Overboard Read online

  Overboard

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright© 2008 Shara Azod

  Cover Artist: Shara Azod

  Editor: Jennifer Puckettt

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews. Due to copyright laws you cannot trade, sell or give any ebooks away.

  © Shara Azod

  Chapter 1

  On a Cruise Ship in the Atlantic Ocean

  Dallas knew something was up. She sat at the table surrounded by vacation goers of the worst sort. Pretentious at best, this people in their silks and furs were the types her Uncle Mitch would have called onions -- all translucent layers and no core. Their chirping chatter held no interest to her. She was far more concerned with what her uncle’s widow and her child were planning. She watched Mae and her daughter, Belle surreptitiously from the corner of her eyes. She was flanked by the two women as if they were afraid she would escape from their greedy little clutches.

  Going on this cruise so soon after Uncle Mitch’s death had been a mistake. Dallas knew Mae and Belle were more than a little upset he had left his entire fortune to her, while they were to receive a monthly stipend that was far less than they had spent in a week when Uncle Mitch had been alive. What Dallas had not counted on was they would be so upset they would try to get rid of her.

  By pure chance, she saw Belle pour some kind of clear liquid into her wine, wine Mae had insisted she try. Dallas wasn’t much of a drinker, and she damned sure wasn’t about to drink when Belle and Mae were her only companions. But instead causing a scene and demanding Belle show everyone the vial and tell her what was in it, Dallas decided to play along. She held her glass to her lips intermittently without ingesting a drop. She wasn’t sure exactly what the mysterious liquid was supposed to do to her, so she simply followed Mae’s lead.

  The older woman pretended to be deep into a conversation revolving around some fashion designer’s latest collection, but Dallas noticed she seemed to pay an awful lot of attention to her. First were the expectant glances, then questions as to whether or not she was feeling all right. Dallas played along, pretending to be a little dizzy and slightly disoriented. Nothing could have been further from the truth. She was focused on the woman she called “aunt” out of respect for her uncle, but never when he was not around and never out of respect -- Dallas had no respect for the money grubbing selfish bitch.

  While Uncle Mitch was being eaten inside out by cancer, Mae and Belle were nowhere to be found. They never let his horrible disease get in the way of their social calendar or incessant spending sprees. The only thing either woman cared about was money and their own comfort. It had been Dallas who had sat with her uncle, watching him wither away from the robust man he had once been. He had been the only family she had ever known, now he was gone. There was no way in hell she was going to let all he had built up over his lifetime fall into the hands of these women.

  “You look tired, dear,” Mae gushed, her skeletal hands making the flesh on Dallas’ arms crawl as she attempted was supposed to be a caring gesture.

  Dallas didn’t have to fake the look of severe nausea.

  “I think I will go back to my cabin and lie down,” she effected what she hoped was a feeble voice as she carefully climbed to her feet.

  “Oh! We will go with you,” Mae twittered, her unnaturally high voice grating on Dallas’ last nerve. “Belle, come help me with your cousin.”

  Belle was NOT her damn cousin. She was Mae’s daughter, but she had never been Uncle Mitch’s child. He had adopted her when her married Mae and tried to be a father to her, but Belle was her mother’s daughter through and through. She had no desire to be close to Uncle Mitch. She only wanted what he could do for her.

  Just as soon as she got out of the dining room, she was going to confront these fake gold diggers. She was going to get them out of her life for good, unless they wanted to go to prison for attempted -- whatever they were attempting. She could easily overpower Mae. The woman was all of one hundred pound soaking wet. Belle was another story. Though Belle was naturally big boned, she was weak with no real muscle definition. She shouldn’t be a problem either.

  Dallas leaned a little bit too heavily on Belle, thoroughly enjoying the other woman’s labored puffing as the exited the dining room and made their way down the dimly lit passageway. She was just about to announce her pretense when her heel snagged on the carpeting, twisting her ankle and sending her sprawling toward the floor. Dallas tried to adjust her weight, pivoting her body a little too much in the opposite direction, causing her head to slam against the corner of the bulkhead.

  Spots danced in front of her eyes despite the fact her lids were closed. The world seemed to careen on its axis. She tried to pull herself up to her knees, but there was an invisible ton of bricks forcing her to stay down.

  “How much of that stuff did you give her?” she vaguely heard Mae hiss.

  “I gave her the whole vial.” That markedly low nasal whine was unquestionably Belle’s.

  Dallas wanted to snap at both women she was not so stupid as to drink what Belle had so clumsily dumped into her wine glass. Wanted to, but she couldn’t seem to open her mouth.

  She heard a sharp smack followed by Mae fuming, “She is supposed to drown you dumb twit! What if there is a toxicology report?”

  There was a whimper followed by silence. Mae was thinking, not a good sign.

  “Well, we will just have to change plans. We will dump her overboard as planned, but we won’t call out for help. We will just return to the dining room like nothing happened. Sometime tomorrow afternoon we will report her missing.”

