Master of the Deep by Cleo Peitsche Read Free Book Online Page A

I’m telling you these things. Everything is tied up together. I’m rich because I’m a shifter. So long as humans prize gold, any shifter who can dive will be rich. There’s plenty of gold in the oceans if you know where to look, and that’s not including sunken ships, though most of those have been looted by now. Money breeds money. Most marine shifters are quite wealthy. It also breeds power.”
    “So a lot of you are politicians?”  
    “No.” He released her hand and slid his arm over her shoulders and pulled her to him. Heaven help her, he smelled so good. Each breath brought the scent of him deeper into her lungs.
    “We’re born this way.” He paused again, but only for a moment. “Many shifters have a preferred form. Some prefer to stay human, others prefer animals. My parents, for example, love to migrate the world as sharks.” He glanced at her. “If you need me to stop, if this gets overwhelming, just say the word.”
    Overwhelming? If that was the criteria, she should have stopped him two days ago. She licked her lips. “Please continue.”
    “My parents. You might assume, based on what I just said, that they’re uncultured, but nothing could be further from the truth. If you met them, you’d probably find them charming. Educated and intelligent. Sophisticated.”
    “That wouldn’t surprise me at all,” she said.
    The compliment had been intended to make him smile, and it did.  
    “And I’m guessing your mother is beautiful and always says the right thing.” He leaned forward and turned a knob. “My parents have the shark side, and they love to hunt together, to prowl the oceans. It makes them happy.”
    She was afraid to ask the next question, but she had to know. “Which do you prefer?”
    “I’m somewhere in the middle. I love the water in any form. I can enjoy it more deeply as a shark. But I also love civilization. It’s mostly a personal preference, not genetic predisposition.”
    Mostly. She wondered what that meant.
    “There are five kinds of marine shifters. Dolphins, porpoises, orcas, manatees, and, of course, sharks. Those groups are further subdivided. For sharks, there are bull sharks, tiger sharks, et cetera.”
    “What kind are you?”
    “White.”
    “As in great white? As in Jaws ?”
    He nodded.  
    “There aren’t any whales?”
    “Only orcas. But nothing larger. There used to be, apparently, but shifting isn’t magic. It’s a restructuring of the body. The size of a whale, you wouldn’t shift often if you could help it.”
    She wondered if it hurt, and if pain was a reason that some shifters chose one form and stayed there. After a moment’s reflection, she decided to add the hypothesis to her growing list of questions rather than keep interrupting Koenraad.
    “When I’m in shark form, I have the cognitive abilities of a human as well as the physical abilities of a shark. When I’m in human form, I’m… let’s say sturdier and more perceptive than a true human.”
    “True human?”
    “I’m a shifter. You’re a true human.”
    She pondered that. “Neither a shark nor a human.”
    “Exactly. You with me?”
    “I guess. It’s getting freaky.”
    “Getting freaky. Good segue,” he said lightly. But when he pulled her closer, she noticed he was tense. He was worried about whatever he was about to say. “Do you know anything about shark mating habits?”
    She shook her head. “Can we stop there just for a moment? I need to…” She needed to process this, to brace and prepare herself. What form shifters preferred and their finances didn’t have anything to do with her, but she was sleeping with this man. With this shifter . Sex stuff? Everything to do with her. “I need to use the bathroom.”
    “Follow the hallway to the end.” Koenraad smiled. “Take as much time as you need.”
    “I’m not hiding from you. I had a lot of coffee this morning.”
    “Of course,” he said formally, but she could tell he was teasing her.
    “I’m