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ARIA

We swam quickly through and around schools of brightly-colored fish.

They were so much bigger than they had any right to be.

I tried not to gawk, but failed.

When I saw what had to be the biggest whale on Earth—or wherever the portal had taken me—my nails dug into his arm.

“They’re friendly,” the king said into my mind.

“Like you?” I wanted to shoot back, but didn’t know how.

He chuckled.

“They’re far friendlier than I am.”

Apparently thinking the words at him was all it took to communicate.

Great.

That would definitely get me in a sticky situation at some point if he didn’t let me go.

He’d called me his bride after basically telling me I was lucky he’d abducted me, so being let go seemed highly unlikely.

“Do they have teeth?” I checked.

“Of course they have teeth. Everything in Alterrae does. It’s simply a more magical version of Earth, which means everything is stronger and more vicious. Your world is docile in comparison.”

“You say that like it’s an insult, but I’d rather face a small whale without teeth than that bastard.” I gestured in the direction the creature had been, though we were moving quickly enough that I couldn’t see it anymore.

“I’m far scarier than a whale with teeth.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“You married me, so yes.”

“I did not marry you. I don’t even know your name. And you don’t know mine either, so—what the hell?” I sputtered a curse as he turned sharply, slowing drastically as we sped toward a rocky slope.

His tail vanished, and he tucked me closer to his side as he pulled me upright.

His feet met the slope just as rough rock turned to soft-looking sand, and after he took a few large steps, he set me down on my feet.

Our heads cleared the water, and he instructed me to breathe out before taking in any air.

I followed the instruction, and thankfully, didn’t end up choking or coughing.

We walked forward, his hands on my hips again.

The sand was soft.

Ridiculously so.

All I had on was my flimsy bralette and leggings, so when the king’s front met my back, my eyes widened.

That was definitely an erection against my spine.

Definitely.

I guess popping his tail out must’ve torn the swim shorts he had on or something, because he was naked.

Very naked.

I wasn’t going to bring it up, though.

I had plenty of bigger things to worry about.

Well, maybe not bigger things…

Argh.

I needed to stop getting distracted.

There were other things to stress over.

My gaze was fixed on the gorgeous island in front of us as the king walked me forward.

Or rather, it was fixed on the castle built on top of the gorgeous island in front of us.

It didn’t look anything like a storybook castle.

Made of stone in the same shade as the cream-colored sand on the beach, it sprawled out rather than just towering up.

The style loosely reminded me of Spanish architecture, with dozens of arches within view and multiple large domes at the top of the building.

“You’re really a king?” I asked the man who was still walking me out of the water.

“ The king.”

“So humble,” I murmured, still taking in the castle.

The beach it sat on was just as stunning as the structure was, with cream-colored sand stretching on for ages.

Gorgeous coconut trees loomed over us, taller and thicker than any on earth.

The coconuts I could see on them looked huge, even from the ground.

“Our kingdom doesn’t need me humble. They need me confident,” he said easily.

“You can be confident without being full of yourself.”

His lips brushed my ear, making me shiver.

I definitely hadn’t forgotten our kiss on the beach.

“If someone’s going to be full of me, Sweetheart, it’s you.”

A snort escaped me, but we were interrupted before I had to think up a decent comeback.

“Triton!” A woman’s voice called out, and the king stopped.

He looked over his shoulder, and I looked with him.

It was the alt woman from the beach on Earth.

She jogged up the beach, dripping wet and dressed in a crimson cropped top-thing that covered her breasts and had extra bits of fabric hanging down seemingly at random.

She was wearing a short skirt of the same material, and while it barely covered the goods, it had even more of those random dangling strips.

The clothing didn’t look bad, necessarily.

It definitely looked intentional.

I’d just never seen anyone wear anything like that before.

“The selkies were watching for your portal. You need to get inside and get your bride claimed quickly.” She looked at me.

“What’s your name?”

At least one of them cared.

“Aria,” I said.

“And I never agreed to be his bride.”

“In our world, accepting a kiss seals a mating bond. It’s far more powerful than the human version of marriage. Look at your arm.” She gestured toward me, and I looked down at my tattoos.

They looked normal.

“Here.” The king lifted a hand to my shoulder and tapped my skin lightly.

