Page 11 of Pirate Witch

Dominance battles are rare among our kind, mostly because there are so few alpha leviathans left, and the rest of the pack can usually find their place in the hierarchy without them. I don’t think my beast would ever risk killing our twin, but I’m afraid of what I’ll do if Nos’s beast won’t submit. The more I think about it, the more it seems like a colossally stupid idea.

But Nilsa is right. If we don’t do it now, eventually our beasts will take the choice from us again. I have to do this now, and pray to the Moon watching over us that I don’t do anything that will damage my relationship with my brother even more than it already is.

“No. I’m ready.” Nos turns and presses a soft, reassuring kiss to Nilsa’s waiting mouth.

We tried to convince her not to watch, but our mate is tougher than steel. Now she stands with Klaus’s arms wrapped around her as they wait for us to stop stalling and get on with it.

“Stay alive, both of you,” she orders, breaking Klaus’s hold for a second so she can kiss me as well.

“We’ll be fine,” I promise, leaning in to sneak a second kiss from her.

My scales brush against the inside of my skin as my beast makes his impatience known.

The bloody creature iseagerfor this. His pushing is what makes me break the contact with our mate and place my hands on the railing of the ship. I shift as I launch through the air, my beast roaring out a challenge into the water as I splash into the depths.

My beast is ready. His consciousness pushes at mine, forcing me to share control of our body. I can't fight both Nos and him, so I let him share the reins. I have to trust him to stop before we do any permanent damage. He loves our brother as much as I do. Even when Nos challenged us in Cirio's Cove, my beast snapped out of his rage as soon as it became clear our twin was seriously hurt. He chose to get him to safety rather than claiming victory.

That knowledge gives me the confidence to give up control, and we roar again in challenge. The sound echoes through the ocean, a warning to other creatures to get as far away as possible.

We're not sure if it's our call, or something else that pushes Nos to jump, but we feel the water shift as another enormous body fills the space beside us. A flash of iridescent, whitish-blue scales catches the corner of our eyes, but the sea is dark now. The waning moon above provides precious little light to see by.

It puts us on slightly more equal footing and my beast approves. Dominance should be decided by skill, not sight. We win this by strength. Nothing else.

Nos attacks first, his leviathan form slashing through the water and colliding with us in an explosion of scales and fury. His long, serpentine tail coils with ours, trying to pin us in place as he takes snap after snap at our body.

Damn him, he's making it hard as hell to keep our emotions in check. Each snap of his fangs gets closer and closer to the delicate underside of our jaw. There's an eerie kind of accuracy to his strikes.

Perhaps, like Nos, the other leviathan has the ability to use his gift to pre-empt strikes.

That thought shocks me enough to separate my thoughts from my Leviathan for a split second.

Shit, if he does, this dominance battle will be a lot more challenging than I thought.

Not that my beast cares. If anything, the suicidal lizard is pleased by this revelation. His own eagerness shoves me back into the passenger seat as he continues his fight.

With a powerful flex of the muscles in our tail, we crush his coils with our own, shocking him into releasing us.

Our heads break the surface at the same time, both of us belching out savage roars at the crescent moon. Neither of us pay attention to the ship, glowing purple in the distance, or the knowledge that our mate is on board, watching us. Both of us are too consumed by this now.

There's nothing to stop us.

It's time to settle this.

NILSA

Watching the two of them battle is equal parts awe inspiring and terrible. Every time one of them gets in a blow, I wince further into Klaus's arms. My siren doesn't complain. He just presses soft kisses to my hair and hums comforting sounds under his breath. The tension in me unfurls a little with each soothing action, and I rub small, grateful circles on the back of his hand with my thumb in response.

Part of me thought this would be a slaughter, and perhaps that would be easier because it would be over quicker. But Nos is holding his own. Almost too well. It’s been over an hour, and they show no signs of slowing down.

The longer it goes on, the more clear it becomes that Nos’s beast has an edge we didn’t expect. Just like when Nos fights, his leviathan seems to predict what Cas is going to do and moves to dodge a split second before Cas has even done it.

It's Val who voices what we're all thinking.

"His fucking beast is a fucking seer, too."

"Shit," Rysen mutters.

"It makes sense," Klaus replies. "They share a body, so why not the gift as well? There are so few shifter seers that no one would know about it, and leviathans are more intelligent than the average tuna shifter…"