Page 48 of Tide Touched

Eventually, we turn and make our way back to the beach, our lungs burning with laughter. Moira has an arm around my waist. ‘I’m so glad you’re okay.’ After a beat, she adds, ‘I’d like you to tell me about Carter, and what happened with him.’

I run a hand through my hair. ‘I know.’ Unlike Killian, I know Moira won’t want to wait.

Moira looks me over seriously. ‘I will break his face if he hurt you.’ She’s a hundred percent serious.

I shake my head. ‘It wasn’t him. It was Courtney, his girlfriend.’ I remember my head smacking against the ground, the crunch of my ribs under her foot. I clear my throat, shaking myself of the memory. I’ve barely had a chance to catch up with Moira since all of this.

She takes my hands and stops us in our tracks, meeting my gaze. She’s always been my best friend, my big sister. ‘I have to ask. Did Carter…?’

I know what she means. I shake my head firmly. ‘No. I wanted him.’ I squeeze her hands. ‘Don’t worry. He never forced anything.’

Moira exhales. ‘Good. Or I would kill him.’

I lean into her. She wraps her arm around my shoulder, through my hair, and I flinch. She turns me, eyes wide in alarm. I just shake my head. That, I can’t explain. What was used as a much-needed distraction has left a mark I don’t know how to heal.

Anger simmers in her eyes, but she doesn’t push.

I swallow. ‘I got something for you,’ I say, wanting a change of subject. As we arrive back on the beach, I hand her the second copy of the book I got. ‘I need a buddy read.’

Moira’s expression lightens, to my relief, as she looks over the book.

In the distance, the guys have set up a fire. It’s still a couple of hours until sunset, but it makes the beach feel even homier. ‘Come on. I never got to the water.’

Chapter Twenty-Five

Katie

‘Let me guess,’ says Elijah, treading in the water equidistant between me, Moira and Killian, ‘the best way to get on Moira’s good side is through you, Katherine?’ He smiles. ‘You obviously mean a lot to her. Did you grow up together?’

‘I am the best way, yes, but also the toughest.’ I wink at him. ‘And yeah, we did.’ I splash Moira and she immediately frets about her bangs getting curly. ‘She basically took me in.’ I smile at her fondly, but it’s nothing compared to how Elijah’s looking at her.

Something warms in my chest at that look and without meaning to, my own gaze finds Killian’s, and I see a similar look etched into his own features. One of real fondness.

‘So, Killian, where do you come in?’

I love the feeling of being surrounded by water, submerged in it. This time, everyone’s wearing clothes; the guys took their shirts off but, to my dismay, kept their pants on. This close to Killian in the water—is he edging closer to me by the minute?—I can see the slightly blurred outlines of his abs and I’m struck by an urge to rake my nails down them.

‘Uh, we’—Killian points to me and Moira—‘are in the same pack.’

‘Son of the Alpha here decided to pay attention to my girl only when he shifted, and even then he was too chicken to make a move before Katie was abducted,’ Moira says.

With a clenched jaw, Killian glares at her. ‘That about sums it up, thanks, Moira.’

She nods. ‘You’re welcome. Now, I don’t know about you lot, but I’m hungry.’

Elijah and I share a look. That brutal honesty was a bit awkward, let’s slide past it. He offers a shy smile, which I return.

As we turn to head back to the shore, I brush up against Killian’s shoulder. His muscles tense—at my touch?—but when I look up to meet his gaze, his nose is in the air. ‘I smell someone.’

Elijah is closest to the shore. He, Moira and I turn to follow Killian’s gaze. In the early light of sunset, hues of dusty rose and copper light gleam off something yellow—no, blond. Water Pack wolves.

‘Hurry.’ Killian swims quickly to the shore. Can’t use fire power in water. He’s on land in less than thirty seconds, Moira close behind him. Elijah gets there first, hands open, palms up and at the ready.

Something holds me back. A voice inside me that says I’m safe here in the water.

Killian shifts into wolf form, his glorious dark red fur shining like blood. Water wolves swarm onto the beach in a wave, all shades of white-blond to summer-yellow, bright and growling fiercely.

Killian takes on the first to reach him, his teeth bared. A wolf leaps at him, but Killian’s teeth meet the wolves’ throat, splattering the sand in a shower of red.

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