by Zoe Chant
Then she muttered something under her breath, kicked up and pulled herself over the side. She rolled into the boat with a clatter and a bitten-off curse.
The seal pup wobbled over her and was trying to clamber into her lap before she was even sitting upright.
“Okay. Okay, this is all… hey, honey, hey, there you are. Don’t worry. It’s all right. Everything’s going to be all right.”
Happiness bubbled across Arlo’s mind as the woman picked the seal pup up and cuddled her. Despite himself, he smiled. Shifter kids that young shared their emotions with everyone nearby. The little girl’s joy was infectious.
“There has to be a light here somewhere,” the woman muttered. “What do you think, sweetheart? Are we going to find a light?”
“Should be under the seat,” Arlo called.
“Got it. Watch your eyes.” Arlo looked away and heard a click as she turned on the lantern. White light turned the water around the boat into a cauldron of stars. “Oh, that’s better.”
Her voice was clearer, no longer shaking with shock—but she had to be freezing.
Arlo looked up, but her face was hidden in shadows cast by the harsh light.
“Ready for me to come up?” he called, and the woman shifted her weight to the opposite side of the boat.
“Go on,” she said, and Arlo pulled himself aboard.
Even though she was balancing the boat, Arlo weighed more than her and the scrap of a seal pup combined, so the boat rocked as he climbed aboard. The woman reached out to steady him, one arm still safely around the pup.
Arlo got his footing and looked up, about to tell her he was fine, he spent more time on the water than on land—and then their eyes met, and his mind went blank.
She was—she was…
She was leaning too far forward, her hand on his shoulder, and the boat was rocking. Her foot slipped and she fell toward him.
Arlo grabbed her and pulled her onto the seat next to him. There was hardly enough space; she was pressed in tight against him. No, not just pressed in. She was leaning against him, gasping with the cold.
Arlo wrapped one arm around her shoulder, the other over her hands. Her fingers were cold. He knew he should say something, but his throat was too tight.
His eyes strained like a drowning man reaching for the surface, calling on his shifter abilities to improve his sight. He felt like a man on the edge of a precipice. He felt like he was going to jump. Then the lantern rolled in the bottom of the rowboat, illuminating them both.
Her hair was flattened against her head, dark red made darker by the water. Her face was pale with cold and shock, her lips parted as she caught her breath, dark circles around her eyes where her make-up had smeared. And her hazel eyes caught Arlo like a fish in a net.
Warmth blossomed inside Arlo despite the cold air and colder water. For half a heartbeat, he thought the feelings of love and homecoming were coming from the little bundle in the woman’s arms. A young shifter, reacting instinctively to a kind touch.
That lasted until he breathed in, and the woman’s scent filled his senses.
The emotions he was feeling weren’t the seal shifter’s.
They were his.
He wasn’t in the water anymore, he told himself. He had all the air he needed, even if his chest felt like there were iron bands around it.
His wolf was trembling with excitement inside him, but his human side…
It should have been wonderful, it should have been the best thing that ever happened to him, but instead the same nausea that had hit him back at the building site struck him like lightning: This can’t be happening. Not now.
This woman was his mate.
He tightened his grip on the woman’s hand. “You’re—”
Human.
Oh, hell.
5
Jacqueline
“Are you all right?” The man’s voice was strange, almost choked. Jacqueline looked up quickly. Christ, if he’d inhaled half the ocean saving her and was about to fall over with secondary drowning…
“I,” she began, and then she was the one swallowing her words. “I, um, yes. Fine. Thank you.”
The seal pup snuffled and dove into her elbow. She repositioned her arms around it absently, still staring at the man who’d saved her life.
Mary mother of God, he was the hottest man she’d ever laid eyes on.
Not just literally, although heat poured from his body, as though he was hiding a furnace under—Jacqueline gulped. Not under his clothes, because he was barely wearing any. A worn shirt clung to his shoulders and biceps like it had been painted on, and hung open in front to reveal a muscular chest that gleamed and glittered in the light from the small lantern. His pants were low-slung enough that…
Jacqueline raised her eyes quickly.
