Chapter Two
Tara didn’t know what to make of the interactions with Eliza. She hoped she hadn’t made it weird, but judging by how Eliza stalked away, she had. Especially with that weird electrical vibe between them, and her wrecking it with that comment about Eliza’s family. Gah, why am I like this?
The shack Tara had been granted was little more than a one room cabin, the kind that she might have stayed in at summer camp. The nominal difference being that she wasn’t sharing with seven other girls, and her front porch opened right onto the beach.
Jet lag being what it was, she was up the next morning to watch the dawn light hit the waves through the sliding door of the shack.
The light reflected and refracted and the ripples of it made the gulls and other birds into black flecks outlined in white.
As she watched, the birds took off from the water in a rush of silhouetted feathers, just as a triangular fin broke the surface.
It turned twice and disappeared beneath the waves again.
The sight sent a shiver down her spine—not of fear, exactly…
more of anticipation. It was a good sign, she thought, and boded well for how her studies would go.
And it was true—despite the awkwardness between her and Eliza, she was able to focus on her work and keep things professional…
no matter how much she wanted to act on that thrilling attraction between them.
They shared a few meals on the boat between dives, and flirted a little, but Eliza never accepted Tara’s offer of drinks again. Tara quit asking after the first week.
At dawn on Sunday of the second week, Tara was still fighting jet lag. At least, that’s what she was calling the itchy-skin feeling of restlessness, and frankly, horniness that had been plaguing her since she’d arrived.
Tara wasn’t due to meet with Eliza until the tide came in, but…
A little morning swim wouldn’t take too long.
She changed into her suit and took up her snorkel, stepping into the breezy morning with bare feet.
The sand was still cold on her toes but Tara didn’t mind.
Nor did she mind the cool kiss of the waves when she got to the water’s edge.
She’d always felt at home with her feet in the water.
Since she was a little girl, she had been in love with the magic of the ocean.
The cleansing nature of the waves and the vicious force of storms…
And the graceful beauty of the predators that called it home.
From cetaceans to sharks, the great mammals and mighty fish…
She pulled her mask over her head as she stepped deeper. Water splashed up across her belly with chilly fingers. Her breasts tightened against the cool caress when she was shoulder deep, and it made her think of Eliza, in her bikini on the boat… and suddenly the water could have been colder.
I’m swimming in a location where I’ve literally seen sharks. I need to pay attention to my surroundings. She shook off her thoughts and dove.
Eliza, too, was restless. She’d had a week of rough nights, full of hot dreams that not even all of her toys could abate.
That connection they’d shared still sang through her bones, making her skin ripple as she tried not to turn shark.
After tossing and turning and sweating through her sheets, she finally got up at dawn.
She wasn’t due to meet Tara until the tide came in, so she had an hour or so to kill.
Might as well go for a swim.
Stripping, she shook out her limbs and popped her neck, standing on the dive platform of her houseboat.
She took a deep breath, bent her knees and dove into the water.
Midair, she let the blessing take her and transform her from land being to water creature, her body lengthening and thickening, her skin turning sandpaper-rough.
Her arms became fins and her legs became a powerful tail while her teeth sharpened and multiplied in her widening mouth.
Fire split along her now-thickening neck and water flowed through her as her gills divided, immediately soothing the itchy-scale feeling. She flicked her tail once and headed into the depths.
Since she was little, Eliza thought that swimming as a shark must feel a lot like flying to a bird—fully supported and buoyant, free, operating in more dimensions than a person on land needed to…
Except the flow of water over and through her gills was somehow more powerfully symbolic as being part of the sea…
and that her blood was so like saltwater too…
She flicked her tail again to swim a little faster. Instinctively, she started swimming toward Tara’s section of the beach, but she ignored the implications of that. I’m just on an early morning patrol. It has nothing to do with wanting to be closer to Tara.
The fishes she encountered sent her electrical signals of greeting before darting out of her path and about their business.
A salty shifter playfully flicked his crocodilian tail at her, which she dodged, sending the electrosense equivalent of “nana nana boo boo” at him.
Steven was always playing like that, not that it bothered her much.
Eliza slowed her progress as the youngsters approached on their way to fin class.
She followed along as an informal escort—it was Fergus’s turn for that honor today—as she swept into their water wake.
It was good she did, as one of the younger juveniles, Frederic, slipped away from the group, moving further inland.
Following at a distance, Eliza watched for signs of distress.
It wasn’t exactly unusual for the young ones to want to go out on their own, but Frederic was a special case.
He didn’t have many friends, since his father went Rogue.
He’d attacked a swimmer and had to be put down.
Now everyone either shunned Frederic by association or watched him for similar breaks in mental stability.
Eliza had a soft spot for the lad, though, having grown up with one parent herself.
Frederic emanated an unexpected signal, one of confusion, piquing her own interest. It was mostly surprise, quickly followed by a large dose of fear, spurring Eliza to increase her pace to catch up with him—
A pair of legs came into view through the cloudy water, and Eliza recognized them immediately with a jolt: Tara.
