The twins had talked me into taking a boat ride with them.  Or, more accurately, swimming along with them while they were in a boat.  Apparently this was the closest thing Vance could get to what he wanted – swimming with me – plus Hayden kept saying they had something they wanted to show me.

I followed along, feeling somewhat confused about what they could want to show me, then slowed down when I realized they were headed for an island.  Not a large one, but probably about an hour down the coast from Willen Cove and an hour and a half from the next town along the coast, Port Fylin.  The island had a little inlet of its own on the far side.  Once upon a time, some rich kid had started work here to build a house, but then realized no cell service meant he couldn’t survive, and had given up.  Some of the land was cleared out as a result, but nothing was actually there other than the island itself.

“So,” Hayden started to explain as I stepped onto the beach, wearing a sarong and a matching piece for my top, “we were thinking of just buying the island and building here.  It’s a little isolated, and the cell service could be a bit of an issue, but we can make do with good internet.”

Vance was kind of eyeing me, and when I caught him checking me out, he flushed a bit.  “Are you cold?”  He asked to cover up his attention – which didn’t work, by the way.  I was well aware he was looking at my bare skin for other reasons than concern about my well-being.  “It’s freezing out here, we’re in jackets and you look like you’re ready for summer weather.”

“Heat and cold don’t really bother us,” I stated calmly, then turned my attention to Hayden.  “An entire island?  What on earth?”

He waved vaguely towards the small forest.  “Plenty of privacy!”  He explained.  “You can come swim in the inlet any time you feel like, no one will see you but us.  We don’t have to worry about someone accidentally spotting you transforming.  Okay, so it’s only accessible by boat and that might take some getting adjusted to on our part, but it’s not that hard, and for the value of getting our own little island home with you?  Totally worth it.”

I crossed my arms and fixed him with a stare.  “And you’re telling me you will have no problems affording buying an entire freaking island, plus then building out here – which will be more expensive since getting the equipment out here will be a tad complicated.”

“Fair point,” he allowed, “but yeah, we can afford it.  Not an issue, trust me, Morgan.”

I raised an eyebrow, but didn’t press it.  I knew they were successful, but I didn’t realize they could afford to buy an island and build an insanely expensive house on it.

“Besides,” Vance pointed out, “real estate is always a good investment.  Yeah, it might cost a bit to build, but we could definitely get our money’s worth out of it if we ever decided to move – having a house and dock set up here would increase the value a lot.  As an investment goes, it’s really not bad.”

I sighed and gave in.  “Fine, show me what you had in mind.”

That got them going as Hayden eagerly described where he wanted to place a dock and have a path leading up from the beach to the hill in the forest, where the house would be.  Vance then jumped in, explaining what he wanted the house to look like, where his beloved pool would be, how many rooms the house would have, what style they wanted to go with, all that stuff.  Most of which I didn’t understand, but what I could understand, standing on the hill looking around me at the inlet and the island, with them standing beside me?  Well, I could understand that this could be an amazing picture of happiness.

I was still a little cautious to just go blindly diving into this.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to just buy some land on the coast?  There’s coves and things there that would offer more privacy.”

“Yeah, but an island, Morgan,” Hayden whined.  “We could have our own freaking island!  How many people can say that?”

I stared at him for a second, then turned to Vance.  “He just wants an island of his own, doesn’t he?”

“An island for us,” he corrected, wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his chin on top of my head.  “Somewhere you can feel safe and free and somewhere we can all be happy.”

“Bruce’s brother-in-law has agreed to rent us the beachhouse until we build something,” Hayden added, his eyes fixed on my face hopefully.  “It’ll take us some time to build here, given the limitations of boating everything in, but we can stay there until we finish it up.  Vance and I can officially relocate here and move our business – we’ll probably go to more online, anyway – while we’re building.  We were willing to travel a lot before because we were hoping to somehow encounter you again, but now that we’ve done that, we’d rather stick with you or just bring you with us if we travel, though we know that’s limited due to your need for the ocean.”

