Faeran stood near the door, his arms crossed across his chest. Brayden crouched next to her. “I’m going to ask you to keep an open mind Annabel, just like Cayden asked of you when he had to reveal what he was.”
She looked suspiciously from Brayden, over his shoulder to the man leaning against the door. Her smile was nervous now. “Look, I’ve accepted the fact that the Silkie are more than just a myth, but I don’t know how many more surprises I can stand.”
Brayden took her hand and looked gently into her deep blue eyes. “We don’t often use family names among us, since we tend to view ourselves as part of one large family, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have them.”
“You mean like the name Clifton.”
“Yes. Carrick uses his family name among the humans, so you have heard his. But we were not introduced to you in that way because where we are from often tells us more about another Silkie than a family name would.”
She blinked in confusion as she once more glanced from one to the other. “So, you got me out of bed in the middle of the night to tell me your last name?”
Don’t be catty. Faeran’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
“I’m not being catty. I’m exhausted.”
“Bell,” Brayden drew her attention back to him. “Our last name is Barton. Like yours.”
“Okay,” she said in a sarcastically perky voice, “so we have the same last name. An interesting coincidence. Barton isn’t exactly as common as Smith, but I suppose it was a possibility. You seem to forget, though, Annabel—human. Brayden and Faeran—Silkies. Now that we have that settled, can I go back to bed? Maybe tomorrow I can get you an invitation to the family reunion. Oh. I forgot. I have no family other than Taylor.”
The two men looked at each other and Faeran slowly came forward. “Taylor is your cousin.”
“My half-brother. Daddy had a wild weekend with Taylor’s mother before he married my mother.”
“Faeran?” Brayden was asking a question and Annabel had no idea at all what it was.
“We’ll deal with him separately. We must take care of her first before the Council meets today.”
Now Annabel grew alarmed. She didn’t like the turn of their conversation. Exactly how did they intend to take care of her?
Faeran snorted in disgust. “We tried easing her into this. That was our mistake. She managed to take in who and what Cayden was without going to pieces, surely we can take the same direct approach with this.” Impatiently, he pulled his shirt over his head and came toward her bare-chested.
“What the hell are you doing?” she demanded, brows drawing together as she prepared to spin her chair way and lock herself in the bathroom.
“Stop!” He commanded. “I am merely showing you a mark which I believe you will find familiar.”
He pointed to a spot on his left flank, just above the waistline of his pants. Exasperated, she turned her head to look at it and then without even thinking, grasped the waist of his pants and pulled him closer. There, just above the waistband were three moles that formed a perfect triangle. While she stared, Brayden stripped off his shirt and stepped up to her, revealing the same mark. Involuntarily, her hand dropped to her own side. Her heart beat heavily in her chest, and she flew back to a scene from her childhood.
“Look, Daddy!” Poppy pointed to her father’s side. “You have the same spots on you that I do!” They were sailing on the bay at the time.
He laughed. “My father had them too. He told me they were a mark of royalty. We are the lords of the sea!”
Poppy laughed. “That’s silly. We would have to live in the sea then and we can’t do that.”
Phillip knelt next to her and tilted his head. “No. We can’t. Can we, Poppy darling?”
Annabel closed her eyes and leaned back in her wheelchair. “This is why you kept saying the time was not right. You had to show me this. Then surely you must also know I have this same mark. That my father did, too. Who are you?”
“Your uncles.”
She opened her eyes and glared at them. “You lie! My father would have told me!”
“He didn’t know, at least not who his family were.” Faeran said. “His father, your grandfather, mated without permission with the human Mary Taylor. Phillip was the result. Taurent lived with them until he thought Phillip would be old enough to understand, and he tried to convince him to come away with him to sea, but your father rejected him, and Taurent left. He was killed in a hurricane as he tried to return to his father… Riordan.”
“The king?” At Bray’s nod, Bell protested, “but he’s not old enough! That would make him my great-grandfather! Are you my father’s brothers?”
Brayden shook his head. “His uncles. When Taurent was lost, Riordan married again to our mother. So that would make us…”
“Great-uncles.”
Brayden and Faeran both nodded as if everything had been perfectly explained.
“Is this some kind of joke?” Annabel’s chin trembled and she pressed her lips together to stop it. She wasn’t comforted. Instead they made her furious. “You want me to believe I am one of you?”
“You are one of us, Annabel Barton.”
“Then why am I in this chair?” she demanded furiously. “I’ve seen how quickly Cayden heals! If I am one of you…why didn’t I?”
Her voice ended as a whisper, a quiet plea to understand that hung in the silent room.
Both men crouched next to her, one on each side, but it was Faeran who spoke. “Come with us, Annabel. Trust us. Let us show you. Your body couldn’t do what it didn’t know. Come with us and let us show you how the sea can change you.”
Brayden touched her arm. “We’ll have you back in time for the Council.”
She touched the mark on her flank. Taylor had it too. Did that mean?
Yes. But we will deal with him later. It’s you we must show first.
“Riordan?”
“He doesn’t know yet.”
