Page 111 of Pirate Witch
“Both.”
“Then she accepts you? She wears your mark in the way of our people?”
I glance at the huge scar running across his abdomen, one made by my mother’s fang. She wears a matching one on her stomach.
No, we haven’t marked Nilsa in our beast form. I don’t even know how to bring that up.
Hey, princess, let me just shift and bite you with my huge ass leviathan teeth to satisfy my overly traditional old pack. Oh, by the way, here is your slightly psychotic mother-by-mating. I know she’s a bit dramatic, but she means well…
I take the bed roll Shura passes me without comment, silently wondering who would win in a battle of wills between my mother and Nilsa.
Maybe we should’ve taken our chances without the pack.
ChapterThirty-Seven
NILSA
Cas has been gone for over a week, and I’m starting to panic. We reached the Galmeri Strait last night where Cirio’s ships are just visible on the horizon, and my shifter mate still hasn’t returned.
“He’s been gone a long time,” I mutter.
I’m sitting on Ry’s lap in the galley, cradling the latest dry and awful tome on Solar magic which Elsie has lent to me. I know I need to study. It’s what I knew was coming when I decided on this path. There’s no way I can focus on anything right now, and a lot of this I already know.
It shouldn’t be surprising that there’s so much crossover between saving lives and taking them. These diagrams of important arteries are almost identical to the ones I studied when I was training to be a Shadow. Only the wording is different.
Solars don’t need to know how much pressure to apply to puncture one. Here they list the bleed out time as ‘survival time’ and below that the best methods for applying pressure to seal a wound. Elsie is keeping me to theory and breathing exercises, and I understand why.
No one wants to risk sending me against the Eagle with my mind already broken by training. No, it’s safer for me to go in sane… and pray I come out the same.
The ship lurches, and I almost drop the book.
“What was—”
Ry’s head turns up, nostrils flaring.
“Speak of the devil,” he grumbles.
“Cas?” I stagger to my feet, abandoning the book.
“And others,” my vampire warns.
“More leviathans?” Has Cas really managed to find them?
Rysen huffs. “They’re definitely shifters. Let me go first. We don’t know if they’re friendly or not.”
He gently tugs me behind him as we both head to the hall. We crash into Nos the moment we open the door. Only Ry’s quick reflexes keep both men on their feet as they dance around one another. In the end, they keep walking as if it didn’t happen, the seriousness of the moment stealing the humour of the near-collision away.
I end up sandwiched between the two as we climb the stairs of the deck. Nos has sneakily taken hold of my hand and is squeezing it tightly. If he grips any tighter, he’ll crush my bones.
It must be terrifying for him to meet his family again after so long.
The deck—usually empty—is now host to half-a-dozen shifters. Most are still shrugging on clothes as we reach them, but Cas is already wearing shorts. As soon as I come within arm’s reach, he pulls me into a bear hug.
“Worried about me, princess?” he asks.
“Maybe a little,” I admit.
Most of my attention is fixed on the trio of shifters staring at Nos with wide, watery eyes. My blind mate obviously can’t see them, but I know he can probably scent their emotions loud and clear. For a long moment, they just stare at him, and Nos—as always—stares at a spot in the air a little to the side of them.
