Devin sat on the beach, face turned to the ocean. This beach was incredibly rocky – undesirable to the tourists. And since it was on pack territory, it was undesirable to the humans in town, too. The water was rough. There were unseen riptides in the water and kelp waiting to grab and drown anybody who got tangled up.

But he wasn’t there for the scenery. He sat on the rocks next to Hannah, one of the young women of the pack. She had asked to speak with him privately, so he had come out here, where there would be no prying ears to overhear what she had to say.

Tears streamed down her face as she twisted her hands. “And so I slept with him. Two hundred dollars seemed like . . . like all I’d need. My children were going hungry, I couldn’t find work. And I never thought I’d have to see him again. He was just some tourist.”

Devin didn’t speak. He put his hand gently over hers to show that he wasn’t judging her and continued to watch as the sea savagely beat the shore.

“He came back the next year and introduced me to a friend. Then another. Then there were people phoning me and I . . . I didn’t know what else to do. It was money, and I needed to feed my kids. At first, they came when I was in the middle of a crisis. Heat shut off, electricity bill due. Then they were always there, and I just . . . accepted anyway.”

It was, unfortunately, a story he was hearing quite a lot these days. Over half of the men, including his own father, in the pack, had been killed in a fishing incident ten years ago. It was right at the time that the former leader — known as the alpha, even though their small group didn’t operate the same way as the land-based packs of bears and wolves and the like — had vanished. The humans in town refused to hire the widows for whatever reason, and so many of them had turned to prostitution.

“I hate myself so much. Some days I think my children would be better off without me.” Hannah bent her head.

Devin shook his head. “Don’t think like that, Hannah. You love those children and you provide for them. Circumstances were what they were. You can’t blame yourself for seeing only one option.”

“If I had been stronger—”

“You were strong.” Devin turned to her, looking into her eyes. “You did what you had to for them. You’ll find nothing but admiration from me for that. I have a few numbers you can call, and there is a support group in the pack run by and for people who have found themselves in your same position. I’m working with the town hall to get our people employed. It’ll be hard work, but it’ll pay enough to keep you going. And we are looking into making a coalition for a small shop on the popular beaches, selling local crafts rather than the knockoffs that the humans like to sell.”

Hannah nodded. Her eyes welled with tears and she brushed them away. “Thank you. You know, you ought to make a bid to be the pack’s alpha. You’re already there in everything but name.”

Devin smiled at the suggestion but didn’t respond. They walked back to Hannah’s bicycle, and he watched her ride away. His heart sat heavy in his chest, like it was made of a tangled web of kelp rather than muscle.

Ten years ago, he was too young to understand how it would affect things when the previous alpha vanished. Whether he had died or merely run away, nobody could know. But he had left, and nobody had stepped up to be the alpha after that. The pack, already in a bad spot, had only gotten poorer. Over the last year Devin had stepped up, trying to turn things around, but it was difficult. Even though he had support from his mother and four younger brothers, the opposition from outside of the pack felt overwhelming at times.

Sometimes he wondered if the humans just wanted them all to disappear into the surf and die.

Some of them were worse than others, though.

A sleek red car came down the dirt road. It slowed down when it got closer to him, and he saw who it was inside. Charity Gatiss. He wouldn’t have known who she was if her sister, Honor, hadn’t been so effective in disrupting his efforts to get his pack members proper jobs – even when they were undesirable, like picking up garbage from beaches and cleaning out the pit toilets. Apparently, these were jobs that they were ‘stealing’ from humans, though they’d sat without anybody applying for the job for months and in some cases years.

The car stopped and Charity jumped out. Devin kept his expression smooth, though he would have liked to glare at her. Given her response to him saving her life the previous day, she was just like her sister

She rounded the car and stopped a few feet from him. “Hi. Um . . . Hi.”

Devin nodded at her. There was something to be said for killing them with kindness. While it wasn’t a tactic he used on a lot of the people who were so opposed to the shifters having employment or a decent standard of living, this wasn’t one of those times. He wasn’t going to risk that she didn’t have some sort of camera or something to prove what ‘monsters’ shifters were.

It was a real shame that someone so beautiful was related to Honor Gatiss.

