Page 60 of Selkie AU: Beyond the Storm

“Give me the keys for those cages,” I snarled, holding clawed fingers up as I approached in a clear threat.

“Fine,” one of them answered quickly, pulling the keys from his pocket and tossing them at me. “Don’t hurt us!”

I caught them, staring for a moment between the keys and the cowardly poachers as the entire base rumbled from another impact. Well, that was easier than expected.

Leaving the cowards, I climbed back out through the broken window.

“Hurry, lad. They can’t hold him for long. I can,” the caged Naninuk told me.

I still wasn’t sure if I could trust him, but as I glanced over and saw the door Rowan was in front of denting outward from the beast inside, I realized I might not have a choice.

The keys jingled in my hands as I tried each of them in the lock of the cage, sighing in relief on the fourth attempt, when the key turned and the cage door opened.

A large crash snapped my attention to Rowan as he was thrown forward with several selkies, the metal door they’d been forcing closed now warped scrap metal blown off its hinges.

The poacher Naninuk roared, its body too big to get out through the opening, but that wouldn’t stop it for long. It would force the opening wider just as it had forced the door open, already the metal was bent and distorted.

My grandmother used the poacher’s weapon, a smile on her face as she shot unknown projectiles at the beast.

Behind me, the sound of bones cracking informed me we were only moments away from having a second gigantic polar bear in the area.

I just had to hope freeing him wasn’t a mistake.

30

Rowan

I’d always been a stubborn man, but there came a point even I had to admit when I was wrong. As I watched Milo dashing through this fortified secret fucking poacher base, seeming to know exactly where to go and finding what we needed right when we needed it, it was time to admit that either he was the luckiest person to ever exist, or his goddess, and her guidance, were very real.

I had to trust her, as Milo did, to get us out of here. Especially as I groaned and pulled myself to my feet again, seeing the gigantic beast in the generator room, about to break free. I wouldn’t be a match for a regular polar bear, but this was asupercharged one, at least twice the size of any bear I’d ever seen. It would take all of us to fight it, and even then I doubted it would be enough.

Et’el was firing a gun at it, her aim surprisingly accurate. I quickly realized what she was shooting wasn’t bullets, though, but some sort of tranquilizers. I just hoped they were strong and worked fast as I looked around, spotting another tranq gun on the ground beside a fallen poacher.

They’d managed to shoot a few of the selkie before they’d been taken down. So not only did we need to retrieve the coats and get out of here before this entire base ended up underwater, but we needed to carry the sedated selkies with us back up to the boat I’d seen in the dock, and just pray to the goddess that it was intact and fueled up enough to get us the fuck away from this place.

The super-bear roared again, louder than any creature should ever be able to, and with a final charge, burst its way out of the generator room and onto the main floor.Shit.

I dived for the other tranq gun, turning it on the bear and fumbling for a precious few seconds before I could figure out how to get it to shoot. My aim wasn’t as good as Et’el’s, but I managed to hit it a couple of times.

Et’el shot it right in the face, the dart landing between its eyes. It looked furious as it turned to face her, and I knew without a doubt she was going to be its first target.

The bear charged, and I moved without thinking, putting myself between them like a damn fool.

This would be it. I doubted I could take more than a single hit from this creature. It raised its front paw, and dark, pointed claws seemed to gleam in the artificial light as it pulled back to swipe.

I closed my eyes on instinct, bracing for the impact.

There was another roar. A crash. And the dreaded hit never landed.

I dared to peek one eye open, and gasped as I saw another bear, just as big, on top of the first. They clawed and bit at each other, tuffs of white fur already escaping their battle, and we were standingmuchtoo close.

Taking the chance to get away, I turned, lifting Et’el’s petite form as she continued to shoot at the bears. I carried her what I judged to be a safe enough distance before I dropped her back onto her feet to continue shooting so I could find Milo.

He was by the cages, having freed the trapped selkies, and was now opening a door that seemed to hold several arctic foxes.

“Thank you.” One of the foxesspoketo him.

I’d just seen two men transform into bears, and earlier today had learned that orca mermaids existed. There was one of them in the tank beside me right now. The next tank over had two other mermaids with long pointed horns on the center of their head, and in the tank beside that there was some other creature with shining, dark green skin and eyes that seemed to glow. The cage next to that had a woman with yellow eyes, huge eagle wings for arms, and bird feet. So talking foxes? Actually not that surprising.