“Men,” the Empress muttered under her breath. “Get up, the pair of you. Master Shark, much as I disagree with John’s methods, he’s right. You’re destroying yourself. You have to go to your mate.”
The Royal Consort leaped to his feet with the smooth agility of youth. A rather challenging gleam still in his eyes, he leaned down to offer his hand. The Master Shark stared at it for a second…and then clasped it. He allowed the sea dragon to pull him to his feet.
The brief fight had ripped away the numbness in his soul. The Royal Consort was right. He was a coward. He had fled from his mate, out of fear of being hurt further.
But nothing could hurt more than her absence.
Nonetheless, he hesitated. “But I am needed here.”
“Would you like me to strike you again?” the Royal Consort inquired, in tones of utmost politeness.
The Empress elbowed her mate, though a smile tugged at her full lips. “I think we’ve already established that you’re not entirely yourself at the moment, Master Shark. And Martha will be feeling the same way. What sort of pain do you think she’s in right now?”
Her words struck him harder than the Royal Consort’s fist had. The mere thought of Martha feeling even a fraction of this agony…
“She has the comfort of her pack,” he said, trying to convince himself. “They are enough for her. And…and she did not want me to follow.”
The Royal Consort’s eyebrows rose. “Does it truly take so little to turn aside a shark?”
“What does your heart tell you, Master Shark?” the Empress said softly.
He reached out for his mate’s blood-scent…and knew that no matter what she had said then, she was calling to him now.
“My Empress.” He went to both knees before her, bowing his head in the full formal show of respect, as befitted someone seeking a great boon. “I cannot be myself again without my mate. But she will not come here.”
“Th
en we will have to learn to do without you.” The Empress put a hand on his face, lifting his chin so he met her gaze. “Master Shark, if the Pearl Empire demands that we sacrifice our souls to it, then it does not deserve to exist. It has to be bigger than any one of us. Even you. Even me.”
He looked up at her for a long, long moment.
His oath-brother’s daughter. Human and sea dragon, the child of two worlds.
“Your father,” he said, “would be very proud of you.”
Tears brimmed in her eyes. Leaning down, she kissed his cheek.
“Go to your mate, Master Shark,” she whispered.
“Finn,” he replied, rising. “My name is Finn.”
Chapter 19
“If we’d seen your pup, then he wouldn’t be missing.” The rattlesnake leader’s lips stretched in a grin, showing off his inch-long, needle-sharp canines. “You’d know exactly where he was. You’d be carving his name on a stone to mark his grave.”
“Don’t you point those fangs at me, young man.” Martha folded her arms, shooting him a withering stare. “I’ve seen far scarier teeth than yours, thank you very much. Hiss all you want, but we know someone of yours knows something about Roddie. Now, I’ve asked you nicely who that might be. You going to make me ask again?”
The snake shifter’s eyes were hidden behind sunglasses, but Martha was fairly certain they flicked to her bristling escort. Her three older sons were in coyote form, unconvincingly disguised with collars and bandanas to look like ordinary dogs. Nita held her brothers’ leashes. Given the way her daughter was growling, Martha was somewhat regretting not putting her on a lead too.
The rattlesnake himself seemed to have come alone—though Martha wouldn’t have placed any bets on that. A snake was a heck of a lot easier to hide than a coyote, even in the dusty 7-11 parking lot they’d picked as neutral ground. He could have a whole passel of his kin within spitting distance.
If he did, he wasn’t calling them out yet. The young snake leaned against his motorbike in a way that he probably meant to come off as cool and menacing, but which screamed uneasy defensiveness to Martha’s experienced eye.
“Last time I saw your boy was Wednesday. We caught him sniffing round our borders again, and sent him howling back to momma. Told him it was his final warning.” The snake shifter’s lip curled. “He tell you about that?”
*Did he?* Martha asked Nita telepathically down the pack bond.
*No,* Nita sent back, her mental tone grim. *Sorry, Ma. Guess I should have sniffed his laundry to check for snake-stink.*