Page 3 of Saved By the Selkie

“Maybe you’re waiting for your fated mate,” Finn snorts.

“Ooo,” Kip adds in the background, as if to emphasize Finn’s sarcasm. “So romantic.”

I kick sand at them. “Fuck off,” I growl, “’m not a romantic.”

“Lir!” Vati scolds. “That kind of language is unbecoming of a young omega!”

“Sap,” Finn mouths at me.

“That’s it,” Vati growls, “I’ve had enough of the three of you. You’ve been nothing but brats since we started migrating from South Beach. Lir, you’re coming with me to the North Beach haul-out.”

“But!”

“No buts! It’s for your own good.”

“Yeah, Lir,” Finn drawls, “you need to get laid.” He flicks water at me.

“Finnegan!” Vati barks, turning his ire on Finn before I have a chance to dunk my brother in the surf. I’m glad of the reprieve, but I’m also simmering with a hundred unnamable emotions. I don’t want to go to North Beach, and I don’t see why I have to. I don’t see why Vati should be able to make decisions for me.

With a huff, I stomp to where we stowed our sealskins. I drag mine out from behind the rock and start tugging it on.

Three heads turn to me. “What are you doing, Lir?” Vati asks, his expression suddenly wary.

“Leaving,” I grumble, then drag the skin over my head and fall to my belly, the transformation taking over. I bounce my way down the beach, into the surf.

“Lir!” Vati barks after me. “Lir, you get back here right now!” I can hardly hear him over the breaking waves. I hit the deep water and dive.

Vati’s scrambling into his own pelt when I surface. I look back at the three of them—my family—then dive back under, intent on swimming as far away from them as I can.

I break the surface just as the wind picks up, ghosting across my skin. I bob there for a second, peering at the endless, churning expanse of the ocean. The sky has turned dark; the water, darker. I have no doubt there will be a storm.

Which means I should head back, I realize with a sigh. I don’t reallywant to go back to the haul-out, nor do I want to face Vati. I’m in a lot of trouble, taking off the way I did.

I paddle along the surface idly, replaying the incident in my mind. Vati wants me to go to the North Beach haul-out, like my alpha brothers. That’s the last thing I want—I know what happens to omegas who wander around the north side of the isle. They end up mated and pupped.

I don’t want to spend the rest of my life tied down to ice floes with pups. There’s so much to see and do, places I haven’t been to yet, places I haven’t explored. Why would anyone want to get weighed down with a pup and have to stay close to shore for years, doing nothing but feeding and nursing? Ugh.

I guess there’s the mating bit, but I don’t know. It doesn’t seem appealing, at least not to me. Finn and Kip are all into it, but it just seems …

Well, I don’t see what’s attractive about having a massive, sweaty alpha pin you down and grunt over you for about three seconds. But maybe I’m weird.

I scan the sky, looking for signs of the storm, trying to judge how long I have to get back. Not long by the looks it. I’ll dive back under in a moment; it will be faster to swim beneath the swells.

I freeze as a massive form emerges from the fog. It’s shadowy at first, but it becomes more solid as it materializes out of the mist, like a nightmare. It towers above the water; waves rush away from its sides, as though the water can’t wait to be away from this creature. It’s all points and towering shadow,innumerable white clouds seeming to billow above it.

I dive out of the way, beyond the wake. I turn and peer back up at the creature as it glides heedlessly by me, as though it has taken no notice of me. Perhaps it hasn’t; it’s so massive, I must be nothing to it.

I crane my neck to look up, up, up at it, and I hear—singing, I think. And shouting, maybe. I furrow my brow; it sounds like many voices, not one.

I spot a pair of eyes above the side of the hulking creature. Then another and another, and I realize there are many creatures standing atop the gliding shadow. They’re the ones singing, and they move about on top of it. Some of them have ropes, and they seem to be hauling the billowy clouds in tight to what look like massive trees.

I’ve never seen anything like it before. It sails right on by, leaving me bobbing in the water. I watch as it disappears back into the mist. Then I turn my head to whence it came. I can easily pick out its trail, and I dive under, following the displaced water.

I surface again when I find another shadow sitting on top of the water. This one is much, much smaller, but it holds one of the small creatures. This close, the creature looks like a skinny bedlamer without his pelt. I watch through the curtain of rain that comes down from the heavens as the skies open up to the storm’s fury. The sea roils, crashing over me and tossing the small creature around.

It takes me a few minutes, but I realize why the smaller creature doesn’t swim away—he’s bound hand and foot, and the glider is holding him captive. Maybe he’s a selkie who got caught by this thing? Maybe it stole his pelt and tied him up and now he can’t shift and swim away?

I duck under another wave and bob up closer. He hasn’t noticed me, but I can see the glider is … breaking up.