Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 35428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 177(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 177(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
“Shhhh,” a soft, feminine voice says, filling the air. “You’re safe now.”
It’s a goddess.
It’s everything.
“Who is that?” I ask my father, but the rock is empty.
He’s gone.
“Who are you?” I cry out.
Before she can answer, I’m pulled down into the water…
Into the darkness…
And everything disappears.
I’m yanked out of the darkness by the pain.
My wolf whimpers inside, feeling every bit of it.
It’s blinding and immediate and real in a way that my father and the lagoon were not.
The pain is no longer this engulfing ethereal sense.
It’s more localized. It’s coming into sharp focus.
My shoulder.
My side.
My chest.
My back.
All of it screaming at once as I lurch toward consciousness like a man fighting his way to the surface of deep water. My body seizes. Something in my side tears. I think I make a sound, although I can't be sure.
I feel a soft hand on my chest, pushing me back down.
It’s not a hostile hand. It’s a soothing one. A safe one.
“Don’t move,” that soft, feminine voice whispers again. Only now I’m not hearing it in a hallucination. I’m hearing it with my ears.
Light bleeds through my eyelids. Warm and orange and flickering. A lantern somewhere close.
I try to force my eyes open, but I only manage to see through a slit, and only for a second at that.
She’s blurry, but I see her.
The woman with the comforting voice.
A feeling of peace takes over, fighting through the pain.
I can make out her shape, but everything else is blurry.
The bottom of her face is moving. She’s saying something. The words reach me muffled and distant, like my head is underwater.
I try to answer.
My mouth doesn't cooperate.
I try to reach for her.
My arm is too heavy to lift.
“You’re okay,” she says. “No one will hurt you here.”
My vision clears for a heartbeat, but it’s all I need.
All I need to know is that she’s my mate.
Which means I must be dead.
I must be in Ulissa. It’s the only explanation. My mate would not be here otherwise.
Life or death, I don’t care, as long as I’m with her.
The darkness comes roaring back, pulling me down with a vengeance.
This time, I fight it.
I don’t want to go.
I want to stay here. With her. With my mate.
I fight with everything I have.
But it’s not enough.
The darkness takes me anyway.
Chapter Five
Calista
“Pull it up,” I order.
The whole crew—minus Zephan in the kitchen of course—gathers round to watch the giant trap as Drakor hauls on the rope with everything he has, his big face turning red with the effort.
“Krathbag,” Petr swears as the nearly empty trap tumbles onto the ship. He kicks it and the three bouldercrabs inside go scurrying to the other side.
Three.
That’s it. It appears that my luck on this haul has run out.
On a good day, these traps can each catch over one hundred bouldercrabs and take two men to pull up. This is the fifth trap I’ve checked out of my lot of fourteen. Not one had more than five even though we set them four moons ago.
“Dat's it?” Petr says in disgust, kicking the iron trap again. The bouldercrabs inside raise their claws like they’re getting ready for battle. “Dat's all dis rotten ocean's gonna give us? Four measly crabs?”
Edrik laughs. “There’s three in there. Where did you learn how to count, Petr?”
“Watching your mama with all her men,” he says, glaring at him.
“The water is not cold enough this time of year,” Valther says. “They hide out deep when the water is warm like this.”
“Warm?” I say, shaking my head with my hands on my hips. I touched the water a few days ago and it was freezing. How cold do these damn creatures want it?
“Should I toss it back in, Captain?” Drakor asks.
I take a deep breath and look at the endless ocean. The sun is starting to set. If we get going now, we can collect all our traps and head to a new spot.
I have the deepjaws to consider. They’re not going to survive long in the vault and they should be my top priority.
They should be… But they’re not.
My top priority is currently lying in my bed, moaning and writhing around in pain.
I don’t know what to do with him.
The yearning I’m feeling is only going stronger with every day that passes.
Briallen says we should drop him off in the wolf territory, but I can’t bring myself to do that. We’ll sail away and I’ll never see him again.
He opened his eyes yesterday for the first time and I still get shivers when I think of the way he was looking at me. It didn’t last long. He fell back into a fitful sleep and I spent another night by his side, holding his hand, praying over him.
We should probably head for land somewhere, but I’m worried that once he’s off my ship, he’ll no longer be under my control, and I might not see him again.