He slid two fingers into her to help her ride the wave of ecstasy coursing through her body, and as he walked her through the end of what seemed like a never-ending orgasm, he whispered something to her gently that she couldn’t hear. Her mind was a mess, her thoughts jumbled, and his words wouldn’t sink in. Then he lowered her into the water and her body exploded. A million shards of glass struck every muscle, joint, and bone, as her body reformed into that of a great white shark for the first time.
Chapter 20 – Rafe
“I kicked his ass, right?” Kane asked as Rafe helped him onto the couch in his small studio apartment.
The man’s living arrangement was exactly what Rafe would have expected from him. A mattress lay on the floor and a nightstand held a small TV with a cable box. Clothes hung over the backs of chairs and lay in heaps on the floor. Except his work polos. Those hung wrinkle-free in a tiny closet. Beer bottles and a pizza box adorned the small kitchenette table.
“Yeah, you really fucked him up,” Rafe said, humoring the man.
Rafe had convinced Kalina to go back to the island and let him remain behind to help his boss get home safely. She was supposed to go find Cobalt and talk some sense into him while Rafe did the same with Kane. So far, he hadn’t been able to speak to the man at all. He’d downed three-quarters of a bottle of rum after hearing Kalina’s theory. Now, he was about as shitfaced as Rafe had ever seen him.
Kalina had changed the course of the evening when she revealed that she thought she was Kane’s sister. Even at his most vulnerable, Keelan Kane was a skeptic. However, even skeptics have hope sometimes and as his head hit the sofa cushion, Kane looked up at Rafe with the look of a dad who’d seen his son hit the home run of the century. Maybe it was a sense of pride. Maybe it was only sorrow.
“She sure is something, huh?” he asked.
Rafe wasn’t sure what he was talking about at first, so he didn’t respond.
“Cali,” he added. “Kalina. It’s her, Rafe. I don’t know how I didn’t see it before. You’d think an older brother would always know his baby sister, but I didn’t. Dammit, I didn’t. But she sure grew up, didn’t she?”
For the first time, it occurred to Rafe that he was actually dating Kane’s younger sister, and that seemed like a dangerous predicament to be in. He could imagine having to sit down and have that talk with the man, as if they were high school sweethearts instead of consenting adults. Rafe considered reminding Kane that he’d called Kalina a bitch back at the bar, but that would have been mean, and Rafe was kind of liking this sweeter, thoughtful Kane.
“She’s somethin’ alright,” Rafe agreed. “Why don’t you get some sleep and meet me at work in the morning? You think you can manage that?”
Kane’s snore was his response.
The next morning, at what was closer to noon, Rafe sat at his desk inside Queensland’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries’ Shark Safety Unit trying to map out the location of the last hammerhead shark attack. The most recent one was too close to home. Tugging at the collar of his polo, he rolled his shoulders and tried to stave off the headache he felt on the horizon. It had been a long time since he’d felt the amount of stress he was feeling now. Hell, it was the first time in a long time he’d given a shit about anything other than himself. Now, he had a serious girlfriend he hoped would whisk him away from this mundane world of sitting behind a desk or floating lazily around the sea hoping to catch violent sharks only to earn a paycheck. With this girlfriend came way more drama than he was used to, only none of it was her fault. How could she help that her people were the enemy of a vicious tiger shark babe and her gang of hammerhead hoodlums? How could she help that she happened to be the long-lost sister of his cranky older employer? How could she help that her new friend happened to be dating the one great white shark that was hell-bent on killing that mean old boss of his? She couldn’t. None of it was Kalina’s fault. In fact, she could almost be removed from the situation entirely and all of it would still be going on. Well, all of it except being Kane’s sister.
It’s like a very fucked up Spanish telenovela. With way less face slapping and way more sharks.
“Coffee, please, Becca!” the hoarse sound of Kane’s voice traveled through the air and scraped at Rafe’s ears like rough sandpaper.
Rafe knew the sound all too well. It was the deep, raspy voice of someone who’d drank way too much and threw up way too little. This was going to be a tough day. That hangover was going to be a bitch, and a nasty hangover for the boss meant a lousy day for his subordinates.
