Milo
Rowan was the best mate ever. Not that I’d had any other mate before, but there was literally no way anyone could ever be better than him.
I made him sleep with me in our nest, and when he complained the next day about his back hurting, he made the nest even better by bringing the “mattress” from the other room to be in front of the fire, and I carefully rebuilt my nest on top of it.
Now it was even softer and smelled even more like him.
He’d wanted me to move the nest to that room instead, but the fire was in this room, and it was better if it stayed here. He was a good mate with that too. He was allowed in the nest, but he wasn’t allowed to move things or rearrange them. That was my job, and he accepted that.
As soon as I had things the way I wanted them, I made him mate with me again.
The small scratchy blankets were called “towels,” and he made us put one down when we mated so that the blankets wouldn’t need to be washed so much.
I didn’t like the towels, but I did like keeping our scents in the nest. Plus, Rowan let me use the dryer on them to make them warm first, so I allowed it.
For days we existed there together, mating and holding each other.
Rowan would make us food in between, and sometimes I would help him.
Then we went back to the store to buy more because we quickly ate everything we had stored.
It was so cool that humans had a place they could go to get food from instead of hunting it for themselves.
“Tomorrow…” Rowan spoke sleepily as he kissed the tip of my nose. “I need to start working again.”
“Working?” I asked him, snuggling in closer.
“Catching fish.”
“But we have food already.”
He chuckled. “Mmm, remember when I trade for the food using money?”
I nodded. “Human magic.”
“Something like that. I get it because I catch fish, and then trade them for money, so that I have the money to trade for other things.”
That made sense. Now I could understand why humans were always in their boats catching so many of our fish.
“Can I come with you?”
Rowan nodded. “If you want to. It’s not very exciting, though.”
I huffed. I was going to learn more human things, of course it was exciting.
We woke up early. Far earlier than I wanted to, but Rowan let me sleep a bit longer as he got bags together for us so we’d have food to eat during the day.
Then he made me put some clothes on. He told me I only had to wear them until we were out of sight of other humans, and I agreed even if I wasn’t thrilled about it.
Before we could go to the boat, we had to stop at a place that smelled a lot like fish, and Rowan got some buckets from them. He told me they contained fishing lines, and that the people there had put tiny bits of food on the hooks so he didn’t have to spend time doing it.
It was really cool to see how humans would work together for things, just like selkies did, except humans only did it when they were traded money.
Then we were finally on the boat, and Rowan had to take it somewhere so he could put stuff called fuel inside it.
After he traded more money for the fuel, we were finally ready to head out to sea.
As soon as the lights from the human colony and the other boats had faded, I stripped off my clothing and Rowan folded it up and put it in a bag so it wouldn’t get wet.
“Don’t you feel cold like that?” he asked.
I shook my head. I wasn’t cold yet, and if I did start to feel cold, I could just pull my seal coat on. I was always warmest in seal form.
It had only been a few days, but I was surprised how much I had missed the water. I wanted to get in right away, but Rowan told me to wait until we got to where he wanted to set up, because the boat was going really fast and he didn’t want to lose me.
It was a bit strange, the feeling inside me.
Where I’d always felt a pull to return to the colony, there was another pull, except it was urging me back in the direction we’d come from, back to land.
My place was with Rowan now, so it was strange that the goddess wanted me back on land when Rowan was right here.
Sometimes I wished she would just actually talk to me so I wouldn’t have to guess what she meant.
As long as I had Rowan, though, my perfect mate, then it didn’t matter.
Rowan selected a place, thankfully outside of Aarlinuk territory, where he dropped an anchor on his fishing line and started to leave a trail as the boat went. We were moving slower now, so I pulled on my coat and jumped off the side of the boat.
The water greeted me like an old friend, and my seal purred in happiness to return to the sea.
I watched Rowan’s line from beneath the surface, careful not to catch myself on any of the hooks.
He’d told me today we were setting the line, and tomorrow we’d come back and pull in the fish. It was all very interesting.
I had learned so much, being with him. I hoped that one day soon I’d be able to see Raq again, so I could tell him everything and he could tell the others.
