by Holly Gunn
Lexie mumbles, moving closer to Sera but not touching, “Maybe you should sit …”
Sera’s whole demeanor changes. There’s a distance in her that’s as wide as the largest ocean, and while some might be brave enough to cross those depths, not many are.
“I said … I’m fine.”
Lexie watches her. I watch Lexie. Rudy’s jaw ticks and he looks to me.
Lexie’s hands go to her sides.
“Fine,” she says. Only Lexie’s fine is just as angrily clipped as her cousin’s if not as distant.
They get into a sort of stare-down until suddenly, Lexie’s lip quirks and she moves in quickly, fitting herself to Sera’s side, her arm going around the other woman’s middle. She’s a few inches shorter.
Smiling, she faces me and Rudy, but she’s speaking to Sera when she says, “You’re late, but you’ve got perfect timing!”
Sera seems to deflate right in front of us, but she doesn’t relax. She just appears to resign herself to her fate. Exhaling loudly, she informs Lexie, “We don’t really have time.” Holding up a hand, she adds, “I know, I know, I’m late. But there were reasons. Now I’m here, and we’ve got magic to work on.”
Lexie looks torn. She bites her lip. My eyes follow the movement, but as much as I want to ruminate on that mouth and what it did to me earlier, I need to explain things to Sera.
Eyes back to Lexie’s cousin, I reply in a tone that brooks no argument, something I don’t often have in me. “Lexie’s having a day to explore Nashville. We’re going to see the sights, eat some good food at Southern Comfort, and then she’s coming home with me so I can fuck her unconscious. If you want to teach her some things in between, be my guest. But you’ll be nice to her. You won’t be distant because she won’t say it, but it just hurt her feelings the way you acted.” I see I’ve scored a hit, although that’s not what I meant to do. “Tell me you’re good with that.”
Sera’s gaze is back on me, her expression assessing. Slowly, she smiles. “I’m good with that.”
And she is good with that.
Through the last few minutes of the boat tour. Through the rest of the tourist fanfare that is Nashville. Through a dozen pictures on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. Through three more at the mural where Lexie stood in front of the wings awkwardly until she motioned for Sera to join her. Then, they took a picture together, Sera even smiling when Lexie pulled her closer and hollered, “Say cheese!”
Through me grabbing Lexie after that, in front of the long line waiting to take their pictures, putting a hand directly on her ass, another in her hair, and my mouth on hers. It’s not long but I make sure it’s felt. When my tongue licks at the seam of her mouth and she gasps, I separate from her, but not entirely. One hand still on her ass, I give that beauty a squeeze.
She giggles and then snorts, which earns her another squeeze.
Our behavior gets some, “Awww”s and some wide eyes, but it’s Sera rolling her eyes that has me grinning.
We hit up some other sights I want to take her to, including the record store and finally Southern Comfort where, for a Monday, it’s just as busy as it is any other day of the week.
There’s a man on stage as we eat our chili and talk about the day, about the city, and about how Sera taught Lexie to bring droplets of water out of Rudy’s skin.
The man’s singing a George Strait cover, one of my favorites.
I hum along and feel Lexie move in closer to my side. She cocks an ear toward me then quirks her finger my way.
I lean close just as I see her smile form. Her lips at my ear, she whispers, “It’s good to know I’m not the only one who can’t carry a tune.”
I bust out laughing and pull in for a fast, hard kiss that leaves her eyes sort of half-mast. I’ve been laughing through the kiss. I’m still laughing. When I look back at Sera and Rudy, it’s Sera’s look that grabs me.
She looks sad. Not angry. Not distant. She looks like she’s seen something she wants but can never have. When her eyes catch mine, however, the look vanishes. Her face reverts to the cool, detached facade that says she’s paying attention when really you know she’s not even close to being in the moment.
And I think, all the goodness surrounding me, that for the first time in my life it might be fun to play a little matchmaker, to help Sera find something that makes her not look sad at watching two people who obviously care about each other kiss. To help Sera find some peace.
