Harris, Daisy - Mere Temptation [Ocean Shifters 1] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Неизвестный

  Oceanus felt his muscles expand, overfilling the large chair as he puffed up in anger. “I won’t run the risk that you’ll injure one of my people. You’ll wait to hunt or incur the wrath of the Council.”

  “I understand. I’ll wire the funds to your account as soon as possible. Can I have your assurances that we can begin collection within forty-eight hours?”

  He relented. “Yes, that should be fine. Most citizens have servants to help them pack.”

  Replacing the handset on the receiver, he prepared to make another call.

  Chapter 7

  Flipped

  Karon stared down at Gracie sleeping, for the first time ever, in his bed. Her face was so different asleep than awake. He wished he’d gotten to know her under different circumstances, maybe before Dendric captured her, before he even worked for them.

  The succubus stirred, giving him a broad, open smile the first second she saw him, as if they were lovers. Then the armor slapped back onto her expression, and she was marble again.

  “Good morning, Captain Karon.” How could she pour so much seduction into four words?

  “Hey, Gracie. You sleep well?”

  “Yes, very well. Thank you.”

  Gracie was standing already, pulling on her clothes. “So, when you make your next catch, how long before Dr. Mengele takes them ashore? Or is the plan to keep the next group on board as well?”

  Karon knew perfectly well what Gracie was trying to do, but he found he didn’t have the heart to steer her away. “It sounds like they’re going to keep the subjects on board for a while. Grathers seems to think I can fit twenty of them down in the hold while he gets started with tests and stuff here on the ship.”

  Gracie looked at him like she was trying to read his mind.

  “But, this is a big project, right? They’d want to take them somewhere else eventually?”

  Karon looked at her sadly. Whatever he wanted to give her, it wasn’t what she needed. He knew what would make her happy.

  “Yeah, there are big plans to build a new research facility nearby. If you’re interested, you could take a look at the proposal. I have a copy in my office.” He gave her his extra keys. He expected her to grab them with the same ice she took everything else. Instead she came closer and folded herself into his chest.

  He breathed the honey scent of her hair as her slim arms wrapped around his body. Then she lifted her face and rose on her toes and gave him a gentle kiss before whispering, “Thank you.”

  * * * *

  Sidon swam in half-dragon form a short distance behind Isa, enjoying the up-down beating of her tail. She darted off to the side through seaweed grass. He twisted to search the sunlit water, but she swam up behind him, poking and teasing him. Floating close, she touched his shimmering skin and the muscles of his abdomen as they transitioned into scales at his hips. Then Isa ducked and swam around his oversized body, laughing as he swiveled, not fast enough to catch her.

  Sidon anticipated her next dart, and he swept his forearm across her belly, wrapping her body into his. He turned her to face him, and was thrilled when her tail reflexively arched forward under his body, locking them together. Satisfied that Isa couldn’t escape, he used his free hand to stroke her face, her shoulders, her back. Her skin was so soft, and the warm water smoothed it like a lotion. He trailed his fingers down to her tail, where the skin became firm and rubbery. It was smoother there, not as soft as her human half, but as he grazed it Isa let out a squeaking keen, more than a little like the bark of a dolphin.

  Though most of his lovers over the years had been mere, Sidon had never thought to explore any of them in their water form. It suddenly occurred to him that he’d never let any woman touch his dragon scales either. Sure, during his guardian training he’d been touched plenty—with fists, knives, swords, fire, and most often with a very large stick. But no one had ever touched his reptile body in adoration.

  Isa seemed to read his mind. Shimmying out of his hold, she continued her exploration and skimmed along his body to his hind claws to palm each of his sharp talons. He struggled not to jerk and scratch her at the tickling between his toes. Curiosity about his feet satisfied, the mermaid swept along his tail then back up his underbelly. The hard slats of skin were thinner there, and the feel of her wiggling limbs against the delicate shingles made him groan into the water. Her naughty fingers curled into the pouch where his sex was tucked, and he practically jumped out of his skin.