Becca made her way over quickly with the whole pot, pouring some into Kane’s favorite mug. The one that read “Boss Mode.” It was the only mode the man knew.
“You okay?” Rafe asked.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Kane replied.
Sure. Makes perfect sense.
It made no sense at all actually, but who was he to judge? He’d been in Kane’s position a few times himself.
“Where we at with those shark sightings?” Kane asked.
Why don’t you jump in the water and chase them down yourself?
Rafe thought it but couldn’t bring himself to say it. The truth was, he hadn’t seen Kane shift into a shark and had only heard Cobalt accuse him of being a shark, a poser one at that, and the whole thing still felt so surreal. If Kane really was a shark, why would he spend so much time in human form? Why would he go through with this bullshit day in and day out if he could simply leap into the water and vanish? Rafe would do that in a heartbeat if given the opportunity. Hell, he was begging Kalina to change him so he could do exactly that.
Finally, after Becca had offered him some coffee too and had passed him her daily flirtatious wink, Rafe got up the courage to come right out with it.
“Let’s cut the bullshit,” he said, way more sternly than he’d planned.
Kane’s head whipped to the right, staring him down with his intense glare.
“Pardon me?” he asked.
“You heard me,” Rafe said. “Last night was a shit show of epic proportions. And you walk in here acting like all’s normal. All’s definitely not fucking normal, bro.”
Kane scowled and Rafe realized he may have gone a bit too far in his bravado.
“You want to take that tone down a notch,” Kane warned.
“Fuck you, man,” Rafe shot back.
Kane’s hand shot out with blinding speed and grabbed Rafe’s throat, squeezing tight.
“Last night was something you need to forget…got it?”
Rafe swatted at Kane’s arm but the man’s strength was superhuman. As he struggled for air, Rafe’s eyes watered.
“Got it,” Rafe managed to whimper.
But he didn’t get it, and as soon as Kane released his grip, Rafe rolled back in his chair and said, “You ever touch me like that again and I’ll kill you.”
Kane laughed and ran a hand through his blond hair. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Must have been the shark in you,” Rafe said.
Kane remained quiet for a long time. When it seemed he was about to reply, Becca squealed from over near the front door. Both men wheeled their chairs around. Becca was known to laugh out loud from time to time and sometimes she guffawed when she witnessed something amazing with one of the animals, but Rafe had never heard her make any sort of noise that sounded like this.
“Oh…boooooys!” a sexy purr filled the air.
Rafe knew who it was before he saw her. He’d heard that voice on the boat, the one with the singsongy bitchiness to it that drew a man in and spit him out at the same time. Evelyn stepped into view with her hand gripped tightly around Becca’s ponytail. The sexy temptress wore all black. Tight jeans and a sleeveless top to match. Her black hair hung down perfectly straight over her shoulders and the one strip of red dangled over one eye. She looked as if she’d come from the salon where she’d had her hair flat-ironed. Somehow, Rafe doubted that was t
he case. She looked at Rafe and this time, in the brightness of the office space, they locked eyes and he was drawn to her. The scars on her face did little to blemish her beauty. His cock betrayed his feelings for Kalina and began to respond to the look Evelyn was giving him.
What’s wrong with me?
“Evelyn,” Kane said. “It’s been a long time.”
“It has,” she said. “Such a loooooong time.”
Rafe wondered if Kane wanted her as badly as he did.
Wait, I don’t want her. I want Kalina. I want Kalina. I want Kalina.
He repeated the mantra over and over, trying to block out whatever spell this woman was blanketing over him. She smiled at him and suddenly they were alone in the room. Evelyn was on her knees, unzipping his shorts, and staring up at him with that wicked gaze as she pulled out his cock, set the head against her tongue, and wrapped her lips around him.
No! It’s not true.
Back in the room full of people, he saw that it wasn’t true. She’d made him see it. She’d put him in some sort of trance. He’d heard that shifters had abilities, some stronger than others, but he’d never experienced this before. He had no control and he wondered if Kalina had the same powers. Kane had called Evelyn a seductress before, but he’d always thought it was his way of calling her a whore. That night on the boat, with Kalina, he hadn’t felt like this, but then again it was dark, Kalina was by his side, and he hadn’t been exposed to her long at all before being knocked over the boat.
