Enslaved by the Sea Lord (Lords of Atlantis Book 3)

by Starla Night

  For Aya, he had let Elan go. Now, she wanted to leave him.

  He did not know what he would find in Atlantis when he returned. He had defeated Elan in trident-to-dagger combat, but what losses had they suffered? Did the remaining stump of the Life Tree thrive? Had Kadir or other senior warriors survived?

  Kadir would not trick or blackmail a warrior into joining Atlantis’s ranks, but Soren would.

  “You are a mer now,” he told Aya. “Your destiny is to protect Atlantis.”

  Her blue eyes flashed with defiance. “No, my ‘destiny’ is to protect our lucrative trade agreement. Trade isn’t possible if one of the trade partners is destroyed.”

  “You gave your life to protect the Life Tree.”

  She hardened. “I failed.”

  “Even a powerful warrior can be surprised.”

  “You’re better off with a real warrior. This was protection of an investment. Nothing more.”

  “The Life Tree nectar runs through your veins. In your blood.” He forced her gaze to his by will. “You are one of us. Feel the connection.”

  “I don’t.” She frowned and flexed her human foot as though seeking to make her fins already. “Admit it, Soren. I’m the last person you would have chosen to transform. Aren’t I?”

  Accept this pain. Endure it. She was right not to want him. She was fiercely beautiful and so desirable it made him ache.

  “Yes,” he said.

  Her brows drew together. She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Thank you for your honesty. Why did you?”

  “I had no choice. You would have died.”

  “I’ll try not to burden you.” She straightened. “So, logically speaking, it’s best if we part. The sooner the better.”

  The pain sliced in. “You will not burden me. Another male in Atlantis will join with you.”

  She whitened. “What? No.”

  “I will take you to the other warriors now.”

  She squirmed out of his grasp. “This is why I should go to the surface. Let go!”

  “Do not fight, Aya.”

  “Seriously, Soren. I’m going to stab you.”

  “Do you hate me so much for transforming you?”

  A true warrior would stand by his actions, right or wrong. But Soren had always been weak. He wanted Aya to approve him desperately, and that disgusted him.

  She blinked. Her brows folded together and then she shook her head. “I must be losing my mind. You know what? Yes. Right now, I can’t stand you. Let go.”

  He growled and tightened his grip. “Calm.”

  “Let go!”

  “No.”

  She elbowed him in the jaw.

  It didn’t hurt. It surprised him. She fought with real strength. He loosened his grip.

  She shoved him back and glared at him. “Anything is better than being stuck here with you!”

  Her words stabbed him like a sharp trident.

  Her chest moved. A swallowed sob. Like she was in pain. Her chin wrinkled and smoothed again. She started kicking, aiming straight up for the deadly open ocean.

  No.

  He grabbed her ankle. “Aya.”

  She kicked at his hands. “Stop it!”

  “You are in danger.”

  “I don’t care!”

  “Respect your surroundings!” He yanked her down and entrapped her in his arms.

  She writhed, refusing to meet his gaze. “Leave me alone!”

  “I will not.”

  “Why do you even care?” She shone as brightly as the first day he’d seen her in Miami. “You’re just delivering me to some other guy. Forget it! He can find me on the surface.”

  “How?” he demanded. “You cannot survive the open ocean.”

  “I made it to Atlantis on my own. I can make it back now, especially since I can see.”

  “You see nothing!”

  Her heartbeat thudded against his breastplate. He heard it and felt it. Like the determined flaring of her soul light, she shone. Her fingers curled around his hard forearm.

  He could never let her go.

  “You came wrapped in foreign plastic and a bubble of air making strange noises and frightening off all but the hungriest predators. Now, you are one with the ocean. You look like prey, you sound like prey, you taste like prey.”

  “I’ll be careful.”

  He wasn’t reaching her.

  “Say you find the surface. The middle of the Atlantic. Your people will not know you are there. Surface predators swim thick and deadly. You will become easy prey.”

