Page 9 of Gorilla in the Groove (Shamrock Safari Shifters #3)

Mick had to hand it to Irina: she shrieked, stared, and then somehow held it together for the next ninety seconds while he kept the boat from capsizing with three hundred kilos of gorilla-form.

The moment the boat started to level, she was at the sail, keeping them on an even keel while they rode out the rest of the yacht's wake.

Then she dropped onto her arse, breathless and gaping at him, and Mick, apologetic, embarrassed, and terrified, shifted back to human.

Irina shrieked again, which seemed fair, honestly. Shrieked, then laughed, and said, "I don't know why I'm screaming, it's not like the gorilla could have been anyone but you," in a slightly shrill tone. "Mick the Mouse ?"

Mick sank into a seat as far from Irina as he could get, in case she might still panic. "Niall didn't know about the gorilla, then," he said apologetically. "I'm so sorry. This wasn't how I wanted to tell you like."

"How did you want to tell me?" Irina's voice rose and he could almost see her trying to claw it back down.

"Why did you want to tell me? Do you just go around telling people you can turn into a gorilla?

You did just turn into a gorilla, right?

Oh my God , you turned into the gorilla I saw at the wildlife sanctuary!

You did, didn't you? I thought he liked me," she added half beneath her breath, and at that, Mick couldn't help laughing.

"He did like you. Or rather, I liked you. And yes," he said nervously, "I did just turn into a gorilla, and I'd show you again but gorillas are deeply uncomfortable in the water, and?—"

Irina's brown eyes widened. "And your life vest disappeared when you were a gorilla.

But it came back now that you're you again.

Where did it go? Why aren't you naked? Or at least Hulked out?

Gorillas are…" She paused, examining him with a critical eye.

"Well, they're a lot bigger across the chest and shoulder than you are, but your legs are much thicker.

And longer. How does—how does that work ?

" She mashed her lips together, then, through the mash, mumbled, "I'm asking a lot of questions and not giving you a chance to answer. "

"I'd say you're entitled," Mick breathed, then checked the sails and the water again, giving the retreating yacht a hard look.

"They're going lose their license, coming in that fast. I hope they're banned from the harbor.

" Once he was sure they were settled safely, he offered Irina a still-nervous smile.

"There are a fair number of shifters around Cork, because we can go out to the wildlife park and stretch our legs a wee little bit. And I'm one of them. Obviously."

"Shifters," she said breathlessly. "Is that what you call yourselves? Do you change into anything else?"

"Just a gorilla." Mick wobbled his hand. " I turn into a gorilla. There's loads of other shifter animals. Lions. Wolves. Bears. Capybaras."

Irina blinked. "The…those big rabbit-pig things at the wildlife park?"

Mick grinned a bit. "Yeah. They're unusual. More unusual than gorillas, and there aren't that many of us."

"Right." Irina gazed at him, wide-eyed. "And the clothes?"

That was familiar territory. "Shift with us. If I really concentrate I could keep them from shifting with me, but then as you say, there's the Hulking out problem. I'd explode out of a life vest."

Irina nodded, eyes still round. "You don't go around telling people this very often, I assume, so why were you going to tell me?"

"Because…" Mick swallowed, and his gorilla, gently, said, Go ahead and tell her. Mates always understand.

'Mates always understand' and 'I want to tell you we belong together forever while on a boat in the middle of the harbor where you can't step away and take a minute' are two very different things! Mick protested.

His gorilla, not being up on human consent and mating rituals, blinked placidly at him.

Despite his momentary agitation, Mick couldn't help smiling at the gentle beast. I'll tell her soon, he promised, and aloud, said, "I fancied you the moment I saw you, and it's not the kind of thing that gets any easier to bring up the longer a relationship lasts—not that I'm saying we're in a relationship," he added hastily, as Irina's eyebrows shot up.

At least she laughed, though. "I liked you as soon as we met, too—oh, God, I even liked the gorilla!

What does that mean? No, never mind, don't tell me, I'm not sure I want to know!

But yes, probably we're not quite at 'relationship' stage.

" Her voice and gaze went thoughtful on the last few words, as if she was considering the possibility that they could be, and Mick's gorilla made a satisfied sound.

You see? Mates understand.

"Well," Irina said after that considering little pause, "all things considered, I'm glad you can turn into a giant gorilla, because I think we would have capsized, otherwise. Don't take this wrong, but, um, how much do you weigh ?"

"As a gorilla? Three or four hundred kilos, I'm not sure. I've never weighed myself."

Irina gave him a look and took out her phone, obviously doing a conversion, because her eyebrows shot up again. "If I take the middle of that, that's like eight hundred pounds. And this says…that gorillas don't weigh that much," she said, clearly summarizing what she'd read.

"No, true gorillas don't. Shifter animals tend to run bigger than our true counterparts."

"Really? Why?" Irina crept closer, her eyes bright with interest.

"I've no idea," Mick admitted. "Shifter magic.

I've always thought it was that our shifter animals had to add size to account for now carrying human mass along with it, but that doesn't actually make any sense.

Shifter capybaras aren't two hundred kilos, and bird shifters wouldn't be able to fly at all.

But it's still what I think." He flashed her another nervous smile and to his relief, Irina grinned back at him, sparkling in the afternoon sunlight.

"It makes as much sense as turning into a gorilla does. So is that like…your whole family are gorillas?"

