Page 10 of Hammerhead (Kinkaid Shifters #4)

J ose looked at his brother with a stunned expression. They were sharks. Sharks skated very close to the line where good and evil were concerned. The idea of pledging an oath of such importance was clearly shocking to him.

Miguel nodded without hesitation. “I would do anything to make my mate happy and proud to be with me. If I continued to swim in the gray, I know it would break her heart, and that I will never do. Not intentionally.” Miguel’s words were measured and fell quietly in the still room.

Jose shook his head once more. “You’ve got it bad, don’t you, bro?”

Miguel straightened from his leaning position and went over to sit next to his little brother on the edge of the bunk. He bumped shoulders with his brother in a familiar way.

“I guess I do,” Miguel agreed. “But I like this feeling. I never dreamed I would find my mate so easily, but the more I’m with her, the more I believe she is truly my one and only, and I don’t want to go on without her. I can only hope she feels the same.”

“You have to talk to her,” Jose said, turning to meet Miguel’s eyes. “As soon as possible.”

“I know, but…” Miguel cleared his throat and tried again. “I have to confess that I fear her reply. My heart is sure, but I don’t know about hers, and that frightens me more than anything I’ve ever experienced.”

Jose had to know just how hard it was for his brother—a fellow shark—to admit he was afraid. He put his arm around Miguel and squeezed his shoulders.

“You have to do it, bro. You have to know one way or the other before you can move forward. And I think I can speak for the rest of our little Clan when I say that we’ve done well under your leadership. We’re loyal to you. And after that last job, most of us were ashamed of what we’d contracted to do. That didn’t sit well with any of us. Not just you. We all felt bad about what we almost did. I think you’ll find everyone willing to follow your lead onto a more honest path, if that’s the way you want to go.”

“You’ve talked to the others?” Miguel asked, his eyebrows rising.

“We’re not blind. We noticed a few changes and have talked about what that might mean for the pod. The guys seem to want to stick with you and follow your lead. You’re our Alpha, whether you like it or not.” Jose grinned and slapped his brother on the back.

Miguel felt his heart open with joy to hear his brother’s words. He’d thought they might stick by him, but to hear Jose confirm his hunch was gratifying. As was the idea that they would follow him. They’d always been a loose Clan of hammerheads just trying to make their way in the world. They hadn’t really formalized their group and named a hierarchy, though mostly the rest of the men followed Miguel’s lead, making him the unofficial Alpha of the group from almost the very beginning.

If they chose to follow him now, that would make things more formal, and he wasn’t sure he was ready to be the acknowledged Alpha of a shark Clan. Then again, he’d been doing the job for a while now, and if the men wanted him to lead, who was he to say no? He wanted the best life not only for himself, but for his friends as well. That was a good start, and hopefully in time, they would all find mates and settle down to work on expanding their little Clan by having children and finding like-minded souls who wanted to join them.

The future was starting to look very bright, indeed. But it all depended on Deidre. He’d have to talk to her as soon as he could scrape up the courage. Her answer would determine the path of his life from here on out.

But first, he had to talk with his men. Ndukwe and Ibrahim should still be on the boat. Miguel would start with them. He went down to the small room they all shared in shifts and found his quarry. Jose went with him.

The room smelled like salt and sweat, the air thick with unspoken things as Miguel and Jose walked in and closed the door behind them. Hammerheads generally didn’t do speeches. They didn’t do long, drawn-out conversations about morality. They’d spent too many years in the gray, navigating the world’s underbelly, taking jobs no one else would.

But things had changed. Miguel could feel it. The weight of it.

Sitting on the edge of one of the bunks, he looked at the other three men. His brother was leaning against the wall, arms crossed but gaze steady. Ndukwe, the Nigerian hammerhead, perched on a crate, fingers drumming restlessly on his knee. Moroccan Ibrahim, standing near the door, already half in a fighting stance like he was waiting for an argument. Ibrahim was never easy. He liked to fight. Sometimes just for the hell of it. Miguel almost shook his head, but refrained.

No one spoke at first. Then Jose, ever the pragmatist, broke the silence.

“Tell, them, bro,” he suggested to Miguel. “Ask them what they think.”

“Ask us what?” Ndukwe asked, looking from brother to brother.

“I need to ask you guys something,” Miguel hedged, wondering the best way to approach this. Straight out would probably be best, even if Ibrahim was poised to fight.

“Spit it out, bro,” Jose advised. “It won’t get any easier by delaying.”

