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“First of all,” he said as he lifted his hands to her cheeks much more softly than she had with his, “the festival starts in two days, but that thing goes on for over a week. We don’t know when she will attack. Or if she even will attack. We’re all speculating. We need to think about other possibilities so we don’t get caught with our pants down like you guys did with the barge.”
She knew he was right. It would be just like Evelyn to have them all assuming the festival was the setting of this huge plot she had planned, but what if they all rushed there, and she attacked someplace else? Rafe was smart. He was right. He would make a good member of their team. Of their family. But she was so afraid she would do this for him and it would ultimately lead to his death. It was too dangerous. Hammerheads were relentless, tiger sharks were ruthless, and for all they knew, Evelyn could have great whites or other sharks on her team.
Team. As if we’re playing baseball instead of fighting to the death.
That was the problem with all this. Her people were so used to fighting that they weren’t thinking of this as a dangerous mission. Sharks weren’t afraid of anything. Rafe wasn’t a shark though. He could think differently than they could because he would be afraid. He could think without the rage and callousness of a pissed off shark seeking redemption. Thane was mad, of course he was. Evelyn had made him look like a fool last time.
“Come with me,” Kalina told Rafe as she took his hand.
She led him down the beach and into the woods.
“I want to take you to one of my favorite places here,” she said. “It’s on the other side of the island. It’s where I went to school.”
“I suppose it’s where Penny’s baby will go to school?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said. “Unless Penny wants him or her to study at a regular school on mainland. That’s difficult though. Juan Diego would have to take the child every day to school. Thane didn’t want to do that with me.”
Kalina couldn’t help wondering why. Now that she knew the truth about her history, she wondered why Thane, or his father, would have stopped her from going to school. She’d never asked because she didn’t know she had a choice.
“How did you become a shifter?” Rafe asked her.
Wow. A difficult question.
“It was complicated,” she said. “Usually, it’s done through a sexual act. When one receives the bite, they become the mate of the other. Well, if the lead shark wants it that way. It doesn’t always work out. Sometimes rogue sharks bite multiple…mates for lack of a better word. With me, I was raised with the hope that Thane would be the one to bite me and turn me. When I was sixteen, I…blossomed I guess you could say. I became a woman. But Thane didn’t see me as a mate. Not a real mate anyway, not his one and only. Rather than make me wait for a potential suitor, Horace, my teacher, who is also a bit of a mystic or shaman or whatever you want to call it, he used some sort of magic to turn me. It hurt worse than the other way. They say the bite gives you extraordinary sexual pleasure. I felt only pain.”
“I think I’d prefer the sexual way,” Rafe said.
She laughed.
Finally, they pushed through some low-hanging tree branches and came to a clearing that looked a little like where the cabins were on the other side of the island. Wooden rectangular structures sat on both sides of the clearing and the ocean was the front lawn.
“That side,” Kalina said as she pointed to the left, “is the schoolhouse side. I learned math and science and history and English and all about life in a small classroom. I slept in the room next to it.”
“Over there,” she said as she pointed to the right, “is where Horace lives and where we ate and spent our free time.”
“We?” Rafe asked.
“I wasn’t alone in my schooling,” she said. “Evelyn was there with me. And two others. Owen and Simion.”
“What happened to them?” Rafe asked.
“Owen died, as soon as he turned for the first time. He cut himself on coral and when a shark bleeds, it’s no different than a human. The other sharks come to eat. It’s one of the reasons I worry about you. You have no idea how dangerous it is out there. We heal quickly, but sometimes not quickly enough.”
“I’ll be fine,” he insisted. “I’m a tough dude. Like really tough. The toughest.”
They both laughed.
“What happened to Simion?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe the same. He went out one day and didn’t come back. It happens. Every day that Thane, Faith, and I go out to patrol, that could be the day we don’t come back. The newer the shark…the more dangerous it is.”
“Even more reason for me to want to be by your side,” he said.
“I hope you truly mean that,” she said. “If we do this, there’s no turning back.”
The smile that spread across Rafe’s face made Kalina’s heart melt. He wanted this so badly. Who was she to deny him? Especially when she wanted it probably more than he did. Rafe was the one for her. He was the one meant to be her mate. Forever.
“Kalina my dear,” an old, rusty sounding voice came from out of the darkness.
