I am a warrior, trained and tried.
Yet I allowed a distraction to compromise my mate’s safety. How did this happen? Why did I let my guard down?
The shame burns away, replaced by a blinding fury.
I throw my head back and release a deafening battle cry that shakes the leaves above. Dropping into a low crouch, I begin to track her scent through the jungle.
I may not trust her yet, may not know her—but she is mine.
CHAPTER 13
POPPY
The bug-tendonline is literally slicing into my palms, but I don't even care. I dig my boot heels into the mud, leaning back with all my weight.
I’m going to catch a shark, and then I’m going to eat it. Because fuck this place, that’s why.
The glowing neon eye-meat vanishes into the black water.
BAM.
The line yanks so hard I think my shoulders are going to pop out of their sockets.
“Oh, fuck me,” I yell, yanking right back. “I’m not a Barbie, my arms don’t pop out that easy!”
The first of my bloodline to say that, I’m pretty sure.
A silver shape explodes under the surface. Holy shit. I caught a fish. An actual, toothy, multi-eyed space monster, but a fish nonetheless! Look at me go! I am actively surviving!
“Shark week MOTHER FUCKER!” I scream.
Except there is a minor problem, I realize.
This thing weighs more than a Honda Civic and it dives straight down, dragging my boots through the slime right toward the cliff. I have absolutely zero landing strategy here. It'sjust me, my sad little bug bait line, and a very angry fish trying to pull me in for an early lunch.
Suddenly, the light goes dark. I squeak. What fresh new hell is this?
A shadow blocks out the cenote's skylight, and…
THUD.
Vael-Torin drops straight through the hole, landing on the rocks with a heavy, bone-rattling crunch. He looks completely unhinged. His hair is wild, his chest is heaving, and his fangs are fully out. He takes one look at the situation, then at the line pulling me toward the abyss.
"Poppy," he rumbles, "How has this creature captured you?"
"I am not being captured. I am an apex predator!" I yell, my heels sliding another terrifying inch through the grease. "I caughthim! Help me! Chicken of the sea over here!"
Vael tilts his head, looking way too amused for someone watching his mate get dragged into a shark tank, but he moves.
His hands clamp down on the tendon right over mine. His chest hits my back like a heated mattress, andone, two, three—HEAVE.The silver shark flies completely out of the water, landing on the stones with a wet slap.
“This is a chicken? What we have here?” Vael asks, staring at the shark. “My translator must be wrong.”
“No, chicken of the sea is tuna, but this is a shark…” I trail off. “You know what? Never mind.”
Before I can even clap my hands in excitement, a second, even bigger fin rips through the surface. A jaw the size of a garage door snaps open, chomps my catch completely in half, then drags the bloody remains back into the deep.
I stand there staring at the steaming puddle of fish guts left on the stone.
