by Jana Leigh
“It is pretty much like, ‘you are a cult and have crazy ass beliefs and you are drugging us to brainwash us,” Alex said seriously.
“We of course have help from the surface; there is no way we could do this without the help of humans. Can you imagine us bringing down these huge crates and being caught? Let me tell you the story of the last time we were caught,” Xander said with amusement.
Chapter Seven
“It happened quite by accident. It was the year 1690, during the “Golden Age” of pirating. We were surfacing in the Caribbean Isles hoping we would be able to keep our cover when the seas were so active. We usually went to the surface at night, when we surfaced there was a Pirate Captain with his full crew waiting for us,” Xander explained.
“It was one of those moments where we were either going to kill them all, or we were going to make an accord with the Pirates,” Des said and looked around the room. They had the complete attention of the women, although they looked skeptical, they were sucked into the story.
“The Captain of the ship was a man named Bernard, William Bernard. He was a force to be reckoned with and I was proud to call him a friend. After the standoff that lasted about an hour, with no one moving, trust me it was uncomfortable. We sat down for a drink and proceeded to explain our existence. The man was not surprised, saying they had seen men in the water, with tails before,” Xander said.
“Hold the fucking phone. Are you telling me that you are Mermaids?” Alex said.
“No, I am telling you that our DNA allows us to shift in the water, our legs become a tail with the fin on the bottom, they are called tails, and we get webbing in between our fingers so we can swim fast. This happened many years ago on our home plant, we assume because of our evolution as people who lived under the water. The water on this planet is different—it has salt, whereas ours didn’t,” Xander finished.
“However, it still contains the necessary source and elements for us to shift when we enter the water to swim to the surface,” Rosul stepped forward and explained.
“Still you are Mermaids,” Gabby said and looked up at Casius who was frowning.
“MEN, I guess if you had to have a name for us, it is Mermen, or Meridians,” Xander said gruffly.
Alex snorted and looked at Xander and Des. They could tell she was thinking of them as the storybook creatures. Both men fought their urge to grab her, take her to their home, and claim her. Rosul and Cash seemed to be contemplating the same. The urge to complete their bond was hard to ignore.
“You are our mate,” Xander blurted out, he was getting sick of so much talk.
Alex felt her eyes widen, “Really and what does that mean, mister. Maybe I don’t want a mate, let alone two.”
“It means that you were meant for us, and only us. It means that you will be our Queen, do your duty to our people. It means that you will take care of us, just as we will take care of you,” Des said smoothly.
Since they were young, they heard stories about what the mating would feel like. The feeling of being complete, and apparently if the King was mated the others would be content. None of them knew what the hell to expect when they did mate. However, Xander and Des were more than ready to do that.
“Fine, whatever,” Alex said and flipped a wrist at them to continue.
Xander snorted, “Bernard assured us that he would keep our secret, and together we even developed a way for us to get supplies without having to alert the humans.”
“But he is dead, how did you do all this after that?” Sam asked skeptically.
“That is part of the story. Bernard believed in us, and we helped him in return, searching for treasure in the ocean. The man became one of the wealthiest pirates to ever have sailed the high seas without pillaging and killing people,” Xander said.
“Bernard married and had a son, but he felt so strongly about helping us, that when it came time for him to turn over the ship to his grown son, the son had to promise to help us and keep our secret. William Bernard was an amazing man. We protected him, as he protected us. His son William II did as his father asked and proved to be an asset as well. We all mourned the loss of Bernard, when he died. As the world evolved and changed, we changed with it, and the line for Bernard has been our ally since then. We helped them build a small shipping company in Florida. Yes, they do compete with Collins Shipping. Bernard Meridian Shipping is half of our company. We help run it from down here, while the descendants of William Bernard run it from up there,” Des explained.
“I know Bernard Meridian Shipping. I should have known when you said Meridian that it sounded familiar. They are a good company. The, um, owner, Richard Bernard IV, is a very nice man. Although, for some reason my father does not like him, but I do. I think his son and daughter are set to take the helm, soon, I think I heard,” Alex said.
Xander nodded his head at his mate and then Sage stepped forward. “There are some other things, the next topic to discuss. Your DNA came back; we were checking it because we could not figure out how human females were actually our mates. We have done research over the years, and normal human DNA is not compatible with ours. So we were trying to figure this out.”
“Our DNA? What is wrong with us?” Gabby asked.
“Nothing is wrong, but something is right or strange, however you want to look at it. You would see this normal DNA strand in any human. Of course, there are defects—you know what those are. This is the Meridian DNA, you will see ours has this section and this section,” Sage said as he pointed at the pictures he kept hanging on the wall.
