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“Marry me then,” he said.
Her heart galloped and swung closed fists inside her chest. She couldn’t catch her breath…again. It was so soon. They barely knew each other, but who gave a damn? She loved him too and would have thrown everything away if she’d had to. As she was dying in the ocean, Rafe had been the last thought on her mind. She’d only wanted him to be safe. She would be the one to keep him safe and he would do the same for her.
Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Is this real?
He kissed her again and cradled her body, looking down into her face, waiting for her answer.
“I would marry you today, tomorrow, and every day for the whole year,” she said.
She realized her words were coming out childish, but she didn’t care. That was how he made her feel, like a young girl having her first kiss, like a virgin teenager making love for the first time, and like a naïve girl with only the hope of happiness in front of her, being asked for her hand in marriage.
“You would marry me?” he asked, letting the silence linger after until she caught on to what she’d said and quickly responded to fix it.
“I will!” she squealed. “I will marry you!”
This time, when he kissed her, she let herself sink into it, ignoring her eye and all the world around her because nothing mattered except for the man in front of her and the promise he’d be there each time she woke. That brought a smile to her lips that could never be wiped clean.
Chapter 34 – Sylvia
“I’m afraid there is nothing I can do,” Horace said.
Sylvia had stayed behind at his camp with Penny and Thane. Cobalt was in the final stages of his recovery after suffering the most damage. Like a path of mountainous terrain, he now had a scar that ran from his groin all the way up to his neck. She’d run her fingers gently over the scar tissue a number of times, always thinking that it might open up again too easily. She would have to remain by his side at all times to keep him safe. Stubborn men were too easily angered, and Coby was more dogged than most. This wasn’t about Coby though. Penny had begged Horace to look at her and see if there was any way he could help the baby.
“There has to be something,” Penny said.
Thane remained quiet. It was clear he already knew the answer and was only there to support her. Sylvia had heard the stories. This had happened before, and it was known that once a pregnant woman shifts into shark form, the baby is destroyed. It’s said to be painless as the magical quality of their transformation makes it all happen so quickly that the baby simply ceases to exist. As horrible as it sounds, the baby basically explodes.
Horace shook his head and pursed his lips, clearly feeling sorry for her situation and the fact that he could do nothing to help. Penny breathed heavily, and Thane wrapped her up in his arms. She cried into his shoulder.
“I could feel it moving,” she said. “My baby was alive. Our baby.”
“You can hate the world,” Horace told her. “Or you can simply choose to understand it.”
“Fuck the world,” Penny spat. “Fuck the whole world. My baby was innocent and…”
“Exactly,” Horace said with a smile as he clapped his hands together.
The old man was so Zen, so calm it was almost comical. Nothing seemed to faze him. Sylvia wondered if he’d ever suffered in his entire life. Then again, he was single, and he was ancient, and that had to mean something. Sylvia imagined he’d lost somebody… at least once.
“Child,” he said. “Each spirit chooses a path. It chooses the life that will fulfill its mission, for lack of a better word. It knows before ever landing in our world that it has things to accomplish. They are here either to learn from this life and return to the heavens with more knowledge, compassion, or inner-strength, or they come here to help some other soul on its journey. Perhaps that child entered you to teach you something. What lesson you learn from this depends entirely on you. But if you let that lesson slip away as you wallow in pity, then that child’s death, that spirit’s short stay on this earth, will have been for nothing.”
Penny pulled away from Thane and stared at the old man. Sylvia knew her oldest friend very well and could tell she was processing his words. What he was saying made sense, in his own mind, and it might have made sense to Penny, but Sylvia didn’t buy it. She only knew that she still wanted to get her hands on Evelyn and get rid of her forever. There had been talk about the possibility that she hadn’t survived. So many sharks had been circling beneath that boat and Sylvia had taken a gigantic bite out of the woman’s neck. Surely when she’d hit the water, blood must have gone everywhere. And Evelyn had been alone. But Sylvia doubted they were right. The woman was pure evil. She couldn’t die at the hands of some nameless sharks. She was out there somewhere, probably already planning her next attack.
At least they didn’t need to worry about Keelan Kane anymore. Kane had come to visit Coby during his recovery and had apologized for killing Poet. He claimed he hadn’t known who the shark was and hadn’t thought about who he might be leaving behind. He was only trying to find redemption for what had happened to his family and for what he thought was the loss of his sister. Coby hadn’t shaken the man’s hand, but he’d nodded, and that was as good as anyone would get from Sylvia’s stoic boyfriend. Peace had been made.
Penny and Thane returned to their side of the island shortly after, and Sylvia remained behind to wait for Cobalt. Even in recovery, his sexual appetite was insatiable. He’d commanded her to remove her clothes and sit on him in the tent and she couldn’t deny that she was happy to oblige. Fucking him amidst the blue mist had been so erotic she’d almost passed out in sensory overload. The next day, he’d climbed to his feet and told Horace he was ready to leave.
Horace had tried to stop him, but Coby wasn’t the kind of guy even an ancient sea turtle shifter would argue with. When a great white says he’s ready to go, you let him. Sylvia had known all along that Coby wouldn’t want to settle down on the other side of the island with all their new friends. It wasn’t his style. She’d warned Penny who had been angry about it at first, but then seemed to give up, not finding the strength to argue after all she’d been through.
Now, with her man by her side, she wondered where they would go.
“Do we have a home then?” Sylvia asked him as he removed the shorts he’d been given and dropped them onto the beach.
Sylvia too removed her clothes. She could have shifted with them still on her body, but why waste perfectly good clothes if it wasn’t necessary.
“That’s our home,” he said, pointing toward the ocean.
“Where do we sleep? Eat?” she asked.
