Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
BLAKE
Ihated to admit to myself that I was scared, but I was.
We were trained to protect the Pacific City, the castle, and our people, but it hadn't prepared us to deal with a threat that could control others, including ocean creatures that were usually on our side.
When I had gotten to the scene of the attack, tritons were helpless against the state-of-the-art submarine and sea life that had suddenly turned against us. It was as if he had called every shark in the area to be part of his frontline.
By the time there was enough manpower to make a move, the submarine took off, sending a spray of bullets in its wake that made us all swim for cover and left sharks hungry for blood. The sharks had snapped out of their trance pretty quickly, but it left us all uncertain about the safety of our sea.
Cecilia was recovering in the city from her shark bite. I was proud of her, but also wanted to strangle her for putting herself at risk like that.
I had returned to the house feeling defeated and distraught over the loss of Jax's sister, only to find out the next morning that Olivia had been kidnapped. Dylan had gotten to one of the humans that worked in our facility, which was why he knew exactly when Riley would be there.
The breakfast table was quiet as Riley put plates with eggs, sausage, and toast in front of us. She had been up earlier than usual and offered to cook. It was the first time eating something made by her, and even if she had burned it, I would have pretended it was good.
"This looks great, vixen." Morgan grabbed the bottle of ketchup and made a zigzag of red over the top of his scrambled eggs, ruining them. "Must have been some great sex last night to have you up and cooking breakfast for us."
Jax ripped off a corner of his toast and threw it at Morgan, who nearly choked on a bite of food, laughing. I smiled around my fork as Riley turned an appropriate shade of pink.
"Ugh, sorry if we woke you." She took a bite of her sausage and moaned, causing all of us to stop and stare. "Am I not allowed to enjoy my breakfast?"
"Not when you make sounds like that." Jax pushed his eggs around on his plate. "I'm sorry if I pushed you too hard last night."
The sounds coming from her room certainly didn't sound like she was pushed too hard. It had made me horny as hell and I'd been half-tempted to join them.
The three of us had always talked openly about sex when it was just us, but having Riley at the table and conversing over breakfast about it, was a whole new level of weird.
"You didn't. I liked it." She smiled and brought her glass of orange juice to her lips without taking a drink. "A lot."
Morgan's eyes ping-ponged between the two, no doubt wondering what they had been up to. "Care to elaborate?"
Jax piled eggs on a piece of toast. "Now, why would we do that?"
"If we’re really going to do this whole... three guys, one gal thing, we need to be open and honest with each other." Morgan finished his eggs and put his elbows on the table, leaning his cheeks into his fists. "I need to know what I'm up against."
Riley snorted and coughed, hitting her chest with her fist. "I'm not comparing or ranking you guys," she choked out in between coughs.
Jax patted her back. "What I do with her is none of your concern."
The table fell silent as we continued eating, the talk of Jax's and Riley's bedroom adventures only distracting us for a short time from what was on all of our minds. What we needed was to spend some time in the water.
"My dad said Dylan's submarine is similar to his yacht.
It's untraceable and high-speed. He must be using some kind of special ability or technology to shield it.
" He put his napkin on his plate, his food half-eaten.
"I don't understand why he needs the knife.
Does he think it's going to be able to cut through layers of rock, or that he will even get close enough to use it? "
"How do we know his story is even true?" I didn't exactly believe Dylan after everything he'd done. He could just want Riley because she was a siren. "What if he just wants to use Riley to get in Poseidon's good graces?"
Riley was tapping her fingernails on the table and staring out the window. "How did Poseidon get them trapped in the first place, if that's where they even are?"
Morgan stood and began collecting our plates. It was his week to be on dishes, and I'd offered since he was recovering, but he declined. He was moving a lot better than he had been the day before, but he was still sore and not at full mobility.
"Maybe he just stomped his foot and raised his arms in the air." Morgan chuckled. "Admiral West would probably know."