When I looked, I nearly jumped.

There was a large, pearly white marking on my skin, and whatever energy it contained seemed to swirl within it.

“What the hell is that?”

“The mark of the sea’s throne. Triton has it too.” The woman gestured toward the king.

When I turned, I noticed his tattoo was on the opposite shoulder from mine.

“We can explain more later. Right now, we need to get you inside, where it’s safe.” The woman waved me toward the castle, but Triton didn’t start moving again.

“Breathe, Rayna. Even the selkies won’t make a move against me on my own beach.” He sounded amused.

Rayna made an exasperated sound.

“Do you really want to test that theory?”

“What’s a selkie?” I checked.

“If my brother doesn’t get you off this beach, you’re going to find out soon.” Rayna glared at the king.

Triton, if she had used his name rather than a nickname.

I hoped it was a nickname, because I wasn’t sure I could handle knowing I’d accidentally married myself to a mermonster named Triton.

Wasn’t that the name of Ariel’s dad in The Little Mermaid ?

Yikes.

“They’re like us, but their other forms are seals,” the king explained, finally starting to move forward again.

“They’re more dangerous than they sound,” Rayna cut in, falling into pace beside us.

“I don’t want to come face-to-face with a seal any more than I want to meet a whale with teeth up close,” I said bluntly.

“I’m more dangerous than they are,” the king reminded me again.

“You keep saying that, but it keeps not being true. The scariest thing about you is the massive erection against my spine,” I tossed back.

Rayna choked on something.

Probably spit.

The king chuckled, but there was no humor in his voice.

“I’m the king for a reason, Sweetheart. I rule and control the ocean. There is nothing beneath the waves as deadly as me.”

“Okay,” I said.

I didn’t really believe him.

He had a big-ass tail, but he didn’t look like he could take down a pissed-off whale or even an angry seal.

I started walking faster.

He must not have noticed, because he held my pace.

“Triton can protect you,” Rayna said.

Her insistence that I was in danger and her delayed statement were far from convincing.

“But the selkies are a risk. We?—”

“Will figure everything out after I’ve had a chance to make my bride comfortable.” He cut her off smoothly.

Rayna made a sound of frustration.

“I’ll inform the others.”

“Thanks.”

Rayna’s hand caught my arm, and Triton and I both stopped.

When I looked at her, I found an expression on her face that I couldn’t read.

“Being Triton’s mate will come with a lot of changes, Aria. Physical, and mental. Emotional too, probably. Humans in Alterrae don’t stay human. You change. By claiming you, Triton ensured that change will make you one of us.”

I blinked.

It was going to take a lot more time to work through what she was saying than it took her to say the words.

There was a splash on the beach.

“King Triton,” a beautiful male voice called.

Something in me itched to turn around.

“Fuck,” Triton muttered.

I jerked my head back to look at the king.

“They sent a kelpie,” he said, like that explained anything.

“What’s a?—“

“Focus on the feeling of Triton’s hands on your waist,” Rayna said quickly, her voice entering my mind like Triton’s had beneath the waves.

“The kelpie’s magic will try to seduce you away from the king. Without a complete bond, you will feel the magic intensely. Try not to react to it.”

My mind reeled from the information.

Triton turned around, lifting me with him as he did.

It took a solid amount of effort to stop myself from gawking at the creature standing just a few feet from us on the sand.

He was probably half a foot shorter than Triton, but what he lacked in height, he still possessed in muscle.

On top of that, he shimmered a color that was somewhere between gold and light green.

Greenish gold.

Something about him made me want to walk closer.

To step into his arms.

To touch him.

Triton’s gigantic hands were iron on my hips, holding me firmly in place.

“Owin,” he said flatly.

“So nice to see you. Have you met my bride, Aria?”

At least he had listened to my name when I gave it to his sister.

“I haven’t had the pleasure.” When the kelpie spoke, goosebumps broke out on my arms.

Even his voice was attractive.

Owin’s gaze flicked down to the raised bumps, and his lips curved in a smile that almost looked predatory.

It was beautiful— he was beautiful—and the urge to go to him grew stronger.

A zap of electricity raced down my spine, dissipating the kelpie’s hold on me.

Its effect was far stronger than the golden creature’s magic, making my heart beat faster and my thighs clench together.

