But I can’t stop myself from speaking to her.
“Youwillregret your choice.”
Chapter ten
Delphini
Whilemostoftheship’s crew are good pirates listening to their captain, a handful have decided I am not a complete loss. At dinner the first night, I stood in line as Aoife directed me to and waited to be handed our evening meal. When the giant woman with tusks and blue-grey skin refused to serve me, acting as if I didn’t exist in the line for food, it took a half-bird girl’s intervention to get me a plate.
“Give her a plate,” she demands.
“Captain’s orders-” the woman grumbles.
Her talon-tipped fingers wrapped around the nearest tusk, and she dragged their faces together. “She got here the same way we all did, Cookie. Feeding her won’t get you in trouble.”
I take my plate and run before she can change her mind.
Nargol, for as much as I probably got her in trouble, sits next to me. She runs through all the crew members names, even waving the shy Lakelynn over to sit with us. It isn’t against the rules to sit with me. Just talk to me. When we are officially introduced, Nargol spends the rest of dinner going on and on about damn near everything under the sun. Scheduling issues she was having with Aoife, her plans for her day off on Sunday, the next time the chef, Cookie, is planning on making her famous carrot cake.
The info dump should be overwhelming, and to most I guess it is. But every word that comes out of her mouth takes me one step closer to getting to know the captain, to getting in with the new place I am calling home. Even if Aoife interrupts Nargol’s story about Neela, another siren on board, glitter bombing the training room by accident, to tell me I have to go wash all the dishes from supper.
Friday and Saturday are a blur of work. Nobody recognises me, or if they do they keep it to themselves. I’m Del, and everyone who speaks to me wants to know why the captain locked me up. There must have been a reason, but I can’t tell them. If they don’t know I am human, maybe it is safer that way for now.
My focus is on the captain anytime she walks by, though, and maybe that is telling enough for the crew. I do my best to look presentable, perhaps even cute despite having my hair all shoved into a sleek bun to keep it from touching something gross. I make sure to smile and greet her with every ounce of positivity my body possesses in its exhausted state. For the most part, she just grunts, and I know I am getting to her.
Last night, when I complimented her scarf, she turned bright red.
It’s evident to me that she respects the work of her crew greatly, that she is a fair leader to them, and enjoys providing for them. The captain likes to keep everyone on board as happy as possible, given the circumstances of how we all became a member of this crew. She shows it in the way she speaks to them and interacts with them all.
Even if she is a massive grump about literally everything else. All the pieces of her puzzle are coming together in my mind.
Between scrubbing a million dishes and hauling laundry, it hasn’t been too hard to pick up on the ins and outs of the ship. If I’m not watching the captain, studying every movement she makes, I listen to the crew speak to each other. There’s normal gossip about seeing a tourist pick their nose or someone flirting with a human and then there are the occasional bits of salacious victory stories.
One of the girls on the crew is dating a succubus, so they are all keeping an orgasm raffle going. Seeing how I have nothing of monetary value, excluding the magic pearls I stashed away, I didn’t make a bet on Friday night when Joanie strutted out of the main hall to the docks.
“Takin’ a walk around the dock is code,” Nargol whispers to me. But I recognised the look on Joanie’s face as she was leaving, and it was one that screams how ready she is to get laid. Fuck, I probably wear the same expression every time I look at the captain.
Outside of that and one story from Aoife, of all people, I get the impression they don’t leave the ship unless they have to. Everyone’s whole life is here. Why do they need the outside world?
But that is another mark in my favour. It allows me to be anonymous and test out this new Delphini who openly bares her attraction to a woman who doesn’t want her back. Nobody judges me for it either because I’m not the first woman to try and gain her favour.
“Here is the name of that book I mentioned at breakfast,” I say, handing her a paper towel I scribbled on.
“Thanks, babes.” She smiles, her blunt tusks touching her upper lip. “You doing okay?”
“Eh,” I shrug. “I wish the captain would speak to me.”
“Captain’s always kept to herself,” Nargol sighs as she tugs on her boots. I lean against her door frame while she gets ready to work a night security shift on the deck. It’s something I’ve noticed that only the crew who can’t pass in the daylight do. “She doesn’t like to be touched and from what I’ve heard, hasn’t taken anyone, like ever, to bed. And trust me, many have tried.”
“Maybe she doesn’t like sex?” I offer. If my soulmate doesn’t like sex, that’s fine, but I’d wish she’d fucking talk to me about this.
“She likes to watch.” The orc woman stands, stretching her muscular frame. “She’s in that bath just as much as the rest of us.”
“Maybe she’s waiting for someone.”
Nargol squints at me. “You know more.”
“I know that I want the Captain.” I flick an exposed string on the pink stay I am still wearing. “And I am used to getting what I want.”
