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I feel her as she swims around, the water moving, hitting my tail, and giving me her general location. I already have a big enough advantage as it is, so I shift back. I count to sixty in my head before I start after her, taking my time.
My beast presses me to move faster, look harder, shift, and get her, but he’s looking for the hunt and the chase, which isn’t what I want this to be, no matter how enjoyable that sounds. This is meant to break up the tension, give Serena a moment to breathe, and enjoy the bathhouse without the constant need to achieve something.
I find her faster than I’d intended and decide to play with her. Shifting my lower half again, I carefully wind my tail through the water, grabbing her leg and pulling her deeper before dragging her toward me. I let myself sink until my lower half rests on the ground, peeling my eyes open to watch her. She squirms and wiggles, a smile on her face as I continue to drag her to me. Our eyes meet, and she mouths the word ‘cheater,’ bubbles escaping from her mouth as she laughs before I pull her into my arms.
I could hold her here, easily overpower her, and make her stay, but where’s the fun in that? I make her work for it, but let her escape all the same. She pushes off my chest, shooting through the water faster than I’ve seen her move since we’ve been here. I watch as she swims up, assuming she’s going to the surface to breathe, but she doesn’t. Instead, she moves just below the surface back toward the more shallow end with the crystals.
Strange.
Chase forgotten, I follow her, my tail cutting through the water, propelling me forward with little effort.
The crystal’s light is so bright on this side that it’s almost blinding, and my eyes take a moment to adjust to the drastic change. It’s not until she clears the middle of the pool that I notice the shadow. It wraps around her torso and down her legs, legs that she isn’t kicking the way she was earlier. Instead, her legs are together, her body moving through the water in a way that mimics my movements as her shadows wrap down her legs, giving her a tail much like my own.
She doesn’t seem to notice, though, even as she glances back at me over her shoulder. I continue toward her, not wanting to call it out, fearing it might break her from whatever is allowing her to access this change.
What are we missing?
Serena stops in the middle of the pool, where the water is only mildly deep, turning to face me just as I reach her. She’s beautiful, and with her mimicking my beast’s form, my beast is damn near feral, begging me to take her, to mark her as ours.
It’s a minor slip-up, one moment of weakness. Her shadow tail reaches out, wrapping around my own, and it’s like a spark is lit in my chest. My tongue flicks out to taste the water on instinct, and it’s her.
Everything is her.
I'm moving before I can remember why it’s a bad idea to give in to my beast’s instincts. Leaning down, I press my lips against hers, one hand tangling in her hair, the other gripping her waist as I yank her into me. Air bubbles blind me as they float up from her mouth, but I don’t need to see her. I can feel her.
Her hand presses to my chest, the other wrapping around my shoulder to toy with the short strands of hair at the bottom of my neck. I feel the way her lips mold to mine, her tongue tracing my lower lip, and the shiver that wracks her body.
It was one minor slip that I’d been carefully dancing around for years, but now that I know how she tastes and reacts to my touch, I can’t imagine going back. I knew it would be impossible, even if she didn’t want me that way. I’d loved her for too long; this would be it for me.
She was always it for me.
Her hand trails up my chest to rest on my shoulder, and she presses against me until there’s no room between us. We’re chest to chest, mostly skin on skin, yet she still presses harder as if it’s not enough.
It’s not.
Without releasing her or breaking our kiss, I propel us through the water toward the dock. The second we reach it, I use my tail to push us up and out of the water, gently lay her down on the warm stone.
She’s laid out, soaking wet, hair fanned out around her, and chest heaving as she gulps down oxygen after being underwater. My chest aches, but it has nothing to do with needing air and everything to do with seeing her like this.
“Little Rabbit,” I growl, my words taking on an almost hiss-like quality with how close my beast is. It’s as if he’s right below the surface, but instead of feeling as though he’s pushing to escape, it feels like he’s merely watching.
It sounds weird, but somehow it feels normal, as if this is for both of us.
Ours.
Her eyes meet mine, and it’s hard to miss the desire that shines in them. Her pupils are blown wide, eyes half-lidded, as her lip pulls up in a smirk that somehow feels suggestive. I’ve seen the desire in her eyes before, but she was always quick to push it aside. Recently, it's been happening more often, like the morning we went to Pike’s parents for dinner. We’d shared a bed a million times, but feeling her pressed against me had me hard before I could move. I expected her to ignore it or move away. Instead, she ended up giddy and teasing, something I’d seen her do a few times when talking to guys she was with.
I’d chased them off for years, allowing Serena to have fun but not letting them get too close to take her away.
Was it wrong? Probably, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. I was happy as long as she remained with us, even if it was only as our friend.
It happened again later that day when she fled from my room at the mere mention of her using my shower while I was in a towel. She’d seen me naked dozens of times, and I’d seen her. No matter how much I tried to respect her privacy, it was unavoidable when shifting in our realm.
Something had shifted lately, and as crazy as everything might feel, I can’t bring myself to regret a moment, not when it ended up with us here.
“B,” she purrs her nickname for me, and it sounds like heaven and sin, a beautiful, forbidden temptation, and this time I shiver despite the warmth of the room.
“Tell me to stop,” I tell her, even against my better judgment. "This isn’t what I brought you here for…” I trail off, unable to deny that I’m thrilled with the outcome, regardless of what I had intended.
