Beneath the Earth
Laura Greenwood
Skye MacKinnon
Copyright 2018 Laura Greenwood and Skye MacKinnon.
We don’t think we need to tell you that you shouldn’t copy this book. Please don’t be a pirate. Or at least not online. Arrrrrrrrr.
* * *
Cover Design by Arizona Tape
Formatting by Gina Wynn
Illustrations by Warlocklord
Contents
Glossary
What Happened Before
The Seven Wardens
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Illustration: Macey
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Illustration: Malan, the Prophet
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Illustration: Kabouter
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Illustration: Kludde
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Illustration: Orca
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Illustration: Ronan
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Illustration: Selkie Woman
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Illustration: Na Fir Ghorma
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
About Skye MacKinnon
About Laura Greenwood
To Gina, who fills our books with beauty.
What Happened Before
Once upon a time there was a kelpie Princess called Macey… or was there?
* * *
Having recently discovered she's not who she thought she was (Nessie might be her mother!), Macey has to put aside her personal life and focus on the Wardens' fight against the Mahoun and his cohorts.
* * *
At least now she has another ally in Rónán, a selkie who saved her from drowning after she defeated Self-Doubt, an evil creature that had been feeding of the Staran.
* * *
Most annoyingly of all, she hasn't been able to have any waffles yet. Maybe this time...
One
A large, golden-brown waffle was floating towards Macey. Her mouth began to water as it came ever closer, its delicious scent steaming up her nose. This was heaven decorated with a honeycomb pattern. It was big enough to be breakfast, lunch and dinner, and maybe an afternoon snack as well.
She opened her mouth, ignoring the drool running down her chin -
"Macey, you're drooling all over me!"
"Maybe she's thinking of me?"
"Shut up, I want to sleep!"
The voices of her three men woke her. It was too early, and there were no waffles. She decided to go back to sleep. She'd not had enough rest for far too long and if her guys were going to shut up, she was going to sleep some more.
"Quiet," she muttered, her voice not quite functioning yet. And it didn't need to. Sleep was coming soon.
"What did you dream about?" Jared whispered. "Was it me?"
Macey growled groggily. Couldn't they just leave her alone?
"Waffles."
"Wait, she drooled because she was dreaming of waffles?" Flint said in mock outrage. "She's surrounded by the three of us and the memories of what we did last night, and she dreams of food?"
"Shut it," Macey yawned. "Let me sleep."
Jared snickered. "So you can dream of more waffles while the rest of us go hungry? No way. Come on, get up, let's find ourselves some breakfast."
Macey wanted to pull the blanket over her head, except that it turned out that Flint was being her blanket. His warm body was half draped over her, and his body heat was enough to keep her nice and cosy. As soon as he got up though, she was desperate for a proper duvet.
All three of her men left the bed and looked down at her naked body. She should have been embarrassed, but she actually enjoyed their slightly heated glances. If she wasn't so tired, she'd invite them to continue what they'd started the evening before. She smiled at the memory of being with all three of them. It had been a special moment, one that she would think of for years to come, that she was sure of. And hopefully, there'd be a lot more of these moments.
"I'll see if Amber and Izban are up yet," Cam excused himself and left her alone with the other two. They had one of the two bedrooms in the cottage, while the young couple had taken the other one.
When they'd returned to the house after their battle, the ghost had gone, hopefully he’d be reunited with Luch in the afterlife. Macey had been sad, but at the same time, she was happy for them. He'd waited for her for so long, he deserved to be with her for eternity. She'd asked her men if they believed in an afterlife, but they hadn't been able to give her a satisfying answer. Flint and Cam were so long-lived that they didn't care much about life after death. Jared's kind had legends about a land of roses and endless beaches where the dead were reunited with their loved ones. He didn't seem convinced, but that's just what Macey felt about the tales she'd grown up with. One deep ocean full of beauty and song. Waves that were strong and carried them onwards, to the next life.
"Are you going to get dressed?" Flint distracted her from her thoughts.
"That depends on what we're doing today," Macey grumbled. "I don't want to fight, run or save anyone. My plan is to eat, sleep and cuddle."
Flint laughed. "I love how you included cuddling. I'm sure that can be arranged." He gave her a cheesy wink and she cringed.
"No cuddling if you look at me like that."
"Like what?" He put his hands on his hips in mock outrage.
"Like a dumb cartoon prince."
"Did you have cartoons in the water?"
Macey laughed. "No, but I caught up on my Earth entertainment education once I'd moved to the surface. My brothers had a TV and I had a lot of boring afternoons."
"I didn't take you for a couch potato."
She threw a pillow at him which he evaded effortlessly.
He grinned. "I guess pillow fights weren't part of your education?"
