by Ellie Pond
Rama put her beer firmly down on the table. “Colette, Naomi. Over here,” she called to the girls. “I got you,” she whispered into his ear. “Here, sit with us. Move out, Billy. Let them in.”
Billy rolled his eyes at her, but got up as she slapped his thigh.
“After you.” Colette motioned to Naomi.
He should be mad, having so many people messing with his love life. But he didn’t care if it worked. And messing with the social life of other crew members was a hobby for many of his crewmates.
“Colette. Naomi.” He grinned at them, though his leg throbbed a little more. They slid in.
“Hey, I am up. What can I get you this round?” Rama motioned to Zach and Daniel.
“You don’t have to,” Daniel said.
“No way. I’ve been waiting for my turn to buy our resident heroes a round, and I am doing it now. What do you want?”
“The same,” Zach answered for them.
Colette cleared her throat and cocked her head at Naomi.
“Oh, my god.” Naomi pushed on Colette, who pushed her back. Naomi slid into Rama’s open space at Daniel’s side. Her leg brushed his, and he braced for pain from the bruise. Every time Rama moved, a jolt fired up his leg. But with Naomi, it didn’t come.
Naomi placed her hand on his knee. “Daniel, I am sorry about earlier. When I heard that you were out on a rescue. I… Stop it, Colette.” She slapped at Colette, who leaned over her shoulder, listening. Naomi swatted at Colette.
“Hey, Billy, dance with me. I am not wanted here.” Colette scooted out of the table and grasped Billy’s hand.
“Any time, my girl.” Billy put his drink down on the table and led her to the empty dance floor.
The rest of the table watched. A disco song pumped around the room. Billy led Colette through a routine that felt like a rehearsed wedding video dance.
Daniel peeked over at Naomi. Her hand on his leg still, he didn’t glance at it. The contact radiated through him.
She leaned in, her breath a whisper over his ear. “What I was trying to say was—”
“We were worried about you…and Zach too,” Lucy’s small voice uttered next to him.
“And me what?” Zach asked.
“I was worried about Daniel and you too. We were all so worried about both of you,” Lucy said, placing her hand on his arm.
He stared at it. Until she removed it.
“Right, and Zach too.” Naomi pulled her hand away from his leg and the voided spot hollowed of heat to the bone of his thigh. Was that what she was going to say? Daniel turned to Lucy. She beamed at him and took a sip from her drink.
“Well, I wasn’t the one to jump in the water. I am in awe of you, my best friend.” Zach raised a glass. How many drinks had Zach had?
“Just in time. What are we drinking to?” Rama passed out glasses around the table and sat on a stool she pulled from the neighboring table.
“To Daniel.” Zach raised his glass higher. “A male of courage and action.” The bar was full for a mid-cruise night. And many tables around them echoed, “To Daniel.”
Pride battled Daniel’s doubt tonight, and for once it was winning. He didn’t doubt that he was smart, or “rather clever” as his mother called him. But it was hard to be the alpha’s son and not be able to shift. It happened. Every once in a while a child of two shifter parents couldn’t shift; they didn’t have an animal. But his wolf was there, he’d always felt him. Even more so now, sitting pushed up against Naomi.
“To Zach, whose talents abound.” Daniel rose from the table. “Here, here,” the room echoed. Daniel sank to the booth bench. Pain stabbed in his leg. He grimaced as he settled between Naomi and Lucy again. Both of them now brushed his shoulders; Billy had squeezed his way into sitting next to Zach.
“Phin,” the group yelled as the helmsmen barreled his way through the crowded bar. Zach leaned across the table and gave Phin a handshake that the two made up on the fly and that ended in a guy hug of slaps.
“There’re the guys of the hour,” Phin laughed easily. His brown eyes scanned the table but focused on Colette.
“Hardly. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Sit here.” Colette patted the sliver of bench next to her. “Move over a little, Naomi.”
Daniel put his left arm around the back of the booth as Naomi slid into him more. She nestled into his side and he felt his wolf vibrate with happiness. Naomi rested her hand on his leg again.
