Page 40 of Hooked by a Hero (Tales from the Brotherhood #4)

There were a few more moments of unsettled murmuring before Elias spoke up and said, “We could row them out to the Fortune and keep them there.”

Everyone turned to him, including the mutineers.

“You propose we turn the wreck of the Fortune into a prison for these men?” Hunt asked him.

Elias shrugged. “It would keep them separate from the rest of us.”

“Until they dive into the ocean and swim back to the island,” Mr. Cartwright pointed out with a scowl. “Once they do, we will be right back where we started.”

“If they swim back to the island, then we’ll kill them,” the man who had suggested their deaths before said, forming a fist and stepping threateningly toward the thin mutineer closest to him.

“Please! I’ll behave!” that man pleaded. “I didn’t want none of this to begin with. I was dragged into it by the others.”

“So was I!” another of the men called out.

“And me!” a third said.

Caspian doubted they were all as innocent as they were suddenly pretending to be, but they were all stuck on the island one way or another. Loyalties shifted easily when survival was at stake.

More discussion followed, including pleas from the mutineers. Caspian found it all fascinating and watched as if he were at the theater in Drury Lane. He found Hunt’s reaction equally interesting to watch. The man appeared to listen to everyone, arms crossed, a grim look on his face.

Finally, Hunt raised his hand again for silence, then said, “Any mutineer who wishes to be treated leniently will be allowed to integrate into our community. But I warn you, even a small infraction will be dealt with harshly. Those who say we need every set of hands we can get are correct, though. We will not be able to survive long enough to be rescued if we do not all work together.”

Tumbrill snorted and shook his head at those words.

It was the wrong decision.

Hunt glared at him and said, “You, Mr. Tumbrill, will not be given a choice. You will be taken back to the Fortune , and you will stay there in confinement until we are rescued. Then you will be given to whatever authorities find us, to be dealt with by them.”

Tumbrill barked a laugh and shook his head, but said nothing. Caspian fancied himself a good enough judge of character to think that the man was worried about his sentence but trying to hide it. “Dick will come back for me, you know,” he said.

“Dick is dead,” Elias informed him. “He drowned in his attempt to steal Mr. Ferrars’s treasure.”

Everyone went silent, not just Tumbrill. Tumbrill looked as though he’d just lost a high-stakes game.

“Is Ruby’s treasure gone?” Hunt asked, glancing to Ruby with concern.

Caspian shrugged. “It sank to the ocean floor near where the boat capsized. It should not be too terribly difficult to recover.” Not difficult for him, at least. And for Elias now as well.

“I can order it recovered,” Hunt said to Ruby, reaching for her hand.

Ruby took his hand and stepped closer to him.

Even with only a scant bit of light from the fires and torches around them, she looked exhausted.

“I cannot think about that tonight,” she said.

“Too much has happened here this evening. All I can think about at this moment is sleeping. Can this decision wait until the morrow?”

Hunt smiled at her with so much affection that it made Caspian want to take Elias into his arms in a mirror of what he was seeing.

“Yes, my love,” Hunt said. “It can all wait until tomorrow.” He glanced around at the rest of the survivors and said, “Secure the mutineers for the night. They can sleep out in the open while guarded. I will need volunteers to take the first watch. The rest of us should sleep, as Ruby has suggested. We will have much to do to make repairs and continue building what we have here tomorrow.”

Hunt’s word was final. Everyone began to move.

Some of the stronger men assisted Hunt in shackling the captured mutineers or moving the bodies of those who had been killed in the fight.

Fortunately, none of the survivors had died in their efforts to defend their homes.

They had been far more judicious in their fighting and far less careless about their own persons than the mutineers.

Elias was called upon to treat a few injuries along with Hunt. Caspian helped clean up the debris from damaged huts and with repairs to those huts so that everyone who wanted one would have a roof over their heads that night.

It was late by the time he and Elias headed back to the beach to retrieve their packs.

