CHAPTER 25
MATHIS
Adrenaline flooded Mathis’ veins as Chloe shouted in alarm. She was staring over his shoulder. He spun around and followed her pointing arm.
Half a dozen small motorboats were whirring unevenly towards the beach. Further out, a large cruise ship loomed on the horizon like a massive bird.
How did I not see them before? Mathis’ mouth fell open. He swallowed hard as he answered his own question. I wasn’t looking at the ocean. Not really.
He hadn’t been looking at anything—he’d been looking away from Chloe. For a moment, feeling her lean against him, he’d managed to convince himself that they could make things work.
He was a fool. She’d been through hell. His duty was to get her safely home—and that was all, no matter how miserable it made him and his lion. His feelings didn’t matter. Hers did.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Chloe was muttering. “Are they—did they come off the cruise ship? What the hell are they doing here? Are they shifters?”
Mathis sniffed the sea breeze. “I don’t think so.”
“Then what are they—”Chloe smacked her forehead. “The explosion. And Lance said something about a tip-off from a cruise ship…”
“Looks like we’ve got our pick of rescue parties today,” Mathis joked. Chloe was still frowning.
“Someone has to tell the others to stay human—no, I’ll go!” she said quickly as Mathis made to run back up the beach. “You stay here and guard Harper!”
She sprinted off. Mathis glanced at Julian, but the dragon shifter was lost in his own world. He was sitting on the shingle, staring down at the eggs in his lap and whispering quietly to them.
Mathis shrugged and looked down at Thandie, who was still in hummingbird shape next to the moth Harper. “I guess it’s just you and me—”
Thandie fluttered her incandescent wings and zipped off after Chloe. Mathis refocused.
*Right. Just you and me, then, asshole.* He glared down at Harper.
Harper had barely moved since he’d shifted. Sometimes shifters who spent a lot of time in one form had difficulty adjusting to their other shape, and Mathis hadn’t seen any sign that Harper had shifted during the whole time they were on the island—but he didn’t trust the man not to try something.
*Go ahead.* Harper’s mental voice was a hiss that bit into Mathis’ mind. *Do it. Kill me!*
Mathis snorted. “That would be too easy.” Crouching, he pulled off one shoe. “I’ve got a much better idea.”
He swatted the shoe at the moth—not squishing it, but trapping it inside. He covered the opening with his hand. “You’re going to court, Harper. You’ll pay for every one of your crimes. And it’s going to take a long, long time.” He heaved a dramatic sigh. “You’re probably going to find it very, very boring. What a shame.”
He stood up again and shaded his eyes with one hand. The first of the motorboats was almost to shore.
Chloe ran up beside him. She was panting, her cheeks red and her hair flying wildly around her face. “Okay, they’re all sorted. No surprise shifting.” Her eyes darted sideways and Mathis saw Thandie perched in her hair like a shiny earring. “…And Thandie is staying like this for now because naked, I guess, and hiiiii!”
It was like she’d flicked a switch inside herself. One moment her eyes were intent on his, her expression urgent—the next a brilliant smile flashed across her face. She looked like a different person.
Mathis didn’t need to turn around to see who she was addressing. He could already sense the people behind him. The first boat had been pulled ashore, and as he’d thought, everyone aboard was human.
He turned around slowly, acutely aware of the grime and scrapes covering his body. At least I’m the scariest-looking person here, he thought. Thanks to Chloe’s quick thinking.
Mathis held the shoe-prison loosely at his side as he sized up the humans walking up the beach. There was no way Harper would try to shift to escape—shifters needed enough space for their larger forms, and trying to bust out of the shoe as he shifted carried a risk of severe injury.
There were half a dozen humans walking towards them. They were all dressed in the casual shorts-and-brightly-colored shirt uniform of holidaymakers around the world. One woman was wearing a bum bag. And they were all staring up and him and Chloe with the same naked excitement fizzing on their faces.
“Howdy,” one man said, tipping his cap back to reveal a sunburnt forehead. “You folks need some help here?”
Mathis relaxed. Tourists. Helpful, well-meaning tourists. This looked like a family group: mom, dad, grandparents and one preteen girl who, admittedly, looked less excited than the rest of them to be a part of their gung-ho rescue mission.
Chloe giggled. “I guess you saw our little fire, huh?”
“Little? Is that what you call it? What’re you all doing out here, anyway?”
Mathis exchanged a glance with Chloe. On her shoulder, Thandie ruffled her feathers.
Right. We need a story…
“Dad! Daaad!” The girl who came ashore with the group tugged on Sunburn’s arm. “It’s him! From the clips I showed you!”
Mathis’ heart sank. He glanced at Chloe again but to his surprise, her face lit up.
The man in front of them pulled his cap off entirely and ran his hand through his hair. “From the—damn it, honey, what did I tell you about how much the internet costs on that boat? How many times have you watched those videos?”
“Some amount of times,” the girl whined, flicking her hair over her shoulder. She bounced on the spot, staring up at Mathis. “It’s true though isn’t it? You’re him? With the—rarrr!”
“I’m…” Mathis stared helplessly at Chloe, who was biting her lip, her eyes bright with repressed laughter.
