Page 58 of The Sea-Ogre's Eager Bride

So many nets.

I mend nets, knotting and weaving cords, and I watch my mate laugh and talk with Balo and my uncle Dorran nearby. They stand in front of Dorran’s tent, near the center of the flotilla, and the breeze catches Vali’s hair and makes it drift against her face. She carelessly pushes it back, and I watch her graceful movements and her delicate hands.

I think of those hands as they stroked my cocks, and her sultry smile of pride as she did so. And I sigh and watch my woman with the two men and try not to feel resentment.

Try, and fail.

They have become fast friends, those three. My uncle is as good-natured as his husband and has a great affection for humans. He’s old enough to be Vali’s father and he looks upon her like one. Balo is the one she spends the most time with, though, and I grow to hate the sight of his bleached, easy grin. I hate the way he is always at her side, being helpful.

I hate that he is teaching her all the things I should be, and instead I am sitting in the sun and mending nets like my mother’s mother’s father, who is so ancient he cannot even walkstraight and spends most of his days seated under a nut tree, napping.

“What did that net ever do to you?” my mother asks, sinking down to sit next to me.

“Eh?” I look over at her in surprise.

She brings a conch full of juice to my side, sinking down next to me and offering it. “I’m not sure if you’re repairing that net or trying to tear it apart with your hands. Does something trouble you?”

I scowl down at the net I’m working on, because my knots might be a little tighter than they should be, and the rope might be stretched, just a little. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Oh, you were. Just not to the net.” My mother indicates the shell in her hand. “Drink this. It’s good for you.”

I roll my eyes at her pushiness, but I take the shell and drain it. Vali’s laughter echoes over the flotilla and I lower the drink so I can watch her. She has a sling spear in her hands, and Dorran is trying to show her the proper way to fit the sling around her wrist so she can fire it through the water at great speed. Vali tries again, and instead of launching itself, the spear clatters to the ground. Balo and my uncle burst into laughter, and Vali holds her sides, giggling wildly.

I scowl down at the shell in my hands. Does she laugh so brightly when I talk to her? It seems that Balo makes her giggle all the time.

“I have decided I like her,” my mother declares in a lofty tone, as if sensing my thoughts.

“She is my bride whether you like it or not,” I tell my mother sourly. Well, as long as Vali accepts me in marriage. I have not broached it again.

“I know, but it makes it easier that I like her.” My mother is unruffled. “She works with Balo every day to learn how to swim, and she has made great strides in it. She gathers water withoutasking, and refills the canisters if she sees them. She helps clean the fish and she never complains or demands to be given easier chores. She is a hard worker. It is a good thing to have in a wife.”

“Mm.” Vali could be lazy and I would still want her in my bed, so my mother’s reassurances annoy me. She does not know that Vali is a people pleaser and thus works herself to the bone in order to ensure that everyone is happy with her. “Don’t give her too much work, Mother. She is still a guest. I don’t want her to think the seakind are testing her.”

“But we are,” my mother says lightly. “Do you know how much fishing your father had to do to win my hand? It wasn’t until he brought back three swordfins in one day that I relented and agreed to be his bride. You have it easier. I think if you snapped your fingers, the human woman would fall at your feet.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“No?” Mother tilts her head, her earrings tinkling as she does. Her expression is one of utter casualness as she holds her hand out, examining a bangle on one wrist. “She watches you when you think she is not looking. And she comes into your tent many times a day to make sure you’re sleeping well and that you haven’t woken up or require anything.”

I am stunned to hear this. “She does?”

“Well, not as much now that you are awake more. But Daidu’s potions worried her, I think. She’d hover over you and one time I caught her with her finger under your nostrils, checking your breathing.”

Interesting. It could mean nothing, but this time when Balo laughs heartily, I no longer want to cram the shell in my hands into his face.

“Have you told her how you feel?” My mother prompts. She reaches out and touches my ear fin, the fussing of a parent. “I have noticed you struggle to talk to her. You have always had such difficulty with words, my son. Just like your father.”

Have I told her? I have tried, but words seem to only make it worse. “I do not think Vali will listen.”

“Then you must make her listen.”

My mother makes it sound so simple. As if nothing more is required than putting a hand on Vali’s shoulder and demanding that she listen to my words.

My words have been the problem all along. I have to show her how I care without them, or else I am doomed. “Thank you, Mother.”

She pats my arm. “I’ll let you get back to strangling your nets.”

Chapter

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