Page 19

19

“G ood morning, Mom,” Mael said, sliding Echo slightly behind him.

His mother’s glare whipped from Echo to him. “It’s not the best of mornings. My sister called last night, frantic. I went in search of my children to send to her aid—and I couldn’t find a single one.”

Mael stood taller, his stomach turning.

“My sons and daughter finally arrive home late last night, yet there’s still no Maelstrom and they won’t tell me where he is.” She strolled a bit closer. “Then I get a call from the Harbormaster a few minutes ago, telling me that my errant son is on Storm’s boat with a strange man he’s never seen before.” She cast a look around Mael’s arm for a few seconds before looking back at him. “And I come here and find that stranger in your arms… someone who’s apparently meant to be, hmmm?”

Mael released a slow breath. “Why’s Aunt Kekia frantic?”

“Kaiden’s been abducted.”

Echo quietly gasped.

All the air was knocked from Mael’s lungs. Could that child endure much more? “Have they found him?”

“I want to know who you’ve brought to my island before I go into that,” his mother spat.

Mael wanted to strangle his brothers for bringing the boat into the island, but what was done was done. He stepped beside Echo and placed an arm around his mate’s shoulders. “This is Echo. He’s my mate.” Mael glanced at a terrified Echo. “Echo, this is my mother, Amiria Marino, our matriarch.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Echo murmured, his voice small.

His mother was silent a few seconds as she eyed Echo from head to toe. “Awfully little for an orca.”

“Because he’s not.” Mael paused to swallow the lump in his throat. “He’s a dolphin.”

His mother’s eyes widened, her brow furrowing. “Dolphin?” She shook her head, black eyes molten with anger. “No.”

“I’m afraid you don’t get a choice in the matter,” Mael said. “The fates have the final say.”

Her brows rose in a fury. “I’m the leader of this pod, and there won’t be a dolphin included in it.”

“He’s my mate.” Mael drew Echo closer.

“No, he’s not. He’s prey!”

“I don’t care,” Mael roared. “Echo is mine. I am his.”

Mael had never been disrespectful to his mother. Never raised his voice. The look of shock on her face almost made him regret raising it. Almost. He glanced down at Echo. He would fight to have his mate in his life. She needed to know that.

“The two of you wouldn’t be able to have children,” she argued, her face growing redder by the second. “And even if you could, you’d dilute your orca strength with the weakness of their kind.”

Echo stiffened beside Mael.

“He’s not weak,” Mael argued.

“Compared to humans, no. Compared to us? Yesss,” his mother hissed. She turned her angry stare to Echo. “And you’d allow a predator into your bed? How could you ever trust him?”

“I already do,” Echo replied. “I love him.”

“You love him?” she asked, shaking her head. Her gaze whipped to Mael. “How long have you been hiding this abomination from me?”

“A few weeks,” Mael muttered, clenching his teeth at her use of the word.

“Weeks?” She turned to Echo. “Honey, you haven’t had time enough to know that you love him. You barely know him.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Mael snapped. “Time doesn’t matter. Ko ia toku aitua.” He’s my mate. “Our souls are united. I’ve loved him from the first moment I set eyes on him.” Mael glared at her. “He’s mine. He belongs at my side. Either accept that…”

“Or what?” His mother snapped.

“Or we’ll be forced to find a new home,” Mael said.

“Maelstrom?” she asked. Her anger faded, turning into what looked like fear. “You would give up your entire family and pod for one little dolphin?”

“I don’t want to,” Mael replied. “I want to be here with my family. But Echo is also my family now. If you ask me to turn away from him, I won’t. He is my future.”

“What kind of future is that? One where you can’t have a family of your own? No legacy?”

“I don’t care about a legacy,” Mael roared. “The gods brought him to me.”

“You are an orca prince. You have a duty to create the next generation of orca. Do you not care about your duty?”

“A title and duty I never asked for.”

“Wait…” Echo interrupted. “Prince?”

Mael closed his eyes.

“I might be called Matriarch, but my true title is Kuini. That word means?—”

“Queen,” Echo murmured.

She lifted on brow.

“I speak some Māori.”

“A little light-haired, blue-eyed dolphin speaks Māori. I’m impressed.”

“My grandfather was Māori,” Echo replied, his voice barely above a whisper. “He taught me. I don’t use it often enough, though.”

His mother walked closer, her gaze on Echo. “Well, if he was Māori, you must know our history and how we all got here.”

“The second matriarch.”

His mother nodded. “Yes, the second matriarch. The Queen of the Southern Seas—and my direct ancestor. And Mael’s. One of his children could become the next matriarch. Children he would not have with you.”

“You never know,” Mael said. He looked down into Echo’s eyes and smiled. “We might have children one day.”

“I surely hope not,” she spat.

