Making Waves (Mythological Lovers) by Vivienne Savage

fin, and for that reason, he’d been found unsuitable for mating by our eligible fillies.
    While the other three hung in the shallow surf, he marched up to her and dipped his head in respect.
    “He’s telling you it’s okay.”
    A trembling hand raised to touch the black fur covering Hyrum’s equine face. The stallion remained still, taking my warning to heart. I’d told them all she was shy and had never met a supernatural creature before up close and personal except for the island’s owner.
    Then Zeno had demanded to know why I’d never let her see me.
    Because I’m terrified. Because if she sees the real me, that I’m a sea monster, she won’t want me anymore. I’ll lose her.
    “His fur feels like sealskin... Oh my God, oh my God.” Alessa repeated herself over and over while running her fingers over Hyrum’s mane. He soaked up the attention while I watched, jealous and wanting to be in his place instead.
    Maybe she can love me and see I’m still her Dante under all the fur and scales.
    “He’s magnificent. Thank you.” Alessa’s smile lit up her entire face. Watching her flooded my heart with joy and an undeniable urge to throw off my clothes and show her my stallion.
    Zeno and Helena moved from the water next, taking their human forms mid-stride and joining hands. Helena’s body brought to mind photos of old renaissance paintings I’d viewed online while surfing the internet. Like Aphrodite in the Birth of Venus , she had thick thighs and a soft stomach beneath two pert breasts. Waist-length strawberry blonde hair slicked behind her shoulders, and like most mares, she easily stood six feet tall while on legs.
    Helena waved shyly and Zeno watched us from beside his mate. He was nearly six and a half feet tall, solid and muscular with a frame like an American footballer. Lycus moved up alongside them in his human body, his chestnut hair hanging wetly around his shoulders. Smaller than the rest of us guys, he’d gone his entire adult life without attention from the fillies in our herd.  At least they’d flirted with me and shown me attention.
    “They don’t speak much English,” I told Alessa. “But I can translate anything you want to say.”
    “Is that why you won’t show me your horse, too? Cause you have to translate?”
    She wanted to see? “Er... That wasn’t why.”
    “Well? Are you going to let me see you then?”
    “Do you want to?”
    Alessa nodded and tightly clutched her camera. “More than anything.”
    Slipping my thumbs into the waistband of my shorts, I shoved them down and stepped free. The prompt transformation overtook me, contorting the bones of a human body into the frame of a seahorse. My muscles grew and my spine elongated. A sharp arc of short-lived, exquisite pain shot through me.
    Alessa stared at me, her bright eyes large in her oval face. In my animal form, every sense became amplified except for my eyesight. My field of vision broadened at the cost of including blind spots I didn’t have as a human. I tilted my head to watch her approach, wanting to see her for every second.
    Tears shimmered in her eyes. “You’re... exactly as I saw you in my dream.” Elation filled me at the first stroke to my face, then she kissed my nose. Curious fingers threaded through my black mane and slid over the ink-colored fur covering my upper body. I stood still as she moved around me to my hindquarters where a sleek fishtail lay over the damp sand.
    “Your color is amazing. I knew you’d be beautiful but....” Her voice trailed. “Do I get to ride you?”
    No human rode a hippocampus. It was a tradition long ended when my ancestors retreated from their former Phoenician masters and we were lost to myths and legends. We were all friends once — now we hid from humanity.
    Flattening my body to the gritty sand, I lowered so Alessa could swing one leg over my back. The others watched with mixed expressions, curiosity and bewilderment.
    With Alessa secure, I dragged my body