Kissing the Shark (Maritime Monsters #1)

Chapter 10- The Shark

CHAPTER 10- THE SHARK

THE SUN IS rising as I sit on the stone steps near MM Institute. My tail, wrapped to my left, happily wags in the water as I kick my feet up and down. I enjoy the splashing sensation onto my knees since I miss the ocean when I’m at work.

I reflect on my five weeks in the surface world. While I have an apartment, I enjoy simply sitting here after eating fish for breakfast. That first week was frustrating, but I’ve come to thoroughly enjoy my job. The satisfaction is not even about a certain beautiful Filipino man.

Well, somewhat to do with him. My mate has stopped avoiding me, and the smiles and fist-bumps we share are cataloged in my heart. The past seven days we have been doing early and late literacy lessons. Despite the pains of adjusting to land customs, being in the presence of my Karlo makes it all worth it. He teaches me grammar, comprehension, and enunciation, and I’m proud to say I pay attention and I do not simply stare at his mouth. I only do that on occasion when the lesson is almost over.

“Yo, RJ!” A chill goes down my spine and I grin. I push myself up with ease to see my beloved approach me. He walks down the steps of the parking lot with a cheerful demeanor. This is in stark contrast to his cold disposition all those weeks ago. Perhaps there is some merit to the strategy of slowly getting to know the person you are in love with, as opposed to immediately declaring them your mate.

“Karlo Castillo. Good morning, my friend.” I want to be so much more.

“Get in an early swim?”

“I need to eat.”

“Right. Fish. Apex predator. Got it.” He chuckles, and it is a symphony in my heart. I shake his hand and tap his shoulder with my other hand, a maneuver that Skyler informed me was a “bro hug.” Regardless, I adore getting to touch my beloved’s skin. “You ready to go in?”

“Of course.” I smile, but Karlo stops and looks behind me.

“Well, well.” I know that voice.

My eyes widen and I turn around to see Mother. Her scales shimmer as she shakes off the water, her tail wagging in the air.

“Hello. Are you uh, here for the Institute? We’re not open yet,” Karlo says.

“I’m here to see my son.” She grins and stands next to me. Her eyes, however, never leave Karlo.

“Oh! You’re, uh… oh .” He looks between us with a shocked stare.

“I’m Miss Shaughnessy. You must be the mate!” She approaches him, and I block her.

“Mother!” I say through gritted teeth. “This is…just a friend.” I am sure sh e can see the panic in my eyes. I have never treated her this way, but I cannot allow her to scare away the man I love.

“Just a friend, huh? Is that why you never visit home anymore?” She stares at me disapprovingly, then turns to Karlo and smiles. “We live in an underwater cave.”

“Fascinating,” Karlo replies. “I’m Karlo, by the way.”

She tries to shake his hand, but I block her again. “Mother, I cannot visit all the time. I have an apartment and a job now.” I’m desperate to get her back into the ocean.

“Something tells me it’s not just your job that’s keeping you away.” She wags her eyebrows at me, then turns back to Karlo. “You seem like a lovely young man. How do you feel about adopting kids and making me a grandma shark?”

“Mother!” I squeak. I did not know I could make this noise. Some television programs portrayed parents being embarrassing, and I did not understand them until now.

“Oh relax, Son. I’m just getting to know your mate.”

“He is not my mate!” I yelp.

I turn back to Karlo, who has a neutral face. “We are…just friends,” I add.

“Co-workers.” He waves at Mother. “It was nice meeting you, Miss Shaughnessy, but I have to get started at work. Take care, you two.” With that, he walks up the stone pathway to the back entrance of the Institute.

With him gone, I turn back to glower at Mother. “What?” she says in an offended. “Don’t make that face at me, Razorjaw.”

“Mother,” I say in a low whine. I lead her by the shoulder back to the water. “Your…presence was a surprise I was not prepared for.”

“Well, if you visited me I wouldn’t have to catch you at work flirting with your mate.”

“He is not my mate!”

“Oh, please.” She shrugs off my shoulder and rolls her eyes. “You reek of pheromones. I may be single but I’m not nose-blind. Or eye-blind either, I saw the way your tail was wagging when you talked to him.”

I groan and look to the sky, then back down at Mother. “Humans cannot smell that. Please do not bring this up again in his presence.”

She taps her foot impatiently. “You lied and said your mate wasn’t here on your first day. Is he not the man you found on the beach and fell in love with?”

