Chapter 14 Lachlan
LACHLAN
Iwas dead. At least, I’d felt death take me and known I was on my way to the Goddess. I’d seen her hand reaching out, then heard… laughter.
The Goddess’s laughter. Her voice. Not yet, bright one.
Then pain woke me. So much pain, I had no idea if I wanted to be alive again. I was in the sea, though, and my pelt was so close. I leaned into it and felt the magic of the change, tantalizingly close. Safety and healing was only a moment away.
I began to slide into the strength of my selkie blood and bones, and the cold and pain fell away, like water sluicing off my fur.
Except something was wrong with my pelt. Something was holding me, stopping it from closing around me. Instinctively, I snarled and bit at the thing, hoping to dislodge whatever it was.
“You little shit! See how you like that,” I heard, and then… something bit me back, teeth closing on my still-human shoulder. Lightning filled my blood, my bones, seared me with glory inside, and connected me. But with what?
“Oh, no… What have I done?”
I still couldn’t see, but I could feel. Feel her inside me, her emotions filling me like a torrent.
So much rage and grief. Pride mixed with shame, self-doubt mingling with hope. But more than anything, there was resolve, a passionate commitment to… to what? I couldn’t read her thoughts, only her heart.
Her soft, generous, loving heart. Her name rolled on my tongue. Rada. I shoved the thought away.
There’s no way this is her. She’s a bitch, selfish and petty. She left my best friend alone for a decade, she left an entire country behind, mourning the loss of their Warqueen, all because she wanted to chase her dream of fortune and fame.
Rada, my heart insisted, showing me all of her, shoving me into the depths of the woman I’d vowed to hate. At the bottom of all that made up that thieving Omega’s heart lay a pool of selfless love that I could never have imagined. She was a better person than I’d ever thought.
She was a better person than I was. She was my mate.
“Mate,” I whispered, the word tumbling over my numb lips. “Mate, mate, mate…”
I gasped when I felt her reading my heart, her rejection and disdain evident, though she tightened her grip on my body. If I’d had the strength to pull away, I would have. But I was weak. So much weaker than she was.
I’d thought she wasn’t worthy of my friend, or my brother. But it would take a dozen men to begin to measure up to her.
No, bright one. Only seven. The divine laughter echoed and faded as my sight returned. I was floating in the sea, Ratter keeping my human head above the icy water as she swam valiantly.
But the waves were churning fiercely, and there was no way she could swim for us both. “My... skin,” I croaked.
“Take it,” she gasped, water filling her mouth as she tried to breathe.
It slid out of her fingers, and my selkie magic wrapped it around me, the change instant.
Then it was her arms around my neck, and I was swimming against the waves that were rising higher by the second.
I wasn’t strong enough yet to swim her to shore.
But I didn’t have to. Suddenly, my mother was there in her silver-white sealskin. She barked at me. Then the thief—no, the Omega, my mate—slung her arms around Mother’s neck, as if she were glad to let go of me.
It was easier to swim on my own, but terrifyingly difficult to be separated from my new mate.
Somehow, I made it back to shore, hauling myself onto the smooth rocks only seconds before my mother.
The others had gone out to meet her, and by the time I lifted my head, Goran had Ratter in his arms, Alexios and Kellin at his side, all of them staring at her.
Until Kellin saw me and crossed the distance to me.
“What happened?” Concern thickened his voice, and he helped me stand, half-carrying me toward the house. “What was that?”
I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know what to say, until we’d gone inside, and Mother repeated the question while Alexios held out a robe for her and one for Rada.
“What was that, Lachlan?” Mother gasped and grabbed me by the neck, pulling me down to her level.
“And what in the name of the deepest trenches is that?”
The bite mark on my upper arm throbbed. I slapped a hand over it, which made the throbbing worse.
I pulled away, grabbed one of the dry robes by the back door, and wrapped it around me.
I might not care about nudity, but I didn’t want to have this conversation while my cock was trying to speak for me.
“Lachlan?”
I swallowed, unsure what to say. I hardly remembered it happening.
Goran answered for me. “It’s a mate mark, Stellina.
