Children of the Sea 03 - Sea Lord

thought . . . I felt . . .” Margred shook her head. “She is your mother’s daughter, too.”

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    Everything within him rejected the idea. From the time Lucy was a toddler with fat baby legs and a “love me” smile, she had been his. He’d been the one to take care of her. To protect her. To fix her lunch and her scrapes, to read her stories and tuck her into bed.
    “Lucy is human,” he said shortly. “She never Changed.”
    Selkies retained the shape they had at birth until they reached sexual maturity. Seals lived as seals for three to six years; humans remained in human form until puberty. When Caleb’s brother, Dylan, turned thirteen, he Changed for the first time. His transformation had torn their family apart. Atargatis—Alice, their father had called her—returned with her older son to the sea, leaving her husband, ten-year-old Caleb, and baby Lucy behind.
    “How do you know?” Margred asked. “You were not here.”
    Caleb ran his hand over his short hair. “She called me at school to tell me she got her period, for God’s sake. You think she would have mentioned a little something like sprouting flippers and fur.”
    “Would she?”
    Caleb’s jaw set. “Lucy’s as human as I am,” he insisted. “If she wasn’t, you would know it. You would have sensed it. Or Dylan would.”
    “Yes. But she is still of your mother’s bloodline. If she were to have a child—”
    He didn’t want to think about it. His sister was fresh out of college. Barely out of diapers.
    “Let’s not borrow trouble,” Caleb said. “Christ, she doesn’t even have a steady boyfriend.”
    “Neither did Regina before she met your brother,” Margred pointed out.
    “What are the odds my sister’s going to get knocked up by a selkie? As long as Lucy sticks to her own kind, she’ll be fine.”
    Maggie arched her eyebrows. “Really.”
    Fuck.
    He hadn’t stuck to his kind. And neither, thank God, had she.
    “I only meant . . . You told me yourself most humanmer offspring are human. Lucy’s only half-selkie. If she marries a mortal, a human, their kids will probably be human, too. They’ll be safe.”
    “ Lucy’s human children would be safe,” Margred repeated.
    Caleb frowned. “Probably. The demons have never gone after Lucy.”
    “Then why do you assume our child would be in danger?”
    “Because—damn it, Maggie, you’re selkie.”
    “Not anymore.”
    “You are. In your blood. In your genes. And I carry my mother’s genes. The combination . . .” Fear for her closed his throat. “It’s too dangerous.”
    “Didn’t you say we should not borrow trouble?”
    “Maggie, if you get pregnant, you might as well paint a bull’s-eye on your belly. The demons will come after you. You could die.” The thought ripped his insides. His hand clenched hers on the table. “I can’t lose you.”
    “My dearest heart. My love.” Her voice was gentle, her eyes dark and tender. “All mortal things die.
    Now or five years from now or fifty . . . what is any of it, compared to eternity? Yet I would rather have one year with you than a millennium without you. I am human now. Let me be human.”
    She was everything he’d ever wanted. And she wanted a family. With him.
    “It’s a risk,” he insisted stubbornly.
    “Life is a risk. I chose this life with you. Let me live it fully.”
    Her love shook him.
    Her faith shamed him.
    “Maggie.” Shit. “I never could resist you.”
    Her smile was slow and provocative. She was so beautiful, with her wide, dark, understanding eyes and her come-fuck-me smile. “That’s what I am counting on.”
    “You didn’t conceive with your mate. What if I can’t give you a child?”
    “The selkies’ birth rate has been declining for centuries. It may be I am barren. If we cannot make a child together, we will do what other human couples do. Adjust. Adopt. I do not expect a miracle, Caleb.”

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    Her smile turned rueful. “Or only a very small one.”
    She ripped his heart.
    She tossed back her hair and stood, giving him another of her direct looks. “Do you want to make another list of reasons why this is a bad idea? Or do you want to make love?”
    Heat kicked in his groin. Caleb swallowed. He was so screwed. Or he would be, if he gave her half a chance.
    If he gave them a chance.
    “ Life is a