I huff and stare at my hands. “Yes, but only because on day one I asked him to be my mate.” Shame burns my throat and I feel like a young shark pup being scolded in the water. “I am sorry for lying, but at the time, it felt like he was not my mate. He…rejected me. And he still does not see me as more than a platonic monster friend.”

My eyes burn and my shoulders slump. Sharing the truth out loud breaks something in me. Here, at sunrise, listening to the waves crash onto the rocks, I let the truth out. To my mother of all people.

“Oh, my son,” she says in a sweet tone. She taps my shoulder and lifts my chin up. “It seems to me that human boy likes you too.”

I sniff and look away. “Now you are the one making up lies.”

“No, it’s true,” she replies. “I saw his face when he looked at you. He seemed so happy.”

“Really?” I ask, looking at her.

“Yes. But honestly, Son? I don’t want you to get hurt. If this Karlo doesn’t want to date you, then maybe you should go back into the ocean. Monster god knows shunning the surface world was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

I nod and turn back to the Institute. I’ve grown fond of not just Karlo, but nearly all the staff. I’ve even grown accustomed to the high gray walls and all the Institute represents. On the stone steps, one of my feet touches the water, the other is firmly on the surface. Every day I make the choice to come here, and today will not be any different.

“No, Mother. You got to spend years in the surface world.”

“Didn’t have a choice,” she mutters.

“But now I want to learn about this side of me. There are so many things I can teach them about the ocean. They do good work, and I can guide them. I can even help other maritime monsters.” I turn back to Mother and she smiles at me, pride in her eyes. “But I promise, I will try to visit more.”

“Oh, my son.” She leans in and hugs me, a maneuver she used to do when I was a small human. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I reply, craning down to hold her.

“Give this Karlo boy some time. I’m sure he’ll discover how wonderful of a mate you can be to him.” She taps me one last time on the back.

“I pray to the monster god he does,” I say. We both laugh, and with a splash, Mother is back in the ocean .

Ten minutes later, I’m back at my designated cubicle, ready for some lessons. I have shifted into an outfit known as a white polo shirt and khakis, and I open up a notebook. When I get that familiar tingle, I know without looking that my favorite person is approaching me.

“Everything good, RJ?”

I smile a toothy grin. “Why would it not be?”

He sits down next to me and I want to melt being in his presence. “Parents can be…a challenge.”

I stare at him in concern as he opens up a notebook. “My Mother raised me. She has always looked out for me. What is the challenge?”

Karlo gazes wistfully out a window. “Not everyone in the surface world has an easy relationship with their folks.”

He seems to be wandering into a difficult headspace, and I resist the urge to hold his hand. “Tell me about your family,” I say.

He snickers and looks down at the blank sheets of paper. “I love them…from a distance. But they’re not exactly supportive of my life.”

My eyebrows furrow. “How could they not be? Everything you do is so noble. I have never met a more selfless human than you.”

He snorts and looks at me, humor shining in his dark eyes. “You’ve barely met any humans.”

“It does not matter. You, Karlo Castillo, are smart, hardworking, generous with your time, and you genuinely care about marine life in a way that is so admirable.”

Karlo looks down at the papers and chuckles. “That’s very kind of you. But my folks don’t agree.”

“That is foolish. With all due respect, they raised you, an amazing person. Can they not see everything you are doing to try to support aquatic animals and shifters?”

He taps his pencil down, still avoiding my gaze. With a sad smile, he says, “This isn’t the life they wanted for me.”

I huff and hold back resentment for his family. Karlo seems hurt, and I want to ease his pain. “You are forging your own path. I know your research will help the lives of oceanic ecosystems worldwide. Karlo, you are such a valuable asset here at the Institute. If more people were like you, we would have fewer pollution problems in my ocean.” I gulp. “You…are remarkable, and I…”

The words “I love you” almost fall off my tongue. Everyone tells me to bide my time, to learn more about Karlo, and not shower him with affection. But how can I wait when the perfect human, my mate, the soul I long to spend my life with, is right here within arm’s length?

Karlo opens his mouth but says nothing. After five more seconds of silence, he pushes his notebook forward then smiles. “Anyway, shall we get started on the lesson? You won’t learn how to read by chatting away with me.”

I want to tell him I do not care, that learning more about him is an honor and a privilege. Instead, I nod and take the pencil from him. I readjust the piece of wood in my tiny human fingers as my beloved talks about adverbs and conjunctions. Today, Karlo is showing me grammar, and hopefully, one day, he can show me what it takes to claim his heart as my own.