by Godiva Glenn
If it were a normal gathering like the ones he’d attended frequently back home, there would be drinks or snacks available. And the guests would mingle. There was no such frivolity occurring now. The men didn’t talk, only milled about in uncomfortable, hungry silence. It was likely for the best. Pavel didn’t want to hold a conversation with Teall when he was experiencing hunger rage.
After what seemed like forever, the door swung in and Annika beamed out at them. “Okay. Everything is set!”
The men filed in, dissipating the uncomfortable silence. Pavel entered last and kissed Annika’s forehead. “I’m sure it’s wonderful, so thank you ahead of time.”
She swatted his arm. “You’re going to love it. I outdid myself.”
He didn’t want to doubt her, but as he neared the table, he noticed something was missing. The smell of food. Not that he expected to smell bacon or turkey or anything like that, but even cooked fish had a scent, usually.
He sat down beside Cam and across from Teall at the round table. An array of covered platters was laid out in the center of the table, and before she sat, Annika lifted the covers and set them all aside.
Teall made a delighted sound, sounding entirely like a chirping seal. “Annika! This must have taken you all day.”
“It did, but it was worth it.”
Cam tilted a bowl toward himself and his eyes widened at the contents. “You’re really spoiling us tonight.”
Pavel surveyed the spread but the only thing he recognized was what he assumed were Prism’s version of oysters on the half shell. It was a guess, but they looked exactly like oysters, except instead of looking like gray blobs, they were ivory with golden swirls. “I’m certainly intrigued.”
Annika leaned over a tray holding four small bowls and passed them out. “We’ll start here.”
“I love these,” Teall murmured. He spooned a deep red sauce over the dish and gave it a quick stir.
Pavel stared down into his bowl. It was… moving. He had to blink several times to understand what he was looking at. They were shrimp. Live shrimp. But they were glowing and translucent, though each body seemed to be filled with a different color of glow. “I’m not sure what this is.”
“Tipsy opal shrimp,” Annika said. She scooped one up and popped it into her mouth cheerfully. After she swallowed, she gestured for him to try one. “Go on. They won’t bite.”
Summoning his bravery, Pavel picked up one of the wiggling shrimp, which was a tad smaller than his pinky in length. He lifted it to his mouth, but before he could even part his lips, the shrimp spazzed out and went flying. It slapped his cheek then landed back in the bowl.
Everyone laughed as Pavel stared in horror at the writhing rainbow mass.
“It’s a bit aware… and undercooked?” he stammered.
“They’re numb,” Cam promised. “They spent the last hour soaking in liquor and seasonings.”
“Yes, that’s why they’re so colorful,” Annika explained. “Opal shrimp glow, and when you douse them with colored spices and clear voidel—that’s like… vodka—they drink up the color.”
“Then they mostly chill out,” Teall added. “Though as you see, some of them drink the voidel and become feisty.”
“But they’re alive. Isn’t it cruel?” Pavel asked. He didn’t want to make Annika feel bad, but he also wasn’t sure he could munch on living animals, drunk or not.
“Opal shrimp are notoriously difficult to track down, much less catch,” Teall said with clear hostility. “It’s a delicacy to serve them and you’re turning your nose down at the best presentation of them.” He turned to Annika. “How did you get them purple?”
She pursed her lips, clearly torn by his compliment and the embedded jab at Pavel. “Dried fern, ground up and mixed with a dash of glimmer coral.” She softened her expression and placed her hand over Pavel’s. “You don’t have to eat it, but it’s perfectly safe. And they’re just like the oysters. You like oysters, don’t you?”
He didn’t want to debate the difference between oysters and shrimp. Her joy had been dashed, and he didn’t want to be responsible. “I think I’ll just eat around the jumpy one.”
“You won’t regret it,” Cam promised.
Teall didn’t say a thing but munched loudly on his shrimp. Obviously, his bowl was comatose. He ate quickly with visible relish.
Pavel reached in and scooped up a glowing bronze shrimp that was flexing side to side languidly as if slow dancing. Annika’s eyes met his and steeled his resolve. He placed the shrimp on his tongue and chewed it, pretending it was an oyster.
It was nothing like an oyster.
The texture, the flavor, the entire experience—nothing he could compare to anything he’d ever eaten.
Definitely not like a fresh oyster with cocktail sauce and horseradish, but something else entirely.
And surprisingly, it was fucking delicious. Amazing, a bit disturbing, but delicious all the same. He had another, this one a pastel blue color, and it too was incredible. Each color was a distinct flavor, and each complimented the last.
Annika sat back and ate hers, and small talk surrounded him as he made his way through the flavorful banquet of wriggling shellfish. He finished his bowl to the visible relief of both Annika and Cam, and then the next course was introduced. Teall had already moved on, of course, and was wrapping oysters in bright yellow kelp and dunking them into a vibrant red sauce.
Annika piled a half-dozen shells on Pavel’s plate and explained the different dips and sauces she’d made.
