CASPIAN

Caspian watched his breath shiver into the air, turning into a puff of icy fog that was carried away by the breeze. He pulled his heavy fur coat tighter and wondered for what might be the millionth time in his long life, why Selkie Island wasn't located somewhere tropical.

A selkie maiden stepped against the wall and dipped her head in deference as he walked by. The torches on the wall highlighted the honey strands of her golden hair. It hung to her waist in a long braid, and he imagined unweaving the pieces and running his fingers through the silk. Then again it might be more fun to keep the braid intact.

He stopped in front of her and lifted her chin. The rosette markings across her cheekbones were faint, and the pupils of her eyes disappeared completely within obsidian irises. A member of the Leopard Clan then- one of his.

"What's your name?"

"Addien," she muttered, trembling and casting her gaze down. There were also many rumors about his appetites.

He let his thumb slide across her full bottom lip, and he gripped her chin when she tried to jerk away. But he sighed and released her. Since his Queen had left to tend to the Guardians, he'd been without a woman to warm his bed, but only one would sate his lust now. If he took this feeble female for a moment's pleasure, he'd likely be more frustrated than satisfied afterwards.

"It would be best that you stay out of my sight after this. Understood?"

Addien bobbed her head and a tear splashed from her lashes. Strange this female. Few were so subservient in a matriarchal race. She slid down the wall until he was no longer blocking her escape and scurried away, her gate uneven as she dragged her right leg with each step. Caspian recoiled.

He barged down the corridor, his boots clicking against the stone, and shoved the wooden door of his mother's chamber open. "Mother!"

"Caspian, when did you get back?"

He followed the sound of her voice and found her lounging in the middle of her bed, her long tan legs entwined with another's. Neither of the women looked shocked to be seen in such a position, nor appeared to be in a hurry to cover up their nude forms. His mother smiled at him, leaned over and kissed her lover on the lips and nudged her out of the bed.

"Nixie, I'm afraid we will have to reschedule our tryst. My son has picked up far too many prudish behaviors on the mainland to allow us to continue while I speak to him."

Nixie pouted and stretched, giving him ample opportunity to appreciate her lush, coal covered curves that were speckled with creamy spots surrounded by white rings. His mother had always favored rubenesque women, and the Ringed Clan was famous for them. She claimed they complimented her own body, which was all sculpted, lean muscle. And he had to admit, he was quite sad when the woman covered herself with a satin robe.

"You know where to find me, Nerida, when you want me again. Same goes for you Caspian," Nixie said, pausing at his side to whisper the offer in his ear.

"I don't share," he replied, his canines visible. The sharp ends scraped across his smile, making it grow even wider. On the mainland he kept them retracted to appear more human, but here, they were vital to clear communication.

"Your loss, love."

He waited until she was gone and his mother was dressed before speaking again. "Care to tell me why you've a crippled girl working here?"

Nerida was filling a goblet with wine, but she stopped and looked at Caspian. Her red brows and lips mirrored one another, the corners turned down sharply. "Her clan rejected her, and I thought it a waste to send such beauty out into the sea. Her deformity is from injury, not birth. She will be a good breeder. Waste not, want not."

"You've grown soft," he exclaimed, lounging in a chair by the fire roaring in a hearth large enough for him to walk into without stooping.

"We do not reproduce like we once did." She drank deeply from her cup, her hazel eyes hard as they roved over him. "But if you've come home because you've done what was commanded, then I will carve her up and toss her carcass into the ocean myself."

"I found the family of Kai. It was as we suspected. Her great-granddaughter is a carrier."

"Great-granddaughter? She'd be mostly human by that point."

Caspian thought of Meribella. Her glowing turquoise eyes was the only sign she bore of her clan. The Harpy Clan were a pale people- skin as white as the pups they bore, and their hair was the same silver as the midnight mist. With her jet black hair and bronzed skin, she was their opposite in every way, but Astra had granted her great powers. He had seen the proof.

"Her humanity has not affected the strength of her Blessing in anyway. In fact," he hesitated, knowing his next words would unleash a great greed within Nerida, "she might have the strongest Blessing I've ever beheld. She raised a woman from the dead."

The goblet clattered to the floor, and Nerida lunged forward. She wrapped her hands around his, her talon like claws digging into his flesh. "You've brought her back?"

"No," he said, removing her grip and standing. "There has been a complication."

His mother was out of his chair and in front of him before he could blink. The crack of her palm against his cheek ricocheted off the stone walls and made his ears ring. "I'm growing very tired of your complications," she hissed.

He grabbed her wrist before she could strike again. "That was an accident."

She laughed. It was a high, cruel sound that made him shudder. It was a sound from his childhood that haunted his adult dreams. "You shattered her skull against the rocks when she would not willingly spread her legs for you. If you'd gone about it the way I suggested, you'd have bedded her on your wedding night, and we'd have the powers of a Star Blessed by now. But no, your ego wouldn't let you screw her if she was drugged up."

"It wouldn't have worked," he growled. His nose burned as if the room was covered in Kai's blood. Her vacant stare flashed across his vision. "The ritual requires a willing consummation. I don't think being date raped equals willing."

Nerida scoffed and jerked her arm out of his grip. "So tell me why you can't woo this new girl. Are you so rusty my son?"

"She's mated already," he replied.

The Leopard Clan leader shrugged. "As was Kai. She doesn't have to be a virgin."

"First of all, it's her bond mate. She will not leave him."

"Kill him."

"He's a werewolf. The Alpha."

"The little fool," Nerida howled. "Did she enter into the union knowing she would die giving birth to a beast?"

"They've not crossed that line, and I would've forced her back to the island with me, but the man will follow her to the ends of the world. He could kill half our warriors before we'd get him put down, and that's if he comes alone. She's no weakling herself."

His mother placed her palms against the mantle and stared into the flames. The position cast her face in flickering shadows, like a demoness contemplating destruction. There was reason this woman led their clan- a clan known for its mercilessness and cruelty. She raised the bar over and over again, her depravity depthless.

"You will need to drive a wedge between them and bring her home. The winter solstice is but three months away. I will not wait another year to have that power running through my veins- not now that we have found it after all these years.. It should've never left our clan!"

"Mother, you do not understand the connection between them. It will not be so simple."

"Make it so. If you return to this island again without the girl in tow, you will be the one whose remains I scatter on the sea. Is that understood?"

Caspian stepped backward, his hand reaching for the door behind him. Nerida meant every word. "Yes, mother. Understood."