Amanda returned to her cabin to find Sirius had also just got back. She sat down on their bed while she watched him change into a clean shirt.

  “How did you and Morgan meet?” she asked.

  As she asked her question he glanced her way. For a moment he studied her as if sensing some kind of trap. Finding none he continued with the shirt swap as he answered. “Well, she attacked our ship actually.”

  “What?”

  Sirius pulled the shirt off his head and turned with a smile. “I even fought her in battle.” His smile fell. “She whipped my arse.”

  “She beat you in a sword fight?”

  He nodded. “I was pretty wet behind the ears back then. This was under the old captain and he’d resorted to some unscrupulous methods for increasing our wealth.”

  “You practiced piracy?”

  He grimaced. “Among other things.”

  “Is that what Morgan was referring to when she mentioned you having a pirate flag on the ship?”

  Sirius nodded.

  “So, what happened? After you fought?”

  Sirius sat down on the bed beside her. “Well, she stripped our ship of most of it’s cargo, and then left us becalmed for several days with limited food and water. I think that was around the time I first heard talk of mutiny, although it wasn’t until much later that any plan was put into action.”

  “How old is Morgan?”

  “She’d be the same age as you.”

  “But she’s been sailing for…”

  “Since she was a girl I think. Longer than me. She didn’t much get on with her pack and werewolves don’t normally go to school… although you said your friend attended class?”

  Amanda nodded. “My friend is weird and he knows it.”

  Sirius nodded.

  “She called me into her quarters to have a chat,” Amanda told him.

  Sirius glanced over at her with a look that could have been worry.

  “About you I think,” she added. “Or you and I.”

  “Hmm.”

  “I think she wanted to get to know me. Or intimidate me. Or both.”

  “Did it work?” he asked.

  Amanda smiled. “No. Although she was lying in bed with three different men when I got there. They were mostly clothed.”

  Sirius nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like Morgan.”

  “Is she dating them all?”

  “I don’t know if she considers it dating but they are lovers, all three of them.”

  “Just the three of them?”

  Sirius gave her a confused look.

  “It’s just, she seemed kind of flirty with Leo too. I was wondering…”

  Sirius shook his head. “That’s just Morgan. As far as I know it’s just the three of them. Randy’s the newest. He joined them within the last year. Larska’s been with her the longest. He’s a good swordsman. Ferret’s her spy. Be careful what you say to him, the man could squeeze water from a rock.”

  “I don’t think I have any information she’d want.”

  “You’d be surprised what you know. I should have warned you before but shipment information has a lot of value and even little seemingly innocuous things can provide a shrewd sailor with a wealth of information.”

  “Is that why you were reluctant to tell Morgan about the dragon eggs?”

  Sirius nodded. “Not much of a choice there though. I hope Shiv can figure out something to do.”

  “Are you mad at him?” she asked.

  Sirius hesitated then sighed. “No.”

  Amanda studied him. His frown said otherwise. “Bluff.”

  He smiled. “Fine, I’m a little mad but in anger isn’t how I like to deal with things. When I see him again we will have a conversation, especially about the fact that he saw it fit to use you and your powers as his excuse. He should know better.” Sirius enunciated each word with controlled precision.

  Amanda wondered briefly what it would take to get Sirius properly mad. If there were such a thing. “So you and Morgan were never…”

  She trailed off as he fixed her with a look.

  “I was just… wondering…”

  Sirius cough of a laugh. “No, not that she didn’t try. But I think she caught on pretty quick that I wasn’t interested in her like that.”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “I mean, she’s an attractive woman so…” Amanda’s inner voice was yelling at her to stop but as usual it was far too slow to stop the words from reaching her mouth. She knew jealousy was not a good look.

  Sirius just had an amused expression on his face. “Come on, it’s time for dinner.”

  They sat together at dinner but they chatted to different people. She found herself seated next to Larska, which initially felt a little awkward given she’d basically seen him naked, but she soon got over that. Across the table Ferret watched her closely but didn’t talk much except to occasionally ask her a question.

  She was introduced to Pinto, the diver. He was younger than she’d expected and had brown hair that was even more unkempt and shaggy than Sirius’s. He kept constantly shaking it out of his head. He seemed excited to meet someone else who knew how to dive and happily talked about the wreck. Amanda noticed how Ferret kept trying to steer the conversation back to her.

  She met the previously mentioned Peaches, who was dark-haired with a long messy beard and who simply burped in reply when introduced, much to the chagrin of Larska who mumbled something about manners under his breath.

  Sirius sat on her left this time and he mostly talked with Morgan and the quartermaster Stinger. From the small snippets Amanda heard it mostly sounded like work talk.

  Food and empty glasses were brought out by Ryan, a bald telekinetic with a blonde beard. Soon after that, Rick came by carrying an oversized and likely extremely heavy barrel. Rick was also bald but was spouting a brown goatee rather than a full beard like Ryan. He went around the table pouring everyone a glass of what smelt like delicious beer.

  Amanda’s heart leapt at the smell of it. Oh, how she’d missed the taste of beer. That and her guitar were the two things she’d constantly wished for on the island. But her stomach twisted as she remembered Sirius’s bet about not drinking for a week. A week hadn’t seemed like very long but it had already been so long since she’d had a drink. Surely she didn’t have to start straight away? She could start tomorrow.

