The Master Shark's Mate (Fire & Rescue Shifters Book 5) Read online

  “Last time I saw your boy was Wednesday. We caught him sniffing round our borders again, and sent him howling back to momma. Told him it was his final warning.” The snake shifter’s lip curled. “He tell you about that?”

  *Did he?* Martha asked Nita telepathically down the pack bond.

  *No,* Nita sent back, her mental tone grim. *Sorry, Ma. Guess I should have sniffed his laundry to check for snake-stink.*

  “I apologize for his bad manners,” Martha said to the snake. “I should have taught him better. But he’s my youngest son—my baby boy. Think how worried your ma would be if you disappeared. Surely you can be neighborly enough to point us in the right direction?”

  The snake shifter spat in the dirt. “Told you all I know. Now get out.”

  Her sons’ growls kicked up a notch. Martha could tell just as well as them that the rattlesnake was lying through his fangs. He did know something, and he’d rather bleed on the sand than tell it to her.

  Heaven save us from insecure young alphas itching to prove themselves.

  Of course, thirty years back she’d been that rash young pup desperate to keep face in front of her pack. It had taken an all-out war to knock some sense into her fool head.

  She could only pray that the young rattlesnake was a faster learner than she’d been.

  “I don’t want any trouble between our people,” she said, letting her voice harden. “Your old man, God rest his soul, kept his side of the treaty, and I aim to make sure my pack keeps ours. But in order to do that, I need you to cooperate with me.”

  The rattlesnake showed his fangs again. “Don’t you threaten me, you old bi-“

  Fortunately for the snake shifter, his words were cut off by Nita’s sudden shriek. “Roddie!”

  Martha whirled, rattlesnake forgotten as the wind carried her baby boy’s scent to her too. A second later, his gangling, hangdog form stepped round the corner of the 7-11. He wasn’t alone, either. A copper-skinned girl with waist-length black hair clung to his arm, a defiant look on her face. And behind them-

  “Finn?” Martha gasped.

  He loomed behind the sheepish pair like a cop bringing a couple of juvenile delinquents home to face the music. Martha could scarce believe her eyes…but her nose didn’t lie.

  His fierce salt scent filled the gaping void in her heart. She hadn’t realized how much she’d been hurting, until she wasn’t.

  “Oh, Finn,” she breathed.

  She would have run to him despite her goggling kids, but the rattlesnake shifter moved first. He pelted for the girl, all cool forgotten.

  “Celia!” he yelled, his voice cracking with relief. Half a dozen snakes poured after him, emerging from under dumpsters. “You’re okay!”

  “More than okay,” the girl said, holding up her left hand. A wedding band glinted from her finger. “I’m married.”

  “You’re what?” The snake shifter whirled on Roddie, fangs bared. “What the hell have you done to my little sister?”

  “What the hell have you done to my little brother?” Nita yelled at the girl.

  In all the fuss and confusion, Martha only had eyes for one person. Finn circled unnoticed around the arguing snakes and coyotes, moving silently to her side. He stopped slightly out of arms’-reach, as if he was just a casual acquaintance.

  “Hello,” he said quietly.

  Something about his appearance struck her as utterly ludicrous. She had to gape at him for a moment before she worked out what was different about him.

  “You’re wearing a shirt,” she said, stupidly.

  His teeth gleamed. “I could remove it, if you prefer.”

  “Yes, please. I mean, no. Later. What?” Her human mind was moving like molasses, while her coyote was mad with joy. “Finn, what are you doing here?”

  He tilted his head. “I decided to take another vacation.”

  “So soon? Your Empress didn’t mind? How long can you stay?”

  “Forever.” His voice was the barest breath. “If you will have me.”

  “And what about him, Roddie?” Nita was demanding of her brother, as she jerked her thumb at Finn. The rattlesnake shifter was also eying the massive shark shifter warily. “Why’s he with you?”

  “He tracked me and Celia down in Vegas, by following our blood-scent or something. He made us come back.” Roddie grimaced. “He’s kind of hard to say ‘no’ to.”

