They want to be seen.
"There." Isla points to bubbles breaking the surface. "Diver's up. Wait, two divers."
I cut the engine and let Deepwatch drift closer. Through binoculars, the corporate logo marks their dive suits. Professional equipment, military-grade communication systems, and cameras documenting everything they see.
"They're filming the trenches." Isla's voice has gone tight. "Looking for something specific."
My bear surges forward, demanding action. They're in protected waters. Violating seas that have been guarded since before their ancestors learned to sail. Every instinct screams to dive down and drive them off, to show them what guards these depths.
"Grayson." Isla's hand touches my arm, and the contact grounds me. "What do you need me to do?"
No fear. Only steady determination.
"Keep the boat here. If they surface and question why you're observing, tell them you're monitoring for environmental impact." I start stripping off my shirt. "If I'm not back soon, radio Declan."
"What are you going to do?"
"Investigate." I meet her eyes and strip off my clothes. "And if they've found something they shouldn't have, I'll make sure they don't report it."
She understands.
"Be careful." Nothing more.
I dive. The water closes over me, cold and familiar. I swim down into the murky depths, deep enough that even shifter eyes would lose track. Deep enough to change without being seen.
Then I set my bear free.
The water around me thickens as if something older than tide has woken. Pale mist seeps up from the dark below, impossible this deep, drifting around my body in slow spirals before rising in a column that hides me from the trench lights. Color flickers inside it, quick flashes that burn behind my closed eyes, and a low roll of thunder moves through my bones instead of the air. The old magic wraps me completely, pulls tight, and everything I am bends to its will.
The transformation rolls through me like a wave, reshaping bone and muscle with practiced efficiency. My human form dissolves, replaced by power utterly at home in these depths. The water I struggled through moments ago becomes an extension of my body. My paws, broad and clawed, pull me forward with impossible strength and speed.
I am guardian. I am predator. I am the darkness that hunts in the sacred places.
The divers are deeper than they should be, their lights cutting through the gloom as one of them films the trench walls. They're looking for the rock formations that mark the entrance to the underwater caves.
They're looking for us.
I circle below them, moving through the current with a silence that always surprises prey. This deep, this dark, I'm virtually invisible. Another shadow in the eternal black. I riseslowly, positioning myself between the divers and the cave entrance.
One of them sees me. His light swings in my direction.
Nothing. Just murky water and suspended sediment. He sweeps the beam away.
I move closer. Silent. Patient.
The light comes back. Catches movement. He goes rigid.
I let him see my size. The massive bulk moving through water no bear should survive. Too big. Too fast. Too wrong.
His light jerks, sweeps frantically across my form but the water's too murky to show details. Just a huge dark shape with claws longer than his fingers. His breathing comes faster through his regulator—I can hear the bubbles streaming past him in panicked bursts.
I surface into his light. Let the beam illuminate fur and teeth and eyes that reflect back at him like a predator from the deep.
He freezes. His partner's light swings over.
Both of them go perfectly still.
Smart. Running would trigger my chase instinct. I drift closer, letting the current carry me toward them. They can't see exactly what I am through the murk and darkness, but they can see I'm massive. That I move through these depths with the ease of something born to them. That I'm between them and the surface.