I felt my throat close up a bit.  They were so willing to completely rearrange their lives for me, without even a second thought about it.  They just assumed the best thing was to stay with me, even if it meant they had to move to another country, change their business entirely, and move to an island where they wouldn’t even be able to access normal amenities without an hour’s boat ride.

“You guys are too much,” I choked out.  “Can’t you just be normal people?”

Vance chuckled, sending vibrations through my body.  “Not a chance.  We couldn’t be with you if we were normal.”

Well…that was probably true.  Maybe it was good they weren’t normal, then.

“So?”  Hayden asked eagerly.  “Your opinion?”

I hesitated just a second.  “It sounds awesome, I just can’t imagine you spending that kind of money just because of me, plus changing up your lives and business like that.”

“Nope,” Hayden took my hands in his and leaned down a bit to look into my eyes.  “Don’t think like that, remember?  You’re our love, the person we want to spend the rest of our lives with – getting our own little paradise with you is totally worth any adjustments to our lives and business.  Don’t you dare think otherwise!”

Vance gave me a squeeze from behind.  “If you’d rather live on the coast than an island, that’s a different story, but to us?  We kind of like the idea that we’d just be isolated out here with you, only bothering with other people when we feel like it.  Sounds pretty fun, actually.  We could go and take weekend trips into town for dates and stuff but otherwise, we just get to stay in our cozy little home without anyone but each other.”

I sighed and surrendered.  “That sounds pretty perfect to me, too.”

“Yes!”  Hayden gave his brother a high-five, then leaned down to kiss me.  “Start thinking of a name for our new island, Morgan.  We’re going to have to name our little paradise.”

I shook my head at them as we started back to the beach, but I couldn’t help but feel their excitement spill over into me.

Since my parents died, I hadn’t really had a home.  I’d lived with my uncle, but it wasn’t a home.  Even when I’d had an apartment of my own, it wasn’t really home, it was just a place to stay.

Now, though, I’d have a home again – one I could never even dream of – and more importantly, I’d have the two most important people in my life with me.

It almost felt too good to believe, but I stopped myself before wandering down that path again.  I was trying to do as the twins suggested, trying to focus more on their view of me and dismissing all the negative thoughts placed there by my first merfolk community.  Any time I remembered what that community taught me, just…go the other way, as it were.  Think the opposite.  At least, that was the goal.

I decided to ride back in the boat with them, snuggled into Vance’s side while Hayden piloted the boat and started explaining some more architectural stuff to me that I didn’t understand but nodded along to anyway.

Because I was riding in the boat, I didn’t realize there was anything in the water with us until it was too late – until something hit the side of the boat, hard, nearly capsizing it.

Vance only stayed on board because he fell into me, and I had an almost iron-like grip on the side of the boat.  I might look more fragile in female form, and while I am not as strong as in male form, I am definitely stronger than most humans and strong enough to keep Vance from falling into the water.

I was too far from Hayden, however, to stop him from falling in, but the moment the boat shifted back to a more level position, I searched the waters, concerned.

The waters were cold, but not so cold as to make him lose his ability to function quickly, and they weren’t so rough as to cause him to go under – and yet, there was no sign of him on the surface.

“Where’s Hayden?”  Vance was searching the waters, too.  “What happened?”

Something hit our boat, I realized, something – something which prevented Hayden from coming back up.

I suddenly remembered the threat of the male oceanid and felt my blood run cold.  “Stay,” I ordered him.  “Get the motor running.”

I dove into the water without a look back.

Of course I was gambling that Vance would be safe in the boat and that nothing would come after him while I went after Hayden, but I didn’t have much of an option here, did I?  Hayden would definitely drown if he didn’t get to the surface soon, and if they were trying to harm him because of me, well, that was not okay.

If my protection marks had been worth more than sticker effect, they would actually help here, but they weren’t, so I had to do this the old fashioned way.  I had to find Hayden, and quickly, and then rescue him myself.

Good thing about being in female form is I am fast.  Really fast.  Fast enough to dart along and find the faint trace of blood that turned my heart cold, then follow it just as swiftly until I found who I was looking for.

The oceanid’s shark shifter friend.  It had Hayden by his leg and was dragging him deeper into the ocean.

