Page 51 of Saved By the Selkie

I have to hold back a snort of laughter. “Not according to humans, no.” I sober again. “But I mean it, Aramis.”

I pause, looking into his eyes. “I don’t think even the ocean could keep me from you. I love you that much.”

Aramis is silent again, so long that I’m worried I said something wrong. Before I can speak, though, he wraps his arms around me, then whirls me about, reversing our positions. His mouth connects with mine, stealing my breath away.

He breaks the kiss and presses his face against my shoulder. His fingers dig into me, holding me tighter. “I love you,” he whispers fervently, “I love you, Lir, I promise I’ll never hurt you again—”

“Now, now,” Anna says as she trundles by with a bucket of fish, “don’t go making promises you can’t keep.”

Aramis takes a deep breath and pulls away from me. He scrubs the back of his arm across his face, trying to hide evidence of his tears. “Sorry,” he mumbles.

“What are you apologizing for?”

He sighs and hangs his head. “I just … thought you’d say no. That you wouldn’t want anything to do with me, and I … was scared, Lir, so I kept putting the conversation off.”

I still don’t understand what the problem is or why he’s apologizing. There’s still so much I don’t know about humans.

Although if I’m going to travel with him, if I’m going to spend the rest of my life with him, I guess I’ll have a lot of time to learn.

We push our sleeping skins together and take over one dark corner of the house, although it doesn’t really have corners, and there’s not a heck of a lot of privacy, no matter where we go. The other occupants seem to get the picture, though; they take their skins to the other side of the raised platform we’re sleeping on. Some of them, like Anna, even turn their backs to us.

That leaves Aramis and I alone—with Blizz, of course, who is hounding me to be fed. I’m sick of him; despite his whining, I keep pushing him away.

How the hell am I supposed to get laid when there’s a baby bothering me?

Finally, Blizz’s whining turns to crying, and Aramis snatches him from me, cradling our son in his arms. Aramis shoots me a dirty look. “What’s wrong with you?” he grumps, then goes back to tickling Blizz under his chin. Blizz fusses more, turning his head.

I sigh in exasperation. “I told you—he’s fine. He’s a selkie.”

“He doesn’t seem fine to me,” Aramis sniffs. “He seems hungry.”

I roll my eyes. “He’ll survive a couple of days,” I grumble, even though I know my heat’s going to last longer than that. It’ll probably be more like two or threeweeks.

Aramis glowers at me. “Feed him.”

I jerk away when he offers Blizz to me. “No. He needs to be weaned.”

Aramis looks distinctly upset. “He’s just a few weeks old!”

“Which is how old every selkie is when they’re weaned. It’s just how it works.”

“For the love of Creator, please just feed the babe,” Anna grumps from across the room. “We’d all like to sleep tonight.”

I huff, but I accept Blizz without another word. I let him root around for a moment, before he finally latches on and starts suckling. I wince when I realize his teeth are coming in.

All the more reason to wean him.

Aramis practically beams at me, though, and my face goes hot as he reaches over and strokes my hair off my forehead. “You’ve been taking such good care of him,” he says, his voice a low, husky whisper, and I shift a little, leaning toward him as much as I can.

“Do … do you like it?” I’m burning all over suddenly, even though I know it’s only a few degrees warmer in the igloo than it is outside.

His gaze simmers, and I curl my toes. “I do,” he admits. Then he drops his gaze, expression turning tender. “I didn’t know my father.”

I have no idea what a father is. I guess it’s the alpha? I’ve only ever known Vati, my omega parent. Alphas don’t tend to stick around with pups and childrearing, although, from what I understand, the same alpha-omega couples get together on the ice season after season. I would have met my drasili when I was first born—maybe. Omegas usually leave the pups on the ice, to mate away from them.

Alphas are violent, from what I understand. Omegas have to be careful—even with our fated mates, staying with them is unheard of. Vati used to tell horror stories about alphas who raped their omegas to death, or those who let their omegas starve to death with pups in their bellies because the alpha wouldn’t let them go hunt.

I’m still not sure why he ever expected that I’d want to go get a mate. Alpha selkies sound terrible, and I was very glad when my alpha brothers left our little family pod. They were okay when we were very small, although they tried to control me. But when we got older, they got …