  Fear flashed in her eyes.

  He hated to bind her this way. But so long as she understood and stayed with him now, he would hobble her with fear.

  “Only I can protect you. Understand?”

  “But…” She broke off and frowned. “Isn’t it the best? You’ll get back to Atlantis faster. I’ll solve my problems the way I always do. Alone.”

  “Queen Elyssa will be sad if you were to die.”

  “That’s why you care?” She renewed her struggle with double the effort. “Elyssa would understand and let. Me. Go!”

  She would not stop. They locked in combat. He tried hard not to hurt her. But she writhed with all her might.

  He grabbed her wrists, locking them together in one hand. The other arm he pressed around the curve of her back, just above her gills, forcing her soft abdomen to his. She bucked.

  “You are a brave and uncompromising warrior,” he growled. “You dared the impossible to come this far. The fight is not over. There are still enemies to vanquish.”

  She stopped struggling and glared at him. Defiance burned in her core.

  At least she was listening.

  “I’m a helpless weight,” she said. “I’ll drag you down. What can I do on the bottom of the ocean?”

  “Fight our enemies. Awaken your powers.” And then, because his soul pushed him to speak, he added the one thing he needed most deeply. “Become my queen.”

  Chapter Four

  Become my queen.

  Soren’s demand heated the water between them, a tantalizing promise. He gazed at her with dominant magnificence. Gorgeous arrogance. The kind that made her want to lick his jaw and listen to him growl as he lost control.

  But there were a lot more factors than just the desire thudding in her suddenly awakened heart.

  Aya wasn’t the kind of woman who attracted men. On the surface, at the bride pageant, Soren had said to her face he would never select her as his bride. And if she allowed herself to believe him now—and then he realized he was wrong, changed his mind about wanting her for his queen, and sent her away — that rejection would destroy her.

  Just like his rejection a few moments ago, when her innocent moan, asking why his delicious kiss overpowered her reason, resulted in him thrusting her away and vowing not to touch her again. For the second time in the space of a few hours, she lost her mind.

  She would have done anything, literally anything, to get away from him. I apologize. I will not touch you again. His rejection still hurt.

  It would be hard not to touch her if she was his queen. Right?

  And he’d also said he wanted to deliver her to another merman in Atlantis. So why pretend to want her for his queen? Was he just trying to convince her to stop fighting him?

  No. Soren wouldn’t make an offer he didn’t mean. He wasn’t so cruel.

  But he might be mistaken. He might think he could marry her and have her as his queen, and then get to know her better and realize he was wrong. She was cold and unlovable. He’d stand by his offer with regret – or give in, face reality, and shove her away forever.

  Imagining it made her itch to go to the surface again. No matter how suicidal that might be. Get away. Soren’s nearness was dangerous. It screwed up everything in her head.

  Soren awaited her answer in the middle of the ocean. They drifted on a slow current away from the direction Blake had disappeared.

  Distracting him with
conversation was good. Fiscally responsible.

  “I don’t think you really want me as your queen,” she said finally.

  His expression blackened.

  “And let’s be realistic. What’s left to protect in Atlantis? The Life Tree got chopped in half. The top is flying farther along on the same current we’ve drifted into. If it dies, so does the king—and the city.”

  Frustration tightened his jaw. “Yes, the Life Tree was mortally injured. But I am not in agony. Some part survives.”

  “Sure, some part survives. I was smooshed up against that part for the last few hours.”

  “A fragment cannot survive. Like a plucked flower, it will die in moments.”

  “The blossom in my necklace lived for a month.”

  He blinked.

  Elyssa had given Aya the blossom on her first check-up on the surface platform. She’d told Aya all about life in Atlantis and her various mistakes and learning experiences, and how nice all the warriors were, and how she hardly noticed she was naked after the initial adjustment.

