by Starla Night
“Aya?”
“It didn’t work.” Pain localized in her frontal lobe. Her brain, deprived of oxygen. She thrashed. “I’m not transformed.”
“Fins come later.”
She shook her head.
Agony pierced her brain. Her stomach roiled like the water had grown rough, and it bolted for her lips.
Soren gripped her biceps. “What is it?”
“Take me to the surface.”
He looked up. His brow darkened with determination. “Give up the air world. You are a mer now.”
“There’s something wrong with me. I don’t have the right soul to be a mermaid.”
“Lies.”
“I can’t breathe!”
He blinked. Realization dawned. His large fists gripped the neoprene squeezing her body. His pectorals flexed. Fastenings popped. The thick fabric tore in half.
Her chest expanded. Water flushed through her with refreshing relief. The headache faded.
He tugged the garments off, discarding them.
She trembled with weakness.
He pulled her into his arms.
For the first time in possibly her whole life, she didn’t fight. Because it was Soren. Aya gave in and gasped, resting her forehead on his broad shoulders and clinging to his immoveable biceps. Their naked legs brushed and their feet dangled.
Her feet were still small and human. His legs were normal until just past the ankles, where they elongated into the giant, accordioned, scuba-fins of the mer.
They floated in the ocean.
Logic eased into her with the calm.
How silly to panic. She’d been primed for failure because she had made so many mistakes.
First, there was her distraction at the bride pageant two months ago.
The mermen emerged from the ocean desperate for women to repopulate their race. Van Cartier Cosmetics was only too happy to organize a pageant-style selection process – in exchange for the mer’s valuable Sea Opal gemstones. While she’d struggled to control her obsession with Soren, the male in charge who should have been the real target of her interest, King Kadir, had slipped from her grasp.
At least King Kadir had shown excellent judgment by selecting her loyal, kind-hearted cousin Elyssa as his queen.
Second, Aya had been so distracted trying to support Elyssa and outsmart her rivals she had missed key signs of betrayal at home. Furious at Sea Opal shipment delays, Aya’s CEO mother broke Blake Edwards out of jail, armed him with Aya’s scientific research submersible, and set him on Atlantis to take the coveted Sea Opals by force.
The Life Tree of Atlantis was life for the mermen. There was no photosynthesis at these depths. The mermen of the city existed in a symbiotic relationship with their city’s magical plant. Yes, the magical plant also produced Sea Opals, but ripping it out of the ground was the same as killing the golden goose.
Destruction of the Life Tree hurt Aya’s precious cousin Elyssa, turned the vibrant city into dead mulch, and it would outright kill Elyssa’s husband, King Kadir.
Days ago on the surface, when Aya realized how she had made it possible for Blake to pilot straight to the city and execute her mother’s xenocide, she had lost her mind. She’d tried so desperately to save the Life Tree. To save her cousin, and to save Soren.
Of course when she transformed, she would have gills in her back. The tight diving suit constricted the water flowing past her new fish-lungs and she had confused being unable to breathe through her mouth with the real issue.
She was a mer now.
Wonder tingled into her body.
In fact, the ocean was not dark at all.
It was bright as day. She could see approximately how many miles? Elyssa had reported she could see “forever” and Aya had warned her not to water down the report with hyperbole, but now it seemed like Elyssa had been right. Bright colorless “sky” stretched for miles in every direction. Like standing at the top of the Grand Canyon. The sea was vast.
How amazing that she could see hundreds of feet without her glasses or contacts. The mermaid elixir must have healed more than the life-threatening internal injuries during her transformation.
Schools of fish voyaged across the depths like flocks of birds in an endless sky. Predators swooped like hawks. The hidden world she could barely penetrate with a flashlight was exposed with a crescendo.
A crescendo of music.
The silvery fish sang a peculiar, haunting tune. Swordfish boomed a bass line. Even the bare rocks far beneath her thumped with an audible beat. Her senses had crossed and things that should only be visual took on strangely beautiful auditory quality.
She was transformed.
Well, except her hands and feet were still normal. But, like Soren said, they would emerge later, after she mastered her new form.
She would set her mind to mastering it.
What was Soren thinking about her hanging out, clinging to him? She lifted her head.
His face set in cold fury.
That she did not expect.
His gaze flicked to her. It did not soften. “You can breathe.”
“Yes.” She reached for poise. Their naked bodies were touching, rubbing, and she was suddenly far too aware of him. She let go and paddled back. “Thank you.”
“Stay here.” He focused on something over her shoulder and kicked.
Stay here?
With two strokes, Soren was already half a soccer field away. He focused on the fleeing, growling…submersible? Yes, that shuddering, whining metal machine was the submersible. It looked so different with her new eyes. Instead of being this barely visible monstrous thing, it was now just an ordinary, brightly lit scientific probing vessel churning across the oceanic sky.
Soren closed on it with deadly intent.
Why? The Life Tree was no longer pinched in its claw. It had fallen free at the same time she had. So what did he want with…
Oh.
