Love at Sea

by Preston Walker

  However, despite the fact that he pretended to be convinced by his own logic, Linden was as worried as he had ever been.

  Chapter 6

  Despite the fact that Linden ran isolated and unseen across the hills at the outskirts of Dutch Harbor at 7:55 a.m., he somehow felt like he was standing still and watching the world swirl on by him. That was probably his unfortunate awareness of his so-called mate, already waiting for him to arrive while standing at the docks. He imagined that Ash might be able to feel the wind slicing through his fur, the thundering echo of paw-steps in his still feet.

  Growling softly to himself, he reached the edge of the docks and returned to his human form. Righting himself on his feet, he looked out over towards the middle of the docks and quickly pinpointed Ash. The omega must have seen him too, because he started to hurry over at an awkward pace that made it seem like he was trying not to run. Amusement thrilled through his whole body as he saw what the omega was wearing, but he pushed it down by the time his mate was standing in front of him.

  “What the hell is this?” he asked, looking the other up and down for added effect. The omega was dressed in at least two layers and possibly three, the most obvious of which were a set of heavy-duty grey overalls and one of those gigantic jackets that turn people into colorful marshmallows.

  As Ash stammered for a reply, Linden took a closer look at him to try and assess his age. Despite the youthful expression and the childish clothing, he was relieved to come to the conclusion that Ash was probably out of his teens. That made this all slightly less awkward, for some reason.

  “My parents didn’t want me to be cold,” Ash muttered.

  Oh hell. His parents. I’m going to have to deal with that eventually, too.

  One thing at a time, however.

  “Right, well, I’ll tell you right now that if you try to wear that on the boat, you’ll die.”

  “What?”

  “You’ve got no mobility in that get-up, and you’re going to need it. Take off that damn jacket and get rid of the stupid overalls.”

  Ash didn’t move, a slight pink tinge heating up his cheeks.

  Linden fought against a blush of his own. “You are wearing something under it, right?”

  As he said the words, a coil of heat formed in a tight knot in his stomach. His muscles tightened in anticipation of the answer, and he was breathless, throbbing in all the most inopportune places.

  After a minute of silence, Ash finally started moving. Linden struggled to keep control of himself, startled and unhappy at how erotic the simple removal of a jacket could be. Thin, nimble fingers stroked down the length of the zipper, revealing a glimpse of a thin chest beneath the heavy overalls. The omega was so thin that his collarbone was distinctly visible as a sharp line between his shoulders, and the sight of it was like catching a peek of cleavage…only better, somehow.

  As the omega shed his jacket and began to undo the overall straps, the strengthening heat in Linden’s loins told him that he would never again be thinking of anyone else. Man or woman, they would never compare to watching Ash peel off those layers.

  His dick throbbed powerfully, the soft bulge between his legs rapidly becoming more prominent.

  Don’t look down, he begged silently. For both our sakes’, don’t look down.

  Luckily, the omega was looking everywhere but at Linden. After another few moments, the overalls fell down to a puddle around his shoes; kicking them away, he stood there in just a long-sleeved t-shirt and tight jeans.

  Pulling in a deep breath, Linden turned away and looked over at his ship. “Let’s board.”

  “This is your boat?” Ash asked. He looked a little doubtful, and Linden understood that well enough. Storming Lady had definitely seen better days, that was for sure.

  “Yes. Now…” Suddenly, he remembered the unorthodox way of boarding. “How high can you jump, Ash?”

  It felt so strange to say the omega’s name.

  “Uh…pretty high?”

  Linden pointed up at the lip of the boat. “How about up there?”

  “Is this some sort of test?” There was accusation in his voice.

  “No!” Linden said. “We all do it. That’s just how it’s designed. I can send down a ramp once I’m up there, if you can’t make it.”

  Ash took an experimental pace forward, looking down at the strip of chilled water between the dock and the side of the boat. “I better be able to make it, huh?”