Focus on that. Focus on being knocked over the boat.
Suddenly he was alone with her again. Only this time, they were both naked. He sat in his desk chair and she was riding his lap. Her pussy was so wet, so warm, and she was offering him her tit. Her areola was so dark, so luscious, her nipple so big and so hard.
“I’ll make you one of my kind,” she promised as she lowered her mouth to his shoulder and bit him.
What the fuck?
Rafe threw his chair back and stood up. Kane flinched at the sound of his chair hitting the table behind him.
“Stop that shit!” Rafe said.
Evelyn laughed and pointed down at Rafe’s pants, pointing out the full hard-on he was sporting.
“You sure you want me to stop?” Evelyn asked. “I can go all day long…can’t I, Kane?”
“You’re very good in the sack,” Kane agreed with her in a voice that said her powers didn’t work on him and he was getting annoyed. “You must be proud. Now, get the fuck out of my office.”
“I don’t know, babe,” she said. “I think we might stay awhile. Right boys?”
Behind her, the sound of equipment being thrown around echoed through the room. Something smashed and rattled onto the floor. Glass shattered. Plastic snapped.
“Not the aquariums!” Becca begged.
“Oh yes,” Evelyn said. “We need to set these creatures free. Sea animals aren’t pets, you dumb cunt.”
“We’re helping them,” Becca argued.
“Silence!” Evelyn yelled.
“Get out of my office,” Kane said again. “Get out of my building.”
“Or what?” she asked.
As she asked the question, the hammerhead gang came into view. The guy with the mohawk picked up a computer monitor and flung it across the room. A giant bald guy held a small sea snake in his hand, one he must have grabbed out of the broken aquarium, and he shoved the head into his mouth, biting it off and chewing on it. The body flipped around wildly in his hand.
“I love it when they do that,” he said.
At least four more of the thugs appeared behind them.
“He looks mad,” the guy with the mohawk said, talking about Kane.
“He always looks like that,” Evelyn said.
“He kinda does,” Rafe agreed.
Kane’s snarl told him the joke wasn’t appreciated.
“Does Boy Wonder here know your secret?” Evelyn asked.
“What secret?” Mohawk asked.
“That I’m a great white, motherfucker,” Kane said with a growl.
Then he leapt through the air and landed on the big bald guy on all fours, ripping into him with his human mouth, tearing at his neck the way Rafe would expect from a werewolf in mid-transformation, not from his fucking boss. The bald man screamed as blood shot out of his neck and all over the carpet. Becca’s wails ricocheted off the walls until Evelyn spun and smashed the girl’s forehead into a metal beam at the center of the room. Evelyn dropped the older woman to the floor. She was out cold.
Rafe scrambled to Becca’s side and pulled her toward his desk, doing his best to tuck her body under it. He rolled his chair and Kane’s in front of her to hide her the best he could. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw Mohawk run at Kane, but Kane stood and punched the dummy under the chin, launching him through the air. He landed on a desk and smashed the printer and scanner on top of it.
Evelyn leaned back against the metal beam and looked at Rafe, grinning. She passed him a wink and he flipped her off while mouthing the words, “Go fuck yourself.” Her mouth opened wide in fake shock as if the words stung when they both knew they hadn’t fazed her one bit.
Kane beat the man on the floor with two closed fists, smashing them down against him like an ape on the attack, and then turned and pounced on one of the other guys in Evelyn’s gang who’d decided to join the fray. This guy wasn’t caught off guard like the bald snake eater had been. He was a much better fighter, a martial artist from the looks of it. His kicks and punches were fast and caught Kane in the chest and chin, making the great white stumble back a few steps, but Kane was much stronger. When the guy got in close to strike again, Kane shot out and grabbed hold of his hair, reaching down to grab his balls with his other hand. Then he lifted the man off his feet and tossed him against the metal beam. Rafe watched in awe as his mentor kicked ass. It all happened so fast Rafe didn’t even have time to jump in and help him. Not that it would have done much good. He’d learned that night at the bonfire that a human couldn’t compete with a shark in human form. The last time he’d tried, he’d gotten kicked in the torso so hard he thought he’d give birth.
