Chapter 29
Grayson
Grayson stood a few feet back, arms folded and a scowl on his face, as Keld purchased skewers of squid, mushrooms, peppers, and an unidentifiable teal lump he was certain did not originate on Earth.
The Mer shop owner piled the purchases into a woven bag and handed it over with one of the few Loaish phrases Grayson actually knew—Yusivo oiswe. Thank you.
Keld shouldered the bag and twined his fingers with Grayson’s as they walked back to their ostentatious campsite.
“You know, in actual camping, you have to bring your own food. Or catch it.”
Keld grinned down at him. “You want to watch me hunt for you? Could be hot…”
Grayson smacked his arm. “I’m just saying, real campsites don’t have stores.”
“Yeah, yeah, can you say it with the accent again?”
“No.”
A large, blackened metal lid concealed a fire pit just in front of the enormous tent. Inside, the wood was already stacked with a tiny box of matches neatly laid on top. Grayson curled his lip in disgust.
“Since you’re such a rugged, masculine outdoorsman,” Keld teased, “why don’t you start the fire?”
“A kindergartener could do this,” Grayson muttered as he crouched down. “It’s already fuckin’ built.” He struck a match and lit the fluffy tinder at the heart of the stick pyramid.
Keld offered a golf clap, which Grayson answered with a glare. He dropped into one of the cushioned patio chairs that ringed the fire pit and snatched up a fire poker.
“Is it really so upsetting, that you don’t have to suffer on your vacation?” Keld asked, clearly fighting back laughter.
“It’s not suffering, it’s… This…” Grayson flailed an apoplectic arm. “This is wrong!”
“If I recall correctly, you said you could get used to this kind of camping approximately two hours ago, when you were impaled on my—”
“Shut up,” Grayson hissed. “That was the pheromones talking.”
“Uh-huh.” Keld added a split log to the growing fire. A wave of greenery and soil filled Grayson’s lungs on his next breath.
“How about now? Still mad?”
“Did you just pheromone blast me? On purpose?”
“Maybe.”
A second wave struck Grayson’s senses, filling the base of his spine with heat.
“How are you even doing that?” Grayson demanded. “I thought you couldn’t control it.”
“Technically, I can’t,” Keld said, propping up a second log. “But what I can do is think about how good you look when you’re taking my—”
“Stop.”
Keld chuckled and fell quiet. He offered the open bag, filled with too many skewers for the two of them to possibly eat in one sitting.
Grayson plucked out the suspicious teal hunk. “What is this?”
“Lab-grown meat from a species on Usoi. They grow it from cells. Obviously, we left the animal itself on our home world.”
Grayson held it closer to his face. The flesh was the color of a peacock’s tail and reminded him of raw salmon. “Can humans eat it?”
Keld frowned. “You know, I actually have no idea.”
Grayson thrust the skewer back into the bag. “Let’s not find out.”
“There has to be a human out there who’s tried it,” Keld mused. “Your global food culture is built on things you shouldn’t be eating. There’s something truly wrong with your species.”
“At least I can have cake without keeling over.” Grayson picked out a veggie stick instead, packed with a rainbow of bell peppers and thick, button mushrooms.
“Fair enough.” Keld stuck the bluish meat into the flames. “Thank the gods for your vegans. They’re the only reason we’ve survived on your planet this long.”
Grayson laughed and added his much more terrestrial skewer to the fire. “The food does look good,” he admitted. “It’s kind of nice that we don’t have to spend all day cleaning up and packing tomorrow. I always got roped into picking up all the shotgun shell casings and beer cans on the last day.”
Keld shot him a look of incredulity. “That does not sound like a safe combination.”
“It wasn’t.” Grayson smiled ruefully. “We’re lucky none of us ever shot each other. Dad used to aim at us but—” He broke off. TMI, Grayson.
Keld’s gaze didn’t leave his face. “Your father pointed guns at you?”
Grayson jerked a shoulder. “When he was mad, yeah. Ma did too, a few times. But mostly they just hit us.”
Keld’s hand came to rest on Grayson’s thigh. “I’m sorry you went through that.”
“It is what it is.” Grayson shook his head slightly. He didn’t want to be thinking about his horrific home life on his first vacation with his new boyfriend. “Anyway, it sounds like you had it hard growing up too.”
