Steal the Sun: (Book 1)

by Stephanie Kelley

  “Why do you never say ‘hello,’ Will? Like a normal person?”

  Her laugh made me forget for the briefest moment why I was calling.

  “How about you rethink that sentence, Rhen? We are anything but normal. Even by selkie standards. How are Mom and Pop?”

  “Don't know. Haven't seen them. They don't know I’m here--” I cut myself off, instantly regretting my call. Willow knew I had come back to our old hometown for work, that I’d had a chance to run a new crew at a promising mine. There was only one reason I would avoid our parents I was back in town and she knew it.

  “Oh Rhen -- no, no, no, no. No!” She did her best not to yell at me, but failed. I could always trust my sister not to sugar coat anything.

  I sat on the edge of Dez’s desk, my elbow resting on my knee, palm on my face.

  “Yeah,” I finally managed as I looked up to the ceiling. I was as predictable as the tide to her.

  I heard her groan. It probably was worse than she imagined it, but I wasn’t going to tell her.

  “Just leave.”

  “I can’t, Will. The season's almost over. I don't finish it, I lose a huge percentage of my pay.”

  “Rhen, you don't need the money. Get out of Cordova. Get out of Alaska. Just leave. You said you were going to run a mining crew. You never said a word about — how the hell-- no. No. Just no.” She let out a huffing sigh at my lack of reaction. “They own the mine don't they?”

  She took my silence as affirmation.

  “Ken’s here,” I said in an attempt to distract her. “It’s nice to see him again.”

  “Kenai?” Her voice was hollow, like I’d surprised her.

  “Why are you so shocked?” She'd never had a problem with him when we lived here before.

  “I always figured he'd be the first gone.” She finally managed. “You know with his tendency to be reckless. Why can’t you stay away from these people? You like punishment don’t you? They would skin us in a minute if they knew what we were. Hell, Rook is six and knows to stay away from hunters and orcas. ”

  At the mention of my nephew’s name I couldn't help but smile. My sister had carried on the Ravenwhite family tradition of naming the firstborn males with names that began with “r.”

  I hadn't seen the little guy in months. Willow had left Alaska about the same time I had, she never told me she was pregnant, she just up and moved to Seattle. I got to meet Rook for the first time when he was three months old. I asked her once who the father was, Willow just smiled and claimed it had been a one night stand with another selkie passing through town. We’d both done things we weren't proud of in Cordova, hers just had a happier ending than mine had.

  I called when I could. He had sky blue eyes, freckles, black hair and an attitude to match my sister’s. Rook was an oddity, he’d been born without a seal hide but was still able to shift forms. That little trick was more unusual than my sister and I being selkie twins. But what really set Rook apart in the family line was his sky blue eyes. No one had blue eyes in the family line. It had been so odd that our father had checked the family archives, finding nothing. The last mention of a blue eyed selkie my father had found mentioned was back before the selkies left the courts of the mermaids. Even that information had been untrustworthy, but in doing his research he also found that my sister and I were the first twins to be born since the split from the courts. It had intrigued him so much he’d left for a trip to Ireland earlier this summer with our mother.

  “I’ve got three weeks yet, unless the freeze sets in early. I can do this. I’ve made it this far-”

  “You don't call when you’re out mining. Something’s got you spooked, something just that asshole owning the mine. What’s going on in Cordova now?”

  I drew a deep breath and my mouth went dry before I force myself to say the name. “Koda.”

  I heard my sister growl on the other end of the line.

  “Come. Home. Rhen.” She was as bad as our mother. “Call a storm, freeze it all. Just. Come. Home.”

  “How’s Rook?” I asked, as I tried to change the subject. I needed a distraction or I would end up dragging in a storm.

  “Pissed at me I won't get him a stuffed animal.”

  “Oh come on Will, he's six-”

  “Its a jackalope.”

  I couldn't help but snort, making my cheek and eye pound. Willow hated them with a passion, said they were unnatural. Oh my sister’s irony.