Mael clenched his jaw and turned his focus on his mother. “My siblings seem to be on a path to accept Echo as my mate. I had hoped you would, too.”

“They knew?” she asked, eyes wide. She sighed. “Of course they did. That’s why they wouldn’t tell me where you were. They didn’t want me to know they’d played a part in this… this…”

“If you call it an abomination one more time, you might as well exile me now, Matriarch,” Mael snapped, his heart clenching in his chest.

“No!” Echo spat. He took a step closer to Mael’s mother. “Please … don’t exile him. I might not know him well yet, but what I do know is that Mael’s family means everything to him.” Echo spun to face Mael, tears shining in his eyes. He gripped Mael’s t-shirt with both hands. “I won’t come between you and your family. I see how you are with your siblings and… it’s beautiful. I’m jealous of your relationships with them. I’ve never had that, so I know how lonely it can be not to have it. I can’t take them away from you. I won’t.”

Mael brushed back Echo’s hair. “My future with you is as important to me.”

“It isn’t, not in the face of what you’d lose.” Echo fought a sob. “You’ll grieve their loss every day for the rest of your life… and that will be my fault.”

Mael fought the sting of tears. “No… it wouldn’t.” He lifted his gaze and glared at his mother. “It would be because of closed minds and closed hearts.”

“Your mother’s right that I might not be able to give you a family of your own. I won’t take you away from the only one you have.”

“I don’t care about children,” Mael said. He captured Echo’s face in his hands. “I care about you. I choose you. You’re my everything, Echo. I can’t stand to part from you. I ache when you’re not near me. I cannot exist without you.”

Echo’s face contorted in pain.

“We can just go,” Mael said to Echo. “We can find another pod who might accept us as we are.”

“Mael!” his mother roared.

Mael turned to glare at her. He saw pain flash in her eyes.

“You would leave, wouldn’t you?”

“If forced into it—yes.”

His mother’s eyes shone with light before it was gone. She glared at Echo before turning that anger back to him. “I’ve lost one son. You’d take another from me?”

“That’s not fair,” Echo barked, eyeing her, his voice even and firm. “Hasn’t he suffered enough pain from what happened? Don’t use guilt to get your way.”

Anger radiated from his mother’s eyes as she focused on his little dolphin. Mael pushed Echo behind him, but his mate refused to move.

Something seemed to snap within his mother. The anger transformed into pain. “You’re right. It wasn’t fair of me. But I’m a mother who doesn’t want to lose her son. I won’t pretend that I agree with this… relationship… of yours but—” She sighed, shaking her head. She captured Mael’s gaze. “I can’t lose another son. Stop this talk of leaving. I’ll have none of it.”

I won’t lose another son. Mael closed his eyes and wobbled a bit on his feet. When he reopened them, he nodded to his mother, unable to speak without fear of his voice breaking.

She looked between him and Echo. “If this is who you truly want…”

“He’s my mate,” Mael said, struggling to get the words out at first. “Could you have denied Father?”

Her face contorted.

“It’s not as simple as want, Mother. I need him.”

His mother pursed her lips. “I cannot believe fate would pair you with a dolphin. I simply cannot.” She looked to Echo and back to Mael. “You’re simply going to have to prove it to me.”

Mael glanced at Echo, grasping his mate’s hand and squeezing it. It wasn’t approval, but it was as good as they would get. No banishment. No outright refusal. In time, they could prove their connection. Mael glanced down at Echo, who offered a small smile.

He turned his attention back to his mother. “Kaiden. Has he been found?”

“No,” his mother said. She sighed. “He was abducted in orca form by a Chinese vessel.”

“Oh no,” Echo whispered.

“Best case scenario, he’s being taken to one of their many waterparks to perform. Worst case… well, I don’t want to think about the worst case.”

“How old is he now?” Echo asked.

“Six,” Mael answered. He eyed his mother. “Where were his parents?”

“His mother was with him. The vessel shot her with a harpoon first. She was able to free herself before they winched her aboard, but while she was fighting, they netted the boy,” his mother said. “His father was out hunting when it happened and returned in time to save her from drowning. Once she was ashore and had someone to tend to her wounds, he jumped into the water with the plan to trail the boat to its final destination. He’ll likely need help freeing the child—and protecting Kaiden on the long return voyage home.”

“Couldn’t someone fly there and then fly them home?” Echo asked. “Instead of swimming? It would be quicker. Expensive, but quicker.”

“There would be too many questions,” Mael said. “We usually travel by sea so none of us have passports. Getting those could take months. In that time, we could be there and possibly get back with the boy.”

“On the flight out, the Chinese government would want to know how Kaiden and his father got there in the first place without any travel documents,” his mother added. “It could turn into an international incident and eventually turn a light on Maki Island and the residents here. We need to avoid that.”

“We also don’t know where they’re taking Kaiden,” Mael said. “Just because it was a Chinese vessel, that doesn’t mean that’s where they’re offloading him.”

