Title: The Lost Selkie
Author: Eule Grey
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: 04/22/2025
Heat Level: 2 – Fade to Black Sex
Pairing: Female/Female
Length: 30500
Genre: Paranormal, British, butch/femme, age difference, demisexual, age gap, one bed, selkies, midsummer/solstice, ancient mystery, sweet, friends to lovers, performance arts, mythical creatures, HEA
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Description
Esther is excited to start a new job on a beach TV shoot. Sure, maybe it is strange how the ocean seeps in overnight with weird sea snails everywhere, but the technical issues are down to science, not myths. As an electrician, Esther understands facts. If only women were so simple.
In her daydreams, Esther’s a passionate woman. Who cares if she lacks the courage for the real thing? And, yeah, maybe a girlfriend is better than a fantasy, but who’d put up with Esther? Her shyness keeps her from socialising, so it’s a shock when she ends up sharing a bed with the star of the show.
Beautiful, gentle Layla becomes fascinated by a mythical selkie who guides lesbians to physical love. If only! Layla craves a real woman who will wait for sex until they’re ready for intimacy…a strong, kind woman exactly like Esther.
Midsummer magic, faulty wiring, sexual awakenings, an ancient diary. Everyone knows about the lost selkie with a broken heart: she may only return to the sea once she finds her missing fur. Can Esther fix the set’s electrical issues and reunite the selkie with her lost love? Will the TV show ever be ready to broadcast? And, most importantly, can Esther and Layla come together on the beach and discover what matters most?
Pretty Selkie from the sea,
Can’t you spare a kiss for me?
The Lost Selkie
Eule Grey © 2025
All Rights Reserved
Before meeting the others for dinner, I strolled along the windy beach. The smell of sand took me right back to childhood holidays. Scarborough was a beautiful place with sweeping panoramic views with, on one side, the turquoise sea, on the other, rows of quaint terrace houses and cottages teetering on a steep hill. Despite a chilly wind, anticipation lit me up inside. It was impossible not to smile at the many children darting in and out of the waves or the dogs barking at nothing.
A pang of homesickness slipped in, shaking me to the core. My nieces and nephews would’ve loved nothing more than to play on the sand or explore the caves. They’d eagerly researched the shore’s history, shocked that Aunty Esther was off to work far away instead of living on the next street.
I also missed Layla, which made no sense at all, We’d only met a few hours before, yet my heart ached to know her whereabouts. Was she okay?
I wasn’t usually one to sit on beaches—too sandy, too much mess, but I couldn’t resist. It was damp, but the wind died down, and the sea howled louder. Away in the purple-blue distance, the waves became turbulent. A lone surfer was swiftly waved inland by a guard. Around me, what seemed like a million people went about their business while I did nothing but hug my knees miserably.
Layla, Layla, Layla.
I didn’t know whether it was homesickness or because I appeared to be the only solitary person, but I became acutely aware of how lonely it would be to live alone in such a busy, bustling place.
I brushed myself off and walked slowly back up the beach towards the hotel with dread in my heart. The evening stretched ahead. While I loved listening to the cast and crew, my boring life could not possibly entertain TV people during a shared dinner. Would it be rude to apologise and eat a solitary pizza on my balcony before going to bed?
What stopped me from scribbling an apology note to leave at reception was the memory of the awful fluffy slippers poking out from beneath my pillow. I hated sharing my personal space, even at the best of times. Bed was a sanctuary, a place of solitude and peace, not a group chat zone.
The decision was made for me. Jennifer noticed me hovering at the beach’s edge and beckoned me inside the reception room. “There you are, Sparkie.”
I waved back and hovered awkwardly in the doorway, behind the chattering actresses, shuffling from one foot to the other. The cast comprised ten actresses, with the director and a couple of crew. A few nodded amiably to me before returning to their previous conversations. I wasn’t offended—what on earth would I have talked to them about anyway?
The smell of fish had intensified, and a strange sound like a bark piped up every few seconds. I must’ve lost concentration because I missed what led up to what happened next.
In a flash, someone flew down the stairs, crashed in a noisy heap at the bottom, and careened across the room into me.
My arms opened as if they knew something I didn’t. When my poor brain caught up, a girl had landed in them and wrapped herself around me like an octopus. I tripped backwards from the sheer pressure of her journey. A voice I knew well screamed directly into my ear.
“Es! Is it really you?”
