The one who owned her skin owned her.
That was the law, and that was the magic written deep within her people. If a human held the skin, they too held the selkie who it belonged to. For male selkies that meant nothing, really. hey could come and go on land as they pleased, so long as they bedded their wives once every moon cycle. But for the females, they had to stay by their owner's side. Clean for him, cook for him, bear him children, warm his bed. Failure to do so would result in eventual death.
Tiger was sick.
She'd never been told which of the boys had taken her skin first. She belonged to whoever had discovered it that day at the beach and she longed for him. She needed to be beside him, to care for him, and her failure to do so was slowly killing her. At first she'd thought it was Rufio. She'd thought she'd felt something for him, felt the ocean pulling her toward him. It turned out that he was a half-blood. His father had been of her kind and she'd just felt something of her home in him. Then it had been Slightly with his too-long legs and quiet intelligence. He too had proven to be a dead end. Day by day she'd broken down who'd been on the hunt the day she was captured and had narrowed it down to one person: Felix.
She didn't want to be with him. He hated her, that much she knew, but she had no other choice. It was union or death and she wanted to live to see her family once more. He went to the lagoon late at night. She'd heard him walking there to bathe. His route took him directly past Peter's room and she knew she could track him easily. It took her three nights to work up the courage to follow after him, and when she finally did, she was almost twenty minutes behind him.
The path to the lagoon was well worn from centuries of lost boys. It was the only sheltered water source on the entire island and despite the time of year, it was always steaming. It was close to the volcanoes base and could always be counted on to be warm. Tiger shivered as she made her way down the last bend and hid behind a tree. She could seem him amidst the steam, hair slicked back, standing in the middle of the pool. She contemplated turning back, but the pull toward him was nearly too strong for her to resist. She padded toward him on silent feet, stopping at the edge of the water only to remove the over-sized shirt and ripped breeches she'd been given to wear. The water called to her, but she forced herself to move slowly. She didn't want him to hear her and reject her before she'd had time to make her case.
Tiger stopped and swooned, nearly falling over. She needed...she needed...
Him.
He'd exited the pool at some point and scooped her up, arms never shaking. He bore her all the way back to camp and put her down on his palette. She refused to let go of his neck, and he was pulled down beside her, arms still tucked around his back. Tiger had found him. She knew he had her skin beyond a shadow of a doubt now. He'd never been this close to her before and she took the chance to breath him in. He smelled like rain and the pine trees the younger boys liked to climb. Her eyes drifted shut and she mellowed. This would have to do for now. As stiff and uncomfortable as he was, he'd still let her in. She felt the sickness take its leave and she slept.