in the world to get her sitting in my lap. Feeling her. Smelling her.
Wanting her.
Must have her.
Oh, hell no. Witches and shifters didn’t mix. Often, I should add. There were issues with the whole compatibility thing—the creation of babies requiring special intervention—not to mention the stigma from friends and family. Which I never understood. Nothing wrong with Jane, and it wasn’t as if she could use magic to harm me.
Why am I looking for excuses? Because that’s what I was doing. The realization brought a sigh.
So, what next?
I’d promised to help her. And I would. Right after I ditched my sister again.
Witnessing her confrontation with the captain at breakfast had only convinced me that I needed to stay far away from all things wedding. One more day and this horror show would be over.
Since I now had a good sense of what I was looking for, it didn’t prove too hard to find a hint of magic that reminded me of Jane. The faint trail led me to the lower deck where people were being floated down by ship staff or descending ladders to floating platforms. The scent ended at the railing, and I could only glance out over the many bobbing heads. Who among them had the locket?
My gaze passed over the eager crowd and then returned to one particular shape. She might be wrapped in a towel, but despite only knowing Jane one day, I recognized the stance.
My witch.
Er. The witch.
Fuck.
She stood beside the slim form of the same woman who’d been so quiet at breakfast and dropped the towel.
I greedily inhaled the sight of Jane. She wasn’t wearing a bikini at all—leading to some disappointment—but I did enjoy the view of her in the one-piece swimsuit with a sheer, black cover-up. She stared into the water, making me wonder if she’d seen someone jump in with the locket.
“Hey, handsome,” a voice gurgled from below. I looked down to see a bobbing face with streaming green hair.
“Taken,” I replied without even thinking.
“Lucky lady.” With a flip of her tail, the mermaid was gone, and yet I stared a moment longer as I tried to figure out why my mouth betrayed me.
I was most certainly not taken. Not even dating. Or interested. Nothing.
All things I reassured myself with, even as I turned my attention back to Jane. She’d slipped off her sheer robe and stood on the edge of the platform, her shape tempting me with the indent of her waist, and the subtle flair of her hips. With Jane’s hair pulled back into a tight bun, the smooth column of her neck teased. How nice would it look with a set of teeth marks?
I blinked and shook my head.
What is wrong with me?
A disturbance beneath the surface stirred the water beside the dock. A tentacle emerged from below. The young woman from breakfast, Sasha something or other, screamed and darted behind Jane.
I wasn’t worried. Magic would subdue any threat. Only Jane didn’t act, which meant she ended up curled in the sea monster’s grasp and dragged into the water!
Oh, hell no.
A roar emerged as I vaulted the rail, choosing to keep my man shape as I angled into a dive and sluiced into the warm water. It took me a moment to orient myself, the clear depths a chaotic swirl of bodies jumping in, jewel-colored tails flashing, and seaweed hair floating. But none of that interested me.
I surfaced for a moment, only to grab a deep lungful of air and resubmerge myself. I kicked and pulled with my arms, aiming for the deep. Too far ahead of me, I could see the witch being dragged down, her mouth clamped tight, her expression full of annoyance. She couldn’t waggle her fingers with her arms pinned by her sides.
She needed me. So, I swam as hard as I could. The moment she saw me, her eyes widened. But not in appreciation. She shook her head, and I didn’t grasp the warning until the tentacle knocked me head over ass, and unconscious.
8
Jane: That wasn’t a kiss.
The idiot came to save me. Dove into the water despite declaring earlier that he couldn’t swim. Not entirely true, he did some pathetic cat crawl trying to reach me.
Yes, me. Then the jerk got himself knocked senseless and started to sink. All those muscles weighed him down.
The lion required a rescue, which meant the sea monster with my locket would have to wait.
Yes, my locket. As soon as that tentacle came whipping from the water,