"He's going to try to take me or my mom." Riley looked around the table and met all of our eyes.
"We won't let him," I reassured her.
I hoped I was right because losing her wasn't an option.
It was a lazy Sunday, just the way I preferred it. With us all being off the swim team now, we had way more time to study, which meant the weekends were all about relaxing. I helped Riley most of the morning to catch up on work, but by midday, we were done.
"I know this is going to sound weird coming from my mouth, but we should go swimming." Riley stood at my bedroom door.
I didn't know if she had done it on purpose, but she was wearing a thin top without a bra that I saw her nipples through. I wanted to take them in my mouth and bite them until she begged me to stop.
"Blake? You okay?" She crossed her arms over her chest, and I snapped out of my daydreaming. "Swimming?"
"Ugh, yeah." I closed out of my laptop where I was catching up on sports highlights I had missed with everything going on. "In the pool or the cave?"
"Can sirens shift in chlorinated water? I've tried in the bathtub and it doesn't work.
" She surprised me with that. If I were her, I would have freaked out about suddenly having a tail and the ability to breathe underwater.
She was happy with having a tail and the other changes she had gone through.
"I don't think so. You should ask your mom." At her frown, I stood and wrapped my arms around her. "She'll be able to come home eventually."
"But does she want to?" She stepped back. "Let's swim in the cave. I'll go get Morgan and you get Jax."
We met a few minutes later down in the cave and switched the security to only open the door out to sea for our animals. It automatically opened whenever we jumped into the water, and we needed to take extra precautions because Dylan was out to get Riley.
He was limited on what he could do though, since coming at her on land would attract attention of humans if he wasn't careful. That was most likely the reason he had left the cliff alone.
"So how does this work? I just jump in and think about shifting?" Riley was taking off her clothes and all three of us were watching.
"Well, uh." Morgan rubbed his jaw. "It helps to bend over first and get a good stretch."
Riley laughed and sat on the edge of the platform. "Is that what you guys do to get ready? Bend over and stretch?"
I snorted as I took off my clothes. "I think she needs a demonstration, Mo."
Morgan smirked and took his pants off, bending over right next to Riley's head. He gave his ass a little shake and she smacked it.
Sweet baby seals, I loved them.
"That's a mental image I won't get over anytime soon." Jax chuckled and dived into the water, coming up after he shifted. "When I shift, I imagine my body going through the change and then let my body relax."
Morgan sat next to Riley and took her hand. "I just imagine my dick turning blue and I shift." He slid into the water and came up with a grimace. "Easy."
"What about you, Blake?" Riley looked up at me, her eyes stopping on my dick. Damn it. "Do you imagine your dick turning blue?"
"No. That's just Mo. His dick isn't pretty enough already, so he can't wait to see it shimmer." I jumped in, thinking about home, and my body shifted in an instant.
It was hard to explain shifting into another being to someone. Her brows were scrunched in concentration as she dropped into the water, popping up a few seconds later. She'd come a long way from freaking out over the thought of even being next to it.
"Nothing happened." She held onto the side of the platform before going back under for longer. "Maybe it only happens in certain situations. When I was shot and when we were being attacked... so, maybe I need to be in danger for it to happen."
She looked at Jax, who had his head cocked to the side in contemplation. "You want me to put you in danger?"
"I don't think that's a good idea. Then you'll train yourself to only-" My advice was interrupted by Bubba coming up right in front of Riley, his jaws wide open.
Riley shrieked and my head went fuzzy. I went under, shaking my head, trying to rid it of the shrill sound that made my ears feel like they were bleeding.
Bubba wasted no time leaving the cave. It was hard to get a good read on a shark's emotions, but the fact he was swimming away said enough.
"That was not cool, Jax." Riley was underwater, fully shifted. "But it worked."
My jaw dropped and my dick immediately wanted to come out and play. When the three of them had described it to me, I couldn't quite picture it, but looking at her now, I saw why it was so difficult.
