The ocean whispers behind me, promising safety if I'll just turn around and dive back under. But ahead is everything that matters. Grayson. The brotherhood. An island full of people, some of whom have no idea what's coming.
Pulling myself from the water, I head back up the cliff path. The shadow at the cliff edge is gone, but I can still feel eyes watching. My skin still carries the ocean's salt, and exhaustion makes every step a battle, but I climb anyway, finding and grabbing a discarded blanket and wrapping it around myself.
At the top of the path, I stop. Turn back to face whatever watches from below. My body may be human again, but I know what I am now. What I can do. What I'm willing to become to protect the people I love. Carrick wanted to capture a marine biologist, but what he's going to face instead is something that's been sleeping in my blood for generations, and it's done hiding.
CHAPTER 13
GRAYSON
The prowler's trail ends at the northern caves where the rocks are too porous to hold scent and the tide has washed away whatever evidence might have remained. Declan crouches near the cave mouth, studying marks in the stone that could be claw scratches or could be nothing. Rafe prowls the perimeter, his panther's instincts making him twitchy in ways that set my bear on edge.
"Whatever was here is long gone." Declan straightens, frustration evident in every line of his body. "Covered their tracks too well. Professional work."
"Or supernatural work." Rafe's attention stays fixed on the cave entrance. "The kind that knows how to hide from other predators."
My phone buzzes in my pocket. Jax's name flashes across the screen, and something about the urgency of the vibration sends adrenaline flooding through my veins. I answer before the second buzz.
"Grayson." Jax's voice is rough, strained in ways I've rarely heard. "You need to get back here. Now."
"What happened?" But I'm already moving, breaking into a run that has Declan and Rafe falling in behind me without question.
"Isla's cottage was attacked. Professional team. Supernatural. They came for her." He pauses, and I hear something that might be pain or might be awe. "She fought them off. Water everywhere. One of them through the door. Another over the cliff. And then she ran for the ocean."
My heart stops. The ocean. She ran into the water with attackers chasing her, with no way to defend herself once she hit the waves. Claws prick the inside of my skin, my bear demanding I move faster, get there now, find her before it's too late.
"Is she—" I can't finish the question. Can't voice the fear that's clawing through my chest.
"I don't know." Jax's words are clipped, controlled. "She dove in. They followed but came back empty. Said the water itself fought them. I've been watching for her to surface, but there's been nothing. Grayson, it's been too long. Even a strong swimmer couldn't?—"
I end the call and run. The path from the northern caves stretches for miles of rough terrain, but I'm not walking and I'm not human. Grey mist erupts around me as thunder rumbles across the island. Silver light flares, and my bear takes over. Four legs eat up the distance with speed human form could never match.
Declan and Rafe follow in their own forms. A wolf and a panther racing behind a bear through morning light that suddenly feels too bright, too normal for what might be happening. The world should be dark if Isla is hurt. The sun shouldn't shine if she's?—
No. I refuse to finish that thought. She's alive. She has to be alive. The alternative is unacceptable.
The cottage comes into view, and the destruction stops me in my tracks. The front door hangs off its hinges. Windows are shattered. Water damage stains the wooden floors, and the acrid smell of fear-sweat and supernatural violence permeates everything. Jax stands near the tree line in human form, silver burns visible on his throat where someone used a chain on him.
I force myself back to human form. Mist swirls as thunder cracks, blue light fading. The transformation leaves me naked and shaking with adrenaline, but I don't care about modesty. I only care about one thing.
"Where?" My voice is barely human.
Jax points toward the cliffs. "She ran that way. Dove off the rocks near the south point. I saw her go under, but I couldn't follow. Too many of them between us, and by the time I fought clear, the water was too disturbed to track her scent."
I'm moving before he finishes speaking. My human nose isn't as sharp as my bear's, but Isla's scent is burned into my memory. Lavender and salt and something uniquely her that makes my beast recognize its mate. I follow it through the destroyed cottage, across the cliff path, down toward the rocks where the ocean meets land in violent collision.
The scent trail ends at the edge. She went into the water here, just like Jax said. But there's something else. Something that makes my breath catch in my throat despite the fear still churning through my gut.
Magic. Strong magic, the kind that accompanies transformation. Silver and blue light has left residue on the rocks, fading but unmistakable. And underneath it, a scent that's both Isla and not Isla. Still her at the core but changed somehow. Wilder. More ocean than land.
"Grayson." Declan's voice comes from behind me. He's human again, and his expression carries the weight of someone who understands what I'm seeing. "She shifted."
"That's not possible." But even as I say it, I know it's true. The evidence is right here, written in magic and scent. "She's never done it before. Didn't even know she could."
"Happens sometimes." Rafe joins us, also human now. His tone is matter-of-fact, like he's discussing the weather instead of impossible survival. "The animal takes over when you're about to die. Instinct."
Movement catches my eye further down the shore. Someone is climbing the cliff path, moving slowly like every step costs them. The wind carries the scent, and recognition slams through me with the force of a physical blow.
Isla. Alive. Climbing toward us with exhaustion evident in every movement.