After that, they moved together through the meal, and Cam and Teall, knowing exactly what went into each one, lavished praise on Annika. Pavel enjoyed each dish, even ones he rather feared eating, and it became more of an educational dinner than the cold war he’d expected. Teall was somewhat charming even, and quite clearly still taken with Annika. Cam drank too much and kept slipping into another language when he contributed to the conversation. Apparently, the native selkie tongue wasn’t translated as easily by the magic Pavel had been dosed with, as he only understood a few random words. Still, he caught enough to follow the conversation.
Pavel had a dramatic family. Dinner was usually served with a hefty dose of passive aggression. But even with the problems under the surface between Teall and everyone else, dinner was like neutral ground. They didn’t fight, save the initial tension. And because Teall was behaving and the food was a delicious distraction, Pavel didn’t see the need to take jabs or voice the anger he still had.
The chatter stayed light and focused on cuisine. Pavel understood that gathering together was integral to their culture. Selkies were all about family, and nothing brought a family together quite like a homemade meal. They made plans to work together in the future on something, and Pavel was planning on participating. It would be a challenge, given that the ingredients he knew from Earth didn’t necessarily have Prism counterparts, but Annika seemed eager to give it a try. In all, it was an enjoyable night.
After the table had been cleaned and Cam and Teall had slipped away to talk things over, Pavel sipped his wine and realized that somehow, the moment felt as if it were simply meant to be. He watched Annika, who sat by the window and stared out at the water while humming to herself.
He hadn’t expected dinner to have gone so well. Even though Teall was far from forgiven, there was a friendly ambiance to the affair that lingered even now that it was over. The air felt light and sweet. More noticeably, Annika’s smile was more genuine and breathtaking than he’d ever seen.
He understood why she went through the trouble of making this special dinner. It wasn’t just to ease the tension. It was because she was surrounded by everyone that mattered to her for the first time ever. He wasn’t hurt to realize Teall clearly still had a place in her life. He was overcome with conflicting emotions that he had earned a spot, however, between the two men she’d known her entire, adventurous life.
Fifteen
Annika
Annika went for
a swim before the sun came up. There was something about being beneath the water’s surface when the first rays beamed down, and the light filtered through to illuminate the sparkle of silver fish scales or add a glow to the reefs.
Dinner the night before had been a tremendous success, and she should have been relieved. Instead, a nagging emotion lingered out of her direct reach, almost like a feeling of sadness or regret.
At one point she’d looked up from her meal and saw that Cam, Teall, and Pavel were engaged in conversation without her. It was civil and simple. It made her heart full. The night had started a bit tense but ended on a happy note. A content bliss. Maybe her mysterious emotion came from wondering if such happiness could last.
In a perfect world, she could mate with Pavel and keep Cam and Teall as friends. But the world wasn’t perfect, and Annika wasn’t foolish enough to believe that Teall would ever stick around to be just friends. It would be too painful. Not just for him, either.
She was torn between asking him to stay away forever and keeping him around even if it made her thoughts drift. How was she supposed to forget her love for him? And wasn’t Pavel’s love enough? Even she could see that all the new love in the world couldn’t immediately erase the love of the past. Maybe if she’d stayed on Earth. Maybe if her past and present hadn’t met up in the middle. And then there was Cam…
She hated the conflict.
A brown and orange seal swam by her, and she gave chase. The waters were usually much more crowded, but the recent incident had made many of the selkies avoid this part of the beach. No one wanted to piss off Iona or play with the ones who had incurred her anger. Annika wanted things to go back to normal.
She followed the seal, whom she was quite certain was one of Cam’s nieces, for a few minutes and they met up with some of her distant relatives. She found herself circled and before she could even greet them, the questions came, bombarding her thoughts.
* * * *
The selkies need to gossip had never bothered Annika before. Now that she had a human living with her—an unregistered human, as the selkies called him—she was the subject of the majority of the current gossip mill.
To some, she was lucky. To others, she was a rebel. Then to everyone else, she was insane.
She’d hung around only long enough to answer a few questions, then ducked out. She wanted company, not an interrogation.
Emerging from the water, she immediately saw Pavel sitting on a large rock on an outcrop of the shore. A calm tune poured from the pipes at his lips, and she fell under its spell. He stopped as she grew near and set them aside.
“You woke early,” he said.
“Technically, so did you.” She glanced to the sun, which was barely cresting the horizon.
“I thought I’d fallen into a coma from overeating, but then I turned over and you weren’t there. You help me sleep.”
She had to smile at that, and she folded her seal skin and held it tight as she climbed the rocks to sit next to him. He kissed her in greeting and wrapped his arm around her bare waist.
“You’re making me feel horribly overdressed for watching a sunrise,” he teased.
She nuzzled his neck. “I wouldn’t mind if you swam naked with me.”
“Yeah, it would be great until another selkie came along. Or a kelpie. Or a naiad. And whatever else is lurking out there.”
“They wouldn’t mind either.”
He rolled his eyes.
“I think Iona scared away everyone, to be honest.”
“What do you mean?”
“When she dropped us all off here, everyone in the water felt her rage. They’re keeping clear. I suspected it before, but now I know for certain. I went beyond the reef to the west and talked to a few others.”
He brushed through her hair. “I’m sure they’ll return in time, right? Are those your friends?”
