Charity Gatiss finished zipping up her wetsuit over her tasteful one-piece swimsuit and grabbed the surfboard from where it was strapped to the top of her little car. The sun shone hot from behind a thin cloud cover. Not so bright as to be blinding, but still plenty hot. She was already sweating in the wetsuit. She couldn’t wait to dive into the perfect blue-green water and surround herself with the cool waves of the ocean.

Maybe that would cool the steam coming out of her ears. She shook her blonde hair over her shoulder, grumbling under her breath as she remembered the topic of conversation that had dominated the breakfast table that morning. She should have known that it was going to end up in politics. Even though she had told her parents and younger sister before coming to visit that she didn’t want any political talk.

Charity walked through the hot sand, trying to put it from her mind. Of course, the first morning in years that she had come home, they had to start complaining about the local shifter pack’s ‘lazy’ habits while at the same time bemoaning that they were taking jobs from the humans in town. As if the shifters didn’t build their settlement on the island before any humans came over from the mainland to exploit its resources.

Of course, when she had argued that point and tried to tell them that their view of shifters being lazy was in direct contrast to them ‘taking’ jobs (because they didn’t deserve to work, apparently), she was the one accused of starting a fight. Her younger sister, Honor, had been especially nasty. Charity had never met a more judgmental little wench. She was the worst parts of her parents wrapped up in a bow of self-righteousness. There was no reasoning with her family, so Charity had left.

Now she turned over in her mind everything that she had wished she had said. If it had been anybody else, she wouldn’t have backed down. Unfortunately, they were family. The crippling self-doubt that had dominated her childhood at home had a habit of returning when her father gave her that superior look and her mother did her patented eye-roll.

“Stupid bigots,” she mumbled under her breath. “Why can’t we all just walk a mile in each other’s shoes?”

Charity blew out a deep breath as she got closer to the beach. It was all white sand, covered now with tourists laying out on blankets or splashing in the water. A few people were already in the surf. She picked up her pace. If there was one thing that would calm her mind, it would be getting out there among the waves. On her surfboard with the ocean roaring in her ears, there wasn’t much room to think about anything else.

She stuck the surfboard in the sand and began to stretch. As she did so, the lifeguard, sitting in his tower, caught her eye. Charity’s heart nearly stopped. She had never watched Baywatch, but he looked like he had walked out of it. He wore a pair of stretchy swim shorts, but the rest of his body was bare. Rippling muscles gleamed in the sunlight. Charity’s mouth watered as her gaze ran down his six pack, visible even when he sat. He even had that V-thing going on.

Charity tore her eyes from the handsome man and grabbed her board. She waded out into the water, letting her muscles relax as she tasted the spray of the salt. Oh, yes. This was exactly what she needed today.

One of the men on the beach suddenly jumped up and jogged into the water with her. He was tall, with that beach-blond hair and sun-kissed skin that was so popular in shows set in Hawaii. A tourist, judging by the swaggering way he approached her. The island was small enough that the locals knew all about each other, and she had never seen him before.

“Hey there. Going surfing?”

Charity nodded. “Weather’s just right.”

“Yeah, I like surfing, too. If you really bend with the waves, then—”

A woman called from the beach. “Dave, what are you doing?”

“Your girlfriend is calling.” Charity put the surfboard down on the water and pushed off as she jumped on it.

The momentum carried her quickly away from the beach and Dave. Her arms dug into the water deeply. As much as she tried to push them aside, her family kept breaking into her thoughts. If he was a local, Dave never would have glanced at her. Not with her family’s reputation. She and her sisters had been raised in a very isolated way. It was difficult, even now, to speak up with her opinions. As a child and teen, it was like she wasn’t allowed to speak at all. She’d managed to escape, though, and that was what was important.

She passed a couple other surfers as they were coming in and sat up on her board. “How’s the surf?”

The other surfers shrugged. “Not great. I’m only a novice at it, but it’s really rough.”

Charity glanced at the rolling waves. They didn’t look too bad from where she was.

The first surfer’s companion nodded. “It’s rougher than it looks. I wouldn’t go out there without a partner if I were you.”

“Damn,” Charity muttered under her breath. She nodded in thanks to the other surfers, who continued to paddle in.

