Vengeance of a Pirate Lord, page 1
Chapter 1
Pirate Hideout: Home base Alpha / Monster Isle - Day 15 since arriving at Hidden Cove
“Who’d have thought making a secret base would be so damn hard?” my lover complained.
I stopped what I was doing, midway through sorting out yet another piece pf paperwork, to glare at the feisty wood elf in the corner of the room. Though Dew hadn’t done much to help us set up our new base, that hadn’t stopped her from complaining every step of the way.
It wasn’t that I didn’t understand what annoyed her so much. She was used to a life of freedom and adventure, and ever since we’d met, she’d had just that.
But now here she was, trapped in a dark, dank cave watching me fill out forms, while we prepared for our new life together. Before that, she’d been stuffed into a corner of my room aboard my newly christened dreadnought, the Overkill.
But at least we had time to spend together.
Well, ‘together’ might be a bit of a stretch, as was ‘time’.
Freya spent most of her days assisting Smith with rebuilding the pirate fleets, bigger and better than before—Kaede worked right alongside her, as an assistant. After a few failed attempts to similarly be of assistance, Dew had been passed back in my direction, in the hope things might go smoother if she tried to help me, instead.
The answer in a word—No.
Thankfully, I already had someone who’d taken on the bulk of paper shuffling.
“This pile is already done.” Arianna gave me a faint smile as she dropped a large stack of papers onto the side of my new desk. “Keep your chin up, Wesley. We’re almost done!”
“No, we aren’t almost done. At all.” I sighed as I looked at the stacks and stacks of papers strewn about my ‘office’. The mere sight of paper stacks had come to make me want to vomit, and one more glance at the pile before me was enough to make me toss down my pen in frustration. “Fuck this mess, if I spend another minute on this today, my brain is going to melt.” I stood up and stretched mightily, my back popping an unhealthy number of times.
“Take a break, Ari. I’m going to go speak with Jean.”
“Just speak with her, huh?” Dew perked up as she joined me, striding toward the exit of this chamber. “You sure you don’t want it to go any further with her than just ‘speaking’, pretty boy?”
“Not right now, no.” I grinned and pulled my cute little troublemaker close to my chest the moment we stepped out into the corridor. “Why do I need her, when I already have you?”
Dew melted into my grasp with a giggle. She didn’t even bother to check if anyone could see her as she brushed her hand down my chest, lower and lower as she moved toward her target-
“At it again, are ya?”
Speak of the devil… the woman in question appeared as though she had been summoned. I knew full well, though, that she’d likely been hanging around outside my office, ready to strike when the opportunity presented itself.
“Jean. Long time no see.” Dew turned her head just enough to give the sultry Pirate Lord a nod, but even having an audience didn’t stop her hand from inching lower and lower. “And what is it you want with my pretty boy?”
“Believe it or not, it’s business rather than pleasure.” Jean raised her eyebrow quizzically as she watched Dew’s less than subtle flirtations. “If ya get him all hot and bothered now, I won’t see either of ya for hours.”
“Fine.” Dew pulled my head down for one last deep kiss before releasing me once more. “I expect him back in the same condition, Jean.” She winked at me. “Wes, I’ll be in our room. Don’t keep me waiting.”
Jean and I both watched as Dew sauntered away, her hips sashaying from side to side with an exaggerated swagger that couldn’t be accidental.
Even Jean seemed to have been affected by my companion’s seductive flirting, and she had to force herself to look away and back in my direction with difficulty.
“What’s wrong, Jean? Came to save me from the paperwork?” I thumbed back at my office with a disgruntled frown. “Bit too late, if so. You need to work on your timing.”
“Unfortunately, no, big boy.” Jean chuckled softly as she turned away. “Come on, Smith is waiting, along with yer friend from the Seventh Fleet.”
I noted the irritation in her tone when she mentioned our unnamed guest. Only after the elderly leader of the mysterious Seventh Fleet had agreed to it, had I revealed his identity to my fellow Pirate Lords. Neither had taken the revelation well.
The fact he’d already passed control of his fleet over to me —one of the largest, even before our less than casualty free escape from The Ridge—had annoyed them even more.
‘A bloody monopoly’, Smith had called it, not that his anger seemed to be genuine. Jean, on the other hand, had just gone on and on about keeping secrets from her for close to a quarter of an hour.
But after that initial awkwardness, the daily meetings of our new Pirate Lord High Council had gone on without a hitch. Two weeks had passed since our skirmish with the Elven Navy, and still our new home, code named Home base Alpha by an insistent Smith, had only just started coming together.
Our daily agenda had been chocked full since the day we first entered our new home.
First on the list, was supplies and housing. No point in having an army of pirates behind us if they all ended up dying of thirst. Or starvation. Or exposure.
