The Sea Wolf's Mate (Hideaway Cove 2)

“Oh sh—hey, hey kid!” Jacqueline was moving before the words left her mouth. “Just stay there, I’ll come and get you! Don’t move!”

If she falls in the water—

Jacqueline cut the thought off sharp. Not going to happen.

She ran further along the boardwalk. A plank gave way under her foot and she stumbled, losing one of her shoes. Behind her, the seal barked again.

Jacqueline wobbled to her feet and kicked off her other shoe. She was as close to the little girl as she could get on the boardwalk, but there was still twenty feet of broken rock and treacherous water between them. She glanced further out to sea; the boat was still out there, but too far away to help, even if they heard her shouting. She was on her own.

Jacqueline steadied her flashlight and gulped.

“Hey, honey!” she called out, holding the flashlight so she could see the girl without blinding her. The girl was still crouched on the same rock, but the waves were crashing too close behind her for comfort. “I’ll be with you in a sec, okay? Just sit tight.”

Jacqueline stepped gingerly out onto the rocks. They were jagged, but not slippery. She took a few tentative steps and then became more confident.

“Okay, Jacqueline. You can do this,” she muttered to herself as the seal started barking more loudly. “Save the girl. Leave the local wildlife in peace. Attagirl.”

She was less than six feet away from the girl when she stepped on what she thought was a rock and found herself hip-deep in icy, sucking water, surrounded by ropes of clinging seaweed. Pain shot through her foot as it landed on something sharp.

“Ah-h,” she gasped, and grappled for a hold on the rocks before the water swept her off her feet.

A wordless shout echoed across the rocks. Jacqueline glanced over her shoulder to see—You’ve got to be kidding me—another curly-haired kid following her. A boy, maybe nine or ten, and just as naked as the little girl.

“Stop!” she called out. “Go back to shore!” And—put some pants on! What the hell? Have I stumbled on some sort of hippie commune?

Jacqueline turned back to the little girl, trusting the boy would listen to her. The last thing I need is two kids falling in—

Panting, she tried to haul herself up and slipped back again. The tide sucked at her legs.

Shaking sea spray out of her eyes, Jacqueline raised her flashlight and checked on the girl. She was still there, and only a few feet away—but there was a deep pool between them. Dark water rushed through a gap in the rocks, treacherously fast.

If I can hardly hold myself up in this current… then that one’s gotta be bad. Really bad.

Jacqueline looked across at the girl, whose face was creasing unhappily. “Hey, hey. It’s okay, sweetheart. You just stay there and I’ll come get you, okay? We can get you home—”

A decisive bark echoed across the rocks from back near the boardwalk. Jacqueline yanked herself up, managing to pull herself out of the water this time. She was measuring the gap—could she risk jumping across, or did she have time to find another way across?—when the girl stood up.

“No, no, honey, stay sitting down, the waves are—” Jacqueline began, and then her voice cut off.

I can’t be seeing this. It’s… no way. No way this is happening.

At first she thought the shimmering around the little girl was sea spray catching the light from her flashlight. Then the girl stretched out her arms, laughed, and changed.

Her tangled blonde hair disappeared, dark fur sprouted from her face and body, and a moment later there wasn’t a little girl standing on the rocks. There was a seal pup.

Jacqueline swayed, dazed. A seal pup. That little girl had just changed… into a baby seal.

Part of her brain remembered the seal she’d seen hiding behind the rocks near the boardwalk… and the boy who’d appeared as though out of nowhere.

This isn’t a prank, she thought wildly. This is—this is—

She blinked hard, as though it would change what she saw in front of her.

Why did the guy on the phone want to call Hideaway about this?

She opened her mouth, with no idea of what she was about to say—and then the pup overbalanced, yelped, and slid headfirst into the water.

Jacqueline didn’t stop to think. She jumped.