“The thing is, I’m involved with the selkie woman, Deidre,” Miguel revealed. “It’s early, but I think it could get serious and I think you all know what that means. If I’m to have her in my life, I’m going to have to swim the straight and narrow. I was wondering if you all would agree to do the same.”

“You mean, no more swimming on the dark side of good and evil,” Ndukwe clarified.

“Not even the gray side,” Jose put in helpfully. “Big bro is going legit.”

“So why do we have to do the same. We’re sharks, man,” Ibrahim put in, relaxing his stance a bit, which Miguel chose to take as a good sign.

“I know,” Miguel replied, looking at them all one by one, meeting their gazes steadily. “But if I align myself with a Kinkaid, it’s what I’ll have to do. Frankly, we’ve been treading the line for a long time, never quite committing to anything fully on the dark side, and you know it.”

“Yeah, but it was always an option,” Ibrahim reminded him. “You’re asking us to take that option off the table. For now? Or forever?”

“If she agrees to the mating, then it’ll be a permanent change. I can’t have my podmates doing sketchy stuff while my mate serves the Light with all her heart,” he reminded them.

Silence met his words. Finally, Ndukwe spoke.

“This isn’t a decision we can make lightly.”

Miguel exhaled, dragging a hand through his damp hair. “You think I don’t know that?”

Jose shrugged. “I think we need to lay it all out.” His sharp gaze flicked to Ibrahim. “Before anybody does anything stupid.”

Ibrahim scoffed, crossing his arms. “You act like swearing fealty to the Light is the only path. Like we have to pick a side at all.”

Miguel met his gaze evenly. “Because we do.”

Ibrahim snorted. “Who says?”

Miguel clenched his jaw. “You think Kettering will just forget all about us? You think we can float through life, pretending we’re not already marked? The darkness is coming for us, Ibrahim. The only question is whether we let it take us.”

“And you think shackling ourselves to the other side is any better?” Ibrahim stepped forward, voice sharp.

Ndukwe, quiet until now, shifted on the crate. “It’s not shackles,” he said slowly, carefully choosing his words. “It’s a choice.”

“Sure. A choice between getting used as weapons by one side or the other. You really think the Light will treat us any better than the mercenaries we used to work for?” Ibrahim laughed, humorless.

Ndukwe’s jaw tightened. “I think we’ve seen what the dark does. I think we’ve felt it. And I think… maybe it’s time we fight for something other than ourselves.”

Miguel watched the exchange carefully. Ndukwe was hesitant, but his moral compass had always been steadier than the rest of the other guys. Ibrahim? He was still on the edge, still looking for the exit before he had to commit.

Jose leaned against the wall, his expression unreadable. “It comes down to one thing. Who do we want to be?”

“We are sharks. That should be enough.” Ibrahim’s hands curled into fists. The man had always been a brawler.

Miguel pushed to his feet walking over to Ibrahim. Facing him down.

“No. It’s not.” Miguel let the words settle, let the weight of them sink into the bones of the men around him. “We’re hammerheads,” he continued, voice steady, sure. “We’ve spent decades swimming in the gray. Doing things we told ourselves didn’t matter. But they did. They do.” His gaze swept over them, brothers forged in war, in mercenary work, in blood. “I don’t know if we can be good men,” he admitted. “But I know we can try.”

Ibrahim shook his head, eyes stormy. “And if I don’t want to swear my soul to a war that isn’t really mine?”

Miguel exhaled through his nose. “Then you walk away from the pod. From us all.”

Ibrahim’s nostrils flared, but he didn’t speak.

Jose finally pushed off the wall. “I’m in.” His voice was solid, final. “I can’t go back to what we were. I don’t want to.”

Ndukwe nodded, a slow but steady movement. “I will stand with you.”

All eyes turned to Ibrahim. A long, tense beat passed before he looked away.

“I need time to think about this.”

Miguel nodded. “Then take it.” His voice dropped, low and serious. “But remember—time runs out eventually. And when the darkness comes knocking, you better know which door you’re standing behind.”

Ibrahim clenched his jaw, then turned and stalked out. The door shut behind him, leaving the three of them alone.

“Well, that went well.” Jose let out a breath.

Ndukwe shot him a sarcastic look. “You think?”

Miguel didn’t answer. He just looked at the door, at the space Ibrahim had left behind, and hoped—for all their sakes—that his friend made the right choice.

Miguel had done what he could. He’d posed the question and planted the seed. Now it was up to his pod brothers to decide for themselves. Finally, Miguel could seek out the woman for whom he’d change his entire life. He couldn’t wait to see Deidre again. Nodding to his brother and Ndukwe, he left the room and sought out the true light in his world.