Page 58 of The Rake OR The Orca Who Met His Match in a Selkie Desiring Revenge

"Guess you'd just have to fuck me all over the world?" she quipped.

"Guess so," he said, leaning down to kiss her. As soon as their lips touched, however, she remembered the horrible failure of their last attempt. The joy drained from her kiss and threatened to spill out of her eyes.

Aegir removed his hand from where he'd grasped it in her hair.

"What is it?"

"You can't fuck your way across the world, you can't even fuck me at all," she wailed. She sounded so pathetic, but she was beyond controlling her voice. Despair clung to her very being, dragging her down. They had a choice now, and apparently she was the only one who saw that choosing her would still be a trap.

"Elspeth, do you really think that is a worthy goal? Do you really think that is something that is important to me?"

"Yes?"

He opened his mouth to speak, but loud knocking on the door interrupted him.

1. In subsequent testing, it was revealed that these bonds release a burst of oxytocin in both parties, presumably to cement the bond and protect both parties. Though the time for dissipation varied among participants, this artificially increased level was invariably processed by all study participants by five days post bond. (Oxytocin Release at Bonding. Yarnelle, 993)

Chapter eighteen

Aegir

IN WHICH UNEXPECTED NEWS SERVES AS THE CATALYST FOR CHANGE

“What?” Aegir barked, sittingup in bed. He ran his hand through his hair, slicking it back. He elongated his ears and bled his orca coloring back into his skin. Damn, he’d reverted in his sleep, again. Only Jokith would dare knock on his door, and not without good reason, so he squared his shoulders, grabbed a robe, and walked over to rip the door open as soon as he heard Elspeth don her pelt. “What is it?”

Outside, Jokith stood, looking… small. For all of his seven feet, and his propensity to retain his sharpened teeth when humanoid, he looked like the young boy Aegir had met so many years ago instead of the man he had become.

“Sorry to disturb you, Cap, but I’ve news… from Calida. Can I come in?”

Aegir frowned, confused as to why he would need to do such a thing. “Can this wait until I’m dressed?”

Jokith, who had already started to move into the room, blinked and backed up. “I—uh—suppose.”

“Good, I’ll be with you in a moment.” He shut the door and turned back to the room, breathing deep and trying to soften himself again. Elspeth was still here, with him, and he didn’t want his brusqueness as Captain to affect his relationship with her.

“What was that?” she asked, her face screwed up in disgust.

“What do you mean? It’s not appropriate for him to expect to come into my cabin with you here. We’ll all need to make changes, now.”

“Aegir, I don’t give a fuck. Something was obviously wrong! You open that door right now!”

What had gotten into her? First Jokith and now Elspeth? When Jokith knocked, he’d removed some of his fat, but now that they were alone he could feel it melting away, his Aegir in love looks asserting themselves in attempts to calm her.

“I’ll open it when we’re dressed. He needs his Captain, and I don’t want him confused.”

Elspeth squinted at him, tilting her head. “No, Aegir. He doesn’t. He needsyou.”

Aegir scoffed, the idea so preposterous as to be marginally funny. “Yes, and I am his Captain, that’s who he’ll get.”

“Stop it!” She threw the covers back and spun her legs to hang over the side of the bed. “Something iswrong, he doesn’t need his hard-ass Captain, he needs hisfriend.You can be that for Cat and Torsten but not for him?”

“Well, yes, because I’m not their commanding officer.”

She closed her eyes. “I understand that you have different relationships with different people, but Aegir, sometimes those people need—and deserve—you, not whoever you arebeingright then.” Her eyes began glistening and her voice thickened. “Jokith deservesyou.I deserveyou.”

She hopped off the bed and crossed to him. She reached up to tousle his hair and poked his stomach. “I’m going to let him in, and when I do, I expect these abs to be fluffier and for you to have dropped the Captain.”

Aegir was reeling. Sure, he had his personas, and each had a different look, but he didn’t realize that they were quite so recognizable. Fat started bleeding to cover his abs, and he relaxed his stance.He didn’twantto drop the Captain, he felt naked without him, but he couldn’t help but follow her instructions. As much as he needed to keep the lines clear, another part of him screamed that he needed her toseehim more.