26. Chase
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Chase
I wanted to kiss all the tears from her cheeks. I wanted to hold her close and tell her she was magnificent and beautiful and perfect, even though I knew she would just make the face she always did and brush it off.
So I settled for holding her hand as the ocean licked around our ankles while another confession bubbled up out of her.
“Hey, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the volleyball tournament,” she said, squeezing my fingers.
“Should I be surprised that the woman using me for sex had ulterior motives?” I retorted, wanting to ease her guilt. She had nothing to be sorry for; I’d always been a very willing participant.
She didn’t take the bait.
“It wasn’t fair to you. I’m sorry.”
I remembered vividly how she’d felt during our match. How the real Selena had shone through like a beacon, not wrapped up in borrowed magic.
“It’s obvious how important it is to you.”
“It is, it’s—”
She cut herself off, still protecting herself.
But I didn’t want her to do that anymore. I squeezed her hand and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.
“I told you—I see you, Selena Torres.”
“It’s the thing I built. Something that was just mine, something I was good at. Even if…some people have never seen the value in it, it always felt right to me. Like it’s what I was meant to do. I really do care about this beach, all the beings who live on it. This is how I help them.”
“Tell me more about it.”
She gave me the defensive face I knew so well, but I didn’t let go, and it melted away into something more vulnerable.
“It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got time.”
“El Tiburón, professional surfer and guest DJ, has time?” She smiled, and it was half fight and half laugher—and all her.
Keep her. I want to keep her just like this.
“No, but Chase Perez does. Don’t you know I’d swim to the ends of the ocean just to see you smile, Torres?”
“Back to those cheesy lines.”
“But are they working?”
“They are.”
Her smile shifted, fully unguarded. The one I’d been waiting weeks for, so of course I had to ruin it.
“You want to kiss me so bad right now, don’t you?”
She scoffed, shoving playfully at my chest.
“Don’t be idiotic. I want to punch you in the face.”
“With your lips?”
“Chase—”
“Admit it. You’re swooning. I’m irresistible.”
“You’re insufferable,” she said, but she was also laughing, and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
She leaned in and rested her forehead against mine.
My breath hitched, just a little.
The shark came up slow and went still, waiting to strike, its entire focus on the few inches between her mouth and mine, everything else in me going quiet to make room for it.
“Selena.”
She tipped her face, brushing her nose against mine.
I closed my eyes, waiting for our lips to meet when—
“Hands off her, Perez.”
Fucking mammals.
That seal Elliot was stomping over to us—and this time he wasn’t alone. There was a girl tucked under his arm, her purple hair catching the neon, a drink in one hand and a sharp smile across her face. Magic rolled off her, uncontrolled, tiny electric shocks tickling my nose.
Elliot’s entire posture had changed around her, looser and tighter at once. One hand splayed wide at her waist, as if she might float away on him.
The shark in me knew it immediately.
Sated mates.
Although neither of them looked very sated.
Maybe that was why Whiskers was in such a bad mood and Violet’s magic was haywire.
Why was he bothering Selena when he had this new witch on his arm? When Selena was mine?
That pleased the shark.
Mine.
But this bleacher-carrying midnight snack had cost me an extremely romantic kiss with Selena, who had taken a step back from me, the smile gone from her face.
That was unforgivable—to both me and the shark.
All that energy flowed into the less pleasant part of me, and that part wasn’t angry. Anger was hot and stupid. This was older and patient, the primordial desire of a creature that had found a target and saw no reason not to rip it apart.
My heart slowed, my vision narrowing until only he remained. I let him see my shark teeth.
“Elliot. What an unwelcome surprise. Shouldn’t you be busy rescuing some turtles?”
He glowered at me, which was adorable for prey.
“Didn’t think sharks liked parties. Too many witnesses when they go into a frenzy.”
Careful. You have no idea how close that is, Whiskers.
I glanced at Selena, and her eyes were only on me. She scowled, but I saw what she meant beneath it.
Show me what you’ve got, Perez.
My girl. So competitive, and nearly as feral as me.
“Depends. Sometimes the crowd makes hunting easier.”
I let my gaze drift over the woman next to him, and, oh, Elliot did not like that. He started spouting off at me, but I got bored about a sentence in and stopped listening. The shark doesn’t concern itself with the opinions of sea lions, and all that.
“You always bark this much?” I asked after he just wouldn’t shut up.
I felt Selena’s eyes on the side of my face like the sun’s rays, and the shark preened under them, because some old instinct had decided she should see this. She’d seen my half-shifted form—well, done a lot more than that—and it was time to show her the rest. The predator.
I wanted to show off for Selena, not tongue-lash each other to death.
“You’ve gotten too close to my people. Normally, that’s when I bite,” Elliot shot back.
Oh, tough guy, huh?
I finally tore my focus away from Selena and put it back on his girl.
“Gotta say, man. Punching way above your weight class. How’d a guy who smells like a fish hatchery land that?”
Elliot’s arm tightened around her.
“Don’t.”
“Careful, pup. You’re starting to sound territorial.”
Finally.
