I Taught a Siren to Court... Then Became His Mate novel · Chapter 6 of 32

Chapter 6: Lobster Rolls

She went down without a ripple.

I ran the whole mile to Margie's in my boots.

Jet was sitting on the end of the dock in the fire department sweatshirt, waiting for his lesson.

He stood up when he saw my face.

"Who's the woman with the red hair?" I said.

He went still.

It wasn't the careful stillness he'd had over my father's watch.

This one was cold.

"Where did you see her?"

"In the harbor. Ten minutes ago. She talked inside my head and told me I have until the tide."

He looked at the water past the moorings for a long time.

"We call her the Red Mother," he said. "She's the eldest. She's been the eldest since before your town had a church."

"She's the one who chooses. On the tide."

"Yes."

"And who did she choose for you?"

His mouth went flat.

"Herself."

I sat down hard on the planks.

"Jet. She's ancient."

"She looks thirty-five," he said. "She's looked thirty-five since the English came."

"Does she know about me? About the lessons?"

"She knows you cut the net. She knows you took Minnow back from them." He crouched in front of me. "She won't touch you before the tide. She wants the tide to be perfect. She'll want you to watch."

He looked so grim that I did the only thing I could think of.

"Lesson three is tomorrow," I said. "Dinner. Bring something you caught yourself."

He came up the ladder at dusk the next day with four lobsters in his arms.

A fifth was hanging off his ear by one claw.

"Don't laugh," he said.

I laughed so hard I had to sit down.

Margie came out to the dock, took one look, and checked every lobster's tail for a V-notch and a tag.

"Wild," she said, surprised. "Not out of my traps. Not out of anybody's."

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