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Shit. We all froze for a moment, until I tilted my head back and whispered, “I accept you, my prince. You are worthy.” Then, when he leaned down to place his teeth on my neck, I thrust my hips upward.

It could have hurt, I supposed. But he slid deep, his cock buried as firmly in my channel as his teeth were in the top of my shoulder. He licked the small wound, then drew back slowly and began to fuck into me.

The knot at the base of his cock wasn’t large like a human Alpha’s, but when it finally pushed past my entrance, it swelled up, triggering another orgasm. This time, he smothered my shouts with his mouth, kissing me until we were both collapsing, too tired to move, too happy to do anything but smile.

“My mate,” he murmured into my chest. “Mine forever. Mine at last.”

“Yours,” I agreed.

Beneath us, Goran grumbled. “Ours. And this is a very momentous occasion, I know, but I have sand all the way up my ass and a crab biting my left toe. Think we can go ashore, lovebirds?”

LUSCA

The sea had served me well for thousands of years, and when Skadi fell into it carrying me, it protected us both. We sank into the shallows before the depths embraced us fully.

It was a good thing the ice god was immortal and didn’t need to breathe, though I worried that being so far from the wind would affect him. But it seemed that the cold of the trench that enfolded us was similar enough to his native ice to give him some comfort. At least the lines that had marked his face smoothed. He released small bubbles and even drifted into sleep as we sank.

I rested for a day in the trench, learning all I could from the cold sea and its denizens so that when I finally had the strength to rise and swim to my mate, I would be armed with knowledge.

I did not like what the waters had to share. Rada was imprisoned in a place where the sea itself had been barred off. Hungry, an octopus whispered, showing me memories of a too-warm shore and bars that cut through the waves. They starve.

I felt guilt. I was the Emperor of Emperors, the eldest of all my brothers. I was responsible for every ocean, though I had preferred the southern waters. I’d neglected this part of the world.

But guilt would do me no good now. I mustered enough power to direct a school of halibut to the island, encouraging them to swim through the hot currents and the foulness that marked the sea to the south and west, and to find her. Nourish her.

A whale dove down with a tale of men paddling to small islands to the south and east. One man and two young selkies, a grandmother sang. Two princes who pull the man in a small craft. Others who follow in a larger one, armed with swords. Singing. She pictured an island that lay on the way to Pict, and I guessed at Rada’s plan, or part of it.

Lachlan and Kellin were alive, then. Preparing to rescue Rada. The human males she cared for would also be close, the idiot warlord who was her husband and the Beta who had cared for her after we parted in the Southern Seas. It gave me small comfort, though. None of them were strong enough, not even together, to protect her from a mad god.

I spoke to the whale, commanding her and her pod to help the men and granting her use of some of my diminished strength. They might not be able to affect the current, but they could swim ahead of Rada’s reinforcements and make the way calm. A journey of weeks would take days.

Still in my human form—save two tentacles I’d brought out to hold the ice god close for the dive into the trench—I sank my exhausted limbs into the silty seafloor and soaked up the energy held by the sand. I was incredibly powerful and normally had the ability to create a vast form, the size of a mountain. I could command the seas to part for me, or race me to all the corners of the world. I could even call my slumbering brothers to wake and fight alongside me.

Leviathan, the youngest of us all, was already awake. He would help, though his mate Wren needed him at the end of her pregnancy.

I did not have the time it would require for him to arrive, or to restore myself enough to face the fire god alone.

You will not fight alone. The voice fell like the lightest of snowflakes into my thoughts. I gazed down at the ice god’s form. He had not moved, but he glowed a brilliant blue in patches on his skin. We will go together.

Even together, brother, we are no match for the god of fire.

Can you carry me there? Can you swim?

I frowned, offended at the question. Of course.

Then take me. We have no time.

My blood chilled. What do you mean?

I can feel her, feel the place where I buried my tail. He has claimed her and begun her cycle. We do not have time to gather strength. She does not have time. He will wait until the moon is dark and force her to his ends.

The moon would be dark in mere days.

He hadn’t finished his thought before I was moving upward, more tentacles manifesting around me in my rage. A pod of orcas was passing by, and I commanded, Carry us!

Instantly, they obeyed, the oldest female allowing my larger tentacles to wrap above and below her dorsal fin, while smaller ones formed a net of sorts for Skadi. The exposure to the cold air did him good, and he shouted against the wind, his voice still weak. “Hungry.”

“Bring him fish,” I commanded the rest of the pod as we raced eastward.