Phin recounted the entire rescue, down to a decent impression of the captain’s praises in the bridge office. Naomi said something funny, and Daniel’s ability to focus was gone.
Naomi leaned her head back in laughter. Her hair brushed Daniel's neck. Her apple honey shampoo cocooned him. His hand found her bare shoulder, and he mindlessly rubbed small circles on it. In the low light of the bar he saw goosebumps appear. Her breath hitched. Naomi’s hand tightened on his leg again. Conversation flew around the table, but he couldn’t focus on it. She turned her head to say something to Billy and the shell of her ear rubbed against his lower lip. Her mouth opened and closed again. Naomi vibrated enough that Daniel’s arm moved. She was purring.
Naomi froze. She blinked and moved her hand.
“Let’s all dance. Who wants to dance?” She pushed at Colette and Phin. Colette dragged Phin behind her to the dance floor. Lucy, Zach and Billy weren’t far behind. Lucy waved Daniel onto the dance floor. He shook his head, no.
Rama sat across the table from Daniel. “You’re not dancing?” She got up and slid in next to the booth. “Is your leg okay?”
“What, yeah, of course, never better.”
Rama pointed to her nose. “One, my mom’s a nurse. Two, puma here. I can scent better than you. You’ve got something messed up going on. You’re not dancing. And when I pushed on your leg earlier to see if you were okay, you weren’t. You’re not okay. But mostly I can taste your lie. So don’t go trying to lie to me. Doesn’t work that way. Did you bash yourself in the water? You should go get looked at in the infirmary.”
Damn pumas. The shifter version of a lie detector.
“Right, it’s a little bashed up. I’ll be fine. And seriously? You thought my leg was hurt, so you pushed on it?”
Rama shrugged off his complaint. “Don’t go being some stupid alpha. My mom’s on call in the infirmary tonight.”
“I’ll see how it is in the morning.”
Rama shook her head. “You want another drink?”
Daniel watched Naomi. She wouldn’t let him get close to her again tonight. He could tell she was intentionally not facing their booth.
“Nah, I am calling it a night.”
A knock reverberated through the room. Daniel’s eyes weren’t open when Zach opened the door. He found his phone. Six thirty on the only day he could sleep in for the next week. Granted, Laurit gave them the morning off. He didn’t know that it was Daniel’s only morning off for this cruise, anyway. No matter.
“Here,” a voice said and Zach closed the door.
A large manila envelope landed on his chest with a thud. “Must be the contracts.” Zach sat at the desk and ripped his open while Daniel watched from the top bunk.
“Holy mother of… Daniel, open yours.” Zach jumped on Daniel’s bunk and pounded on the envelope on Daniel’s chest.
“Would you quit it? Let me go to the bathroom first. And get some coffee. How can you even be so awake?”
“Oh, you’ll be awake after you see what’s in here. Open it.” Zach pounded on his chest again.
“Let me go to the bathroom first. You are worse than my little sister on Christmas morning. It can’t be that great.”
Daniel pulled off the sheet he slept with now. He threw his legs off the edge of the bunk and sat next to Zach for a moment.
“Huh, would you look at that?”
“What?” Daniel asked.
Zach pointed to Daniel’s injured leg. His leg had healed in the most peculiar way. The bruising on the o
utside of his leg was almost gone. Along with bruising around half of his knee. While the rest raged angry purple and black.
2
Naomi
“I love when we get to eat up on the pool deck.” Colette lifted the pizza slice to her mouth, daintily taking a bite.
“I love being over here and not over there.” Rama shoved half of a slice of pizza into her mouth, pointing at the smaller of the two pool bars—the one she bartended at.
The two shifters couldn’t be more different. Colette’s strawberry auburn mane fluttered down to her back. She wore designer flouncy dresses of silk, with hibiscus flowers on them. Colette never had to ask anyone to get things off the top shelf. But beneath it all was no fear. She stood up for herself and her friends—with them she would go to all lengths to defend them. Her lioness ferociousness came out.