Macey growled and threw another one at him. Only one left; this pillow was going to have to count.
Flint turned the cushion he'd caught in his hands, as if trying to find the perfect grip to throw it.
Noticing that she was far too large a target, Macey sat up and pulled her legs close to her chest, hiding some of her nakedness.
"Yummy," Jared suddenly said, reminding Macey that her and Flint weren't alone in the room. The incubus was leaning against the wall, lazily watching them.
"What's yummy?" Macey asked in confusion.
"You. The sexual tension. It's an excellent breakfast."
"There is no sexual tension," Macey protested weakly, knowing that it was a lie. There was a lot of tension in the room. She could see the way Flint was looking at her. He was trying not to stare at her nakedness, but occasionally, his eyes flicked to her chest. She had to admit that she was quite enjoying his attention, but Jared using them as his breakfast... that was weird.
"Get out!" she told him, and with a smirk and a wave, the incubus left.
Macey huffed when she realised that she wasn't tired anymore. She was wide awake, actually, and now that she was sitting up, it really didn't make much sense to go back to sleep. Maybe Cam had managed to organise some proper breakfast. Food, human food, not the weird stuff Jared was consuming. Although he also ate proper food, so maybe he'd just been joking?
Her men were weird, but that was the way she liked them. Better weird than boring.
Without warning, she threw her remaining pillow at Flint and then jumped out of bed before he cou
ld retaliate. Her clothes lay discarded in a corner and with a disappointed sigh, she put them on. The house her men were living in was magical and cleaned her clothes overnight. This house... not so much. She couldn't wait to get back home. All this running and saving the world was getting exhausting. Not long ago, she'd been an innocent little loch kelpie and now, she'd been a prisoner, had fallen in love with three men and had seen death take one of her friends.
Life had become very complicated very quickly.
The others were sat around the long benches that they’d first encountered here. Izban had an arm around Amber, and the beithir was leaning into him, a satisfied sleepy grin on her face.
Macey knew that look. She was probably sporting it herself this morning. Maybe they could steal some girl time to talk about it. Maybe… she wasn’t completely convinced by that. She’d never really had a close female friend before and didn’t know what she was supposed to talk about with one.
Sex was a normal topic, right? As were men? It seemed like as good a starting point as any. But would Macey’s antics scare the younger woman off? It wasn’t like most people took three men to their bed at once. In fact, most didn’t.
Macey straightened her spine. She loved her three men. There was no denying that. And what she did with those three men, individually, or together, was her business, and hers alone. She’d talk about it if and when Amber asked, but not before. She didn’t want to push her lifestyle on anyone else.
A short giggle escaped her. She had a lifestyle. She’d never expected that.
“Morning,” Rónán said, not as brightly as the others.
A pang of guilt shot through Macey as she noticed his drawn features, and puffy eyes. He hadn’t slept nearly as well as the rest of them. Maybe she should have offered him the room she’d shared with her men.
A firm hand rested on her back. “Don’t even go there,” Flint whispered in her ear.
Rónán’s gaze shifted from what he was doing, and settled on Macey, raking her up and down as he did. She shifted from side to side, wondering if he could tell what she’d been up to. Or worse. If he’d heard the cries she was sure she made the night before.
She didn’t even remember much of what her men had done to her specifically. Her main thought had been on the sensations they’d been giving her and the pleasure it brought.
Rónán’s eyes met hers, and he winked.
He definitely knew what she’d been up to. Macey counted crabs in her head, trying not to think about it. If she didn’t, then she could avoid the embarrassment that would bring.
“Morning,” she muttered.
“Tea?” Rónán asked.
She nodded enthusiastically.
“There isn’t much milk,” he said apologetically.
“That’s okay, I’ll take it without.” She gave him a weak smile.
Jared sucked in a shocked breath, the air whistling through his teeth. “Sacrilege,” he whispered.
Macey shot him a withering look while Amber chuckled away.
“It’s really not that bad,” the beithir said. “We didn’t always have milk up the mountain.”
“That doesn’t sound right,” the incubus replied.
Rónán passed Macey a cup. Their fingers brushed and Macey could have sworn some kind of jolt of electricity passed between them. But that wasn’t right. Amber was the electric one.
Glancing over her shoulder, Macey reassured herself that he hadn’t noticed anything odd between her and Rónán. She wanted to be oblivious too, but the thought of what she’d felt was spinning around her head.
“What do we do now?” She didn’t aim her question at anyone in particular, but instead hoped that someone would take her cue.
“Is there anything anyone needs?” Cam asked the room in response.
Most of them shook their heads, and murmured nos. But Macey actually stopped to consider. While she felt better rested than before, she didn’t feel completely at peace with herself. Something was definitely up.
