Firefighter Sea Dragon (Fire & Rescue Shifters 4)

Of course, they were usually adjusting their heights in the opposite direction.

Still, it wasn’t like she’d claimed to be short. Dave should have been prepared for her to be taller than him. Five foot six inches was pretty tall for a woman, after all.

From Dave’s expression, six foot six inches clearly went past “tall” and into “monstrous.”

The raw dismay and revulsion in his previously friendly face rocked her back on her heels like a shotgun blast to the heart. She stumbled as she caught the backs of her knees on a neighboring table. Off-balance, she flung a hand out to catch herself, and only succeeded in upending the entire table with an almighty crash of breaking glass. The gang of men who’d been seated around it surged to their feet with startled curses.

“Hey, bastard-!” The angry voice stopped dead as the speaker got an eyeful of her unmistakably female curves. “Jesus Christ, the circus must be in town.”

“Nah, it’s just one of them lads what pretend to be lasses,” slurred another drunk. Neridia yelped, batting his hand away as he made a grab for her breasts. “I’ll prove it. Burst them balloons down the front of that dress.”

“Whatever it is, it spilled my drink,” growled a heavyset man who barely came up to Neridia’s elbow. “Nobody spills my drink.”

Neridia cast a frantic glance at Dave, but he was still staring up at her in frozen shock. He didn’t make the slightest move to help her as the pack of men closed in.

Turning on her heel, she fled, driven as much by that blank look of rejection as by the gang of angry drunks looking for revenge. Her stupid, oversized elbows and feet knocked into more tables and chairs as she stumbled for the door. Angry exclamations rose around her, turning into startled gasps as people craned their necks to gawp up at her.

She burst out into the night air and ran blindly down the street, hot tears of humiliation spilling from the corners of her eyes. She didn’t know where she was going, or care. All that mattered was getting away.

I should never have come. I should never have dared to hope.

I should know better by now.

This was why she never went anywhere, outside of her tiny home village where everyone already knew her. She hated being at the center of attention. She hated the way her size dragged every surrounding eye to her. She hated hearing the whispered and not-so-whispered comments rise in her wake.

Maybe it would have been tolerable if she’d been supermodel-skinny to go with the supermodel height. But a ridiculously tall, fat woman of color? The sort of comments she attracted weren’t ones of admiration. She was too big in every way. She occupied too much space just by existing.

Her lungs were burning in her chest. She was forced to stop, gasping for breath. Looking around, she realized that she’d unconsciously fled straight to the lake shore. Loch Ness spread out before her, vast and serene under the glimmering stars.

Stepping off the path, she picked her way down closer to the water. The lake’s surface seemed curiously agitated tonight, even though there was no wind. Small waves lapped over the rocks, their gentle murmur washing away some of the hurt in her heart.

She’d lived next to Loch Ness all her life, and its lonely shores had always been a place of refuge. She liked the unapologetic bigness of it, and the way it made her feel small in comparison. It was vast and wild, and yet no one could deny that it was beautiful.

She had so many happy memories of standing by the lake at night, just like this. Feeling so totally at home, surrounded by beauty and love, with the waters sparkling in front of her and a large, strong hand engulfing her own…

Neridia’s hand crept up to her neck, closing around the pendant she always wore. The single, large pearl felt warm to the touch, heated by her own body. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine it pulsed with a life of its own, like a steady, protective heartbeat.

“Miss you, Dad,” she whispered, tears prickling her eyes again.

“Oi!”

Neridia leaped at the shout, letting go of the pearl. Whipping round, to her horror she recognized the five men whose drinks she’d spilled in the pub.

There was nowhere to run. Heart hammering, Neridia could only back away as they came stumbling and swearing down the rocky slope of the lakeshore toward her.

Her left foot splashed down into cold water. For a split second, she had a mad urge to turn and dive, anything to avoid the pack of men…

Water may look pretty, my Neridia, her father had always said when she’d been little, usually while pulling her back from trying to toddle straight into the loch. But you must never forget that it is also deadly. Don’t allow it to lure you into its trap.

There was no escape that way. And though she was big, she wasn’t a fighter. She didn’t stand a chance against so many men.

“Oi, freak show!” one of them called out again, with the loud aggression of a very drunk man spoiling for a fight. “You ruined our night!”

“I-I’m so sorry.”

Neridia’s mouth was dry with fear. “It was an accident.”

“Apologies won’t buy us a fresh round.” Another man thrust out his hand, palm open. “Twenty pounds. Each.”