Page 44 of Welcome to Seaman’s Cove: Part Two

“Her first,” I growl.

He seems like he wants to protest, but he doesn’t. He listens to Madi’s heart, takes her temperature, bandages a few minor scrapes she has from the volcanic rock, and gives her some vitamins that he suggests she takes for a while, since she’s probably malnourished.

He doesn’t ask questions about what she was doing out there, and my respect for Sebastian’s ability to pick a discrete crew increases even more. While he works, I let Phoenix clean and bandage my own wound. It’s not deep and should heal up just fine.

“Honestly, you seem fit as a fiddle,” the guy says to Madi. “Apart from the sunburn.” He grabs a bottle of aloe and squirts some onto his hand like he’s about to put it on her.

Hell, no. Two alpha growls fill the room, and he instantly freezes.

“Sorry, man,” he says, almost sheepish. He tosses Phoenix the bottle of aloe. “She should get something on that burn, though. And rest.”

“We’ll take care of it.”

As soon as he leaves, Madi is off the couch. “Come on. We need to get Caspian.”

The three of us just stare at her.

She puts her hands on her hips. “Well?”

“Madi, the submersibles were destroyed.” Sebastian takes a tentative step toward our omega. His tone is calm. “Tythas is at least a thousand feet under the water, maybe more. I know you’re worried. We all are. But there’s nothing we can do right now.”

“He’ll find us,” I add my assurance, but it doesn’t land with my mate. She turns her hard eyes on me, the same determined fire I saw when I rejected her thesis sparking to life.

“I swam to the city before.” She props her hands on her hips and stares at us like a challenge.

“How?” Phoenix sounds incredulous.

“I don’t know. Maybe being mated to Caspian changed something. I feel like the longer we’re mated or the more time we spend together, the more I can withstand his world. It would make sense. Nature’s way of ensuring our mating can survive.” She shrugs. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is Caspian. We have to help him.”

The thought of her down there alone has my alpha going wild. I can’t let her do it. I won’t let her out of my sight again. “Absolutely not.”

She squares off with me. “You can’t make me abandon my mate!”

“Yet you’re fine abandoning me?!” I immediately regret raising my voice, but the thought of losing her again has my alpha instincts howling.

Her eyes soften a little as she stares at me, but they don’t lose any of their fiery resolve.

I tug at the roots of my hair. “I’m not fine with it. We’re not abandoning him. But there’s no way in hell I’m letting you go down there alone.”

“Letting me?” Her voice is icy cold.

Shit. I look to Phoenix for help, but he just crosses his arms over his chest and lifts his eyebrows. Sebastian’s expression is tense, but he doesn’t weigh in either. Smarter men than me. But I can’t seem to control myself.

“Yes, letting you,” I hear myself say, even as an inner voice screams at me to shut up. “I’ll tie you to the bed if I have to. Chain you to me. Keep you locked on my knot every second of every day, so you can never… so I never have to…” My voice is choked. I drag my palm down my face and shake my head before looking at her again. “I can’t lose you. Don’t leave me. Please, baby. Please.” A sob shatters the last word.

Madi’s hands are on me a second later, palms rubbing soft circles over my chest. “Shhh, it’s okay. I’m right here.”

I lift her up, and she wraps her legs around my waist. My vision blurs with tears I’ve been holding back for too long.

Heedless of the other men, I carry my omega out of the room, down the hall, and into the bedroom I’ve commandeered on the ship. She strokes my hair as I walk, cooing sweet nothings in my ear. We both know what my alpha needs. There’s only one thing that’s gonna calm me down.

I fumble the door open and kick it closed the second we’re inside. “Need you. Now.”

The heat spike, taking care of her with Phoenix and Caspian, was incredible, but it wasn’t enough to soothe my frayed edges. We’ve been separated for too long.

She kisses my neck, scratching her nails through my hair. “How do you want me, Professor?”

I groan and carry her straight into the bathroom. Our clothes are stiff from sun-drying after being drenched in saltwater. I need them off. Need every reminder of what she went through washed away.