Chapter 10

 

“You’re fucking kidding,” Sylvia exclaimed as she looked at Penny with a slack-jawed expression.

“I’m dead serious,” Penny replied. “Look at my shoulder.”

Standing in their shared hotel room, Penny pulled the corner of her dress down and showed the tender bite mark to her best friend. Sylvia was appalled.

“That’s fucking gross, Penny,” she said. “That’s not okay. What he’s done to you is not fine.”

“It’s fine,” Penny argued. “In fact, it’s better than fine. This mark, as painful as it looks, is practically the same as Thane putting a ring on my finger. And what I’m telling you is true. He said I could tell you if I was sure you wouldn’t tell anyone else. So here I am.”

“Like putting a ring on your finger,” Sylvia repeated with a roll of her eyes. “So…what? You’re half shark now? Like instead of a wifey you’re a sharkey?”

Both women remained quiet for a second, neither wanting to give the other room to wiggle out of the argument. Then, Penny couldn’t hold back any longer and burst out laughing. Sylvia joined her. Yet, even through their happy tears, Penny realized she couldn’t answer Sylvia’s question. She didn’t have enough information to go on, which was strange considering she was about to abandon her life and move into his.

She knew he cared about her, maybe even truly loved her. Was she his wifey? Was she half shark? Thane had told her to stay away from salt water and only allowed her to go see Sylvia if he could supervise her journey out to Juan Diego’s boat himself, to make sure not even a drop of salt water touched her skin. Then he escorted her the entire way. Even now he was relaxing on the boat, waiting for her to finish so he could take her home.

“I think so,” Penny said, “But I’ve never shifted. Thane said it hurts like hell the first few times and he’s not sure I’m ready for it yet.”

“This is fucking crazy,” Sylvia said.

“I know it is,” Penny said as she continued packing her clothes into her suitcase.

She needed her own clothes on the island. She didn’t mind wearing Kalina’s old dresses, but she could only mooch off the other woman so much without looking bad. Having no clothes was one thing. Refusing to go get your own clothes was something else.

“So, you’re just going to ditch life back home and stay out here on Shamu Island?” she asked.

“Shamrock Island,” Penny corrected her. “And yes. I have nothing back home.”

“And your doctors?” she asked. “Your medical appointments? You’re not healthy, Penny, remember?”

“Thane promised me all that is over now,” Penny replied. “That’s part of the process. All I need to do is shift for the first time. Once I do that, I’ll be immune to human diseases.”

“Of course, you will,” Sylvia said, blowing her hair away from her face. “You know how insane that sounds, right?”

“You’ve heard the rumors,” Penny said. “I know you have. And you’ve fucked a wolf shifter, so don’t go getting all high and mighty on me now.”

“You can’t stay here,” Sylvia said. “It’s not right. You have a life back home. You have me, remember? Your best friend.”

“Come with me,” Penny said, dropping her final bunch of clothes into her suitcase.

Sylvia didn’t reply. She only stood there looking at Penny’s bag.

“I’m serious, Penny,” she finally said. “Don’t do this.”

“Do this with me,” Penny begged. “Imagine how free life would be. We chill out on a beachy island all day, then jump into the ocean and eat our fill before returning to a bonfire party at night where we have animalistic sex with our lovers. Tell me a life that’s better than that.”

Sylvia wouldn’t answer her.

“At least come out there with me and see for yourself,” Penny said. “I’m sure Thane won’t mind if you ride along with us.”

“I can’t,” Sylvia said. “Jameson is doing that thing with the college kids this afternoon. The party barge. It’s supposed to be massive. Wild drunken fornication on a floating island. I thought you’d be here to go with me.”

“Hot young chicks flashing their tits everywhere. Nice,” Penny said. “Sad I’m gonna miss it.”

“Hey,” Sylvia said. “Drunk boys sometimes flash their cocks too. You might really be sad you’re going to miss it. Come on, stick around. Please? For me? Then you can at least ride with me to the airport tomorrow.”

“I can’t,” Penny said. “Things are kind of crazy right now with…”

“The shark people,” Sylvia interrupted her. “Right.”

“Don’t be like that,” Penny said.

Sylvia moved closer to her and wrapped her arms around her friend’s neck.

“I love you,” she told her. “I know these kinds of creatures…people…exist and I know it’s possible this is going to work out for you, but to be honest, I haven’t seen you this pain-free or happy in a long time, so whatever this Thane guy is doing, he must be doing something right. Go be with him. I’ll be okay.”

This was why Penny considered Sylvia more like family than a friend. She was her sister. She might have been the one to get all the guys, but she’d always been one with a gigantic heart too.

Things should have gone smoothly the rest of the day. Penny wanted to get back to the Thane, wrap her arms and legs around her man, and maybe even fuck him on the way back to the island. She had almost made her way to Juan Diego’s boat when she noticed that parked only a few spots away was a familiar vessel with the official seal of the Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol.

