Chapter 15

15

Grant, Jong-min, and Jong-hyun discussed plans to foil Samantha’s seduction attempt that night while we ate dinner. I didn’t pay too much attention to them, since I knew Reed wouldn’t sleep with her tonight; he wasn’t a cheater.

“What if we convince him to get his sperm frozen and give it to her?” I said as I ate my dessert.

Three sets of eyes pivoted to me.

I stopped with my fork in my mouth. “What?”

“Shifters must have a live mating for it to work. They cannot use artificial insemination,” Grant explained.

“Really?” I scowled. “That’s weird. Must be some stupid magic block. Magic’s frustrating sometimes.”

“You’d really have been fine with him donating his sperm?” Jong-hyun asked. “That would mean he would have children out in the world.”

“Yeah, I understand that he wants to help with the decreasing werewolf population. If I could donate eggs or something to help with the shark population, I would. I just don’t fancy the idea of him sleeping with another woman. Giving her a jar of stuff is totally different.”

I set my fork down, the discussion ruining my appetite.

Something in my chest tightened and I rubbed a hand against my sternum. What was that? Anxiety? I hadn’t felt anything like it before.

The guys resumed talking while I sipped on my drink in silence.

The feeling came again and I pressed hard against my sternum. What was this feeling in my chest? It was a heavy feeling now.

“I’ve got to go,” I said and stood.

They all turned to me with scowls.

“What’s wrong?” Grant asked.

I rubbed at my chest and shook my head. “I don’t know.”

Heading out of the restaurant, hand pressed to my chest, I moved on autopilot. My feet took me to the sitting area by the check in desk. Standing next to the windows was Reed and Samantha. Reed stepped forward and hugged her tenderly, his arms wrapping around her slowly and tightly.

The feeling in my chest increased and from the side of my eye I noticed a gray wispy magical strand. The strand tightened, like a guitar string, and thrummed as Reed leaned back to look down at Samantha’s face.

Physical pain and emotional pain burst through me and I felt my body shifting slightly, my teeth elongating and my scales forming along my throat as I continued to stare at them.

I grasped the rope between my hands and pulled it towards my face, my mouth opening.

Reed scowled and started looking around him, but Samantha grabbed his face between her hands and leaned up to kiss him.

“Kass, don’t!” Grant yelled and rushed forward.

The urge to bite through the magical strand grew so intense that if I didn’t do it, I thought I might explode in pain.

Grant shoved his arm into my mouth, causing me to bite into his arm more than the strand, so only a tiny tear happened to the strand. “Kass, don’t,” he whispered.

I opened my mouth as wide as I could and stepped back, horror causing my face to fall. “Grant, I … I didn’t mean … you put your arm. I’m sorry.”

He held his arm against his chest and shook his head. “It’s not your fault. I’m okay. I’ll heal in a minute. Look, it’s not even bleeding anymore.”

I shook my head hard and suddenly couldn’t breathe. My gills opened and closed on my neck, but there was no water for us to breathe. I needed the ocean. I needed water.

“Kass,” Reed called, his voice sounded pained.

Samantha tried to hold onto him, but he pulled away from her.

Shaking my head more, I ran towards the exit. I needed to get outside. Out of this box. Away from him.

Outside the hotel in the artificially lit up night, I gasped for breath, but my gills still couldn’t work here. There was no water here. This was a desert. A place devoid of water. I was going to suffocate.

Jong-hyun scooped me up into his arms and ran over to a taxi that was waiting to give a ride. He said something to the driver and slid me inside the back, holding me on his lap. “Breathe with your lungs, Kass. You have lungs for air, but you’re panicking. Inhale with your lungs, not your gills.”

I shook my head and clutched his shirt. I couldn’t. I couldn’t breathe.

He pulled out his cell phone and said something in a different language I didn’t understand.

Black dots started to crowd in from the corners of my vision.

The taxi swerved around a corner and Jong-hyun leapt out with me in his arms. He ran into a building through a door some stranger held open, down a hallway with the stranger yelling directions behind us, and then dropped me into water.

I flailed for a minute, my brain not comprehending fully what was going on, but my instincts took over and I shifted into my full shark form.

Flicking my tail hard, I propelled myself forward and was finally able to breathe.

After a few full trips around the tank, I realized that Jong-hyun had somehow found an aquarium and I was inside a shark tank.

It took me at least thirty minutes to calm down enough to swim back to where Jong-hyun stood. Peeking the side of my head out of the water so I could look at him with my shark eye, I blinked in question, swimming in smaller circles so I could see and hear him.

He leaned forward on the railing and smiled. “I had worried something might occur to trigger your need for the ocean while we were here. So, I did research to find an aquarium nearby and reached out to a friend who works here to ensure I could get you here no matter the time of day.”

The friend in question, the stranger, wiggled his fingers at me, his eyes wide as he looked at me.

I swam in one last circle before shifting back to my human form and reaching up my arms.

Jong-hyun grabbed my hands and lifted me out of the water with ease.

His friend held out a towel for me, eyes averted. “You are a beautiful shark.”

“Thank you,” I said and patted myself dry.

“You can breathe now, yes?” Jong-hyun asked.

I nodded. “The panic is gone.” The pain in my chest had also subsided, but was still throbbing slightly. Touching the center of my chest, I looked up at him. “Is Grant okay?”

“He is perfectly healed, like it never happened.”

“What was that?” I asked.

Jong-hyun rested his hand atop mine on my chest and said, “It appears you were going to sever your bond with Reed. Grant stopped you.”

Sever my bond? “I-I didn’t want to do that. I couldn’t really even think. It was just like a need, a necessity to do it.” What would have happened if Grant hadn’t stopped me?

Jong-hyun squeezed my hand and smiled. “Come, let’s get you back to the hotel so you can shower. Your beautiful hair has some kelp in it.” He picked out a leaf and tossed it back into the tank.

Turning to his friend, I bowed my head. “Thank you.”

“I’m glad I could help.”

Jong-hyun picked me up in his arms with the towel still wrapped around me and carried me out to the taxi that had waited for us.

I cuddled in his lap as we drove and closed my eyes.

Facing Reed after this wasn’t going to be easy. I also needed to apologize to Grant again.

The urge to rub my chest was strong, but I didn’t dare touch it again now knowing I had almost severed the bond with Reed.