  No! Dallas tried to scream, she tried to move her limbs to fight off the grasping hands dragging her toward the open deck, but nothing was working right. Her eyes refused to open, her mouth remained firmly shut in spite of her best efforts. She was helpless as she was drug across the cold deck, helpless as the two out of shape women struggled to prop her against the rail, and helpless as she was shoved over.

  Chapter 2

  In the Atlantic

  Thane floated on his back, enjoying the feel of the sun kissing his pelt with its golden rays. Life was good. His belly was full, the sun had finally come out to play and there was a very gorgeous human floating by hanging on to a piece of driftwood…

  Wait, human? Was a human doing floating around in the middle of Atlantic Ocean? There was no land within miles of here. Diving underneath the calm surface of the deep blue-green water, he swam over to where the little human hung on to her piece of wood.

  “What are you doing?” he asked , bobbing his head out of the water directly in her line of vision.

  The human took one look at him and screamed, her tenuous grip sliding from her makeshift life raft as her body slid under the water. That could not be good. As far as Thane knew, humans still couldn’t breathe under water. That’s when he remembered, he was still in seal form. His question had come out as such.

  “Oops.”

  Diving back under the surface, Thane shifted his upper body to human form so he could grab her. As long as he kept physical contact, she should be able to breathe without any complication. Being magical had perks like that.

  “What to do, what to do?”

  He could drop her and let the sharks have her. Humans were trouble, problems his kind didn’t need. Not that there were many of his kind left. Looking down at the creature in his arms, Thane was at first cur
ious, then quickly became entranced. Never had he seen a human with such dark mysterious skin. It was like onyx mixed with gold and copper. How fascinating. Its lips were full, like little kissable pillows, shaded a deep rose. He wondered what it would be like to taste such lips. He had heard tales of kissing humans. Some claimed there was immense joy to be found beneath the sheets with these creatures. Although female selkies were a dying breed, Thane had never been tempted. Women held very little interest for him. He enjoyed his solitude.

  The more he looked at her, the more Thane felt the stirring of something peculiar. He had never felt like this before. The thought of letting this little human become food for the simple headed sharks became increasingly abhorrent. No, the primitive creatures would not be tasting his newly discovered juicy morsel. This one was all his.

  “I suppose I have no choice but to keep her.”

  For now anyway.

  With a heavy sigh, Thane began the long swim toward land with his cargo. Taking her to the mainland was out. Times had changed, humans no longer believed in the people of the Otherworld. Some still lived among the ungrateful cretins, some shifter types and the like. There were even rumors not all the berserkers of the North had died out, but no one had seen one of the animal warriors in centuries. Most of the Fae, minor gods and goddesses, pixies, and brownies had retreated into a plane of their own making. There were still enchanted isles surrounding Scotland. Some of the less social druids maintained the place for solitude when they became tired of the pretense of living among the ignorant.

  Humans thought themselves to be so smart. None ever imagined the fantastic world that lived right in front of their eyes. No human eye, no metal launched into the sky, no navigation equipment could detect lands warded by those of the Otherworld. It wasn’t the only such enchanted isle, but he did not feel comfortable leaving the waters he knew so well to search out one. He would take her there.

  The trip took longer than it should have. Thane could not seem to stop himself from stopping ever so often to check his human’s breathing and to just stare. He noticed a nasty gash on her head. He had to take time to heal it, but not so much so she regained consciousness. It was so much easier when she was not awake to fight or scream.

  She really was beautiful. The most beautiful being he had ever seen. Mermaids with their bright exotic coloring and lush bodies didn’t have a thing on her. She was wearing some kind of fancy dress, a type of which he had never seen before. The almost sheer, wet fabric clung to the curves of her body, leaving very little to his imagination. Did all females have breasts so full that stood out so high? Her nipples were long and tight. Thane felt his mouth begin to water as he examined them through the light lilac color of the gown. He could just make out the darker circle at the peak of the round globes, with those delightful pointers, thrusting up at him. Even though the water this far north was frigid, he felt his entire body heat to dangerous levels. The seal pelt that encased his lower body felt unbearably tight.

  What the hell was she doing to him? She was not even awake, yet she had invaded every available spot in his brain! Perhaps she was no human at all, but a witch. A sorceress sent to tempt him, or a siren leading him to his doom. But wait, sirens sang a man to his demise, and Thane was no man. He was a selkie. An ancient mythical being. He had been on this earth for hundreds of years. He was no easy game for sirens, or any other Otherworldly person. Witches spells had no effect on him.

  Then why was he so fascinated by this little human? What was it about her that made his skin sizzle despite the cold waters?

  “I will take her to the isle for just a little while,” he promised himself. “Once she is recovered and I have worked her out of my system, I will return her to her world.”

  Even as the words left his lips, he knew them to be a lie. The longer he held her in his arms, the more he wanted her. The libido that had lain dormant for more years than he dared count had awoken with a vengeance. He did not want this tiny slip of a human for a few nights. He wanted to learn all her secrets. He wanted to know what treasures made her smile so that he could bring them to her. He wanted to see her belly swollen with his pups.