  He’d been stroked intimately by many women, many more than he liked to admit. But no one, not even him, had ever handled his reproductive organs in dragon form. In fact, he wasn’t entirely sure how dragons had sex, and given that he was one, this struck him as a serious hole in his knowledge base.

  He bent away from Isa’s prying hands and was met with her most wicked grin. Then her body pressed against his and he kissed her deep, forcing his half-dragon frame smaller to fit her. She swished her tail, so the tip flicked along the edge of his vent, setting a red haze of reptilian heat through him. He bathed in the warmth of wanting her, both as a dragon and as a man and knowing he couldn’t really have her either way.

  * * * *

  The next morning, Isa shoveled pancakes in her mouth and listened as Sidon explained everything he’d learned on the boat. Though her jealousy revved when he described what he’d witnessed in the captain’s office, Isa appreciated his honesty. She watched his back while he scrubbed plates in the sink and considered asking him for more details, maybe re-enacting part of the scene, when a knock on the door signaled the dragons’ arrival.

  Sidon turned her way and waggled his eyebrows as if he knew perfectly well what she’d been thinking. Isa blushed as he walked to the doorway and opened the door. The two human-form dragons stormed in without saying hello.

  “I would prefer it if you called before showing up,” Sidon practically growled at them, and Isa moved to stand behind him and rubbed against his arm in appreciation.

  “Yes.” Laird, who tended to act like a mediator, stepped between Kai and Sidon. “Well, we needed to inform you right away that we have received word from the Council. They are evacuating the dragons from the Key.”

  Sidon shouted a curse that had Isa backing away several steps.

  Kai moved forward. “The chairman has requested we return to headquarters immediately, and he commands that you accompany us.”

  Sidon lifted his head and stood taller. Again it looked to Isa as if he were growing.

  “And If I refuse?” His tone was even, but every muscle on his body was primed, and his eyes flashed black

  “We are to detain you with force if necessary.” Kai and Laird moved apart to coordinate their attack.

  “Fuck you.”

  The Council dragons acted in unison—Kai rushing Sidon while Laird morphed slowly into a white dragon. Sidon flashed before her eyes. One minute he was human, the next he was half reptile, his body so enormous he had to bend to fit in the room. The Asian dragon drew his long sword, but Sidon knocked him across the room with his tail. Stumbling up, Kai launched himself at Sidon’s back and climbed up his hindquarters. The half-dragon whipped around. The sword plunged into Sidon’s shoulder, and he tossed Kai against the window-wall, where he slid slowly down to the ground. The white dragon circled as his dazed partner attempted to stand again.

  Sidon took his full dragon form—chocolate brown laced through with green—and dove at the white dragon. The enormous reptiles growled and snapped at each other, but the brown one bit hard into his opponent’s neck and swung him toward the door, hurling the human form Kai a moment later. Curving back to half-human, Sidon spoke, his voice magnified like it had been in the cave the day before. “I don’t want to kill you, but I won’t leave the Key unprotected. Now, get the hell off my island!”

  Unsurprisingly, Kai spoke. “You’ll lose your standing, Sidon, your position, and any hopes of rising in the Council’s ranks.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” The half-dragon scoffed. “I’m reall
y upset about that.”

  As they left, Sidon turned, bleeding and still savage, back to Isa. Then the monster’s nostrils flared, smelling her fear, and he began to shrink and morph back to a man. His jagged injury healed a bit as he shifted, his tail and hind legs collapsing into human limbs.

  “Sidon.” Isa didn’t know what to say, so she decided to go for straightforward. “What is up with the half-dragon thing?”

  Shrugging, he said, “It comes from the mere side, I think.”

  “And being able to do that makes you more badass than just a plain old dragon?”

  He smiled at her, that little glint of conceit on this face. “Well, I guess you could say that. Full-blooded dragons have only two forms, dragon and human. And because they have to go from man all the way to reptile, they take a while to shift. Being half mere means I can shift into a half-dragon form, which is faster.”

  “And you figured this out when?”

  “During Guardian training. The trainers… Well, they wanted to teach me to shift as quickly as possibly under a variety of circumstances—pain, fear, starvation. I didn’t have any choice but to get faster. Everyone was surprised when I figured out a new form.”

