"S-s-sorry," Sirius stammered between shudders.

  Amanda could feel him pushing up hard against her. She could feel him pulsating inside her. Between gasps of her own she reached up with her hands and pulled his face down so she could kiss him, deeply and passionately.

  "Never," she said between kisses, "apologize for enjoying yourself."

  "But you didn't cum yet."

  He was still moving his hips slightly. Her own fingers were a little higher up doing gentle circles. It took her a moment to remember how to speak again. "No. Not yet." She pressed her finger to his lips before he could distract her with words again. Right now she wasn’t focused on him. Well she was, just not that part of him.

  After a few seconds he asked, “Do you want me to do anything specific?”

  “Shh,” she replied. But a moment later, “Actually, let me on top. Stay inside me.”

  He cocked a dark eyebrow but with expert skill, he tucked one hand under her bare back and then rolled them both over so their positions were reversed. She liked the top, it meant she could control the movement.

  From somewhere above them, there came the sound of howling.

  Amanda paused and frowned. “What’s that?” She knew it was the wolves but she didn’t know why.

  “The Howling,” Sirius replied. “Ignore it.”

  That was easy enough to do, but vaguely she asked, “The Howling?”

  “I’ll tell you after.”

  She felt his fingers trace their way gently up to her belly, all the way to her breasts and then back down again. It immediately took her mind off whatever was happening elsewhere on the ship. A few intoxicating moments later she came to her own shuddering conclusion, then she rolled off him and curled up against his side, her skin on his skin.

  “What’s the Howling?” she asked after a several seconds of contented silence. He had made it sound like an event rather than an action.

  He smiled lazily down at her and took his time answering. “It’s a full moon tonight and the werewolves have their own version of singing.”

  She listened as more howls filled the air and as she listened she noticed something she hadn’t noticed while she’d been otherwise preoccupied. The sounds they made were almost musical. She’d heard howling around Little Rock before but they’d always been distant, hidden away in the surrounding forests. Now, they were up close and amplified by the walls of the ship she could hear them much better than she usually could. Now that she was paying attention, she found them hauntingly beautiful. There was a rhythm to them, and a melody to the way they all combined together with different tones and resonances.

  “Come on,” Sirius said as he slipped out of the bed and reached for his pants. “You don’t want to miss this.”

  She got dressed and followed him up to the deck.

  There they found more than just the singing of the wolves. It really was a whole performance. In the middle of the deck, surrounded by the rest of the watching crew, two wolves were fighting, one black, one white. Randy and Larska were taking lunges at one another as they circled around and around. Snips and snaps that bared fierce teeth but which never landed a blow or drew blood. The more Amanda watched the more she realised that it wasn’t a fight at all, but a dance orchestrated to look like one.

  Sirius led her around the edge of the crowd and they found a spot on the other side, up high on the edge of the raised aft deck, where they could sit and watch.

  “They’re dancing,” Amanda remarked to Sirius. They way they moved with ferocity and grace all at the same time made it hard for Amanda to take her eyes off them.

  “They are,” he replied with a smile that suggested he was impressed she’d realised that.

  He hadn’t had his eyes on the wolves when she’d initially glanced at him though. To look at her, he’d had to drop his chin down. Instead, before she’d spoken, his eyes had been on the stars.

  They were bright tonight and the sky was clear and well lit by the giant glowing moon. “You see those stars every night,” she teased. She found his love for them quite endearing though.

  He smiled softly, glanced skyward again and then down toward the dancing wolves, before finally looking at her. “Not every night. They’re always beautiful though, even when you can’t see them.”

  Together they sat in silence, side by side, watching the wolves perform their strange dances and sing their haunting melodies. After awhile Amanda felt they weren’t all as hauntingly sad as they first seemed. Some even managed to be optimistic and upbeat and the dances ranged from staged fights to scenes that were almost too intimate to watch.

  As Amanda sat beside Sirius and watched the performances, she felt some of his seamen slipping out between her legs. That was one downside of unprotected sex. She hoped it would not create an obvious wet patch. It was reasonably dark up on deck at least and it wasn’t like they were moving from this spot anytime soon.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  They probably should find some more condoms. At the very least it was tidier. But the truth was she kind of liked the mess of it. Feeling a piece of him slipping out between her legs was like having a little secret. She said nothing and leaned against him. He put his arm around her in response. Given she knew he didn’t sleep around much she wasn’t worried about catching anything. The bigger issue was pregnancy, but Amanda was convinced that given the time of the month it was a relatively low risk.

  Her friend, Sam had been using that method to have unprotected sex for years and had never gotten pregnant. Eventually they would have to find some more condoms though. Despite being pretty sure she was in a safe period for having unprotected sex, she couldn’t actually remember how long she’d been out at sea. The days blurred together and weeks were hardly mentioned. Surely it hadn’t been that long had it? Anyway, Sam had always said the trick was not having sex right after your period so as long as she avoided that, she’d be fine.

  She didn’t think she’d ever felt happier than she did right then, feeling his comforting warmth and strength beside her, the remnants of his passion between her legs, the flush of her cheeks, the crowd of friends, and the stunning show all combined into something magical.

