Bessa

The Swaying Sea

Swaying sea with rolling waves that do not cease.

Long, torturous pumps of my stomach squeeze out the last drops of bile that fall from the stern of the ship into the deep blue.

"You'll get used to it." His voice grabs the exposed flesh of my ankles before the salty breeze settles the layers of silk back around my legs. Wiping my mouth before pulling my scarf back over my face to cover everything but my eyes.

I wish my eyes were covered too.

"How much did you pay for me?" I want to dig my words into his gut; he never paid the full Luna price - my Kin will feel the shame of this. I've brought them shame; they will always be in the servitude to the Alpha. Nothing will be able to settle the debt that is owed to the pack.

"Less then you are worth." A rumble from his chest as my stomach slips on churning nausea that I thought was already expelled out minutes ago. His hand reaches out to try to take off my scarf, but I swat it away with the silver edge of the knife. His hands hold the scars that distort the pictures his flesh carries.

"My Kin will suffer because of that. You have brought great shame to my lineage." He doesn't seem to be suffering the way I am; his facial expressions do not change.

"They will be compensated in the future. I didn't feel the pressing need to become a servant to your Alpha, to your birth pack. I serve no one, and neither do you now. My pack will not be used as War to get the land your Alpha covets." His voice lowering as his body comes nearer, a roaring war of blood flushes the sound from my ears.

A heavy breath out trying to control the sound, my Nature trying to surface but the silver lining the inside of the shackles prevent the cocoon of skin from opening to release my Wild out.

"My Elders cautioned me not to allow the Alpha to speak - words are dangerous. Why do you think I brought no un-mated males, except my brother? We are educated in the ways of your birth pack, but it seems that your lineage, your kin have forgotten about our ways. The Old Ways, and if they remembered where they have come from, the teaching of our past. They would see how much they defile our Moon. Females aren't to be bartered for trade and held for ransom until the male has to pay beyond his means. The pack forgot the Exchange, how it's supposed to be. The Alphas have turned greedy, and that's what's going to destroy the pack one day." There is no harshness to his words but a downturned sadness before it's blinked away with dilating eyes that fall once again on my eyes.

Fingertips reach out, touching the blue silk at the corner of my jaw, he doesn't seem to learn quick, so I slice fleshy pad of his thumb again.

"Let me see your face." His hand drops to the side; he takes one slow step towards me.

"You haven't earned that right." Pointing the tip at his throat.

"I'm your mate." He stands taller, bolder. The glance between us lingers far too long before I can say the words that are stuck midway up my throat.

"That doesn't matter; you earn the right to see my skin, like all males, are supposed too. Just because you are a future Alpha means nothing to me. You earn the right, not take the right away from me." The knife now touches his throat because he has walked into the point of it.

The first drops of blood pool in the hollow of his throat, to overflow to create a path down his sternum, getting lost in the pictures that adorn his body from throat to foot.

"Do you think that would stop me from seeing what is mine." The male's hand twists the chain that's attached to my shackles making the knife drop from my grip, falling at my feet.Reaching down, he picks it up. The blade is lifting the hem of my skirt at the ankles exposing the skin.