Crocodylus Acutus Read online

so he was just returning the favor.

  Over the splashing water, he thought he heard Grady make a frightened noise, a little shriek, and Craig lunged in time to head off a hungry female high-tailing it up the bank. Bumping Grady with his wide hips, Craig intended to nudge the poor guy up far enough in the mud to get some traction while he dealt with the last croc.

  Unfortunately for Grady, Craig was also something of a klutz and in crocodile form that translated to about two hundred and forty pounds of clumsy. So instead of a boost to dry grassland, Grady was launched a good ten feet through the air, all flailing legs and squeaky noises.

  Oops.

  So Craig put the smackdown on the remaining croc who thought a Grady Sandwich was on the lunch menu, before worrying about the pain-filled panicked noises behind him. He turned to find Grady trying to pull himself through the grass back to his truck, right leg dragging behind him.

  Well, crap. Craig had been hoping for a coffee date, not to maim the guy. He scooted closer, moving slowly on purpose so Grady wouldn't think he was a threat, but apparently the damage had already been done.

  "Shoo! Shoo!" Grady started yelling, flinging wet clods of dirt and rocks at Craig's head, anything he could get a hold of around him. "Bad crocodile! Shoo!"

  Craig grunted as a pebble bounced off his protective eyelid. It kind of hurt like a motherfucker, but he didn't want to upset Grady more by thrashing his tail.

  Then the water sampling kit hit him square between the eyes, clipping him in the nostrils in the process, and that was the final straw. He roared as he involuntarily transformed, standing unsteadily on his feet in the squishy bank.

  Swaying, he cupped his injured nose with his hands without thinking, squishing a handful of mud in his own face. It dribbled on his chin, and he was covered from neck to toes with a thick coating, so he could exactly wipe it off on his shoulder. He'd have to wait for it to dry.

  Shaking his hands didn't seem to clear them off. He spit hard, trying to at least clean his lips, and chuckled. This was ridiculous.

  He'd gotten injured in croc fights before and hadn't transformed, but that was all animal instinct and little thought. He hadn't lost his focus like this since he'd hit puberty. Gingerly, he pinched his hurt nose again with muddy fingers.

  "Oh. My. God."

  Craig looked up in time to watch Grady faint dead away.

  "Shit," he said in the silence that followed.

  Cautiously approaching Grady, Craig looked over his shoulder to the river. The other crocs had headed for less-contested grounds and that suited him just fine, but there was no guarantee that they'd stay gone for long. They wouldn't generally bother him, even as a human, but having a normal human around might be enough to cause trouble.

  He nudged Grady with a muck-covered toe. The other man was completely drenched, with wet sawgrass and algae in his hair and river mud all over his arms and legs from climbing up the bank. Grady murmured, eyes still closed, and frowned as Craig poked him another time. He'd lost his glasses again.

  This wasn't optimal at all, Craig thought with a sigh and scratched at his hair. It always felt itchy when he was in human form.

  Well, he couldn't call for help on Grady's truck radio. There would be no way for him to escape. He wouldn't be able to change back to a croc for another couple hours, unless he ate a steak or something first. It just took too much energy. But he couldn't leave Grady out here if he was injured. What if his leg was broken? It would suck if Craig saved him just to leave him for the crocs to come back, or, like, a python. Or raccoons. Craig hated those damn raccoons.

  He could always take him back to the houseboat. Probably. But that would mean moving it afterwards. Finding a quiet mooring spot near the reserve with good morning shade was always a pain in the ass.

  There was also leaving him locked in the truck cabin, if Grady hadn't lost the keys in the scuffle.

  He poked Grady again. The other man seemed so small. Craig thought he'd be taller, but he couldn't have been more than five foot eight.

  "Wha--" Grady blinked awake, gasping and flailing. "What?"

  Craig stared down at him for a long moment, realizing he was looming. "Um. Hi?"

  "You--" Grady licked his lips dryly and swallowed, then grimaced at the muck on his face. He said groggily, "You were just-- I mean-- I was--"

  "Um, I think you slipped and hit your head," Craig suggested helpfully. "Bad concussion. You should get that looked at."

  Grady's eyes came back into sharp focus, even without the glasses, and he glared up at Craig before he struggled to a sitting position. He seemed to regain his composure faster than Craig had.