  Isa ached a bit for the young boy who had gone through such pain to become stronger. She pressed on. “But why can you make yourself grow bigger?”

  “Oh, most dragons can do that” he said in an offhand manner, as if becoming a giant was something people did all the time, like being able to ride a unicycle or do a cartwheel.

  “But only a few of us can do it in human form.” He grinned at her full-on now. “Because, sweetheart, I’m just that badass.”

  She wanted to smack him but instead took a deep breath and cleared her mind.

  “Si, thank you.”

  She shielded her eyes beneath her hair, but he ducked to meet them. “What for?”

  “For staying.”

  “I told you I would.” He said it with a bit of an eye roll, but she caught a hint of frustration as well.

  “I know.” She moved into the cage of his embrace and took in his salt-and-sea-and-man smell, allowing his chest hair to tickle against her wet cheek. He was so perfect, she realized. It was her that couldn’t quite fit.

  “You know you’re wonderful, right, Si?” she whispered against his skin, half hoping he wouldn’t hear her.

  “Yeah, I know.” He lifted her into his arms then and pressed his mouth onto hers, taking her breath away.

  * * * *

  Karon sucked in the honey-spice scent as he buried his face at the crux of Gracie’s thighs. She’d never let him do this before. He didn’t want to attribute her sudden change of heart to his having shared confidential information. Then again, maybe he didn’t care. Her scent muddied his brain, and he lost himself, and his worries, in her slick wet folds.

  “John,” she panted. “Oh, John, that is so good.” He pushed his fingers—two at her pussy and one at her ass—slowly into her as she closed on her peak. Her climax came like a freight train against his hand. The spasms locked soft on his hard fingers. Her juices flowed thick on his tongue like melting sherbet.

  Karon kissed his way from her perfectly manicured triangle up the thin line of sweat between her breasts and then over her ripe mouth. She never used to let him kiss her either, but now he did it every chance he got. Her perfect white teeth scraped his tongue and he wondered if the taste on his lips excited her as much as it did him.

  When he pulled away, she looked sheepish. “Thank you, John. That was nice.”

  “Nice enough to last all day?” He grunted as soon as the words slipped out. He didn’t even know why he asked.

  Gracie looked at him a little sadly, reading his meaning all too well. “It would be, but I can only drain a man through his member.”

  “Oh.” Karon drew back. He’d been sort of proud to do something just for her. Now he felt like a dumb-ass.

  She pressed her graceful hand along his face, and looked into his eyes. “It was wonderful, though. Thank you.”

  He tried not to sound too whipped as he said, “Anything else I can do for you, baby?”

  Something flashed in her eyes, and he hoped to fucking god it wasn’t pity.

  “Do you want to make love to me, Captain Karon?”

  He hid his desperation, and caught her hand and pressed it into the thick ridge at his fly.

  “You know I do.”

  * * * *

  “Hello, dragon.” Sidon didn’t recognize the sultry voice on the other end of the line. “I think I have something you want.”

  Sidon smirked. It was the woman from the boat. “Really? I wouldn’t be so sure if I were you.”

  Her laughter broke like glass. “You want to know what Dendric is up to, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “Well, I’ve managed to acquire their plans for this island and its inhabitants, but I can’t leave the ship. You’ll have to come and get it. I have the study protocol, schematics of the ship, budgets, and I even threw in some of the background studies. Just in case you want to either fall asleep or vomit.”

  “So they’re doing research on mere?” Sidon was unsurprised. Wacky pseudo-scientists were always looking for mermaids. They were just never this well-funded.

  “Oh, they’ve already studied them. Now they want to go bigger. They have some crazy plan to use them to create a vaccine that will turn people into monsters.”

  “But what does that have to do with the mere?”

  “It’s like this. Mere can turn human right? I mean not just human-form, they can become real honest-to-god human.”

  “Yeah…”

  “Well, can a dragon do that?”

  Sidon thought about it for a moment, not getting her meaning. “No.”

