by Bethany-Kris
Nonsense.
That’s what this was.
Mav hated all of it.
“It’ll be impossible to get word to your father and get a decision on negating the agreement by the time the next storm comes along,” Vane explained.
Mav hummed under his breath. “At which time, the king here expects us to have mated.”
“Yes.”
“So, you think he’s planned that.”
“I think nothing, Prince. I simply give you a conversation for you to come up with your own thoughts and intentions.”
Mav believed that only partially. He’d come to an understanding about his advisor years ago in which the man did expect the prince to come to his own conclusions on certain things, but at the same time, he liked to direct Mav to said conclusions as well.
“Well,” Mav drawled, putting all of his attention back on the dancing women and their songs filling the courtyard, “seems we don’t have a choice but to let the mating happen. We’ll have to wait and see what happens after to decide where we go from there.”
“How so?”
“She’ll chase the bond, won’t she? He’ll have no say in that.”
“Mav—”
“I’m not wrong.”
“You’re not,” the advisor admitted.
Not that he sounded like he particularly wanted to.
“They’re expecting storms tonight.”
“I heard that,” Vane replied. “Have you seen the princess at all today?”
“For a few moments this morning. Then she went to visit with her mother and the baby.”
“Have they named the young, yet?”
Mav frowned. “Not that I am aware.”
Which was why the child had not yet been formally placed in line to the throne. He had to wonder if that was by the hand of the king as well. He didn’t trust that merman. How could one trust someone who didn’t even protect his own people?
“Well—”
The advisor didn’t get the chance to finish his statement. The rush of royal guards filling the courtyard had the dancing women coming to a stop, their colorful fabrics falling to the seafloor in spiraling rainbows while the music silenced all at once. The guards avoided Mav and his man well enough, but the harsh whispers and severe expressions of the mermen with their chest plates and sharpened spears had the prince drawing in a quick breath.
Caught. She’s caught.
The princess was caught in a hunt.
They were quiet, of course.
Clearly heading for the king so that he could learn the news first.
It didn’t matter.
Their voices traveled.
Mav heard it all.
“If that’s true …” Vane started to say.
The prince shook his head. “It can’t be.”
“If it is, it gets you out of the agreement.”
“I never said I wanted out.”
And he didn’t.
He simply didn’t want his princess to stay in this sea.
She was a much better fit for his.
Mav would make sure she saw it, too. Even if that meant staying here until Arelle was returned. For now, though …
“Let’s find the king,” he told his advisor.
FIFTEEN
Eryx
MATTUE KEPT his expression a blank mask when Eryx was the first man off the ship after it docked at the wharf. He wished he was surprised to see the advisor waiting, but he really couldn’t be, considering how often Mattue liked to randomly make appearances lately.
“Well?” Mattue asked.
Eryx pulled the hood of his cloak down, taking his time to peer back over his shoulder at the ship still rocking against the waves while the men worked up on the deck. Overhead, the sun had dipped lower in the sky. Streaks of purple and burnt orange colored the sky, promising nightfall would come soon enough.
It was the wind that carried through the air, sending ropes spilling from the hands of the shipmates and causing Eryx’s cloak to billow wide around his legs that told the truth. A storm was on the way. They would need to work fast to empty the ship of its very precious cargo, get it moved, and make sure the vessel was well-tied down. Otherwise, they would find themselves caught up in the next bad storm when the skies quickly turned black.
But … he didn’t think much about that. Or the work still left to do. His purpose here was done. Eryx finally had what he wanted.
“Prince,” the advisor prodded when he stayed quiet.
Eryx came back to Mattue with a sigh he hoped voiced his displeasure with the man without him actually needing to say it. “I would ask why you’re here on the wharf waiting for me, but I’m sure the answer will only annoy me.”
“Someone needs to keep eyes on you.”
“Do they have to be your eyes?”
“Would you rather the king send someone else?”
He’d rather his father left him be altogether. If he was still shunned from court and his royal duties, then what did it matter?
“How did the hunt go?” Mattue asked.
The shouts of men from the ship drew both men to the side of the wharf where Eryx and Mattue stood next to one another. A net that dangled dangerously close to the churning waves was hoisted higher along the ship’s rear. Eryx didn’t need to explicitly say it for his advisor to know, considering the man could plainly see what awaited them inside the net, but he spoke, nonetheless.
“It went well,” Eryx said.
“Is that her?”
“Aye, to the left, boys!”
Eryx had no intention of shouting to Mattue over the calls of the men working to move the still net from the side of the ship to its position over the wharf. Corval had decided, only after the mermaid hadn’t fought once she was in the net, that he wouldn’t move her to the large cage on deck. Instead, he left her in the net, hanging over the sea as they sailed back. There, Eryx watched her the entire time.
Not that he thought she would get away. He just … couldn’t stop staring. Now was not the time for an exception.
