Page 41 of Saved By the Selkie

My pup is apparently very talented.

I peer down at him, cradled as he is in my arms. He’s sleeping now, wrapped tight in blankets and nestled against me. Anna wrestled me into three or four layers of clothing, despite my protests that I could just shift back.

“I don’t think so,” she said as she tucked my pelt away. “We’ve got a lot of talking to do.”

That was hours ago, though, and we haven’t talked much. Instead, we loaded up the sleds and took off across the ice. Anna didn’t like how open the area was, and she said the smell of blood would attract predators.

I shiver with the thought. She’s not wrong. I often follow the scent of blood in the water.

I must fall asleep, because the next thing I know, Porthos is gently shaking me awake. Dawn streaks the horizon, but the sun barely peeks over. The stars are still heavy in the sky, and I think tonight, the sun will set and won’t rise again for months.

“Anna’s called a rest,” Porthos says. “The dogs are tired.”

Slowly, I extricate myself from the blankets. I cradle the baby with one arm, carefully picking my way across the ice.

My two-legged form makes it clearer just how weak I am. I’m not steady on my feet at all.

I plonk down by the small fire Anna has lit. She’s feeding the dogs now. Porthos is unwrapping food brought from the village, and I’m suddenly so grateful that I start to weep.

My baby’s alive, I’m alive, Aramis is alive, and Anna and Porthos came to rescue us. We could have died. We were going to die if we stayed out there with Johan any longer.

Anna sits down beside me. She puts an arm around my shoulders and drags my head against her chest. She says nothing. I have no idea how long we sit like that.

At length, she releases me, then holds out her arms. Reluctantly, I give her the pup, who squirms, then settles again. “You should eat something,” she says.

“I’m fine,” I sigh. “Selkies don’t eat while they’re nursing.”

She gives me a critical look. “You didn’t get enough to eat.”

“Suppose it all makes sense now,” Porthos says. He seats himself upon the ice with a groan. “The crew was bellyaching about Lir eating us out of house and home, but we didn’t know there was a pregnant selkie in our midst.”

Anna turns on the forgotten member of our party. “And when were you planning on telling us that Lir’s a selkie?” she asks Aramis.

We turn to him, and he shifts under our scrutiny, before finally disembarking from the sled. “Well,” he says, giving me a guilty glance.

“You weren’t, were ya?” There’s no bite in Porthos’s words—more like a hint of sadness. Almost like he’s disappointed that Aramis wouldn’t share secrets with him.

Aramis bows his head a little. “I didn’t know who I could trust.” His brow knits together as he stares into the fire. “After you mutinied—”

“We didn’t mutiny,” Anna cuts in, her voice like a knife. “That was Perry—and Johan.”

Aramis sighs. “Yeah, well.”

“Should’ve dumped him overboard when we had the chance,” Porthos grumbles, “right after we pitched Perry.”

“To be fair,” Anna says, “we thought Perry was the problem.”

Porthos heaves a huge sigh and leans in to poke at the fire. The baby squirms in Anna’s arms, a leg suddenly poking out of his swaddle. I lean toward him, almost instinctively. Anna glances at me, then hands him back.

Relief floods me as soon as the pup’s back in my arms. I waste no time undressing, stripping off layers, then sliding the babe under so we’re skin to skin. He seeks out a nipple; even in this form, he’s still ravenous, driven by his instincts to wrap himself in a protective layer of blubber so he can stay warm.

I try not to think about why he needs to build up his insulation so quickly. I can already feel the tingling building under my skin, and when I look at Aramis …

I look back down at our pup instead. I’m screwing this up pretty badly; I definitely don’t need to get pupped again.

But I want to, and that scares me.

I’m just thankful none of the humans have clued in yet. I think I’ll die of embarrassment if they realize I’m going into heat.