  "You were just a crocodile," he stated simply, a frown on his face. His hands slapped down on the grass. Craig tried not to be utterly delighted by the way Grady's nose was scrunching up in confusion. "There was the big crocodile, and then there was you."

  Craig shifted from foot to foot, trying to think of an excuse. He hadn't revealed himself to another human before, even during that one semester of college where he'd mistakenly thought he could stand being away from the water for a week and ended up going for a dip in the pool after hours. Chlorine burned like woah.

  "I, um, saw you slip. You hit your head?" He offered up again. He really needed to watch more movies or read more books or something, because he was crap at creative storytelling. "Maybe you were hallucinating?"

  Grady looked skeptical. "You just happened to see me fall down a bank. In the middle of the Everglades. In a restricted area."

  "Um. Yes?"

  "Because you were, what? Out jogging?" He arched an eyebrow. It really was quite sexy.

  Craig swallowed. "Yes. Jogging."

  "Naked?"

  Craig looked down at himself.

  "I-- like the breeze?" He tried.

  Grady glared up at him in a completely adorable manner. "Yeah, right. What the hell?"

  Craig could feel the natural crocs starting to come back, winding slowly through the water. Human voices should have warned them off, made them skittish, but nothing about this season was normal.

  "How about we get you back in your truck?" Craig asked hopefully, spotting Grady's glasses on the trampled bank. He bent over to retrieve them, then realized Grady was getting a free show as the other man's face turned red, and quickly stood.

  When Craig held them out, Grady just looked at his outstretched hand suspiciously and frowned, arms crossing over his chest. "You were a crocodile."

  "Shouldn't someone be out here with you?" Craig tried again. The larger of the two females was creeping closer behind him and he really didn't like it.

  "My partner called out sick, but I'm still supposed to check in periodically," Grady said defensively. "So don't get any ideas, man."

  Ideas--? Oh.

  "I'm not going to hurt you," Craig said, trying for a grin and shaking the glasses at him encouragingly. It obviously didn't work. Maybe Craig had been out on his houseboat a little too long. Human socialization was totally going on his list of things to do.

  "Whatever," Grady growled. "Look, don't bullshit me. I know what I saw and you clearly couldn't lie your way out of a paper bag--"

  "What does that even mean?" Craig paused, hand with the glasses dropping to his mud-covered thigh.

  Grady rubbed his forehead. "I don't care what it means, because you were just a crocodile!"

  The shout took Craig off-guard and he jumped. A splash in the river behind him was all the warning he had as he realized the big male was back for a fight.

  "Time to go," he said as he ran forward, scooping an angry Grady up with an arm under his shoulders and one under his knees, before he high-tailed it for the truck bed. Craig didn't need to look over his shoulder to know that they were being chased.

  Forget mating season. It totally made everyone crazy.

  He wasn't supernaturally strong, really, but his muscles from his croc shape seemed to translate to his human form a bit, so vaulting up into the truck bed with Grady
cradled in his arms wasn't that hard when his heart was threatening to beat right out of his chest.

  The vehicle lurched dangerously to the side as the other male croc rammed the rear tire. Craig thought he had it covered, but his feet were muddy and the truck bed dusty with baked dirt, and the impact sent his legs right out from under him. He landed on his butt with a pained grunt as Grady's weight knocked the air from his lungs.

  "Fuck my life, what was that?" Grady demanded, voice high and panicked right in Craig's ear, limbs flailing. "I've never heard of a crocodile attacking a truck!"

  Grady's knee was in a very uncomfortable place. Craig made a noise only dolphins could hear.

  "Oh, shit! Sorry!" Grady rolled off of Craig and onto his knees, hissing when his injured ankle struck the metal bed of the truck.

  "You okay?" Craig managed once his manly pink bits were back in the right place. That was not the kind of touching he'd wanted from Grady...

  "I'm in one piece, so I think that counts as fine right now," Grady said breathlessly, holding his leg.

  A warning rumble drew Craig's attention away. Craig craned his neck to look over the lip of the truck bed. Five crocodiles were now gathering ominously around them.

  "That's so not normal," he commented, almost to himself. "I wonder why they're--"

  The truck rocked again as the largest rammed it. Craig growled, but even with his adrenaline pumping, he couldn't feel the change in his bones. It would take a while before he could try again.

  "Well, fudge," he grumbled, relaxing back to slump across what looked like a tarp, a large