Page 5 of Rock of Stages
“Yes.” I exhaled a slow breath, attempting to relax my tense limbs. “Come closer. I need to hold you.”
She swam over, stopped a few inches in front of me, and gulped. I wrapped my arms around her.
But then—an unfamiliar scent. Feminine, like midnight orchids. Alluring. Entwined with the distinct salty scent of the ocean.
The beast inside me rose with a low rumble, stirring as if awoken from a century-long slumber. A possessive instinct roared.
He whisperedmate.
The word rumbled through me like distant thunder.
No. Impossible.
She was a mermaid from the sea. A different species. A differenthabitat.
And yet…every instinct screamedmine.
CHAPTER 4
NAIYA
What was I doing? Agreeing to join a strange gargoyle shifter on an even stranger ship was ludicrous. My pod would scold me from one shore to the next.
But something about him called to me. His intense slate-gray eyes. His deep, gravelly voice. That mysterious tethering sensation. When he opened his massive arms, I swam over without hesitation. He wrapped them around me, and I softened against his solid chest. A tremor of heat rushed through me.
“Ready?” he asked, his voice rough but steady.
I gulped. “Ready.” I nodded, trying to convince myself.
“I need my wings.” His breath tickled my ear. “Don’t be afraid of how I shift.”
His body reformed as if magic rippled through him. He grew broader, heavier, and his skin turned back to gray. Behind him, massive wings unfurled with a whoosh, slicing through the water.
His arms tightened around me. “Hold on,” he directed.
I grasped him tightly. Before I could second-guess my rash decision, he pushed upward with a powerful thrust of his wings. The water broke around us, spraying in silver arcs.
Then—we soared.
The air rushed past and I gasped, dangling in his arms as my tail hung below. The world tilted around us as we rose. I clung to him, heart racing. Was it from fear? Exhilaration? Being in this massive gargoyle’s arms, our bodies touching in such an intimate embrace? Likely all of them.
The air rustled my hair and the sea below sparkled beneath the moonlight. As we flew closer to the ship, its lights grew larger.
I needed legs before we reached it. If I landed on my tail, I’d flop around like a drunken walrus. I initiated the shift from tail to legs, from scales to skin, as my fins slipped away. The transition was disorienting enough, as well as the adjustment to breathing out of the ocean.
Thank the tides for my magic so I wouldn’t flounder around nude while embraced in the gargoyle’s embrace. A sea witch who’d fallen in love with a merman in our pod generations ago had blessed us with a spell that allowed us to weave clothing. As I completed the transition, the silvery threads of a dress flowed over my body.
I slipped in his grasp and yelped.
“I’ve got you,” he declared in a panicked voice and gripped me more tightly.
I held on to him and pressed my head on his shoulder. Both our hearts raced, almost touching.
“Sorry, I should’ve waited to shift,” I managed through raspy breaths.
Two more pounding heartbeats followed. “Ah. Warn me next time?” he said in a gentler tone.
Next time? Would there be another? No, I wasn’t going to worry about that now. I’d set out on this adventure with a gargoyle and was far too curious not to see where it would lead.