“Ah,” Echo murmured.

Mael eyed Echo. “We swim in, swim out, and none’s the wiser.” He turned back to his mother. “What was a Chinese vessel doing in Alaskan waters?”

“Their fishing boats have long been coming closer and closer,” his mother said. “That and their military, too. Kekia has been worried for some time that they’d get too close. The Chinese still hunt whale—and on occasion, orca. They’ve already lost three of theirs to whaling ships. Several others have left the pod because Kekia is too stubborn to leave.”

“They should join us,” Mael said.

“I’ve asked,” his mother said. “Numerous times. Maybe now she’ll listen. She’s in poor health. Kaiden’s mother is severely injured. There are only two other adult males in that pod, and both are aging. Their other female is pregnant. The rest are children. She called us, begging for our help to get her grandson home because they have no one who can.” She sighed. “Without our help, I doubt they’ll be able to save him.”

Mael eyed his mother. If he went, she would owe him. Maybe he could use that to gain favor for Echo. Yet, the idea of being away from Echo for weeks didn’t sit well, either.

Plus—he’d be in danger in Asian waters.

“I’d hoped you, Storm, Ravage, and Havoc would go,” his mother said.

Mael frowned. “All four of us?”

“You know full well that Kaiden’s father isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. He’s all brute strength, little brain power,” his mother said. “He’ll be more of a liability than anything else. Sending all four of you might be overkill, but we don’t know where they’ll end up holding him and how difficult it’ll be to get him out.”

“Are you waiting until his father contacts you with the destination?” Echo asked.

“No. It’ll take at least three weeks just to swim there,” Mael said. “We need to go now.”

“How would you even know where to go?” Echo asked.

“The shipping lanes,” Mael replied. “A few start in Washington State and travel north, passing Alaska where their pod is, then they arc down toward Asia. The freighters likely on one of those. Kaiden’s father will have hopefully left messages along the way. Other pods he passes… other shifters. Even if he doesn’t, whales are great at sharing information. They’ll send us on the right path.”

“You speak whale?” Echo asked, eyes wide.

“Yeah. Don’t you?” Mael asked.

“No,” Echo said. “We don’t travel far from Dolphin Bay, clearly. We haven’t picked up those skills, I guess.”

“Most wild dolphins tend to stick close to home. Because of that, they can no longer sustain the kind of speed we can, not as long as we can,” his mother said. “Even though we’ve made a home here, orcas are natural migrators, built for distance. We have systems in place to remain as safe as possible when we travel distances.”

“There’s a chance we can catch up to them before they dock,” Mael added. “Freighters usually only travel between twelve and twenty knots and usually on the slower end if they want to save fuel. We can move at more than twice that.”

“Yes, but a boat doesn’t need to sleep,” Echo said.

“Unhemispheric sleep. We don’t stop swimming,” Mael said. When in orca form, only half their brains shut down for sleep at a time to prevent them from drowning. “You do have that when you shift, right?”

“Of course,” Echo said. “But we barely move when we’re asleep.”

“We slow, but we don’t stop. If we take turns, those awake can guide the sleeper and keep a faster pace. We won’t lose much time at all.”

“How long will you be gone?” Echo asked.

“I didn’t say I was going,” Mael murmured. “I’m just thinking out loud.”

“Mael,” Echo said. He smiled softly. “You’ve already decided to go. I can hear it in your voice. And you should . You didn’t save Kaiden once for him to be taken again.”

Mael eyed his mother, who was staring at Echo.

He turned to Echo and smiled. “Three to four weeks there. Whatever time we need to get him out. With a young calf in tow, the return will be slower, so closer to five or six weeks, I’d guess. All total, ten to twelve weeks, give or take.” He winced. The pain of being apart that long was almost physical. “I won’t be able to take a cell phone to check in, either.”

“I realize that. My parents are off on their extended holiday and they didn’t take theirs, either. They call in from their stops, though.”

“I can try, but calling from Asia might not be so simple,” Mael murmured.

“I think we can manage a few weeks without one another,” Echo said. He rose on his tiptoes, and Mael lowered his head. He pressed a kiss to Mael’s lips. “Save the boy and then come back to me.”

Mael grinned down at his little dolphin. “Is that an order?”

“It is,” Echo said, grinning back.

Mael rested his forehead on Echo’s. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

He leaned down and captured Echo’s lips. The brief kiss he’d planned deepened… until his mother cleared her throat, reminding him they weren’t alone.

Mael pulled from Echo and eyed his mother, his face burning with embarrassment. “I need to get Echo back to Dolphin Bay. Can you tell my brothers to start mapping out a route. I’ll return as soon as I can.”

“There’s little time to waste. Every minute counts.” His mother lifted a brow, glaring at Echo. “Don’t get lost in his bed before you can make it back.”