Kissing the Shark (Maritime Monsters #1)

Chapter 1- The Shark

CHAPTER 1- THE SHARK

PREY.

I SENSE my prey.

I am the predator.

My next meal.

This hunt will be a short one.

My favorite scent in the ocean is that of my next prey. Warm blood wafts through my mouth as I glide along the sea floor. The source of my meal is up above, near the shining waters of the surface. Very well, so be it. I’ll take my chances with whatever horrors await me up above, be they giant boats or other human clutter.

“Food,” the hammerhead shark next to me communicates. “I want this food.” Animal-speak is the language of us ocean-dwelling creatures. I only regularly communicate with fellow sharks, and he is a member of my local school. But he is a young one, a mere ten years to my twenty-one. He has the hunger, the teeth, but he is not as strong as me. More importantly, he knows of my reputation.

I am the apex. No killer whales ever swim in this corner of the ocean, only my fellow sharks. And every fish knows I back down from no other animal. When challenged, I can bare my jaw and devour anything I please. I exert my dominance over the other sharks in my herd who swim near my regular hunting ground.

Because they all fear me, I travel alone most days. My life as a shark is a solitary one.

I have accepted that I am a loner. How could I ever truly belong amongst the creatures of the deep? I am classified as a monster by the surface world, meaning I am both human and shark. I was shifting and swimming in this form for years before I could walk as a human, and I also have a hybrid guise where I retain attributes of both sides of me. However, most of my days near Wavecrush Cove, I float about as the great white shark I am. Who would choose to live as a weak human anyway? Not me.

I snap my razor jaws at the hammerhead. “This one is mine,” I say in animal-speak. He immediately backs off, sinking below. I may be a half-human, but he and the other sharks know their place.

I have devoured more than my share of fish, and today will be no different. This prey is mine, and nothing can stop me .

I swim upward with ease, tracking the source of the blood. The remora and other fish scurry out of my way, content to know I am not here to feed on them. I literally have bigger prey to go after. It is difficult to tell which unfortunate fish has died up above, but it is rather large. If I had lips in this form, I would be grinning in delight. My food is right above me. The light gets stronger, an uncomfortable presence, but a familiar one when hunting near the surface.

I open my mouth, teeth bared, and get closer. My feast…so close…ready to…feed.

I stop when my prey comes into focus. The being in front of me renders me frozen in shock. Recalling that I need to move to breathe when I am full shark, I shift into my hybrid form. My tail juts out, and my human legs sprout downward from my pelvic fins. My pectoral fins develop forward, becoming large arms. I blink twice, then my vision narrows. I pat my face with my fingers, confirming, yes, my head is now much smaller and rounder. I have a nose and lips, and a dorsal fin above my head. My tail wags behind me in the water. In this scaly, blue form, I can hover instead of swimming in circles. Now I can effectively observe the source of the blood.

It is…a human. Not just any human, a human man. He is wearing tiny orange…what did Aunt Sarah call them, swimming trunks? The garment is wrapped around his waist and he has nothing else on. He is floating, face down, near a large wooden apparatus —I believe Mother told me they were called surf…boards?

Blood floats from his nostrils; he is clearly injured. I have not sensed a human boat anywhere nearby. Did he come here alone? Humans do not typically wander anywhere near Wavecrush Cove, especially not without others.

And he is face-down with his eyes closed. I can hear his thready heartbeat. Does he not need to breathe?

I gradually flip him over so his face is in the air, but the human does not stir. Compelled by some instinct, I place him onto the wooden…surfboard…and then begin the trek of pushing him to the shore. The fins on my tail help to propel me forward, and the dorsal fin above my human-shaped head allows me to cut through the water. I push him with my arms and deftly move my legs to get us both forward in no time.

Mother instructed me not to interact with humans unless she or Aunt Sarah were present. She also told me to not prey on humans, because that is cannibalism. I have been more than happy to comply with these rules; humans rarely offer themselves up as meals in Wavecrush Cove. They are large, and would be difficult to feast on anyway. Most importantly, I am a hybrid monster, but I have morals, and cannibalism is not one of them.

Then why am I…pulled toward this human? Why do I crave him?

I get to the shore and lay the man on the sand. With the bright sun above, I take a good look at him. He has jet-black hair and darker skin than most humans I have seen. He dons a golden bronze sheen, leading me to believe he is ethnic―that is to be expected on the coast of California, or so Aunt Sarah says.

I touch his chin gently, feeling the hairs below his lip. He has groomed himself to have a tiny patch below his mouth, as well as some follicles below his nose. He is hairless below his neck, with a softer abdomen. His arms are large however, almost as muscular as mine. He has nary a wrinkle on him, with smooth skin around his nipples and torso. I wonder what his eyes look like…

His breathing is shallow, and blood trickles down his nose. He needs help . I reach into his swimming trunks pocket to see if he has one of those cell phones Aunt Sarah showed me. All I find are tiny metal chains with other metal pieces. One piece of plastic is more vibrant than the rest. The symbol does not appear to be the human alphabet that Mother taught me. I feel the plastic ridges on my fingers, then look at him.

This human nearly died. If I had not found him first, surely the hammerhead or some of the tiger sharks would have devoured him. They are pure animals, so they have no qualms about biting into such easy prey. He looks delicious to me as well, but in a different way.

I do not wish to eat him. I want to…protect him. I want to shift into my full human form and hold hands with him. I have this intense desire to get to know him and spend time with him. Seeing his precious face, even injured, he makes me crave something for the first time in my life —a mate.

I want him to be my mate. But first, he needs to wake up and get better.

“WEEWOO!”

I flinch at the sound above. I had almost forgotten that the shore near Wavecrush Cove is off of a small road, which means a bigger road is not far behind. That sound is one of the emergency land vehicles for surface dwellers. They do scheduled beach visits, and this capsized human will no doubt call their attention.

This human…who could have been my prey. This human beneath me that almost drowned in the sea. This man with di stinctly curvy eyes, soft hair, defined cheek bones, and full lips…

I caress the skin near his jaw and his eyelids flutter. He opens them slightly, and I cast a shadow over him. His eyes are dark, almost amber, and I gasp at the sight. Before I can say a word, the sirens get closer. I must not be seen, not without Mother or Aunt Sarah to guide me.

But I want him to see me.

I take one more moment to look at him as he closes his eyes again. Then, I kiss my palm and press my blue fingers to his lips. They are soft, and I hope to one day give him a real kiss, like those in the storybooks Mother used to want me to read. In the next moment, I am off, back into the waves.

I swiftly cut through the water in my hybrid form. That was too close. Mother says it is not safe for me on the surface alone because I am not acclimated to human life, and for so long I did not question it. So then why do I feel predatory instincts over some water-logged surface dweller? I do not want to eat him, far from it. I want to hold him, protect him, make sure he never drowns again. I want to touch his skin, explore his body, discover all the beautiful parts that make him who he is.

He is a real surface human, raised in society like a normal man. I am a shark shifter, predator of this corner of the sea, feared by all ocean creatures. With my razor jaws, I can eat whichever fish I want, but no amount of brute force can bring me back to him. As I swim through the current, I grasp the tiny orange piece of plastic and metal I obtained from him. This is it, my only clue.

I do not know what it means to be human, but I’d like to try. I will need to talk to Aunt Sarah and Mother about exploring the surface world for the first time in twenty-one years. This human man…he is to be my mate, I can feel it. Now I just need to find him again.