I felt pure fury fill me and propelled myself forward, barreling into the shark’s side and sending it several yards away from Hayden.  It hadn’t expected me to catch up, but I had mere seconds, at best, before it would return.

I caught Hayden’s head and put my mouth on his.  Not a kiss, exactly – breathing air into him.  Keeping him alive for a few more seconds while I released him and just as suddenly darted upwards, trying to draw the shark shifter towards me.

This was a game of life and death, with every second counting.  Hayden wouldn’t survive if I didn’t give him air and get him to the surface, but I had to deal with the shark shifter, and it wasn’t willingly going to give me another chance to give him a life-breathing kiss.

The shark snapped at me, but missed, my fins just out of its reach.  I was playing a game, slowly drawing it further from Hayden, and it didn’t realize I had slowed down intentionally – but I didn’t have time for slow games.  I needed this to be over fast.

Hayden was starting to struggle for air again, I could see it out of the corner of my eyes.  I needed to charge the shark again or something, anything to give me a few seconds.

Then I remembered something Bruce had told me.  Something he’d learned from a pod of wild animal orca who hunted great white sharks.

Sharks go into a trance – tonic immobility – when turned upside down.  I wasn’t 100% positive it would work with a shifter, but…worth a shot.

This time when the shark shifter charged at me, I let him get in very close, then wrapped my tail around his body like a snake, my long sharp nails digging into his nose and bottom jaw to keep him from biting me.  And then I rolled, forcing him onto his back.

A pause, and I could feel him go limp, almost appearing dead.  I would have been impressed at the knowledge the wild animal orcas had learned, but there was no time for that.  I released him, shot back to Hayden, and gave him more air before hooking my hands under his armpits and pulling him towards the surface.

We did reach the surface, but of course things wouldn’t be that easy.  Vance was still in the boat, but he wasn’t alone, and he looked kind of pissed off about it.

“Well, I can’t say I’m not disappointed at seeing you with your human,” the male oceanid informed me, his face cold, “I’d hoped my friend would have more success.  You actually surprised me, but it doesn’t matter.  I warned you this would happen.”

Hayden was gasping for air, and I moved a little to block him from the male oceanid’s view.  I didn’t have time for this.  Hayden was bleeding, I didn’t know how badly yet but I did know he needed medical attention, and I somehow needed to convince the oceanid to leave them alone.

Maybe I could just ask?

“I’ll come have a talk with you if you let them go.”

Vance looked extra pissed off about that and Hayden even struggled to object, but I ignored them.

So did the male oceanid.  “That would defeat the purpose – I said I would destroy those important to you – letting them go would be the opposite.  No, I want you to watch as I kill them and you’re helpless to stop them.”

Vance’s eyes widened slightly, but trapped in a web of magical water, there wasn’t much he could do.

There wasn’t much I could do, either, without magic, but at least I could try.  I had to try.

But – I had one advantage here.  I didn’t have any real magic.  The male oceanid would expect me to attack him with my weak magic, something he could counter easily, but what he did not expect was for me to take advantage of my ability to build up an immense amount of speed out of nowhere, rocketing forward and then shifting my trajectory so I shot out of the water and hit him like a torpedo.

In mid-air, while my hands were closing around his neck, I shifted into my male form.  My female form had been useful in fighting the shark shifter, but now I needed that strength.  I needed to be able to hang on no matter what because it was very likely that both Hayden and Vance’s lives depended on that.

When we hit the water on the other side of the boat, it began to churn around us as the male oceanid thrashed, attempting to get out of my grip.  I felt the sting of magic across my scales and skin but ignored it, focused only on hanging on, unwilling to let go even when he rammed me, hard, into a rock.  I.  Would.  Not.  Let.  Go.

“Morgan!”  I recognized that voice.  “Let go, we have him now.”

I was reluctant to do as she said, but as the male oceanid stopped thrashing and the sand around us started to settle, I realized she was right.  Skye had the oceanid trapped in her own – stronger – magic, while Bruce was guarding the unhappy shark shifter.

I released his throat, letting him take huge gulps of air while thinking to myself he didn’t really deserve that – not after he’d been so willing to drown my twins.