minutes.
I led him back to the cliff we had jumped off, and he stared up at it.
“Can the ocean really lift us back up there?” Sam wondered.
“Of course.” I smiled.
“Okay, I’m ready.” He took a deep breath to ready himself for the strange new experience he was about to have.
I gathered the water beneath us, then used it to raise us up to the top of the cliff.
“Do you have your feet back?” I checked with Sam.
“Yep.” He nodded. As soon as he answered, the water deposited us on the land by the car before retreating down into the rest of the ocean.
I was watching the water fall back when Sam said,
“We have a problem.”
I turned to look at him.
“Someone took our clothes.” He grimaced, folding his arms.
I laughed, and he looked at me like I was crazy.
“They probably thought we went skinny dipping or something.” I smiled, pulling my hair away from my face and wringing it out. “We’ll be fine in these.” I gestured to the swimsuit-type mermaid clothing.
“Great.” Sam’s grimace deepened.
“We only lost pajamas, we’ll be fine.” I patted him on the back, reaching under the car to the place we had tucked the keys away. “Ready?” I checked.
“Sure.” He muttered, taking the keys from my hand and walking around to the driver’s side.
And so we drove back to the hotel wearing glorified underwear.
When we got back to our room, Sam took my arm.
“Hey, Ava?” he asked.
“Yeah?” I nodded.
“Thanks for taking me into the ocean. You were right; it’s beautiful.”
“No problem.” I gave him a small smile.
With that, I took my other set of pajamas into the bathroom and changed, washing the saltwater from my face before going back to settle into my side of the bed.
The bed I shared with my soulmate.
It was getting harder and harder to remember that he didn’t want that role, that he didn’t want to be mine. I was supposed to stay strong and rigid and queen-like. Instead, I was… well, weak.
I cared about Sam, I wanted Sam, and I wanted Sam to want me.
Though I knew it was a problem, I couldn’t help myself. I stared at the ceiling and remembered our spontaneous hallway kiss, the feelings it had given me and how much I had enjoyed it.
I went to bed with a smile on my face that night.
Chapter 18
The next morning, we all walked to the closest place that served breakfast food, which happened to be an IHOP. We mostly ate in silence.
“What are we supposed to give speeches about today?” I looked at Sav, figuring she would have the answer.
Sav looked up from trying to force-feed her little panther.
“Nothing huge.” She shrugged. “They want us to talk about shifter culture, and the differences between the types of shifters. But they said that if there’s something else we want to say, we’re welcome to do whatever we want with it.”
“Okay.” I nodded. That wouldn’t be too hard. I could come up with something.
That was just about the extent of the conversations going around the table. There was a little whispering, but that was it for communication. Alena pushed food around her plate, Marie enjoyed her smoothie, and Sam ate everything quickly.
After paying the bill, we walked back to the hotel in worried silence.
When we stopped in the lobby, most of our group headed to the conference room. I wanted to talk to Alena before leaving, so Sam and I stayed behind.
“I’ll protect her.” Alena promised Sav and Jordie. “No matter what happens.”
“As will I.” Marie vowed.
The couple nodded. Sav looked a little worried, but she and Jordie kissed Lyssie and walked up the stairs.
“Don’t answer the door, Alena. No matter what.” I warned my sister. “Stay in and stay busy. Grab some fruit from the breakfast line upstairs, it should be safe, and then don’t leave the room until four, okay? Meet us here at four.” I instructed.
“I’ll be fine.” My sister rolled her eyes at me. “You’re the one who needs to be careful.”
“Alena’s right.” Marie chastised me. I looked up at her, the woman who had raised me. “You two must watch very closely.” She warned.
“I know.” I nodded.
Marie focused on Sam.
“You protect her.” She threatened my soulmate. “If she gets hurt, it will be on your shoulders.”
Sam nodded firmly.
“I’ll keep her safe. I swear it.” He was completely serious. I didn’t know what to think about that, so I didn’t think about it.
“Here.” Marie unwound a bracelet from her wrist, then handed it to me. “The woman who raised me blessed it with luck. She gave it to me when I left the land, and now it’s time for you to take it.” She told me.
I was touched. For as long as I could remember, Marie had worn the bracelet. I had never seen her take it off, not even once.
“Thank you.” I swallowed, bowing my head out of respect to her years and her wisdom, as was mermaid custom. The old were more highly regarded than anyone else of our kind.
“I am the one who should thank you.” Marie gave me a small smile. “Being your guardian was a gift to a lonely old woman, one I will be forever grateful for. You are a wonderful queen, Ava.” Her smile was sad, which confused me.
“Thank you.” I took Marie’s hands in mine and squeezed them.
“Now, you need to go. The humans have to see us as equals.” She urged me, giving me a little push toward the stairs. “Sam, remember your promise.”
I stumbled forward and Sam caught me. We walked up the stairs together, ready to face whatever day two of the summit would hold.
When I looked back, Marie, Alena, and Lyssie were gone.
We took our seats next to Sav and Jordie, at the very front of the room. There was a podium with a microphone set up in front of us, along with a row of chairs on either side.
We had passed at le
ast twenty security guards on our way into the conference room, so I figured we must be at least mostly safe. If that many security guards couldn’t protect us, maybe it was our time to go.
A man I didn’t recognize stood up to kick off the conference day. He stated the purpose of these next two summit-days:
“We are all gathered here to recognize shifters as individuals who are different from humans but not dangerous to us. We will learn about them and do our best to understand them. This summit will generate respect for shifters and tell humans around the world how important it is to treat these shifters as living creatures like the rest of us.”
After a few more persuasive words, he called Leah up to the stand. She was the one who had started this whole thing, so it made sense for her to go first.
“Hi.” She waved at everyone. “My name is Leah, and as some of you probably know already, I’m a wolf shifter.” She smiled. “Not a werewolf, and not a human. I’m a woman, I’m a wife, and in a few months, I’ll be a mother. Like the rest of you, I have hopes and dreams and goals. I have friends and a husband who isn’t here right now, but one that I love with everything I am. Wolf shifters are the most common type of shifters, so there are a lot of us. We have tempers and are stubborn, but we care for each other fiercely.
“There used to be a divide between male and female wolf shifters. While in some places I’m sure it still exists, in my pack, it’s gone. We’re a big family who cares about each other. We have roles and jobs and homes, and like all shifters and humans alike, we have problems. We make mistakes, we struggle with things, and we have regrets.
“Wolf shifters are more than just wolves. We’re more than just humans, too. We are our own species, and we do our own thing. We want humans to accept us for who we are just as we accept them for who they are.
“Like I said, my name is Leah, and I’m a wolf shifter. Thank you.” Leah sat back down in her seat at the other end of the row from where Sam and I were sitting. Marley got up next, from her seat just to Leah’s left, and I figured we were going in seating-order.
That meant Sam and I would be last. I didn’t mind that, but I still wasn’t sure what I was going to say to the crowd that had come to listen to us.