Water streamed from his dark, curly hair, too, dripping over his forehead. He blinked a droplet away and suddenly Jacqueline couldn’t look away from his eyes.
His eyelashes were dark and thick, surrounding eyes the color of the night sky, and he was staring at her with an intensity she hadn’t experienced since… since…
“I’m f-fine,” she repeated. The bench seat they were sitting on was very small, she realized. Too small for both of them really. Her hip and thigh were pressed tight up against his.
The man’s eyes flicked down her body and darkened. “You’ll freeze, wearing that.”
“Really, I don’t feel cold at all,” Jacqueline replied automatically.
She glanced down at herself and bit back a grimace. The nice dress she’d picked out for the Spring Fling hadn’t exactly fared well against the might of the Pacific Ocean. It was flattened against her body, rucked up and twisted from when she’d clambered into the boat. And—oh, God, how could she not have noticed it riding up that far?
Jacqueline tugged at the hem and managed to at least cover the tops of her thighs before the little seal pup started wriggling enough that she had to turn her attention back to it.
“Hey, hey, it’s all right. I bet you’re not cold, huh, with that lovely fur coat.” she cooed to it. It snuffled at her, gazed at her with its big wet eyes, and then dove back into her elbow.
The man made a stifled sound like a groan. When she looked up, he was grimacing.
He caught her eye and looked away. “Let’s get in to shore,” he muttered. Without looking at her, he gestured at the oars. “I’ll need to…”
“Oh. Yes. Sorry.” Jacqueline moved to the bench opposite. It was still a close fit, their knees almost touching across the gap—but it was an almost touch, not a squeezed-so-close-I-can-feel-you-breathe touch.
Jacqueline let out a slow breath.
She had been telling the truth. She didn’t feel cold. But she’d just dived headfirst into the ocean. It might technically be spring but no one had told the water that. She should be freezing, and the fact that she wasn’t feeling it now wasn’t a good sign.
“Mrrf!” The seal pup squeaked into her elbow. “Mrrf!”
“We’ll be there in a minute,” the man said, “and you can tell me all about it.”
“I didn’t say anything,” Jacqueline replied, and he gave her a guarded look.
“Well. Yes,” he muttered, and hauled on the oars. The sight of his muscles working in the lantern light was almost enough to distract Jacqueline from wondering who he’d been talking to, then.
She looked down at the warm bundle in her arms.
I did see what I saw, didn’t I?
Except it was… just a seal pup. And people didn’t turn into animals, that was crazy talk.
Doubt began to wriggle at the edge of her mind.
The rowboat crunched against gravel, and the man was already halfway out of the boat by the time Jacqueline looked up. He reached out a hand and, after a brief wrangle with her own mind over whether he could possibly have any other reason for doing so, Jacqueline took it.
His hand was calloused, but gentle. A rush of warmth found its way to Jacq
ueline’s cheeks. In the water, his arms around her hadn’t been noticeably gentle—but they’d been strong. The moment he’d touched her she’d grabbed on to him. Even before they’d broken the surface she’d felt safe in his arms.
You mean you grabbed on to him as a drowning reflex, she corrected herself. And then stayed so clingy he had to literally tell you to back off so he could reach the oars.
She sighed, then winced as she stepped out of the boat. The man’s grip might be gentle, but the stony shoreline was anything but. She grimaced and tiptoed up to the relatively foot-safe concrete by the old building.
“Ow,” she muttered, shaking off a piece of gravel that had gotten lodged—yes, in the tattered remains of her pantyhose.
There was a shout behind her, and a low bark. Jacqueline spun around to see…
Nothing.
She narrowed her eyes. The lantern was still on the boat, and only a little of its light filtered this far up the beach. But she was sure she’d seen something. A flash of movement.
