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Prologue – Penny
Thane was out somewhere in that gigantic ocean, patrolling the water the way he always did. He kept them safe. All of them. Penny wished she could join him. She’d had so little time to ride the waves beside him, gliding as a tiger shark couple through the deep waters around Queensland, Australia, and her home, Shamrock Island.
As she walked along the beach and caressed her belly, she wondered what kind of life she’d give her baby. Thane had taken her to meet Horace, the old man on the opposite side of the island. Rumored to be a sea turtle shifter, but barely seen in the water, the guy reminded her of an Aussie version of Mister Miyagi. He was so wise and spoke so little.
A sea turtle shifter. How ridiculous. I bet he looks like the turtle on Kung Fu Panda.
Penny watched the waves break and wondered how many different shifters there were in the ocean. Could an octopus transform into a super-hot stud like Thane? Could a sea snake become a tattooed bad boy like Jagger? Could a whale hit the shore and step out of the water with the perfect tits and ass of Kalina?
Kalina.
The beautiful blonde sweetheart who’d befriended her the moment she stepped foot on the island. She’d been nothing but kind to Penny, even as she swept in and stole her man. Not that Thane had been spoken for, but it turned out he and Kalina had had a fling of sorts.
Now, Penny wished she could do something for the girl. If she were back home in Arizona, she would hook her up with someone. She’d take her out to bars, nightclubs, and…
Where else does a woman go to meet a guy nowadays? Chipotle? Church? Never mind. I didn’t have the best luck with that, did I? Well, not for myself, but who knows? Maybe Kalina would find someone back home in the U.S. and love would hit her like a Mack truck going eighty down the freeway.
American guys always loved accents, especially Aussie ones. What man didn’t have a crush on Grease’s Sandy at some point? It was a stupid thought, really, since Kalina would never leave the ocean. Who the hell would leave a place like this to move into the hot, dry ass desert? Not Kalina, that was for sure.
Penny wished Sylvia were here. She and Kalina would be good friends. Sylvia had a way about her. She could charm the socks off of anyone she met. Or at least the old Sylvia could. The last time Penny went home to visit, her friend hadn’t quite been herself. Thanks to Evelyn and the attack on the barge, Sylvia had barely escaped with her life, and now she seemed stuck inside her head. She wasn’t the fun old sexy DJ she’d been when they’d first arrived in Queensland.
If I could get her to come here, I know I could make her see that sharks aren’t all she imagines them to be. They’re beautiful creatures unless provoked. Or unless they’re led by a bloodthirsty demon like Evelyn.
Lightning cracked in the sky over the ocean and Penny felt a storm brewing. A gust of wind blew across her face and an ominous feeling washed over her. Something bad was coming. Was it her new shark senses causing her to question things and register negative happenings long before they ever reached her shores? Or was it nothing at all? Maybe just concern for the man she knew was out there somewhere and for the baby inside her. Both of the loves of her life were fighting to make it in this world. One was out there in the water while the other was right here at home. She needed to keep them both safe. God willing.
Chapter 1 - Sylvia
The song was almost over. Usually Sylvia would sing along to Childish Gambino. In the past, she’d sway in her seat and belt out the tune while making sexy faces at her manager, Brian, who’d always had a thing for her. She loved her job and never had a hard time doing it. What wasn’t to like about sp
eaking seductively to late-night listeners in between playing your favorite jams? She was Sylvia Foxx, and life was great.
So much blood. Anthony was his name. He was only a kid getting drunk and having a good time. One second, he was smiling, winking at me, trying to get an older woman in the sack. I was tempted. He wasn’t that young, twenty-two as I later found out, and he was so goddamn handsome. It changed in an instant. The look on his face was pure agony as the shark leapt up from the water and snatched his entire leg in its mouth. Then there was blood. Blood everywhere.
Music died down as the song came to an end and it was time for Sylvia to snatch up the mic and say something to her audience. Yet, she found herself at a loss for words.
Who gives a shit about music? It means nothing. Anthony won’t hear it anymore. None of those kids will. So much blood. And that fucking song.
Sylvia had been on a party barge off the coast of Queensland, Australia when it happened. College kids were getting wasted as the sun began to set. Her best friend, Penny, had told her earlier that day she was moving to some island to be with her tiger shark shifting boyfriend. It seemed absurd. Sylvia had met shifters in the past. She’d dated a wolf for about a month, off and on, and she’d met a couple others through him. Yet, a shark that could turn into a human seemed illogical. Of course, she’d believed her friend, but she hadn’t given it enough thought when she’d stepped onto that floating drunken frenzy.
That fucking song.
Brian was staring at her and that meant only one thing. She’d fucked up. Quickly, she grabbed the mic and hit the button projecting her voice to the masses.
“Hot damn those men have sexy voices,” she said. “That was ‘Adorn’ by Miguel followed by ‘Redbone’ by Childish Gambino. Let’s keep it going with an oldie but goodie…oldie meaning 1990s, y’all. That qualifies as old nowadays, right? Here’s Az Yet with ‘Last Night.’ But first, a quick word from one of our sponsors.”
She got the commercial started, queued up the song, and leaned back in her chair. Her head throbbed. Before the trip to Australia, she never had headaches, but now it seemed a nightly occurrence. She needed to get fucked and fucked really well. She was convinced that was the problem. She hadn’t had sex since she’d fucked one of her sponsors on the trip. He was great in bed, but he wasn’t boyfriend material. He was married, technically. Going through a messy divorce, but not completely free. Not free enough to be hers.
The song from the party barge ran through her mind. It was a modern, hard hitting version of Madonna’s Hey Mr. DJ. It had never been one of her favorites, but the DJ’s revamped version of it was good. She was half drunk when it played, and she sang along, surprising herself that she actually knew all the words. The screams interrupted the song. So much screaming. So much blood. She kept seeing the severed foot lying on the wooden deck, and she could still feel the rocking of the barge, the way it bucked and jostled around as underwater monsters tried to topple it.
“You OK, Sylv?” Brian popped his head into her chamber and asked.
She liked her privacy and usually would have told him to back off and let her handle her business, but this time she found herself staring into space, not sure how to answer him.
“You kind of dropped the ball a minute ago,” he said. “You need me to take over?”
Having him cover for her would have been great, but she wasn’t one to give up and call it quits. Her listeners demanded more than the silly soft sounds he liked to play. Easy listening, as much as she’d tried to make him understand this, was not R&B. Sailing by Christopher Cross didn’t fit well sandwiched between R. Kelly and Maxwell. Justin Bieber didn’t belong beside J. Cole. She hated even considering letting her audience down. Yet, she couldn’t get her head back in the game. Ever since she’d left Australia, she’d felt like a part of herself was still there. The sane part. The part that was fun loving and carefree. Somehow that part had detached itself and was still basking in Australia’s warm rays. Or it was floating on the ocean on a broken party barge deck, still terrified of the sharks. If Penny was here, she’d feel so much better. She missed her friend and feared for her safety. She was out there so close to that water. That ocean of blood.
The worst part was she didn’t even know how to get ahold of Penny. She was on Shamrock Island, she knew that much, but where the fuck was Shamrock Island?