“That’s enough,” Evelyn said calmly.
Not even a hint of concern showed on her face. She actually walked over to Kane and reached out to stroke his face.
“I miss that aggressiveness,” she told him. “You used to fuck me like a real man should. I gave it all to you, do you remember?”
He didn’t answer. His chest heaved up and down. Rafe hadn’t expected to see him fight like this, not after watching him get thrown through the lifeguard shack last night. If Cobalt hadn’t gotten lucky with that wooden structure being there, Kane might have actually won the fight, or at least beat the shit out of Cobalt in the process.
“We were good together,” Evelyn said. “But then you betrayed me. Just like Thane did. All of you men betray me. We were supposed to work together.”
“You weren’t supposed to attack humans like that,” he snapped. “It was supposed to be about Thane and the others.”
“Well, you know,” she replied. “Sometimes innocents have to die for the cause.”
“What cause?”
“Mine,” she said as if that explained it all.
It must have been enough for Kane because he didn’t push the subject.
“Which you’ll learn more about soon,” she added. “A storm’s coming, lover. This time it won’t be a barge out on the ocean. It won’t be only a few of your precious humans. Think about that. Try and stop us. It should be fun. War is coming to you all.”
As Evelyn walked away, she looked back at Rafe and said, “That offer I made about making you one of us still stands. You can find me easily enough…if you want me. Just ask around.”
Evelyn snapped her fingers and her shark friends backed off. Two of them grabbed the big bald guy and carried him away. The blood-stained floor and the destruction of the office remained.
“What do you think she means?�
� Rafe asked.
“Has to be the Party for Life Festival,” Kane replied.
“Ironic,” Rafe replied.
Chapter 21 – Kalina
Kalina heard the whoops and hollers of what sounded like a group of noisy frat boys excitedly leaving a party. When she walked into the cold, grey stone building with the Shark Safety Unit sign out front, she saw what all the hoopla was about. At first, she thought maybe it had only been a break in, a robbery of some sort. Office equipment was strewn all over the place. The floor was soaked with dead fish of all kinds lying still. Then she noticed the trail of blood leading from the back of the room out the front door, and her heart went still.
Rafe! Oh, please. No.
“Rafe!” she yelled.
Silence.
“Rafe!” she tried again as she made her way through the front room and back toward what looked like office cubicles.
“Kalina!” he replied.
“Oh, thank God!” she said as she rushed to him and found him hunched over, talking to a cute older woman with her tear-covered face hidden behind her hands.
She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him hard.
“I’m okay,” he said. “Kane kicked the shit out of those assholes. I wasn’t any help.”
This was getting out of hand. She didn’t need them to tell her it had been Evelyn and her new group of thugs. If Cobalt had come in to meet Kane, he wouldn’t have ripped apart the place like this, and more than likely, he would have preferred to fight in the water. That was where Cobalt was strongest. Plus, Kalina had spoken with him the night before, once he’d returned to the island with Sylvia. Poor Sylvia. She’d been bitten in so many places and cut in even more. It was the great white way. Where tiger sharks simply bit the shoulder at the moment of orgasm to seal the deal and transform their mate, great whites needed to claim the other by multiple bites. They seemed to believe that each time the teeth drove through the flesh, it was like stapling a note that said, “You’re mine.” Sylvia was his now and not even Kalina knew quite what that meant. Cobalt was a nomad. He’d never be content with a life of brother and sisterhood like her people shared. More than likely, Sylvia would never settle down in a permanent home. She’d roam freely with her man by her side. The only thing Kalina knew for sure was that his loyalty would never be matched. She’d heard stories about great whites and their honor. It was one of the reasons Cobalt was so adamant about getting retribution for Poet. As the older brother, it was a dash to his honorable armor if he didn’t right that wrong. Cobalt would never leave Sylvia. For him to do so would mean showing weakness. If he cheated on her or left her, it meant he wasn’t alpha enough to make her satisfy all his needs.
Bite Me Harder (a paranormal shifter novel) (Guardians of the Deep Book 2) Page 21
