Page 5 of The Rake OR The Orca Who Met His Match in a Selkie Desiring Revenge

Stepping lightly, he made for the edge of their line, twitching his head again to assuage the itch. Really, it didn’t matter if the man was found out. He was a high elf, which meant he was an officer, he knew well what he was doing. The rank and file of the Empire’s Watch were orcs, and Aegir knew from experience that they were just as shackled as most in the Pathian Empire.

Sentinels though? They’d chosen their life, the cause. They could just as easily be at home in the capital lounging around and eating sweets or whatever it was rich people did.1

Aegir strode through the edge of camp with confidence, indicating to theguards that he needed to take a piss. They didn’t question him—he did appear to be an elf after all, only nodded their assent with a warning to keep an eye out.

“Something strange on the air tonight, keep your wits about you,” the taller orc called after him.

Facing away, Aegir curled his lip in disgust. He hated how sincere that had sounded. They couldn’tactuallywant an elf to take care, did they? Surely not.

Once he was through the trees he stripped off the uniform and tucked it into his travel bag. Clinching it around his waist, he fled toward the cliff, the call of a clean getaway spurring him to a run. Willing his bones to stretch and grow, he began his shift. Rubbery skin grew over his body, his arm and back fins sprouting as he ran. Mid-shift, Aegir launched himself off the cliff, the freezing water at the bottom a familiar balm to his discomfort.2

He was only under the water for a second when he felt the concussive force of a massive explosion. He squeezed his eyes shut and cursed. It had all been goingsowell, but now, he’d bet everything he’d won that Jokith was not going to be onTheLady’s Revengewhen he returned.

Aegir didn’t even makeit back to his ship before he was joined by a smug shark in the water. Now fully shifted into his orca form, Aegir bashed the shark on the head with his flipper. Next to him, his partner, Jokith, opened his mouth in a decidedly human laugh.

Aegir refused to meet his eyes. Anger held him taut, and he couldn’t be trusted if he had to look at Jokith’s smug fucking face for one more second. They sliced through the water, the adrenaline of an improvised race doing little to cool his temper.

How fuckingdarehe?He seethed.I could have still beeninthere!

Once they’d arrived at the boat, he launched himself into the air, shifting back into his human form as he did so. His tail split into legs and he shook his head as it shrunk down to human size. Well,largehuman size. He landed on the deck with a splash, and rounded on Jokith as he landed beside him.

Aegir waited until Jokith’s ears were fully formed before starting in on him. As the most talented shifter intheir hometown of Sanctuary, Aegir was used to needing to wait.

“What the flying fuck was that?” he yelled, waving his arms back toward the pillar of smoke that dominated the horizon.

Jokith laughed. His too-large mouth opening wide as he threw his head back. “It was just a bit of fun. Lighten up, Cap,” Jokith threw over his shoulder, making to walk away.

“A bit of fun?Fun? That camp is filled with orcs and non-combatants, for Lady’s sake!” Aegir grabbed the shark-shifter’s shoulder, refusing to let him walk out on their conversation.

“I only blew up their munitions store, not any people,” Jokith groused. “And anyhow, there are no non-combatants in an Empire camp—far as I’m concerned.”

“And prisoners? They don’t count as non-combatants?” Aegir could feel the vein in his temple pulsing. He stepped up and poked his dumfounded friend in the chest. “What part of covert reconnaissance is confusing to you?”

“Probably the part where we have to do it at all.”

They were back to this. Aegir was technically in charge of their mission, but Jokithfundamentally disagreed with their purpose.3

Anger settled into a hard lump of disappointment in his belly. Aegir rubbed his forehead, willing the inevitable headache to pass him by. He wastired.Jokith had a brilliant mind, especially when it came to explosives, but he had a reckless streak that Aegir hadn’t yet managed to control. They’d only been out a few times together, and had been good friends growing up, but working together was proving more difficult than Aegir expected.

“I need to go see how much damage there is. Do me a favor and make some food?”

His friend furrowed his brow in confusion, but Aegir didn’t have it in him to explain. When they got back into town, he’d tell Hanne, their commander, that she needed to reassign him. There was no way she’d part Aegir fromThe Lady’s Revenge, so Jokith would need another assignment.

Their mission, and any mission they sent Aegir on, required stealth and discretion. He prided himself on his ability to blend in in any environment. For the past ten years, he’d built up a steady catalog of cell samples from the individuals he’d met in the Empire and a bevy of aliases to go along with them. Having gleefully fucked his way through as many types of people as he could, he was now able to shift into any form he’d encountered.Years spent building relationships among the people subjugated by the Empire were being torn to shreds by Jokith’s lust for destruction.

He didn’t even seem to have a clearaimwith it—it was as if the anger bubbled out of him and exploded whatever was nearest when it happened.

With a shake of his head, Aegir dove beneath the waves, allowing the salt to soothe his skin. A moment’s thought and he tapped his internal store of lunula, the magical algae that allowed him to shape his body however he liked.4 Intense pressure closed in on him as he forced his body to lengthen and expand to the full size of an orca.

For a good while, he just swam, drifting away from the boat aimlessly. He’d told Jokith to make food, but the shark shifter knew not to wait for him, and he was starting to get peckish.

It was early morning, the first rays of light barely glinting through the water. Aegir was debating his hunting options when the distinct scent of blood hit his nostrils, lighting him up. By rights, he shouldn’t have smelled anything at all, as his shifted form didn’t have any sense of smell. Instead, however, he’d made his own adaptations to the form long ago, including highly specialized olfactory senses.

Immediately alert, Aegir shot through the water, tracking the blood to locate its source. The scent was definitely of a seal, and he loved seal.

After a few minutes of swimming, Aegir located the source. A mid-sized female whose markings reminded him of a ringed seal—which made little sense. They were hundreds of leagues from waters cold enough for the layer of fat she carried.

As Aegir tasted her blood on the water, Aegir noticed… abnormalities. Those deviations from what he expected of a seal’s blood confirmed his theory. She was too far from her waters, and alone. This seal was extremely unwell.