by Starla Night
He tugged her wrists, drawing her down, and captured her lips in his kiss.
She stilled, shocked.
He explored the shape of her mouth, tugging and teasing. With Nora he had shared a simple touch of lips, but with Roxanne he hungered to know her, to memorize her shape and taste, to possess all of her. She was his soul mate, his match, his one. He didn’t want to get to know her slowly. He wanted to know her as much as possible as fast as possible because then he would share a deeper connection with her forever.
“Pelan…” Her chest vibrated as she started to regain her senses. “You’re kissing me.”
If she could still think then he needed to connect more. He deepened their kiss. He nibbled her plush lower lip, causing her to moan, and teased his tongue along her seam. She opened to him, giving her love as freely and unrestrictedly as she gave him her worry, her attention, her kindness. His tongue pursued hers, stroking and entangling her, exploring and conquering, and she melted against him.
While her mouth was busy, he pulsed his feelings into her so she felt them. And he told her clearly everything.
“You speak what I need.” His chest vibrated against her palm. “Not too much. Not too little.”
“Maybe a little too much,” she vibrated faintly. “I’m always—”
“Soothing.”
“…soothing?”
“Your words, your rhythm, your cadence. Your soul is healing and soothing.”
“Nora…”
“You.”
He had been fearful of missing his chances and so he had jumped on his connection to Nora. When their connection had not deepened, he had thought the problem was him. But now he knew the truth.
From the tank glass to the hospital bed, Roxnanne had enriched his world by sharing her observations. He saw clearly, felt deeper, taste more. And he was no longer afraid of missing his chances.
He was filled with a core of certainty.
“Mmm.” She pushed back, separating their mouths. Her eyes were glazed with passion and she struggled to focus. “But I’m not anything like Nora. I’m not optimistic or beautiful.”
He thought she was but he also didn’t want to reject her self-conception. Her honesty and self-reflection were important. He wished to honor and enhance her observations.
“You know yourself and you understand the human world well. Balim consulted you to build our hospital. Your experience commands great respect.”
“That’s another thing that’s been worrying me.” She nervously tapped her fingers against her bare thigh. “I have no idea what I’m going to do under the sea. I’ve got nothing to offer.”
“You heal me.”
“Oh, you’ve got a ways to go.”
“I may never fully recover.” He brushed the divots pocking his body, a sinking feeling overtaking him once more. “This may be the limit. I may never be handsome.”
“Oh, it’s wrong to say it, but I like that. You have rugged character. Pretty boys make me nervous.”
“Then, I will never make you nervous.”
“I doubt that very much.” She swallowed, the kind light in her eyes a shimmering golden as though she were swallowing back tears. “You’ve said some very nice things and I’m not used to anyone taking much notice of me aside from what responsibilities I can take on or how much I can be like a bulldog about equipment prices. So, I’m feeling a little something right now. Oh, look at me, talking too much again.”
“Your words call me back from darkness.”
“Oh…but anyone could, even Nora.”
“Nora is not my soul mate,” he affirmed. “With you, I feel at peace.”
Her chin wrinkled. She rubbed it and vibrated with a laugh, “At least one of us does. If I can believe it. Your brain is scrambled, after all. You’ve been sick so long and you just woke up.”
“My wish for you has grown for a long time. Your vibrations through the tank glass awoke the truth.
“Are you crazy? This is crazy. I can’t believe you.”
“Roxanne. You are my soul mate. Your words are beautiful, true, and kind. I wish to grow old with you and raise my young fry with you. Stay with me always and soothe me with your observations of the world.”
She covered her face with both hands.
“Roxanne?”
She hunched in.
He tried to pull her hands away. “You are my soul mate.”
Her chest glowed bright with resonance, matching his, but she remained silent and withdrawn.
“Please.” He drew her near to him again. “Please say something.”
She dropped her hands, the kind smile on her face fighting with tears. “That’s dangerous to ask, ha ha. I’ll never get quiet enough for you to say something sweet again! I’m so touched I’d be crying on the surface so it’s a good thing we’re underwater because I’m not sentimental.”
Pelan united their lips once more
“Seriously, Pelan, you are a nut. A wonderful, unbelievable, sweet nut and I’d be crazy not to be in love with you. Of course I feel crazy right now, but that’s only because you’re kissing me—”
He plunged his tongue deep into her willing mouth, savoring her feminine flavor, and his cock hardened in anticipation of enjoying all of her other flavors as he memorized her body.
She wrapped her arms around him, pressing her soft skin to his healing body, soothing him with her embrace a thousand times more healing than those nights when he’d sensed her in the distance and wished, craved for her to be lying next to him. Now, finally, she was.
And her words tumbled all over themselves as she opened her heart and her soul to his, entwining with him before the Life Tree, joining their bodies as they united their futures for all time.
Claiming Her Sea Lord
Nora traversed the ocean wrapped in the tentacles of Octopus Kong, giant octopus guardian of Atlantis.
