Saina felt better the second time she woke.

The pain in her shoulder was considerably less, and she didn’t feel as weirdly adrift and weak as she had before.

She was also in a much more comfortable bed, big fluffy pillows under her head. A tropical print quilt was pulled up to her shoulders, and she found that the distasteful lingerie had been replaced by a simple, comfortable sundress.

“You’re awake!”

A lovely, curvy black woman was sitting at a desk next to the bed, holding a sheaf of papers open in a manila folder. She looked friendly enough, but Saina knew better.

Saina struggled upright, as the woman rose and tried to stop her. “You’re hurt, stay still!”

But being upright gave Saina more breath, and she opened her mouth and sang a few notes of a love song lullaby.

“Easy nights,

Northern lights,

Open your heart,

The lines on your chart…”

The woman looked at her quizzically. “I’m Jenny,” she said, completely unmoved. “You shouldn’t be sitting up, but you do have a lovely voice.”

Saina blinked at her. Her gift didn’t tend to be as strong with women, but she hadn’t met a person yet that a simple sleep song had so little impact on. Jenny didn’t even yawn.

“I’m Saina,” she said uncertainly, abandoning her plan to put Jenny to sleep and try to escape. Her shoulder hurt wickedly. “Thank you?”

“You should lay back,” Jenny scolded her. “You don’t want to open the wound again. Saina is such a beautiful name!”

“It’s better,” Saina lied, but she let Jenny fluff her pillows and tip her back onto them. “Saina is Hindi for princess,” she added.

“We’ll let Bastian be the judge of how much better you are,” Jenny told her, unconvinced. “He’ll be so happy to see you awake.”

“Bastian,” Saina tasted his name in her mouth. “He’s the lifeguard with the golden eyes?”

Jenny’s smile was sparkling and oddly smug. “Yes. He found your boat sinking in the middle of a storm, lucky for you.” She had an easy Californian accent, and a kind smile.

Saina didn’t trust it for a moment.

She looked around the room. She was in a small, beautifully appointed bedroom with big French doors opening out onto a little porch. “Where am I?” There were, at least, plenty of exits.

“This is Shifting Sands Resort,” Jenny explained. “A shifters-only vacation resort off the coast of Costa Rica.”

Saina’s hands made fists in the tropical quilt. “Shifters?” she asked, as innocently as she could manage. It was unnerving not to have her music to simply make this woman automatically like and trust her. Maybe the pain of her injury was making it work incorrectly.

Jenny gave her an amused look. “You wouldn’t be healing that quickly if you weren’t one, too,” she said. “You don’t have to hide who you are here.”

Saina gazed back in consternation, not admitting anything. “What kinds of shifters?” she asked suspiciously.

“All sorts,” Jenny said with a laugh. “I’m an otter shifter.” She said it with wonder, as if she weren’t used to the idea yet. “My mate is a lynx shifter. My sister is a wolf, and her mate is a bear.”

Saina wondered what Bastian was, with those bottomless golden eyes, but didn’t want to ask. “Your… mate?” she asked, instead.

Jenny’s face took a soft, distant look. “For shifters, there is one person, one perfect mate. They know each other at once, as if their souls recognize each other.”

It sounded lovely. And romantically ridiculous. Saina wasn’t even sure she believed in love.

“You… don’t know about mates?” Jenny added, coming fully back to the conversation.

Saina refrained from scoffing that it sounded like a fairy tale. “I’d heard of them,” she admitted. She didn’t have to add that she’d never thought they existed. It seemed more likely that Jenny was under some other kind of magical influence.

Jenny’s eyes danced, like she had a delightful secret that she wanted very much to share. “I’ll let Bastian tell you more,” she said, gathering her papers. “I know he’ll want to know that you’re awake.”

When she left, Saina slipped carefully out of the bed. The view from her porch was out over the resort, the roofs of other little buildings like the one she was in spread out below her. There was jungle to her right, ocean before her, and just visible through the trees to her left, a gleaming white fortress that must be the restaurant and bar. The sun was just beginning to set, turning the sky gold and rose.

Saina leaned against the deck railing and closed her eyes to listen to the quiet sounds of distant ocean.

“Saina?”

His voice gave her a crazy little thrill to her toes, and Saina knew before she turned that her lifeguard had returned.

He was standing in the doorway, looking nervous and excited. Saina was equal parts relieved that her magic wasn’t entirely gone, and surprised. The effects of her song should have faded away by now, but he was clearly still utterly besotted with her. It made her feel unexpectedly guilty.

“Jenny said your name was Saina,” he said, adoration in the way he said it. Then he scowled in concern. “And you should be in bed!”

“I’m fine,” she said, with a practiced silky smile. “You don’t have to worry for me.”

His scowl melted. “Let me at least check it,” he breathed.

Saina sat at the edge of the bed and let him peel the medical tape back and check under the swaths of bandage that covered her shoulder front and back. His gentle touch was surprisingly disturbing to her calm, sending tingles of sensation through her skin. Had she managed to enchant herself with her injury-addled song?

“Well?” she asked, looking up into his face.

The eye contact obviously unbalanced him. He gazed down at her and stammered, “It’s, it’s, looking, coming along nicely. Healing up well. It looks… good.”

Saina made herself smile at him. Whatever the reason, she would have one unquestionable ally here, then. She had to remind herself firmly that this was in her nature, that she ought to be grateful for this unexpected enchantment, not feel guilty about it. Even though she didn’t understand how she had managed to cast an enchantment like this at all. It was nothing like her usual siren magic.