  God, what was I thinking when I designed this? I was so young and stupid.

  Ten years was a long time, for sure. However, every second with Ash felt like another ten years. Despite all his experiences, Linden simply had no idea what to do in this situation—because there was no choice involved.

  Dropping down into his wolf form, he bunched up his legs beneath him and sprang. His leap was better this time, just barely clearing the lip of the boat and thumping down heavily on the other side. Changing back, he placed his hands on the side of the boat and peered over.

  Ash was gone.

  He had a split moment of pure unadulterated terror, wondering if the omega had already fallen into the water, when something that looked like a red comet streaked past his vision. Spinning around, he saw a thin red wolf land a good six feet past where he stood, having easily cleared the distance.

  Admiration swelled up inside his chest, accompanied by a dreadful glow of warmth in his heart and a corresponding throb in his dick.

  “That was impressive,” he said, managing to keep his voice from quivering. It was a very near thing, however.

  Ash transformed back into his human form and looked away slightly, blushing a darker red. He looked far more lively with a bit of color on his face, that was for sure. “It’s…probably because I’m smaller.”

  Linden nodded and turned his head away for a moment. Biting his lip with a shudder, he forced down his own attraction and then turned back to look at the other. “Right. Let’s give you a tour, then. Do you know anything about crab fishing?”

  “Nope,” Ash said.

  He nodded, having expected as much. “Right. Well, the way it works is…” He hesitated, quickly gathering up all the basics that he could remember having learned on his own first day. “Right. So, it isn’t like regular fishing where you go out and cast a net and everything. When the season starts, we have to go out and lay down our pots where we think the crab will be. Most of that is down to plain guesswork and intuition.”

  Ash nodded dutifully. Linden could imagine him scribbling everything down in a mental notebook, and the image was almost too cute to ignore. Forcing himself back on track, he continued, “We have about enough room for a hundred and fifty crab pots here on the Storming Lady. We’ll go out and lay down several lines of those, marked with buoys. Then, once we reach the end of our chain, we go back to the start and lift them up again. That’s usually been about twenty-four hours, plenty of time to get a catch.”

  Linden guided Ash over to a section of the boat along the side, near a rickety hydraulic system. Most of the lifts on other boats didn’t look any more stable than this one, really. “Once we go back to start lifting up the pots, the process is pretty simple. The first part is manual. We have this hook that we throw out. It grabs onto the chain beneath the buoy. The hook is attached to the lift. When it’s secure, it pulls the pot right up onto this ramp.” Linden stroked it with one hand, feeling the slick grime of past catches beneath his fingertips. Though it was constantly cleaned, filth simply became part of life in some areas of a fishing vessel.

  Ash pointed at the ramp, following its length with his fingertip to a table sort of construction. “And the crabs go here?”

  “Right.” Linden was pleased, although he shouldn’t have been. That conclusion was obvious.

  Get ahold of yourself.

  “This is where we sort them. Females or ones that are too small get thrown back into the water. We have this measuring device somewhere, but honestly you learn to just eye it pretty quic
kly. The good ones get pushed in through there or there.” He pointed out the covered holes. “Most of the inside of the ship is taken up by this huge tank. When the boat moves, seawater flows through it. It helps keep the crabs alive down there. Someone will be keeping count—that’s usually Skip, you’ll meet him later—and once we reach capacity, we go to shore and offload. And then we come back and start all over again.”

  “For how long?”

  Linden shrugged. “Regulations changed a few years ago. It used to be this frantic race to see who could reach capacity first, partly because of that dumb TV show. That was causing too many extra injuries though, so eventually they changed it to two weeks for king crab. Two weeks to reach capacity, so there’s no more rushing. That’s in October and January. Anyway.”

  He moved off, heading away from the working area around to the center of the boat, where the sleeping quarters were. “This is the kitchen, the bathroom, the bunks, and the rec area.”

  Ash looked surprised. “A rec area?”

