Epilogue Elspeth
IN WHICH ELSPETH TAKES A TRIP TO THE MARKET
A egir’s teasing should have been nothing new to her, but it seemed their commitment had brought out sides of him he’d kept hidden. She wasn’t in any mood particularly to deal with it however, as worked up as she was, but she could certainly see the appeal. Thankfully, he didn’t make her wait any longer, lowering his head and using his amazingly talented tongue on her.
She cried out when he sucked on her clit, bucking up off the beach and threading her hands into his hair once more. This time, there was no struggle, instead, she held on so she’d have something to keep her tethered to reality. She melted under his skill, his tongue, teeth, and hands working orgasms out of her as easily as he might tie a knot.
After an orgasm or two, she felt brave. And curious.
“Aegir,” she started. “You mentioned once that in the past you have… changed things, about yourself. I mean, during sex…”
“Oh, you’d like to attend the penis market?”
“The what?”
He smiled down at her from where he lay next to her. “The penis market. I have all sorts of designs, would you like to go shopping?”
Elspeth smiled, it seemed not even the most meaningful sex of her life was to be entirely serious. “Yes, lets!”
Aegir stood in front of her, not thrusting his cock in her face, just putting it at good angle to be seen. “First up, we have a regular, run of the mill, human cock. You’ll note that it’s slightly darker than my own skin tone in places—and, I would point out—it is quite nicely sized.”
He grasped his cock with one strong hand, giving himself a stroke. This was the cock she’d seen already, and though she loved it, she was eager to see what else was on offer.
“For an easy, simple upgrade, we can add a knot.” The base of it inflated to look similar to knots selkie males had. Still fun, of course, but fairly standard, as far as she was concerned .
To tease him she yawned. “Selkies have knots, what else is there?”
At her words, his cock twisted on itself, pinkening and elongating into what appeared to be a pink tentacle. “This is what it looks like when I’m an orca. It’s prehensile, so you might enjoy how it can explore you.” He smirked, the menace. “Though, even this can be upgraded if we add some suckers.” Circular sections along the top of the appendage appeared, though they extended even onto his pelvis. “For you, of course,” he said, indicating them.
Elspeth blushed, having a mate who was so… malleable would certainly be a good time. She reached forward, brushing her finger along the edge of a sucker, and gasped when it suckled on to her finger.
“Oooh, now that is a nifty feature,” she mused. “Why don’t we try a knot and just these suckers here?” She ran her fingers along those that would be placed near her clit, her arousal pulsing through her.
“Whatever you please, my siren. I am forever in your thrall.” He morphed to her requested form, and Elspeth tugged Aegir down to lay atop her. He stared down at her, his grey eyes searching her face. After a moment, he began kissing her, covering her face with small little kisses and licks .
“What are you doing?” she squealed.
“I promised I would taste every one of these markings, and I intend to do so!”
Her arousal was driving her hard and Elspeth didn’t think she could wait for Aegir to explore all of her. “Next time, next time,” she gasped. “I need you—now.”
Aegir chuckled, clearly enjoying how she squirmed under him. “I can’t say no to you.”
He pressed the thick head of his cock against her entrance and slipped inside with a pop. The length of him pressed deeper inside her until the thickness of his knot teased at her entrance. Elspeth gasped when something on the knot latched on to her clit.
“Just a little upgrade,” Aegir said, winking. He might have been acting cool and collected, but she could see sweat beading on his brow and how his ass tightened as he held himself in check. It was surprising, and Elspeth wasn’t certain she wanted to look at it right then, but gods did it feel divine. Perfectly sized and positioned, it latched onto her, quickly turning her into a blubbering mess.
In seconds, she was coming, the muscles of her pussy dragging Aegir deeper, filling her with his knot and trapping him in place to be milked.
“Fuck!” Aegir screamed. “Fuck, Ellie…”
Elspeth had assumed that would be that, but after their orgasms were over, Aegir smiled and lazily started pumping into her again.
“Again?” she asked.
“Always, again. What is the use of being able to control everything in your body if you can’t come over and over?”
“Fair enough.”
Inside her though, she felt his cock shift and twist, and if the pressing suckles on her interior wall were any indication, it was closer to a tentacle now. He coiled it inside of her, stretching her and writhing more than thrusting.
The suckers at the base of his cock shifted as well, until they were firm little nubs that cradled and vibrated against the sides of her clit.
She cried out, overwhelmed with feeling and drowning in the magic that they made together.
Afterward, Aegir held her close and traced the pattern of her pelt on her skin with his fingers. “I love these… and I love that I can touch them right now even more. ”
“Right now?” Elspeth asked. Surely he knew he could touch them anytime he liked?
“Yes, because you might be feeling better now, but at least what I know of what you’ve experienced, says you’ll likely still have trouble sometimes.”
“Damn, I thought I was better.”
“If only I could cure you with sex, alas, it’s just not so.”
“It’s a shame, really.” Elspeth smiled, though, because while it was, finding her way out of her hurt felt at least… manageable now.