Frederic was on a direct path with her. Tara turned and dove, coming face to face with Frederic. Eliza’s heart stopped beating as she waited to see what would happen.
Tara faced off against Frederic and reached out a hand.
Eliza saw this motion—familiar as she was with it—as the right way of dealing with an approaching shark, to gently turn and guide it away.
It would have worked on any wild shark, and especially with shark shifters, who would never normally approach a shark scientist in this way anyway.
But Frederic was young and hadn’t the calm presence of mind to understand.
Eliza felt the zing of his fear and confusion through the water like a bolt of lightning.
She put on a burst of speed and rammed Frederic away, as gently as she could manage, pushing him back toward the ocean.
Sending out reassuring pulses to let him know he wasn’t in trouble, she kept bumping him toward his group.
He got the message and darted off, and Eliza saw Fergus’s silhouette in the gloom, collecting the straggler.
This freed her to make a very stupid decision.
She spun on her tail and charged back toward Tara, shifting as she went. Eliza was furious. One rule! Don’t go in the water without me! One. Fucking. Rule!
Tara was still underwater, scuba mask foggy but pointed right. At. Eliza.
Her temper was so high she couldn’t stop the outburst she made as she pushed Tara to the surface.
Vaguely she noticed that touching the other woman still affected her strongly, but that somehow made it worse.
Eliza knew in her bones that meant Tara was her mate and she’d put herself in danger against Eliza’s wishes.
“What is the matter with you?!”
“What is the matter with you?! What were you thinking? I told you not to go out alone!”
Tara squinted through her snorkel mask at Eliza’s glowering face. “It was just a swim, it wasn’t supposed to be a big deal.” She hated how weak and nasal she sounded, with the mask covering her nose.
“Never, and I mean never swim alone. One thing, I asked, one thing! And you did it anyway!”
“I wasn’t on site! I wasn’t doing any research, I was just swimming!”
“It doesn’t matter!” Eliza roared, actually roared with something predatory in her voice Tara had never heard before. The water between them seemed to sizzle briefly like oil in a too-hot pan. “I said don’t go out without me, and you did!”
Tara felt an unreasonable shaking come up in her stomach, making her chin scrunch up, her bottom lip trembling like a child about to cry.
Tears in fact began to well in her eyes, and she felt weak, alone, like nothing but an enormous hug could soothe her.
She tightened her resolve and turned her sorrow and hurt and fear into anger.
It surged under her breastbone like a raging stormy tide, pushing her.
“I was minding my own business! I wasn’t hurting anything!” she defended herself.
“It doesn’t matter! You are in my territory! You are under my protection and also are risking my integrity by disobeying me!”
Their faces were mere inches apart now. Tara could count the sea drops on Eliza’s eyelashes.
“Do you realize you could have been killed just now?” Eliza’s voice was low now, ominous, threatening. “Do you realize I just saved your life?”
The memory of the juvenile shark rushing her came to the forefront of Tara’s mind… along with another image.
“You… you were… a shark.”
Eliza jerked back from her as if she’d been slapped.
“And then you weren’t.”
Another jerk. A flush rose up beneath her freckles, darkening her already tanned skin.
“Can you explain that to me?” Her voice sounded very far away, like it came from across the sea that surrounded them, an echo of a distant storm over the waves.
Eliza didn’t say anything, but she turned her back to Tara—revealing the fin that still stuck up from her back like a triangular piece of shrapnel.
The slope of Eliza’s shoulders was beautiful in the crisp morning sun, the day heating up like Tara’s blood the more she stared at the other woman. The shrapnel-effect lessened as the fin faded in a flash of sparkles too blinding to watch—and when Tara blinked it was gone completely.
“Fuck.” The breathy whisper from Eliza was whipped away by a sudden gust of wind.
“What the fuck?” Tara’s heart finally caught up with the adrenaline rushing through her. It hopped and skipped in her chest, fully aware now of the danger she was in. Part of her wanted to flee—but there were multiple sharks in these waters. And if they could all transform…
“Fuck it.” Eliza spun back to face Tara, startling her. “Back to shore, woman.”
“That’s it? No explanation?” Tara snorted in exasperation as Eliza began towing her inland.
“I’ll explain when we aren’t in the water you aren’t supposed to be in.”
“But you’re here now, isn’t that—”
“Tara, please just do as I say. Right now.” There was an authority in Eliza’s tone Tara couldn’t not obey.
When they entered the shallows, Eliza’s hand became a vise grip on Tara’s arm as the other woman guided her up the beach.
As the seafoam dripped from them and sand stuck to their feet, Tara realized how naked Eliza was.
Like… Really naked. Then she remembered the fin sticking out of her back and wondered how a bikini would have fit on a shark.
Probably only bandeaux tops work. Then she shook herself. You’re seriously considering what swimsuits would work for a shark shifter. You realize how crazy you sound in your head right now?
Yeah, but this morning I also didn’t think such a thing as a shark shifter existed.
And she couldn’t deny it now. Not after what she’d seen.