  Thane stopped dead in the water less than fifteen minutes to his destination. Oh, by the cruel, cruel Fates! After hundreds of years, just when he had stopped looking, hoping or wishing, Thane had found his mate!

  “And by the sea gods, she is…a human!”

  What the hell did he do now? Did he dive and take the unconscious woman to the council of elders to mate before she knew what was going on? Did he heal her and wait until she awakened, then explained things to her? Humans were not known to be open to Otherworld beings. Magic tended to freak them out a bit, at least that was what he had heard.

  Looking down at his now precious cargo, Thane noted the strength of her little chin. Although she was out cold, her fists were clenched as if ready to fight. This one was going to be feisty. In spite of his obvious dilemma, Thane couldn’t help but grin. Life was certainly about to get interesting. He couldn’t imagine a woman like this one standing meekly as the council inspected her for defect. Not that such a thing would stop a mating, it would just require a group healing rather than an individual one.

  Making a decision, Thane reversed course. He would compromise. He would have the elders inspect her now. When she woke up, he would explain the situation and make her his. Simple.

  Chapter 3

  On the Enchanted Isle

  Dallas was on fire, her skin burning from the inside out. She tried to move her arms, but they felt like they were bound by something. The last thing she remembered was drifting in the middle of the ocean, clinging to a piece of driftwood, and then…and then…

  Bolting straight up, Dallas gasped for breath, expecting to find herself sinking like a stone to the bottom of the ocean. She was shocked to find herself in a rather primitive looking cabin of some sort. Looking down she saw she couldn’t move her arms because she had been wrapped rather tightly in several coarse blankets. Where the hell was she? The last thing she remembered was some ginormous seal thing sticking it’s cold wet nose into her face, then she could have sworn the thing shifted into a man.

  Shaking her head as if that would clear the cobwebs, she glanced around. Maybe she had washed ashore and some kindly fisherman type saved her. That was why there was dead fish laying in her lap on top of the itchy blanket.

  Dead fish? With blood curling scream she flung the fish off her without touching the icky things. She liked her fish cooked -- period.

  “Auck! Woman, ye damned near busted my ears!”

  Dallas screamed anew at the strange, very nude man sitting in a chair right next to what she supposed was a bed of some sort. It felt as if it had been stuffed with straw and covered with a sheet.

  “Oh, and sure, do it again!”

  Dallas stopped screaming. The man scowled at her as if he had every right to be irritated with her. As if she were the one sitting there in all her glory, like it was the most normal thing in the world. And despite the fact his glory was very, very glorious indeed, it was damned freaky to be drowning one minute and waking with some naked stranger staring at you.

  “Well excuse the hell out of me!” she yelled at the rude little, okay, big man.

  As he stood, Dallas felt her eyes expand in her face exponentially. Really, really big man! He had to be pushing seven feet. His body was all muscles and smooth lightly tanned skin, and not one hint of hair, except at his-

  “Dear sweet Aunt Mary!”

  Now that was a cock! It looked like a freaking kickstand. And it wasn’t even hard! It just lay there, against his leg, like a python just waiting to attack. Then right before her eyes, it started to, gulp, grow. Soon it was pointing straight at her, as if accusing her of some heinous crime. Funny how she had a sudden near uncontrollable urge to confess, confess what she had no idea, but she was sure she could think of something.

  “Ye had best be getting used to it, seeing as how it’s yours now.” />
  She probably might have managed to pull her jaw off the ground and place her brain back in some kind of order, if it hadn’t been for that sentence. He had said it as if he was upset about it, like she had done something to him. Never mind the fact he had said it at all, which was just weird. What did his abnormal schlong have to do with her?

  “Look, dude-”

  “Thane.”

  “What?” This was just getting weirder by the minute.

  “My name is Thane, lass, your mate.”

  Fighting to extract herself from the scratchy blankets, which was harder than she ever believed, almost managed to calm a great deal of her anger. Whoever had wrapped her up apparently thought they were swaddling a baby. Probably Mr. Naked here. Finally free, she threw the offending things off of her and surged to her feet, pointing her finger upward in the generally direction of his face.

  “Look, Thane,” she laid the sarcasm as thick as she possibly could, to let him know she really didn’t give a shit what his name was. “I don’t know who you think you are, but I am not your anything! If you saved me, I thank you, though I think it was probably that odd looking seal. But you need to cover yourself and treat me with some kind of respect. I didn’t ask to be in this dilapidated little cottage of yours, but I will be damned if I’m staying. Just point me to the nearest phone and I am outta here!”

  “Ye doona like the cottage?”

  She was prepared for craziness, but the look of hurt than crossed his face made her regret her little tirade just a little teensy bit. She had ripped dude’s home after all. That was not very neighborly of her. She was just about to apologize when all of the sudden, she was standing in the most opulent room she had ever seen in her life. A huge platform bed made of a deep dark wood with four posts that were intricately carved at the four corners damn near touched the ceiling. The floor was covered with genuine honest to goodness Persian carpets, Queen Anne chairs were placed strategically around the room. The armoire, the knick knacks and all of the furniture looked immensely expensive.