A wild hope surged through her, the hope that she could change the future she had seen lying ahead of her. For years, she had hoped just to have enough movement and control to be able to use crutches. But what if there was more?”
“You’ll show me how to change?”
Brayden nodded.
“But what if I’m paralyzed as a seal?”
“You swim now, don’t you?”
Slowly she nodded, the hope once again gaining ground. It was the one thing she was able to hang onto since the accident, the ability to swim. She always felt more at home in the water. It was the place where she could still be graceful and able, where she could be equal.
“Come with us, little Bell,” Faeran said. “Let us show you what you can be and help you shift.”
God! It was like someone had just held a bag full of wishes in front of her. When she nodded, Faeran, Duke of the Atlantic smiled. He picked her up and carried her from the cabin, with Brayden right in front of them. They took her down to the launch. As Annabel looked around, she realized they had returned to the area around Barton’s point since Ciaran had been set adrift. She could see the lights of the Yacht Club, and silhouetted against the night sky, she could see the house. Her house, her father’s house, his grandmother’s house.
“Can we do this by the dock below my house? I feel at home there.”
Faeran smiled down at her. “Of course.”
****
Cayden awoke at the sound of the launch. Rolling over he looked out the window by his bed to see it speeding away. He recognized the towering forms of Faeran and Brayden, and then to his horror, he saw Bell sitting in the back of the launch, her gold streaked hair blowing in the breeze.
What the fuck?
He leaped to his feet and raced out of the cabin. They had taken Bell. Without waiting to alert anyone, he stripped off his boxer shorts and dove over the side of the Skerry, transforming as he did so. What were they doing? They were Riordan’s sons. Royalty. What did they want with Bell? Was this some trick to separate
the two of them? Cayden nearly panicked at the idea. He would not lose her again. He could not. He shot through the water like a torpedo, but he was no match for the ski boat.
****
Her nerves got the better of her as they tied the launch up at her dock. When Faeran offered her a hand, she shrank back.
“I can’t do this. What if I’m like this…” she gestured to her legs, “if I transform?”
Brayden knelt next to her. “We will be right there with you. You must not fear it.”
Faeran began stripping off his clothing. “You are our blood. We will protect you and help you.”
She averted her eyes from his taut, muscular body. “Do I have to…”
Faeran arched a brow at her. “What is it you say? Get naked?” He laughed at her shocked expression. “Only in the purest sense of the words.”
She swallowed. “Then look the other way and let me get in the water.”
They nodded, amused by a modesty that was foreign to them. Annabel took off her wrap and the silky nightgown she had underneath it. After maneuvering her way to the gunwale, she perched briefly on the side and then leaned forward to dive in. As she acclimated to the water, she heard two more splashes.
“Come to where it’s a little shallower.”
Faeran stroked lazily on his side, and then stood up. With gentle hands, he grasped her waist and set her on her feet.
“Can you stand with my support?”
“Yes.”
There was a loud splash and suddenly Cayden came toward them.
“Let her go. What the hell are you doing?”
Faeran looked at his brother. “Silence him and bind him. Now that he is here, let him watch, but I do not want his interference.”
“My lord?” Annabel looked over shoulder at him. “Please.”
His deep blue eyes gentled. “We will not hurt him, Bell. We only make sure that he does not interfere.”
She was vaguely aware of Brayden stopping Cayden with a slow pushing motion of his hand. At the words he murmured in the ancient tongue, Cayden was suddenly without voice or movement. He stood silently by, a witness powerless to do anything else. Faeran turned to look at him.
“Watch pup. When you have witnessed, then we will release you. If you still have a quarrel with me, then I will gladly do battle.”
Cayden’s eyes blazed angrily from his lean face, but Faeran ignored him.
“Close your eyes Bell, remember the dream that awoke you. Think of the mark you bear, the mark your father and his father and his father before him all bear. You are one of us. You have only to wish it so.”
Annabel tuned out everything but his softly spoken words and the gentle sucking sounds of the water lapping against the dock. She remembered the dream, swimming and playing with the seals. Her family. Heat began to course through her from her head down through her limbs until she could swear she felt something even in her toes.
Faeran continued to speak, but his words now were in a language she didn’t know. She felt his hands shift so that one touched her head and the other he placed flat against her chest, just above her heart. When he spoke again, she understood him.
“We are here who hold you dear. Take what we offer, discard your fear. Now draw upon the blood of old and create a Silkie in our mold.”
With infinitely gentle hands he pushed her forward into the water. Instinctively, Annabel snatched a breath and then moved out of his arms, swimming as she always had using her hips and thighs to propel her through the water, but it was so much faster than before! She spun and twisted, leaped and then dived, skimming across the bottom. As she looked to her side, she laughed. Faeran glided along with her, a smile on his face and his blue eyes sparkling and luminescent. She surfaced, treading water easily, even her legs were moving freely and with feeling. Faeran surfaced next to her and smiled at her as he tilted his head.
“Well?”
She laughed. “But nothing is different! I am still as I was, except I can move my legs.”
