by Tamsin Ley
The Merman’s Quest
A Mates for Monsters Novellete
Tamsin Ley
Copyright © 2017 by Twin Leaf Press
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Digital Version
ISBN: 978-1-950027-10-1
Contents
Book Description
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Epilogue
Also by Tamsin Ley
About the Author
A merman's mate-bond is for life... or is it?
* * *
Rubac’s mate is dead, and he’s soon to follow. His only hope to escape the curse dragging him toward extermination is to find a human female, seduce her, and sacrifice her. Finding and seducing one is the easy part. Sacrificing her may not be so simple.
* * *
Another kind of monster…
* * *
Madison is determined to document an elusive dolphin hybrid and restore her professional reputation. Instead, she meets a sexy, sleek-tailed beast of another variety who makes her pulse thrum in places it shouldn’t. When he pulls himself on board her boat in all his emerald-tailed glory, she jumps at the chance to film him; discovering a mythical creature will secure her the fame she’s always dreamed of.
* * *
So why is she feeling the need to keep him all to herself?
Introduction
The Merman’s Quest can be read as a standalone, but you may enjoy it more if you read The Merman’s Kiss first. And right now, you can get it FREE!
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1
Madison adjusted the focus of the binoculars again, concentrating on the white-capped waves breaking against the reef while maintaining her balance on the boat’s rocking deck. She’d been following a pod of dolphins for almost three days, only to lose them yesterday before she could get close enough to verify her find—a wild hybrid cross between Pseudorca crassidens and Tursiops truncates. Only a single hybrid of this species had been born in captivity, and no one had ever provided solid proof of one in the wild before. She needed evidence. Photos for one thing. But even more important, she needed tissue samples. DNA proof would be irrefutable, and such a discovery would help erase the blemish on her career.
The small cruiser caught a wave sideways, and she adjusted her heading to face the rolling water. Working the vessel alone while also performing research was tricky, but after last year, she wasn’t about to rely on anyone else’s assistance again. Steller sea cow my ass. Extinct for over two hundred and fifty years, the beast might as well have been a mermaid. And she’d bought into it, hook, line, and sinker, putting her full reputation behind the “data” her grad students provided. Now she was on her own, funding this trip out of her savings in hope of salvaging something of her reputation. I’ll show them all.
She checked the depth finder—ninety-eight feet—then slipped on her polarized sunglasses to again scan the horizon. How was she supposed to manage over a dozen research assistants, verify every scrap of data, and meet the university’s publishing schedule for tenure? Those damned assistants claimed it was a prank taken too far, but she was the one who’d had to shoulder the repercussions. The embarrassment of the peer-reviewed journal’s scathing feedback, the media hype “debunking” her find, all of it had ruined her career. She’d lost her position at the university and her grant funding. Even her off-and-on boyfriend—a vet at the marine research center—didn’t want to be associated with her.
Noting her GPS coordinates, she angled toward a darker area where the kelp canopy nearly touched the surface. The green water slapped against the hull, sending fine salt spray into the air. She loved the sea. Loved the smell, the rolling of the deck beneath her feet, the bite of the cold water against her skin. Although the sun beat down on her head, the winter breeze made swimming unpleasant, or she’d have stripped down and rinsed three days of salt-grime off her skin.
Where was the dolphin pod? She searched for the familiar dark bullet shapes below the waves. They had to surface soon. Her two precious biopsy darts were ready, if only she could get close enough. The equipment had cost her a significant portion of her savings, as had the boat rental, and her rental agreement was nearly over.
She cut the engine, hoping the pod would show itself. This particular pod seemed more skittish than usual, without the usual dolphin curiosity about boats. They stayed just out of range of her darts, as if they knew exactly how close she needed to be.
Something splashed to the boat’s aft. She turned, the small deck requiring no more than three steps until her thighs hit the inboard engine casing, and searched the glinting water’s surface. The glare off the water made anything lurking beneath difficult to define, even through polarized lenses.
The splash again, this time slightly starboard. She shifted her attention in time to see a dolphin-sized, bright-green tail fin slip back into the water. Green?
Dolphins were shades of blue, gray, white or brown. Never green. Was it covered in algae? Maybe it was a carcass, bobbing to the surface as it rotted. Yet it hadn’t moved like something dead...
She reached into her pocket for her camera, holding it ready while scanning for movement. She waited ten minutes. Twenty. Nothing.
Whatever it had been, it didn’t seem to be coming back.
Rubac dove toward the sea floor, leaving the boat’s shadow far behind. Excitement at finding a human woman alone had easily been overshadowed by trepidation about his quest. His heart raced and his muscles ached with tension. He rubbed the mother-of-pearl vision rod piercing his nipple, hoping to regain confidence. The prophetic vision he’d had while slumbering in the crook of the great whale’s fin no longer seemed as straightforward.