  Linden shrugged. “Back when I had more workers who could take shifts, a few would unwind in here at a time. It’s important to clear your mind sometimes so you don’t start making mistakes. And through this doorway here is the bridge, where I drive the boat. Sometimes Skip does that for me too, when I’m sleeping. That’s about all there is to it. It’s just the bare necessities.”

  He figured he wouldn’t describe how unpleasant it could be, cramming so many men into such a small space. Tensions could get pretty high, especially when you threw new people into the mix. Plus, there was the ever-present grime and the stench of crab to think of, as well.

  Looking back at the omega, he could see there was something on the little guy’s mind. “What is it?”

  “You said back when you had more workers?”

  Linden sighed. “You can probably tell that we’re on hard times right now. It’s difficult for the smaller boats that don’t have a doting media following. We’re shoved out of the good fishing grounds and have to make do with what’s left.”

  “That doesn’t really seem fair.”

  “Life isn’t fair,” he snapped harshly. He gritted his teeth, feeling his muscles tense up. Agitation pulsed at the base of his skull, and he clenched his hands into fists so hard that his nails bit the skin of his palms. All at once, he couldn’t stand to be near the omega. “Tour’s over. Get off my boat.”

  Ash looked startled, opening his mouth to protest and then shutting it just as quickly when he saw the look in the alpha’s eyes. He turned around and leapt off the edge of the boat, transforming in mid-air to land daintily on all four paws. His bushy red tail, so vibrant in color that it was nearly scarlet, tucked itself away between his legs.

  I really don’t want to deal with this, Linden sighed, but he jumped down all the same. He hated the appreciation in the omega’s eyes as they raked over his body.

  “Aren’t we going to do anything else?” Ash said timidly.

  Linden stared him down, squaring his shoulders again. “No,” he growled curtly. “You take what you just learned, and you go home and tell your family that you’re going to be on a boat for two weeks straight in the company of a bunch of dominant males. If you’re able to come back here tomorrow at the same time as today, then I’ll start showing you the ropes. If you don’t come, then I obviously can’t teach you anything.”

  “But why do I have to tell them anything at all?” Ash blurted out. He looked distressed, making Linden want to take back all the mean things he had said.

  “They’re your pack, aren’t they? Are you going to just disappear on them for two weeks and leave them frantic? Or worse, incriminate me as some sort of kidnapper?”

  “But you’re my mate!”

  Linden frozen. Dammit.

  “I shouldn’t have to tell them anything! It’s none of their business.”

  “Did I hear that right?”

  Double dammit.

  Linden would have known that voice anywhere.

  He turned and looked up to see the captain of another boat, a man he despised above all others. His name was Murphy, and the residents of Dutch Harbor called him Blackbeard behind his back; Murphy was well aware of the nickname and seemed to relish in it, taking delight in causing as much trouble as he could legally get away with.

  Acting on instinct, Linden stepped protectively in front of Ash and snarled at Murphy. “This is none of your business. Get away from my boat.”

  Murphy just grinned, and the sight of it made Linden feel sick and worried, more than he should have if he was pretending not to feel anything for the young omega behind him. While Murphy was not a shifter, he was one of the few humans in the town who was aware of their presence.

  “Oh, I think it is my business. I at least want to give you my…congratulations.” The word came out in a hiss, like a swear. “Who knew the day would come when someone like you would find your mate? And of course it would turn out to be a—”

  “Don’t,” Linden snapped. “Get away from my boat, and get off my dock. Go bother your own crew, and leave mine alone.”

  Murphy looked far more unbothered than a man should have when being threatened by an overgrown, aggressive wolf. “Fine then. But I look forward to seeing this little…pretty boy…on your ship, out there on the water. It would be a shame if anything happened to him. You’d best hold onto him real tightly, Linden.”