Charity had looked good in her wetsuit the previous day. Today, in a pair of jean shorts and a flowing green tank top, she looked even better. Her arms were thick with muscles, her blonde hair hung in curls, and her figure . . . Even though the loose top somewhat hid what her breasts looked like, it was clear that they were huge. Devin had always considered himself a breast man, and seeing hers could have made him lose all control.

“Hi,” she said again. She bounced from one foot to the other, wringing her hands. “My name is Charity Gatiss. I was at the beach yesterday.”

“I’m Devin Luthor. I remember. How’s your head?” He kept his tone polite but disinterested.

Charity brushed her fingers through her hair. “I got a bit of a nasty bruise, but nothing too bad. Thanks to you. If you hadn’t come out for me, I probably would have drowned.”

“I doubt it. You’re a powerful swimmer. Once I was out there I wondered if you even needed help.” Appreciation slipped into his voice despite himself.

Even with her injury, she had been holding her own against the surf. Most people who ended up floundering out there couldn’t keep themselves above the surface. That’s why there were multiple signs stating that shark-shifters patrolled the beach. It kept the real sharks away and allowed them to help the tourists who got themselves over their heads in the water.

“Well, anyway . . . ” She took a deep breath. “I acted atrociously. I’m so sorry for running off like that. I was . . . I was being stupid. So . . . that’s why I came out here. So that I could thank you and apologize.”

Devin’s brows rose at that. He considered her, with her flushed face and twisting hands. It seemed genuine. He hadn’t expected that at all. “Well, then you’re welcome. As for when you ran away . . .  I really didn’t expect anything else from the sister of Honor Gatiss.”

Charity’s head jerked up. “What is she doing?”

There was such dread and anger in her voice that it surprised him. But how much could she actually be ignorant of? Then again, she hadn’t been on the island for a few years.

“She’s making it very difficult for my pack to find jobs where we can make living wages. I had to fight for months to get that lifeguarding job, and when city hall agreed to pay us to clean up the beaches, she organized a volunteer group to go do it. Stuff like that.”

Charity’s eyes flashed. Her hands clenched. “That stupid little — I am so sorry. She’s a racist little bitch.”

Devin snorted. He would never have put it that way — out loud at least. “She’s dangerous. She’s hurting my pack. If you’re really angry about this, you’d talk with her. Try to make her understand that we’re just people trying to escape the cycle of poverty. And get her to stop doing her soapbox speeches for the newspapers. Last week, we had two teenage boys get beaten so badly that they ended up in the hospital due to her little ‘editorials.’”

Charity closed her eyes for a moment, inhaling deeply. She nodded. “I’ll do my best. You should know that Honor doesn’t listen to anybody but Honor, though. And she’ll have our whole family backing her up . . . But that doesn’t matter. It’s just an excuse. I will knock some sense into her.”

“Thanks.” Devin considered her for a long moment. There was a glint in her eye – a look that seemed determined. “So what are you here for? Come back for a visit?”

Why had he asked that? It didn’t matter. What he needed to be doing was ending the conversation. Then he could get back to his business and let her get back to hers. And yet, he found himself not wanting the conversation to end, despite who her sister was.

“In a way, yeah. Well, I am here to visit, but I’m also working on submitting a proposal to study the geology of the island and its surrounding islands. It’s really quite fascinating, and I think it could help with expanding the knowledge of geological events of the past. Maybe even help predict things like earthquakes.”

It was an earthquake that killed the men of the pack ten years ago. Well, the effects that the earthquake had had. From what they had discovered afterward, the men didn’t even have time to shift before they were killed.

“That sounds interesting.” Devin found himself relaxing despite himself. She just seemed so sincere in what she was doing and saying. A smile broke across his face. “So, I was pretty impressed by your surfing yesterday. Would you like to know where the best waves on the coast are?”

“San Onofre?” Her interest was definitely piqued.

Devin shook his head. “Nope. I have this little island that I go to. It’s got the best surf that I’ve ever seen. I’ll have to show you sometime.”

Charity glanced at her car with the surfboard tied on top. “Are you busy right now?”

Devin grinned.