“He has signed a lot of important-looking documents telling him he is absolutely not allowed to answer that question,” Chloe said solemnly, and then winked at the girl.
“Oh my God!” Still bouncing, the girl started to make a high-pitched squealing noise. “Dad, Mom, this is the best vacation ever!” She whipped out her phone and sped off down the beach, ignoring her father’s hopeless cries of Sweetie—remember the roaming charges!
Chloe directed a good-natured grimace at the rest of the family. “Oh well—any publicity, right?”
Mathis sensed Lance jogging up to them. Speaking directly into the other shifter’s mind, he quickly explained the situation—and their cover story.
Lance’s long-suffering sigh was so loud, Mathis wasn’t sure if he heard it through his ears or his mind. Mathis winked at him as he handed over Harper in his shoe prison. *You want to take custody of this?*
*Thanks.* Lance’s hand closed over the shoe like a vice. *I get the movie cover, but how are you going to explain you handing over your shoe like this?*
Mathis grinned. *I’m a movie star. I don’t need to explain anything I do.*
*God save us all.* Lance’s mental voice was dry, but he was smiling.
“Thanks for stopping by,” Lance said out loud, every inch the slightly-embarrassed professional. “I’ve just had your captain on the phone—he’s very generously offered to give the crew a lift back to the mainland while the set is cleaned up.” He winced and glared at Mathis. “This is why we leave special effects to the people with computers, not the—goddamn—gas and liquid fuel? And—”
*It was meant to be just flour.* Thandie poked her beak out of Chloe’s hair. *Get a lot of flour in the air and it catches fire like crazy. Do you think we should tell him? But—oh no—the gas tanks are actually—*
Another explosion ripped through the air. Mathis felt it before he heard it, a tremendous pulse of force that made every tree on the island whip. Even the helicopter shook. Mathis wrapped his arms around Chloe and pulled her behind him, keeping his body between her and the flames.
Thank God everyone is down on the beach, he thought. Debris had been thrown through the air by the explosion, but none of it had made it to where everyone was gathered.
He kept one arm around Chloe as black clouds rose above the ruin of Harper’s estate, and she didn’t pull away. Inside him, his lion purred—but his human braced for the inevitable.
Around him, the tourists’ faces had dropped. Responding to an explosion seen miles off was one thing, but seeing one this close up made things a bit too real. Mathis cleared his throat, trying to think of something to say to clear the air.
“Well,” Chloe sighed, straightening her clothes. “There go our insurance premiums.”
“Yes,” Lance added, sharp as a whip. “I’d be surprised if the movie gets made at all, now.” Relief flashed across his face and he glanced at Mathis. *Make sure your tiny fan-girl gets the news, will you? We need to nip this movie idea in the bud.*
*Aye aye, captain.*
Lance snorted. Out loud, he waved to the other resort employees to come closer. “Right. It’s a five-hour trip back to the mainland according to the captain, so we’d better get moving before his generosity screws up his schedule even more.”
Thandie’s voice piped up in Mathis’ mind again. *It’s the first time the cruise liner has taken this route. Louis was working on-board last season and that’s why he knew—usually ships don’t come along this way, and if this one hadn’t…* Her voice went silent. *Can you tell Chloe for me? She can’t hear me.*
Because she’s human. Mathis’ arm tightened around Chloe. He wanted so much to be with her—but he’d made a promise. He couldn’t betray her trust in him.
*I’ll make sure she knows,* Mathis told Thandie. Chloe was going home, she wouldn’t want to see him again—but Lance or someone else would debrief her. He’d make sure she got the full story then.
“Five hours by boat, but less than one by helicopter.” Lance was looking at him and Chloe. “Sounds like a bit of a party boat, if that’s your thing…”
“Helicopter. If that’s okay,” Chloe said quickly. Her spine stiffened and Mathis let her go, his heart sinking. “I’ve had enough of paradise island here to last me a lifetime. The faster I can get home the better.”
Lance frowned. “We’ll be stopping off at the branch—”
*You’ll take her home,* Mathis growled.
“—But we can put you in a hire car from there,” Lance finished smoothly. He raised one eyebrow at Mathis. *What about you? Are you and her—*
“I’ll go on the boat.” He kept his eyes off Chloe, but still heard her barely-concealed gasp. He forced a smile on his face, pushing down his lion as it fought to make him stop what he was doing. “Might as well get a head start on killing those rumors, right?”
Lance stared at him hard. “Right,” he said, and for a moment Mathis was worried he was going to say something else—but he just shrugged and turned away to help his aunt gather up the crowd.
Chloe wrapped her arms around herself. “I guess this is it,” she said quietly.
Mathis’ mouth was suddenly dry. This was it—his last chance. He stepped towards Chloe involuntarily, his lion screaming at him to take her in his arms and never let her go.
Chloe looked up at him, a strange expression flashing across her face. It was gone too soon for Mathis to see it clearly, but what he did see sent ice stabbing into his heart.
She was afraid. And Harper was gone, which meant there was only one thing that could be causing her fear. Her connection to Mathis.
He clenched his fists at his side. She’d covered her emotions well, and there was no sign of fear on her face now—but he knew what he had to do.
“Goodbye, Chloe,” he said, and joined the crowd walking down to the boats.