Chapter 4
G reta kicked desperately, her webbed feet and hands cutting through the turquoise sea with raw, untrained power kicking the hand free. She had no finesse, no control—just blind forward momentum and the screaming instinct to get away.
The rivals slammed into one another like torpedoes with teeth.
“The female is mine!” the biggest male with the jagged shark-fin crest roared in a deep, thrumming click-whistle as he barreled straight through the pack.
He shoulder-checked a leaner rival so hard the impact sent a visible pressure wave rolling outward. Blood immediately clouded the water in dark crimson plumes.
The struck male twisted mid-water and raked his claws across the crest-bearer’s side, opening three deep gashes.
“You think you’re fastest, crest-head?” the injured rival snarled back, voice sharp with rage. “I’ll rip your fins off and fuck her on your corpse!”
Greta was relieved they weren’t hunting as a team. They were competing to reach her first, and they were willing to kill each other to do it.
Good. Kill each other! At least it will be quiet then.
Greta darted toward a sprawling coral atoll, a labyrinth of branching spires and crevices glowing with soft bioluminescent life. She squeezed between two jagged outcrops, scraping her new pink-scaled skin raw. The pain was distant; adrenaline drowned it out.
A massive hand shot through the gap behind her and missed her ankle by inches.
“Come here, little prize!” the hand’s owner bellowed. “Stop swimming and spread for me!”
His deep laugh echoed as Greta spun left, kicking hard, and shot upward along the coral wall.
One of the slimmer males—the one with delicate silver markings along his jaw—cut her off from above. His amber eyes burned with lust as he lunged. “I can already smell how wet you are!” he clicked triumphantly.
Greta twisted at the last second; his claws raked across her shoulder instead of her throat, leaving hot lines of fire.
She gasped through her gills, bubbles bursting from her mouth in panic, and dove deeper into the coral maze.
The water around her churned with savage movement. Two rivals collided directly above her, grappling and biting.
“She’s mine by right!” one roared, sinking his teeth into the other’s shoulder. The victim answered with a bone-deep thrumming roar that vibrated through the sea. “I’ll claim her first and make the rest of you watch!”
They tumbled downward in a thrashing knot, claws flashing, until one broke free and arrowed straight for Greta again.
She had no weapons. No plan. Only speed she barely understood and the desperate need to keep moving .
Keep moving.
Keep moving.
God! Please keep moving!
A rival with extra ridges along his forearms surged up from a lower crevice and grabbed her leg.
“Got you!” he snarled in triumph, webbed fingers clamping around her calf like a vise and yanking her downward so hard her knee twisted painfully. “Fight all you want, mate. I like it when they squirm.”
Greta screamed underwater—a high-pitched screeeee! and a sudden burst of bubbles—and kicked wildly with her free leg. Her heel connected with his face, but he only grinned, teeth bared, and dragged her closer.
He was already reaching for her hips, pulling her toward him with clear intent. His other hand shoved between her thighs, forcing them apart as he pressed his much larger body against hers. “That’s it… open up for your first real male.”
Greta thrashed harder, clawing at his face and neck with her own new webbed hands. She raked deep scratches across his cheek, drawing more blood. “Get off me!” she screamed back, her own voice coming out in a high, frantic trill. “Don’t touch me!”
He didn’t seem to care. His markings flared bright with arousal, his body hard and insistent as he tried to pin her against the coral.
No. No—no ? —
She drove her knee upward with every ounce of strength she had. It connected solidly between his legs. The male recoiled with a silent snarl, grip loosening just enough for Greta to wrench free.
“You bitch!” he roared after her as she shot away. “I’ll make you pay for that! ”
She wove erratically through the coral. Blood from her shoulder wound and the rivals’ injuries turned the water into a hazy red fog.
Another rival appeared from the side—larger, with darker cobalt markings. He slammed into the one who had grabbed her, ripping him away with savage force. “She’s not yours, ridge-back!” he snarled. “Touch her again and I’ll tear your cock off!”
The two males tore into each other in a blur of claws and teeth, bodies twisting violently as they fought for dominance, their roars and insults echoing through the water.
Greta didn’t wait to see who won. Because she knew, with absolute certainty, there would only be one loser…
She kicked upward and broke out of the coral labyrinth, streaking toward a distant forest of golden kelp that swayed like living curtains in the current. Her movements were still clumsy, every stroke costing more energy than it should, but terror gave her speed.
Behind her the chase continued—roars felt more than heard, bodies slamming together, blood trails snaking through the water. The males were relentless.
“Run all you want, female!” one shouted. “The harder you fight, the sweeter the claim!”
“Save some fight for me!” another called, laughing cruelly. “I like breaking them in slow.”
Every time one got too close, another would intercept, turning the hunt into a rolling, brutal melee.
But they were growing a little more distant now. Just a little.
Greta’s glowing vein patterns pulsed faintly along her arms and chest. That ticking feeling, that sense of a countdown …
Time was running out, she thought. But running out for what? What?
She pushed harder, darting into the edge of the golden kelp forest just as another massive shape exploded through the water behind her.
She realized with dawning horror that the chase was far from over.
And then powerful webbed hands lurched up from a corpse of kelp and pulled her down.