We get back to my place after Sera leaves and after dropping Rudy off.
I waste no time. As soon we’re through the door, I’ve got my clothes off, hers off, and we’re against the couch.
I’ve been waiting all day for this. Just this. Her ass in the air, her pussy on display, her hands digging into the couch that apparently is going to need some cleaning because I’m planning on taking her here a bunch of different ways. She’s leaning over the large arm of the threadbare furniture, her moans deep, her hair down and caressing her back, and I’m driving into her gentle yet steady. I’m worried she’s still sore.
But when she moans, “Harder, baby,” I know she can take more.
My hips understand before my brain catches up.
I grab onto her waist with both hands and pull her back into me at the same time I drive into her again. And again. And again.
Each time, a short moan escapes her lips.
“Breathe, babe,” I manage to ground out while my cock surges in and out of her pussy.
She gulps down a long, ragged breath right as I’m going in and out, only that breath becomes her longest moan yet.
Her hands grab at the fabric of the couch, her head is thrown back, her back arching, her ass cozying up to my hips, and her pussy tightens on my dick.
She comes apart. But I know, she isn’t coming apart. Lexie doesn’t come apart. She absorbs everything. It’s her nature. And right now, she’s taking all I’m giving her and making it new. She’s giving herself to me, and fuck, but that gift, right there, from my queen is so astoundingly perfect, I drive in with such force, my balls smack her ass and I come. I come on the tail end of her moan. I come inside my queen.
And she absorbs it all.
SHARK
A storm is breaking through the clouds, and the rain’s already started coating my skin. It’s soaking through my board shorts, which are all I have on. I’m not out on the water to play, though. I’m out here because Lexie and I were woken up at five a.m. to hit the water and check out a recent attack—Sera found a body.
After spending all day Monday in Nashville, Tuesday it was just us. We worked on Lexie pulling water from available surfaces, swapped stories (as well as spit, among other things), and generally experienced a day of being wrapped up in each other, in every possible way.
Now we’re on the water, Lexie’s face is pale, she’s in my arms but I can sense her fear, and I don’t like that this is the way our day has started after two really good days of fucking, laughing, and finding trouble.
I haven’t been able to sense what’s going on with the creatures below the surface. When you are one of them, you often can’t separate your feelings. But I feel it now. Not the creatures. Me. The shark that I am senses the changes about to come to the world, disturbing the surface of things.
Poison’s on the boat with us, not happy I’ve woken him up but less happy for the reason why. He isn’t set to be king, but he’s a good man who has been raised with us, Wolf being his brother and Poison being so close in age at only twenty-eight to our thirty. Spider is there as well, minus his queen who’s working some wedding gig and trying to tie up some loose ends with that, so they can do their own tour of the Spider tribe and visit the clusters at the end of the month.
From what Spider says, she’s more than happy to give up the social side of things. Chanty and Jules have decided to take more of an ownership role. And as those two women are, when they decide something, they dive in. In three days’ time, they’ve found two less successful wedding and party pla
nning businesses, talked to their owners, a man and a woman, and pulled them into the Beaumont enterprises, including Beaumont Bridal, Beaumont Cakes, and Beaumont Catering. Spider’s queen and Jules were out most of the night ironing out the details, but it was Chanty who spent the rest of the night getting contracts drawn up and finalizing everything from the Beaumont angle of things.
Spider is, as per usual, relaxed, his hand resting on the railing of the boat and his fingers tapping against the metal. His body is always moving, not out of nervous energy—he’s an action man, but the laid-back chill is still there. However, Spider is loyal and always ready to lend a hand, no questions. No whining. Nothing but jumping into the fray and getting shit done.
Both are good men to have at my back.
Sera and Rudy are there, and witches are definitely a good thing to have at your back as well.
