“Gotta say, man. Punching way above your weight class. How’d a guy who smells like a fish hatchery land that?”
Elliot’s arm tightened around her.
“Don’t.”
“Careful, pup. You’re starting to sound territorial.”
Finally.
Those words were like drugs to a shifter, calling up the instinctual drive to protect what was mine. My heart slowed further, the shark begging to spill some blood—just a little. And underneath, distantly, I noticed the part of me that had kept this a game going quiet—the human handing over the wheel.
“That’s because I am, and you’re in my territory.”
Good, but not enough.
I needed him to lose his cool if this was going to be more than a few punches.
“Would be a shame if your little water witch got caught up in something messy.”
“Perez.”
The sea lion bulk of him squared up, his free hand flexing, every protective instinct he owned snapping online at once—exactly as I’d planned.
“What?” I spread my hands. “Touchy. She allowed to talk, or do you do that for her too?”
The purple-haired girl just sipped her drink, and more importantly, Selena still had her eyes on me.
“Chase…” Selena said it low, a warning, but her magic was sparking beneath her skin. She couldn’t hide it from me.
“What, it’s not my fault the mutt can’t satisfy his?—”
That did it.
Elliot let go of her and came at me, and the shark was ready, already shifting my weight?—
He hit me all bulk, no finesse at all. We went down into the sand together, his shoulder in my sternum, and the air left me in a grunt.
The shark didn’t care.
The shark was delighted.
I got a forearm up under his jaw and shoved, twisting, and we rolled, the neon lights strobing sideways across the sky every time we flipped. He was stronger than me.
I was faster.
He swung a fist like a sledgehammer, and I tucked my chin to take it on the side of the skull instead of the temple. I saw white as my lip split and laughed anyway.
“Maybe you’re not just an overgrown aquarium mascot after all.”
“Shut”—he got a knee into my ribs and they complained—“up.”
I hooked a leg, used his own momentum, and reversed us. Got him under me for half a second before he bucked me clean off,both of us scrambling back up in the churned-up sand, breathing hard and circling.
There was blood in my mouth.
Mine.
The shark tasted it and grew louder, the old, deep frenzy hum rising in my ears, telling me the next one didn’t have to be a fist.