That was the trait that Rama shared with Colette. Rama had her back. Her puma caught any lie that circled around. Rama understood the ship better than most. Both her parents were on board. And her brother, too. Her mother was a nurse and her father and brother were in engineering. Rama’s father had been working on ships for twenty years.
“Did either of you run into Daniel this morning?” Rama asked, pointing with a slice of pizza.
“No?” Colette said.
Naomi leaned back in her chair, watching a group of shifter children playing in the splash park. She was still mulling over what happened at the bar last night. Sitting next to Daniel, yes Colette had pushed her into him, but that didn’t mean she needed to crawl in his lap. Or trail her hand along his leg. This morning when she picked her tank top off the floor to put in the hamper, she smelled it. His scent made her heart race. Which was why she couldn’t do anything with him. Better to stick to scratching her itches with Edvard. At least with him she would not get attached. Not that there was anything wrong with Edvard. With him it was sex. And that was enough. Right?
Rama touched her shoulder, and Naomi jumped. “Hey, you okay? I was asking if you saw Daniel this morning.”
“No.”
“Okay.” Rama took another bite. Where did all of that food go in her petite body? Not an ounce of fat. The capris that Rama wore were Naomi’s size in fourth grade, and would be micro shorts on Colette. Not that Naomi had ever seen Colette in anything but a skirt or dress.
“Why are you asking?” Colette folded her hands in her lap.
“I asked him to let my mother check him in the infirmary this morning. I was wondering if his leg was okay. But not enough to go actually visit my mother. Daniel’s a friend. But times need to be desperate to get me to sit through one of her lectures.”
“I like your mother.” Colette took a sip of her sparkling water.
“Well, she’s not your mother. Your mother is on the mainland.”
“Still like her. I like your entire family. And your…”
“Don’t say it. Just don’t say it… We have the rule you’re not allowed to say it. Remember?” Rama put her hands over her ears.
“Your brother is H-O-T,” Colette and Naomi said together.
“For crying out loud.” Rama crammed the last slice in her mouth.
The girls laughed.
“Seriously though, he is hot,” Colette said to Naomi.
“Why does that bother you so much?” Naomi asked.
“Right. He’s my brother. So—gross. And I know you do it to poke fun at me. But I’m a puma shifter and when you say it, you’re not lying and again, gross. You can make fun of me, but you know the rules.” She pointed at them with her sauce-covered index finger.
“For sure,” Naomi said.
“You too.”
“Fine, I promise not to fuck your brother,” Colette laughed.
“Wait. What’s wrong with Daniel?”
“He bruised his leg during the rescue yesterday.”
“He’ll be fine.” Colette gathered all the plates from the table.
“You’re sure? He doesn’t have an animal to help with his healing.”
“Yes, he does.” Rama plucked the dirty napkins around the table up and put them on the tray.
Naomi’s eyes widened. “I thought he couldn’t shift.”
“He can’t, but he can feel his wolf.”
“Oh. I didn’t know.”
“Is that why you didn’t want to date him? Because you thought he didn’t have an animal? But you are dating Edvard, and there was Roger last year. They’re both human. No animal last time I checked.”
“God, no. I am not…I am not like that.” But there were some shifters who were. Shifters who would only date other shifters and never a human. “And I am not dating Edvard, and I didn’t date Roger. I don’t date. Do you see me hanging out with Edvard? Ever see me have dinner with Roger?”
“And so what do you have against Daniel?” Rama asked.
Naomi pursed her lips. She turned to Colette.
“Don’t look to me for protection from Rama. I want to know the answer too. Especially after that kiss last week.”
Rama’s head whipped back to Naomi.
Naomi stuck her tongue out at Colette. “Fine. I have nothing against Daniel. Nothing at all. But a guy like him doesn’t understand an arrangement. They get all possessive and have feelings and I will never have that because of…”
“Braxton. Good god, girl.” Colette huffed. “You like Daniel. Why can’t that be enough? Braxton is gone either way, fated mate or not. You deserve to have more than an arrangement. You don’t have to have it. But it could be wonderful.”