Hers?” I nodded. “Well then, this one must be yours.” He lifted part of the robe he’d draped over Rada to reveal her slender, pale left arm, with its twining tattoo of green leaves and small, butter-yellow flowers.
Then he lifted it higher to show the unmistakable doubled crowns of a selkie bite at the top of her bicep.
My bite.
I didn’t even have time to nod before Kellin was punching me in the jaw. “You stole my mate?”
I backed away as fast as I could, my feet still half-frozen. “I didn’t mean to!” I cried as he swung at me again. “I don’t even like her! I didn’t want this!”
“Ouch.” My mate’s voice was as sharp as selkie teeth. “Something to say when your new mate isn’t standing in the same room, hmmm, asshole?”
“It’s not possible,” Mother said, her voice almost as cutting. “The marks are fully healed, silvered, and the bond…”
“Fully bonded?” Kellin’s shocked gaze came to mine. “You fucked Rada in the sea? While that… whatever… was out there? You risked her life?” He went still. Goran began pacing. Alexios moved away, toward the kitchen.
“No, Kellin,” Rada murmured, placing her hand on his arm. He pulled away, like she’d burned him. “Ouch again. Not my night, is it?” She said it playfully, but I felt her sadness like a wave. How was she able to hide how she felt? She felt everything so intensely, my own eyes prickled.
“We didn’t fuck,” I said quickly. “I was… killed. I was dead. The thing that had me threw my pelt away.”
Alexios returned with a mug of hot tea. “We saw it in the water, washing up on shore. He used it––the thing used it––to lure her out into the depths.” For the first time since I’d met him, the Beta seemed overwrought.
“When I woke, she was talking to it, holding my pelt. Wearing yours, Kellin. I was confused, and I bit her.”
“I was pissed, and I bit him back harder,” she added, taking the tea from her friend and drinking it, while Goran held her like he would never put her down.
Mother shook her head, her damp silver hair flying wildly. “No. Simple bites would not do this. Even her holding your skin while you exchanged bites wouldn’t do it.”
“I tied it around my neck with my pendant. It was secured pretty well. Covered all of my middle.” She pushed at her ribcage. “Huh. Is it super strong? I could’ve sworn some ribs gave way out there. But they’re fine.”
“It is strong and protects us from most injuries,” I muttered.
“But a pelt wouldn’t protect you without an existing bond or some magic.” Kellin held out a hand for his own pelt.
“I didn’t hurt it. Hope not, at least.” She gave it to him, and he unfolded it, showing her the wide expanse of it.
A selkie’s pelt wasn’t like a seal’s skin; it was an irregularly-shaped, solid piece of fur that could serve as a weapon if needed, or used as blanket during intimate ti…
Oh fuck. I shifted again, my cock leaking as my mind constructed a quick image of her wrapped in my skin.
“Huh. Don’t know what to tell ya. I needed it to stay on, and it did.
” She handed back the mug and patted Goran’s arm.
He reluctantly lowered her to the ground, then kneeled beside her and wrapped the robe around her more securely.
“Thanks, Gorgeous,” she whispered, before he kissed the back of her hand and moved away to stand closer to the fire.
I wasn’t sure either one of them was aware of how the whole room stilled at their casual intimacy, or that they’d slipped into it at all.
“Anyway, I needed to keep both your skins from washing away, so I guess I got lucky. I’m not sure how the mating thing with Lachlan happened. I promise there was no sex going on, with the ice dragon thing out there trying to crush my ribs.”
“May I check your ribs, mistress?” Alexios kneeled at her side, his hands on her ribcage. She winced as he put gentle pressure on her left side, then sighed. “Not broken, but you might want to wrap these, Mina.”
Mina? A nickname so filled with affection, it was almost a declaration of love.
“Figured as much.” The two of them exchanged a look that held shared history and humor, but I felt her love for him as well. It wasn’t the love I had for Goran or Kellin, the kind between friends or brothers. No, she loved him in a deeper way, secretly.
His back to us all, Goran stopped pacing long enough to mutter, “Ice dragon? Dragons can be killed. I’ll melt the fucker if I have to.” For a split second, as she glanced at him, the lust and love and regret she felt had my eyes stinging, until she packed it away in the next blink.