How does one put into words what someone looks like when they become their best self? The purple of her tail and chest played off the green of her eyes and made her even more beautiful. Her tail hugged her figure tight and flared at the bottom into a similar shape to our own.
Sirens were a warrior species, but from just looking at them, you'd never guess they were lethal. That's probably where they often had an advantage.
"I don't think Bubba liked my scream." She moved so she was in a seated position and touched her tail. "This is freaky."
"You know what's freaky? Your scream." Morgan was examining his own tail with a pinched face. "It looks like I have fucking flippers now. It doesn't even work right."
Morgan's speed was reduced to twenty-five percent of what it typically was with the large section missing from his tail.
Part of the issue was when he swam now, his body wanted to pull him off course.
Tail damage to a triton was life changing since it was what gave us momentum and helped us cut through the water.
"It's just going to take time, Mo." I gave him a reassuring pat on the back.
Riley was done examining her new body and swam around us. "I want to try something."
I raised a brow. "What do you want to try?" Of course my mind went to something sexual.
"Well, I seemed to have an effect on Jax when I first shifted and I thought a lot about it. I think I know how it works." She looked excited, but I was leery of anything to do with her using her abilities on us. "Don't look like I'm about to cut off your dicks."
She laughed but then stopped, realizing we weren't laughing. All it took was out of control anger and we'd end up missing a vital piece of ourselves. I shuddered at the thought.
"Don't joke about that." Jax put his hands over his dick. "You can try your siren shit on us, just... be nice."
"Be nice?" She grinned, and I swam to be near Morgan and Jax. She wasn't scary per se, but the glint in her eye made me nervous. "I want the three of you to swim two laps around the cave."
The tone of her voice had changed to a higher pitch and her words were melodic. My entire body reacted by leaning toward her for more. The pull of her words was strong, but I resisted the urge to do as she asked.
"Damn it, why aren't you guys doing it?" She put her hands on her hips. "Did you feel anything?"
"Oh, I felt something, that's for sure." Morgan looked down at his dick, the outline visible through his scales. "I could resist it. Maybe try being a little more forceful."
She tried again, this time, with much more effort. My head screamed at me to do what she was telling me to do, but with gritted teeth, I stood my ground. Surprisingly, Jax couldn't, and he started swimming the laps.
"That was much harder to resist. Try one more time." I prepared myself for her words. The feeling of being taken over by some invisible force washed over me, and I joined Jax.
It was an odd feeling. I still had my thoughts, but they were muted and instead replaced by the intense urge and desire to swim around the cave to please the woman waiting for us.
"Huh. Your siren mojo doesn't work on me." Morgan had a large grin on his face as Jax and I came to a stop after we completed our task. "Must be because of my superior genetics."
"No. It's because I was only sending it to them the third time to see if I could." Smart girl, our Riley. "What if I've been using this ability all along..." If we would have been out of the water, I'm sure her eyes would be teary. "What if..."
"After your little demonstration, I'm even more certain that you have never influenced us.
Yes, you being siren probably adds to your attraction, but it's because you are one of us, not because of anything you're doing subconsciously.
" I understood where she was coming from with her fears, but I would like her even if she didn't have a tail. "You're an amazing woman."
"But-"
"Stop." Jax swam in front of her and put his hands on either side of her face. "We want you for you. Stop doubting our feelings for you and accept that you have three boyfriends who want you."
She blew out bubbles, getting them in Jax's face without meaning to. "It's just... you and Blake have said tritons don't share, and I keep wondering when you're going to make me choose."
"Things change, vixen. Oceans part when the right woman comes along. We won't ever make you choose, but if the time comes and you decide to, please pick me." Morgan grinned and grabbed her hand. "Remember, I have dick piercings."
"I should show her the video of you screaming like a guppy out of water when you got them," I teased, swimming closer to join what had turned into a group hug.
"I think I'm good." Riley's laugh sent tingles up and down my spine. I never wanted to see her without a smile on her face.