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“Because I’m not shifting in front of anyone,” she responded. Maybe one day, she’d feel comfortable shifting in front of them. But the last thing she wanted was for the men she was so attracted to to see her in her rather ungainly form. Kelpies weren’t the most elegant of species.
“But—”
“No,” she said firmly, and to her surprise, Flint nodded, finally accepting her decision.
“Come with me.” Cam linked his hand with one of hers and pulled her down the corridor that headed in the opposite direction to where the bedroom she’d stayed in was. How big was this place? And how hadn’t she noticed how big it was before? It was like a labyrinth. Which just made her wonder what else was hidden about here.
She followed him without saying a word until he directed her into a room smelling strongly of chemicals. She wrinkled her nose, already hating it, but knowing she needed the water to shift. Technically, being underwater might unlock her powers again too. She didn’t actually know, this would be the first time she’d shifted since leaving the loch.
5
Cam led her into a wood-panelled changing room which looked a bit like a sauna. There were towels and a variety of slippers in different sizes on a shelf by the door. She chose a pair that looked like it would fit and grabbed a surprisingly fluffy towel. Noticing that Cam hadn’t left yet, she turned, giving him a pointed look.
“I’d like some privacy now, please.”
He chuckled. “Sure I can’t change your mind? I’ve never seen a kelpie before.”
“And you never will,” she muttered, before shooing him out of the room. Reluctantly, he left and she locked the door behind him. Finally, she was alone.
The water was warm, far too warm for her taste; she was used to the icy loch waters. But it would do. Usually, she preferred to wade into the lake until she was half submerged, then shift, but this swimming pool was deep all over, there was no gentle slope. She’d have to shift while swimming, something she didn’t enjoy at all. Shifting was a complicated process and having to focus on staying afloat made it even more difficult. Her kelpie form could breathe underwater, but her human did not.
She quickly undressed and climbed into the pool, savouring the sensation of water on her naked skin. By the waves, she had missed this feeling. It made her feel complete, like a missing part of her had slotted back into place. She swam a few rounds, enjoying how she was so much faster than on land. She may look human, but her kelpie spirit gave her an affinity with water that was far beyond that of human swimmers. When all her muscles felt like they’d been stretched properly, she swam to the centre of the pool, not wanting to hurt herself on the hard edge wall.
She took a few deep breaths, preparing herself for the shift. The memories of her very first, very painful shift never quite went away. Kelpies stayed in their aquine form until puberty before being able to change shapes. She remembered how she had suddenly struggled to breathe, how her father had raced her to the surface where she had thrashed and howled from the pain of her bones reshaping and her scales retracting. It no longer hurt as bad, but it still wasn’t something she enjoyed. But right now, her body needed it.
Over time, she had learned to control her shift precisely. She started with her feet, forcing her toes to merge, her nails to grow into hooves. Next came her hands, adding webs between her fingers, then her arms, her legs, until she had four horse-shaped limbs. Except for the webbing, of course. The rest was easier as it required less precision. Expand her torso, grow a tail, lengthen her spine, change the shape of her head. Easy, except for the fact that her lungs were beginning to ache for oxygen as she sank deeper and deeper into the pool. The chlorine taste distracted her from forming her gills properly. Ignoring the burning pain in her chest, she concentrated hard, preparing her gills to breathe for the first time. It needed to be right, or she’d get water into her still-human lungs.
Finally, she was ready. She took a short, careful breath, and when only when she’d confirmed the gills worked, she breathed in deep, filling her lungs with much-needed oxygen. She whinnied in delight as she began to dive, using her thick tail as a rudder and the flipper-like flaps on her legs to propel her forwards. This was her element, this was her very own paradise.
She stayed underwater until the chlorine began to dry out her skin. That was the problem with chemicals, they had a tendency of damaging her scales; it was true whenever a ship spilt petrol in the loch too. There she could just swim further away and deeper, but here, she didn’t have that option. Instead, she had to shift back into human form and get out of the water. She was already dreading the shift back.
She breached the surface of the pool, glad she could breathe above water in her Kelpie form, albeit for a short space of time. But that short space was enough for her to shift her head and lungs back into her human form, her long green mane shortening and turning darker, resting on her shoulders, the next thing she shifted back to normal. Huh, normal? When had she started to see her human form as the normal one? That was an odd thought, to say the least.
Macey winced as the pain ripped through her, hating that her people hadn’t evolved a less intense way of changing forms. It didn’t really make sense for it to be that way, especially when they’d been able to shift since the dawn of time itself.
“Well that was really something,” a deep voice came from across the room, making Macey squeak and jump back, splashing chlorine filled water into her eyes and causing them to sting. Damn, this pool really had it out for her.
Rubbing her eyes, she saw Jared’s dark form leaning against a wall, studying her intently. “I told you not to watch,” she half-growled, conscious that she was naked, and made even more so by Jared’s dark gaze.
“Technically, you never told me not to watch,” he replied, not moving from the wall.
“It was implied,” she muttered, crossing her arms, which didn’t quite have the effect that she wanted it to. Instead of making her look angry, it pushed up her boobs, and she wasn’t the only one that noticed. At least, not if Jared’s lingering glance down was anything to go by.
“You should never rely on implied, Macey, that’s a good way to end up being watched.”
“And the locked door didn’t tip you off,” she hissed at him, treading her legs in the water to keep herself afloat. If she focused, she could have forced a partial shift, but most of her attention was on the man watching her, and she didn’t want to give him any more information about her kind that he already had. It hardly seemed fair when she knew no more about what he was.
“It did, but you said you wanted to know about your brothers.” He studied his nails while smirking to himself. He clearly knew what he was teasing her with.
“I do, yes.”
“I got a message.”
“And?” she prompted, keeping as much control on her anger as possible. It wasn’t easy though, and she needed to get out of the water before she managed to instigate a full body shift rather than just a partial one like normally happened when she was angry. She swam over to the side of the pool and hoisted herself out of the water, infusing her arms with as much kelpie strength as possible.
Macey rose to her feet and let the water rivulets run down her naked skin, enjoying the sensation of Jared’s eyes on her. She wanted to remind him to answer her question, but she was enjoying the look on his face far too much for that.
“What?” he said, the word catching in his throat and he coughed to clear it.