So many secrets. I thought I’d known who she was.
Clearly, I knew nothing.
“How are Lachlan and I mates, then?” she said, refusing to look at me. “I know we are. And I’d like to know if we can undo it, please. The asshole is peeping at my emotions like they’re his own personal entertainment, and I did not fucking consent to that.”
Somehow, she kept her voice even, her tone bored, but I could feel the surge of unease that got worse as I focused on it. Was she afraid of me?
She grabbed the sides of her head. “Get out, Lachlan.”
“I’m sorry,” I gasped, my brother’s hand already around my throat. “I… I don’t know how to stop it.”
“It can’t be stopped, not if the mating is complete.” Mother’s eyes were wider than I’d ever seen. “The rituals can’t be stumbled into. The bites, maybe. But one of you would have had to declare the mating three times.”
Rada let out a quiet moan. “Fuck me with a cactus vine, I really should’ve taken a vow of silence instead of chast—” Her jaw clicked as she snapped it shut. But every pair of eyes in the room was on her.
“Instead of what?” Goran breathed.
Her cheeks were flushed as she sneered. “Instead of chasing tail all over the continent and ending up accidentally mated to not one, but two selkies. This is exactly what I was trying to avoid.”
It was my turn to say ouch, but Kellin said it for me.
“Please don’t.” He moved to stand in front of her, then slid down to his knees, ignoring the rest of us.
“You may not want me, my queen, but having your blood in my veins, having a claim on you and a chance to win your heart, is more than I’d ever imagined I could hope for in this life. ”
My eyes burned, and my heart tightened with some unknowable emotion that flashed and vanished, like a silver fin in the deepest waters. Or was it hers?
“I thought you didn’t like me,” she whispered.
“You left me speechless from the first moment. I always admired you. You took my breath away.” Kellin’s eyes shone as he looked up at her, and his cheeks flushed a deeper hue of brown.
“Please don’t regret me, Rada. Give me the chance to show you I’m worthy.
Give me this month. If you have another mate, I’ll learn to share.
Even if it’s my younger brother.” She almost smiled at that. “Even if you have a hundred more.”
Mother laughed. Rada made a sign to ward against evil, forming the crescent moon with one hand over her forehead.
“Six more,” I breathed, the voice I’d heard when I was dead echoing in my thoughts, like a silver bell chiming miles away, across the sea. Only Alexios heard me, and he merely tilted his head, looking at me more intently than he had before.
Rada reached down with both hands, trying and failing to pull my brother to his feet.
“You are worthy, Kellin. Trust me, you’re far more worthy than I am of you.
It’s just… I have a mission. I have no choice but to fulfill it.
” For some reason, she pressed against a spot between her breastbone and her belly, like it pained her.
“I’m not sure what’ll happen when I get to my next…
job. But it won’t be fun, and it will definitely be dangerous.
” She cupped his chin and smiled at him. “I don’t want to drag you down.”
“I would swim the deepest trench in the sea for you, Rada. Let me earn my place at your side.” He turned her hand over and kissed her wrist. “Starting tonight?”
Goran stepped out of the room and left through the kitchen. Mother pressed her hand to her mouth, her eyes welling.
A spark of jealousy ignited in me as Rada laughed down at Kellin. I wanted her to look at me like that. With humor and compassion, even lust.
“Such a flirt. Who would’ve suspected?” She finally pulled Kellin to his feet.
He was taller than she was by a few inches, and their long, dark hair almost matched perfectly.
He was darker where she was pale, though, and his shy smile came more easily as she lifted a hand to his forehead, pushing away a lock of dark hair.
Mother cleared her throat. “Enough lovemaking and lollygagging. What was it out there, and is there a chance it could come ashore and kill us and Goran’s men? What do we need to do to prepare?”
The Omega I’d tried to hate sighed, even the sound musical in a mysterious way. “It could. I don’t think it’s a sea creature. It felt like… it was ice and water and snow.”
“An elemental god?” Alexios mused aloud.
Rada laughed, but she still didn’t look at me. “Well, that makes it easier. I know exactly what to do when you’re being chased down by a deity. Run.”