“Who’s out there?” she called. There was no sign of the boy she’d seen on the rocks earlier. “Kid? You don’t need to hide. I already saw you, remember?”
A clatter of falling rocks closer to the boardwalk caught her attention, and she turned just in time to see another big fat nothing in the shadows.
“I just want to know for sure you’re all right,” she said, pitching her voice to carry into the shadows. “Your friend who called me, he was really worried about you.”
“Why would Eric call you? You’re human.”
Jacqueline spun around. The boy she’d seen earlier was standing just a few feet away. He’d found some clothes, thank goodness, and was wearing a pair of stained sweatpants and a thick sweater, with a ragged backpack slung over his shoulders.
“You say ‘human’ like there’s another option,” she said carefully, and the seal pup in her arms gave an impatient wriggle.
The boy’s eyes went wide. “There isn’t!” he exclaimed. “Um, but, do you want me to take her? It? The seal. I’m… studying them? For school?”
“Uh-huh.” Jacqueline was unconvinced, but the seal pup started wriggling more as the boy reached out and she decided to hand it over. The boy got a football grip on the pup and hunched over it, whispering.
“What’s your name?” Jacqueline asked.
“Dylan,” he replied absently, and then: “No, don’t! Not now!”
“Let me take her!” Another figure darted out of the shadows. This one was a young woman with her hair in a messy braid. Jacqueline guessed she was in her early teens.
The girl gave Jacqueline a suspicious glare and took the seal pup.
Jacqueline crossed her arms. “So you’re studying the local seal population too, huh?”
“I’m—” The girl glared at Jacqueline and closed her mouth with a scowl.
“We making introductions?” Jacqueline’s mystery rescuer strode up from where he’d been pulling the rowboat above the waterline. “I’m Arlo.” His eyes flicked to Jacqueline’s, and away again. “Arlo Hammond.”
His voice was a low rumble that seemed to reverberate through Jacqueline’s bones. She shivered. “Jacqueline March.”
Was she imagining it, or did his cheeks go slightly pink? No. She was making things up. Crazy.
“I’m Kenna,” the teenaged girl admitted reluctantly. “Kenna Weaver. This is Dylan, and—”
She closed her mouth so quickly her teeth clacked together.
“All right. Kenna, Dylan, and Tally—uh, Jacqueline. Why don’t you tell us what you’re doing here?” Arlo cleared his throat and flashed Jacqueline a wary look.
An electric charge raced up her spine. Okay, now I’m definitely suspicious. Tally? Who’s Tally?
She looked around the small group. Kenna and Dylan had to be brother and sister; they had the same wriggly blond hair and snub noses.
And then there was the seal.
And Arlo.
“I see,” Arlo said, even though no one else had said anything. He took a heavy breath and ran one hand over his jaw.
“Wait, what’s going on here?” Jacqueline demanded. “Dylan, you thought your friend—Eric—wouldn’t call me because I’m human? And you both—” She flung up her hands. “What am I saying? Both of you? All three of you. That little seal was a little girl when I first saw her, I’m—I’m sure of it.”
Are you? Doubt wormed at her. Maybe you just thought you saw…
She shook her head. “Either way, we need to get you back into town. I can organize a place for you to stay until we get everything sorted out.”
“Get what all sorted out?” Kenna scowled. “You don’t know anything about—no, not now!” Kenna made a frustrated noise as the seal pup wriggled around in her arms.
Jacqueline crossed her arms. “I know you’ve been staying out here for who knows how long, waiting for Eric to come get you. But he’s not coming.”
Kenna flinched, and Jacqueline immediately regretted being so blunt.
“He’s really upset about that, but he wants you to be safe. And so do I, and that means not leaving you out here in the middle of nowhere. I can take you back to Dunston—”
“We’re not going!” Kenna was scowling so fiercely Jacqueline was worried she was about to burst into tears.