“Is it?” Mattue asked him again, louder that time.
Eryx only smiled.
It took all of a few moments for the men who were not needed to hoist the net to its proper position and remove themselves from the ship. They circled around the spot where the dark blue rope of the net dangled over the wharf, spilling in piles while the teardrop shape dangling in the air spun a slow circle over and over again until it finally came to a stop.
A foot from the wharf, the net and its contents remained motionless. It only dropped to the wet wood when one of the men lifted his hand with a nod. With weapons at the ready, Corval gave the signal up above to let the net go.
She hit the wood with a thud.
All the blue netting spilled over her.
Eryx could plainly see the shape of her legs twisted beneath her as her hands flew out to catch her fall. Not that it made much of a difference in the end. The netting was pulled away from her by the hands of the men with quick tugs until she was laid bare to the prince’s inspection, and that of every other man on the wharf.
It was not lost on him …
Not her beauty. The way those violet eyes of hers seemed so wide. How she stared at him. Not even how quiet it’d become.
And she was beautiful.
The spattering of scales at her temples shimmered under the colorful sky when she tilted her head up higher toward him. Her shapely figure. Her golden skin winked when her legs shifted to fold beneath her so that she was sitting on her knees. With all her nakedness on display, from the smooth bare skin leading to the paradise between her thighs to the pert breasts with red hair plastered to her chest … a truly magnificent sight.
He doubted a single man surrounding them hadn’t noticed.
And she was all his now.
Despite the hatred and confusion and all the other emotions that welled inside Eryx at the sight of the mermaid he’d been hunting laid at his feet … he was not so pridefu
l that he couldn’t admit she was—by far—the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen in his life. His memories had not done her justice.
Neither had his dreams.
But even as he felt a sense of vicious satisfaction at having caught her, he had to ignore the strange pull at his chest that demanded he move closer to her. A part of him screamed she should be looking up at you from where she rests at your boots and begs or bleeds or both. Another murmured she would look so good there breathing your name, too.
Did she even know his name when he didn’t know hers?
Fuck.
He might enjoy teaching her it, though.
Eryx swallowed back the conflicting violence and lust warring in every beat of his heart at his throat under the tight scarf and the hood of his cloak.
“It is her,” he said.
Finally confirmed it.
“The hunter will be happy to finally get his payment, then,” Mattue noted.
Eryx pretended as though he didn’t notice how the advisor’s gaze raked over the merwoman in her human form. A violent swell of anger washed through him, but he pushed the irrational emotions down.
“I certainly will,” Corval called from the deck of the ship. “They all will. This has been quite the season for these men.”
Eryx cleared his throat, finally tearing his stare from the red-headed mermaid who still hadn’t looked away from him. Overhead, Corval leaned over the railing of the vessel with a smirk that said he was quite pleased with himself.
He should be.
The prince was happy.
A large payment was on the way.
Everything had gone exactly as it should, and if Eryx got his way, it would continue to remain that way. All these men, the captains of the ships … and anyone else involved in these hunts, well, they would be paid very well for their business with the prince. But especially, to keep their mouths shut about what had happened between them all.
“The king would appreciate a look at her,” one of the men on the wharf muttered.
Eryx scowled at the man. “Pardon you?”
“I’m just saying, Prince, she’d be particularly interesting to him … given his tastes, and all. She’d be a worthy piece in his harem.”
His jaw clicked when he clenched it harder.
“And how do you know that?”
“All you gotta do is look at her. Look at her.”
Eryx had.
He did again.
She simply looked like his.
“And I’m sure,” Eryx said, meeting the silent mermaid’s violet eyes again, “that we’ll all let the king know the final hunt was unsuccessful, won’t we?”
Boots shifted against wood.
Throats cleared.
Water lapped at the ship and wharf.
Overhead, Corval finally replied, “That was the agreement, Prince.”
Good.
Then, that was all he needed to know. Everything else was just … details. No one cared at all for those.
Eryx’s gaze went back to the merwoman surrounded by discarded netting, and how her stare had drifted away from his own so she could survey the bigger threat around her. That was unacceptable—he needed her looking at him.
Especially now.
The question pulled from his lips before he could stop it, and the second he made a noise, her eyes snapped right back to his. “Do you know why I’ve hunted you?”
SIXTEEN
Arelle
“DO YOU KNOW why I’ve hunted you?”
Every single inch of Arelle felt that question. It echoed in her bones and sang in her blood. He—her mate—looked almost Godly standing among the others on the wharf in his rich clothing and aristocratic aura. The other men shifted from foot to foot, their gazes never lingering on her for long, but also coming right back to her as though they were scared she might run. He, on the other hand, only watched her.
She felt that, too.
