Sharkbait

It didn’t take long to shower and change in the locker room at the dive shop. This time, I put on my string bikini. The shark motif made this suit my favorite, even though they had to be very small to fit on the triangles of fabric that made it up. I smiled as I checked it in the mirror; I rocked this outfit! I pulled a long, thin T-shirt over my head and put on flip flops before grabbing my bag and heading out.

It wasn’t a long trip down the Strand to the beach they had picked, and it was warm and breezy. Jennifer parked the Jeep in the lot, and we walked over the hot sand to join the large group set up around some of the grills and picnic tables. “Did you guys have fun,” Karen asked as she walked up.

“Some more than others,” I said as I looked over at Amy and Kai with a knowing glance. Her mouth dropped, and she turned red as a beet as she figured it out. “It was a lot of fun.”

“Very scenic,” Adrienne said. “Lots of wildlife to see.” She smirked at Amy as she walked past the couple. They had towels laid out for us, so I set my bag down on one before pulling off my T-shirt. I could see a bunch of human males that decided to hang around this stretch of beach, hoping to meet some of the hotties in our group. I ignored them as I headed back to the grills.

The burgers were great, and I was starving after a full morning of diving. The afternoon was a blast. We had about three dozen people there, enough to get a good volleyball game going and some touch football. The water was warm and inviting, and there were plenty of people to rub suntan lotion over my back. More people from the Summit arrived around dinnertime, and they brought steaks and all the fixings with them.

I was sitting at a table with a few other single females when I saw Terry get up and walk along the water towards the far end of the beach. He’d participated in today’s activities, but his heart wasn’t in it. I felt an urge to follow him, so I did. “Where are you going,” Adrienne asked as I walked past their table.

“I’m going to talk to Terry,” I said.

She looked over at Karen. “We’ll take a walk as well. It will feel good after a big meal like that.” She took my hand. “Never alone,” she said. “Especially not with a desperate unmated Alpha.”

“Terry would never do that, but I need to speak to him,” I said as we walked away. The two Lunas dropped back as I jogged through the wet sand to catch up to Terry Foster. Luckily, he was stopping to pick up shells and toss rocks out into the surf, so it didn’t take long. “Terry?”

He smiled as he turned to me. “Hello, Sharkbait,” he said with a smile. I blushed a little at his use of my kiddie nickname. “I had some time to talk with Amy and Kai today. Your friend was a fountain of knowledge on you.”

“Oh, Luna, I’m going to smack her into next week,” I griped. “Do you want to be alone? I don’t want to impose.”

“I enjoy your company, Vicki. It doesn’t have to be more than that.” He turned and kept walking down the beach away from our group. I fell in next to him, the waves licking at our feet as they finished their run up the shore. We didn’t say anything for a few minutes. “I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said,” he finally let out. “I’ve been so obsessed with finding a mate that I’ve let the rest of my life pass me by. This is the first time in years I’ve just gone out with a group for the fun of it.”

“You didn’t go out?”

“I did, but it was always with a purpose. I’d visit Packs to look for my mate, but I’d leave right away if I didn’t find her. I didn’t stick around to make friends or experience new things. The older I’ve gotten, the less fulfilling my life has been. I train, I do my Beta duties, and I try to sniff out my mate. Today was different. I knew my mate wasn’t here, but I let myself have fun just for the sake of fun. Thank you for that.”

“I didn’t do anything, Terry.”

He stopped and turned to me. “You did it all. I only signed up to dive because I wanted to get close enough to make my offer without scaring you. What you said to me on the boat gave me hope again. I’ve spent so many years being bitter at our Goddess for what she took away that I’ve not prepared myself for what she has in mind for me. Maybe the reason I haven’t found my second-chance mate is because I haven’t let go of my first one.”

He stopped and walked into the surf until the waves hit his knees. I walked behind him, placing my hand on his back. “We grieve in different ways,” I said. “My Uncle lost his will to live after his mate died of cancer. It got so bad that his Beta challenged him and took over the Pack, leaving Leo as a rogue. He had money, a big empty house full of memories, and cases of Jack Daniels to drown his sorrow with.” Terry didn’t say anything. He just stared at the water as his fingers rubbed the canine tooth that hung with some precious stones from his necklace. “His wolf was dying slowly, and he didn’t care.”

“What turned him around?”

“My mother was a waitress at the restaurant he ate at every Tuesday, and she became friends with him. When her car died, he realized that his wife’s car was still sitting in the garage, unused. He couldn’t bring his mate back, but he could help out a friend. The car, her clothes, her jewelry; none of it would do him any good once he died, but all of it could help someone now. My Mom invited him for Christmas when I was almost five, and that’s when he discovered I was a werewolf.”

“You had no idea?”

“No, my Mom was human; she’d had a fling while on break from school with Leo’s younger brother and got pregnant. He wanted her to abort it. Mom left town, and we had no idea I was a werewolf, much less a mantled Alpha female. It caused all kinds of problems,” I said with a sigh.

He snorted. “I can just imagine.”

“The Council got involved, and Luna Adrienne came to his house. She recognized him as her second-chance mate right away, but Leo’s wolf didn’t tell him. He wasn’t ready yet; he hadn’t moved on. When he finally did, his wolf came back. They’ve been together for thirteen years now.”

