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)
And I think about the intense pull on the water that night. The feeling of heading toward something inevitable. The way I couldn’t leave his side for five days and couldn’t explain why. The way his hand in mine felt like something that was always supposed to be there.
Is he… right?
My hand goes to his. I hold it just like I’ve done every day for the past five days. His fingers close around mine, strong and certain.
Our eyes meet and we stare at each other for a long, quiet, perfect moment where the world outside this cabin doesn’t exist and all that matters is each other.
Until the world barges in on us.
The door crashes open.
I turn with a gasp.
“Valther!”
He’s standing in the doorway, filling the frame while gripping two emerald daggers. He’s breathing hard and his eyes are big and wild.
“Sea Wraiths,” he says. “Port side. Coming fast. A lot of them.”
He disappears as fast as he appeared.
I leap up and grab my sword off the wall.
“Sea Wraiths?” Kieran says, sitting up with a wince. “Those are real?”
“Very,” I say, sliding my sword a few inches out of the sheath before snapping it back in. “And they’re not very nice.”
“I heard fables about them as a boy,” he says, struggling to get up. “They snatch sailors off their ships and tear them apart in the air.”
“They’re not fables,” I say as I tie the sword to my belt. “They’re very much real. And very much on their way.”
“Wait,” Kieran says as I race to the door. I stop with my heart thundering. He’s sitting up with his legs over the bed. Only a thin sheet is covering his manhood. Everything else is exposed and gorgeous. “I’ll go. You stay here. I need you to be safe.”
He tries to stand, but the color drains out of his face with the effort and he stumbles back onto the bed.
I rush to his side and hold him down with a hand on his shoulder.
“You stay here,” I say. “This is my ship and I’m in charge.”
“But they’ll… hurt you,” he says, each word coming out like it’s causing him physical pain.
“One thing you have to know about your mate,” I say, grinning as I step back. “Sailing ships and killing Sea Wraiths is what she does best.”
I unsheathe my emerald sword and flash him a sexy look before racing out into the night to help.
Chapter Six
Kieran
“Wait,” I shout, my voice scratchy and weak as I stare at the wooden door swinging on the hinges.
She’s already gone.
Out there. Where the Sea Wraiths are hunting.
I have to go help her.
There are folded brown shorts on the bedside table and I grab them, pulling them on even though every movement aches and burns. They’re too tight and too short, but I yank them up anyway and stumble to the door.
I make it two steps before I fall against the wall, letting out an involuntary scream as my shoulder smashes into the old planks of wood.
Hurry, my wolf snarls from inside. He’s been snarling since our mate left—a continuous, frantic sound in the back of my skull, all instinct and fury and desperate, clawing need. He wants out. He wants to shift and tear through that door and put himself between our mate and whatever is out there.
He can’t get out now. Not yet and not here. The wounds haven't closed enough. A shift right now would rip everything back open and possibly finish what Lucan started.
Not only that, but he’s too damn big for this ship. He’d probably end up in the water during a battle.
It’s gotta be me.
Then move, he roars. Save her!
I grit my teeth and go.
Each step is pure agony. My side burns where the spear went through. My back pulls tight across the knife wounds with every breath. My shoulder sends white-hot fire down my arm with the slightest move.
I don’t let any of it stop me. I go anyway.
I grab the door frame on the way through and use it to pull myself forward, out into the narrow corridor, toward the stairs, toward the horrifying screeching sounds.
I nearly pass out three times, but I fight through the pain and pull myself onto the deck.
It’s chaos.
At least a dozen Sea Wraiths are circling over the boat in the night sky—half creature, half shadow, all deadly. Each one is the size of a large man, swooping from above onto the crew who are all battling for their lives.
I scan the ship, looking for her.
My Calista.
There, my wolf snarls when we see her on the bow of the ship swinging that long emerald sword at the dropping monsters.
I take a step toward her and a Sea Wraith drops without warning.
It comes right at me, swooping down in a cloud of black shadow like ink spreading through water. I lean back with a wince, barely missing its sharp claws.