“Says the girl who doesn’t date.”
“Yeah, well, that’s not my choice,” Colette muttered under her breath. “I’ve got a dinner service to get ready for.” She cleared the plates onto the tray. “Are you working the Hoard dining room tonight?”
“Not tonight. Rex said they have enough help. I am on tomorrow for lunch, not sure about dinner. This new schedule is killing me.”
“I’ll see you later then. Bye.” Colette cleared the tray.
“How much longer do you have to do both?” Rama asked.
“Captain punished Josie for three weeks. So two and a half more.” Naomi wiped her hands on her napkin.
“That sucks. You could be just doing your new job.”
“You know I don’t mind. But the constant last-minute changes are driving me bonkers.”
Rama studied her for a long time. “Braxton, maybe he was your fated mate, maybe he wasn’t. I can tell deep in your soul you think that he was your fated mate. He’s gone. What harm would it be to love again?”
Naomi glanced away and back. “I don’t want to betray him.”
Rama’s eyes flashed at Naomi. “You don’t want to betray him?” She stood next to the table, her eyes only a bit taller than Naomi’s eyes while seated. Anger popped from her. More than was warranted. “Didn’t you tell me he disappeared a week before your ceremony? Sounds like he already betrayed you. That you haven’t seen him since. That’s what? Like five years?”
“Six,” Naomi muttered.
“Right, six.”
“That’s a hell of a long time.”
“I know.”
“I guess no one can accuse you of not being loyal.”
“I am not that loyal.” Naomi thought of the several arrangements she’d had over the years.
“You’re also a young shifter, not a nun.”
Naomi let out a loud sigh.
“I’m starting in twenty minutes. I need to go change. I don’t want to be late and lose privileges. Think about it, okay? Six years is a long time,” Rama said.
She grinned like a Cheshire cat. “See, I am happy.”
Rama popped her hip out and stared at Naomi.
“Okay, I am content.”
Rama blinked at her. Damn puma lie detector.
“I am mostly fine.”
Rama gave her a hug. “See you later.”
“You’re a ray of sunshine,” Naomi called out to Rama.
Naomi glanced
at her watch. She needed to be in the PR office in twenty minutes. Her new boss, Ming, was lax with her schedule and checking on her. Not that she wasn’t prompt. It was a change, though, compared to Rex in the dining rooms. Eating up on deck a few times a week was a privilege she didn’t want to lose. The human crew member that had worked on other ships told horror stories of not being able to go on deck, ever. Or eat at the quick service and even being told that they would be allowed to do things when they signed up and when they came on board never being given permission to do them. The significant thing about Dark Wing was that it was a pack, with the captain as the alpha. He cared about his crew. And was fair. In the two years she’d been on board, the only turnover of other crew members were college interns. And most of them came back.
Naomi’s sketchbook sat on the small breakroom table outside of the unused PR office. If you could call it an office. Last week it had been a closet. Maintenance zipped a quick coat of paint on it and said that next turnover day they’d install artist lights—whatever that meant—along with a better desk and chair. Most of the offices, like HR, the infirmary and wardrobe/costumes, were all stuffed. They were also on the third deck. Sandwiched in-between the front offices and the ship’s accounting office in an oversized closet was the best they could come up with. The accounting department sighed every time they walked past her, complaining about having to go down a level to get whatever they moved out of her and Ming’s closet-office. Luckily, the agents at the front desk were friendlier. They all seemed to have a wonderful time together.
Today Ming wanted her to take the drawing that he would put on the new website and change it, so it could go on each of the menus of the three main restaurants. “Make it fun, but not kooky, catchy and exciting but still respectful of the captain,” he said. She was doomed. She rearranged her pencils on the table again. Sure, she had gone to school for art, but critique days gave her an ulcer. It was one reason she took the job on the ship after graduation.
“Hey.” Hope flopped into the chair across from her.
