“Did you check the luggage for identification?”
“It sank,” Bastian said apologetically, and Saina’s heart sank with his statement. Her Voice would be gone from her forever.
Her song took a keen of grief that she didn’t intend, and it drew attention she didn’t want.
“Hey,” Bastian said eagerly. “You’re awake!”
Saina let her eyes flutter open. She couldn’t tell how much of a spell she’d been able to cast; everything was distant and fuzzy with pain and confusion. Judging from the way he was gazing down at her, she’d been singing a seduction. She could expect the adoration to dissolve into confusion as her song faded, but there should be a short window of charity before it was gone completely.
What she didn’t expect was her own reaction.
He was the most gorgeous man she had ever laid eyes on, with a jaw like a superhero, and arresting golden eyes. Sun-bleached hair was tousled over a tanned brow, and he had the most perfect nose she’d ever seen on a man. He was wearing a lifeguard uniform and she didn’t have to feign a weak, grateful smile.
“My hero,” she said musically, driving all her energy into the words.
The effort of it drained her to the bones, leaving her gasping as pain flooded over her.
“Shhh,” Bastian said, gazing down at her like she’d unrolled the ocean. “Lie still, you’re hurt…”
As he faded into blackness, Saina found herself regretting the unconsciousness because she wouldn’t be able to gaze back into those beautiful eyes any longer.
Chapter 4
It’s a mercy, she’s asleep again,” the strange man with tattoos and scars told Bastian. “Bullet wounds hurt. But she’s a shifter, sure as shit, because she’s healing like one.”
“Who are you, exactly?” Bastian asked, still feeling stunned by the woman’s brief green-eyed gaze.
He had very mixed feelings about the man already; on the one hand, he’d been remarkably knowledgeable about bullet wounds, which was an area that lifeguard medical training hadn’t been thorough on.
On the other hand, Bastian wanted to be the only one touching his mate and he irrationally wanted to punch the stranger.
“Wrench,” the man said briefly and unhelpfully.
“He kidnapped Jenny,” Travis added merrily.
Bastian gave the handyman a quizzical look. The lynx shifter handy
man certainly wasn’t treating the stranger the way Bastian would have expected him to treat a man who had kidnapped his mate.
“To be fair,” Jenny added, as the mate in question, “he let me go.”
Scarlet made a displeased noise that was part sigh and part growl. “Let’s get her inside somewhere, and get to work cleaning up the resort. The Civil Guard will be here shortly for our other uninvited guest; we can have them take her back to the mainland with them.”
“No!” Bastian said furiously, drawing his hands into fists.
The staff stared at him.
“Finders, keepers?” Tex, the Southern bear shifter bartender, teased. His own mate, Jenny’s identical twin sister Laura, was standing next to him and she chuckled.
Bastian kept himself from growling at the innocent remark. “She’s my mate. She stays on the island.”
While the rest of the gathered staff gave exclamations of disbelief, congratulations, and surprise, Scarlet threw up her hands in disgust.
“That is just what we need,” she said in frustration. “This is a business, not a dating club, and I’ve already taken one charity case today.” She glared pointedly at Travis, Tex, and Wrench, who all sobered at her gaze. To Bastian, she said, “Put her in cottage eighteen and try to keep her from bleeding all over the sheets. And I don’t want you mooning over her all day, we’ve got a beach to clean up. We have jobs, people!”
Her footsteps away across the open bar floor were angry and fast, and her absence left the room feeling larger.
“I can keep an eye on her,” Jenny offered kindly.