  Then Elyssa had put the wilted blossom — which had dried out in her hair while she wasn’t paying attention—in a cup of seawater. It had been stone dead. Elyssa had put her hands around the cup, closed her eyes, and the blossom had startled to glow. Twinkling like a tiny star, and suddenly, very much alive. She’d smiled with satisfaction and given it to Aya to keep.

  Aya had kept it. Obsessively. Not because she was expecting it to later save her life. Just because it was beautiful and she felt a deep tug in her heart to keep it alive.

  Now, she felt the same tug for the Atlantis Life Tree.

  The fragment was still alive. She had drunk its nectar and was connected to it now in her blood.

  Maybe she had the power to revive plants like Elyssa. Maybe she could reverse Blake’s damage, restore the Life Tree, and save King Kadir. Save the castle and warriors. Save Atlantis.

  It was the whole reason she came down here.

  Soren spoke heavily. “You believe the severed fragment is keeping the city alive.”

  “Tell me I’m wrong.”

  He looked like he really wanted to.

  She also really wanted him to. Maybe the stump left in Atlantis was still alive. Maybe chasing after the severed fragment was unnecessary. Tell me it is unnecessary, Soren.

  He frowned hard.

  Aya was tired. The panic from being unable to breathe had exhausted her, the confusion of her too-intense reactions to Soren messed with her head, and she was heart-sick from failing to protect the Life Tree. Having Soren drag her back to the city, even to dump her with another merman, meant she could rest, recover her self-control, and convince Elyssa to send her to the surface.

  She didn’t want to swim across the open ocean on a crazy, risky quest with the one male who made her heart beat out of rhythm.

  Soren released Aya, kicked a few strokes along the current, and returned with a deeper frown. “That is a bad direction. It passes over a deep trench — an entrance to the nightmare Blacknight Sea. You would die. I might also.”

  Aya had no intention of dying.

  He held out his hand. “We return to Atlantis. I will collect a group of warriors.”

  A group of qualified warriors sounded much more reasonable than a newly transformed mermaid and an injured warrior. Logical, even. She accepted his hand.

  He kicked hard into the current, fighting to get them out of its claws, and propelled them through the blue ocean sky toward Atlantis.

  They passed the haunting fish schools. A few fish with big, staring eyes darted toward them, curious. Their arias sounded like a melancholy opera singer, beautiful and sad. Soren growled. They scattered.

  Like the thoughts scattering in her head. Second-guesses and doubts stared her in the face.

  Was abandoning the Life Tree fragment the best course of action? Really?

  She had to ask. “Will the Life Tree fragment be okay?”

  “I do not know.”

  That was hardly reassuring. “Your warriors just defended themselves in a battle. Will they be able to leave right away to rescue the Life Tree fragment?”

  “I will learn this when we reach Atlantis.”

  Of course he had plenty of healthy, well-rested warriors. Of course the Life Tree fragment could wait. There was no need for her to risk death twice in the same day. He wasn’t saying that. Why wasn’t he saying that?

  The logical planner inside her wouldn’t let Aya rest easy. She’d never been able to let go of “someone else’s problem.” If it was important, she had to resolve it. And this problem was life or death to thirty plus mermen – and her cousin.

  She gritted her teeth. “What happens if we return to Atlantis and everybody’s injured? And you’re the only one who can go?”

  He rubbed a long, jagged gash on his shoulder. “Then I will return alone.”

  “Wait. You’d dump me in Atlantis just to turn around and come back all alone?” Ignoring the fact that he was already injured from his last battle. “That’s no good, Soren. You’re a warrior, not a miracle worker.”

  He set his jaw. “Attempting to retrieve the Life Tree fragment ourselves is madness.”

  On the surface, Aya’s greatest daily excitement was reading the stock report and plotting which investment group to approach. Her scare with the submersible proved she wasn’t as careful as she thought. She never wanted to fear for her life again. Action was not her strong point.

  But neither was failure.

  “If we hurry, can we catch the Life Tree fragment before it goes into the trench?”

  He shook his head.