“What does this have to do with ours?” Sam asked slowly.
“Well, when I did the DNA test on you, this is what yours looks like, all of you the same, although of course, not completely the same. See, here is a marker that would be from say your father, and then this one would be from your mother,” Sage said, pointing to three separate pictures.
The first thing that Alex saw was that they were colored differently than ones from a human. “Oh my God, are we dying?” Alex said and looked at her friends who were just as upset.
“No, you are not dying,” Sage said and looked at the girls patiently. “This is a Meridian marker—like ours,” as he pointed to one of the markers, “and this is not human either,” he said as he pointed to a different marker on the girls’ film. “I can’t say what it is, but with the Meridian marker, we are able to mate with only another Meridian. You would not have been able to carry a human’s child.”
“Hold the damn phone, are you saying we are alien and don’t know it?” Alex said and looked upset. So many things were running through her head, she could not even think about what this meant other than her father had lied to her. “My father, the Shipping King, has been lying to me and everyone else, he is alien. You have to be wrong.”
Sam and Gabby wheeled their chairs and surrounded her. All of the men looked at the women as they began to cry with Alex who was clearly distraught.
“Shit,” Sage said and looked back at Xander to get some help.
However, all of the men looked like they were gonna be sick. They hated that their mates were so upset, foolishly, they thought that maybe they would be happy about this. Fuck, they had been so wrong.
“They have to be lying—this is part of the brainwashing. My father is the pillar of the community. How could he be an alien, wouldn’t he like turn green, or have larger eyes than normal, maybe an antenna sticking out of his head. How do you hide that kind of shit,” Alex said and wailed.
“Okay, let’s think of this logically,” Gabby said and rolled her eyes when the men all nodded their heads in agreement. “Okay, let’s be logical alone.”
Gabby and the women looked pointedly at the men and they began to shuffle their feet back and forth. “Men, let’s leave. We will all come back later,” Xander said and waited. As the last man left the room, he turned and said to the women. “I know this is hard to hear, but we are telling the truth. Now that you have encountered your mates, you will
begin to feel the mating pull. I am sorry for that. We would never force you, but you need to know what to expect. If you have questions, please just ask Sage.”
Chapter Eight
“What the hell is going on here?” Alex whispered when they all left. Her eyes were red from crying, but she had calmed down. “I need to call my dad.”
Gabby put her arm around her shoulder, “By now, you saw the boat, Coast Guard would have called them. They are probably sending out a search party. I think maybe we should wait and see what happens. I don’t know why, but I think they are telling the truth. Look, some of this shit you can’t fake. I mean we need to ask more questions, but seriously think reasonably.”
Alex looked at the sisters who seemed in agreement. “How can I do that? I mean either he is keeping a huge secret from all of us or he is not. Don’t you want answers? He knew your parents, so basically he has been lying to all of us.”
“I agree, and if my parents were still alive, we would probably feel the same way. However, you know we have come to terms with being orphaned and on our own. However, if we are right, and he has been lying, what would he have to gain, that is the real question, no matter how much I love you, I will not lie to you. Your father is self-centered and looks out for number one. We have always felt like that. I admit we have talked about it and never really trusted him, but he was your dad,” Sam said slowly and looked at Gabby for support.
Alex felt tears gathering in her eyes as she thought about the last few years. Her father had become distant and almost intolerable about her finding someone to marry. When James came into the picture, her father had been ecstatic and Alex felt like she had finally done something right. How wrong she had been.
Now looking back—it could be that she was just seeing the real man after all these years. Alex was frustrated, how could she explain to them that until she heard his voice and spoke to him, she would never know.
“Okay, I get it. I felt it, too, especially over the last incident. I explained to you what happened, but I never told you what my father said. When I went to him to explain what I saw with James, I overheard him talking. He was ready to put James in the CEO position when we were engaged. Said that when I was pregnant, I could stay at home and watch the children—it would keep me occupied and happy,” Alex said slowly and Gabby opened her mouth to say something, but she saw the look in Alex’s eyes, and knew she was not done.
“After I realized he never intended to put me in the CEO position, I was pissed, and angry. I wanted to show him what his little ‘yes boy’ had done, so I stormed into the room and told him James had been sleeping with the maid. His response was, ‘I must have been doing something wrong if I couldn’t keep him happy in the bedroom.’ I was shocked and hurt, we argued, I said some really ugly things. However, the weird part was, I mean when I look back on it now, he wasn’t pissed off about James at all. He was more worried about who I was going to find to replace him, and how I needed to either see a sex counselor to learn how to do it and get over my issues, or to suck it up and fake it.”