He seemed so different from the rest with his hands folded neatly at his front, and his expression emotionless while he watched her. The intricately-designed waistcoat that peeked through his fur-trimmed cloak was a stark contrast to the plain clothes of everyone else around them. No one came too close. Not to her, or to him. A respectable distance was given, but not enough to allow her any sense of freedom.
A hunter with its prey.
Pleased.
But not showing it.
He didn’t need to show it.
She felt it.
“Will you speak?”
Yes, she wanted to answer to his first question. And no to his second. Yet, Arelle said nothing. At that moment, she didn’t need to, and he’d not demanded anything of her. Asking a question and slinging an order were two entirely different things.
One gave a choice.
One did not.
He took one step closer to her. Arelle tilted her head higher to keep their stares locked. She remembered his name just fine. It still whispered in her mind during quiet moments when nothing else was distracting her.
Eryx.
A part of her wanted to say it—to finish what she’d started here with him so that he would hear her singing in his mind for the rest of his life like she now heard him, but somehow … by the grace of the Gods, she kept quiet.
Which was clearly not what he wanted.
“Do you not speak?” Eryx demanded.
There was a crack in his facade.
A single slip of emotion, even if it was one that had the other men on the wharf clearing their throats and glancing away. His rage came off so clear—painful, really.
Still, Arelle remained silent.
A pretty stone sitting on her knees, with wet wood pressed against her tingling skin. She was too close to the water here. Three steps to her left and she could dive right into the sea. If only he would look away, then she could do exactly that, too.
Or at the very least, try.
But like this, while he watched her and he was near, she had no choice. The bond kept her eyes on him. The thrall of her mate being close kept her watching him. Even as the man who stood closest to Eryx called his name, he didn’t look back or respond. Not when he was too busy moving closer to her.
He couldn’t know it … didn’t know, but the bond worked the same way for him. They were no better or worse, him and her. More the same than different, now.
It’s what scared her the most.
Not even being caught terrified her like this.
“Eryx.”
The sharp call of his name had her mate finally tearing his eyes away from her. The man behind him, whose clothes were of slightly better quality than those who’d come off the ship, gave Eryx a pointed look that for whatever reason, had his shoulders tensing.
He didn’t look back at her.
It was just a second …
Maybe two.
But in those quick moments, the thrall was gone. Arelle could breathe a little easier, and search for an opening in the large circle of men all around her. She quickly realized there wasn’t a way for her to escape her current situation, but damn her if she wasn’t going to at least try.
Not considering the consequences, she lithely moved to her feet before darting for what she thought might be the weakest men in the group. Shorter than the others, and a bit rounder in their middles, if she was going to make a run for the sea, then those two were probably the easiest to get through.
With everyone else’s attention on Eryx and the man speaking to him, the two Arelle picked to use as her escape didn’t see her coming until it was too late. She darted away from the pile of blue netting that had kept her trapped until they dumped her on the wharf; her bare feet hit the wood with fast smacks. Her fingernails ripped into the side of the one man’s throat while her other hand raked lines down his companion’s face. Her hiss of warning was the only sound she made as the two separated to give her more access to the sea behind them.
Except she didn’t make it that far.
As fas
t as her attempt at an escape had begun, it was over when the others realized what was happening. She should have known better. There were too many landwalkers in close proximity. Some with weapons, and others with nothing more than brute strength.
Arelle didn’t even know how it happened, but she found herself on her back on the wharf, staring up at a quickly darkening sky as the air rushed out of her lungs. A boot rested on her chest, keeping her pinned to the ground. In the background, the men she’d injured cursed her and promised violence.
All she could do was laugh.
The boot on her chest pressed harder.
An attempt to quiet her.
“Quite enough, there,” the blonde man said above her.
She recognized him.
He’d directed them in catching her.
Watched her when they’d got her in the net.
Moments ago, he’d been on the deck of the ship.
Had he jumped down?
“Easy, Corval.”
Eryx’s murmured words had all the fight leaving Arelle at once. She tipped her head to the side, finding him watching her behind a row of men who now seemed both wary and on edge. She wouldn’t get a second attempt at escape.
Arelle already knew.
“You have to watch them, boys. Especially ones like this.”
The man—Corval?—glanced down at her, his stare going right to the burned brand on the back of her hand.
“Very worthy piece, however,” he added. “She should be on display.”
What did that even mean?
Arelle went back to staring up at the sky, and then a second later, a heavy item dropped on top of her. It took her all of a single breath to realize it was a fur-trimmed cloak. It covered her nakedness—not that she minded; nudity wasn’t a taboo to her kind, but she wasn’t with her people—and seemed to remind the rest to avert their stares.
It wasn’t the cloak that surprised her, really.
More who it belonged to.
“Deliver her to the estate I chose.”
Eryx’s words cut through the air, and by the time Arelle looked his way again, he had already turned to leave the wharf.
But without his cloak now.