  For a moment she let her mind wander forward. Would it even be so bad if she did get pregnant? She imagined him as a father, so loving and so caring. Sure, they’d only really just met and it was probably far too soon to be thinking about such things, and yet, amidst the magic of the night for a few brief moments she let herself dream of things she’d barely ever given thought to before.

  But then came a pause in the wolves' performance and Morgan gave a speech. It was quick and to the point, and it mirrored Amanda’s first morning of this day. It was a nod to those who had died. Not just Pinto and Miles, but others who had been lost in the earlier fight.

  It brought Amanda crashing back down to earth. Whatever the future held in store, a ship was no place to raise children. She was reminded once again, how different her life back home was to this here life on the sea. The night was like a magical ball people talked about in fairy tales, but just like a magical ball, it could not last.

  That night Amanda dreamed she was drowning. That the sea kept pulling her down while she struggled to swim up toward the shiny constantly moving surface above her. A face looked down at her from the other side of the water. She could make it out as Sirius’s face but she couldn’t reach him and he wasn’t reaching out for her, he was just looking down as if he could not see her at all.

  “Help!” she tried to call out, but water filled her mouth and throat.

  A hand gripped her ankle. She tried to shake it off and when she looked down to see what or who it was, Pinto’s lifeless face stared back up at her. Then he opened his mouth wide and took a bite out of her ankle.

  She kicked harder than ever for the surface but no matter how hard she kicked she was stuck in one place, the surface forever just out of reach. And she could no longer see Sirius’s face looking down.

  “No,” she tried to cry out again. “I’m here. I’m down here. Don’t leave me!”

  “Amanda. Amanda.” Gentle hands shook her awake.

  She opened her eyes and gasped for easy air. “What day is it?” she asked, her memories of time travel still not far from her mind.

  “It’s night,” came Sirius’s calm reply. “Almost midnight. We defeated The Slicer and her crew today.”

  “Almost midnight?” She sat up suddenly worried. “What if everything resets at midnight...” Her words trailed off and she came to her senses. That wasn’t how it worked and she knew it. The infusement was gone. She wasn’t going to suddenly wake up on the same day again.

  Sirius held her, one arm wrapped around her and gently stroked her arm. The cabin was dark but she could feel him there right beside her, feel the warmth of his breath on her cheek. It was enough.

  “Well, I’ll stay up until midnight with you then,” Sirius assured her. He didn’t know anything about time travel magic and she knew he couldn’t have helped if that was how things had worked but still he comforted her.

  “It’s okay,” she told him. “I’m awake now. I’m sorry for waking you.”

  “You’re the one who told me not to apologise for bad dreams, remember?” Still, his hand caressed her comfortingly and he hugged her tight against his body.

  She nodded. “I remember. Sorry.” Realising what she’d just said she gave a brief laugh and then added, “and sorry for apologising.”

  In that jovial tone she loved to hear in his voice he replied, “See, I told you it’s hard not to say it.”

  She laughed softly again and leaned in closer against him. “You did.”

  For awhile they stayed like that, him just holding her.

  Eventually she spoke. “I just can’t help thinking, if I’d gone back earlier or done any number of things differently then maybe...”

  Sirius filled her pause with a reply. “You did the best you could with what you had.”

  “Did I?”

  “I’m sure of it.” He sounded as confident as he ever did.

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I know you.”

  “Do you?” she asked even though she already believed him, she just wanted to listen to the sound of his voice.

  She felt him nodding. “I know you have freckles on your thigh that look like the southern cross.”

  She laughed. “What? I do not, do I?” She half-pulled the sheets away in an attempt to check but it was too dark to see anything so she gave up and leaned back against him. “That doesn’t count.”

  “Does.”

  “Tell me a story?” she requested in a whisper when she could think of nothing better to reply than ‘does not.’

  “Hmm how about a poem?”

  “You know a poem?”

  “I know several, you might find it sad though. I think it’s more bittersweet.”

  “Well, that fits. All your stories are sad.” When he didn’t reply she added. “Go on then, tell me a poem.”

  It turned out to be more of a song than a poem and Sirius sang it well. It was the first time she’d heard him sing and Shiv had been right, Sirius did have a good voice, deep and gentle and extremely soothing. In the quiet of the ship, as the clock struck midnight, his words spun her softly back to sleep.

  He woke her the next morning with some gentle nudges and when she sat up she could see he was already dressed.

  “Come on,” he said. “There’s something you should come see.”

  Half asleep, she got dressed and followed him up to the deck. What she saw on the horizon woke her the rest of the way up. Instead of open water like she had gotten used to there was land, and not just a little island like the last two places they’d stopped. This land spanned as far as the eye could see in both directions. They had reached a coastline of some sort. In one little cove, just before a narrow piece that jutted out, Amanda could see buildings, a dusty red in colour as if the sun had been setting and gotten stuck, as well as a large port surrounded by ships scattered out across the bay. Up on the hill, there was a building that looked vaguely castle like. It was more square than pointy but it had tall walls and the little notches in the top, likely added more for beauty than practical purposes given how short they were. It was the same dusty red colour as many of the other buildings and nestled tightly among them such that it was hard to see where one building ended and the next began. This wasn’t just a little town. This was a proper city.

  Sirius turned to her and said with a smile, “Welcome to Scarlett.”