Page 22 of Welcome to Seaman’s Cove: Part Two

Nix’s laugh carries up from below. Still reeling, I hang my shirt on the back of the chair, leaving my shorts on. I’m already the last one, no need to rush now. I need time to think. Plus, my bones will thank me if I take the ladder rather than diving off the edge of a yacht.

The i’xal is still clutched tightly in my fist, a reminder that this isn’t just about a break or a bit of exercise or whatever Nix is trying to instigate. I slip it into my zippered pocket for safe keeping. If I drop it out here, we’ll never find it. It’ll be lost to the depths of the ocean.

The moment I’m in the water, Phoenix is on me like an octopus catching his prey. He wraps his arms around me from behind and rests his chin on my shoulder. Our bare legs brush under the water, the strokes setting off something desperate and primal inside me.

Sebastian watches us warily, but he says nothing.

If Nix keeps on me like this, I’m gonna lose control but in a very different way than before. All my emotions are in hyper-drive. The mood swings unnerve me and make me feel off balance. I haven’t given the omegas in my life enough credit for dealing with all this hormonal shit.

I shove Phoenix off, dropping beneath the surface to swim away from him with my eyes closed, inadvertently moving in Sebastian’s direction. I don’t realize it until my head bumps his chest. When I come up for air, we’re inches apart. The beta’s wide eyes take me in with a look I can’t decipher. It’s something like fear mixed with desire.

Or am I just projecting again?

I float back so I’m not chest to chest with him, then turn to look for Nix. I’m met with a wall of water. Sputtering, I wipe my face before growling at my best friend. “Ohh, you’re in for it now.”

Nix yelps and swims behind Sebastian, ducking for cover.

“Brat,” I shout. I’m already feeling tired though, my limbs heavy as if I’ve been swimming for hours. The bonding sickness is weakening my entire system. I hope it’s not this bad for Madi, since she has Caspian with her.

Ignoring the game Nix was trying to draw me into, I push through the water until I reach the boat, lifting myself onto the swim platform that rests just inches above the surface. My shorts are heavy, laden with saltwater, so I tug them off and lay them out in the sun to dry while Sebastian and Nix splash in the water. A clink reminds me the i’xal is still in my pocket. I retrieve it and plop on the edge of the deck. My feet dangle into the sea, water sluicing down my chest and my shorts sucked tight enough that I may as well have my cock out.

Nix and Sebastian swim over to join me, and I stare at the i’xal as I dip it into the water. To my surprise, one of the runes lights up like a north star, clearly beckoning us in one direction.

“Holy fuck.” The expletive sounds wrong coming from Sebastian’s mouth, but I can’t be bothered to make a joke. My heart slams against my ribs as if it’s trying to follow the i’xal to our mate. We’re close. Finally.

With lighter hearts and renewed determination, we head back to the stairs that lead to the upper deck. I’m exhausted from the short swim, my body sore in ways that go beyond my age. I know I’ve been pretty sedentary in the last several years, but it’s not just the exertion. It’s the bonding sickness.

As I put my foot on the first step, my head feels woozy and a bout of nausea threatens to have me keeling over. I climb up another, and the world spins. I pushed myself too far. My eyes roll back, and everything goes black.

15

“Hunter!” I scream, jerking awake from a nap. I’m not sure what’s going on, but our connection feels wrong. Weak, thin, fading. The bonding sickness hasn’t been as bad for me as I thought it would be—probably because I’ve been thoroughly knotted every night. But my skin still feels too tight, itchy and wrong, and I’m restless all the time. I sleep at odd hours, taking whatever opportunity I can.

My breaths come in heavy pants as the foreboding sense of something being off lingers with me after waking.

I tug on my bond with Hunter and get nothing but pain in return. He usually tries to shield me from it, but not right now. It’s too intense for him to hide.

The sky is an ominous grey, warning of an upcoming storm.

“I need to get off this fucking rock.”

I need my mates. And they need me. I might not be able to have them both right now, but I’m done waiting around. I’m going to find Caspian. Hunter’s hurting, and we need a plan, a way out, something.

The sun is high in the sky, and this is usually when I choose to go for a swim, so the guards won’t think anything of me stripping down to my bikini and getting in the water.

Caspian thinks I’ve just been exploring when I spend my time down there, but I’ve also been watching the mermen the queen stationed at my prison.

There are only ever two of them here at a time. They mostly swim beneath the surface, but occasionally pop their heads above the water to check on me. They make clockwise circles, evenly spaced apart, which means there’s a small gap of time when I could theoretically get past them. The trouble is that the water’s so clear. They’ll spot me and quickly catch up.

I need to buy myself a little time. Since I haven’t been able to get those discs from the library in Ocearus to open or do anything, I’ll use one of them. After stripping down, I grab a breather and pick a disc at random.

The merman I’ve nicknamed gopher because of the way he sticks his head out of the water randomly, pops up. I wave and smile at him. He scowls. He’s the least friendly of the guards. Not that any of them are all that sociable, but a few seem more curious than combative. Gopher isn’t in that category.

As soon as he’s below the water again, I hurl the disc like a frisbee as far out as I can in the opposite direction from where I want to go. I’ve been watching which way the guards come from, so I know the city must be to the west of here. Hopefully, it’s not too far.

Slipping into the water, making as little sound as possible, I swim as fast as I can, diving deeper. If my plan works, they’ll still be exploring the splash and whatever fell in the water on the other side of my prison.

The breather’s surprisingly effective, but my body wasn’t made for the open ocean. My legs and arms tire easily, but my eyes don’t sting, and I’m not as cold as I should be. Which is strange. I’m long past trying to figure it out, though. My best hypothesis is that being mated to Caspian is slowly changing my physiology. I bet my best friend Evie would have a heyday examining what’s happening to me. As a med student, she’s always been curious about DNA anomalies.