Page 29 of Echo and the Homicidal Sea Panda

“We’remates,”Mael spat, his brow furrowing.

“Who’ve just met! You can’t ask me to consider major life decisions after one night,” Echo replied, struggling to breathe.

Even knowing he already belonged to the orca.

And Mael to him.

Mael chuckled, but there was little mirth to it. He lowered his hands and took a couple of steps back. “I forget I’m the one who’s been consumed by you all this time… while you didn’t even know I existed.”

Echo blinked rapidly, processing that. “How long have you been watching me?”

“Those sharks that attacked you? They also attacked a mother and her calf about six weeks ago near the same spot. I’ve been patrolling ever since, hoping to find them and ensure they never came back to hurt anyone else. And there you were… too close for comfort.”

Echo was speechless a few seconds, but he quickly realized that wasn’t a full answer to his question, either. “When was that—the first time you saw me?”

“I don’t know,” Mael said, shrugging. He avoided Echo’s gaze, his on the floor. “Three weeks, I think. Maybe more.”

The entire time Echo had been out there, watching for orca activity, one had been near the whole time watchinghim. “I suppose that means I’m a terrible investigator. I had no idea you were there.”

“If you’d gone into the water instead of sitting in your boat night after night, you might’ve noticed me. Dolphin hearingissuperior to ours from what I understand.”

“It was too risky to go into the water sooner. If there had been orca near, I feared they’d hear me or my echolocation. So I sat and I watched. I waited until I thought the coast was clear—which, it wasn’t I now learn,” Echo said, still shocked Mael had watched him that long without confronting him sooner. “Are they okay? The mother and child?”

“You don’t mess with an orca mother protecting her calf.” Mael smiled. “She foughtbothof them off, allowing her son time to swim for help. The sharks seemed to sense we were coming to her aid and took off just before we got there.” He glanced away. “She was hurt—badly—but she’s mostly healed now. Physically, at least.”

“They were lucky,” Echo said.

“Luck had nothing to do with it. It was all her. Had she not fought so heroically, I fear they’d both be gone.”

Echo smiled softly at Mael’s obvious respect for the mother, but then orcas and orca shifters existed in purely matriarchal societies. They held their females in esteem, the oldest of the pod their leader. Dolphins in the wild often did, too, but not all. Dolphin shifter pods, on the other hand, did not. While Echo’s pod was better than others he’d heard of and most definitely better than human social structure, their human half had overpowered dolphin nature. Alpha males tended to dominate decision making and leadership roles.

“I’m glad she was strong enough to do it. I faced off with those two and could only swim for my life.”

“You say that as if you’re ashamed.” Mael frowned, stepping closer. “Shifted, she’s three times your size and ten times your weight—and a deadly predator in her own right. You aren’t. You didexactlywhat you needed to do, Echo. If youevercome face-to-face with another great white, you swim as fast as you can or you hide out of their reach.”

“As if I have plans to do otherwise.”

Mael released a pent-up breath, appearing relieved.

They stared at one another, the silence heavy, filled with longing. It wasn’t only longing of a physical kind, not for Echo.

He longed to call Mael his.

Maelwashis… but there were so many obstacles in their path that it felt unwise to get ahead of himself. Just as Mael had just pointed out—he was three times smaller, ten times lighter. They might both be from the same animal family, but they were different species. Species who, as far as he knew, never mated in the wildoramongst shifters. Add in their pods had once been at war and only mildly tolerated one another didn’t help.

After a few seconds, the question that was still circling in the back of his mind had to be asked.

“Why did you wait so long? To make your presence known?”

Echo sensed the answer was the same doubts circling in his head.

Mael didn’t move for a few seconds, as if he hadn’t heard the question. Echo almost asked again, but Mael’s eventual answer saved him from having to.

“I could lie and say it was because I didn’t want to cross the barrier and break the treaty… and you hadn’t crossed, either, so I had no right to enter dolphin territory to make my presence known.”

“That doesn’t sound like a lie. It’s logical enough a reason.”

“As if logic played any role in this,” Mael muttered. He scrubbed a hand over his face.

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