Layla. Honest to god, I’d never been happier to see anyone in my life. Without a thought to what anyone would think, I hugged her almost fiercely.
“Layla! What’re you doing here?” Then, I kissed her beautiful cheeks soundly so she’d be in no two minds about how glad I was to see her again. As if my behaviour weren’t shameless enough, I also spun her around until I was absolutely dizzy, and still, I wanted to say more, much, much more. Don’t ever leave me again. Marry me? Ridiculous. Goodness me.
Layla laughed and laughed at my earnest, effervescent greeting. “I knew we’d meet again. I just knew it. What did I tell you—we’re fated to be together.”
Her lack of care for what anyone else thought of us, carrying on like sweethearts instead of strangers who’d only met a few hours before, went to my head better than any alcohol could’ve. She laughed at me, and I at her. We synchronised while the cast and crew looked on.
About then, the mental image of the woman on the beach reappeared. It seemed she was smiling and looking our way, but I put it down to the fishy smell, which must’ve addled my brain.
When I’d stopped grinning stupidly, the rest of the hotel reappeared.
Jennifer smiled knowingly at Layla and me—still entangled, still glowing. “Do you two already know each other?” She waved towards me. “This is our saviour, Sparkie. She’s come to sort out the wiring.”
To my horror, the whole cast and crew stopped talking and turned our way. There was no way I’d have been able to speak with so many important folks watching me.
Thankfully, Layla claimed the stage. “She isn’t called Sparkie. This is Esther, a very dear friend. Esther’s a lovely name, don’t you think? A deep breath of joy at the start of a summer’s day. She’s brilliant and gorgeous.” Then she linked her arm with mine as if to cement her words into a solid that made sense.
Goodness. By the time I’d come back to life, Layla had led us out of the hotel. We continued towards town with the others, her arm flirting with mine, her chatter never pausing.
“I knew you were special, you see. You’ll sort out the hotel issues, no probs. I should have guessed you were an electrician—you never stopped talking about lights.”
She stopped to squeeze me around the waist. “The minute you walked away, I could’ve kicked myself. ‘Fuck sake’, I thought. ‘Why did you let Es go before asking her on a date? She’s your best time’.” Layla blushed and giggled.
It was a shock, but there could be no doubt she was as pleased to see me as I was her. We simultaneously stopped walking and hugged again. With Layla, all the normal rules of etiquette vanished as if there were no rules.
The exciting pressure of her arm against mine entered my heart and took hold of my remaining faculties. I felt giddy and young, excited to be in Yorkshire instead of moping at home, ready for a thrilling new adventure. It seemed impossible that this affectionate woman had anything to do with me, and yet the evidence was in our mingled shadows and her shining eyes. Call it fate or ambience; I could no more have walked away from her than swam to the moon.
I even forgot about the fluffy slipper problem waiting in my bedroom. “Yes, to the date. I’m so, so, pleased to see you too. Not sure I can sort out the technical issues though. Jennifer says two electricians have already given up. Are you crew or cast, then? I couldn’t believe it when you slid down the banister and appeared.”
And yet, it had not been a surprise. Like Layla, I’d somehow known we would meet again, and soon. Again, I thought of the woman in the waves and wondered how she’d become linked to us.
No words could have articulated my feelings, so I didn’t try. Instead, I patted her hand and silently thanked whatever god had been looking out for me. It wasn’t much of a gesture, yet it was the most tactile I’d been in forever. I wished I could’ve said more. It’d been years since my last relationship, and I was out of practice.
Layla didn’t seem to mind my lack of finesse; rather, she smiled up at me, a hint of a giggle always behind her animated face. “Don’t you remember me telling you we were fated to meet? I accepted the lead part about a selkie because of a dream about a lost sea woman. Random, huh?”
I was pretty sure my face showed how much I adored the idea that we had been fated to meet. “It’s a solstice show, isn’t it? Maybe our dream about a sea woman is fitting, then.”
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Eule Grey has settled, for now, in the north UK. She’s worked in education, justice, youth work, and even tried her hand at butter-spreading in a sandwich factory. Sadly, she wasn’t much good at any of them!
She writes novels, novellas, poetry, and a messy combination of all three. Nothing about Eule is tidy but she rocks a boogie on a Saturday night!
For now, Eule is she/her or they/them. Eule has not yet arrived at a pronoun that feels right.
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