When she took her surfing lessons, it was always emphasized never to go out alone. Doing that could prove to be fatal in the wrong circumstances. But if she went back, what was she going to do but stew in her thoughts? Like how when her mother greeted her the previous day, she’d pulled her aside and told her to lay off the weightlifting

“No man wants a woman with a man’s body. You need to be softer. You look like one of those bodybuilders.”

Charity’s nostrils flared. Yes, she had muscle mass but it wasn’t overly visible, except when she wore clothes that showed off her body. Which she didn’t wear very often. She glanced down at her large breasts and snorted.

Man’s body my ass.

She kicked her feet in the water, her mind turning to all the comments she had received about her body growing up. Her mother had put her on diets starting when she was thirteen. Her father had told her that she couldn’t fit into wetsuits to go surfing when she first started showing interest.

In the end, it was her learning how to surf and loving it that had let her lose all the weight that she had accumulated in her teenage years. Her parents had said so much about her being fat that during those times she was too embarrassed to go out into public to exercise. Once she had accepted the body she was in and started loving it, then she was confident enough to go to the gym or beach. Now she had a body that she was proud of. It had taken a lot of work to get to this point.

Nope. She wasn’t going to sit here mulling in her thoughts. She laid back down and resumed paddling out to the surf. She was going to work these thoughts from her mind one way or another. Besides, he’d said he was a novice anyway.

So are you, a voice in the back of her mind whispered, but she shoved it aside.

She reached the surf quickly again. The other surfer’s words proved to be right. It was much rougher than it appeared, and the first couple times she attempted to ride a wave it knocked her off her board. The cold water buffeting her in its waves invigorated her. Just as she’d hoped, her thoughts and frustrations with her family faded away.

At one point, she was startled by the lifeguard blowing his whistle, but he was dealing with some people on the beach, not her. Hours passed until she was out of breath and her limbs were all starting to feel like lead.

One more.

She jumped onto her board into a standing position. When the wave flowed at her, she was tipped off balance. Only something went wrong. Instead of righting herself and surfacing quickly, as she went down, the back of her head hit her board. She gasped instinctively, ending up with a mouthful of water. Stars burst over her vision. She kicked hard, getting herself above the surface. But another wave hit her at once and she went under again.

She surfaced again, vision blurry and heart pounding. Ocean water muffled her ears as she kicked to get to her surfboard. Something dangled in the water just out of reach and she realized that it was her ankle lead. It was broken. She was no longer connected to her board.

She pushed herself harder, propelling herself toward the board. A wave crashed down on her. It pushed her beneath the surface again. When she rose, she couldn't even see her board.

And a distinctive triangle shape was headed for her. She froze at once only to go under the water again. The shark swam past her, its huge, muscular body just an arm's length away. It dipped under the water. Charity turned so she could keep an eye on its dark shape. She tread water furiously, trying desperately to keep her panic under control.

Then, impossibly, the shark surfaced again. It opened its huge jaws and closed them around her board. Then it turned around and swam at a leisurely pace toward her.

It was only when her board bumped into her that she remembered that the shifters on the island weren't like the ones on the mainland. Instead of shifters like bears and wolves, these ones were sharks. And just as she thought it, the shark’s form rippled. The grey-blue skin turned to a golden-bronze color. Thick hair clung to his scalp. It was the lifeguard. He was even more attractive up close as he was from a distance.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I am going to tow you to the shore now. That bump on your head is bleeding.”

Charity opened her mouth to thank him but another wave drowned her words. She scrambled onto the surfboard and clung to it while the lifeguard shifted again. He took the lead in his mouth and headed back for the shore. They moved swiftly, but not so fast that she felt like she was drowning. She watched in awe as his powerful body worked. He cut through the water like a torpedo.

When they were close enough to shore to stand, he shifted once more. She slid from the board and picked it out of the water. Her head spun and he caught her again. She glanced down, but he was still fully clothed. Ah. That was why he has stretchy shorts. If she had been paying attention, she probably would have seen them on his shark form.

“Are you okay, Miss Gatiss?”

He knew who she was. Humiliation poured through her body. She wasn't sure if she should answer or apologize for her family. In the end, she did neither. Instead, she raced up the beach and away from him.

Like a coward.