So much rage and grief. Pride mixed with shame, self-doubt mingling with hope. But more than anything, there was resolve, a passionate commitment to… to what? I couldn’t read her thoughts, only her heart.
Her soft, generous, loving heart. Her name rolled on my tongue.Rada.I shoved the thought away.
There’s no way this is her. She’s a bitch, selfish and petty. She left my best friend alone for a decade, she left an entire country behind, mourning the loss of their Warqueen, all because she wanted to chase her dream of fortune and fame.
Rada, my heart insisted, showing me all of her, shoving me into the depths of the woman I’d vowed to hate. At the bottom of all that made up that thieving Omega’s heart lay a pool of selfless love that I could never have imagined. She was a better person than I’d ever thought.
She was a better person than I was. She was my mate.
“Mate,” I whispered, the word tumbling over my numb lips. “Mate, mate, mate…”
I gasped when I felt her reading my heart, her rejection and disdain evident, though she tightened her grip on my body. If I’d had the strength to pull away, I would have. But I was weak. So much weaker than she was.
I’d thought she wasn’t worthy of my friend, or my brother. But it would take a dozen men to begin to measure up to her.
No, bright one. Only seven.The divine laughter echoed and faded as my sight returned. I was floating in the sea, Ratter keeping my human head above the icy water as she swam valiantly.
But the waves were churning fiercely, and there was no way she could swim for us both. “My... skin,” I croaked.
“Take it,” she gasped, water filling her mouth as she tried to breathe. It slid out of her fingers, and my selkie magic wrapped it around me, the change instant. Then it was her arms aroundmy neck, and I was swimming against the waves that were rising higher by the second. I wasn’t strong enough yet to swim her to shore.
But I didn’t have to. Suddenly, my mother was there in her silver-white sealskin. She barked at me. Then the thief—no, the Omega, my mate—slung her arms around Mother’s neck, as if she were glad to let go of me.
It was easier to swim on my own, but terrifyingly difficult to be separated from my new mate. Somehow, I made it back to shore, hauling myself onto the smooth rocks only seconds before my mother. The others had gone out to meet her, and by the time I lifted my head, Goran had Ratter in his arms, Alexios and Kellin at his side, all of them staring at her. Until Kellin saw me and crossed the distance to me.
“What happened?” Concern thickened his voice, and he helped me stand, half-carrying me toward the house. “Whatwasthat?”
I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know what to say, until we’d gone inside, and Mother repeated the question while Alexios held out a robe for her and one for Rada. “What was that, Lachlan?” Mother gasped and grabbed me by the neck, pulling me down to her level. “And what in the name of the deepest trenches isthat?”
The bite mark on my upper arm throbbed. I slapped a hand over it, which made the throbbing worse. I pulled away, grabbed one of the dry robes by the back door, and wrapped it around me. I might not care about nudity, but I didn’t want to have this conversation while my cock was trying to speak for me.
“Lachlan?”
I swallowed, unsure what to say. I hardly remembered it happening.
Goran answered for me. “It’s a mate mark, Stellina. Hers?” I nodded. “Well then, this one must be yours.” He lifted part ofthe robe he’d draped over Rada to reveal her slender, pale left arm, with its twining tattoo of green leaves and small, butter-yellow flowers. Then he lifted it higher to show the unmistakable doubled crowns of a selkie bite at the top of her bicep.
My bite.
I didn’t even have time to nod before Kellin was punching me in the jaw. “Youstole my mate?”
I backed away as fast as I could, my feet still half-frozen. “I didn’t mean to!” I cried as he swung at me again. “I don’t even like her! I didn’t want this!”
“Ouch.” My mate’s voice was as sharp as selkie teeth. “Something to say when your new mate isn’t standing in the same room, hmmm, asshole?”
“It’s not possible,” Mother said, her voice almost as cutting. “The marks are fully healed, silvered, and the bond…”
“Fully bonded?” Kellin’s shocked gaze came to mine. “You fucked Rada in the sea? While that… whatever… was out there? You risked her life?” He went still. Goran began pacing. Alexios moved away, toward the kitchen.
“No, Kellin,” Rada murmured, placing her hand on his arm. He pulled away, like she’d burned him. “Ouch again. Not my night, is it?” She said it playfully, but I felt her sadness like a wave. How was she able to hide how she felt? She felt everything so intensely, my own eyes prickled.
“We didn’t fuck,” I said quickly. “I was… killed. I was dead. The thing that had me threw my pelt away.”
Alexios returned with a mug of hot tea. “We saw it in the water, washing up on shore. He used it––the thing used it––to lure her out into the depths.” For the first time since I’d met him, the Beta seemed overwrought.
“When I woke, she was talking to it, holding my pelt. Wearing yours, Kellin. I was confused, and I bit her.”
“I was pissed, and I bit him back harder,” she added, taking the tea from her friend and drinking it, while Goran held her like he would never put her down.
