Page 46 of Ocean's Whisper

"What?" he barked into the receiver.

"Our patrols picked up foreign scents near the border. Ten miles from her houseboat."

Nereus felt his canines start to lengthen, the partial shift triggered by rage. "How many?"

"At least four. Maybe more."

Four against one human woman who barely understood her powers. The math made his chest tighten with primal fear.

"I'm not too far, maybe twenty minutes tops. Keep the patrols back unless I call for them. If they spook these bastards, Isolde could get caught in the crossfire."

He ended the call and gunned the engine, the speedometer climbing past numbers that would make most humans squirm. The coastal road curved ahead, revealing the stretch of ocean where Isolde's houseboat was anchored.

Nereus had waited lifetimes for his Luna. He had stood alone, led alone, and fought alone. The thought of losing her now, after just finding her, was completely unacceptable.

"Hold on," he growled as the ocean came into view under the setting sun. "Your alpha is coming."

NINETEEN

ISOLDE

Isolde awoke from her nap. The gentle rocking of her houseboat, once a familiar comfort, now felt strangely hollow. Sunlight streamed through the small porthole window, casting golden patterns across her rumpled sheets. She rolled onto her back and stared at the wooden ceiling. The knots in the pine boards she had memorized over the years now suddenly seemed fascinating as she avoided facing her thoughts.

"Damn it," she said to the empty room, her voice sounding too loud in the silence.

Her bed felt too big, too empty without Nereus's muscular frame taking up most of the space. She missed his warmth, his scent—that mix of ocean spray, earth, and something deeply masculine that was uniquely him. Her body ached for him in ways she'd never experienced before meeting him.

"This is stupid," she muttered, throwing her arm over her eyes. "I barely know him."

But that wasn't true, was it? She'd spent an entire week with him, training her powers, learning about his world, and feeling that inexplicable pull drawing them together. Somehow, in that impossibly short time, he had become essential to her.

She sat up abruptly, pushing hair from her face. "I can't just become someone's Luna. I have a life, a career—" But her career was currently underwater, and her life had been upended the moment that tidal wave crashed ashore.

The memory of Nereus's hands on her body made her shiver. Those powerful, commanding touches that somehow knew exactly what she needed. The way his blue-gray eyes darkened when he looked at her. The absolute certainty in his voice when he called her "mine."

"Stop it," she told herself firmly. "The pack doesn't want you. You don't belong there."

But the truth pushed back against her denial—she had never truly belonged anywhere until Nereus had shown her that her place was beside him. The pack's rejection stung, yes, but wasn't that just another obstacle to overcome?

The walls of her houseboat suddenly felt claustrophobic. She needed air, space to think clearly without the ghost of Nereus haunting every corner of her mind.

"A walk. I need a walk."

She pulled on a pale blue sundress and slipped into sandals. Outside, the afternoon sun warmed her skin as she made her way down the dock and toward the beach.

The shoreline stretched before her, nearly empty this late in the day. Waves lapped gently at the sand—the ocean calm as if missing her touch. She walked along the water's edge, letting the foam brush her toes, feeling the pull of the tide like a magnetic force.

"Why can't I stop thinking about you?" she whispered to the horizon, knowing somehow that her words might reach him across the distance. "I was doing fine before you crashed into my life."

But had she been? Alone on her thirtieth birthday, her friends scattered across the country, and her work her only truecompanion. And now she knew why the ocean had always called to her—it wasn't just scientific fascination. It was her power and her birthright.

A seagull cried overhead, its wings catching the sunlight as it wheeled above her. She stopped walking and closed her eyes, feeling the water recede around her ankles, pulling back, then surging forward again, just like her thoughts about Nereus.

"I miss you," she admitted aloud to the empty beach. "I miss your arrogance, your commands, and your certainty. I miss the way you look at me like I'm the answer to a question you've been asking for centuries."

When she opened her eyes again, she noticed a woman walking some distance behind her on the beach—a stranger with dark hair, watching her with unusual interest. Isolde frowned slightly but continued walking, her thoughts returning to the alpha who had claimed her heart so completely.

The ocean whispered against the shore, and for a moment, she thought she heard Nereus's voice in its rhythm.

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