  “We ran away because we knew none of you would understand,” the rattlesnake girl said, clutching him even tighter. “But not even your hired shark can separate us. We’re true mates, like it or not.”

  “He’s a shark?” Nita looked as though none of this was making any sense whatsoever. “Ma, did you have something to do with this? Who is this man?”

  The question hung in the air. Finn said nothing, expression impassive as a rock, giving her the space to answer as she chose.

  Martha took Finn’s hand. His rough fingers closed around hers.

  And she knew that they were both where they were meant to be.

  She lifted her chin proudly, smiling at her family. “He’s my mate.”

  Epilogue

  Martha let out her breath as a grinning Roddie swept up his bride and kissed her thoroughly, to howls of approval. “Well, that went more smoothly than I was expecting.”

  “You feared they would not accept her?” The flickering light of the bonfire caught the stark planes of Finn’s strong forehead and jaw as he watched the pack gather around the newly-mated pair.

  “Some of the older pack members are still having a hard time getting their heads around a rattlesnake joining us.” There were some hisses mingled in with the howls, but she was fairly certain they were coming from the snakes lurking at the edges of the crowd, and were meant kindly. “But since the youngsters are busy changing the world, all us old sticks will just have to learn to change with it.”

  Finn chuckled, pulling her closer against his side. “I do not think you can cast all the blame on the young, when it comes to changes.”

  She snuggled into him, the coolness of his bare skin refreshing in the hot, humid night. He was wearing his formal armor again, in honor of the occasion. Given that most of the pups at the party were haring around with their butts hanging out, shifting freely between two feet and four—or none, in the case of the snakes—his bare torso wasn’t going to raise any eyebrows. Though Martha had noticed more than one woman there sneaking a glance or three at his endless pecs.

  Let them admire him. Her inner coyote was smug as a cat in cream. He is ours.

  “All right, all right!” Nita leaped back up onto the impromptu platform—constructed out of a couple of planks laid across some beer kegs—in front of the bonfire. “Settle down. This isn’t the only petition tonight, after all.”

  Martha felt Finn’s muscles go rigid against her. “You aren’t nervous, are you?” she murmured.

  From the stony blankness settling over his face, he was. Quite a few coyotes drew back from him as he walked through the crowd. Martha couldn’t entirely blame them. Finn looked more like a man contemplating a massacre than a mating.

  Even standing on the beer barrels, Nita still had to tip her chin up to look him in the eye. “Who seeks to join the Ochre Rock pack?” she asked formally.

  “My name is Finn.” His rasping voice carried clearly over the expectant hush. Even the crickets seemed to fall silent to hear him. “Formerly the Master Shark, and the Voice of the Pearl Empress. In days long gone, I was the King of Teeth, ruler of all the sharks of the sea.”

  A little ripple went through the crowd, from those who hadn’t heard his titles before. Nita let the murmurs die down before she continued. “And what do you offer the pack, Finn? Why should we accept you?”

  “I am a good hunter. I can follow my prey halfway across the world.”

  “I wish he couldn’t,” Roddie called, to scattered laughter.

  “I know how to fight.” The bonfire gilded the edges of Finn’s armor as he glanced at the sm
all knot of gathered rattlesnakes. “And, more importantly, how not to fight. I know how to keep the peace, even between those who are natural enemies. These are the skills I offer to the pack.”

  Nita turned to the crowd, her hands on her hips. “Well, Ochre Rock? Does he offer us enough?”

  “No!” every coyote howled back gleefully.

  Martha was very glad Finn had just seen Celia go through this exact same hazing, because otherwise she would have put even odds on him having a heart attack on the spot. As it was, he stiffened, every muscle knotting tight. He looked on the verge of murder—a sure sign of extreme nerves.

  Nita pursed her lips. “Well then, how shall we make him prove himself?”

  Celia had been challenged to demonstrate a rattlesnake’s venom by cussing out her brother. With a gleam in her eye, she’d delivered a three-minute stream of inventive invective that had blistered the alpha snake’s scaly hide and made every mother present clap hands over the ears of their offspring. Even Martha’s twin boys had been impressed.

