Page 59 of The Rake OR The Orca Who Met His Match in a Selkie Desiring Revenge

The door creaked open and Aegir shook his shoulders. He could do this. He could find a way to be who they both needed, in one persona. After all, this likely wouldn’t be the last time he needed to be someone for both of them. Perhaps who he was with Cat and Torstenwasthe right tack. He sat on the edge of the bed, propping a foot on the wooden frame and affected a self-deprecating smile.

“Sorry,” he said, ensuring his voice was steady and lacked the bite he usually had as the Captain. “The mating bond… is new, you know.”

It was a plausible excuse, Jokith was from Sanctuary too and knew that new bonds often made folks testy as well as he did.1

“It’s—uhm—fine.”

Elspeth grasped Jokith’s arm and steered him to sit in Aegir’s chair. His first mate’s shoulders tensed, clearly reluctant to sit in the chair. Aegir waved a hand, indicating hispermission, but then held it out to Elspeth, an invitation to join him.

She stood between his legs, not as close as he’d have liked her, but it would do.

“What’s wrong, Jokith?” she asked.

Jokith looked between the two of them, as if trying to decide if it was safe to answer. Shit. He didn’t want Jokith to feel like he couldn’t share what was bothering him. Part of being a good leader was being someone those you led could trust.

“Please, tell us.” Perhaps that would be enough to make Jokith feel safe. Speaking to Jokith, without the bravado of the Captain made him feel… itchy, but perhaps Elspeth was right.

Jokith coughed and nodded. “Uh, so Calida brought us the location of the flotilla, so… we can go, but she was also able to share some other information… Seelie’s brother is there… her real one.”

Aegir gaped. “Is she certain? How does she know?”

Jokith rubbed the back of his neck. “Seelie’s been asking, lately, about her birth family. She’s really not old enough to know the full of it, but I asked ‘Lida to look into it—see if we could find anything thatwassafe for her to know. Seelie’s my little sister,adopted, she’s an elf,” he said for Elspeth’s benefit. He left out the part where her parents, Empire soldiers, had been killed in an attempt to infiltrate Sanctuary.

“And now she’s found something? A brother?”

“Yeah,” Jokith leaned over to rest his arms on his knees and hung his head. “We’ve been tracking him for a bit, actually, trying to see if there was anything we could share with her that might be safe, you know? Seems like he’s a squire of some sort, so hemightnot be a dick. Yet.”

“How old is he?” If the boy was young enough, even if he’d been partially indoctrinated in Pathian culture, it might not be too late to save him.

“Best we can tell, he’s around ten.”

“Borderline.”

“Borderline?” Elspeth gasped. “What do you mean?”

“Most elves have killed by then, most are quite indoctrinated, but we might have caught him in time,” Jokith said. “What do we do?” His voice was strained thin in a way that Aegir had rarely heard outside of difficult training sessions.

Seelie had always been a soft spot for Jokith, he doted on the girl, and Aegir had always imagined that his animosity toward elves was in part caused by his anger over who they would havemade his sister become. Aegir opened his mouth, unsure what he might say, but as Captain, Jokith needed decisiveness.

Elspeth laid a hand on his arm, stalling him, and spoke instead. “What do you want to do?”

“I—I think I might want to find him. I want to try… for Seelie. If she could have him back it would probably mean a lot to her.”

Elspeth nodded, looking over at Aegir and squeezing his arm. It was a risk, but one they could likely afford to take. “Alright,” his own voice was gruff from emotion. “We’ll find him. Observe. Make sure he lives and then we can regroup after and see if we can save him. Do you have a description? Boat?”

“Yeah, we think he’s on a different boat than Elspeth’s brother, so I’d probably need to split off and find him at some point.”

“Of course.” Elspeth answered before Aegir could. She was made to be a captain’s mate, it seemed.

Jokith looked to Aegir and he nodded. “Of course, we’ll take that into account.” He squared his shoulders, he couldn’t imagine giving an order when not the Captain, after all. “Get us underway then, Mr. Anderssen. There’s not a moment to lose. We’ve got brothers to find.”

The smile on Jokith’s face was so wide, especiallysince he often kept his shark teeth when humanoid, that Aegir could imagine it consuming his entire face. He stood, bumping into Aegir’s desk in his hurry, and moved toward the door. “Thank you, Cap, Elspeth, I’ll do that.”

When the door was closed Elspeth turned to him. “Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“Harder than you’d think,” he grumped.

“New things are always hard. I’m proud of you.” She bit her lip. “Aegir… who are you with me? Sometimes, when we are training, I know for sure you’re the Captain, but other times… I think you’re justyou…but are you? Ever just you? Or are you who you think I need?”