One great thing about traveling by giant octopus was that he was basically the tuneless dragon of the undersea world. Normal predators scattered and other giants who heard his unharmonious hum veered off long before they would be a problem.
He easily swam down mer warriors, batted away their panicked trident attacks, and ended the battle before it began. The captured warriors were so discombobulated by the encounter that they answered her interrogations without hesitation. They directed her half way across the world to an isolated rocky cavern deep in what might be the Arctic—or the Antarctic; honestly, she had no idea aside from the obvious icebergs visible where the ocean met the surface—where she finally tracked her quarry:
General Giru, second in command of the traditionalist All-Council armies, and her soul mate.
He’d insisted that he was not her soul mate and had many reasons for why. Traditionally, mermen only had one. He was adamant he’d already met his, and since mermen did not get second ones, Nora was definitely not his.
Never mind the soul-exploding resonance they’d both fought from their first shocked meeting.
He thought he would escape her.
Today she proved him wrong.
His army massed in the barren rock fields, hundreds of elite warriors bulging with muscles and inked with iridescent tattoos.
She kicked free of Octopus Kong’s tentacle and swam forward to meet the warriors in an advance party. “Take me to General Giru.”
They formed a half-circle around her. The largest, most heavily-tattooed warrior rumbled a warning. “General Giru does not negotiate with rebels.”
“Good news.” She grinned. Her heart thudded as adrenaline flooded her veins. “I’m not negotiating.”
The elite warriors held their positions but a ripple of low conversation buzzed through the other warriors. She was not worried for her life even though everyone was strapped with wicked daggers and brandishing sharp tridents. The adrenaline high was a familiar friend as she stepped onto a stage to prove she was in control and alive.
Seeking her soul mate was the craziest high she’d ever chased and s
he was about to win.
The leader tried again to intimidate her. “You are a lone warrior. How do you expect to pass by us, the most elite army of the All-Council, unarmed?”
“Unarmed?” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “I think Octopus Kong has more than enough arms for all of us.”
More ripples followed that pronouncement.
The lead warrior was unmoved. “General Giru will not see you.”
“Then he’ll die.”
The leader laughed greatly, his chest vibrating with mirthless gales while his lips pulled back from his white incisors. “You will never pass me.”
“If I never pass you, then he’ll die.”
The army rocked with laughter.
Nora shrugged and yawned. Spitting in the face of authority was a trait she wanted to grow out of, but since descending and accidentally breaking every rule of the mer, she’d come around to embracing her rebel side.
The laughter ceased. The elite warriors growled low.
“Explain,” the leader demanded.
“I’m the antidote. Your general’s been poisoned.”
“You poisoned our general!”
“He poisoned himself.”
“I do not believe you.”
“Lift his chest plate.” She flicked her fins. “I know what’s beneath it. And I know what’s in the medicine he drinks. Do you?”
The leader’s certainty wavered. He gestured to another warrior. The other warrior flew across the alert army and disappeared into distant ice-blue caverns.
So that’s where the general was hiding.
She twirled slowly in the water, passing the time until the messenger got back. “So. Have you been in the army long?”
The leader growled. “I have pledged my devotion to General Giru longer than a trainee like you has been alive.”
Trainee? He thought she was a young merman. It was a common problem under the water. All the mer swam nude—except for the weapons—but somehow their free floating cocks were easy to ignore unless she focused hard. Something about resonance clouded out the physical attributes and she barely remembered she was a female herself.
Although, to be fair, even on the surface people had confused her for a boy for most of her life. Flat chest, flat hips, flat butt. At the mer had the excuse of not expecting a woman to be swimming around on her own, considering that fewer than ten total were beneath the ocean as far as she knew.
Nora made a raspberry. “That’s not really something to be proud of, to be honest.”
The leader’s frown deepened. He had no idea what to think of her and that was just the way she liked it.
The messenger returned from the ice caverns and murmured to the lead warrior. Something something incurable disease something something the general is ill. She was guessing at their chest vibrations but it seemed plausible because the lead warrior focused on her with new intensity. “Give me the antidote.”
Ho ho. She crossed her arms. “I can only give it directly to the general.”
His eyes narrowed. He waved her forward.
She dropped her arms and kicked her fins, swimming steadily into the semi-circle. They closed the circle around her, insulating her from the army, and led her across the barren, rocky fields.
Octopus Kong drifted to a vent and munched the surprised animals he found there. Smart move, octo-dude.
Her guard wove between massive icy monoliths to the cave entrance.
The leader suddenly whirled and leveled his trident at her chest. “Give it to me now or else.”
Her adrenaline spiked. She crossed her arms. “Or else what? My octopus will rip your face off?”
“Not before we have killed you.”
A movement flickered inside the ice cave.
She focused on the leader. “I thought you cared about your general.”
“We will take the antidote from your dead body.” His lip curled. “No rebel disrespects the All-Council.”
She rubbed her fingertips together, the flow of energy crackling as her rebellious streak imbued her with dangerous power. “You’re such an idiot.”
His nostrils flared with rage. “What did you call me?”