Sam swore and threw a tablet of paper that was on the small desk next to them. Gabby looked at her and said, “I don’t even know what to say about that—other than the man is a prick.”
“Don’t you get it though? I need to know, I need to know if he loves me for me or for what I can give him. The only way I can do that, is to call and tell him I am alive and see what his response is,” Alex insisted. “What if they are right? Then I have to tell you my father is in this neck deep, and he is not working for the good side. He would work for whoever would benefit him the most.”
“Right, there is only fifty of the Meridian and if they are telling the truth, there are a lot of the Hoppy whosiwhat’s,” Gabby said waving her hand around.
“The son of a bitch is going to disappoint you again. I love you, but seriously, you are setting yourself up. We need to look at this like an outsider. First, we have our parents’ death. Gabby and I have looked into the accident, and the State Patrolman who investigated it, said that it didn’t make sense that they were ran off the road. Of course, his report was buried and we had to dig for it, but we found it. Then we have your mother dying during childbirth. In addition, surprisingly when we were looking and snooping into our parents’ death, your father came forward and suddenly ‘found’ us. I have to tell you, over the last few years, every time we see him or talk to him, he somehow asks about our little investigation. It was weird, but now it could make sense,” Sam said.
“Are you so ready to believe there are aliens in the universe, as opposed to this is one fucked up dream?” Alex yelled. She was frustrated and angry, in her heart she knew she was right, there was something weird going on, and until they answered some basic questions, they would never figure this out.
***
“What the hell is going on? How could they have the DNA from the Meridian? And what is the other marker in the DNA?” Xander demanded as they walked back into the office.
Sage had come with them to talk to them and explain, “I just got the results right when you walked in.”
“Well, you damn well should have pulled us out and told us. I mean what the hell?” Des snarled at his friend.
Sage frowned and looked at his leader, “I am sorry, sir. However, they were their test results. I made an oath when I graduated from med school. My patients are my responsibility.”
Xander sighed and ran his hands over his head. “Whatever, done and over with. Now, you need to explain this.”
“Okay, from what I can figure out is, there must have either been another ship that survived and made it to Earth, or the Hopis captured some of the women and brought them here. That is the only explanation I can come up with on how Meridian blood ended up in the women. It is not pure; it is diluted by several generations from what I can tell. It would make sense though, I just don’t know what the other blood is, could be Hopis, could be something else,” Sage said.
“Who the fuck else could it be? That day we SAW the ships blow up. There was no mistaking that. However, if they had captured some people before they were able to get on the ship it would explain everything. There was a lot of confusion, and panic. We looked after the explosion, there was no one left. Before, it was too crazy, and everyone was trying to escape, a few women or men disappearing would have gone unnoticed,” Cash said from the corner.
Casius spoke from the corner where he was leaning against the wall, “How would we find out?”
“We would need to test Alex’s father. Sam and Gabby’s parents are dead, according to the files. But I am curious about that though, and I am also curious about there being two different women with Meridian blood. It would take me a while to do a thorough DNA analysis, I mean I know the facts, but I can give you more detail in a few more days,” Sage said.
“Getting the father is out of the question, we need to play it close to the chest for now. If there are more Meridians out there, we could have more mates. They cannot know we are on to the whole thing. I think meeting Alex and her friends was a fluke, but they can’t know we have found them. I think it would put everyone’s life in danger who is still on the surface,” Xander said.
“How can they be our mates and not shift?” Rosul asked.
“I don’t know, maybe Sage will be able to answer that question when the tests are done, for now, we need to get as much information as we can on the girls, their families, and their ancestors. We will track this down,” Des said and looked at Casius.
“On it, let me get a few more of the men, and we will help Rosul weed through the reports,” Casius said and nodded to the men and the three left. Sage was left with them and he smiled and looked down.
“Listen, I am not one to speak out of turn, but you are going to have to do some research on your own. I mean, you need to learn how to deal with a woman,” Sage said smugly. Xander and Des looked at each other and shook their head. They could handle it, they thought. “Just saying,” the doctor said and w
alked out of the room whistling.
“What do you think?” Des said.
“She was meant for us, she will be our mate,” Xander said firmly and looked at the wall.
Des was silent for a moment and then his communicator vibrated in his pocket. Frowning, he lifted it and saw it was Sage, “You just left.”
“Alex wants to speak with you,” Sage said.
“On our way,” Des said and turned to Xander who grabbed his hand and moved toward the door. “I guess you heard?”
***
“Are you out of your mind?” Xander bellowed.
Alex looked at him with a stubborn face and said, “Um no, and you don’t know me, so you need to wait while I explain,” she said and then paused while Xander and Des sat down.