She tried to paddle after him. “Soren, stop!”
“Stay there!”
“Please wait.” He was so much faster than her it was as if she were stuck in one place. “I borrowed that submersible. It’s worth half a million dollars.”
“I will rend it into pieces and it will never attack Atlantis again.”
She knew it.
Aya had taken out insurance policies, but “destroyed by enraged merman” was likely not covered.
“It’s not going to attack again,” she promised. Her chest vibrated loudly to cover the distance. “When it reaches its port, authorities are waiting to take Blake into custody. I’ve set it all up.”
“It will never reach port.”
She floated helplessly as the warrior grew further and further away. She had no skills for this. Watching men walk away from her was a too-familiar sight. And this time, it was Soren.
Her gut clenched.
“Soren?” She left the edge of panic in her cry. “Soren!”
He checked. “What?”
It worked.
She swiftly calculated which response would most likely end with a partial return of the submersible’s security deposit. “Don’t leave me.”
He looked at the submersible over his shoulder, then back at her. “I will remain within your sight the whole time.”
“I’m frightened. This is new. Don’t leave me all alone.”
He growled and kicked. Faster than it seemed possible, he returned to her side.
And she saw him with her new eyes.
His chest loomed even wider and more powerful than before. Even sliced with new injuries from the recent battle, he was magnificent naked. His body was broad like a Maori warrior, all muscle covered in intricate black tattoos, and the sharp vee lead from his tapered waist to a proud, thick cock.
She wanted to reach out and touch.
That was dangerous.
Aya rested her hands on her bare thighs. What did he see when he looked at her? A slender woman without any curves, who worked hard and starved hers
elf to fit into a size six, and no one appreciated it?
His dark gaze focused on her eyes, not on her body. “You are not frightened.”
True. Frightened wasn’t the correct feeling. But her words still held a kernel of her inner emotions.
“It’s dangerous.” She flexed her too-human ankles. “I’m afraid.”
He scanned the ocean. “You will see predators.”
Well, that was true. Right now, she could see impossibly far in all directions. He focused on a distant creature that looked like a prehistoric alligator with fins instead of feet, but it was far away, and he clearly didn’t consider it an immediate threat.
He focused on her again. His eyes narrowed. “Twice now you have forced me to let my enemies go. They will use our weakness to strike again.”
Aya didn’t know what first time he had let his enemy go, but she knew Blake was done. “If the submersible doesn’t crack and implode from the pressure, Blake will be grateful to land in the hands of authorities.”
Soren turned away.
“Please wait.”
He barely hesitated.
She needed a distraction. Logic didn’t work on him. Didn’t she remember their doomed interactions after the bride pageant? She had tried to politely gather information about where her cousin would be going as a new queen. Soren nearly threw a table through the window. Only when Aya lost her temper back and snapped at him to sit down had he calmed.
He was always getting under her skin.
She had to reach him. “I think something is wrong with me again. I feel strange.”
He turned and his gaze raked her for the problem. “You can breathe.”
“It’s not that.”
She paddled forward and linked her hands around the back of his neck. His short, dark hair teased her fingertips. She rested her forearms on the hard cords of muscle tightening along his neck. A deep cut was pale and healing on his shoulder, and she took care to rest her forearm next to it, away from the jagged edge.
“I’m feeling strange urges I can’t control.”
He focused on her with his full, heart-stopping intensity. A woman could get lost in his burning gaze. Those hardened cheeks. That inflexible mouth.
Down lower, toward his—
“Aya.” His growl drew her attention up where it belonged. On his suddenly smoldering gaze. “Urges like what?”
Urges to save her company a half-million dollar repair fee.
Urges to taste the male who had teased her with a soft brush of his lips, and now teased her to do so very much more.
Urges to give into the temptations she ordinarily denied herself.
This was how mistakes got made. This was how people got hurt and projects got destroyed. This was how she convinced herself to go home alone night after night. Always alone.
She was different now. Transformed.
Aya could be anyone she wanted.
“Urges like this.” She lifted her lips to his hard mouth.
Chapter Three
Aya kissed him.
She’d looked Soren in the face. Her blue eyes reflected hidden secrets. And she closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his.
This kiss was not to save her life. She kissed him because…because…
Why did she kiss him?
Her arms wrapped around his neck and her legs wrapped around his waist. She clung to him.
Was she frightened? This was a delayed reaction to the transformation and his stupidity for forgetting to peel back the suffocating human clothes.
There was no way she chose him.
He held her gently, soothing her. The transition, the first time, was rough. He would hold her until—
Her lips parted.
His world cracked open.
She tasted fiery. Dangerous. Addictive.
Liquid heat flowed into his cock. No matter how his mind fought, his body recognized her as his ideal female. He groaned.
Her tongue flicked against his. Cautious, curious. Its touch injected his veins with sizzling lava.
He chased her devilish tongue, filling her mouth with his powerful thrust.
She startled. Would she run?
No, she embraced him.
Him. She embraced him, Soren, the demon.