Officer Keelan Kane’s boat was parked so close to where Thane was resting, and she had to wonder if either of the men was aware of it. The thought faded from her mind when she saw the gorgeous tramp, Evelyn, climb up the ladder from the lower deck of the boat. She wore a skintight dress and had to pull it down over her thighs. She wore the messy-haired, smeared makeup look of only a woman who has been royally fucked.

No fucking way.

Was it possible that the sly vixen who hated humans was fucking the shark terminator? They were like polar opposites. She was the Magneto to Thane’s X-Men. She had something sinister up her sleeve, or up her dress rather, and Penny needed to get the message to Thane quickly. From her hiding spot between two boats, Penny saw Evelyn crouch down at the edge of the dock, and slide into the water, instantly shifting into shark form and taking off like a bullet.

She stood and was about to hurry back to J.D.’s boat when she heard Keelan’s voice call out to her from behind.

“Hey,” he said. “What are you doing out here?”

She spun on her heels and faced the man. He had on an unbuttoned pair of jeans and was in the process of pulling a t-shirt down over his muscular chest. Evelyn sure knew how to pick them. First Thane, then Axel, and now Keelan? They were all very good looking.

“Just came to pick up my things,” she said, lifting her suitcase up to show him. “I’m going to stay on the island for a little while with Thane.”

“I bet you are,” he said, in his usual tone, the one that made her question what he was really saying with his statement.

After a moment of awkward silence, Penny was about to turn toward J.D.’s boat when Keelan said, “Well, I thought I should let you know that I got a lead on the group of sharks terrorizing the beach. Probably the one who bit you too.”

Who? The one WHO bit me? Who is usually reserved for humans. If he’d said the one THAT bit me, he might have meant an actual regular shark. But he’d said WHO. How much does he know? What the fuck did Evelyn tell him?

“I bet you do,” she said, returning his sarcastic sounding response. “How did you come to that conclusion?”

She’d put emphasis on the word “come” but he didn’t seem to notice.

“A friend of a friend kind of thing,” Keelan said. “He said, she said, shit.”

“She said,” Penny replied. “I bet she did.”

“What does that mean?” Keelan asked.

“What’s going on out here?” Thane asked as he stepped down off J.D.’s boat.

“We should go,” Penny told him.

“Is there a problem out here?” Thane asked.

Thane’s tight black t-shirt hugged his muscular chest and arms tightly. He wasn’t the kind of guy many other men would fuck with, but Keelan Kane wasn’t any other man. This guy had bravado that most lacked. It was like he wanted to pick a fight with the world, and until he could do that, he would pick one with whoever was around him.

“Do you have a problem?” Keelan shot back.

Penny grabbed Thane’s hand and pulled him back to the boat.

“We should go,” she said.

Keelan smiled back at them both.

“I’m curious,” Keelan said. “how you and your people survive out there on that tiny island. Where do you get your food? How do you carry on in your day to day? You don’t strike me as the roughing it, survival expert it would take to live a nice life out there. But…I could be wrong. Maybe I’m just a small fish in this big ol’ pond and maybe you’re like a…uh…

He held out a finger and turned it around as if trying to come up with the right word to finish his sentence. Like the finger was helping him rifle through his mental thesaurus to find the right synonym, a stronger word than what he was thinking of using.

“…you’re more like a shark in this pond,” he finished.

He let that linger and Penny could have sworn she felt a cool wind kick up around her. Both men looked at each other and neither let his gaze waver. The loser would be the one to look away first.

Is he insane? Thane could rip him in half. All he’d need to do is knock him into the water. This is bad. This is so bad.

“Wow. All this talk about fish and sharks is making me hungry,” Penny said. “Babe, why don’t we head home and grab a bite to eat. You promised me barbecue tonight, remember?”

Thane lost the battle when he looked down into her face. He understood. They needed to leave before this escalated more than it already had. He nodded and took her hand, intertwining his fingers through hers.

“Barbie it is then,” he said. “See you later, Officer.”

“You can count on it,” Keelan replied.

Penny pulled Thane’s hand toward the boat, not giving Keelan the satisfaction of looking back at him. She knew the man would be grinning at them. He was too confident for his own good. Too dangerous for theirs. He and Evelyn together were a nasty combination and they both seemed to have something planned. Unless, of course, they were only fucking, but Penny knew it was more than that and she feared what that might mean.

***

J.D. couldn’t move the boat quickly enough. Thane needed to get back to the island and warn the others. This wasn’t good at all. Keelan knew about them, and now that Penny had shared that she’d seen Evelyn leaving his boat, it was obvious where he was getting his information. The only way to end this was to kill her. He’d tried so hard to make peace with the warmongering bitch, but she’d stabbed him in the back and in the front every chance she could.

“Talk to me,” Penny said.

He hadn’t meant to ignore her, but he couldn’t concentrate on anything except the problem at hand. Here he was, going back to the island with his woman, and all he could think of was getting her off his fucking island. It was too dangerous for her there, but where else could she go? She wasn’t safe in the water, especially now that he’d turned her. She would be too weak until she mastered life in tiger shark form. But on dry land Evelyn and Keelan both could get to her. He would need to send her to fucking Canada to keep her safe. Or high in the Alaskan mountains.

