Bearliest Catch (10 page)

Sweet Mother of All.

Andrew released her, an odd expression on his
face. That kiss had been pretty spectacular, but then again, every
experience she’d had with him had been memorable. He was like no
other man she’d ever known, and she regretted having to cut this
short, but she had to get back out there and pass on her findings
to her people. They were counting on her.

She turned back to the small cooler and
closed the lid. They had plenty of sandwiches. She’d eat one or two
before she left the boat, but she’d leave the rest for him, feeling
a certain mer-ish satisfaction in knowing that she’d helped provide
a meal for him, even when she wasn’t around to watch him eat
it.

Providing food for the others was part of her
duties as a member of a hunting party. It was part of her instinct,
and her pleasure. She liked hunting and was darn good at it, if she
did say so herself. She felt satisfaction in providing for the
weaker or less skilled of her people, especially the elders and the
tadpoles. She felt joy when she helped others, even in small
ways.

Her mother had always said it was because she
was a nurturing soul. Jetty admitted that was true, but that wasn’t
all of it. She was also a warrior. A protector. She didn’t see a
problem with the way those two inclinations fit together. She was
an Alpha female, protecting her pod while nurturing them. Sorta
like the mer version of how she imagined a mama grizzly would be.
The thought made her smile as she finished packing up the second
cooler with ice and drinks.

She noticed Andrew hadn’t added any beer to
this cooler today. She knew from observing him that he usually
drank a local microbrew when he fished, but there was a conspicuous
absence of the long, dark bottles in his cooler today. Instead,
there were more sensible choices—sports drinks, plain water and
even a few sweet, fizzy soft drinks. He was also capping off a big
thermos filled with rich, dark coffee when she turned around.

It was super sweet of him. He wanted to stay
alert while she was out there with him. That much was obvious.

All packed up, she went over to give him a
hug and a kiss. His actions spoke of care and concern, and touched
her deeply. When she backed away, he let her go, a bewildered
expression on his handsome face.

“What was that for?” he asked in that deep
growl that made her lady parts tingle.

“For the pop. I love orange fizz,” she teased
him, gesturing toward the ice chest with the drinks.

“Well, if I’d known that was all it took to
get a kiss, I’d have dragged out my secret stash of fizzy drinks
sooner.” He looped his arms around her waist again and pulled her
in for another devastating, laughter-filled kiss.

He really was the easiest man to be with that
she’d ever met. Everything with him was simple. Basic. Delicious
and fun, while also meaningful and…real.

He was
real
. That was the crux of it.
No pretense. He was as you saw him, with no lies and no subterfuge.
Not like the last guy she’d been serious with.

Dirk the Jerk had been an actor. His entire
life was a role. He’d never felt a genuine emotion for her, and
everything he’d told her was just to advance his own goals of
getting her to do what he wanted.

She’d been sick of the lies. Sick of the
dishonesty of it all.

With Andrew, that was all over. He was true
blue in every sense of the word. Everything he’d told her had
turned out to be not only true, but magnificently so. So far, he’d
never lied to her, and she got the feeling he never would.
Something inside her unfurled and dared to extend a little tendril
of trust to him. Little by little, she was growing attached to the
bear who was very close to stealing her heart.

But it was time to go. Her mood dropped. She
didn’t want to go. For the first time in her memory, she wasn’t
looking forward to putting the human world behind her and embracing
the freedom of her mer side.

Now that meant something. Something profound.
Something she wasn’t ready to contemplate just yet.

“We’d better get going,” she whispered

The ride out of the cove was calm, but there
was definitely the scent of a brewing storm in the air. The misty
rain of the night before had stopped, but it felt like the calm
before another band of weather—probably heavier rain—came
through.

The weather above didn’t impact those below
the waves too much, unless it got really violent. The absence of
direct sun made things a little darker. A little more mysterious.
But then, after a certain depth, things were always dark and
mysterious in the underwater world.