His feelings flowed into her like a fire tsunami.
Their mouths meshed and tongues warred. Her tongue stroked his fearlessly. She yielded to his overwhelming force only to surprise him with her own thrusts. His hunger — or was it her hunger? — flared, undeniable.
Pleasure flowed into his cock and pulsed with readiness. This was only the beginning.
With a sweet, desperate cry, she let go of her caution. Her arms tightened around his neck. Her soft breasts flattened against his hard pectorals and her shapely thighs squeezed his waist.
His cock flooded with heat. Did she know what she was doing to him?
She rubbed her feminine bud against his hard abdomen and murmured sweet sounds of aching, sweet demands for satisfaction.
A male would do anything for those sounds.
He cupped her ass and ground her against his cock.
She moved. “Mmm. Soren? What are you doing?”
He went cold. The question. The doubt. What was he doing?
Exactly what did this dishonorable warrior with a mud-black soul think he was doing to his Aya?
He shoved her back.
She jerked. Her eyelids flew wide. “What?”
“There. You are free.” He struggled to control his intense reaction to her nearness.
She brought her hands to her mouth. Her face was white.
Uh oh. “Aya?”
She lifted one finger.
“Are you going to be ill?”
She emphasized the one finger. Wait. But he could not wait. His skin jumped. He needed action. Rending, tearing. Destroying. Better that than facing the bride he had claimed, his bride, asked what he was doing. She rejected him.
“If you are well, I must finish taking revenge on the human, Blake.”
She covered her eyes and massaged her temples. “Just let me think.”
“I will return after—”
“It’s too late!” She dropped her hands and glared at him with dark malevolence. Her soul light burned with her beautiful, regal fire. “Blake’s gone. Give it up.”
“But—”
“Ugh.” She closed her eyes and rubbed two fingers against the center of her forehead again. “I do feel ill.”
Because of what he had done to her.
His belly twinged again. What was the limit of his dishonor? How deeply could he fall from his ideals?
I will so fight with honor! he had shouted at his childhood tormenters; other youths who feared his overly large size and whined to the trainers that they could not spar with him. I will always be honorable! Everywhere!
The youth version of Soren would look on his adult self with unspeakable shame.
That memory forced him to speak. He ground out the words. “I apologize.”
“Hm?”
“I will not touch you again.”
She stared at him for one long moment. Her soul light darkened to a dull sheen and then flared back twice as bright. She was infuriated. As well she should be.
“No,” she said slowly. “I apologize for kissing you so suddenly.”
Yes. That was right. He had forgotten. She was the one who had started it. Not him.
But why had she kissed him? She wished to join with a warrior like Kadir. Not Soren.
Suddenly, the trident and dagger scars crossing his body, from his last battle, stung and ached.
Aya dropped her hand. “Take me to the dive platform. I must go to the surface immediately.”
Of course she wanted to get away.
Although he did not blame her for wishing to escape him, it was impossible. Their city was in shambles. Atlantis needed her.
The attack against them had been sudden and vicious, but not unexpected.
Atlan
tis broke the covenant requiring mermen keep their existence secret from humans and to only select brides from hidden, sacred islands. Once a year, a sacred island bride accepted a merman’s mating jewel – which humans called a Sea Opal – and drank elixir to transform into a mermaid. She descended to his underwater castle, bore him a young fry, and returned to the surface alone.
But the sacred islands had emptied. Instead of multiple islands’ brides descending to each mer city every year, some had stopped receiving brides altogether. For years. Decades.
Kadir was the only warrior visionary enough to declare the truth: The old sacred covenant was killing their race. They must reveal their existence and select modern brides. Brides who wished to join with them for longer than a year. Brides who would stay on and rule as queens.
For that blasphemy, Kadir had been imprisoned in the All-Council’s impenetrable prison in the deepest trench.
But while imprisoned, the mer’s existence had been revealed. Support swelled in the cities, and Soren led an army that broke Kadir free. They founded the new city by planting Kadir’s Life Tree seed in the shadow of ancient Atlantis, and Kadir chose the first modern bride, Queen Elyssa, to join with him as his queen. Their hardy city had survived raiders and angry other cities that wanted their defected warriors back, and new Atlantis was almost recognized by the All-Council as a true mer city. Then, the human Blake attacked in the submersible.
Instead of helping fend off the unexpected human attack, their mer enemies used the distraction to wage their own war on Atlantis. Soren had fought a too-familiar foe – his former First Lieutenant, Elan, of his old city, Dragaon Azul – and, defeated him. But in the moment of his triumph, Soren had seen Aya being dragged away by the submersible. He had been forced to leave Elan alive to rescue Aya.
Elan’s eyes had bugged. His hand had gone to his suddenly released throat. His diaphragm had expanded and contracted in shock. “Mercy? You?”
“Collect your warriors. Leave now. Never show yourself here again.” Soren had swum after the submersible. His whole being had focused on the last location he had seen Aya.
“Soren!” Elan had shouted after him. “I will return and kill you!”