“We’ll get through this,” Penny said, moving in front of him.

God, she is fucking beautiful.

If anyone could bring his thoughts back to the present, it was Penelope. He could smell her, and she smelled like sex. His cock rose in his shorts and he couldn’t believe that even given the current circumstances, he couldn’t stop thinking about her pussy. It controlled his thoughts and drove his body to do things at the damnedest of times.

“You have a lot on your mind,” she said. “If it’ll help, you can take it out on me.”

With a quick, rough jerk, he grabbed her hips and turned her away from him, so she was facing the opposite wall. She still wore one of Kalina’s dresses, without panties, and he loved the easy access of it. She reached out and grabbed the shelf in front of her so that she was bent over slightly at the waist. A simple flip of her dress, and her naked ass was in front of him. Her pussy was poised, plump and juicy in front of his face. He loved seeing it from behind like that, the way it split at the center and the way her lips seemed so eager for him, almost swollen.

Without saying another word, he grabbed her ass in both hands and spread her open, leaning forward to lick upward from her clit to the back of her pussy. He pressed a thumb against her asshole as he dug his tongue into her folds deep enough to taste her juices. She was hot and sweet on his tongue.

The fucking taste of her…I fucking love the taste of her.

She moaned and sat back a little, pressing her pussy against his face. He pushed his thumb harder, entering her ass only enough to make her groan. Sliding down so he could be under her, he opened his mouth and ate her like a piece of fruit, closing his teeth and lips over her entire pussy, sucking on her at the same time, sipping from her.

“Oh…” she whimpered.

That one sound wasn’t enough. He wanted to hear more, so he moved out from under her and stood behind her, dropping his shorts to the floor and kicking them to the side. It was time to show her what he’d done to her the other night. The dress needed to go first, so he lifted it over her head and tossed it onto the bed. She’d heard the tales, but she hadn’t experienced what the mark could do. He pulled her naked body against his and placed his left hand on her throat, keeping her there under his control. She looked up into his face and he loved how her mouth was open, her tongue out slightly. It was the look of a woman begging to be fucked. He had something special for her. Clutching her tight to his body, he reached his right hand up and found the bite mark on her shoulder. With his mouth pressed against hers, about to kiss her but holding back his tongue, he pressed his palm against her shoulder.

Her knees buckled, and she nearly collapsed as she cried out.

“Ohhhh fuuuuck,” she howled.

“Yes,” he told her. “Ride it. Accept it.”

He cradled her body in his left arm, holding her up like a drunken spouse, as he pressed against it again. Her legs shook, her entire body trembled. He pressed it again and she looked like a woman possessed.

“How does that feel?” he asked, teasing her, knowing she was about to lose her mind.

He pressed the bite mark again.

“Oh yaaaaasssssss!” she screamed.

This time it wasn’t about his pleasure. He wanted her to come. He needed her to. She needed to understand that this was her life now. She would be coming like this for the rest of her life, anytime she wanted to. She could touch the mark herself and it would feel good, but only he could activate it like this. With his touch, she would tremble.

She wouldn’t be able to stand in her current condition, so he lay her on her back and climbed between her legs. Her eyes rolled back as she rode another wave of orgasm rocking through her body. She tried to speak to him but what came out wasn’t any language he’d heard of. She was practically speaking in tongues.

Thane slid his hands under her shoulders, so he could grip them from underneath and hold her tightly. Then, he slid his cock into her. She was so fucking wet he barely had to push. Her pussy opened right up for him. He entered her once, only about halfway before he pulled back.

“Do you want it again?” he asked her.

She couldn’t speak. Penny could only nod her head eagerly. Thane reached up and grabbed the bite mark on her shoulder, pressing on it hard and pulling her onto his cock, driving into her as deeply as he could. Her legs shook, and her knees slammed against his body as she bucked her hips and cursed and practically spat on him. It was as if she’d gone into a seizure.

“I can’t!” she said. “I can’t take it.”

She could take more. So he pushed on her shoulder and drove into her again. Her head lifted off the bed and her eyes shot open, mouth wide, her voice caught in her throat. She was still in that position when he pulled out and did it again. Her head crashed back down to the mattress and a growl rattled through her throat as Thane kept fucking her. Now she’d had enough. To use the mark any more might hurt her. She could only take so much. So he fucked her some more, and she lay there weak and powerless, all smiles, as he kept going until his cock burst inside her. He stayed there, comfortable with his cock in her pussy and content with the way she held him tight against her body. They stayed like that until his cock went limp and slipped out.

When the boat docked, and J.D. called out to them that they’d arrived, neither moved. They’d fallen asleep together, him on his back and her resting against his chest. Thane knew he needed to get to the island and warn everyone, but at least for a little while, he wanted to soak up the feeling of her naked body against his. The sound of her breathing soothed his racing mind and calmed his nerves.