Warriors of Poseidon 01.5 - Wild Hearts in Atlantis

shapeshifter with Bastien. In a burst of speed, he shot up and out and didn't descend until he was floating above the midnight blue waves of the Atlantic Ocean. As he spiraled down into the water, regaining his form on the way, he channeled the magic of the portal into Atlantis.
     
    Grimly hoped that the portal would cooperate. It had a decidedly capricious nature, much akin to that of the sea god himself.
     
    Fortunately for the urgency of his mission, the portal opened immediately and he stepped through onto Atlantean soil. Immediately felt the peace of his homeland rush through him, sweeping through the corroded corners of his soul.
     
    Though not even the peace of Atlantis could fill the emptiness of some losses. Some wounds would never heal. Her enormous eyes flashed into his mind, and he nearly flinched.
     
    Quinn.
     
    His eyes gleamed with power, startling the two portal guards who'd fallen back at his entrance. They bowed deeply. "Alaric. Prince Conlan sent for you," one ventured, not meeting his eyes.
     
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    He nodded and headed for the palace. The news that Bastien's shapeshifter liaison almost certainly had Atlantean blood in her superseded his own pathetic longings for a human he could never have.
     
    Quinn had made that clear, as if his own duties did not dictate the same.
     
    Tangled up in his own black mood, he failed to sense Conlan until the prince flashed into form before him on the path. "What news, Alaric?"
     
    Alaric lifted his head, masking the bleakness of his thoughts to calm control and arranging his expression to reflect the same. "There is a problem. Our shapeshifter has Atlantean blood in her."
     
    "What? Are you sure?" Conlan ran a hand through his hair. "How is this even possible, in a shapeshifter?"
     
    Alaric raised one eyebrow. "Considering the nature of your beloved and her sister, I am unsure as to why you are so surprised by this development," he said sardonically.
     
    "But a shapeshifter? Is it even possible for an Atlantean to breed with a shapeshifter?"
     
    "Clearly it is, at least if the mating involves a human with slight traces of Atlantean DNA from an ancestor who was born more than eleven thousand years ago."
     
    Conlan looked at Alaric and nodded. "You were right."
     
    "I am always right. Can you be more specific?"
     
    Conlan's lips twitched in a ghost of a smile. "When we met Riley and Quinn, you said everything was changing. After millennia of fighting the shapeshifters on behalf of Wild Hearts In Atlantis – Warriors of Poseidon 1.5
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    humanity, now you tell me that they—at least some of them—might be our descendants."
     
    "It's difficult to know who to battle, when the identities of the combatants switch in the middle of the game," Conlan continued.
     
    "Yet it is even worse than you know, my prince." Alaric closed his eyes and sent his energy winging out from his body to refresh itself in the air and waters of Atlantis. As the pure power of the sustaining elements of his home rushed through his body, he felt the energy grow within him until a shining nimbus of energy glowed around his entire body.
     
    Conlan folded his arms. "That bad?"
     
    "Worse. Bastien's little shapeshifter may well be just that—Bastien's shapeshifter."
     
    "You don't mean—"
     
    "I do. Their energies parallel. They have the potential to reach the soul meld."
     
    Conlan's face hardened. "To the palace, then. We have much to discuss. I don't know if I can allow that."
     
    Alaric laughed, but fell into step with his prince. "Think on how you feel about Riley. Not even Poseidon himself could have barred you from your desire to unite with her. With Bastien and his shapeshifter, you may not have any choice."

Chapter Six
    "You're going to have to tell me about it sometime," Bastien said, following Kat down a muddy, overgrown path. She'd explained that they were at the very beginning of the dry season, and the path had been covered by as much as three feet of water during the Wild Hearts In Atlantis – Warriors of Poseidon 1.5
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    height of the May through October rainy season. They'd passed through stands of dwarf cypress and pinelands, mostly in silence, while she quite determinedly ignored him and he tried desperately to think of something liaison—like to say.
     
    Since he still wasn't sure what a liaison did, he was good for trying Denal's advice to try to "build a bridge of