Love at Sea by Preston Walker

Author:Preston Walker [Walker, Preston]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-03-11T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

The work was grueling. A week’s worth of sedate practice had left Ash completely unprepared for the reality of life as a crab fisherman.

Everyone was given these special heavy vests that were supposed to help them in case they fell off the edge of the boat, but Ash had no idea how that was supposed to work when the thing was so damn heavy. Maybe there was something to pull on it that would turn it into a flotation device? Like one of those life-saving rafts that blew up during an avalanche, or a parachute? If so, he’d missed that part of the instructions. Oh well. He had learned his lesson from before and wouldn’t get so close to the edge, that was all. Nothing to worry about.

Degasi piloted the hydraulic system. The others were in charge of preparing the crab pots, making sure they were in proper shape and loading them with bait.

Skip’s eyes gleamed as he went below the decks of the ship and came back up with an enormous, foul-smelling box. Ash eyed it warily. “Uh… What the hell is that?”

“Bait!” Skip said, a mischievous glint in his expression. “Arctic cod, nice and cold and raw!”

“Gross,” Hank growled.

Skip chuckled while Matteo watched on, peeling the lid of the box off to show a layer of whole, raw cod on ice. They all watched, one of them with glee and two with twin expressions of bemusement that belied their differences, as Skip produced a dagger from his belt. He slid the sharp blade easily into the stomach of the fish, dragging it down all the way to the tail and then pulled the fish in half the rest of the way with his bare hands. Ash felt his stomach turn as he saw the insides of the fish, the intestines and lungs, and everything else.

I have to agree with Hank. Gross.

He expected Skip to open up the cage and toss the bifurcated fish inside, but instead the beta speared a weird, orange organ on the tip of his dagger and held it up. “Who’s brave enough?”

“Brave enough to…” Ash tilted his head.

“Eat the heart! It’s initiation time!”

Oh, god. No way.

Hank grunted and reached out for the dagger. “We’re wolves. This is stupid.”

Skip’s eyes kept glittering, and Ash winced as the cod heart disappeared between the alpha’s lips.

For a moment, he was prepared to be impressed. Then, Hank lurched over to the side of the boat and vomited.

Skip laughed hysterically and then turned to Ash, amusement brimming in his eyes. “I won’t make you eat that one.”

“Do I have to do this? Is it safe?”

Skip shrugged. “No, you don’t have to but it would impress Linden if you did. And…” he leaned in real close, “…it would give you a leg up over Hank.”

Ash swallowed hard. Skip seemed to take that as permission to go ahead and start splitting another fish in half. The heart offered to him was a disgusting, amorphous blob; despite himself, he couldn’t stop staring at it, inspecting its surface.

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