He laughed loudly. “No, you simply see as we see. Look down at your reflection in the water.”
Curious, Annabel did just that, but it was not the familiar outline of her face and her long damp hair that she saw. Instead, it was the sleek outline of two seals, the larger one Faeran, and a smaller, lighter seal. Was…was that her? Her eyes darted back up to Faeran again and then back down to their reflections.
“I’m a seal.”
“A Silkie. Not an ordinary seal, little Bell. You are a Silkie. You are a true daughter of your royal lineage.”
She looked up to see Cayden several yards away. He looked transfixed.
Release him.
In a moment. Play with him by all means, but you must come back to me to let me help you change back this first time. Then I will teach you the words. You have only to say them in your head. At first, it will take you longer, require more concentration, but then you will soon be able to do it faster and with less forethought.
“Release him, please.”
He nodded.
In an instant, Cayden changed. He shot through the water to her, diving down and then back up, brushing against her, blowing bubbles around her in welcome, in courtship that she had only dimly understood before. What she had thought simply amusing as a human, she now realized he had done as part of the mating ritual, as a way to express his care and tenderness. She looked up to find Faeran had returned to the boat. He and Brayden had both transformed, and now idly sat watching the two of them.
Swim with me.
Cay! I’m whole. Like this I’m whole.
He laid his cheek against her. I have so many questions, Bell…
Not now. Swim with me. Make love to me.
They swam to the beach where she had napped with him as a child, and found him again as a teen. They hauled out, to human eyes just two seals playing in the moonlight. To each other, they were Cayden and Annabel. As the water lapped around their entwined bodies, he kissed her and caressed her. They were both too hungry, too excited to wait for long.
“Bell,” he breathed against her. “I’m afraid I’ll hurt you.”
“No. It’s different like this. I’m different. I can move like I can’t when I’m human, but I still see us both in human form.”
He stroked her hair back from her face. “Crazy, isn’t it?”
Gently he turned her over until she lay prone. He raised her hips, kneeling behind her as he stroked his shaft between her thighs. She moaned, pressing against him at the very moment he thrust into her. They came together wildly. Cayden gloried in the way she met him thrust for thrust. Her hands curled into the coarse sand of the beach. Pushing the wet strands of her hair to one side, he bent over her running his tongue up along the line of her spine to the nape of her neck. He nipped her with his teeth, but instead of protesting, she raised up into him. She sat in his lap and he continued to thrust, but now his hands were free to roam over her breasts and down between her legs. When he pressed his fingers against her clit, she cried out and his own cry of completion echoed across the water and along the beach, carrying in the night air.
Faeran and Brayden waited patiently for their return. When they saw them both approaching, the two men dove into the water.
While Cayden transformed, Brayden and Faeran held Bell between them.
Are you ready, little Bell? Faeran smiled at her.
Yes, but scared.
Why?
I have such freedom like this. I don’t want to go back, to be confined.
Give it time, child. Because you are whole as a Silkie, there’s hope that you can become so in human form.
I’m ready.
“Take from her this Silkie shape and leave her with a sealskin cape.”
Disappointment flooded her as she realized immediately that her legs would no longer support her. Cayden was there in an instant to hold her and soothe her. As she calmed down, she realized she did feel stronger. Brayden handed her a heavy pelt.
“You
must keep it safe and keep it with you always,” he told her. “Without it, you cannot transform. If you allow someone to possess it, then they hold you hostage.”
She fingered the pelt, stroking it and seeing in the first light of dawn that it had a golden tint to it, as if it had been bleached by the sun. She held it against her as Cayden lifted her into the boat. She continued to stare at it as he helped her with her clothing. After Brayden and Faeran were dressed, Cayden opened a storage box beneath one of the seats and pulled out a pair of swimming trunks. He grinned at Annabel.
“You will have to start squirreling clothes around different places like the rest of us.”
“Clothes and crutches?”
He touched her cheek. “Give it time. We’ll make it work. The biggest hurdle is behind us. Your Silkie blood will open the door for us to be together, love.”
Annabel picked up the pelt again and laid it across her lap. She stroked it for a moment and then looked up at all three men. “What about Taylor?”
Faeran frowned. “First things first. We must get things squared away with Riordan and the rest of the council. You will let me do the talking, Bell.”
Cayden looked at the rising sun. “I think we should get back. There are only a few hours until the Council meets.”
Faeran and Brayden looked at one another, but it was Brayden who spoke. “I believe our father will be in for a surprise.”
Cayden arched a brow. “Along with the rest of us?”
The other two men just laughed.
“You have no idea,” Brayden told him with a smile.
Chapter 22
“Why is everyone skulking around here like there’s some big secret?” Taylor demanded a couple of hours later as he finished the coffee he had brought to Annabel’s cabin. “And you, Poppy. You look like the cat that ate the canary.”
“Sorry.” She yawned.
“Didn’t you sleep last night?” He demanded in the tone of someone about to give a lecture.
She munched hungrily on a piece of toast. “I slept. Some.”
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