T he stark cliffs of Hillskerry in the distance had always brought peace and joy to Elspeth’s heart. The waves crashing on their salt-stained sides and the barks of the seal colony in the distance were the sounds that had welcomed her home for as long as she could remember. Now though, they worried her. Those cliffs no longer represented safety for her, nor for her people. They were a prison, a cage that the Empire could use to keep them for whenever it saw fit to extract one of them at their leisure.
She and Aegir had asked Jokith to anchor off the coast instead of in the harbor, so Elspeth and Feann would have the opportunity to see their mother before rousing the entire village.
The swim and subsequent walk up to their house from the beach was bittersweet. They passed landscapes Elspeth had sketched over and over again, the minute changes seeming insignificant now. The time that had passed had barely touched the heathered hills, though Elspeth felt like an entirely different person.
Now, she knew how wide the world was, how vulnerable they really were. But what was more, was that she knew now the pain and suffering the Empire caused. She’d experienced some of it first hand, but she’d heard more from Jokith and Aegir, and seen evidence of it in the way the people of Berggeheimnis hid from them. She loved her people, loved this island, but how could they possibly hope to protect themselves here?
Convincing the elders would take time, she knew, and deciding how to deal with the dangers even longer, but she knew she’d feel exposed here until they did.
Smoke curled from the chimney when they crested the last hill and their home came into view. Feann squeezed her hand, a silent reassurance that he was with her. The well-worn path was slightly muddied from recent rains, and here and there shiny stones stuck out from the mud, skittering along in front of them with the slightest kick. A hastily disassembled line of washing was bundled under the porch overhang, ready to be hung back out when the sun returned.
Everything was just as it had always been, or at least it appeared at first. The washing, upon further inspection, was well past dry, and the shadows of mildew deepened each haphazard crease. The chair, which often had a half-drunk cup of tea or five sitting on the table next to it sat abandoned next to the front door. Her mother’s herb garden, once so meticulously maintained, had escaped its bed and spilled into the rest of the yard. Smoke still escaped the chimney, but it was the rail thin trail of a dying fire, not of one being maintained enough for this chill late autumn day.
Feann must have seen the signs as well, as his steps increased to match hers as they approached. Her hand hesitated on the doorknob, shaking, but Feann covered it with his and helped her turn it.
The house was darker than it should have been. It was only late afternoon, but the house’s positioning had always necessitated lighting the lanterns earlier than elsewhere. The house was messier than their father or Elspeth would have ever allowed, with a thin layer of dust over almost everything.
Across the small room, their mother stood at the kitchen window, a tub full of washing sitting still in front of her.
“Mama?” Feann called. Thank gods he had, because Elspeth didn’t trust her own voice to work.
A dish splashed into the washtub as their mother turned around to see the pair of them. Her curly hair had escaped from its bun and surrounded her head in a haze of frizz. She looked tired, older, and the lines of her face were more pronounced as she screamed and fell to her knees.
Elspeth rushed to her, joining her on the floor, her mother’s frail hands grasping her children and pulling them to her. Heavy, wracking sobs shook them, all three of them crying there in the kitchen.
Sounds, more than words, were all that any of them could manage for a good while, though after a time Elspeth did hear the creak of Aegir settling himself into the chair out front.
Eventually, their mother’s wails resolved into words, and at first it was just the words, “my babies,” over and over again.
“We’re here,” Elspeth reassured .
“We’re safe,” Feann whispered.
“Mama, do you want to sit down?” Elspeth asked, motioning to their couch.
“Of course, of course,” their mother said, standing and smoothing her hair and skirts as if this were all entirely normal. “You must be tired, my darlings. Take a seat and I will make us some tea.”
“No, let me, my hands need to be doing something,” Elspeth said. “You sit.”
It was a testament to how worked up she was that her mother didn’t argue, and instead allowed Feann to lead her to sit on the couch.
“How—how are you here?”
“Ellie escaped, charmed a band of pirates, and roped them into a rescue, is the short of it,” Feann said. “She’s mated and we need to leave, is the long of it.”
“Goodness.”
She was silent for most of Elspeth and Feann’s recounting of the story, and for a good deal thereafter. 1
“And this pirate, this orca-man and his crew are here now?” she asked.
“Yes, well, he’s waiting out front, really.”
Their mother gasped and stood up. “You’ve let me have this poor boy wait out in the weather while we blathered on in here?”
“He’s fine, really.” Elspeth opened the front door, and nodded at Aegir to come inside. He had to duck to get through the front door, but his bright blush was adorable on the white of his orca coloring. They’d decided that it was likely the safest for an introduction since his human skin tone would likely remind her of an elf.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. O’Farriage,” he said, holding out his hand for a shake.
Smacking it out of the way, she went in for a hug instead, squeezing the much taller man, tears gathering in her eyes once more.
“I thought I’d never see the day.”
“Mama!”
“What? You were so hell-bent on taking care of everyone else that I worried that you’d never let yourself have something for you.”
“It’s truly been my pleasure,” Aegir said when they broke the hug.
“I should say so! My daughter is a catch!”
“That she is,” Aegir said, his eyes fixed on Elspeth’s. “That she is.”
1. Do we have loose ends? Yes, but after a good deal of contemplation, we decided that the fate of the selkies was really Feann’s story to tell, so you’ll just need to wait…