  As Rick got closer with the beer, Amanda glanced toward Sirius. He was staring right at her. Amanda glanced away. She watched Rick fill Larska’s cup next to her. Not a single man had refused the drink. Surely it would be rude to do so?

  As if to hit that point home, Morgan then spoke, “This is Rick’s brew. Him and Stinger both make a batch.”

  “Stinger’s is best,” Larska told her in an almost snobby sort of tone.

  Amanda could just make out a few agreeing nods from the other end of the table.

  This caused Rick to pause and scowl at Larska. “Hey now, if you don’t want any just say so.”

  “I didn’t say that,” replied Larska simply as he wrapped his hands protectively around his beer.

  Rick reached for Amanda’s glass to fill it. His words echoed in her head. ‘If you don’t want any, just say so.’ The problem was she did want some, oh how she wanted some. She held her tongue and avoided looking at Sirius. She felt a little less guilty when she saw Sirius accept some beer as well but when she met his eyes she could see him giving her a thoughtful look.

  She had another two beers throughout the meal as she chatted with this new crew. They were a little more reticent and less boisterous than Sirius’s crew although she found once she focused on talking to the right people sometimes others around them would open up more as well. Pinto was more than happy to chat about diving and all the places he’d been. When he got onto the topic of food in different ports it seemed to lure Larska further into the conversation.

  At one point there was a shuffle of seats and Stringer came over to sit by Amanda. She soon found, despite her initial impressions of him, that he was actually one of the easiest people to talk to, especially if the topic was his beer. Apparently, he and Rick had an ongoing competition to see whose beer was better.

  Amanda was a little disappointed that they didn’t seem to have a musician on board but when she voiced this thought, Pip, the only other woman on board the ship apart from Morgan and the chef, spoke up and said that she could play a few songs on the recorder. That statement prompted several exclamations of ‘no’ from the rest of the crew.

  At one point Sirius got up and bid them all good night. Amanda was about to go with him when she heard someone mention the word, ‘poker’.

  She noticed Sirius look back then and catch her eye. Then he gave her a resigned knowing sort of smile. He left. Amanda stayed. Just a few rounds she told herself.

  Larska and Ferret were both surprisingly good but no match for Amanda. Ferret seemed to adapt faster and he adjusted his style to be a little more conservative but it worked well and Amanda found she had to pay close attention to him. He was a good loser though and at one point when she out-bluffed him she saw him actually smiling. Larska was the opposite and did not take so well to losing. He spent the latter half of the game mumbling about his poor luck while making worse decisions than he had earlier.

  Peaches played too but he said little more than grunts and mumbles and he made weird plays that made no sense. Amanda wasn’t sure if it was because he was just really drunk or if there was something else wrong with him. Whatever it was, everyone else just seemed to ignore him, except for Larska who occasionally shot him annoyed glances.

  Stringer kept getting distracted by conversation, especially whenever Rick mentioned something about brewing. Randy, despite his sunglasses being on again, was both a poor player and all too easy to read. Marianne wasn’t half bad except occasionally she’d get excited about her hand forgetting that bluff was a key part of the game. Once she did manage to pull that off on what Amanda was later pretty sure had actually been a bad hand.

  By the end of the night most of them had warmed up to her and even Ferret was more open to talking about himself. Morgan watched them in amusement for awhile but at some point she left as well. Eventually Amanda decided to call it a night too.

  “Oh, good, now I’ll actually have a chance at winning!” proclaimed Marianne as Amanda bid them good night.

  “In your dreams,” Stringer retorted as Amanda headed for the door.

  Their banter continued and slowly faded as Amanda made her way back to her shared cabin. She was surprised to find Sirius was still awake when she returned. He was sitting in bed reading a book.

  “What are you reading?” she asked.

  He tilted it so she could see. Her eyes caught the words ‘haunting’ and ‘manor’. “More ghost stories?” she asked. She kicked off her shoes and climbed up on the bed next to him.

  “Just the one long story.” He shifted sideways a little and lifted his arm so she could cuddle up close.

  She leaned against his chest and listened to his heartbeat. It felt like it had been a long day. She thought about how nice it would be to just fall asleep like this.

  “So, I guess I win our bet,” Sirius said in a softly teasing voice.

  She sat up and then turned to look at him, still partially leaning against him. “No way. It wasn’t specified when the week had to start from, just that it was to be done once we were off the island.” She tapped his chest with her finger. Then she paused. “Unless that was just you trying to initiate something?”

  He gave a gentle laugh and shook his head. “No sex when you’re-”

  “No sex when I’m drunk.” She rolled her eyes and resumed her spot in the crook of his arm. “Yeah yeah. Although I think you’re missing out on some grand fun.”

  She felt him laughing again, just as quiet as before.

  “Anyway, with regards to the drinking. It’s our first night here. It’s good to build rapport.”

  “Hmm, so you’ll start tomorrow then?”

  “Exactly. Tomorrow. Unless Stringer brings out some of his beer in which case I’ll start the the day after.”

  She heard him snort a huff of air out his nose.

  “Well I can’t only try Rick’s beer. The crew all said Stringer’s is better anyway.”

  “What if you start tomorrow and then he brings it out in three days?”

  Amanda considered it. “I guess I’d have to start over.”

  Another huff of air.

  She smiled but was feeling suddenly very sleepy. Snuggling up to him she whispered, “Tell me a ghost story.”

  He obliged.

  She fell asleep before he’d finished it.