Page 107 of Pirate Witch

Only to freeze as Cas comes barrelling out of it. My shifter mate pauses only long enough to smack a kiss across my lips before leaping into the waves with a grin.

“What the…?” That didn’t seem like it was his beast demanding a change, but why else would he leap into a storm?

I shrug it off, because his leviathan probably isn’t bothered by the waves or the wind, and head past my annoying mage to the stairs.

Val grabs my arm. “I’m sorry,” he growls. “I didn’t fucking mean it to come out that—”

He chokes off as another wave splashes over the side, smacking me in the back of the head and him in the face. Spewing curses, he drags me down the first few steps and shuts the trapdoor behind us.

Both of us look like drowned rats, but I match the fire in his eyes, anyway.

“You knew I didn’t want to do it!”

“So why did you?” he demands. “We’ll find another fucking way.”

I shake my head. “You heard Nos’s vision. This is the only one he’s seen where I have a chance.” I shove past him.

Val won’t let me go. He blocks me with his whole body, caging me against the wall until his body overwhelms me. Without saying a thing, his mouth lowers to mine, lips crashing into me with a silent kind of desperation.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbles, quieter this time. “But losing you… Do you even know what you mean to me? Your fucking mark is on my skin, witch. Youownmy bastard soul. I’ll follow you across the oceans, onto land, and up into the Stars when our time comes, but madness? That’s the one place I can’t go, and it fucking terrifies me.”

My head falls forward, my anger dissipating. “I’m scared, Val,” I whisper.

His arms leave the wood and drag me into his chest. One hand winds into my hair and pets it. “Yeah, you and me both.”

“I won’t use it unless I have no other choice. Elsie’s teaching me the theory, and I’m doing a few practical exercises, but nothing major.” I bite my lip.

“The second something feels wrong…”

“I won’t know,” I whisper.

That’s the worst thing. If I lose myself, it’s not me who will suffer. It’s them. They’ll have to look into my eyes as bits of me slip away until I’m a stranger in their mate’s body.

“I will, and I’ll stop you,” he vows.

Oddly enough, I believe him. It’s enough to let me relax slightly into his embrace.

ChapterThirty-Six

CASIMIR

Iswim for four days before I find the first signs of my old pack. It’s small things, like whale bones on the sea floor, which might seem fairly normal, if not for the huge teeth marks marring them and the way they’ve been scattered.

My hunch about the pack going west was right, and my beast trills in excitement in my mind. Teeth marks in bones like that means pups.

I keep going, swimming harder now with my eyes glued to the sea floor for more clues. I don’t have much t—

A huge shape barrels into me from above, slamming me down into the sand.

My beast takes over, sinking our teeth into the nearest piece of scaled skin we can find. The jaws around us loosen, and we press our advantage by tossing our attacker away from us, back through the water.

The distance gives us the chance to look at them, and when we do, both beast and man freeze in shock.

I went looking for leviathans… but part of me never expected to find one.

Let alone my father.

I shift back immediately, holding my hands out in a peace gesture.