“An idiot.”
“What?”
“An idiot!”
His rage veered into confusion. “And what is an ‘idiot’?”
She snickered. For some reason, English was the “language of warriors” but they did not know all her words. “It means you’re an oversized prawn-for-brains.”
His brows lowered in fury. “You will pay for your insult, rebel pond scum who is too stupid to carry a weapon!”
“Aw, how cute.” Her fingertips tingled as the lightning grew. “You think I came all this way with no plan?”
“Ignorance and arrogance are no defense!”
“Listen to you. Take your own advice before you get hurt.”
He hauled back his trident to skewer her.
Her adrenaline spiked. She pooled the deadly energy between her palms. “You asked for it—”
“Halt.” General Giru’s gravelly vibrations rang out over the group with command.
His warriors obeyed instantly. The lead warrior lowered his trident and faced his commander and the others followed.
She held onto the glowing, crackling energy for one long moment.
General Giru floated like a chipped statue of a warrior. Pale skin knotted with tattoos—dark purple tangles of blackberry vines, spiky and piercing. Black hair cut in a severe lines. A nose sharp as the curve of a blade and cheekbones so prominent they could etch glass.
She shivered.
He made her feel hot and cold and caught. Like the one time she went skinny dipping into a frigid lake to impress her crush. The crush had been impressed. So had the fire crew called to fish her out and treat her for hypothermia. That shivery accomplishment was the feeling of General Giru’s icy gaze on her.
She released the energy from her palms to dissipate in groundless crackles and kicked toward him.
Icy disapproval vibrated in his chest. “I told you not to come after me.”
“And I told you that rules are made to be broken.” She pulled up beside him. The disease had wrecked havoc during their absence. His body was starting to pull in on itself, muscles melting off bones as he lost to an incurable curse. “Especially when people’s lives are on the line.”
His cold gaze narrowed. “Enter.”
“Thank you.” She kicked past him.
The cave twisted and curved like a living ice sculpture. Blue light from the distant sun far above bent as it traveled through the seeming glass, and sheets of iridescent crystal reflected the long, cool rays. It was soothing as the air in a cathedral and utterly isolating.
She reached the innermost sanctum where Giru had rested on a seaweed mesh. His bed? She shifted her mer fins to human feet and bounced on it, testing the weave.
He cocked a skeptical brow. “What are you doing?”
“Making myself at home.” Her stomach grumbled. “Do you have anything to eat? I’m starving.”
The general unwrapped a box of seasoned meat and sprigs of untouched vegetables, paring pieces with his dagger. He offered a slice of meat to her.
“Thanks.” She bit into the seasoned fish steak, savoring the deliciousness. She vibrated in her chest while her mouth was full. “You know, I was a vegan on the surface.”
“What is a vegan?”
“Someone who has different concerns.” She chewed the wild-caught fish. Factory farming hadn’t yet touched the mer, that was for sure. “This is a nice place you have here.”
“It has a tactical advantage.” He folded his fingers over his emaciated lap. “Making it an ideal place for changing leadership.”
“Thinking of stepping down from general?”
“My choices have not been my own for some time. Reflecting in this cave, I realized just how long it has been.” He stared into the bluish glass encasing them. “All this ice and it cannot coo
l my mind.”
And it seemed like food hadn’t touched the general any time recently either. His cheeks were hollow and a bluish cast of ghostly rings was visible from the edges of his un-mer-like chest plate. Beneath it she sensed the ghostly bruises.
Pelan’s injuries still plagued her. She’d seen him shot by terrorists right in front of her just because he’d dared to date her. Then, she’d allowed him to fall ill, barely noticing his increasing sickness while she’d been trying to arrange her new life. Being selected as a merman’s bride—and saving his life!—had proved she had a purpose. She wasn’t just a screw-up who wasted all of her opportunities. But then, while she’d been distracted, Pelan had nearly died.
Now General Giru was sick. And since he was her actual soul mate, there was nothing in the world that would distract her from making him better.
Soaking in his presence, enjoying his disapproval, loving how he made all her nerve endings stand up at attention…No matter what he said, she needed him alive.
Nora crammed in the rest of the food—she needed her strength— and swallowed it all down. She rubbed her hands together and kicked across the still water to him.
He jolted back. “What are you—?”
“Got to get this off.” She curled her fingers around the chest plate, finding the special knots he used to fasten it on.
He twisted, kicking hard.
She held on, twirling with him. “Come—”
“Off!” He twisted the opposite direction and yanked free of her. Composing himself, he straightened the plate. His chest heaved as though the former top warrior was exhausted. Perhaps that was the most exercise he’d had in a long time. “Where is your self-control?”
The spicy kick of rebellion pattered her heart. “I never was too good with self-control. And you make me lose what little I have left.”
His hands arrested. His gaze flicked down her body.
The heat in his ice-chip eyes was enough to melt these frozen caves to a puddle.
She swam toward him again. “Let me heal you.”
He kicked back, slipping out of her grasp. “It is too late for me.”