Mick nodded. "It tends to run in families. Sometimes you get a sport and a family of lions has a giraffe—I know a lad who hangs out at the wildlife park who's like that?—"

Irina interrupted with a breathless, "That must suck. A prey animal in a family of predators?"

Mick widened his eyes at her. "You'd think, aye, but giraffes fight like motherfu—em, I mean, they're right bastards in a fight, even against lions.

Too big to kill easily, and they're vicious with those long legs.

I'd say you're still right and it'd be mad awkward, but a giraffe can take care of itself.

" He paused. "Also, shifters wouldn't usually hunt each other. "

"But do you know if somebody else is a shifter?" Irina moved a little closer again, which put her in reaching distance. It wasn't a very big boat, but it was more than that.

Mick's gorilla was right: she wasn't afraid, which made an upswell of relief choke Mick's voice briefly.

He cleared his throat, nodding. "We do, yeh.

Not usually what kind of shifter, but there's kind of a sense about them that we feel.

And some of the predator species have uncanny senses of smell as humans, and can tell that way. "

"What about you?"

"Not a predator, exactly," Mick said, touching his nose. "I'm strong, though. We all are, like. Stronger than average for our sizes like. But I'm…"

"'Mad strong?'" Irina said, echoing his phrasing from a moment earlier.

Mick smiled. "I am so."

"That's amazing." Irina put her hand out toward him, and Mick caught it in his own, marveling at the tiny delicacy of her fingers against his. Her hand was cold from being out in the wind, but warmed quickly in his own big mitt. "Thank you for telling me. I won't tell anyone, obviously."

"I know you won't."

She gave him a curious look. "That's flattering, but how do you know?"

"Partly because I trust you," Mick said, then, with a wry grin, added, "and partly because you'd sound completely mental. No one would believe you. There's a reason we show our mates when we tell them about ourselves."

His gorilla, very neutrally, said, Whoops, and Mick's ears suddenly flamed hot as he realized what word he'd used. The momentary hope that Irina hadn't noticed was crushed by her expression growing even more curious. "Mates?"

"Oh, it's just…a thing…about shifters…" Mick seriously considered throwing himself into the harbor and swimming away from a conversation he'd just made much more difficult than he'd meant to.

Absolutely not, his gorilla said in actual alarm. No swimming. Not unless the boat falls over! The water is deep! We can't reach the bottom with our feet!

Don't worry, Mick promised through his mortification. I won't really throw us in the harbor.

The gorilla relaxed, but Irina was still gazing at him with intense curiosity, so Mick groaned and spread his hands, reluctantly losing Irina's from his grip as he did so.

"It's another part of being a shifter," he mumbled.

"We know, the moment we meet the person we're supposed to be with for the rest of our lives. It's a lot."

"God, I guess it would be. On the other hand, I guess it would make dating easier. Although, I don't know." Irina rose to change the angle of the sails, clearly intending to bring them back to the docks now that the water had calmed from the yacht's arrival. Mick couldn't blame her.

Her voice floated toward him on the wind.

"I suppose you don't just, like, never date until the right person shows up.

And I wonder, I mean, what if you met the perfect girl but you were both six years old?

Would you know then or would it wait? What if she moved away?

What if you did? Would it mean you were absolutely definitely going to meet up again, or would it mean there might be somebody else out there who was just as perfect for you?

I mean, God, what if she died?" Irina turned toward Mick, her face comically distressed.

"It would be totally unfair if she was your one chance at true love and you knew you'd never be happy again without her! This is terrible, Mick!"

Mick blinked at her, astonished. "I never thought about any of that.

I think it's…kinder than that? Like if I hadn't met—" He managed to just barely swallow saying you , and stumbled through, "—if I hadn't met—if I didn't meet—there's eight billion people in the world," he finally said.

"Meeting the right one is always going to be a kind of magic. "

Irina smiled suddenly. "That's true. All right, that makes me feel better somehow. So how do you know when you meet them?"

You should tell her, his gorilla said dryly, and Mick sort of thought it might have a point.

"They feel right," he said as he got up to help bring the boat back into dock.

"You find them attractive, obviously, maybe the most attractive person you've ever seen, but more than that, they feel right," he said again, a little helplessly.

"Like you fit together like puzzle pieces.

Like you want to share everything with them right away.

Like they're a part of you that you didn't even know was missing. "

"Sounds like you've met yours," Irina said a bit wistfully as the boat bumped into the pier and Mick sprang out to tie it off. "Lucky woman."

Mick swore that his actual soul groaned, and his gorilla examined him like he'd lost his head. Tell her, it repeated.

At this moment, Mick could hardly see a way around it without complicating things even more. So he offered Irina his hand while she climbed out of the Fossey , and took a deep breath. "I have."

Her eyes widened again as she looked up at him. "Then why are you out on a boat with me, instead of spending time with her?"

He couldn't help a little smile. "I am spending time with her."

"Well, I don't see how, since you're right—" Irina caught her breath, then flushed the prettiest dusky pink he'd ever seen, and whispered, "You don't mean…me? I'm your fated mate?"

"You are," Mick said almost helplessly. "I knew it as soon as I saw you at the wildlife park."

"Oh." Irina's blush deepened as she beamed up at Mick. "I think that's the most wonderful thing I've ever heard."