His brother had always laughed himself silly at Rubac’s mystical musings, his belief in kindred spirits, his premonitions. But Rubac knew what he felt, what he saw, what he needed. He needed this female. She would be his salvation. Would free him of his slavery to a mate-bond he’d never chosen—a soon-to-be fatal tie now that his mate was dead.
Then why was he hesitating?
He came to rest between two large sea fans, using them to escape the current while he thought. The ingrained habit of avoiding females held him weighted to the sea floor. She’s not a mermaid, he reminded himself. You’re here to take her life, not the other way around.
When he’d first received the premonition, he’d believed the hard part would be finding a vulnerable human female. But then he’d happened across this opportunity the very next day. Assurance his guiding spirit was real. Now he was faced with the actual quest. The quest’s final requirement posed no problem in his mind; killing a human would be easy once he had her in the water. The part causing his hesitation was the first part—the part where he had to seduce her. Not so easy for a bonded merman, dead mate or not.
Unlike mermaids, who used and killed mates with abandon, mermen bonded for life. A mate-bonded merman was doomed to a life of misery as his mate strayed again and again. He would raise the children, coddling them like a father seahorse until they, too, left him. Most mermen died of broken hearts. But after Rubac’s child had chosen her gender and left the nest, he’d refused to languish away. Instead, he’d sought a quick death, venturing far into the wild deeps
where he’d discovered the secret to freedom.
Another fear surfaced. What if he couldn’t perform? A mermaid would rip a failed lover apart—literally. Were human females as ruthless?
The light reaching him from the surface wavered and darkened as the boat passed overhead. She was hunting him, now. The irony wasn’t lost on him.
A lone human female on the ocean wasn’t exactly common. This might be his only chance. Completing this quest would sever the agonizing mate-bond already spiraling him toward death.
He grasped the small sea harp hanging from a cord about his neck. It matched the one his bond-mate had used to lure him into mating. Into becoming her slave. Long, pale tines rose from the curved shape of what had once been a sea sponge. He’d dived a quarter league into the bottom of the wild deeps to harvest the fragile creature. The delicate exoskeleton could be coaxed to produce an irresistible melody. Perhaps a song would not only seduce this human, but increase his own libido as well.
A tingle of guilt threaded his bloodstream. He’d been on the other side of this magic. Knew the helpless cessation of will she would experience. Mersong spoke to the primal core within every creature. It was the magic mermaids used to seduce sailors. She would be utterly powerless against it.
Do it or die. He was doomed either way, so might as well give it everything he had. Stroking his fingertips along the tines, he rose toward the surface.
2
Madison stowed her camera and ducked back under the pilot canopy to reengage the engine. Whatever she’d seen—if it’d even been real—was long gone, and she needed to find that dolphin pod today or shell out another chunk of money for the boat rental. The engine sputtered to life and then backfired and died. With a curse, she shut everything down and moved to the engine compartment to adjust the choke.
A high, sweet note bounced across the water like a small child’s laugh. What was that? She stopped and searched the waves. The note shifted into something like a sultry oboe or saxophone holding a long note accompanied by a compulsive rhythm like a heartbeat. Was there another vessel nearby playing music? She couldn’t see one.
She closed her eyes, taking a breath of sweet, salty air before opening them again to search for the song’s source. The sun glittered like diamonds across the water’s surface, forcing her to squint. Was that a man swimming toward her?
He disappeared below the surface, and the song thrummed through the deck against her feet. The pulse crept up her legs in delightful shivers to concentrate in her core. God, that feels good. Next thing she knew, she was standing at the gunwale.
A dark haired man surfaced about six meters away, closely trimmed beard dripping water. He had the broad shoulders and lean, muscular torso of a speed swimmer. A spiral shell earring curled through one earlobe, and a large sliver of mother-of-pearl pierced his nipple in one well-sculpted left pec. He stroked a mesmerizing rhythm over a white pronged object hanging from a cord about his neck, seemingly unperturbed about being adrift at sea. What struck her most, however, was the lime-green shade of his eyes. A sense of vertigo blossomed in her stomach, and she yearned to escape the rocking motion of the deck. She leaned against the gunwale to steady herself.
“Hello? Do you need help?” She didn’t know what else to ask. He was too far out to have come from shore.
He opened his mouth, and the shockingly physical melody that had driven her to the side swelled louder.
Her core tightened with surprising intensity, deliciously orgasmic. The scientist in her distantly wondered if orgasm by auditory stimulation was even possible. Then stopped analyzing and allowed the sensation to sweep her along as if it were a curling green wave. Her nipples pebbled against her shirt and warmth pooled deep in her belly. She gripped both hands on the lip of the gunwale, legs trembling.