“Yes, and yes. Well, friends and family. Some that would fall into another category. I wouldn’t say I have enemies, but I’ve never gotten along with everyone.”
“I assume they know about me, then?”
“Indeed. There’s a lot of curiosity about you.”
He twirled her hair around his finger then let it fall loose. “I want to ask you something, but I’m not sure how to ask it.”
“Just ask.”
“Right.” He gazed out to the water, squinting a bit. “I remember this from talking with Vevina and Blair. The fae are open about relationships and sex. Maybe too open. You just talk about it. No shame or anything.”
“That’s correct.” She studied his face, but he avoided her eyes.
“I heard that even though selkies can do monogamy, they usually don’t.”
She arched a brow. “I suppose. It’s more that formal relationships aren’t common. We’re an open community.”
“So, if one of us were considering that… going open part… we just ask? How sensitive is it? If everyone is open, then would such a request just be a yes or no thing… or would there be fighting…” He frowned at the distance.
She placed a finger on his chin and turned his face toward her so she could see his flustered expression. “Do you wish to bring a lover into our relationship?”
“Would you be mad at me?”
“No.”
“It’s not me… not exactly.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Damnit this is rough.”
“Who are you thinking of?”
“It’s a matter of balance, right? And our relationship is new but going well, and what if there was someone else, new to the relationship but not new to…” He sighed. “Cam. What do you think of Cam?”
Annika gaped at the suggestion. Cam? The one she’d had a young girl’s crush on? The one who she always kept tucked away with a “what if” sort of dream? Pavel wanted to be lovers with Cam? “Have you talked to him about it?”
“Of course… it just sort of came up.” His cheeks became crimson as he stammered through his words. “And it’s not like anyone’s assuming what you want. Obviously, it’s about what you want. We just… spoke. Of it.”
“I think that’s wonderful,” she admitted. “I think the two of you go splendidly together.”
“Really? Wait—”
“I had no idea you were that open. I couldn’t exactly guess how you’d found a female on Prism, of course, unless it was Vevina, but Cam? That’s lovely. Yes, of course, I’ll share you with Cam.”
Pavel’s face froze into pure, adorable shock. She kissed his nose and snuggled against him, looking forward to watching their relationship bloom. A weight lifted from her shoulders. She’d been worried that Pavel wasn’t quite set on remaining on Prism. But if he was ready to pick another lover, then he had to intend on staying.
And with Cam included in things, it brought her closer to the happy family she wanted.
* * * *
Pavel had grown shy and quiet, so they watched the sun in silence until the beach was well lit. Annika could only imagine what was going on in his head. He was experiencing one new experience after another, and she suspected that a relationship with a man was one of those new things. That, or he was apprehensive because of how he expected her to react.
He always complained about his family. Maybe they didn’t want him to be with a man. But now he was far from them and the stifling constructs of typical human society. He could be with whoever he wanted. Man, woman, selkie… kelpie, if he wanted. She wasn’t going to judge.
As long as he was happy, she was happy, and she planned on being supportive every step of the way.
They entered the house together and found Cam lounging on the couch chewing on a strip of cured red fish.
“Pavel told me the news,” she squealed with excitement. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it coming!”
Cam looked at her for a moment, then Pavel. He sat up slowly, brows knit in suspicion. “Told you what, exactly?”
“I asked about the relationship,” Pavel said in a strange tone.
�
�And I said of course I’m fine with my best friend and my lover being together.” She took Pavel’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Go on.” She pushed him toward Cam.
“Us,” Cam said. His eyes widened at Pavel. “You, uh, sure about that?”
Pavel and Cam stared at each other with wide-eyed surprise. Annika had to admit, the thought of them together was more than heart-warming. It was hot. They were about the same height, but Cam was a bit more muscular. She would definitely be interested in watching them.
“You can kiss if you’d like,” she said. She bit her lower lip and watched them, expectation sending flutters through her lower belly.
Cam laughed under his breath. “Oh, that wouldn’t be great. Not a wonderful time, I just woke up and then I grabbed this…” He waved the fish jerky around. “I wouldn’t want to kiss me right now.”
“Right,” Pavel agreed. “I mean, not that it’s disgusting, no… it’s fine, but…” He glanced at Annika.
“I was hoping for a more special moment,” Cam said.
Pavel nodded and ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, because… first kiss. Probably should come organically.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize. I’m sorry.” Annika winced. “I assumed you already had.”
Pavel shrugged. “No. Because I didn’t—”
“He didn’t want it to be like cheating,” Cam finished. “Humans, you know. Kissing is cheating.”
“Yeah, it is. Kissing. Touching. I mean, some people would say even thinking is cheating,” Pavel rambled.
Annika couldn’t stop from grinning. “Guys… it’s sweet that you’re on the same page. You know what?” She looked between them. “You two hang out. I didn’t even bring home breakfast, long story, but I’m going to go snag a trout or two and I’ll be back, okay?”
She hurried out, eager to give them privacy. Though she’d never seen it coming, it wasn’t unbelievable. She’d fallen for Pavel quickly enough, and Cam was too wonderful for anyone to not notice. They’d all been in the same house for days on end, bonding.
