Thump. Thump. Zander pounded from above. “Can you shut that thing up?” he yelled down. “I’m trying to sleep.”
Rae’s eyes widened. No one could hear the sword, not her father, brothers, or any Shifter she knew. Another Guardian might, but she’d never met any Guardians but Daragh, so she wasn’t even certain of that.
Rae scrambled out of the bed and closed her hand around the sword’s hilt. It made a happy, jingling sound, then settled down and went quiet.
“Thank you,” came the growl from above.
Rae climbed back onto the bed, the sword firmly in her grasp. She laid it beside her and crawled beneath the sheets, which smelled of lemon.
A switch on the wall beside Rae shut off all the lights in the cabin. The cabin went dark, the windows too small to let in the fading twilight.
Rae huddled down in the bed, the silence of the night filling the boat. It pressed at her, that silence, heavy in the darkness. Water lapped at the hull, endless, unceasing, the boat in a constant, rocking motion.
She had never been away from home before. She’d camped out in the woods, of course, but always with Eoin or her brothers or both. This was the first night of her life, since Eoin had rescued her, that she’d been without her family.
Rae knew she was going to feel sorry for herself now. She fought as long as she could, but the grief overwhelmed her in a sudden wave, and the sobs came.
* * *
Zander heard her. From his perch on the captain’s chair, swiveled away from the controls, he heard Rae’s broken crying.
The poor thing was terrified. He’d seen it and sensed it. Stupid-ass Shifters had dumped a scared young woman on Zander because they couldn’t handle that the Goddess was capricious.
Why were all these Shifters so surprised that the Goddess had chosen a female to represent her? The Goddess was female, after all. The biggest surprise was that she’d waited so long.
The Shifters, even Eoin, alpha that he was, had sent Rae to Zander because they were afraid of Rae. Afraid of what she represented, afraid of what she’d become.
Rae with her dark hair and rain-gray eyes had been forced to leave everything she’d ever known in order to eat sandwiches with half-insane Zander on his cluttered boat in the middle of nowhere. He wasn’t amazed to hear Rae cry; he was amazed she hadn’t become a raving lunatic the moment Eoin had left her.
“Poor Little Wolf,” he whispered to the dusk.
Zander gazed across the water, tracing the path of moonlight, which had finally appeared. The roof of the wheelhouse cut off the stars directly above him but he picked the bright ones out on the horizon. No other lights for miles meant the heavens were spangled with stars, the beauty of it tugging his heart.
The northwestern horizon was darkening a little though, clouds filling the space. They’d have rain and more wind by morning.
Below him, Rae’s sobs died away. Good, she’d sleep, worn-out, and be fresh and ready to yell at him in the morning.
Zander chuckled. He kind of liked her shouting at him. Her eyes got sparkly and her cheeks flushed, and she forgot her fear.
He closed his eyes, picturing her in the sunshine, scowling at him, and let himself relax. The chair wasn’t so uncomfortable, though he’d probably end up stretching full length on the deck . . .
He was just drifting off when Rae’s terrified scream cut through the night.
CHAPTER FOUR
Zander was on his feet and plunging down the ladder to the cabin before his sleep-filled brain truly cleared. Rae’s screams changed to a wolf’s snarls as Zander burst inside to find the lights blazing. Rae’s half-human, half-wolf paw came down to strike at what looked like a rope on the floor.
“Stop!” Zander yelled.
He shoved Rae aside and dove for the rope, coming up with his hands full of long, cool reptile.
Rae shifted back down from half beast to her human form faster than Zander had seen anyone shift before. The big shirt she was sleeping in hadn’t even had a chance to tear. Her eyes were wide, pale gray, her black eyebrows streaks in all the white. “What the hell is that?” she cried.
Zander turned the snake around to face him, looking into its startled reptile eyes. “Hey, buddy, I’ve been looking for you. I bet you were sleeping in the bed, weren’t you?”
“Zander.”
Color flooded Rae’s face again, her cheeks brilliant scarlet. She was disheveled, hair coming out of her braid, her sweatshirt not too loose to cling to the soft curves of woman beneath.
Zander let his gaze drift over her a moment before he lifted the creature coiling around his arm. “It’s just Jake. Jake the Snake. He’s harmless.”
“He tried to get into bed with me!”
Zander didn’t blame him. “Jake likes to be warm. He’s not poisonous or anything.”
Rae waved her hands. “Why do you have a snake? On a boat?”
Zander shrugged. “He cuddled up to me one night a couple months ago when I was camping out. He didn’t want to leave me. I think he was someone’s pet that got lost or dumped. I give him the run of the place and he keeps the vermin under control.”
Rae planted both hands on top of her head, her black hair leaking around her fingers. “You couldn’t have warned me?”
“I thought I’d lost him when I was last in port. I guess he followed me back on board. Follows me everywhere.”
Rae’s hands now covered her face until they drifted down, revealing her red-rimmed, tear-dampened eyes. “Well, he can’t sleep with me.”
Zander carefully lowered Jake into the pocket of his duster. “No problem. He’ll sleep with me.”
Rae glared at him with her fists on her hips, a storm in her eyes. The shirt covered her to her thighs—below that her bare legs were firm and strong, her cute toes curling on the floor.
What the hell was the Shifters’ problem with her being a Guardian? If the last thing Zander saw in his life was the beautiful, fiery Rae coming to send him to the Summerland, that would be fine with him. What a way to go.
Zander didn’t like the spark in his blood as he watched her chest move in her agitated breath. He made himself turn from her. “Go to bed. Long day tomorrow.”
“It’s not that I’m afraid of snakes,” she said behind him. “I’m just not used to them in bed with me. Most of the ones we get near our Shiftertown are rattlers. I’ve learned to be cautious.”