But it’s not the men and the witches that have me taking a deep breath and then exhaling, knowing to my bones that everything is going to be okay.
It’s Lexie.
Her body tucked in to my side, her hair in a ponytail but so long, it’s blowing in the wind. Her face forward, her profile set.
Sera wants to try something, she’s explained it as I’ve taken the wheel of my boat and guided us toward the body. Lexie and Rudy are there to assist her in that something she wants to try. Us shifters are there as protection.
I dock the boat at the small wooden dock and we climb out onto the wobbly structure.
“Spider, wolf, and Air witch on the shoreline, providing coverage.” Sera’s tone is, as ever, brusque. She points to me. “Shark form, gathering the other creatures and corralling them when necessary.” Then, to Lexie, her voice revealing a sharp undercurrent of excitement, “You’re with me.”
We start to move to our respective bastions, but I have a moment to look toward the body of the dead man. I feel his loss, though I don’t know him. I have a sudden attack of guilt that we took too long. If we had acted sooner, could we have prevented this?
Sera, who’s started to make her way toward the water glances back at me, the same look in her eyes. Another burden in those eyes is not something I want for her.
It’s Lexie who cuddles close and her hand on my cheek, she says quietly but with force, “We couldn’t have done anything, baby. Move forward. Put it behind you. We have a job to do.”
She feels the truth in her words, and because of that surety, I feel the truth of her words as well. The guilt gets pushed back. In its place, there is balance. Something I’ve always been but being king means I’m not simply a leader, I’m responsible. I’m responsible for those in my territory, for my sharks, for the tribe as a whole, and for my queen.
Knowing this, not only understanding it, but truly knowing it has caused a shift inside me.
I am king. And while I am still Shark Irons, idiot jokester, casual, laid back, surfer dude with a perpetual grin, I’m also who I’ve been raised to be: a leader.
So, the guilt is replaced with balance but there are new layers to the harmony within. The nuances settle into my flesh, making me new. They settle into my mind, rewiring my brain in ways I know will never change.
I lean forward to take Lexie’s lips in a quick, hard kiss, not closed-mouth but not lingering.
“Thanks, babe.”
“Anytime,” she whispers distractedly, staring at my lips.
Shaking her head, she says, clapping her hands together and moving her eyes warily toward the water, “Okay, time to save Nashville.”
I chuckle but back away and dive into the water. In one move distracting her from her fear and also showing her she’s safe. She can do this.
She watches, knowing what I’m about to do, and her eyes widen through every step of the process.
It’s quick, taking less than a minute. I don’t feel it as a shift in my body. It’s more than a changing of form when I become a shark. It’s like a becoming. I feel the warm rush of water over skin, taste salt on my tongue though we’re near fresh water, and let my other form take me.
As a human, my skin is soft, my body hard from keeping fit and being a shifter, but as a shark, my outer layer is tough, my body almost tight. It doesn’t feel tight, just taut, ready for battle. Yet, even when I’m in shark form, at play and not tense, my skin is hard, tough, and without the right instrument, very nearly impenetrable.
Waves of sensation move along my nerve endings as the shift from human to shark is completed.
“Huh,” Lexie says.
She tilts her head to the left, then to the right, her smile slowly forming.
She gets a twinkle in her eyes and asks, “So, um, can I ride on your back to the middle of the river?”
To show her that, yes, she can, I move forward, and after she successfully slides into the water from the dock, I press my long body against her legs.
Her excited giggle is one I haven’t heard from her yet. As is always the truth with Lexie, it’s a sound that’s full of life. She hops onto my back, sliding a bit before gently gripping my top fin.
Then we’re off. The river is large, wide, and big enough for a beast but I’m a thresher. I can cover the width of the river quickly. So, I take her for a spin, the long way around, and then finally drop her at Sera’s side.
Sera’s eyes have a little bit of light in them when she sees us but her face is still set.
I have the sudden wish that she’ll find the Batman my queen thinks she should.