  “Neither can succubi or other demon-spawn, vampires, or werewolves, or fairies. The mere are the only paranormal type that can change like that. The guy doing the research, Dr. Grathers, he thinks if mere can become human, he can figure out the trigger, reverse it. As you can imagine, that would mean big money.”

  “Well, all that is interesting, but how do I get them to leave my island?”

  “I can’t help you with that, dragon, I have my own plans. But I’ll give you what I know, and maybe you can figure something out.”

  Her voice caught, and Sidon sensed she was readying to hang up the phone. “I’ll come out. I can be there by five p.m. Where do we meet?”

  * * * *

  Isa puffed up. “But I want to help, Si. I could act as lookout.”

  Sidon regarded her with endearment. Too bad that was the last thing she wanted to see from him.

  “Sweetie, of course I want you to help me figure this out. You can watch the video feeds and listen to the audio, take notes, and I want to hear what you think. But you’re not going anywhere near that damn boat.”

  “I’m not helpless!”

  “You’re close enough.”

  “Damn you, Si! I am not helpless, I may not be as strong as a marked mere, but I’m fast, really fast for a fry. You’ve even said it yourself.”

  “You could be faster if you wanted,” he said quietly.

  Isa thought about that for a second. He was right. She could be stronger and faster if she wanted. She could have mere song loud enough not only to communicate over long distances, but to send shock waves through the water. “Listen, Si, let’s just focus on learning what we can about these guys.” She took a deep breath. “And after that I’ll think about how far I’m willing to go to help. I’m not promising I’ll go through the change, but—”

  Sidon brought her into the circle of his strong arms. “Seriously Isa, I can handle it.”

  She shrugged him off. “Alright fine, go off on your fact-finding mission with the mysterious spy-lady. I’ll just sit here and twiddle my thumbs.” Sarcasm dripped like acid from her words. “Maybe I’ll clean your house and have dinner ready when you get home.”

  Roving the house getting ready to leave, he answered
absentmindedly, “Yeah, that sounds great, sweetie, thanks.”

  Isa knew it was petty, but she barely said goodbye when he left. She flopped down on his office chair and switched on the monitor and began sifting through the feeds of the various areas of the boat. At least she would be able to watch him. Office, deck, hallway, small medical room, holding cells. Horror, cold and raw, crept through Isa’s veins. They’d made another catch, and this one looked bloody. She strained her face to the monitor to watch each little chest rise and fall. They were all unconscious and hooked up to IVs. Armed guards stood nearby. Throwing her clothes off, she ran down the stairs to the cave.

  She shifted and dove deep, kicking at full speed. Sea grass cut salt into her skin as she wove through the shallow-water shortcut. Small schools of pinfish split in two at her approach. The water grew deeper and greener, and she kicked out into the channel. Soon an enormous hull loomed in the distance. A lizard tail whipped halfway between her and the boat. She shot forward.

  The look on Sidon’s face when she swam up from under him was murderous, but she grabbed him and gestured for him to rise to the surface. At first he tried to shake her off, pointing back through the water in a silent demand for her to go home. Grabbing his arm, she kicked upward, pulling his bulk to the surface.

  “Dammit, Isa, turn your fish tail around and head back!”

  She stretched her neck up, trying to look as large as possible. “I’m a marine mammal, not a fish. And I don’t take orders from you, dragon!”

  Before he had a chance to argue, she cut him off. “There are more kids onboard. I saw them through the feeds. Three little girls, alive but unconscious. The cells are guarded.”

  His eyes skittered back and forth, like he was trying to figure out how much to say or how to react. “Okay. Thank you. So I’ll get the kids, too. But I don’t want you on that boat.”

  The urge to argue hit hard, but Sidon had a desperate look to him. “Fine, but I’m staying close.”

  He peered at the boat, then back to the mermaid. “All right, but say below. If these kids are in as bad shape as it sounds, I may need your help getting them back to the Key anyway.” She caught the thread of reluctance and frustration in his voice. He probably thought asking a mere for help was beneath him. Isa simmered in anger but didn’t argue.