Page 15 of Kraken the Seal

I couldn’t ignore Nina’s tension. Every time I asked, she said she was fine, but it was clear that she was struggling.

Sailing north meant going against the prevailing winds and currents. I had no choice but to fire up the motor. As I navigated up the coast, Nina sat huddled in the cabin. Every time I checked on her, she was in the same place, looking pale and upset.

Giving up on her telling me naturally, I shut down the engine and dropped the anchor.

“What’s wrong?” Nina asked, emerging from the cabin. “Why did we stop moving?”

I stepped in front of her and opened my arms. “What’s going on? You were handling everything so well this morning and then we got back to the boat, and you withdrew and now look physically ill. Please talk to me.”

She paused for half a second, then walked into my arms. All my tentacles emerged and wrapped around her as well. For a moment, I was worried that would be too much, but she snuggled against me with a sigh of relief.

“Are you scared of meeting the colony?” I asked.

“Yes, but that’s not the issue,” she said. “Something inside me keeps pushing me to go in the water.”

As a born shifter, the idea of having instincts from my animal half was natural to me, but I could see how it would be scary for a human who’d never experienced that before.

“You don’t have to listen to your seal,” I said. “She can’t make you do anything.”

“But she’s so loud!” Nina wailed. “It started when we left this morning to visit Elena. The longer we were away from the ocean, the worse it got. I thought I’d feel better after we were on the boat, but she won’t let it go.”

“I could find a cove or beach for us to go swimming,” I suggested. “There’s a couple of secluded ones nearby. After your seal swims around, you’ll both feel a lot better.”

She hugged me tighter and let out a little sob. “You don’t understand. I don’t know how to swim!”

Chapter 6

Delmar

I can't believe I forgot that my mate had never learned to swim.

“I’ve never even been in any bodies of water,” she continued. “Not an ocean, lake, or pool. I don’t even own a swimsuit.”

My brain went blank for a moment. The idea of a selkie that couldn’t swim simply wasn’t possible, was it? If you had an animal, even if you weren’t born with it, shouldn’t you have that animal’s instincts?

“You think I’m dumb, don’t you?” she said and tried to pull away.

“Not at all,” I said, tightening my hold. Several of my tentacles rubbed her back, and one of them patted her head. She shooed away the one patting her head but didn’t seem to mind the others. She also didn’t try to pull away again.

“Did you have a bad experience when you were a kid?” I asked.

“No, it was my dad,” she said. “He almost drowned as a child. He was terrified of the water after that and wouldn’t let me go anywhere near it. His fear rubbed off on me, so I never tried to learn to swim, even after I became an adult.”

“I’m so impressed,” I murmured.

She tilted her head back to look up at me. “Impressed at my stupidity?”

“Impressed by your strength,” I said. “You went on Zak’s yacht despite your fear.”

“Janice asked me,” she said.

“You’re a good friend,” I said. “And then you stayed with me, even though we were on another boat.”

“You’re cute and a good talker,” she said.

“You’re a good mate,” I said, then winced when her eyes went wide.

“Mate?” She pulled away, and every single one of my tentacles hugged around my chest to comfort all of us. She huffed and put her hands on her hips. “Don’t do that.”