Page 12 of The Rake OR The Orca Who Met His Match in a Selkie Desiring Revenge
For a reason he couldn’t quite explain, he hadn’t fully healed her bite, instead, allowing it to scar. He’d cursed the day before when she’d bit him hard enough to bleed, and had ripped it from her mouth. But now, he longed to feel it again. Switching hands, he shoved that finger back in his own mouth and traced the bumps left by her teeth with his tongue. He caressed them, and when he could stand it no longer, chomped down on it, not on top of the scar, but next to it, so that he wouldn’t risk marring it. He groaned at the feeling, his hips shuttling his fist with abandon, pleasure pulsing along the length of him, shooting up his spine, and echoing through his body. He stiffened, leaning against the table with his thighs, pistoning his hips and choking his cock, ramming his fist into his base with each stroke as he imagined Elspeth’s teeth aroundhis finger.
As everything heightened, he remembered ripping his finger from her mouth, shaking it to ease the pain, and flinging his blood across her pelt. Just like it had absorbed the water, he now recalled how it had sucked up his blood as if it were drinking it.
Like a blinding flash of light, Aegir imagined that thirsty pelt, as it would look if he sprayed it with his cum, absorbing every drop of his essence, thirsty for him. His orgasm shot out of him, splattering the rug and his boots.
His breaths heaved from his chest as he recovered, his hair hanging in front of his face. Leaning on the table with his hand, he felt paper crinkle beneath it. When he looked down to shift it, he spied several spots on the paper. Distinct, circular spots that could only have been left by drops of water.
Drops of water falling from long strands of a selkie’s hair.
She’d read his letter, or rather the letter he’d stolen. Had something in the letter made her leave? Ithadreferenced selkies.
Instead of trying to transcribe as he translated, Aegir instead read the letter straight through.
…This bond, which grants one explicit control over the selkie, can be initiated by bleeding on the fur pelt that they use to transform. Initial tests indicate that this bond is instantaneous and can be used to control the selkie’s shift as well as their actions. Orders can be misinterpreted however, so careful phrasing is key…
Every fiber of his body rebelled at the idea; his stomach roiled until he thought he might actually be sick. The very notion of commanding someone else in such a way was so abhorrent that it made his skin crawl. No wonder she’d fled, distance from him, hercaptor—even the word made him want to vomit—was the safest thing she could do for herself.
Good luck to her,he thought.I wish her well.He had no more want of the bond than she did, so their separation was for the best.
Absently, he toyed with the edge of the letter, flicking it with his fingers as he tried to work out if there was any way of undoing the situation. While he didn’twantthe bond, he couldn’t deny that the feeling of responsibility he’d had for her had only grown at the news. If they shared this bond, didn’t that mean he had some obligation to her? To see to her safety?
He knew nothing of it, but sensed that it couldn’t have been as simple as “you are essentially this person’s owner, now,” despite what the letter implied.
His frustration grew until he flicked the corner hard enough to see the other side… with writing. Flipping it over, he read the note transcribed on the back, presumably from the recipient of the letter.
Second selkie captured at the same location seems to have escaped. Dispatch ships to locate and retrieve the sister, as male selkie and application of the bond shows promise.
Retrieveher.Surely they must mean Elspeth? His heart thumped in his chest, panic beginning to rise. It didn’tmatterif he was responsible for her or not. If the Pathian army was after her, heneededto warn her. She might think she was safe on her own, but the brunt of the Pathian navy was being dispatched to find her, and she was in more danger than she could ever possibly imagine.
And only he could save her from it.
1. Aegir, having met a great many different races of people, knew well that diets and dietary requirements varied greatly. He once told me of a group of people that eat only a spongy gelatinous goop that grows in their swamp and I nearly cast up my accounts.
2. Though the humans who lived in Sanctuary heal easily, that is only when they have lunula at their disposal. If they do not have access, or are not lunologists, they will become ill or acquire infection as easily as anyone else.
3. Obviously we know that this is unequivocally false.
Chapter five
Elspeth
IN WHICH THE OCEAN IS VAST, AND YET OUR HERO JUST HAPPENSTO BE GOING THE SAME WAY
The difficult thing aboutthe ocean, Elspeth decided, was that it all looked the same.1 And she tried to stay within sight of the coastline and keep the sun on the correct side of her body. To her right in the morning and her left in the evening. As long as she did that, she figured she’d be moving north.
North was the way to Feann and, if they cut across land after she found him, north was the way home. Eventually, she considered, she’d need to go ashore, and somehow determine just how far she’d made it. But she knew how fast she could swim, and had experience navigating a boat, and she figured she had at least three more days of travel before she needed tocheck her heading. And more important than her heading, she hoped she would be able to get information about troop movements. She had the name and most recent location of the unit that had her brother, but no idea how long ago it had been penned.
She only had what could be described as the outline of a plan, but she also knew that Feann needed her. No one else could help him, no one elsewouldhelp him. Anyone from Hillskerry had already written him off, he was bound. He was lost to them. Generally, hers were a peaceful people, and no one she knew was able to fight. No one would be willing to risk the worst-case scenario to save him. But between her kidnapping and her accidental bonding to a man who had no idea they were bonded, Elspeth found herself in possession of a strange brand of freedom. She was already bound, which meant that she could no longer be threatened with one. Her bond would now forever be to Aegir.
She’d lost something in that, but his ignorance meant she could pursue her brother’s freedom without fear. She still risked death, of course, she was not a fighter either. But knowing she could no longer be held freed her to pursue him fearlessly.
For two days and three nights, she swam up the coast, falling into an easy schedule once more. With the lack of structure, she reveled in regaining control of her life. She would find her brother, she’d find some way of taking care of his captor, and they would go home. Their mother needed them. She never quite recovered from their father’s death, and Elspeth shuddered to think about how her mother might be feeling at that moment.
Annoyingly, Aegir seemed to stick in her mind. When she closed her eyes, she saw him leaning against the door frame in that stupid pose, or stopping with his pants undone during their conversation. And there were some things about Aegir that tickled at her mind, and she supposed they would remain that way. Was he the only orca fishkin of his kind, or was there a settlement of orca fishkin somewhere? Or what precisely was the business that he and his crew did that he had intercepted messages just lying about in his room? Why had he housed her in his own cabin instead of his initial thought of putting her in the bunk room?
Worse, would he have truly taken her home? If he knew the bond they shared, what would he have done? As she fled, she thought about him, of the brief impression she’d had of him as aperson.
A flagrant playboy, but one that seemed to have a deep moral code, and at least a cursory disgust with the imperial navy. He had been kind to her, he had cared for her.