Page 109 of Pirate Witch

A hundred years without seeing my mother andthatis all I can come up with?

Fortunately, my mother recovers herself, throwing herself from the house and storming down the sandy beach towards me.

“Casimir Leviathan,” she all but screeches. “Wherehave you been! And where is your brother?!”

I flinch, my ears protesting. Goddess, I forgot just how piercing my mother’s angry voice is. In the space of three seconds I go from alpha to naughty child, and I can’t help but cringe as she comes within arm’s reach and settles her hands on her hips.

“Nos is fine. We’ve been here and there,” I hedge. “Swimming…”

“SWIMMING! That’s the excuse you’ve come up with? We thought you weredead.After a century of doing Goddess-knows-what, I hoped you’d at least have a better excuse than—”

My Pa is enjoying this. I can tell. A few curious faces pop out of their huts, but he shoos them away with a shrug of his head, ensuring no one interrupts my mother’s tirade.

The more she goes on, the more my shoulders sag, until I’m silently wishing the sand will open up and swallow me.

I must look pathetic because Pa takes pity on me after a few minutes. He snags his mate around her waist and whispers the magic words. “The boy is mated, Amberle.”

The joy which eclipses her face is almost comical, and she starts peering around me as if Nilsa is hiding somewhere in the ocean behind me.

Goddess, she hasn’t changed one bit.

“Ma, what’s—”

The woman who walks out of the pack house next is almost identical to me. She styles her hair short, making the resemblance uncanny. Without being told, it’s clear thatthisis our sister, and she is a lot older than I was expecting her to be.

“Shura.” Pa holds his hand out, beckoning her closer. “This is your brother.”

She snorts. “Yeah, I figured that out when Ma yelled it to the whole pack.” Her eyes rake over me, the look more assessing than friendly.

She thinks I’m here to fight for the position of alpha-in-waiting. It’s written in the defensive way she holds her body and the readiness coiled in her muscles.

“I don’t want your position,” I say, hoping to cut the alpha posturing out of our relationship straight away. “I’m not staying, or coming back to take over the pack. I just…”

My mother’s eyes fill with water again, and I feel like a bastard for the second time. “Just what?” she asks.

Shit, Noster should be here. He was always better at deflecting our mother’s inquisitions than I was.

Dealing with my parents on my own… isn’t something I’m used to.

I think my Pa understands, because he claps a hand on my shoulder and pulls me farther up the beach. “Come inside,” he says. “Tell us where you’ve been, and we’ll get to the why later.”

I nod, mute, as he and my Ma lead the way forward.

“For the record,” Shura begins, falling into step beside me. “I would’ve won a challenge.”

She has no idea how wrong she is, but I’m not going to crush her confidence within minutes of meeting her for the first time.

“No doubt,” I reply, humouring her.

Inside the hut is different. A mostly bare, single room centred around the fire pit in the middle. Sleeping mats are rolled up by the walls, but there isn’t much else.

As a rule, our pack doesn’t keep much in the way of material possessions beyond what’s essential. I forgot how soothing the minimalism is, but I still prefer my cabin on theDeadwood, crammed with Nos’s books.

Of course, there’s one person standing in the middle of the main room who isn’t surprised to see me.

“Grandma Nona.” I grin at the short woman with dark hair like my father’s, wearing a bright wrap dress. “You’re not surprised to see me.”

The matriarch of the pack scoffs. “Boys are all the same,” she complains. “Always running off to prove themselves. Ask your pa about his six-year tour of the Faerie realm some day. He convinced the stupid fae that one of their sacred lakes was home to a legendary god-monster when he decided to shift while high on fae dust.”