Chapter One #2
She got some more fruit and nibbled as Vine explained the horrors of what she had seen and heard from Meeda.
The listeners had matching expressions of horror, and Akervel looked ill.
Vine explained their escape and how Meeda was starving when she returned to the sinking boat.
Meeda smiled. “That is when my tail came in. I shifted, the water rushed into my lungs, and my hunger faded for a while when I was swimming, but I ran out of energy and ended up floating in the open ocean when Mia came to get me. She and her team collected me and then found my parents’ bodies.
After that, she brought me into the company and registered to be my legal guardian, and we spent half our time here at her mother’s home and half in the city. ”
Akervel asked, “When did you meet me?”
She winced. “When I am here, I am the aerial part of the search and rescue. I had found a charter vessel adrift and was hauling it toward the rescue crew when some of the drunk and panicked holiday makers tried to swim toward the oncoming vessels. I had to shift from wings to tail rapidly several times, and by the time they were safe, I was starving.”
“That is when you met me.”
“Yup. Yes, I actually tried to take a bite out of you. By the time I get that bad, I am blind with hunger. But thanks to Kaz’s assistant, I have learned I can just ask, and most alphas bend over backwards to give me what I need.”
He blinked. “You didn’t follow the rules of courtship.”
“What are they?”
“What?”
“I am from a different world, a different species, and I am a mage and an omega, and a pixie and a mermaid. None of those designations came with a manual.”
He blinked. “You are a composite?”
Meeda looked at Kazuya, and he smiled and nodded.
“Yes?” She shrugged.
He exhaled slowly. “May I be in contact with you?”
“Sure. Keep it above the equator.”
He got up and approached her. “You can’t be in contact with anyone but me for this.”
She released her grip on Mia’s hand and stood up to face him. “What do I need to do?”
He swallowed and said, “Just extend your hands to me. I will catch you if you fall.”
She nodded and smiled. “If anything goes weird, Vine will step in.”
“Yes, Meeda, I will,” Vine said from behind her.
Meeda extended her hands, and he closed his own fingers around hers. “Just breathe slowly. I am reading your ancestry.”
“Strange party trick.”
He chuckled.
“Nice cheekbones.”
“Thank you. They are my inheritance.” He smiled.
She looked into his silvery-blue eyes, he squeezed her hands, and then she felt a psychic weight crushing her. She dropped as the icy weight ran through her and heard Mia screaming.
Vine spoke softly, and the weight lifted. That little bit of respite rushed in, and Meeda got to her feet and blasted him with everything she had.
She heard her wings humming and felt her tail moving in the magical currents. The circling glyphs around her hands were new.
Vine said softly, “He’s sorry, Meeda. Let him go. He was pushing for a powerful mate, and you are the master of locking yourself down. He pushed hard, and you rose. Nice protection glyphs.”
Meeda looked down at her friend, and she turned her head to see the alpha on his back in front of her, held down by a matching, spinning glyph. “Are you done? That hurt.”
“I am most apologetic.” He spoke through gritted teeth. “I used the protocol for another dark elite.”
She dismissed her tail and her wings, prodding his leg with her foot. “Did you learn what you needed to learn?”
“Yes. I know your bloodlines from our people and have seen the ones from yours. You are a precise fusion of all four.” He leaned up on one elbow.
“Four?”
“Two elite lines, one omega line, and something strong, like cool mint and ozone.”
Vine piped up. “That’s the magic. Her magic specifically. Mine tastes like blue raspberry.”
Meeda smiled and sighed as she rolled her shoulders. “Great. Now I am hungry again. See ya.”
She walked off the deck, and Akervel moved to block her. “Miss, please allow me to offer myself once again.”
“Why?”
“What?”
“Why should I drink from you? The first time you saw me, you took off. I felt my soul break in that moment. The second time, you tried to use your power to crush me. Now, you want a third chance to hurt me? No, thank you.”
“I was frightened when I saw you. My mate looked so savage, but then instinct took over, and I expected you to chase me. It was over a mile before I realized you weren’t behind me, and by then, you were gone.”
“I don’t chase men. Ever. I see them coming and brace to defend myself.” She looked up at him. “They are the most brutal members of the species. Any species. But the women are the most vicious. They have the most to lose.”
He looked at her and knelt at her feet. “Please, Meeda. I have lived in the ocean for most of my time here. My social skills are difficult to master. Will you teach me what you will and will not put up with?”
She looked at him and nodded. “Do you have funds?”
“Yes.”
“Good. We are going to get you a cuff, and then we will see how compatible we are according to the programming that has been embedded in the cuffs. Well, a little programming and a little magic. It isn’t confused by the pheromones and magical static that the originals are.”
He frowned. “And this will allow you to trust me?”
“It will make things easier for me. If you can do what I ask, then I will assume you will actually respect my needs and requirements. I have not had an actual relationship before, so I want to work slowly. You are old. You get it.”
He winced. “Right. Whatever it takes to get us to open communication.”
“Great because my instincts were telling me you should have preened and flexed for me and then chased me through the skies or brought me shiny stones and pretty shells.” She started walking, and he got to his feet and kept pace with her.
“So, you wrecked all the anticipation different parts of me had.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I am not an actual fish or merfolk when I transform.”
“What is your actual form?”
He hunched his shoulders. “I am a sea monster.”
“Oh. That explains the tentacles.”
He chuckled. “Thank you for being unfazed.”
She smiled as they walked. “It isn’t like I don’t qualify as one myself.”
“Your progenitors were very well-respected. I saw them through your bloodlines. It is strange that they managed to connect via your ancestry. They were born to some star-divided lovers, separated by distance and social classes. The pixie was forbidden to mix with their line, and it held that way for generations. While they are respected warriors, they lack manners unless they have opted for training.”
She smiled. “The ones I have met were very nice.”
“And forbidden to pursue you.”
“Oh, those manners again, and the worry over inbreeding mutating the very useful wings.”
“They have a tendency to sweep their mates away. Why are we taking this path?”
“The parkour race is happening today, and there are limbs and feet flying. We don’t want to get in the way.”
A crashing sound in the distance proved her point.