The man dove, revealing what looked like a lacy green dorsal fin along his spine. A bright green tail followed, the billowing fin sending a shower of water her direction. She blinked, regaining a fleeting moment of scientific curiosity. Had that been…? No way. Then the song changed back into that bone-deep rhythm, rising through the deck, through her legs. Pounding against her pelvis as if a man thrust deep inside her.
Inhaling sharply, she threw back her head, lost in the ecstasy. The tide of primal sensation overwhelmed her logic. Every inch of her skin thrilled with electric desire, and she ached to be touched. Now.
Her hand crept to her breast, fondled her nipple to an aching peak. She needed more. She needed this man, who was somehow calling up her basest emotions. Leaning over, one hand on the gunwale while the other still pinched her nipple, she peered into the water. Where’d he gone?
His face appeared directly below, rising to meet her. A pair of lime-green eyes bored into hers with a come-hither purpose to match the vibrations in her bones. She stretched forward, heeding the call.
He broke the surface and met her lips with his. The contact sent her spiraling into climax. Her grip on the gunwale fell slack, and she plunged past him into the icy water.
The human’s lips met Rubac’s in a jolt like an electric eel.
Stunned, he dropped back into the water, thoughts colliding like flotsam caught in a riptide. His cock prodded the opening of his sheath, as if waking from a long dream.
What was that all about? Was it part of the quest? The human contact had been nothing like the connection he’d expected. When the mermaid had captured and bonded him, he’d felt a tightening, as if his whole body was constricted by kelp strands. A chain tying him to his bond-mate for eternity. What he’d just experienced with the human felt more like the exhilaration of riding a sailfish as it cleared the water.
Then he realized her limp body was sinking past him, limbs askew. A thin wisp of blood trailed her wake.
He jackknifed and caught her, carrying her limp form to the surface. She must’ve hit her head when she fell. Should he take her to his nest and finish what he’d started? It seemed wrong to take advantage of her when she was unconscious. Doubly wrong after mesmerizing her with song.
Wrapping an arm around her waist, he hauled her to the boat. The back of the vessel had a platform next to the motor, and he managed to leverage himself up. He clutched her to his chest and pulled her onto the deck where she sprawled on top of him. Her shoulder crushed the sea harp between them, shattering the delicate tines.
His entire body tightened. Without the harp’s aid, his task would be more difficult. Maybe impossible. Definitely more dangerous.
Rolling out from under her weight, he pushed himself up on one elbow to look at her. Although lacking a mermaid’s exotic flair, the human seemed attractive enough. The contours of her breasts pressed against the fabric of her shirt with nothing in between, and the curve of her waist rounded pleasantly to her hips.
She lay sprawled and uncomfortable-looking across the hard surface. How did these humans stand it, being weighted like this all their lives? He passed a hand over her heart, verifying her life aura still occupied her body. There it was, a yellow glow mixed with rich brown and pale orange. The information in that glow intrigued him; she was a seeker of knowledge, like him.
He pulled back with a shiver. He should finish what he started or flee before she roused. But curiosity compelled him to examine her just a bit longer. He’d only been this close to a human once before, a brief interaction when his brother had been captured in a mate bond by one. Rubac sometimes spied on the couple from a distance as they walked—his brother walked!—on a beach, but he’d never approached. Now he allowed himself to inspect the close details of this human’s skin. He liked the simplicity of her short, wind-rough hair, generous lips, and smooth, flat nose. A small gold stud gleamed from the crease of her nostril, complimenting her velvety brown skin. The wet fabric of her button-down shirt molded against her breasts, her hard brown nipples begging for his caress. Her flat stomach descended to a V where her legs met, and he found himself curious about what he might find there, so different from a mermaid’s vulval slit.
/> She stirred, and he dragged his gaze back to her face. Large brown eyes blinked at him, and with the wall previously created by her sunglasses gone, he found himself falling into the depths of her soul. A warm and curious comfort, like finding a kindred spirit after being eternally alone.
“Who are you?” Her aura was tinged with confusion and the pink threads of attraction.
Without thinking, he lowered his face and kissed her.
3
The stranger’s lips moved against hers so skillfully, Madison didn’t think. She closed her eyes and responded. Her hand clutched his biceps, his muscles bulging as he supported his weight above her, skin warm and slick with seawater. Lingering heat from her orgasm flared again. His body pressed against hers, and she found herself arching toward him, drawing him closer.
He responded by curling a hand through the hair at the back of her neck and tilting her head to deepen the kiss. His mouth tasted of salt and a hint of ginger spice as he plunged his tongue between her teeth. Her panties flooded with an explosion of heat between her thighs.
She sucked in a breath, stunned at the insane reaction her body had to him. This man was a complete stranger, and she didn’t even care. In her whole life, she’d never been kissed like this, ignited like this. She didn’t want it to end, refused to go back to the logic that usually ruled her life. For once she felt primal. Unpredictable. Wild.