Dylan was wincing, too. Even Arlo looked uncomfortable.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “What am I missing?” Jacqueline’s head was spinning. Maybe she was going into shock, after all. It was as though there was a conversation going on that she couldn’t hear half of.
“Ms. March,” Arlo began, and rubbed his jaw again with a wince. “I can explain.”
He sounded so reasonable.
Jacqueline had met so many reasonable men. Especially these last few years. Derek had been perfectly reasonable when he told her there was nothing going on. Then he’d been just as reasonable when he told her he had a secret two-year-old, and that she didn’t need to hire her own divorce lawyer, because didn’t she trust him to do the right thing?
Arlo exchanged a glance with Kenna and Dylan and something inside Jacqueline snapped.
“Don’t you dare lie to me.” Jacqueline met Arlo’s gaze, her heart in her throat. “I am so sick of people lying to me.”
Please, she added silently. Please, please don’t lie. Don’t tell me I’m crazy. Don’t tell me I’m imagining things.
She’d had more than enough years of that already.
6
Arlo
A shock of horror jolted down Arlo’s spine.
She was right. He couldn’t lie to her.
“Ms. March,” he said, and her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “I won’t lie to you. You deserve to know the truth, but—”
“But what?” Jacqueline had her arms folded tightly in front of her. Her shoulders hunched and Arlo saw a flicker of uncertainty pass across her face. “I saw—I know what I saw…”
I could use this, Arlo thought miserably. It’s what I’m meant to do in this situation, isn’t it? What all Hideaway shifters are meant to do if a human suspects what we are. Use her uncertainty and confusion. Tell her she didn’t see what she thought she saw. Keep our secret safe.
But she’d sounded so desperate when she told him not to lie to her. And she was his mate. He had to trust her.
His head was pounding with the three shifter children’s voices.
*He can’t tell her. Humans aren’t meant to know about us!*
*But Eric called her—*
*Did he? Really? How do we know that? She said she works for the sheriff, she just wants to take us back to that stupid home and take Tally away again!*
Tally whined and a buffet of an emotion that could only be described as “togetherness” hit Arlo like a sack of bricks. He swayed back.
*No, Tally, that can’t be—she can’t be right, can she?*
*But you feel it too, right?*
*Hang on… no way…*
Arlo shook his head as
though he could shake their voices off. Hadn’t anyone taught these kids to keep their private conversations private and not broadcast them for everyone to hear? At least Tally was young enough for that to be an excuse.
*Kids, can you give it a rest? I can hardly hear myself think.*
Kenna and Dylan both gasped, eyes wide. *You can hear us? He can hear us!*
Their voices suddenly fell silent, except for the constant waves crashing from Tally’s mind. Arlo’s shoulders sagged. That’s something, at least.
He looked back at Jacqueline—his mate—who was glaring at him suspiciously.
His heart sank. My mate is looking at me like she’s ready for a fight. My mate. She just threw herself into danger to save this shifter child, and she’s looking at me like I’m the last person in the world she would trust.
“You’re right,” he said, his voice rougher than the rocks that stood hard against the crashing waves. “I won’t lie to you. We’re—”
“Tally don’t—” Kenna yelped, but it was too late. Tally wriggled and shifted back into her human form.
Jacqueline’s eyes went wide and she swayed back. Arlo froze, watching her. Waiting for her reaction.
“Oh,” she breathed. “Oh, you—you will get cold like that, honey. Does one of you have another sweater for her?”
She’s not scared, or disgusted. Arlo’s heart lightened, and for some reason it hurt as well as felt good. She just wants to look after her.
Dylan pulled some more clothes from his bag with a flourish. While he and Kenna wrestled Tally into them, Jacqueline glanced up at Arlo, her eyes wide with wonder.
“I wasn’t imagining it,” she whispered. She took a step closer to him. “And you’re not surprised by any of this. Are you?”
The air between them seemed to shiver with possibility. Arlo was vaguely aware of the kids clustering together and whispering between themselves, but he couldn’t tear his attention away from Jacqueline.
