Page 42 of Ensnared
“Are you sure—” I start to say, but my words are cut off on a shriek.
Jack lunges forward into the bay. His massive body moves sinuously beneath me, water sluicing over my legs. He doesn’t dive under the surface, but seawater sprays into my face. I laugh and wipe it off. His wings, fins, and legs work in powerful surges to propel us forward, and soon, I can no longer distinguish the guys’ clothes on the shore.
I realize now that I must have seen one of the villagers in their sea dragon form on my first night in Amber Bay. I don’t resent Ty and Jack for lying to me and telling me it was a whale or whatever. They were trying to protect their friends and family from a stranger. But it’s so good to finally know. So many things make sense now.
Ty swims laps around us, diving beneath Jack and nipping at his tail as we move out of the bay and into the deeper waters. I laugh and trail my hand in the water, still holding on tight with the other. But Jack seems to be taking care with me, because I’m sure this isn’t his maximum speed. The thought warms me better than the wetsuit.
Seabirds circle overhead, their mournful cries echoing off the water. No doubt they’re wondering at us, intruders in their environment. Ty snaps his fangs at a particularly insistent gull, and it flaps away, cawing in outrage.
Suddenly, water churns not far ahead of us. I freeze on Jack’s back, thinking for a moment that it must be an underwater rock. I open my mouth to warn Jack—maybe he hasn’t seen the rocks and might hurt himself careening into them.
Then a large body breaks the surface, and a whale’s dorsal fin pokes up, swiftly followed by a number of others.
“Oh gods,” I breathe, transfixed.
It’s a pod of killer whales, fishing close to the shore. There must be twenty or thirty of them, their sleek black-and-white bodies slicing through water. At first, awe and fascination course through me, but I remember that orcas sometimes kill larger animals, too, like sea lions—or even whales.
Would they hurt sea dragons as well?
I find my answer quickly. I knew, rationally, that Jack and Ty wouldn’t have brought me this close to them if there was any danger. But it’s a completely surreal experience to have the pod circle us, vocalizing happily. There are smaller whales in the group, likely babies born this year, and I stretch my hand out to brush the back of one passing calf. It eludes me and sinks deeper, then jumps out of the water in a perfect arc before splashing back in.
A furious bellow breaks the peaceful scene, echoing over the surface of the water. I jolt, startled, and topple off Jack’s back into the cold ocean. He twists around, and his wing clips me in the middle, taking my breath away. I swallow a mouthful of seawater and come up coughing, disoriented.
Then a large dark shape emerges from beneath me, lifting me to the surface.
For a moment, I think it must be another whale, come to either rescue me or have me for dinner, but the body beneath me is hard, scaled, and spiked—I scramble for purchase and cut my hand on a sharp protrusion.
Then I freeze. The dragon’s back is black as night, and it’s larger even than Jack. Its head is shaped differently, the scarlet horns curling back in wicked, scythe-like curves.
Jack and Ty are circling me, growling, and I wish I could communicate with them because their snarling faces seem scary all of a sudden. They slice through the water, almost aggressive.
It’s this new dragon that has agitated them. I’m lying on the back of a massive creature, its ink-black scales glistening like oil in the water. It’s hot, as though a fire burns deep in its belly. I scramble up and manage to put my legs astride, though its neck is thicker than Jack’s, then hold on for dear life as it turns to the shore and shoots through the water. For a panicked moment, I consider throwing myself off its back, but I’m afraid of getting impaled on one of those back spikes—or being struck by that long tail.
I hadn’t realized how slowly Jack had been swimming earlier until this sea dragon shows me what speed really is. I catch glimpses of Ty’s and Jack’s colorful forms in the waves to either side, but they can’t seem to get closer to us. The great black dragon snaps at them anytime they get in reach of its massive jaws. Its wide, strong wings taper from black at the root to crimson points.
It doesn’t look at me, and if it hadn’t rescued me from the water, I might have thought I was a stowaway stuck on his back. It doesn’t sink below the surface either, though it must be harder to cut through the waves than swimming underwater.
Soon, we’re nearing the little cove where Jack and Ty had left their clothes, and the water grows warmer by degrees. Schools of fish dart out of our way, and the dragon finally finds purchase on the rocky sea floor. With slow, measured steps, it advances on the shore until it sinks to its belly in the shallows.
Then it turns its head and fixes me with one sky-blue eye.
“Aiden!” I gasp.
It’s him, I’m sure it is. There’s no one else who can manage such an annoyed, stern glare in his dragon form. He followed us to the open sea to—what? Rescue me?
He huffs and leans his body to the side, so I nearly topple off his back.
“Okay, yeah,” I mutter. “Give me a second.”
Clumsily, I clamber down his foreleg and stumble in the knee-high water. My hand is bleeding—not badly, but enough that the seawater stings like a bitch and I can’t get a good grip on his scales. The moment I descend, he bumps his nose into me, the touch warm and surprisingly gentle. I open my palm, and his long, forked tongue darts out to lick the blood off my skin.
Then Ty and Jack arrive, mere seconds after us, shifting to their human selves in the shallow surf.
“What the fuck, man?” Ty shouts. “You can’t kidnap Skye whenever you want!”
Jack, buck naked and covered in goosebumps, puts himself between the dragon and me. “That was uncalled for.” His voice is tight with anger, his fists clenched at his sides.
With a shimmer of warmth, Aiden shifts into his human form. I don’t know whether to look away or not—I’ve never seen him naked, and somehow this doesn’t seem like a good time to stare. I can’t help it, though. He’s magnificent. All broad shoulders, hard muscle, and long legs. His chest is covered with light brown hair that tapers down to a happy trail, leading to his impressive cock.