Then, that thought vanishes. Because we’re being circled by dozens of bull sharks and hundreds of river creatures. Thousands. A million colors. Just as many sizes. We’re entirely caged by their bodies pressing in on us.
LEXIE
The river is a wash of colors and shapes.
Sharks circle closest to us in the water, but my man’s large thresher form is gathering near them. He’s using his larger body to create a threat greater than the disturbance these little guys are feeling in the force.
I giggle at my joke.
“You okay there, cousin?”
I meet Sera’s green eyes and nod, still smiling.
My hands are shaking, my body screaming for me to run. I mean, I’m swimming in deep river waters, a dead body on the shore, my man having turned into a large shark. I’m about to do a spell—a fucking magic spell—to calm these little beasts and the waters.
My thresher mate butts up against my leg, and Sera whispers, “He says, ‘breathe’.”
My head jerks up.
Then I chuckle and do as I’m told. I breathe.
I breathe because the alternative is cracking up.
I breathe because I have family that is crazy, sure, but she accepts me. She doesn’t ignore me. And I can’t wait to get to know her better.
I breathe because while we’re surrounded by sharks, eels, and fish of varying colors and sizes, my man’s animal is the biggest. I learned during our second bout of twenty questions last night that threshers are salt water sharks. Shark shared he visits the ocean one weekend a month, taking the long drive and hitting up the coast or even going on a trip once a year to try out the seas of the world. His thresher does not thrive in the waters of a river. But he’s no less intimidating in an environment that he is not natural to.
I breathe because what I realized last night has not changed. With these people, I am the woman I’ve always wanted to be. Lexie Leland, not as a superhero. Me, as I’ve always been meant to be.
“Now, are you good?”
Sera’s all business. That’s my cousin.
I have the sudden wish that she’ll find someone to bring out the peace she so desperately needs.
I didn’t need peace. I needed a home. More than that, I needed acceptance. But Sera, she needs peace. There are dark things living in her head, things I want to help her with, but I know deep down that is not my place.
I take this desire, this emotion, and I use it to fuel the spell we’re about to perform.
Perform. Fuck. Like we’re on display
. I mean, there’s a large brown wolf and a spider, who’s smaller than the wolf, but because of his legs, he’s just as wide and taller. All black. Totally fucking awesome.
Rudy isn’t in the water. He’s on the shore. His gaze upward, birds covering every inch of him. Every. Damn. Inch. He’s surrounded by black, red, blue, yellow, and brown birds, all different sizes. But even though I’ve just recently begun consciously using my gift, I can feel the power coming from him, my Air witch best friend.
“Just you wait,” Sera interrupts my thoughts. She’s got a small smile playing at her lips, the one that says there’s life in there, but also that she just needs a little nudge to dive off the cliff’s edge. A Cliff I have a feeling she’s going to need to conquer in order to truly become the Seraphina Raynes, I know if hiding under the jaded reporter exterior. “You think Rudy’s cool, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
I giggle-snort as she reaches forward, her palms up.
I do as she told me to earlier, press my palms to hers and then look to the water. I don’t close my eyes. She says this is a no-no. Our power is in our DNA. It’s as much a part of us as a shifter’s animal. So, if we want to access it, we don’t focus within. We focus on the heart of our power, in this case, water. While we’re called Sea Witches, obviously we can link with any water. Like my thresher king, though, we do best at sea. That doesn’t mean we can’t make ourselves known.
I feel a jolt when my hands meet hers.
A jolt so powerful, I almost pull back.
Instead, I breathe, and I gaze into the depths of the water as I kick my feet to stay floating. Only I suddenly feel weightless, and because of that, I stop kicking my feet. My body is a part of the water.
And that’s when the jolt becomes a rushing. There is the sensation of droplets hitting my skin, like the rain from earlier. Only, half my body is in water. Still, it feels as though, when each drop hits, my skin becomes less skin and more like water. My body fluid.