Jetty watched Andrew pilot the craft out
toward the open sea. He was so handsome she just enjoyed watching
him move, his gaze intent on the instruments and the horizon, his
muscles shifting as he worked the various controls. There was so
much more to him than his looks, though. She’d learned that over
the past hours.

He was a man of emotion and depth. One with
scars, to be sure, but he was still a being of light, working
toward making his life, and the lives of those around him, better.
It was a worthy goal, that expressed itself in the town and the
people in it. As she’d assessed the town, she’d also made
discoveries about the man next to her. She liked everything she’d
seen about both.

“Is there a particular area you’d like me to
aim for?” he asked, looking from his charts to her as the sun began
to rise behind them, kissing the dark sky with orange and red. It
looked like an angry sky. It would definitely rain later.

Jetty didn’t want to lead him straight to the
pod, but she felt confident enough in him now to give him the
general region her hunting party patrolled. She moved closer to
him, reaching across his chest to point to an area on the chart
where shoals of fish usually gathered this time of day.

“This is the most likely spot for my hunting
party right now.” Andrew frowned, not even commenting on the way
she stroked his muscular chest as she withdrew her hand. That he
didn’t respond to her teasing aroused her concern. “What is it?
What’s wrong?”

“Hopefully nothing,” he replied, turning the
ship’s wheel to take them toward the area she’d indicated. “But my
spidey sense is telling me we’re heading for trouble.” He looked at
the sonar screen and then back at the chart before meeting her gaze
again. “Remember when I told you I could sense where the creatures
were congregating and steer clear?”

A chill ran down her spine. “You mean…?”

“They’re right about where you pointed,
Jetty.” He didn’t try to sugar-coat his words, but told her
outright, which she appreciated. “If your people are there, they
might be in trouble.”

“They’re there. That’s our primary fishing
ground, and we go there most days at about this time. We’ve never
had a problem before.”

“Well, today, they’re going to find more than
just fish waiting for them, unless I’m totally wrong… But I have to
warn you, I’m never wrong about this kind of thing.” His expression
darkened and he poured on the speed.

The boat cut through the dark water, now
tinged with the red of the sunrise peeking through a small band of
open sky behind them. The rest of the heavens were covered in gray,
the horizon still dark and forbidding.

Jetty held on as the boat leapt to life. A
sense of urgency came over her, impressing her from Andrew’s
serious demeanor.

“What can I do to help?” she asked, worrying,
scanning the horizon as they got closer. She thought she saw a
disturbance on the surface up ahead, but they were still too far
out.

“I’m extending my shields, but be ready to
help anyone who needs it out of the water and onto the boat. I can
shield them better if they’re closer to me.” He began hitting
different controls, slowing and turning slightly. She trusted that
he knew what he was doing. “I can see the big guy. He’s moving this
way.”

He pointed to the chart again, and she
realized the leviathan was heading directly toward their fishing
grounds—and probably smack-dab into the middle of her hunting
party. Andrew’s eyesight must be a lot better than hers. Then
again, he was a land shifter. Vision was more important on land
than underwater.

“Can we get to them before it does?” she
whispered, fearing for her friends.

“Just about. I think.” He adjusted course and
Jetty knew they were almost there. “Thing is, I can hide the magic,
but I can’t hide our physical presence. If it can see us, it might
be interested enough to attack, even if it doesn’t sense magic.
We’ll have to take our chances if your people are there.”

“What about the smaller ones? The
minions?”

“They seem to scout ahead for the big guy,”
he said, his frown deepening. “They might already be there, engaged
with your people.”

“Sweet Mother of All,” she swore, praying
silently that her friends would be all right.

“Almost there. If there’s any way you can get
your friends’ attention, go for it. Warn them.”

Jetty nodded and ran to the bow of the ship,
leaning out over the water, looking for signs of her hunting party.
They were so close now. She should be able to see something as
Andrew slowed the boat, allowing it to drift to a standstill. They
were there.

She shucked her clothes and dove head first
into the water. Her shift came almost instantaneously, as did her
awareness of trouble in the water. Signals were flying between the
mer. They were under attack!