  Relief mixed with disappointment. If something was impossible, it was impossible. She would find another way to—

  “We must make the couple-swimming form. It is most aerodynamic.” Soren shook his head again. “This is madness. But we may catch the Life Tree fragment if we leave now.”

  Oh. He wasn’t shaking his head because this plan was impossible. He was shaking his head because it was possible—and also crazy.

  Sometimes, Aya hated being right all the time.

  Soren flicked his fin and was suddenly right in her face, his powerful arms sliding around her waist and his hard thigh pushing between hers. “You must obey me immediately without question.”

  “Uh…”

  His hard body pressed against her, knocking her heart off balance.

  She stammered. “I don’t know if I can do that. I perform best when I know the factors of my environment.” She pushed against his iron biceps. “Wait, Soren.”

  “Relax.”

  “I’m not prepared. I changed my mind.”

  “To make the fastest shape, you must relax.”

  “This isn’t natural.”

  “It is very natural.” His wide palm pressed her head into his shoulder. She nestled against him, warm and snug. “Melt against me. Feel the right position.”

  He kicked. His thigh rubbed against her soft cleft. A throbbing ache awakened her desire.

  Oh. Wow. Yum.

  No, not yum. This was so not going to work. Soren made her forget everything and lose her mind. And her mind was her only useful possession.

  She pushed away. “This is a bad idea.”

  “This is your idea.” He kicked steadily. The ocean whipped by, passing with his powerful strides. “You are a strong, brilliant bride whose intelligence and dedication will save the Life Tree.”

  Her heart thumped out of rhythm.

  Soren really thought that about her? Even after her accidental betrayal?

  She would give anything to repair the beautiful plant that her mistakes had helped to destroy.

  What helped him swim faster? Relaxing?

  Normally she couldn’t relax even if she went under hypnosis. If someone hugged her like Soren, her brain wouldn’t shut off. She zigged and zagged the whole time wondering if the other person was getting bored, if she was, and if it wasn’t better not to have friends since she was so a
wkward.

  The only person it was easy to accept a hug from was Elyssa. Her enthusiastic hugs were given freely and for almost no reason.

  Aya didn’t push her luck. She always politely extricated herself before Elyssa got bored and let go. Elyssa didn’t have to waste her time comforting Aya. Aya was just grateful for Elyssa’s smiles and kindness and companionship.

  But maybe Aya hadn’t ever tried hard enough to relax.

  Maybe she didn’t want to give herself to the powerful warrior that stole her senses, overwhelming her reason and filling her with impossible desires.

  Because it was Soren, she was willing to try.

  Aya concentrated on her muscles to let go with a huge, watery sigh. If Soren needed it, she could force herself. She could trick herself not to feel the delicious rubbing between her legs. Okay, so maybe she didn’t want to stop feeling it. This was for the Life Tree and Atlantis. Relax.

  Soren kicked. They zoomed through the water.

  “If we are attacked, you must use your power to protect us,” he said.

  Figuring out her mermaid super power, like figuring out how to flex her feet into fins, was on her to-do list. “You’re the warrior.”

  “You have the power of the Life Tree. I have seen Queen Elyssa use it. You will be stronger.”

  She snorted. “Most guys are intimidated by a strong woman.”

  “They are foolish. Strength is beauty.”

  Her chest warmed. She was in danger of falling in love with Soren.

  Which was really, really dangerous.

  Sure, he said he liked a strong woman, and he wanted her for his queen, but what would happen when they returned to Atlantis?

  Her clear-sighted, logical, cool side surfaced. Finally.

  Soren would say he wanted her until he was faced with her super power. Or until she out-thought him, or won at arm-wrestling, or did something that challenged his masculinity. Then, the light would die in his eyes and he’d turn away dully, suddenly uninterested in her.

  Sure, he said he wanted her to succeed. They all said that.

  But every man she’d ever known — from her dad to her boyfriends — they all stopped loving her the moment she out-shone them. If they’d ever loved her at all.

  She focused on a safe answer. “I don’t know how to use this power.”