“Waffles?” she suggested with a cheeky grin. “Or home. I think I need a swim,” she admitted hastily.
Jared gave her an appraising look, with a much more serious expression on his face than normal.
“Are you feeling okay?” he asked.
“Just a little worn,” she replied. Maybe she should have worried about being so honest in front of people she barely knew. Rónán was still a complete mystery, and she hardly knew Izban beyond the fact he hadn’t liked her at first. Technically, she barely knew Amber either, but somehow their imprisonment superseded that.
“Maybe Cam can try and make waffles again,” Jared prompted.
“Try?” Amber asked, amusement glinting in her green eyes.
“Last time didn’t go quite to plan,” Jared replied, a little more jovial again.
“It was the waffle iron,” Cam grumbled, not meeting anyone’s eyes. “I’ll try again for Macey though.” He looked up, his grey swirling eyes meeting hers, and filled with so much love, it almost floored her.
How had she ended up here? Sure, the saving the world stuff was a little bit tiring. While being kept a prisoner of the Voice wasn’t exactly enjoyable either, she’d gained so much more by leaving the Loch. She had her men, who were all more than willing to show her how much they loved her, and she had the beginnings of a best friend too. Something she’d never had before.
Despite the Voice trying to kill them all, and the Staran dying, she had a good life. Certainly better than most kelpies got.
She could definitely use a swim though. A swim and some tasty sweet pastries. Both of those would be good. Then maybe another night wrapped in her men’s arms…
“Where would we go?” Amber asked Izban softly.
“Where ever you wanted to,” he replied, his voice low and intimate.
“You’ll come with us,” Flint responded. “Our house grows as and when we need it to. And it’s probably better we’re all in the same place, just in case…” he trailed off.
“Basically for when the next thing goes wrong,” Jared joked before taking a swig of his tea.
Macey grimaced, able to feel the heat of her own through the mug she was holding. How he was letting that touch his throat was beyond her.
“Would you like to come too?” she asked Rónán, unsure what it was that was making her ask. It just felt right to. And if there was one thing she was certain of, it was her own gut feelings.
Most of the time anyway. Her gut feeling had led to her to nearly drown herself, so maybe she shouldn’t put so much stock in it.
“Yes,” he replied. “Though I will need to come back here.”
“I think we all will,” Cam muttered ominously.
Two
The house was just like Macey remembered. Big, airy and cosy. She let the others show Amber, Izban and Rónán around and headed to the swimming pool. On the way, she begged the house to make the water pure, without chlorine. The guys had told her that the house fulfilled wishes and needs, so surely it wouldn't hurt asking?
The chemicals in the pool had made her skin itch last time, but she really needed a swim. Her kelpie form was threatening to burst out any moment. She'd not felt the urge this strongly in a long time. Usually it took at least a week without shifting for her to feel that way. She'd been swimming yesterday, back at St Kilda, so it didn't make any sense for her to be that desperate. Strange. Maybe her body was making up for all the shifts she wasn't able to do while in the Voice's prison. Back there, she hadn't felt the urge, but there had also been no magic, so maybe that had stopped it.
When she reached the swimming pool, she breathed in deeply, then smiled. No chlorine. Just fresh, beautiful sea water.
"Thank you, house," she whispered, feeling a little silly about talking to the tiled walls around her.
She took off her clothes as fast as she could and jumped into the cool water, shifting almost as soon as she hit the surface. It was the fastest she'd ever shifted. One second, she was human, the nex
t, a large, scaled kelpie.
She breathed in a large gulp of water and expelled it back through her gills. Oh, it was the most amazing feeling.
She whinnied loudly and began to swim back and forth, occasionally jumping out of the water to enjoy the splash of tiny droplets against her smooth scales.
This was her element. Her home.
With a happy swirl of her tail, she extended her magic, letting it soak up the water's energy. She felt as if she hadn't been in water for years. As if she'd been dying of thirst. It was strange, but she didn't care, as long as she was able to stay in the pool. Maybe the guys could bring her waffles. Things tasted different when she was in her kelpie form, but waffles surely had to be good no matter what, right?
A change in the energy around her made her resurface and look around the room. Rónán was standing by the edge of the pool, looking at her with a smile.
"Can I join you?"
Did that mean that he was going to change into a seal? Macey didn't know much about selkies, except that they took off their seal skins when they came onto land. But where was his skin? Or was that all just a legend and he was a regular shifter like her? Selkies were strange.
She whinnied in agreement and he began to take off his clothes. Pointedly, she turned around, not wanting to see his selkie bits. She had her own three men, thank you very much. As sexy as he was... no, she didn't just think that. He wasn't sexy. Well, he was, but not in that way. Weren't three men enough? There was only so much testosterone a kelpie could cope with.
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