Page 46 of Shark 2

“The fuck kind of statement is that?” Grant demanded and snarled, turning around from the bar to glare at Damien. “Of course you won’t hurt her. I’ll tear your head off before you can hurt her.”

“Everyone, calm down,” Theo begged.

“What’s going on?” Silver asked as he noticed our tense standoff. “Kass?”

Damien lowered his hand. “I understand why you’re scared, but I don’t have a pod and I don’t mess with sharks. I know the others in this town are assholes so your experiences with orcas has been bad, but I’m not like them. I hate those cocky douche nozzles and how they continue to give us a bad name by being bullies and killers. Letting go of your prejudice may be hard, but you have to know that Theo wouldn’t be dating me if I was like them, right?”

I wanted to believe that Theo would only date good people, but they hadn’t known each other that long, so he could be hiding his crazy. However, his words felt sincere and I had never seen him with the pod here.

My shoulders slumped a bit as I relaxed. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have reacted that way.”

He smiled. “It’s understandable when you’ve dealt with the pod here. They’re psychopaths who bully me as well.”

“We should team up and kick their asses,” I said returning his smile. “I’ve got a dragon who could pluck them out of the sea and dangle them up in the sky.”

He laughed and everyone else in the group relaxed fully. “That would be fun to witness.”

Holding out my hand, I said, “It’s nice to meet you, Damien.”

As he shook my hand, Theo wrapped her arms around my shoulders and rested her head against mine. “I’m sorry. I should have warned you.”

Dropping Damien’s hand, I turned to face her and shook my head. “No, I’ve got to stop being so prejudiced against others. I have to stop letting fear run my life.”

“You haven’t had the best track record with a lot of the sea life here,” she said. “Sometimes I consider just cursing each and every one of them.”

Laughing, I shook my head. “You’d run out of magic before you made it through that list.”

She joined my laughter and I hugged her again. I wasn’t one hundred percent convinced that Damien was clean, but Theo was a big girl who could handle herself. Plus, I had to really stop allowing fear to win so often with me.

“Get your drink,” Silver ordered me, “and update me on everything that happened on your trip.”

22

“I’ve got some good news and bad news,” Stacy said as I climbed out of the tank at the end of my shift. She held out a towel for me to dry off and looked down at the ground sheepishly.

In all the years that we’d worked together, she’d never looked down when I came out, even though I was always naked. Something about her behavior had my nerves on edge.

“What’s up?” I asked and quickly got dressed just in case she’d suddenly developed a case of shyness. I didn’t want someone I considered a friend to feel uneasy around me. Just because something had been okay before didn’t mean it was now.

“I’m leaving the aquarium,” she blurted.

My head had just popped through the hole in my shirt at her announcement and my mouth immediately dropped open. “What? Where are you going? When? Why? Is it me?”

She held up her hands to stop my barrage of questions. “I found my mates, but they live across the country,” she explained quickly, her cheeks turning bright pink as she fiddled with the bottom of her shirt. “I’m moving in with them.”

I threw my arms around her shoulders and hugged her tightly. “Congratulations! That is so exciting!”

“You don’t hate me?” she asked as she looked up and met my eyes.

She’d obviously been worrying about breaking the news to me, but only a jerk would be upset at someone for following their heart.

“How could I be mad that you found your mates? That’s the best news anyone could receive.”

“Well, there is one more thing,” she said and stepped back. “My replacement is here and she wants to meet you.”

Her replacement…

It made sense that they would have to replace her, but now I was the one worried. What was she like? Would she like me? Would she be as nice and understanding as her? Thank goodness I just took that vacation with the guys or this new person might have denied it and ruined my chances of getting Reed to stay.

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