  I wonder what they’ll make him do?

  “Eat a whole cow!” Martha’s grandson Manny yelled out.

  “We’re trying to give him a challenge, not a snack,” Nita said, sparking more laughter. “Anything else?”

  “Make him walk barefoot across the desert!”

  “Clear out the cacti from Ten Acres!”

  Finn’s taut shoulders eased down a bit as the suggestions kept coming, each more preposterous than the last. When someone proposed that he beat all comers in a dance-off, he caught her eye. His mouth quirked slightly.

  Martha grinned back, shaking her head in response. She hadn’t put her pack up to that one.

  Wouldn’t they be surprised.

  “Make him wrestle all the other men,” Martha’s youngest sister suggested, her amber eyes wicked. “In mud.”

  This proposal met with overwhelming feminine approval. Unfortunately, it was unanimously vetoed by the male members of the pack.

  “Well, Ochre Rock, since it seems you all can’t come to agreement, it falls to me as acting alpha to set the challenge.” Nita turned back to Finn, her expression turning serious. “We have welcomed a rattlesnake into our pack today…but a shark? Our new sister Celia at least was born here, and has the desert in her blood. Now we are asked to accept someone into the pack who is as foreign to us as the sea. Someone who cannot shift and hunt with us under the full moon.”

  Even though she was pretty certain Nita wouldn’t really reject Finn outright, Martha’s stomach still twisted. She made herself bite her tongue. She’d named her daughter acting alpha, and started handing over the day-to-day responsibilities of the pack. She had to trust that Nita knew what she was doing.

  “That is a huge thing to ask indeed,” Nita continued. She looked every inch the strong, serious alpha. “It demands an appropriate challenge in response. So I will lay on you a task that will not be simply done once and quickly forgotten, but a service that you must perform for this pack every single day.”

  Finn had gone as still as stone. Martha held her own breath.

  “Finn, if you would join the Ochre Rock pack, this is what you must do.” Nita’s voice rang out in the utter silence. “Make my mother happy.”

  His eyes met hers. Tears sprang into the corners of her own as the entire pack erupted into howls of approval.

  “And keep her too busy to stick her nose into other people’s business!” her son Diego yelled out over the ruckus.

  “I thought the challenge had to be possible,” Finn said dryly, causing a wave of fresh laughter.

  “That it does. So we’ll go with just making her happy.” Nita raised her eyebrows at Finn. “Well, shark? Willing to face this challenge?”

  Finn bowed his head, grave as a knight of old accepting some perilous quest. “I am.”

  “Then, as acting alpha…” Nita flung her arms around his broad neck, grinning from ear to ear. “Welcome to the pack, Finn of Ochre Rock.”

  Martha hung back as the other pack members surged forward, converging on Finn like a laughing, noisy tide. With every welcoming hug, every hand-shake and back-slap, the warm glow in her heart grew, until it shone brighter than the bonfire behind his towering form.

  He was part of the pack. Now, he truly was her mate.

  And soon she would be his too.

  “I was so nervous!” Nita appeared at her side, wiping the back of her hand across her forehead. “I’m sweating like a hog. You always made it look so easy to address the pack. Did I do okay?”

  “You were just perfect.” Martha hugged her daughter, half-laughing, half-crying. “Oh, honey. That was perfect. You’re going to make an amazing alpha.”

  “Still got a lot to learn.” Breaking the embrace, Nita snagged a beer from her passing wife. “So promise you won’t go anywhere.”

  “Now, you know I can’t do that yet. Chevelon Canyon Lake is no more than a puddle for him.” Martha jerked her thumb at the quiet, rippling waters lapping at the shore beyond the bonfire. It was the biggest body of water in the pack’s territory, but it still wasn’t nearly deep enough for a megalodon. “The poor man has to take an eight hour drive just to be able to shift. I can’t ask him to do that long-term.”

  Nita sighed, hunching her shoulders. “Well, guess I should be grateful you’re just considering retiring to San Diego rather than Atlantis. But I’ll miss you, Ma.”

