Page 22 of Kraken the Seal

“Good point,” I said, giving her a quick hug with my arms and limbs, then letting go to work the ancient but well-maintained fuel pump. I filled the small engine’s tank and the two spare cans I almost never bothered with. The next closest selkie colony was all the way up near the Canadian border. Without prevailing winds, we’d need all the gas we could get to motor that far north.

I also topped off the fresh water tank. By the time I was finished, the pier had filled with an oddly silent crowd.

“I think the whole town showed up,” Nina mumbled as we got back onto the boat. “I feel like we're at the start of a horror movie. If twins show up and start talking in unison, we're out of here.”

I barked out a laugh and shut the door of the cabin behind us. “Agreed!”

She slumped down on a bench with a yawn. “What do we do now?

“We wait,” I said. “I bet there's going to be some kind of meeting and a lot of talking. I don't think anyone is going to come talk to us tonight.”

She blinked a few times, all her energy gone. “I slept a lot today, why am I so tired?”

“We did a lot,” I reminded her. “You faced your fear of water and let your seal out. That's huge. I can't imagine ever doing something I'm terrified of. How about dinner and an early bedtime?”

She nodded, then gave me a curious look. “What are you afraid of?”

That was easy to answer. “Flying. I did it once and vomited the entire time and nearly did a full shift halfway through the flight. It took me a week to recover. Mom and Dad can do it without freaking out, but they have to buy spells that act a lot like Xanax. The spell makes them loopy so they have to get a human friend to go with them because they couldn't navigate anything.”

“That's horrible!” she exclaimed, standing up to join me in the small kitchen area. “I promise never to make you fly unless it's an emergency.”

I gave her a grateful smile. “I'd fly for you, even if it wasn't an emergency.”

“That's sweet, but not necessary,” she said, then pointed to the ingredients I'd pulled out of the pantry. “Can I help?”

I gave her an onion and a knife. “Grab the cutting board and slice this up for me.”

“On it,” she said.

We worked and chatted as I made my mom's fish stew. I could tell Nina was getting hungrier as the stew simmered because she kept hovering over the pot and smelling deeply.

When dinner was finally finished cooking, Nina was standing there holding a bowl cupped in both hands and giving me her best poor-little-starving-orphan look.

“Please, sir,” she said in a horrible English accent. “Can I have some fish stew?”

“All you want!” I said with a chuckle and took the bowl from her. “Grab some spoons and meet me at the table.”

I hadn't even finished setting the bowl down before she was dipping her spoon in.

“Careful, it's hot,” I said, but it didn't matter. She was eating fast enough to make half the bowl disappear before I returned with my bowl and got my first bite in.

I was flattered and worried. I needed to make sure she ate more, at least until we got rid of her seal.

I was going to miss that adorable harbor seal, but it was more important that my mate was happy.

Between the two of us, we finished off the entire pot. When it was all gone, she sat back and patted her belly.

“You can make that any time,” she said.

“It's my mom's recipe,” I said. “I'll tell her you liked it. She'll be pleased. Wait until they visit, and she makes seafood pasta. It's the best.”

Her expression went from content to wary in a flash.

I took a guess at what was bothering her. “You don't have to meet them until you're ready.”

She tried to smile. “I do want to meet them, it's just that I'm never what parents expect. I'm short, round, and do a lot of unconventional things. I don't fit into a neat box, so sometimes I make people uncomfortable by being me.”

“Then you have nothing to worry about,” I said. “First of all, they'll love you because I love you. Second, krakens are a strange group. We tend to collect things and none of them are normal.”