Page 34 of Selkie AU: Beyond the Storm

Tears welled in his, and I felt an overwhelming mix of guilt and relief at confessing it to him. Of finally saying the words out loud to someone. So that someone would finally know I wasn’t okay.

“That’s why she led me to you.” He smiled, pressing his lips to mine softly. “So we could save each other. Can’t you see it now? This is what we’re supposed to be.”

I couldn’t stop my tears, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to anymore. “I don’t know how.”

“That’s okay. Neither do I. We can learn together.”

I sniffed. “It won’t be easy, having someone like me as a mate.”

He chuckled. “That’s where you’re wrong. Accepting you as my mate is as easy as breathing.”

“What if you change your mind?”

“I won’t.”

“How do you know? You don’t know me, not really.”

“I do. I might not know all the details yet, but I know you. I feel you. You’re as familiar to me as my coat. More of a home than the sea. My goddess led me to you, yes, but I’mchoosingyou.”

My arms wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer to me, letting myself take in his warmth. I nodded. “Then I’ll choose you too.”

He smiled. “You’ll be my mate?”

I nodded. “Yeah, Milo. I want to be your mate.”

Milo grinned as his feet left the floor, and I caught him before he could knock us both over. “Then let’s go to our nest, so we can hold each other properly.”

The sadness inside me was deep and stubborn. I knew it wouldn’t leave just because Milo had decided to move right in beside it. But I wasn’t alone with it anymore. And that itself was just another way he’d saved me.

I took him back to our nest and lay with him on the blankets beside the fire. For once, he didn’t talk or ask me endless questions. He somehow knew exactly what I needed and just existed with me, giving me gentle touches and soft kisses. He ran his fingertips over my arm and back, and nuzzled into that spot he liked under my neck.

And the storm passed. The feelings eased. And I drifted off to sleep beside him.

17

Milo

Rowan was the best mate ever. Not that I’d had any other mate before, but there was literally no way anyone could ever be better than him. I made him sleep with me in our nest, and when he complained the next day about his back hurting, he made the nest even better by bringing the “mattress” from the other room to be in front of the fire, and I carefully rebuilt my nest on top of it. Now it was even softer and smelled even more like him.

He’d wanted me to move the nest to that room instead, but the fire was in this room, and it was better if it stayed here. He was a good mate with that too. He was allowed in the nest, but hewasn’t allowed to move things or rearrange them. That was my job, and he accepted that.

As soon as I had things the way I wanted them, I made him mate with me again.

The small scratchy blankets were called “towels,” and he made us put one down when we mated so that the blankets wouldn’t need to be washed so much. I didn’t like the towels, but I did like keeping our scents in the nest. Plus, Rowan let me use the dryer on them to make them warm first, so I allowed it.

For days we existed there together, mating and holding each other. Rowan would make us food in between, and sometimes I would help him. Then we went back to the store to buy more because we quickly ate everything we had stored. It was so cool that humans had a place they could go to get food from instead of hunting it for themselves.

“Tomorrow…” Rowan spoke sleepily as he kissed the tip of my nose. “I need to start working again.”

“Working?” I asked him, snuggling in closer.

“Catching fish.”

“But we have food already.”

He chuckled. “Mmm, remember when I trade for the food using money?”

I nodded. “Human magic.”