One of the women boarding the pirate ship got her heelstuck in the dock boards, and a large brown bear was trying to help. Not having any success, the bear changed into his human form and used his opposable thumbs to wrestle it free.
I turned my attention back to Travis. It was hard not to get marginally distracted around here. Everything was so spectacularly strange and wondrous. “But you grew up on the island.”
“Growing up in a pack is...complicated. Particularly with an Alpha like my father.” His dark brows converged, and I got the sense that he was recalling something specific. “This ishishome,hisplace. There was never any room here for me.”
A boulder lodged in my throat, making it almost painful to swallow. I wanted to put my arms around him to ease the memories of his childhood trauma but wasn’t sure if that would help or not. I knew nothing about actual werewolf families or politics except what I’d read in paranormal romance books, and those were fictional.
“But I thought your father passed away,” I breathed.
“He did.”
Recalling how his touch had comforted me several times today, I rubbed his shoulder anyway, hoping it would help and show how much I cared.
“Who’s the Alpha now?” I asked.
He exhaled slowly and leaned into me, but his gaze remained far off and glassy. “That would be me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Daphne
The next few days of the contest were filled with various competitions and group dates. I still hadn’t had my one-on-one with Travis yet, but he kept giving me charms, so I guess he wanted me to stick around. I didn’t want to know how I’d feel if he didn’t.
He had the same air about him as he had that day in Wickedville when fans were asking for autographs, like it was simply a part of his job, his duty to perform.
Maybe that was why he had a private plane, beyond the obvious convenience, because he loved flying where he was far above the chaos of his world. I felt a twinge of sadness that I couldn’t see him doing a thing he enjoyed so much. And I saw red when I remembered that Mia had.
I wasn’t jealous by nature but with Travis...it was different. I felt almost territorial.
After the latest charm ceremony, Sarah and I realized we weren’t needed for anything the next day, so we decided tofinally go rock hounding and explore the sea caves on the northwest side of the island.
I didn’t think she believed me at first, that I really wanted to go, but I looked her square in the eyes and told her, “Girl, we’re going!”
At dawn, with our backpacks loaded, we headed out in a rental car and got to the top of the trailhead a few hours later.
The hike down to the sea caves was steep but not too treacherous given the well-constructed stairs, landings, and hand railings. Regardless, we made our way carefully. Twisting an ankle when we had a lot of walking to do would ruin our plans for the day.
The constant roar of the ocean, screeching of gulls and the smell of the fresh sea air had me smiling from ear to ear. I loved the feel of the energy here and wished I could bottle it up and take it with me. At the thought of going home, a pit formed in my stomach, but I shoved it away. I was determined to find joy in the here and now, and not worry about all that.
When we got down to the rocky beach, Sarah consulted the map she brought, which wasn’t the stupid one from the hotel, and pointed to the left.
“There’s supposedly a small stream that dumps into the ocean just to the north of that sea stack. People find a lot of moonstones there. Wait—hold on.” Consulting the map again, she pointed to the right instead. “It’s that way.”
I didn’t care where we went. We were going to have an adventure regardless.
“And what about the caves?” I was looking forward to the rockhounding, but even more excited for the spelunking. “Maybe we should do that first since we won’t be able to once the tide comes in and blocks the access.”
Sarah pulled out a small tide book from the front pocket of her cargo shorts. “The tide is still going out. Let’s check out thestream bed since it’s on the way to the caves and then we’ll go back to hunt for stones later if it looks good.”
I nodded eagerly. “And I heard there’s a great sea glass beach somewhere around here too.”
Sarah grinned, reflecting my excitement. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
Picking our way along the beach, we arrived at the mouth of the little stream that flowed from the gap between the two sea cliffs. Then we followed it up about twenty paces to a rockfall and—Oh Lordy, the stones!I was the first to find one and nearly screamed when I spotted a milky white oval nestled among the gray. Delicate rose and blue mineral veins spread across the surface. Like hunting for sharks’ teeth or foraging for mushrooms, once we knew what to look for, they seemed to jump out at us left and right.
We’d each collected maybe ten or twelve of them of various sizes and colors when I remembered that this was just supposed to be a quick look. “Hey, should we go to the caves now? We can come back to this later and not be rushed.” The last thing I wanted was getting trapped inside a cave at high tide.
Sarah was washing off a moonstone in the stream and stood up. “Yeah, you’re right. I could literally do this all day. Look at this one.”