  It took every ounce of Linden’s control to keep from leaping at the other man and gutting him right then and there. He shook violently, practically vibrating with his anger. He knew it wasn’t right, but he couldn’t stop himself from turning back on Ash and taking that anger out on the omega.

  “Why don’t you just keep your damn mouth shut?” he hissed between clenched teeth. Ash’s eyes darkened, and the boy backed away slightly. “Okay? We’re nothing. We’re not mates. Just because some damn ancient feeling tells us that we’re supposed to be mates, doesn’t mean we are.”

  “But…then why…”

  “I’m having you on the boat so I don’t have to worry about you out here on the mainland, jabbering about things you can’t possibly understand. You might be a pack wolf, but I’m a lone wolf.”

  “But…” Ash’s voice was very small. “What about your shipmates?”

  Linden shook his head. “They aren’t my pack. We’re all lone wolves.”

  “Why?”

  Another tremor shook through his body and he gritted his teeth even harder. One of these days, he was going to break a tooth.

  “You don’t get to ask me my life story,” Linden said roughly. “You’re nothing to me. You can ask my crew for theirs, and they’ll tell you because they’re all romantic saps, but not me. You don’t get to suddenly appear in my life and think you get everything, just because some weird feeling says so. That’s not how it works. That’s not… That’s not what it means to be a mate.”

  Ash just stared up into his face, looking as broken as a china doll that had been dashed against the ground. He didn’t say anything, just shook his head and turned around to walk away.

  The wolf inside Linden threw its head back and howled after him, but he kept his mouth shut.

  This wasn’t exactly how he had planned for things to go, but he figured one of two things would happen now. The omega would be so disillusioned with him that it was simply impossible for them to be mates, and their connection would sever. Honestly, he didn’t know if that could really happen. He hoped so.

  The other option was that the omega would come back even more determined than before. And if that happened…

  Linden put his head in his hands and sighed hard. The seagulls flocking out over the shallow waters of the harbor seemed to call out to him, mocking his misfortune. He didn’t want this.

  He just wanted to be left alone.

  Chapter 7

  “Grandma,” Ash said, sitting down in the chair next to his grandmother’s wheelchair. She slid her eyes in his direction, sipping at her congealed coffee.
“That really didn’t work out the way you said it would.”

  The old woman let her straw slide out from between her lips. “How hard did you actually try?” she croaked.

  “I tried as hard as I could,” he said, tracing a pattern in spilled grains of sugar on the tabletop. “I met him out at the docks when he said I should, but he doesn’t have any interest in me.”

  “And how do you know?”

  “Because he growled at me and said mean things.”

  Ash was distinctly aware of the other members of his pack all going about their day, each of them pretending not to be listening. Well, most of them were. Bridgett, his mother, was the only one who didn’t even have any decency to pretend to be doing something else; she stood where she was, leaning back against the counter and looking for all the world like she would fall over if it wasn’t holding her up.

  He glanced at the clock again. 7:30 a.m. If he was going to be out there to meet Linden again, he needed to already be leaving. Instead, he was sitting here, doubting his own feelings.

  His grandmother took her time, taking another sip of her coffee. Her eyes closed as steam curled against her wrinkled features, clearly enjoying herself. Then, she opened her eyes again and looked at Ash once more.

  “But he invited you.”

  “I know,” Ash admitted. “And I thought that might be his way of trying to get closer to me, but then he didn’t do anything. I don’t even know anything about him at all, still. I think he’s trying to chase me away.”

  “It won’t work,” the old woman said confidently.

  “I don’t know,” Ash muttered. “I’d say it worked pretty well, especially since I’m supposed to be heading back out there.”

  “No, no,” his grandmother scolded. “That’s not how it works, my little one. You can’t sever your bond and neither can he.” Breath rattled in her elderly lungs as she sighed. “Everything in this world is changing, and you would think that we would be, too. However, we are shapeshifters. I am, and you are. We have always been on the outside. Some of us would try to part from the ancient ways, but we cannot force what won’t come. Do you understand?”