"I've just gone twenty-eight last month."
"I guess I could have looked that up on the internet," Irina said. "I mean, apparently you're a famous DJ."
Mick wrinkled his face. "I do have a Wiki entry, it's true."
"Oh my God! Really?" Irina dug her phone out, looking him up, and shrieked with glee as she found a short but thorough bioon Mick 'The Mouse' Mahoney, under a category of 'Irish DJs,' known not only for his house music, but for a popular streaming channel that had an astonishing number of subscribers. "Holy crap, you're like famous-famous! I'm sorry I've never heard of you!"
"I'm only famous to some people," Mick said with a grin. "Don't worry about it. You can probably name a load of Irish dancers I've never heard of."
"I probably can, yeah. Well, that's pretty cool. I'm not Wiki-worthy, myself." Irina tucked her phone back in her pocket and turned her attention to sailing and the sea again, watching a large yacht speeding toward the harbor. "Ever play on one of those?"
Mick followed her line of sight, frowning. "They're moving too fast. But yeah, a couple of times. Like a moving house party."
"Holy crap, really? What's it like onboard?"
"Opulent," Mick said after a moment's thought. "Surreal, kind of. It's not even like a cruise ship. Everything's obviously higher-quality than that, unless you're staying in the poshest cabins on a cruise ship, maybe." He flashed a grin at her. "I never have."
"I've never been on a cruise at all, so you're already one up on me. They really are moving too fast, aren't they?" Irina asked idly, watching the larger ship approach. "We should turn aside or that wake is going to drown us."
"Not drown," Mick said in a low voice. "That's what the life vests are for. But you're not wrong." Working together, they tacked the boat as the yacht bore down toward them. Irina caught glimpses of other sailing boats also furiously tacking, and even heard shouts rise against the speeding yacht. Her heart began to hammer as she realized the size of the waves being displaced by the yacht's bow. Mick, all at once, said, "Feck. We'renot going to make it," and Irina braced for the wake racing toward them.
TheFosseytilted precariously, caught exactly wrong by the yacht's wake, the little boat threatening to tip over even as she threw herself toward the rising side as if her weight might be enough to counterbalance it.
Mick said, "Feck!" again, and, very fast, "I'm really sorry about this. Try not to panic."
Then the weight of theFosseyshifted dramatically as agorillathrew itself to the rising side, and settled the boat back into the water safely.
CHAPTER 8
Mick hadto hand it to Irina: she shrieked, stared, and then somehow held it together for the next ninety seconds while he kept the boat from capsizing with three hundred kilos of gorilla-form. The moment the boat started to level, she was at the sail, keeping them on an even keel while they rode out the rest of the yacht's wake. Then she dropped onto her arse, breathless and gaping at him, and Mick, apologetic, embarrassed, and terrified, shifted back to human.
Irina shrieked again, which seemed fair, honestly. Shrieked, then laughed, and said, "I don't know why I'm screaming, it's not like the gorilla could have been anyone but you," in a slightly shrill tone. "Mick theMouse?"
Mick sank into a seat as far from Irina as he could get, in case she might still panic. "Niall didn't know about the gorilla, then," he said apologetically. "I'm so sorry. This wasn't how I wanted to tell you like."
"How did you want to tell me?" Irina's voice rose and he could almost see her trying to claw it back down. "Why did you want to tell me? Do you just go around telling people you can turn into a gorilla? You did just turn into a gorilla, right? Oh myGod, you turned into the gorilla I saw at the wildlife sanctuary! You did, didn't you? I thought he liked me," she added half beneath her breath, and at that, Mick couldn't help laughing.
"He did like you. Or rather,Iliked you. And yes," he said nervously, "I did just turn into a gorilla, and I'd show you again but gorillas aredeeplyuncomfortable in the water, and?—"
Irina's brown eyes widened. "And your life vest disappeared when you were a gorilla. But it came back now that you're you again. Where did it go? Why aren't you naked? Or at least Hulked out? Gorillas are…" She paused, examining him with a critical eye. "Well, they're a lot bigger across the chest and shoulder than you are, but your legs are much thicker. And longer. How does—how does thatwork?" She mashed her lips together, then, through the mash, mumbled, "I'm asking a lot of questions and not giving you a chance to answer."
"I'd say you're entitled," Mick breathed, then checked the sails and the water again, giving the retreating yacht a hard look. "They're going lose their license, coming in that fast. I hope they're banned from the harbor." Once he was sure they were settled safely, he offered Irina a still-nervous smile. "There are a fair number of shifters around Cork, because we can go out to the wildlife park and stretch our legs a wee little bit. And I'm one of them. Obviously."
"Shifters," she said breathlessly. "Is that what you call yourselves? Do you change into anything else?"
"Just a gorilla." Mick wobbled his hand. "Iturn into a gorilla. There's loads of other shifter animals. Lions. Wolves. Bears. Capybaras."
Irina blinked. "The…those big rabbit-pig things at the wildlife park?"
Mick grinned a bit. "Yeah. They're unusual. More unusual than gorillas, and there aren't that many of us."
"Right." Irina gazed at him, wide-eyed. "And the clothes?"
That was familiar territory. "Shift with us. If I really concentrate I could keep them from shifting with me, but then as you say, there's the Hulking out problem. I'd explode out of a life vest."
Irina nodded, eyes still round. "You don't go around telling people this very often, I assume, so why were you going to tell me?"
"Because…" Mick swallowed, and his gorilla, gently, said,Go ahead and tell her. Mates always understand.