  “And Mister Laugh It Up, he's pissed that you’re gone this long. He’s looking forward to you coming back so that you can take him to the aquarium.”

  “Aquarium, huh? I don’t remember promising him that.” I did my best to spend as much time with him as I could when I wasn’t working. Will was glad for it, even though I’d already taught him a few bad habits she wished I hadn’t. It was just part of the joy of being an uncle.

  Her laugh at my confusion was genuine. “You didn’t. One of his little buddies at school told him there are seals there. He wants to go talk to them, see if he can talk them out of having jobs and hang out with him.”

  “Oh,” I laughed pretty hard for the first time today. It was a nice change. “So that’s why. Well I might have to take him and ask those seals if they have a job opening.”

  “Stella still has openings at SeaWorld if you feel like doing tricks for fish rather than working with a leash on your neck.”

  “Will, don't go there.”

  “Why not? That's all that liar’s ever been. “

  “Will,” I weighed my words carefully. “Stop it. She never lied.”

  She scoffed at me and even though I couldn't see her, I knew she had scrunched her nose in disgust. “Still defending her even though you’re not together. Nothing I can say will convince you to come home, will it?”

  “No. I can't risk walking off the mine. Not if I want a chance of running another crew next year.”

  “Be careful,” she sighed. “I don't trust the Sesi brood not to sell their own kin if it benefits them.”

  “Willow.”

  “No. Don’t Willow me.” She snapped. “You've got blinders on when it comes to her. I don't like it. I've never liked it. I’m your twin and you have me worried. Be smart about this, please. And go for a damn swim. How long has it been since you shifted? I can hear it over the phone.”

  I chuckled. “Only you Will.”

  “I'd say get laid but you'd probably run to her.”

  “Ouch. Cheap shot, sis.” I said as I rubbed my temples.

  “Truth. One word. Home.” She was silent for a moment. “Wouldn't be hard to make them all disappear over the side of a ship-”

  I growled her name. I didn’t appreciate her reference as to how their father died.

  “Fine. I’ll talk to you later, your kid is screaming for dinner.”

  “I love how he is my kid when he wants something. Tell him I love him.”

  “Will do, but come home. Seriously.”

  And just like that, the line went dead from her end and the ache for familiarity came rushing back.

  I missed my sister. I missed working side by side with her on our floating gold dredge. I understood that the draw of the ocean was too much for her. It made her blood boil that she had to be in human form to be able to work out there.

  I picked Koda’s knife up off the desk and slipped it in my work boot. I didn't need that lying around. I needed to fix this damn wash plant. Then I’d figure out how to get a hold of myself. I owed Dezi nothing. I was tired of the threats against me. I had upheld my end of the deal but Koda knew I was here now. The game had changed and I hadn’t been the one to change the rules. Anger boiled in my blood but I needed calm to think.

  The door slammed behind me as I left the office. Connor had been outside the door waiting for me. He fell into step beside me. Hand on my arm, Connor tried to turn me so I faced him. He was brave, I’d give him that.

  “I’m going to call Pop” was all he managed to get out before I gave him a black eye
to match the one he’d given me.

  I stared down at the teenager as he lay in the dirt, my boot on his chest to hold him down. I fought the urge to slip Koda’s knife from my boot and threaten him.

  “I don't care if you call your father. You shredded the conveyor belt with the loader bucket, this is your mistake. So right now, get your ass out of the dirt, get the chains, get the dozer, and meet me at the damn plant. We’ve got work to do. Do you understand me?”

  “I didn’t shred the belt, I swear. It was that thing, that wolf that was howling all night.”

  I just stared at him, he’d say anything to get out of responsibility.

  Connor’s eyes went wide as I leaned forward and rested my forearm on my knee, putting more of my weight on his chest. “Your eye-eyes- are swirling black,” he managed as thunder cracked in the distance.

  Shit. Keep it together idiot.