But even those basic needs had been difficult to resolve.
The route up the cliff to Monster Isle far above was slow and arduous at the best of times, and deadly at the worst. Though we’d cannibalized the most damaged vessels remaining in the pirate fleet, housing was at a minimum.
After traveling for so long, only having to provide for myself and my companions, having such fundamental needs driving every decision had become a concern. It wasn’t that I hadn’t considered the logistics required to house, feed, and care for so many people, of course, but the extent of the problem far exceeded my inexperienced estimates.
Maybe we’d kept on too many of Daemon and Wraith’s followers.
Not many looked on the survivors fondly, after their masters had betrayed the Pirate Fleet. It had come out that Daemon had supported Wraith’s plan to abandon The Ridge in an attempt to join up with the Elven Navy.
Well, that may have been a rumor Jean spread amongst her followers, but I wouldn’t have put it past the little prick.
But we needed to get those issues sorted before we could move onto the overarching issue facing the fleet: the Elven Council’s plan to take over the world.
Sounds a bit melodramatic, even after having to explain it several times to Jean, Smith, and several others, but it was the best way to describe what I believed to be their objective. Bringing behemoths under their control, making power moves throughout the continent against other races, including the Desert Elves and Wood Elves—these things all pointed to some grand, nefarious scheme.
“There you are. I was getting worried young Jean had led you astray.” Smith gave me a friendly wave as Jean led me into a well-appointed meeting room. Though Franklin had technically renounced his command of the Seventh Fleet, I had persuaded the other two to invite him to the meetings we held.
“Young ones do like their fun.” The croaky voice of the elderly figurehead of the Seventh Fleet wheezed, as he tapped the head of his cane against the table. “But first, to the matter at hand. What is the plan for our new hideout? My people are getting restless, and I doubt me even another speech from our glorious leader would calm them down.”
It took me a moment to realize who Franklin meant.
I was the leader of the Seventh Fleet and, technically at least, a majority of the rest of the pirate fleets. It’d nearly been enough to break up the council.
Smith wouldn’t admit it, but the only reason he’d kept his seat was because of my repeated requests that he do so. Even Freya had stepped in to persuade the old fool that stepping aside would do more harm than good.
“Good news on that, though.” Smith didn’t respond to Franklin’s off-the-cuff quip as he pulled out a sheet of paper and flicked it across the table to me. “Our scouts have explored the length of the cliff and found a few promising tunnels. It’s still too early to tell, but they should be useful in the future. You never know, some might even loop back out to somewhere further along the cliff.”
“Possible secret escape routes, hmm.” I gave the roughly drawn map of the cave systems a quick look before I turned my gaze back to the still smiling Pirate Lord across from me. “What else? You’re looking way too full of yourself for this to be it.”
“Good eye, kid.” Smith finally lost his fight with his emotions as a huge smile broke out on his face. As we all watched, the old elf gestured for two large pirates to come in and help him pull out a large box from beneath the table. With some difficulty, the three of them slammed it down atop the table with a heavy thunk. “My finest creation… this week at least. It should sort most of our issues in one fell swoop!”
“A shiny box?” Jean asked in a neutral tone as she prodded the crate. She gave me a quick wink before adding, “sure you’re not getting senile in your old age, Smith?”
Smith had to take several long, deep breaths before he managed to get over Jean’s obvious attempt to get a rise out of him. Only after he’d cooled off did he proceed to pull the lid aside, revealing an odd-shaped device sitting inside the box with a grand flourish.
“The automated drilling ap
I shared a look with Jean and Franklin before we all gave the device a comprehensive once over. Mostly crafted from metal, the central cylinder of the thing was about two feet wide in diameter, though most of its length came from a large, drill like protrusion at one end.
Easily four feet long, carved and curved to perfection. Its razor-sharp edges caught the light as Smith lovingly set it on the table before us.
“So…It’s a big hand drill?” Franklin muttered as he prodded the ADA with his cane. “What’s your plan, exactly?”
“No, I’m going to-”
Before Smith could reveal his plan, the door to our meeting space slammed open and a tall elf barged in. For a moment I thought to order him to leave, but then I saw his frantic expression as he turned to face me.
“I- I’m sorry, my Lord, but- but I needed to find you!” He stumbled over his words as he took a single, nervous step forward. “They’re challenging your- I mean, your friends are- They’re-”
“Spit it out, will ya?” Jean lost her temper as her fist slammed down onto the table so heavily the ADA jumped, and the wood crunched in protest. “We don’t have all day, ya know!”
“Some folks are challenging your… companions.” The elf gritted his teeth as he forced himself to speak clearly. “They’re saying Dew, Kaede, and Freya don’t deserve a place in the officers’ ranks, and-”
“Fuck. That.” I fought to keep myself calm as I slowly pushed myself to my feet. “Show me who these fuckers are. I’ll show the fucking fleet what will happen if they try to mess with my family!”