Jetty began broadcasting her own
signals—squeals and clicks that were mostly too high frequency for
human hearing that formed the mer language. She shouted above the
din for her hunting party to rally to her. She had a boat. She had
a way to protect them from the even bigger evil that was already
approaching.

She could see them now. All four members of
her party were fighting with one of the smaller creatures. Sirena
got up close to it, blinding the hideous thing with her spear, but
suffering the crushing grip of the creature’s tentacles. The other
three slashed at the many arms of the creature, blood flowing
freely from both the creature and Sirena before they finally freed
her, just as Jetty caught up to them.

She motioned for them to follow her, and
thankfully, they didn’t argue. Beth supported Sirena, who was in
bad shape, while Janice and Marla swam guard. The blinded creature
didn’t follow, but the blood was attracting too many predators. It
was time to leave.

Jetty led them to the stern of Andrew’s boat,
peeking her head above water to find that he was waiting for her,
the back hatch open. She bounded out of the water, unable to guard
without a weapon and needing to lead the way for the others. They
didn’t know him. They wouldn’t come aboard his ship unless she was
there to guide them.

She shifted quickly, standing by the hatch to
show the others the way. The other three helped lift Sirena. It was
obvious she was in great pain. Bones were broken, and she was
bleeding all over the deck.

Andrew helped lift her as gently as he could,
placing her on a collection of seat cushions he’d arranged on the
deck for her as the others bounded aboard the way Jetty had. Their
weapons made a clatter on the deck, and they all regarded him with
suspicion, but thankfully, they seemed to look to Jetty for
leadership, now that Sirena was incapacitated.

As was only right. Jetty was
second-in-command of the hunting party. If Sirena was hurt, it was
up to Jetty to lead.

“Everybody, this is Andrew. He’s a bear
shifter, and he can shield our magic from the leviathan, which is…”
She looked around, her jaw dropping open when she saw the enormous
tentacles of the creature just breaking the surface behind them.
The big guy, as Andrew called it, had just discovered its injured
minion.

A sound unlike any Jetty had ever heard
bellowed from the creature, hurting her with the sheer volume and
intensity of the frequencies it screamed. All the mer covered their
ears, though it did little to help. She looked at Andrew, tears in
her eyes from the pain of that sound, and he sprang into
action.

“Time to go,” he muttered, his deep tones
comforting as her senses were bombarded by frequencies he couldn’t
hear. He was back in the wheelhouse, the boat underway in less than
ten seconds, heading back toward Grizzly Cove.

But their passage didn’t go unnoticed. The
giant leviathan was in pursuit.

Jetty made sure her friends were secure. The
three able-bodied mer were watching over Sirena, trying to stop the
bleeding and holding her steady as the boat rocked wildly. Jetty
then headed for the wheelhouse to see if there was anything she
could do to help. The giant leviathan was right behind them.

Halfway to the wheelhouse, Andrew suddenly
dropped anchor and turned the rudder, causing the boat to list hard
to port, swinging around, out of the path of the monster. The
acrobatic move also nearly swept Jetty off her feet. Sonova…

“Will you warn me next time you plan to do
something dangerous?” she screeched at him, regaining her
footing.

She marched right up to him in the open hatch
to the wheelhouse, and stood her ground, while the leviathan sailed
right on past them. With any luck, that maneuver had done the
trick.

Drew couldn’t help himself. Despite the
frantic situation, he cupped her neck and drew her in for a
smacking kiss. They didn’t have time for it, but he needed to feel
her lips against his.

“I promise,” he said, grinning as he released
her. “See to your friends. I’ll get us the hell out of here.”

He turned back to the controls, but he hadn’t
even touched them when he heard a horrendous snap that reverberated
through the length of the boat. Everything shuddered for a moment,
and he had to think hard about what might’ve happened below decks.
None of the alarms were going off, so they weren’t taking on
water…yet. Something else must’ve… Leaning out over the side of the
vessel, he realized what had happened.