Terry sat down, letting the surf run over his legs and up to his chest. “I haven’t shifted for five years,” he said. “I can’t hear my wolf. I know he is there, but he won’t talk to me.”

I got down behind him, hugging his body from behind as the emotions came out. He was clinging to the necklace as the tears went down his face. I knew that the tooth he wore was from his lost mate, and as long as he clung to it, he’d never be free. “Let her go,” I told him as I held him tight. “It’s time for you to live again.”

“What is going on,” Adrienne linked to me as they kept watch from down the beach.

“He’s finally letting go of his mate,” I said. “I’m fine.”

It took a few minutes for him to make the decision, and I could sense his wolf coming forward as he did. He pulled the necklace over his head, staring down at the tooth. “Goodbye, my love,” he said. I stepped back as he got up and walked until he was in waist-deep water, then threw the necklace as far as he could into the warm waters.

He walked back and pulled me into his arms for a hug. “Thank you,” he said. “Still no mating pull.”

“I could have told you that,” I said as he let me go. “Adrienne felt it even when Leo didn’t. None of the females you’ve met are yours, or they would have known.”

“A man can dream,” he replied as he took my hand and walked out of the surf with me. “You’re an amazing young lady, Vicki. You are going to do great things, I can sense it.”

“Right now, I want to get some of the pecan pie they brought along for dessert,” I said with a giggle. We started back towards our group, passing the Lunas as they watched. I let him hold my hand as I felt his wolf making his presence known.

“AIDEN? AIIII-DAN! OH GOD, WHERE’S AIDAN?”

The four of us ran towards a woman who was standing in the surf, looking frantically for her boy. I didn’t see anyone swimming out there. “Where did you last see him,” Terry asked as we reached her.

“Right out there! He was only up to his chest in the water! Oh GOD, AIDAN!!!”

“Call 911, Karen,” I said as I ran into the surf. Adrienne, Terry, and I spread out and started to look, but it was difficult. We didn’t have masks, and the churning waves limited our visibility. I started swimming as soon as the water was waist-deep, looking for the boy. “Please, Luna, let us find him,” I prayed as I got to deeper water.

I thought I saw something ahead of me at the edge of the dropoff. I took a deep breath before kicking below the water. I could feel the riptide starting to move me and swam with it, figuring it would take the boy as well.

I’d been under for over a minute when I saw an arm. Swimming towards it as fast as I could, I grabbed the boy off the bottom and pushed off towards the surface. He was dead weight, not moving, and I screamed for help as soon as I broke water.

Terry was the closest to me and reached me first. The two of us swam into shallower water, and Terry pulled the boy out as soon as his feet touched bottom. I was exhausted from the swim and from holding my breath. A man I didn’t know helped me to the beach and sat me down.

I looked at where they had the boy; his fingers were blue, and no one knew how long he’d been underwater. Terry was giving rescue breaths as Karen performed CPR. I could hear the siren as a Jeep from the lifeguard station at the main part of the beach approached; this section did not have lifeguard coverage.

The two lifeguards had an automatic defibrillator with them and attached it while Karen finished her set of compressions. The machine shocked his heart and got it going again. We all let out a sigh of relief when he coughed up water.

He opened his eyes, and his Mom was crying as she held his hand. She didn’t let go until the ambulance arrived.

She turned to us as we were giving our statements to the lifeguards for their incident reports. “Thank you,” she said through her tears as she hugged me, then Adrienne. When she grabbed Terry around the waist, I saw it.

His eyes flashed with his wolf coming forward, and he froze for a second. His arms came down around her as his nose took in her scent. His teeth were starting to shift, but she was human. “Terry,” I said as I pinched his ear to get his attention. “Maybe you can follow the ambulance in her car while she rides with her son?”

My words got through, and he nodded. “Give me your keys, and I’ll gather up your stuff and bring it to the emergency room for you.”

She looked lost but was clinging to him like a baby monkey without knowing why. “All right,” she said. They went to where her blanket and bag was; she took her purse with her, while he gathered everything in the towel.

She climbed into the back of the ambulance as I walked with Terry towards the parking lot. “Thank you,” he said. “My wolf didn’t listen to me when I tried to hold him back.”

“Congratulations,” I told him. “I had no idea it would work that quickly.”

He just shook his head as he pressed the remote, and her minivan opened up with its lights flashing. “I don’t even know her name, she might even be married,” he said as he tossed the stuff onto the passenger seat.

“You have to get her to fall in love with you before you tell her,” I said. “Help her through this, and it will get you close.”

He started up the van and moved the driver’s seat back so he could get his long legs in. “Thanks, Vicki.”

“Good luck, Terry.” He closed the door and drove out of the space, tucking himself right behind the ambulance as it drove away with lights and sirens.

Luna did what she wanted when she wanted. I felt Adrienne and Karen coming up behind me as I watched them drive away. “You did good, kiddo,” my Aunt said as she put an arm around my shoulder. “How many lives is that now?”

“Three,” I said. I’d been involved in two rescues as a lifeguard at the Apple Valley pool, and now this. “I have to let go of him and move on,” I said.

“Luna will wait as long as she needs to,” Adrienne agreed.

“Can she let me finish grad school first,” I asked. Both of them laughed before we started walking back to our part of the beach.