  “That’s right, your father didn’t teach you about Others, didn’t think you were good enough to carry on the family tradition,” I said softly, the start of a growl sneaking into my voice. “Guess the hunting of Others ends with them, almost a shame that you’re the last of the generation and you won’t be carrying on the family tradition.”

  I fought the urge to take my frustration out about his father on him. I took my boot off his chest and took a quick step back.

  “Get up, Connor. You’re not like your father, hell, you don’t even have half your aunt’s fire. Keep your mouth shut if you don't want tossed off the mine.”

  I rolled my neck and shoulders as I walked away, leaving him in the mud. My skin was tight and I couldn’t risk shifting. I needed to channel this frustration elsewhere. Letting my emotions get the best of me was not my friend when I’d put off going for a swim for months in order to do manual labor. I should have known better. Showing a crew of eight rough and tumble gold miners you were a shifter in any capacity could bring on a lynching. They’d tie me up till Dez got back, if I was lucky.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Kodiak

  My feet should have been hurting from taking food orders and pouring drinks instead of sitting in the corner of my bar downing a drink. After seeing Rhen, I wasn't fit for much of anything. My head was filled with all the thoughts I had managed to lock away over the last seven years. I wasn’t exactly sure how I had made the ride back from Ordeneige. Czar had his head out the window, continuously sniffing, his ears perked and alert the whole way home.

  Czar had always waited for my commands before going after someone, no matter how much as I secretly thought Rhen deserved it, I was worried. My dog had only reacted in that manner once before. Dez’s old hunting buddies had come to the office with a pile of pelts from shifters he had, what's the PC way to put this? Harvested. The Hunter had stopped by the office to see if my brother wanted the hides, and Czar had pinned him in a corner, growling and snapping. Of course Dez had taken the hides, he tacked them up in the family cabin outside of Cordova. Kenai had burned them once he realized they were trophy skins of shifters, not game animals.

  I wasn't letting Dez get away with just a phone call to try to calm me down this time. I wasn’t giving him the satisfaction of just forcing me to accept his choices as law. I would hash this out in person, if it got bloody, so be it. Dez had flown down to Seattle to try to talk to the owner of the Hayes place into selling it to him. He wanted to turn it into a bed and breakfast. Gods, we didn't need another business in the family, we were spread too thin already. We were splintering apart.

  In my stupor I heard bits and pieces of the newest rumors from the local miners talking about animal footprints the size of dinner plates in their camp sites. The creature was strolling right through camp, never being caught on the wildlife cameras, but leaving slash marks on cabin doors, sometimes blood. It was the same story since the attacks started. I heard it was a prank. I heard it was a wolf. I heard it was a bear. When I heard the word Amaroq, I shivered, my dream from this morning coming rushing back.

  I’d even heard the Others in my bar whisper that it had been a Collector. Collectors made even the hardest of hunter’s blood run cold. Collectors were black market traders of all things supernatural. I’d met one once, he had the darkest soul of a human I had ever met. He was the only human I had ever killed. But nothing I heard about this situation sounded concrete.

  Both my brothers liked to pretend the number of things that go bump in the night was small, but in reality, I knew at least a third of my patrons of Broken Tusk weren't honest to goodness humans. As long as they kept their mouths shut and stayed out of trouble I overlooked them and they knew it. I’d turned Broken Tusk into neutral ground and a way to get information about what was going on in the nonhuman world. I’d offered Broken Tusk as neutral ground for the last two years and the word was spreading and the refugees were becoming more frequent. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could run under the radar before one of my brothers found out and questioned my loyalty. The Others who stopped by knew my family’s reputation, but they also knew until they showed they weren’t a threat, I’d leave them be. I’d even heard rumors about myself sleeping with shifters. I didn’t bother to try to stop the rumors, I needed whatever foothold of trust I could get in the community of Others.

  The wind whipped against the wooden siding and I shivered at the wailing howl. It wouldn’t be long before the big snows showed up for the season. The mines would close for the winter and it would be just the locals. Rhen would leave again and go back to where ever he had been hiding. And I’d never see him or those amber eyes again. It was probably for the better.