Those words were like drugs to a shifter, calling up the instinctual drive to protect what was mine.
My heart slowed further, the shark begging to spill some blood—just a little.
And underneath, distantly, I noticed the part of me that had kept this a game going quiet—the human handing over the wheel.
“That’s because I am, and you’re in my territory.”
Good, but not enough.
I needed him to lose his cool if this was going to be more than a few punches.
“Would be a shame if your little water witch got caught up in something messy.”
“Perez.”
The sea lion bulk of him squared up, his free hand flexing, every protective instinct he owned snapping online at once—exactly as I’d planned.
“What?” I spread my hands. “Touchy. She allowed to talk, or do you do that for her too?”
The purple-haired girl just sipped her drink, and more importantly, Selena still had her eyes on me.
“Chase…” Selena said it low, a warning, but her magic was sparking beneath her skin. She couldn’t hide it from me.
“What, it’s not my fault the mutt can’t satisfy his—”
That did it.
Elliot let go of her and came at me, and the shark was ready, already shifting my weight—
He hit me all bulk, no finesse at all. We went down into the sand together, his shoulder in my sternum, and the air left me in a grunt.
The shark didn’t care.
The shark was delighted.
I got a forearm up under his jaw and shoved, twisting, and we rolled, the neon lights strobing sideways across the sky every time we flipped. He was stronger than me.
I was faster.
He swung a fist like a sledgehammer, and I tucked my chin to take it on the side of the skull instead of the temple. I saw white as my lip split and laughed anyway.
“Maybe you’re not just an overgrown aquarium mascot after all.”
“Shut”—he got a knee into my ribs and they complained—“up.”
I hooked a leg, used his own momentum, and reversed us. Got him under me for half a second before he bucked me clean off, both of us scrambling back up in the churned-up sand, breathing hard and circling.
There was blood in my mouth.
Mine.
The shark tasted it and grew louder, the old, deep frenzy hum rising in my ears, telling me the next one didn’t have to be a fist.
The next one could have teeth.
Because she was mine.
And I kept what was mine.
Elliot saw it. Whatever my face was doing, he saw it, and he hesitated.
I didn’t.
I came in low—
And then a hundred and thirty pounds of furious witch slammed into my side and knocked me flat on my ass.
“BOYS. ENOUGH.”
Selena landed on me with her full weight and a forearm across my collarbone, pinning me to the sand. Her eyes blazed and her magic sparked, the fire that always had me weak in the knees. Behind her, Elliot had gone still, because nobody in their right mind moved when Selena Torres looked like that.
Luckily, I wasn’t in my right mind.
The shark settled, satisfied with her weight on me, as my hands instinctively wrapped around her waist. All the blood that had only been powering my shark brain immediately found a better place to go.
“Elliot, I’m fine.” She glared down at me. “Chase, you’re an asshole. Both of you need to stop comparing your di—”
Elliot coughed and pulled Violet away.
“Don’t think there’s much comparison, Torres.” I rolled my hips into hers, just a little, and she shivered before she got ahold of herself, tiny sparks of magic pooling against my skin beneath her glowing fingers.
“Oh no, absolutely not.” Selena climbed off me, and I pouted, my swollen lip protesting. She rolled her eyes but extended a hand to help me up.
Elliot shouted back at me, but before I could respond, she grabbed my shoulder and spun me away.
“Move, Ariel. Before that sea witch comes to collect.”
I glanced over my shoulder at her.
“I’ll just tell her I’m a one-witch man.”
She kept a hand locked on my shoulder and steered me up the beach, away from Elliot’s parting shots, until the bass swallowed them. My ribs ached, my lip throbbed, and I was grinning like an idiot the whole way, because she hadn’t let go of me. Like I was hers too.
Selena finally stopped near the waterline, dropped her hand, and rounded on me.
“What were you thinking?” she demanded.
“I was thinking that loud-mouthed pinniped was trying to get between us.”
Her eyes widened slightly.
“Were you jealous of Elliot?”
Yes.
“No. I was thinking it’s messed up that a guy with a mate of his own was working that hard to—”
“Wait.” She held up a hand. “Catherine is Elliot’s mate? How could you possibly know that?”
I shrugged, brushing sand out of my collar. “Just shifter things.”
“So you knew that.” She crossed her arms. “You knew he had a mate, no threat to anything, and you goaded him into a fight in the sand, anyway. Why?”
“You know how I like it when you yell at me, Torres.”
A beat passed, and then she laughed—the real one that resonated in her chest—and every part of me settled at the sound of it, the shark included.
“Oh, I know.” Selena bit her lip, and a sly look crept into her smirk. “You know, a couple times there, I thought maybe you two were gonna kiss instead of throw punches.”
“So I was right.” I grinned, leaning in. “This got you going. I’m the shark, and somehow you’re the one with a taste for blood.”
She didn’t deny it. She just looked up at me, neon sliding across her face. Then her grin went absolutely feral, and for one honest second, I was afraid for my life.
“What?” I said.
“How would you like to go to a real party, Perez?”
“It’s nearly midnight already.”
She laughed.
“Oh, the night is still young.”