“You could say that.” Keld’s eyes shifted to the fire, where his teal meat was darkening to a shade of cobalt. Not even Zasia knew about the way he was raised. He didn’t like to broadcast that he was damaged. “She didn’t want me.”
“Then…” Grayson struggled to find the right words. “Do the Mer not have adoption or something?”
“We do. But it’s extremely uncommon, especially since Mer children are so rare.
Every couple is trying their hardest to hatch an egg of their own…
And very few parents want to surrender their kids.
” Keld pulled his skewer from the fire and rotated it in the air absently, letting it cool.
“I was taken away at first, before I hatched. Someone reported her for mistreatment of a fertile egg. But once I was out, the Paeil government patted themselves on the back and sent me right back to her.”
Grayson stared at Keld. The Alpha’s jaw clenched and unclenched, the muscles flickering under his scales and fins.
“Why would they do that?” Grayson whispered.
“I hatched,” Keld said flatly. “The population ticked up, and their job was over.”
Grayson placed his hand over Keld’s and squeezed.
The Mer shook himself slightly, as if returning to the present. “What about you? Why didn’t someone come and rescue you?”
Grayson pressed his lips together. Polite reciprocity would dictate that he share his own painful background as Keld had, but he really, really didn’t want to.
“It was a small town,” he said shortly. “Everyone knows everyone and family business is family business. No one thought it was their place to get involved.”
Keld let out a low sound, almost a growl. “Sounds like a bullshit excuse.”
“Yeah well.” Grayson sat back, his peppers steaming in the firelight. “Seems like we were both dealt bullshit at the start, but we made it out.” He turned halfway toward Keld and smiled.
“We made it out,” Keld agreed.
They sat together, holding hands and watching the fire dance. The food was even seasoned, Grayson noted as he took a bite of mushroom. Nothing like real camping. He went for a squid next. The creature had been sliced into aesthetic, bite-sized pieces and sprinkled with some kind of herb.
“These are really good,” Grayson said aloud. “How’s your… petri dish meat?”
A familiar smirk returned to Keld’s face. “Delicious. It’s a shame you’ll never experience it.”
“Maybe I will,” Grayson retorted. “When we’re closer to a hospital. Just to be safe.”
“You wouldn’t die. Probably.”
“Very reassuring, thank you.”
The moon crept higher and higher as they talked, laughed, and avoided any further talk of their pasts. Grayson was impressed by just how much of the food they managed to get through by the time Keld called it a night.
“We can have the rest for breakfast,” the Mer said, rising to his feet with an almighty stretch. “Let’s get some sleep. Or not, up to you.”
“Are all Mer this horny, or is it just you?”
Keld slung an arm around Grayson’s shoulders and ducked into the tent. “Based on every Alpha I’ve met, I think it might be all Mer.”
“Now that I think about it, there are an awful lot of hybrids considering it’s only been like twenty years since the Mermate program started.
” Grayson thought back to the previous week at Brighid’s Well, where he’d helped six hybrid children come into the world.
It didn’t seem like much, but when he thought about the population of Omegas on Miami…
“Exactly,” Keld agreed. “Trust me, our species didn’t start dying out from lack of trying.”
Grayson snorted and got to work peeling off his sandy, muddy clothing.
Keld’s eyes tracked cascading bits of dried mud and flecks of sand. “Maybe we should go for one last swim first.”
“If we go out and swim, I’ll just have to put the dirty clothes back on,” Grayson pointed out. “Defeats the purpose.”
“You don’t need clothes.”
“Keld, for the last time, humans can’t just walk around naked,” Grayson said, exasperated.
“Can’t or won’t? Anyway, I meant you can use these.” Keld tossed Grayson an enormous beach towel, freshly laundered by the smell. “Put that around your waist, we’ll find a deserted stretch of beach, and we’ll get you cleaned off.”
Grayson narrowed his eyes at the Alpha. “There is no way a place like this doesn’t have showers.”
Keld paused. “Would you believe me if I said they didn’t?”
“Nope.”
“Fine!” Keld threw his hands up in mock outrage. “Deprive me of a second night swim with my naked boyfriend. But I’m getting in the shower with you.”
Grayson leveled a finger at him. “You can join me, but we’re just showering, got it? Keep that thing away from me.”
They did not, in fact, just shower.