Fuck.Sharp rocks. I could smell the blood from the deep scratches she’d opened crossing to the water, and could see it on the palms of one hand when she raised it to make a rude gesture.
“What are you doing?” I demanded, gathering her up and wrapping her in my pelt. She resisted a little, then relaxed into the warmth of the fur, her gray cloak cradled against her bare middle. “Hush.” I carried her away from the sleeping dragon and toward a small outcropping of rocks that made a tiny harbor from the waves and wind.
She berated me in a whisper the entire time. “I hate you, Lachlan. I’m not even surprised to see you here. You probably helped the overgrown icicle steal me off my boat so you could take turns torturing me. Why does this feel so warm?” She snuggled deeper into my fur. I stopped and held still for a moment, not sure what to say or even where to begin, the sensation of her hands on my fur lighting up every nerve.
Or how to concentrate on speaking when she was in my arms, and my soul felt like it had been missing a vital piece that had suddenly been slotted into place.
She made an impatient grunt. “That better not be your Omega stink I smell.” I swallowed, sniffing to check if I was perfuming, but she went on. “Oh, no. It’s just fish breath. You reek.”
“You really are a brat, aren’t you?” I didn’t put her down, but I leaned close to her ear and whispered, “Be quiet, brat, and listen to me. I did not take you. I will never harm you. Like it or not, you’re my mate, and my brother’s mate, and the love of my best friend’s life. I will get you to safety somehow, but you need to trust me.”
She gave me a look like I’d asked her to eat a live shark. “Trust you? Not even if I’m bleeding out and you’re holding a bandage. Not if I was on fire and you—ow!Fucker, I said I was coming.” She pressed against the cloak and opened a pocket. “Did you steal my anchor bark tincture?”
I shook my head. “I don’t use painkilling herbs. I’m a selkie.”
“Oh, I’m a big, strong selkie,” she mocked in a sing-song voice, still going through her cloak, her face growing more flushed by the second. Finally, she stopped, her cheeks a healthier pink, but her eyes shimmering with what might be tears. “Who took my herbs, then? There’s practically nothing left!”
“Skadi.” I told her as much as I knew about the ice god who had taken her. “He says you’re a spy for his enemy. That you smelledof his enemy.”
“He’s enemies with Omegas? So, definitely an evil god. Let me see what I have for that.” She opened another pocket, then pulled at an internal set of laces to get to something buried even deeper. It took all I had not to ask what she might have in her cloak to kill a god. But she had misunderstood.
“Ah, no. He seemed fine with Omegas when I told him about you.”
One dark eyebrow arched. “Us, Lachlan. You’re one, too, and you should be glad or I’d have killed you a week ago.”
I sighed, feeling the truth of her words in our unwanted bond. “He said something about the stench of polluted fire.”
“Ah, hells.” Her hands went still, and she closed her eyes, breathing carefully. I could still feel the pain underlying her anger and frustration. “So not an evil god. I was kinda hoping I’d get a chance to try a new recipe out.”
She slid her hand into another pocket and pulled out a vial. Shaking, she opened it and drank. I got a whiff of what had to be whiskey of some kind.Good.That would help her pain and keep her blood moving in the cold.
She offered me the last swig, but I shook my head. “He’s not evil, but not necessarily good, Rada. He’s also hurt and hungry.”
“Hurt?”
“He broke one of his wings when he landed.”
“Well, can’t he shift and heal? I thought all magical creatures could do that.”
I considered it. “I don’t think he’s been in a mortal form before. At least, not for this long. He may not have any other forms.”
“Ugh. A weak, not evil god. Probably can’t even shift into a human form. Even regular dragons can do that. I saw this dragon named Baltor shift into a man shape in the space of a second. Of course, he was chasing me out of his hoard, so I didn’t get to compliment him on it, but it was really impressive.” Her voice had gotten louder as she spoke, almost as if she were addressing someone behind me.
A blast of icy cold half-froze me from my bare ankles to my ass.
“No mere dragon is more impressive than I,” Skadi growled from only inches behind my head. “I can take any form I desire. I could become the largest human ever to walk this world.”
Rada didn’t address him, keeping her eyes on me. “Did you hear something, Lachlan? It sounded like a big bag of cold wind, bragging about things he’s never done.”
The whole world stood still, then exploded into icy rage. “You dare?! Insolent little spy!”
I curved my body around her smaller one, taking the brunt of the blast, trying to keep her protected while she… laughed?
“Woman?” I rasped in her ear as she wheezed in my arms. “Are you insane?”
“Depends who you ask,” she muttered. “What’s he doing?”
The blast had stopped, and some very unlikely noises were coming from behind me. Slowly, I craned my neck to see. The ice dragon was gone, and in its place sat a merman, with silver scales from the waist down… and two injured arms. One he held close to himself, like it still hurt after the shift. The other was broken.