Wow, that was strong.

“Was that your magic I felt washing over my female’s skin, Owin?” Triton’s voice was dangerously low.

“Surely there’s not a kelpie in the sea who would risk touching his queen with his magic,” Rayna drawled.

“Especially when the royal bond is clearly incomplete.”

“Of course not,” Owin agreed with a smile.

The dude was really starting to give me the creeps.

“Give the selkies our regards from the throne,” Triton said, turning both of us around once again before striding toward the castle, carrying me off the ground so we could move faster.

He didn’t stop when Rayna caught us.

Or when she abandoned us just inside the castle’s doors.

I tried to take everything in as Triton picked up the pace, covering ground quickly.

The inside of the castle looked surprisingly human.

The furniture was in the same style as the building’s exterior, and everything was in the same shades of white, cream, and gold.

The rugs were made of those colors swirled with darker, moodier blues, greens, and crimsons.

We passed living rooms with couches, and hallways with abstract ocean paintings and console tables.

It actually looked the way I’d assume the interior of a human castle would.

Minus the people we passed.

They were all taller, stronger, and more beautiful than any human I’d ever seen.

Even the kids and babies I saw with them were bigger and prettier than humans.

Everyone wore outfits similar to Rayna’s.

Even the men had on tight skirts of silky fabric with extra strips hanging off seemingly at random.

Most of the alts either gaped, stared, or nodded respectfully toward us.

I couldn’t see if Triton was responding, as he continued maneuvering me through maze-like halls and down two sets of stairs.

When we finally reached a large door, he opened it with one hand, propping it so I could go through first.

“I assume this is your room,” I said.

“ Our room.”

“You say that like we’re going to be sleeping together.”

“Because we are.” He squeezed my hip lightly, and finally released his hold on me when the door was closed behind us.

He locked it easily, and his chiseled, bare ass disappeared into a small room that looked suspiciously like a closet.

I followed him in.

It was definitely a closet.

There was a bunch of the silk skirt things I’d seen the guys wearing throughout the castle on the bottom rack.

All of them were dark blue.

The top rack was empty, as if the king had made room for more clothing.

Or for someone else’s clothing.

I watched the king get dressed absentmindedly, my cheeks heating.

I should’ve looked away.

I definitely should’ve looked away.

But what woman would possibly have that much self-control?

His ass was pure muscle, the thick bubbles enough to make me want to reach out and check if it was real.

His erection was just as big as it had felt against my spine—massive.

Way too big to fit inside me.

Humans and mermonsters definitely weren’t sexually compatible, because that cock was otherworldly.

He stepped into a dark blue, silky skirt-thing, and the fabric clung to his backside.

It managed to conceal his erection entirely somehow, without tenting at all.

“Why do you guys wear skirts?” I asked.

“We have tails.”

“Right.”

I definitely should’ve put that together.

“Why are they silky?”

“It’s sea silk.” He stepped closer to me, holding a hand out.

Reluctantly, I put mine in his.

He lowered my fingers to the hem of the skirt, and I brushed them over the fabric.

When I tugged lightly, my eyebrows raised.

It was crazy soft and stretchy, so how had it hidden his erection?

“It comes from sentient underwater plants. When their life cycles end, some of their magic lingers in the fabric. It connects with our consciousness lightly and reacts to our subconscious desires. So when we want it to stretch, it stretches. When we don’t, it doesn’t.”

“Damn.” I couldn’t say it wasn’t impressive.

Triton gave me a small grin.

“Our silk is worth a lot of money outside the ocean. Only someone who can breathe underwater can find it. We sell it to many of the other kingdoms.”

“So you’re rich.”

“Yes. Most beings in our world are, though. Since the war, there’s a lot of money in Alterrae, and not a lot of people to spend it on.”

My forehead creased.

“Why not?”

“Here.” He stepped past me, maintaining his hold on my hand as he led me out of the closet and back into the room.

The furniture and decor matched the style of everything else in the castle, and I had to admit it was beautiful.

There was a gigantic bed with luxurious-looking sheets in the center of the space.

Off to a corner, there was a large pool.

On the wall near the closet, there was a door that I could see opened into a human-looking bathroom.

Triton led me to the bed and sat me down on the edge of the mattress.

