24. Milo
Milo
“So… you… didn’t hear any of that?” Rowan asked, blushing adorably.
“I heard the last part. What else did you tell them?” I asked as I grabbed his hands and pulled him to me.
He shrugged a shoulder. “It was kind of a lot.” He swallowed. “You didn’t tell me you were a prince.”
“I’m not anymore.”
“We’ll see about that.” Et’el huffed.
Rowan pulled away from me to bow his head awkwardly at her. “Umm… Your Majesty. I uhh… had a whole speech. I’ll start again. I’m Rowan—”
“Yes, yes.” Et’el rolled her eyes. “I know who you are.”
I chuckled.
“Let’s do this later, shall we? I’m told we have a coat to retrieve,” Et’el said, marching over to the helm. “How do we make this go?”
Rowan swallowed before hesitantly pulling away. “I can steer us, if we know where to go.”
“We know.” I smiled as I nudged into his side again.
The moment the others had agreed to help, I’d felt my internal compass pulling me in a new direction, away from the colony, leading me to where we needed to go next.
The boat rocked lightly as Raq pulled himself up, eyeing Rowan with suspicion, and then the boat with curiosity.
A couple of the bolder selkies shortly followed, then a few more.
There wasn’t room for everyone, but with some of them still seeming too cautious to approach, that wouldn’t pose too much of a problem.
Rowan exhaled heavily. “Right, then. Just… point me where to go.”
I went up on my toes to give him another kiss before pointing him in the direction that felt right.
When this was all over, and I could really, truly be with him, I was going to love him so hard he’d not be able to leave our nest for days, with or without a heat to keep us there.
Though with would be preferable. We had the rest of our lives to be together, but I wanted to get started on pups right away.
That way, our pup could be best friends with baby Sila.
We weren’t going as fast as we usually would, not wanting to leave behind anyone swimming after us.
By the time we left our waters and cautiously proceeded into Aarlinuk territory, the rainbow sky was fading, signaling early dawn.
The polar night would be enough to cover our approach, and as if aided by the goddess herself, the direction we were headed was soon obscured by a heavy fog. We continued beyond the silver mist.
“I can’t see anything,” Rowan whispered to me, sounding concerned. “Can you?”
I shook my head, whispering back, “No, but have faith. She won’t have led us here for nothing.”
“Milo, if we hit any ice—”
“You don’t have to trust her. Trust me, Rowan. Your mate. Everything is going to be okay.”
The edges of his lips pulled into a frown as he swallowed, but he nodded. “I do. I trust you.”
I smiled at him, and that frown on his lovely lips slipped away, the corners of them pulling up into a slight smile instead.
I loved my mate all the time, but I especially loved when he smiled.
He’d never do it for no reason, so each time his lips curved upward was like a reward, like treasure, and I wished it were possible to steal them all away and keep them safe in our nest.
I was about to lean in and claim this one for myself with a kiss when a loud cry rang out behind us. “Aarlinuk!”
My own smile faded, a sudden chill colder than the icy waters surrounding us seeping into my bones.
“What’s Aarlinuk?” Rowan asked, his brows pinching together in sudden panic.
“Orca people,” I answered, and he paled.
The boat rocked as several more selkies quickly escaped the water, jumping up to join us, then more, until the boat was at capacity, and still there were selkies in the water.
This couldn’t be right. The goddess had led us here. She wanted us here. I didn’t feel the warnings from her that usually came from being around Aarlinuk and orca.
Could I have gotten it wrong?
Through the heavy fog, I could make out the dorsal fin of an orca as it breached the surface.
She won’t have led us here for nothing. I squeezed Rowan’s hand tighter in mine. Trust her. I pulled my hand free and Rowan turned to look at me, and I yanked him down into a firm but brief kiss before stepping away. His hand reached for me.
“Trust me,” I told him.
“Don’t,” he answered, brows pinched tight as I took another step backward.
“I love you.”
“Milo, please. Don’t even think about going in the water.”
“Everything’s going to be okay,” I told him. I told myself, and the selkies all turning to me with confused fear on their faces. I had led them here, and I would lead them out.
“No!” He pushed toward me, but I dived off the side of the boat into dark waters before he could stop me.
I’d dived from Rowan’s boat into the sea dozens of times now.
Usually, I’d already be shifted, but this time I pulled my coat around me as the icy dark water enveloped my body.
Before it could swallow me and transform me into my seal, my legs collided with something slippery and hard.
My heart stopped. My chest tightened in panic as my eyes adjusted, and out of instinct I clung to whatever it was beneath me.
Large. Moving. Cold. My hands wrapped around what was undoubtedly a dorsal fin. Too small to belong to a whale.
“You little—” A booming voice reverberated in the surrounding water. Deep and sickeningly familiar.
My eyes adjusted. The black skin of the Aarlinuk nearly camouflaged with the darkness around us, but the strip of white down his chin and the glowing patches around his eyes revealed him.
A selkie woman yelped as the Aarlinuk released her arm so he could turn his attention fully on me.
Shit.
He spun in the water and my legs and arms wrapped around him tighter.
“Let go of me!” he snarled, bucking in an attempt to dislodge me.
Shit shit shit. I’d jumped in with absolutely no plan, just a gut feeling that this is what I needed to do.
Wicked laughter echoed from somewhere around us. More. There were multiple Aarlinuk. They found this amusing.
“Quit laughing, you fools. I am your chief!” His arm swung around, his claws missing me as the side of his hand smacked into my hip. “Let go!”
Of course I’d just accidentally dive bombed the leader of the selkies’ greatest predators.
“I’m sorry, chief Aarlinuk man, sir,” I projected at him as my claws dug into his skin to prevent my hands from slipping.
I had no doubt the moment I let go, he was going to attack me properly.
“I can’t let go. Today is a really, really bad day for me to get caught and eaten.
I know we’re in your territory, and I’m sorry about that.
We’ll leave as soon as we can, but we’re on a mission, and we need to take down some poachers. ”
Another thump of his hand against my side as he spun and bucked rapidly.
“What’s poachers?” a soft voice asked amongst the laughter.
“They’re human hunters,” I projected back. “Bad ones. They’ve been kidnapping our people and stealing our coats. They hunt other things too. We’re all in danger. Please.”
“Dad, they’re going to the Shriekers.”
Dad? Shriekers?
The frantic thrashing beneath me stopped. “Explain,” the Aarlinuk demanded.
“The Shriekers are taking their people and coats. He said they’re going to take them down.”
Now that I wasn’t so focused on holding on for dear life, my mind started to process the situation, just as another familiar Aarlinuk approached.
The Aarlinuk child I’d encountered before, Kova, was speaking.
But what confused and startled me more than that, was the fact that I’d been mentally projecting in my panic, a form of speech I knew was unique to seal folk.
Aarlinuk had never been able to hear us before.
But he had, hadn’t he? What the fuck was going on?