“What do you mean?” He pulled back enough to frown at her. “I love our cove.”
“I know, but it doesn’t…” Clementine turned her head to look into his parents’ nook again. A crease formed between her perfect brows. “It doesn’t look likethis.Any of this. So I think that maybe we should talk about what you need in our home. Likethat.Is that a bathtub?”
Emory followed her gaze to the sparkling pool. In the wall above it was a small shrine to the Hungry God, decorated with treasures.
“That’s not a bathtub,” he explained, a mix of longing, grief, and the promise of future joy making his voice tight. “That’s a birthing pool. And above it— That is a shrine to Tempest, where my mother asked for blessings and protection. She put our pup braids there, and when my parents died, I added their mating ropes as well.”
Clementine’s eyes had gone wide. “Wait, were youbornin there?”
“Yes. Me and all my siblings.” It was once customary to birth young in the open ocean, surrounded by a pod, but in the modern day most merfolk preferred privacy and protection for their pups. Traditionally, one began carving out a birthing pool immediately after mating, so that it would be ready by the time a pup arrived.
His parents had been blessed to get more use out of their birthing pool than most. Six pupswasa lot.
And all six of their children had been born in that small, lovingly carved pool. All six had learned to swim in the safety of its confines. He’d had the privilege of witnessing four births there, and when his parents passed, he’d been similarly honored to help his siblings wash their bodies in that same pool.
“Should we have one?”
Emory turned his head to look at her so fast, the vertebrae in his neck cracked. “What?”
Her eyes were still wider than normal, but Clementine held his stare steadily when she asked again, “Should we have a birthing pool in our room?”
He was moving before he even realized it. Pressing her shoulders against the stone wall of the corridor, he caged her in with his arms, his webbed fingers spread wide and his body quivering with tension. “That depends on whether or not you’ve accepted my claim and want to be bred, my mate.”
It wasn’t about whether she was his mate or not. That was done. It had been done for months. Instead, it was all about giving her time to accept the idea. He’d throttled back his needs. He’d been as patient as a being like him could be. He’dbehaved,apparently to both their detriment.
But if she had finally accepted the fundamental truth that they were meant to be one, then there would be no more waiting, no more patience, no more fear of the pod stealing her from him.
He craved her acceptance more than he’d wanted anything in his life. Once he had that treasure in his hand, only Tempest himself could tear her from his grip.
Clementine swallowed hard enough to make her throat bob. Her hands, gentle and smooth as calm water, cupped his cheeks. Touching her forehead to his, she whispered, “I don’t know if I’m ready for a baby yet. I think we should still wait on that for a little while. But Idoknow that I am… I am so full ofjoywhen we’re together, Emory. The most I’ve ever felt. More than I ever dreamed. When I look at this room and imagine the life your parents had, I know it wasn’t perfect, but I want it. I want to cover the walls of our house with memories. I want to figure out parenting with you. I want to bond with you.”
He nudged her nose with the tip of his. Emory wiggled his wrist just to feel the slight weight of the bracelet she’d given him when she claimed him. He felt the bumps of the sea glass beads, the gentle scrape of the soft, damp cord against his skin.
I am hers.
“Wearebonded. You are my mate. I am yours. We will be mates even when the Hungry God pulls our souls into the deep, Clementine. I will accept nothing less than forever with you.”
A watery laugh escaped her. “Gods, you are such a— I adore you, Emory. I’m falling in love with you.” She paused to clear her throat. Her hands dropped from his cheeks to give his shoulders a firm squeeze. “But that’s not exactly what I meant. I was talking about a witchbond.”
The word sounded vaguely familiar, but he knew next to nothing about witches aside from what he’d picked up from reading, snatches of conversations overheard from boats, and living with his powerful little mate.
“I don’t know what that is.” He didn’t even have to think about it before he added, “I want it.”
“Oh Glory, Emory, you should at least let me explain it first! They’re…” Clementine trailed off for a moment. Her gaze moved up to the ceiling, then in a slow circle around them, before a soft, amused smile curled her lush lips. “You know what? This might take a while. Maybe we shouldn’t do it in the hallway in front of your parents’ room.”
He didn’t see why the scenery made a difference, but he also didn’t want his mate to withhold thiswitchbondingfrom him any longer, so Emory urged her back onto her feet. “We’ll go to my nook. It isverycomfortable.”
Clementine laughed at the speed at which he guided her back down the corridor. She trotted after him, always careful not to accidentally step on his tail, but he was all business as he navigated the twists and turns to get them to his nook.
He didn’t know what a witchbond was, but if it was the last thing she needed before she accepted his claim, then he needed to know how to get it as soon as possible.
He barely registered Clementine’s comments about the size of his nook, which looked even bigger now that almost everything he owned had been relocated. When he first moved back into the family cove, he couldn’t bear to move into his parents’ space, so he’d expanded his nook by knocking out the walls on either side.
It was spacious and still housed a nicely padded nest, but he had come to prefer the nook he shared with his Clementine.
Still, he puffed up a little when Clementine sank onto the blankets and looked around appreciatively. Shucking her windbreaker and tossing it onto the floor, she said, “This is really nice. Did you?—”
He didn’t wait to hear the end of her question. Gently pushing her onto her back, Emory crawled between her legs and rested his weight on her, pinning his mate below him. Elbows braced on either side of her head and noses barely an inch apart, he demanded, “Explain.”