He remained standing, and I eyed his skirt.

He should’ve been hideous in it, but even the silk getup couldn’t conceal his sex appeal.

The color of it brought my attention to the lone scales scattered across his body, but that didn’t dull my attraction to him either.

“Sweetheart,” the king said, and my gaze snapped upward.

He’d totally caught me checking him out again.

Fantastic.

“Hmm? I’m just tired,” I said.

“I spent almost 24 hours shivering on the beach, without food.”

His forehead creased.

“That wasn’t intentional. No one told me humans ate so frequently. My people only need one meal every second or third day.”

My eyebrows shot upward.

“Regardless, the attraction you feel is normal. Our bond is incomplete, and the magic will push us to finish it,” he said.

“How do we seal it?” I asked.

“Sex.”

Oh.

Wow.

“What if we don’t?” I countered.

“The magic gets stronger.” He studied me for a moment.

“It’s best not to leave it incomplete for long, but I think getting some sleep may help you come to terms with the changes faster.”

I nodded.

I was crazy attracted to the guy, but that didn’t mean I was ready to jump in bed with him and make our bond complete or whatever.

“If the bond isn’t sealed, can it still be broken?” I asked.

“Only through death. An unfinished bond can be twisted, but not broken. And twisted bonds are not something we will ever experience.”

“How does that happen?”

“A bonded mate fucks someone else without sealing their bond,” he said simply.

Geez.

Okay, then.

“So a lot of people died in your war?” I asked him.

His expression darkened.

“We call it the Dragons’ War, but it was our entire world against a monster one of the dragons created. While the strong among us fought, the gentle stayed home. The monster created a plague that spread quickly between the helpless families of those who were fighting. We lost everyone who wasn’t a warrior, which was the vast majority in every society that fought.”

My eyes widened.

“But the monster is gone?”

“Yes. We hoped our numbers could recover, but we had been at peace for so long before the war that even most of the female warriors remained home, and were lost. There are so few women left that after the demons discovered your compatibility, we eventually accepted that we need humans.”

“And you’re just taking a bride now, because…”

“The king or queen of the sea always abstains from sex while they’re on the throne.”

Umm, what?

“That has always been the rule, and the tradition,” Triton stated.

“Since I became king, I haven’t touched anyone intimately. Now, there are so few merrae left that they all voted to break tradition by having me take a wife.”

I assumed merrae was the word for what he was.

It fit better than mermaid, at least.

Not better than mermonster, though.

“So you don’t really want to be married,” I said.

“It has never been my role to want that.” Triton watched me as he spoke, and I got the feeling he was choosing his words carefully.

“But if I agree to be your bride, your people expect me to do what, exactly?”

“You already agreed to be my bride when you kissed me.”

“You didn’t ask me,” I argued.

“That’s not how a mate bond works, Sweetheart. It’s not a verbal agreement. It’s a magical tie that binds two souls.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

He nodded lightly.

“Our people expect me to breed with you. Repeatedly.”

Exactly what I had assumed.

Fuck.

My head spun.

I stood suddenly, unable to continue sitting while he towered above me like he held all of the power.

But even when I stood, he still towered.

And no matter how much I wanted to believe otherwise, he did hold all of the power.

“I’d like to be alone,” I said, my voice trembling.

I was exhausted and overwhelmed, and I wasn’t sure I could handle much more insanity that night.

Or any more insanity that night.

It was technically daytime in Alterrae, but I’d been up too many hours to care.

“Being alone is a privilege I can’t provide you while your life is in danger because of the selkies.” Triton gestured to a couch near the door.

“I can sit there while you rest to give you space, but that’s as far as I’ll go.”

“Fine.” I tugged my hair out of its ponytail and peeled my leggings off.

He was going to get a good view of my ass in the wet boyshorts-style panties I still had on, but I didn’t have the energy to care.

And apparently he was my husband, so what did it even matter?

Triton turned the lights off as I tucked myself beneath the thin sheets.

They felt amazing against my skin, and I realized they must’ve been the same sea silk that his skirt thing was made from.

I turned to my side so I didn’t have to see the king, and closed my eyes.

It took a few minutes to calm my mind, but eventually, the effects of spending nearly twenty-four hours shivering on the beach caught up to me and I crashed.