  “Don’t worry.” Martha cocked an eyebrow at her, grinning. “I promise I’ll call.”

  He’d never been touched so much in his entire life. Every time he turned, there was some new relative wanting to clap him on the shoulder or squeeze his arm. He swam through a sea of smiling, upturned faces and warm hands.

  I did not know I was so hungry, to be so full.

  “Here, Finn.” One of Martha’s identical twin sons—Diego or Ethan, he still had a hard time telling them apart—handed him a bottle. “This calls for a toast.”

  He accepted the drink, a little warily. It had become something of a game over the last few weeks for the younger men of the pack to try to find an alcoholic beverage he found palatable. He was still somewhat suspicious that the revoltingly foamy, insipid drink they’d called ‘beer’ had been some sort of elaborate practical joke.

  He took a cautious sip. It was at least inoffensive. “Mildly refreshing.”

  Diego, or possibly Ethan, looked around at the watching young men hopefully. “That close enough?”

  “I think with two hundred bucks at stake, you’ll have to do better than that, Diego,” one of them replied. “What is it, anyway?”

  “Straight bourbon.” Diego took the bottle back, looking at it mournfully. “Described as ‘mildly refreshing.’ No-one is ever going to win the bet at this rate.”

  Sid, the rattlesnake alpha, had been watching from the shadows just outside the circle of coyotes. They bristled a little as he stepped forward. The young snake ignored the glares, though his tense shoulders showed that he was aware of them.

  “I gather that there’s some sort of bet?” He held up a hip flask.

  Diego’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t know if you should trust anything that comes from a snake’s hands, Finn.”

  In answer, he took the flask. Without hesitation or a word, he raised it to his lips.

  There was a long pause.

  “Now that,” he said, lowering the flask again, “is a drink.”

  Sid grinned, showing his fangs, as the coyotes erupted into groans and recriminations. The alpha snake held out a hand. Grumbling, the coyotes started pulling out their wallets.

  “Did you really enjoy that, or is this just a shark’s sense of humor?” Diego asked Finn suspiciously as he counted out bills.

  He tipped the flask upside-down. Not a drop ran out. “I will drink more to prove it, if you would like.”

  Sid’s yellow eyes widened. He had slit pupils, like a cat. Much like shark shifters, many snakes had a hard time appearing fully human.

  “You ju
st drank half a flask of snakebite, and you’re asking for more?” he choked out.

  “It is pleasantly bracing.” Finn handed the flask back to him. “Perhaps we could drink together again, some other time. There are matters I would discuss with you.”

  The young rattlesnake looked wary. “Like what?”

  “Among other things,” Finn smiled, showing his teeth, “where to find discreet dentists.”

  “Hate to break up all this male bonding, but my man has to start making good on his promise now.” Martha had appeared at his elbow. She tugged at his arm. “Come on, Finn. Dancing’s about to start.”

  With a parting nod, he allowed her to draw him away. The heat of her hand was more intoxicating than the burn of the snakebite. He fought down an urge to pull her away from the party and into the dark woods. Much as he was enjoying the warmth and laughter of the evening…she still was not fully his mate.

  Soon, he promised himself. Soon.

  “What was all that about back there?” she asked him, as they headed toward the bonfire.

  “Diplomacy,” he replied, smiling. “Old habits die hard.”

  She nipped teasingly at his arm. “No working tonight. This is an evening for fun. Enjoy it.”

  He stopped, turning her to face him. Tilting her head, he ducked to plant a slow, lingering kiss on the side of her neck. Very gently, he pressed his teeth against her warm skin, and felt her shiver from head to toe in response.

  “I shall,” he breathed.

  From her dark eyes and the hitch in her breath, she too was contemplating the possibilities of some private, secluded glade. Nonetheless she shook herself.

  “Later,” she said firmly, taking his hand again. “Come dance with me first. No one believed me when I told them you can salsa. I want to see the looks on their faces.”

  He responded by pulling her into the dance hold. Laughing, she let him spin her around, her eyes shining in the firelight.

  Hand in hand, they danced the rest of the way across the clearing, to where their family waited to welcome them.