  Gods, dealing with that man made my head spin. I had forgotten how he made me feel wild and alive, free from inhibitions. It had been too long since I’d given him more than just a passing pissed off thought. Rhen and I were night and day, the moon and the tide, but we always fell into perfect harmony. We were a beautiful mess and we hadn’t cared who had known. But just because you loved someone didn’t mean you knew who they were.

  The day he left, I had spent the morning with my brothers and his twin sister off-roading and checking out what was now Ordeneige mine. Rhen had not come with us because he had gotten a call for a last minute dive to make repairs to a fishing boat. At the time he worked as an underwater welder for the locals. He and Willow dredged for gold along the coast when he didn't have repairs jobs. Dez got a call from Rhen telling me to come home early, that he had a surprise for me. I’d been surprised for sure, there was no doubt about that.

  I came home to find him in our bedroom. Angry red scratches all across his back and thighs. A blonde haired waitress from the diner down the street pinned to the bed beneath him. It didn't take me long to realize what was going on. Rhen hadn't even realized I was there till the door slammed as I was leaving.

  He just left. No fight. No call. I was nineteen, Connor’s age now, and I was left without any sort of closure. Rhen was just gone, a ghost of a memory. Just like my parents.

  That first year of him being gone I hated him. Hated him more than I thought possible. I desperately needed to get out of Alaska for a few months. I stayed with a family friend in Washington state. When I came back, I refused to talk about what had happened, and my brothers left it at that.

  But being back in Alaska, I snapped. I turned to hunting full time with my brothers, trying to get out my anger. I hadn’t known I had the capacity for that much hate. It had taken me time to come out of that rage and recklessness I had fallen into. I had wanted to let Death claim me, let it have its prize. But Death hadn’t wanted me.

  “Hey, Koda, you on tonight, Sugah?”

  Cash Harris’s Southern drawl snapped me out of my trance. I nodded yes before reaching for my rum and Coke to finish it.

  The brewing storm had sent the smaller boats to dock in the harbor. The rooms we offered were suddenly full of sailors and fishermen who wanted hot showers and hot food. Couldn’t say I blamed them honestly. It was a brutal job with very little comfort.

  “You’ve go
t a room asking for linens.” Cash said as he slid me a napkin with a large 713 written on it when I got to the bar.

  I brushed my hair out of my face and took a deep breath. 713. Someone had information for me or needed a place to sleep.

  Cash was the first bartender I’d hired in the last two years from a string of transients that had not been intimidated by our locals. If you asked him, he’d tell you he’d seen worse from the oil rig crew. I wasn’t sure I believed him, but with the green eyes and honey brown he was pretty damn easy on the eyes. I didn't care what his reason was, he brought in money for Broken Tusk.

  I looked up at Cash’s expectant face and his raised eyebrow, those dark green eyes knew too much. I’d tried to keep him out of the thick of things, but the number of 713 requests had become more frequent lately and he knew something was up.

  “Others again, Sugah?” he asked as he reached for a rag to wipe off the bar, the barest hint of his Louisiana accent showing through.

  “Yeah.” I managed as I crinkled the napkin, hoping this would go smoothly.

  “Look, I know you’re worried things will get outta kilter if you tell me what all is going on, but you’re plumb crazy, Sugah, if you think I don’t know. I don’t make a ruckus about all these non-humans, but I know. This ain’t my first rodeo with ‘em and it won’t be the last. Y’all in trouble?”

  His voice made me smile. When he first moved to Alaska I couldn't understand a word he had said, but hell, he had issues understanding me too.

  “Not anymore than usual, Cash. Anyone we’ve seen before in 713?”

  He shrugged. “He’s a regular, didn't give me details, Sugah.”

  I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Alright, let me go take care of this. If I’m not back in a half hour, come find me?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “We’ll talk about all this later, ok?”

  “Damn straight we will, Sugah.”

  I tripped up the first step as the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I felt like I was too close to an electrical storm.