If shewasn’tclaimed, they would be in for a lot more than a scrap. After all, his kind didn’t just come to Grim’s Bay to feed on the seals and the choicest bits of shark. They also came to breed.
It really wasn’t helpful for him to think of breeding when he was doing reconnaissance on his mate, but it was also hard to think of little else when he smelled her all around or reached past the open door to possessively stroke a sweater that hung haphazardly over the lip of her hamper.
He itched to take it, but he didn’t want tostealfrom her. Emory only took what was freely given. Mostly.
It took an enormous amount of willpower to back out the way he came, leaving her bedroom mostly undisturbed, to explore the rest of the cove. As he expected, he found a kitchen — for cooking meat, presumably — and a luxurious living space full of couches and pillows.
He experimented with laying on the couches and found he liked the L-shaped one best, since it accommodated his tail. Then he spent a good amount of time poking around her kitchen cabinets and cooler, trying to learn as much as he could in the limited time he had left.
He knew what morsels to bring one of his kind and he knew what his father had once preferred, but what didhislittle mate like? Emory had made quite a bit of money trading the finest sea urchins with buyers around the San Francisco Bay. They were highly prized. Perhaps she would enjoy some of those as a courting gift?
Except the more he explored her kitchen, the more concerned he became that perhaps hedidn’tknow what food to bring her. He recognized almost nothing in her cabinets besides a sack of bread and some cheese in the cooler. There was meat, he thought, but it was frozen into solid, inedible blocks.
What did his mate eat? How could he give her a proper courting gift to alert her to his intention to claim her if he didn’t know what filled her belly?
Emory scowled at the contents of the cooler. Flicking his claws, he closed the door.No one says no to shark liver. I will bring her the juiciest morsel and then she’ll know that she’s been claimed.
His gifts should have been warning enough, but everyone knew it wasn’t serious unless food was exchanged.
It took an incredible amount of time, energy, and risk to hunt, after all. To do so for another was an unmistakable declaration of intention. One didnotbutcher a great white shark for a partner they did not wish to claim.
Plan of action decided and with his time running short, Emory hauled himself back the way he came. He would hunt for her, fill her belly with delicious, fatty liver, and then he would entice her to his cove so that he could claim her properly.Easy.
He knew she would be back soon, but he couldn’t stop himself from pausing at her door once more.One more touch.
His sensitive fingertips had only barely grazed the thickly knitted yarn when the sound of steps on hollow metal made him tense. Small, light steps. He knew those. He’d watched her dance up the metal stairs to the entrance of her cove dozens of times and became despondent at his inability to see her once she slipped inside.
For a moment, he held perfectly still.
Instinct told him that it was best to stay in the shadows until he’d snared her. A good hunter knew that acting too quickly lost more meals than it gained.
He’d entered her cove to learn her, not to make his move. Still, knowing she was so very close was a vicious sort of temptation. What would she do if she found him there, laying in wait?
Run.
That was what she would do, and that was unacceptable. He was too damn clumsy on land to follow her. Besides, he couldn’t run the risk of scaring her off. What if she left as quickly as she appeared? The idea of not being able to see her again made his chest tighten with acute pain — a sudden, sucking loss of hope so much worse than loneliness.
Of course, he also didn’t wish to frighten her. He was her protector. It would wound him if his sudden appearance in her cove made her truly scared.
What if she cries again?No, he couldn’t bear that. He never wanted to see her weep and hold herself tight again.Never.
So even though he was sorely tempted, Emory gritted his sharp teeth and threw himself down the hall, his large, muscled body moving quickly over the smooth, artificial wood of the floor.
The sound of the bolts in the lock sliding out of place reached him a moment before he slipped back into the pool room. His heart, normally so steady in its slow, oxygen-conserving beats, thudded heavily against his ribcage. Though his hearing was better under water, he still picked up the sounds of light steps on the floor, a soft sigh, and then, “I— H-Hello? Is someone there?”
Fuck!
Gripping the strap of his satchel so that it wouldn’t get snagged on anything, Emory dove head-first into the lapping water. His sleek body sliced through it with the efficiency of a knife blade. In less than a handful of seconds, he was well beyond the ring of light cast by the pool’s opening, safely hidden in the steep drop-off and shadows just beyond.
Was she there? Was his mate just beyond him now, leaning over the moon pool to stare into the depths, searching for him?
He wanted nothing more than to check. If she was there, it would be the closest they’d been since he dared to touch his little rule-breaker’s slim foot, dangling so enticingly into the water.
In his mind’s eye, he saw himself rising out of the pool to press her back against the odd, rubbery floor. He would run his lips over the slopes of her face, learning her, reassuring her that he had no intention to bite, and then he would tell her how pleased he was with her, with her gifts, and that she would not cry again now that she had a strong, devoted mate.
If he surprised hernowshe couldn’t run. He would hold onto her until she accepted his claim or issued a challenge for him to complete. He wouldn’t let her go for anything in the world, not when he’d waited so very long for her.
But… he didn’t know if she was there. He didn’t know what would happen if he emerged from the pool and she was too far away to hold and reassure.