“I cannot believe we came through this night and made it through more or less in one piece,” Elias said with an exhausted sigh as they reached the disheveled camp they had made hours before.

“I cannot believe we are both still awake,” Caspian laughed.

Elias glanced to the rumpled, sand-filled blanket they had lain on earlier, then back to Caspian with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “I do not think I have the energy to walk all the way back to the encampment tonight.”

Caspian knew at once what he had in mind. “Nor do I,” he said, then winked.

Elias broke into a smile that rivaled the moon above them in beauty. He nodded to the blanket, then the two of them headed over to pick it up, shake out the sand, then lay it down again under the lean-to.

Once that was done, the two of them sank to lie together on the scratchy wool.

Caspian could not bring himself to care about the feeling of the blanket against his skin as he and Elias undressed and set their clothing aside.

All he cared about was the feel of Elias’s warm body sliding against his as the two of them came together in a passionate kiss.

“I feel as if I have awakened to an entirely new world,” Elias whispered breathlessly as they scissored their legs together.

Elias gasped slightly at the new sensations he must have been feeling between his scales and the tender flesh of his inner thighs.

“I am not entirely certain I know what to do with myself now.”

“We can do anything we might dream of,” Caspian said, beaming at his lover and tucking a strand of his too-long hair behind his ear. “We have more time than you can imagine to make a life together.”

Elias’s eyes widened slightly. “Might I live to be four-hundred-and-ninety-seven as well?” he asked.

Caspian laughed. “Most likely. And perhaps much longer. Our kind are very long-lived. I have a great-grandfather who remembers taunting Julius Caesar as he sailed across the Mediterranean to attend the Empress Cleopatra.”

Elias’s jaw fell open in shock. “That is…that is incredible.”

Caspian shrugged one shoulder. “Who knows what remarkable people we might meet in the years to come.”

“Who knows indeed,” Elias said, rolling Caspian to his back and stretching his body over Caspian’s. “I will go anywhere with you and meet anyone. We have so much time to be together.”

“And yet, I have been impatient for exactly this moment,” Caspian said, brushing his hands up over the backs of Elias’s thighs to cup his buttocks.

Elias made a growling sound of desire, then dipped down to capture Caspian’s mouth in a powerful kiss.

It was everything Caspian wanted, so he smiled into that kiss and returned Elias’s passion tenfold.

Elias made a sound of appreciation and circled his arms around Caspian as best he could, bringing them even closer together.

“My lover,” Caspian sighed happily before gripping Elias tightly and rolling to reverse their positions. “You are wonderful.”

“As are you,” Elias said, digging his fingertips into the muscles of Caspian’s back. “I love you.”

Caspian answered him with another kiss, crushing their mouths together as if he could never get enough of Elias.

He certainly could not get enough of the man in that moment.

He wanted everything, to bury himself deep inside his lover and to feel the same as Elias lost himself in him.

It was impossible with all the sand surrounding them, but there would come a time without sand and with every comfort the land could give them.

For now, Caspian reached between them to hold both of their rigid cocks together.

Elias made a sound of pleasure and clasped his hand around Caspian’s as well.

The two of them held each other together as they undulated and rubbed against each other while kissing, slowly at first, then with more urgency.

“I want the world for you,” Caspian panted as his orgasm raced closer, filling his body with excitement and tension.

“I just want you,” Elias answered, then moaned sharply as he spilled himself between their joined hands.

Caspian wasn’t far behind. The moment was too beautiful and perfect for him to hold out much longer.

He jerked into his orgasm, sending seed spilling across Elias’s belly.

It was only a moment, but the warm glow of passion and affection that swirled between the two of them encompassed them for far longer.

“I love you,” Caspian said, sinking to his side, though Elias remained wrapped around him and their hands remained joined with their flagging cocks between them. “You are my soulmate.”

“And you are mine,” Elias said. “I look forward to the two of us being happy together forever.”