Page 16 of Riding the Tide

“What!” Nisha exclaimed.

Both Nisha and Kannon sat stunned, staring at him. Now that they were both finally quiet, maybe he could get a word in edgewise. “I said, the human is my mate. I noticed his scent before he fell into the water. That’s the main reason I didn’t swim away from the boat. I was still deciding what to do when he went overboard, and I couldn’t leave him out there in the water.”

Kannon patted Marcus’ hand with his own. “That had to have been truly terrifying.”

“The boat wasn’t that tall. It was a two decker, though, and he fell from the top deck.”

“What happened after he hit the water?” Kannon asked.

“Like I said, I couldn’t leave, so I went to help.” Marcus shrugged. “I took him back to one of the closer caves we use. I thought he was unconscious, but apparently he wasn’t. He told me later he was more stunned due to the impact with the water. Anyway, I started to transform—”

“Oh man,” Kannon said.

Marcus frowned at his coffee. “Yeah. I was already questioning what I’d done. At the time it seemed like a good idea but… The next thing I know as soon as the transformation is complete he’s asking me what the hell I am.”

Nisha growled. “He saw you?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

Kannon sipped his coffee while they all digested that piece of information. “Well, that’s… definitely unfortunate.”

“I’ll say.” Nisha sighed. “What happened then?”

“Right the opposite of what you’d expected, I bet. It appears my human—whose name is Blair, by the way—has done some extensive traveling in Africa and backpacked across Europe.”

“Wait. Africa?” Kannon asked. “Europe, too?”

“Yes,” Marcus said. “Two years’ worth of time in Africa, I believe he said.”

Kannon scowled. “How old is this guy?”

“Um, I didn’t ask, but by his appearance I’d say middle to late twenties,” Marcus said.

“That means he must’ve been pretty young when he did all of this.” Kannon rubbed absently at one of his temples. “That tells me he’s either lying or has money.”

“I don’t think he’s lying.” Marcus repeated the story Blair told him.

“Interesting,” Kannon said once Marcus was through speaking. “That certainly doesn’t sound like he’s lying about his time over there, although it does beg the question of where the money came from. Is this guy rich?”

Marcus shrugged. “I have no idea. Also don’t really have any idea of what you’d consider rich either. I make a little money selling my artwork and jewelry to the local shops. It’s not much, but then, I don’t need much.”

“Does it matter if he has money or not?” Nisha asked.

Kannon sipped his coffee. “It might in the sense that if he’s a multimillionaire—which I can’t imagine how he could be at his age—his name would be well-known. If he is indeed Marcus’ mate—”

“I think I would know if he’s my mate or not—”

“If heis,” Kannon continued, “it’s going to be really hard for him to just up and disappear.”

“You didn’t disappear,” Marcus pointed out.

“No, I didn’t. But Nisha’s okay with spending part of his time on land. You rarely come ashore. That could seriously be a problem.” Kannon then looked at Nisha. “Anyway, on another note… I guess that answers the question of whether you guys are the only non-humans around. A jaguar shifter. I’d loved to have seen that.”

“I don’t know that you would. From what Blair said, it was a frightening experience.” Marcus remembered how Blair’s voice trembled. That shifter wanted to claim Blair, and that sent a jealous rage burning through him. The idea of someone, or something, claiming what was his infuriated him.

“So he handled knowing what you are without freaking out.” Nisha pursed his lips. “That’s good. That’s really good and one less worry. I’m assuming you haven’t tackled the subject ofwhohe is to you yet, have you?”

“No. I figured I’d already dumped one life-altering event in his lap, it might be better to wait on the other one.” Marcus sipped his coffee again. “Which brings me to exactly why I showed up on your doorstep this morning. It wasn’t because I needed to tell you I found my mate.”

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