Bonus
Kova - During the attack on the poacher base.
“Get out. It won’t take us much longer , and our alliance is over as soon as we break through these walls,” I projected at that pesky selkie.
Melodic laughter echoed in my mind, kind and amused.
“You should be nice to my children.”
“I am being nice. If they’re still inside when the iceberg sinks, my people will eat them,” I told her, because obviously.
“You wouldn’t let them.”
Why did she sound so sure about that?
“I would. I’ve angered my father enough for many tides to come because of you. If they aren’t out by the time we get in, they’re Aarlinuk chum.”
More laughter.
“Even if I told you your mate was among them?”
Mate? What was that supposed to mean? In all the time she’d been speaking to me, she’d never mentioned anything about a mate before.
“I do not have a mate.”
“But you will. I’ve chosen one just for you.”
My lip pulled up in a snarl, even though I was pretty sure she couldn’t actually see me. Orca calls rang through the water, the echo of their bodies smashing into solid ice and metal rippled shock waves around us, and there was that ever-present shrieking.
Aarlinuk focused on the faults, the cracks, tearing away metal and tossing it to sink into the ocean’s depths. There was so much happening, so much noise. Her “people” were still trapped inside, and yet her focus, apparently, was on my future love life.
If I were to have a mate, it would probably be one that my father picked out for me and specifically approved of himself. He wouldn’t tolerate any other.
There was no point in her telling me any of this, and certainly no point in me listening to it.
“We’re out.” That annoying selkie’s voice reached me yet again. “Thank you so much for your help.”
He shouldn’t be thanking me. If he thought, like his goddess, that I would protect him from my father and the others, he was in for a very large shock.
I couldn’t have him coming back into our territory, expecting that he or any of his people would be safe from us because of this very temporary alliance.
“Stay out of our territory, Milo. We aren’t friends. I don’t ever want to see you again,” I projected, in a final statement. If he insisted on coming back or trying to befriend me after that, then he deserved what would happen to him.
“Thank you for protecting them.”
I rolled my eyes, trying to ignore her. I always tried to ignore her. I wasn’t very successful usually.
A loud crack echoed through the surrounding water. We’d done it, broken the wall. Now the Shriekers unnatural home would fill with water, taking them all to the bottom of the ocean along with it, where my people would feed on them.
Bodies poured inside, hungry, vicious.
And bodies poured out, an Aarlinuk among them.
And a siren.
Aarlinuk would eat just about anything, but even we knew better than to mess with sirens. They hissed, holding their ears as the shrieking filled them. Then they screamed, the sound twice as loud, traveling twice as far.
The scream stopped. The shrieking was gone. Whatever the siren had done, it had finally stopped that damned shrieking. They swam faster than we’d ever be capable of following, down into the dark depths where they belonged.
Then we ate.
The noise was gone. Our bellies were finally filled. The Aarlinuk were happy. I would have been, if what she’d said wasn’t still replaying in my mind. She’d chosen me a mate, and they’d been with the selkies? Or inside the base?
“An Aarlinuk prisoner?”
“No,” she answered, sounding amused, and clearly knowing exactly what I was talking about.
I dreaded my next question as it left my mind, but I had to know. “A selkie?”
“Half right.”