Waveborn

25

"I guess I was wrong."

Cass had no idea how much time had passed when she heard Selena's voice, as familiar as her own. The sun had dropped toward the horizon, its light on the waves blinding her.

Amak pushed against her hand, hard, reminding her that she was supposed to be scratching his back.

She squinted at the sun-spotted water. "Wrong? What do you mean?"

Water splashed to her left. Cass kicked around to see Selena's head break the waves only a few strokes from her. "I was wrong about you being completely human. Amak sees something of worth in you."

Happiness thrilled through her. She did hear the orca's name. "I think he likes me."

"Obviously. The question is, why?"

White arms flashed as Selena closed the distance between them. She bobbed in the wave beside Cass, riding it up and down in rhythm with her movement. "Amak's mother was our mother's bondmate."

Cass looked from the orca to Selena. "Bondmate?"

"It's a pairing, orca and Serra. We travel with the orcas, with all of them, but this is something more. Bondmates are like...like kin. More than kin, because with time our hearts connect and we share each others' thoughts."  Selena motioned at Amak. "He would be yours. As you said, he likes you."

Cass blinked drops of water from her lashes, extended her hand as Amak glided past again. "Did you know my mother?" she whispered.

She felt a wave of...of other flood her mind: she saw a world of white-streaked aqua, a mirror surface above. A woman with a familiar cloud of red hair swam ahead of her; an immense orca swam at her right, so close that her nose nearly touched the orca's pectoral fin and their sides brushed against each other. It was known as mother/calf position. 

She was seeing a memory, through Amak's eyes.

In front of them, the woman turned, swinging a child through the water.

In a heartbeat, the sense of other disappeared and Cass was just herself again. She felt a wave buoy her up and drop her, felt the moment her fingers lost contact with Amak's flank. In the next heartbeat, another memory flashed: swimming with her mother, only this time with only two orcas, one adult and one calf. Her memory, mirroring what Amak had just shown her.

Salt water slapped into her mouth, making her choke and open her eyes. She was still riding the waves far from shore. Selena still floated beside her. Amak dove and resurfaced, tracing a broad loop around them.

Selena smirked at her. "Didn't you expect him to answer?"

"No," Cass breathed. "How did...what happened?"

"He gave you his thoughts. That's what bondmates do."

Cass spun in place, tracking the orca. "Is he my bondmate, then?"

"No, not yet, although you've obviously begun the process. It doesn't happen all at once."

"Do you have a bondmate?"

For the first time, a smile-a real smile-flashed across Selena's face. Without answering, she dove. Even above the water's surface, Cass could hear what sounded like a whistle, exactly like an orca's. When she surfaced a moment later, a black shape glided alongside her. "This is Adlartok. She is three years old."

Without warning, Amak shoved up under Cass's feet, sliding her down the slope of his back as he broke clear of the water. Her hands reached automatically for his dorsal fin, but he twisted; she dropped off his side into the water with a squawk. Her heart was pounding louder than the waves. She was playing with an orca. Playing with him.