Maybe I could even bring Rowan back to the colony with me, so he could meet my grandmother.
I knew she’d love him, even if she was probably sad and worried about where I was.
I tried calling out to see if any selkie folk were close enough to hear me, but I got no response. Maybe tomorrow.
Instead, I started looking for anything fun I could take and make things out of.
Maybe if I was lucky, I’d find another cool bottle like the one I’d had to break when I was caught in the net.
I wanted to make something for Rowan, and that glass would have been perfect for it.
There was some human trash, but unfortunately nothing useable.
When the lines were all set, I joined Rowan back on the boat.
“Have a nice swim?” he asked, and I pounced on him. “Woah there, little hurricane, careful. If you knock me into the water, I won’t be happy with you.”
I pouted, wishing for a moment that Rowan was able to swim with me. Wishing that I could show him my world beneath the surface.
“You’re getting me wet,” he sighed, but made no move to separate us.
“You get me wet all the time.” I grinned.
His cheeks, already red from the cold, darkened further. “Mmm, but you like that.”
“You don’t like it when I get you wet back? That doesn’t seem fair.”
“Cheeky selkie.”
I giggled, then pulled my bottom lip between my teeth. Something about having him out here on the water, paired with the thrill from my swim, was heating my body already. “You can get me wet right now. Then it’ll be fair.”
Rowan raised a thick eyebrow at me. “Not a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“Because. We’re out in the open.”
I made a point of looking around us. “Hmmm… ice… more ice…. water… oh look, some more ice. I don’t think anyone’s watching us.”
He huffed at me. I jumped down off him, laid my coat out on top of one of the big metal boxes, and took a seat on it, spreading my legs as I winked at him.
He shook his head slowly. “No.”
“Why say no when you could say yes?”
“I’ll give you what you want when we get back home.”
“Or… now and when we get back home?”
“Milo,” he said, with annoyance in his tone that I knew was just for show.
“Mm’kay. Don’t, then.” My fingers trailed over my stomach.
“Milo,” he warned again.
“What?” My fingers drifted lower. He scowled at me, and I continued, lower and lower until they were tracing up and down my slit, which was already preparing itself for him.
“I am not getting naked on my boat right now.”
“Then don’t.” I pressed two fingers inside and hummed.
Rowan’s eyes dropped from my face to my hand, his throat bobbing as he swallowed heavily. “I’m not going to.”
“Sure.” I pushed a third finger in, pumping them a few times before the tip of my cock pushed out.
“I won’t.”
“You said that.” My other hand started to stroke my cock as I fingered myself.
Rowan watched. I loved it when he watched me, when he gave me his full attention, as if I was the best thing he’d ever seen.
I moaned.
“God fucking damn it.” Rowan yanked at his clothing. “You better be ready for me, little selkie, because it’s fucking cold and I’m not having my dick freeze off.”
“I’m always ready for you.” I grinned.
Rowan was wearing so many layers, but he took off and tugged aside only what was necessary until his beautiful dick was exposed.
He really wasted absolutely no time before thrusting it completely inside me in one smooth motion. It didn’t matter how many times we did this, every time he first pushed inside, it almost left me breathless. My insides had to stretch to make room for him in the most delightful way.
“God, you’re so warm,” he groaned, the hair on his face tickling my ear. Then he gripped my hips hard and mated me properly. His exhales and mine came out in warm visible puffs of air in the cold.
Rowan clearly didn’t want to take his time with it.
His thrusts were hard and fast and delivered with a sole purpose.
I didn’t mind. I knew I could have this again, as much as I wanted when we got back home.
I was just happy to feel him filling me up, for his body to be moving inside mine where it belonged.
I moaned and whimpered. He grunted and groaned.
Then he was spilling inside me, and I was spilling all over myself and the front of his pants.
“Such a good mate,” I purred into his ear.
Rowan growled at me before delivering a punishing kiss. “You’re so much trouble.”
I grinned. “You like it.”
“Maybe.” He kissed me again, then pulled out to tuck himself away, and tried to clean himself up.
I ran my fingers through our mess, holding eye contact with him as I brought them to my mouth and licked them clean.
He shook his head slowly. “So… much… trouble.”