Chapter 2
Pirate Hideout: Home base Alpha / Monster Isle - Day 15
My temper hadn’t cooled by the time we reached the hot spot of activity. A group of around thirty or so pirates were squaring up against my three companions. Somehow Dew had managed to join Freya and Kaede, but I decided to figure out how she’d managed to implicate herself in the shit storm later on.
First, I’d have to pull them out of it.
“What’s going on!?” I stormed toward the large, open area that had been chosen for the standoff. The slowly gathering crowd moved aside like flowing water as soon as they realized who was approaching from their rear. “Someone speak up, or I’ll have to decide myself what shit you’re pulling!”
The gang who’d cornered my three girls shrank back a little as I stepped up, before a few of them made a stand. If only their expressions had caught on to what the pirate’s brains wanted from them.
Worried fear wasn’t the best look, not when you were trying to intimidate someone.
“Wes-”
“That’s Pirate Lord Wes to ya!” Jean stomped up beside me, her arms folded angrily over her voluptuous breasts. “If ya want to forget our titles, then I’ll beat the shit out of ya before he even gets a chance.”
“Fair point.” Another pirate stepped forward and nodded calmly at Jean’s command. Despite how terrified the man’s companions looks, the newcomer seemed relatively in control as he turned to face me. “Pirate Lord Wes, all we ask is a fair comparison of skill and talent. Does that not sound fair?”
I knew what the bastard was insinuating, and I didn’t like it. But, on the other hand, it did make some sense.
While the captain of a vessel could promote and raise their followers as they saw fit, the same couldn’t be said for a Pirate Lord. The rest of the fleet would follow their command, obviously, but discontent would sprout faster than mushrooms in a pile of shit, if they believed their master could be corrupted by wealth or connection.
Or something more carnal, perhaps.
“So, you think these three aren’t up to the tasks I’ve given them?” I nodded in the direction of Dew, Kaede, and Freya. “And what kind of a ‘comparison’ were you wanting, exactly?”
“I won’t say we don’t believe in your skill, Pirate Lord Wes.” The man respectfully bowed his head in my direction, though I could see a few half-hidden glares from the gang behind him that said otherwise. “A duel, perhaps? If they beat whoever tries to pull them down, no one can say anything more for the time being, can they?”
It was difficult not to overreact to what was otherwise a reasonable request. The only reason I held back at all was because I could tell something was off about the short man who’d stepped forward to negotiate.
But still, that little- My followers wanted to fight the women I held dear, and they wanted me to nod my head and say it was okay?
Fuck that-
“Wes.” Jean leaned in close and gently laid a palm on my wrist before I could step forward. “Try to be calm when I say this, okay?”
“What?” I growled, swinging my head in Jean’s direction and giving her a glare. “You want me to step back from this, too?”
“Not at all. I think the anger ya feel is natural.” I could feel her grip tighten for a moment, as though she was worried her words would be enough encouragement to send me off on a rampage. “But why don’t we hear from the involved parties first, before ya wade into the deep end?”
I turned back to Dew, Kaede, and Freya, who’d made their way over to us. Freya, as always, looked calm and composed, while Kaede’s furtive glances at the distant group showed both aggression and irritation mingled.
Dew, on the other hand, looked like she was just out for a casual stroll through the park.
“Master, we should fight them.” Freya stepped forward before the other two could speak and fixed me with her warm gaze. “If we show our skills here, then the rest won’t be so eager to rise up in the future.”
“True. Cut the balls off a few and the rest will scatter.” Dew interjected with a pithy bit of forest wisdom before she turned her attention back to the distant group of pirates. “Issue is, who gets to fight first?”
“I’ll do it!” Kaede took the chance to move closer as she laid her hand over her heart. “You can trust me, Wes. I won’t let you down!”
I paused for a moment to look over my trio. None of them showed a single sign of worry about the challenge.
Or to be more accurate, the challenges.
“So, all three of you want to do this?” I couldn’t help the bit of a growl that came out as I spoke. “But it could be-”
“What, dangerous?” Dew’s eyebrow flicked upward dangerously as her eyes met mine. “I know you want to protect us, but sometimes you just need to loosen up, pretty boy.”
“I agree, Master.” Freya nodded in agreement with Dew’s outburst, which was the opposite of what I’d assumed she’d say. “You know we’re stronger than almost any of the warriors here. If we don’t prove it now, the issue with persist.”
“Okay, fine. Do what you want.” I threw my hands up in the air and moved away from the group. As I walked away, I noticed that the crowd’s gaze followed my every move, so I loudly added. “Just do it quickly, we don’t have all day to waste! Knock them down or knock them out, I don’t care!”
