Page 66 of Selkie AU: Beyond the Storm

Raq huffed. “Damn, well… maybe I should try humans.”

I laughed. Raq had always had such terrible taste in potential partners. I wanted him to have what I had with Rowan someday. “You’re welcome to try, but just know that I already took the best one.”

He rolled his eyes, but an amused smile played on his lips.

“Alright.” Rowan ran his fingers through his short red hair as he approached. A simple gesture, but I couldn’t help thinking how sexy he looked with his hair all messy like that. “We’re going to take both boats well out of selkie territory, then I’ll set this one to keep going and we’ll jump over onto Panak’s so he can take us… uh… wherever we’re going to go. Your grandma won’t specify where that is yet. Are you ready?”

I ran my fingers over the front of his coat, and up to the fabric around his neck, which I yanked to pull him down and claim his lips. “I’m so ready. Let’s go challenge a goddess.”

34

Milo

“Absolutely not.”

Rowan’s thick eyebrows lowered as he gave me an unimpressed look.

“Nope.” I stomped my foot. “You aren’t coming with me.”

“You aren’t going alone.”

“Yes, I am.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

Rowan pulled his jacket off, and Panak took it from him.

“Rowan, it’s far too cold for you in the water.” It had taken us hours to get back to the mainland. Exhaustion weighed heavilyon us from the previous night. We hadn’t slept, and we hadn’t eaten, even though Miki had tried to feed us when we got onto this boat after sending the poachers' one out to the open sea. But for once, I wasn’t hungry. Not even if Rowan had cooked it for me. My stomach was all twisted. What was ahead of us now felt so much more intimidating than the poacher base we’d raided. Rowan hadn’t eaten either for the same reason.

“Doesn’t matter. You’re not going alone,” he stated stubbornly.

“We don’t even know if you can hold your breath long enough to get there,” I argued, looking over to my grandmother for support.

She shrugged. “He’ll probably be fine.”

Probably!?

The boat had taken us this far, but it couldn’t get us all the way. We were in a long icy cave tunneled into the mainland. It was dark here, beyond the light from Panak’s boat, and the sacred place could only be reached through another underwater tunnel. Aanaa didn’t remember exactly how long it was. She’d been here once with her mate, when they were desperate for their own pup and had come here to pray for him. They’d been rewarded for their efforts with my father. But my grandmothers were selkies. The cold didn’t bother us, and we could see better in the dark than humans could. It was much too dangerous for Rowan.

The stubborn human kicked off his shoes.

“Rowan, I mean it. Please, let me handle this. I can do it alone, or with—” I glanced at Raq and Aanaa, but my grandmother shook her head firmly.

“This is between you and the goddess. You must go alone, or with your mate, seeing as it’s his prayer too.”

I glared at her. She didn’t seem to care.

“Exactly,” Rowan agreed as he stepped out of his pants. As much as I hated clothing, seeing Rowan ditching his made this odd feeling rise up inside me. It felt special being able to see himwithout his clothes on when he was normally so stubborn about wearing them. I didn’t want anyone else to be able to see him like that.

“I’ll go alone, then,” I decided. “Put your clothes back on.”

“You coming?” he asked, ignoring me as he approached the edge of the boat in nothing but the small fabric that covered his dick and ass. Already his skin rippled with tiny bumps from the cold.

“Think you forgot to take that off,” my grandmother unhelpfully provided.

Rowan’s cheeks darkened as he scowled at her, then took a seat on the ledge before throwing his legs over the other side.