Chapter 6 #2
"She looked at us like we were wonderful." Vale's voice was quiet, thoughtful, his silver hair drifting around him like moonlight as he turned the green ribbon over in his fingers. "Do you remember? That first day, when she gave Kaelan the pearl. She wasn't afraid. She was awed."
I remembered. The way she'd floated there in the blue water, oxygen running out, and instead of fleeing in terror she'd offered a gift. Like we were something worth giving gifts to. Like we were wonderful instead of monstrous.
"She thinks we're mermaids." Thane's voice was soft, and there was something almost sad in it, a gentle melancholy that made his amber eyes look older than usual.
He stroked the cream ribbon with one thumb, over and over, a soothing repetitive motion.
"Creatures from fairy tales. She doesn't know what we really are. "
Sirens. Man-eaters. Monsters who'd lured countless ships to their doom, who'd feasted on human flesh for centuries, who'd earned every terrified legend humans told about the creatures in the deep.
If she knew what we really were, would she still look at us with wonder?
Would she still wave at us like friends?
Would she still toss gifts over the railing and smile when we caught them?
Or would she run?
"She'll find out eventually." The words tasted bitter on my tongue, and I felt my jaw clench around them. "When we take her to the shipwreck. When she sees the bones. She'll know."
"Then we have to make sure she wants to stay anyway.
" Kaelan's voice was quiet but certain, his dark eyes distant as if he was already planning, already strategizing.
His hand drifted to the pouch at his hip where he kept her pearl.
I'd seen him touch it a hundred times over the past few days, a compulsive gesture he probably wasn't even aware of.
"We court her properly. We show her what we can offer.
We make her feel safe and wanted and cherished. And when she finally learns the truth—"
"She'll choose us anyway." Vale finished the thought, his sharp smile returning, but there was something genuine beneath it now, something almost tender.
He wound the green ribbon through his silver hair, letting it trail down past his temple like a decoration.
"Because by then, she'll know we'd never hurt her.
That we'd burn the world before we let anything else hurt her either. "
I looked at the ribbon in my hand. Pink.
Soft. Smelling like her—like omega, yes, but also like something else.
Something uniquely her. Salt and sunshine and a loneliness so deep it made my chest ache.
She'd given us these ribbons. Her treasures, probably the only pretty things she owned.
She'd given them to us because we'd given her gifts, because we'd shown up every evening, because we'd listened when she sang.
She'd been courting us back, in her own human way. Reaching out across the impossible divide between her world and ours, offering connection, hoping we'd accept. How could we do anything but answer?
"Fine," I said, the word coming out rough, reluctant, dragged from somewhere deep in my chest. I forced my claws to retract, forced my body to relax from its coiled-spring tension.
"We court her. We make her choose us." I bared my teeth in something that wasn't quite a smile, letting them gleam in the fading light.
"But she's ours. I don't care what she's running from or why she's hiding, she belongs to us now.
If anyone tries to claim her before we do, I'll tear them apart. "
"Agreed." Kaelan's voice was calm, but I could hear the same possessive edge in it, see it in the subtle extension of his own claws, the predatory stillness that settled over him.
We might be willing to wait for her to choose us, but we weren't willing to let anyone else have her.
She was ours, even if she didn't know it yet.
"We need the breathing potion." Vale pushed off from where he'd been floating, his iridescent tail catching the last rays of sunlight filtering down from above.
His expression had shifted to something more practical, more focused.
"If we're going to court her properly, we need to be able to show her our world.
Take her beneath the surface, let her see what we can offer. "
The breathing potion. Made by the sea witch who lived in the deep trenches, who traded in secrets and favors and sometimes body parts.
The potion that let air-breathers survive underwater, that could keep a human alive in the depths for hours at a time.
It was a risk. The sea witch was dangerous, unpredictable, and her prices were always higher than you expected.
But if it meant being able to take our girl into the blue, show her the coral reefs and the glowing caves and all the wonders we'd discovered over centuries of swimming these waters—
It was worth it.
"I'll go." Kaelan straightened, his shoulders squaring with purpose, the mantle of pack leader settling visibly over him. His dark eyes swept across us, commanding and certain. "Vale, with me. Riven, Thane, you stay here. Watch the ship."
"Watch her," I corrected, my voice brooking no argument.
His lips twitched—the barest hint of a smile, there and gone so fast I might have imagined it. "Watch her. Don't let her out of your sight. And don't do anything to frighten her."
"I know." I met his eyes and let him see the promise there, the absolute certainty burning in my chest. "I'll keep my distance. But I'm not letting her go."
He nodded once, sharp and decisive, and then he and Vale were gone, two shadows disappearing into the deep, their tails propelling them toward the trenches where the sea witch made her home.
I stayed where I was, floating in the darkness beneath the ship, the pink ribbon still clutched in my hand.
She'd gone inside by now. Back to her cramped quarters, her hidden life, her endless fear.
I could feel her absence like a wound, could feel the pull of her even through the wood and water that separated us.
Omega. Our omega. Whether she knew it yet or not.
"She's special." Thane had drifted close, his amber eyes fixed on the ship above, the cream ribbon now tied around his wrist where he could touch it easily. His voice was soft with wonder, almost reverent. "Isn't she? I've never felt anything like this before."
Neither had I. In all my years—and there had been many, more than I cared to count—I'd never felt this pull.
This desperate, overwhelming need to protect, to possess, to cherish.
Other females had caught my attention, briefly.
None of them had made me feel like this.
Like I'd finally found something I didn't know I was looking for.
"She's ours," I said, and the words came out certain, inevitable, as undeniable as the tide. "She just doesn't know it yet."
"We'll show her." Thane's voice was soft with wonder, warm with hope, and when he looked at me his amber eyes were bright with something like joy. "We'll court her and protect her and show her what it means to be wanted. Really wanted. The way omegas should be wanted."
I lifted the ribbon to my face again, breathing deep.
Her scent filled my lungs, sweet and rich and intoxicating.
Beneath the omega pheromones, I could smell the rest of her—the salt of the sea she loved, the exhaustion of days spent working too hard, the sharp chemical note of whatever she used to mask her true nature.
Beneath all of it, barely detectable, the scent of something I couldn't quite identify.
Something sharp and sad and lonely. She'd been alone for so long.
Hiding for so long. And we still didn't know why.
We were going to find out. We were going to court her, win her, make her trust us enough to tell us her secrets.
And whatever she was running from, whatever had driven her to hide on a fishing boat and mask her scent and work herself to exhaustion.
We were going to show her that she didn't have to run anymore.
Didn't have to hide. Didn't have to be alone.
We were going to give her a home. A pack.
A place where she could be herself—omega, human, a wonderful strange creature who gave gifts to monsters and sang to the empty sea—and know that she was treasured.
Treasured. The way omegas were meant to be.
Loved.
The word surfaced in my mind, foreign and frightening and absolutely right.
I'd never loved anything before. Had never wanted to.
Love was weakness, vulnerability, a soft spot that enemies could exploit.
Looking up at that ship, thinking about the girl hidden somewhere inside it, I understood that I was already lost. Already hers, whether she wanted me or not.
All that remained was to make her want me back. I settled in to wait, the ribbon pressed against my chest, counting the hours until dawn. Until I could see her again. Until we could begin the long, careful process of making her ours.
Above me, the ship rocked gently on the waves. Somewhere inside it, she was sleeping, dreaming whatever dreams humans dreamed. I hoped she was dreaming of us. I hoped she was dreaming of the sea, and freedom, and four creatures who would worship her until the end of time.
Soon, I promised her silently. Soon you'll understand.
Soon you'll be ours.
Soon you'll be home.