Clementine backed up a step, angling herself as far away from the men and close to the edge of the shelf as she dared. It was a purely animal move. The scarred merman triggered her prey instincts much stronger than the gaunt one.
It was a small relief to realize he wasn’t actually paying attention to her.
“Herman.” His voice was an almost uncomfortably deep baritone. It rumbled like some great engine, a machine built for violence.Dominance.“I told you not to fucking come here.”
ChapterTwenty-Two
Herman?Clementine’s attention was drawn back to the gaunt merman.
Herman, apparently, had pulled himself up and nearly in front of her. Everything in his posture screamed aggression, but she had no idea what he said next. The warbling, whistling language bounced off the stone walls like a flock of furious birds calling to one another.
The scarred merman didn’t blink. He didn’t pull himself into a defensive posture. He didn’t need to. His blank stare was threatening enough.
“I told the pod the islands and my family are off-limits,” he said, slow and measured, like he was speaking to a child rather than a man obviously on the brink of violence. “I toldyouthat if you came sniffing, I’d handle you myself. This woman is claimed.Leave it.”
Clementine had less than a second to feel profound relief before the feeling of a wet, webbed hand stroking the back of her leg made her yelp.
A glance down revealed yet another white-masked face. This one was more finely wrought than the others. Her nose was sharp, her eyebrows fine. Her black hair was unbound, but intermittently woven with colored string, beads, and small, spiral-shaped shells. She, too, held an echo of familiarity in her features.
Perhaps it was the lack of scars distracting her that did it. Maybe it was the blade of her nose. More likely, though, it was the mischievous little smile that turned a suspicious familiarity into a resemblance.
Or maybe it was the way she breathed, “Oh-so-verypretty.Step back from the edge, pretty thing, or else I might be tempted to steal you for myself.”
Easing back, Clementine eyed the woman half-submerged in the water. “Mary Celeste?”
An enraged shriek was her only warning before Herman lunged towards the ledge, his teeth bared in a hideous snarl. Clementine stumbled back until her spine hit the rough stone wall, where the edge of the shelf tapered off into nothing. Squeezed between the doorway and the water, she could only watch as Emory’s sister surged up to scream into Herman’s face, her beautiful features contorted in a look of pure menace.
Clapping her hands over her ears, Clementine instinctively knelt to make herself smaller, as if that might somehow help to dampen the terrible sound tearing from Mary Celeste’s throat.
Caught off guard, or perhaps unwilling to actually start a fight with the terrifying merwoman currently looking at him like she would happily turn his teeth into hair trinkets, Herman reared back enough for the scarred merman to get a good grip on his sloppy braid.
Shaking him like a ragdoll, he growled,“Enough!This woman is?—”
“Mine!”
Emory’s roar blasted off the walls of the hallway and into the wider cavern a moment before he emerged. Clementine’s heart leapt into her throat at the sight of his wild-eyed expression and, more concerning, the knife he clutched in one tight fist. His gaze flicked to her for just a moment before he threw himself out in front of her, pinning her in place.
With one hand holding his weight and the other holding the wickedly sharp hunting knife aloft, he snarled, “Clementine ismymate! She claimed me!”
It was impossible to hear over the sound of waves, but she was fairly certain the scarred merman sighed. Speaking in his booming rumble, he said, “Iknow.We’re not here to take her from you. Onlythisidiot is.” Using a truly terrifying amount of strength, he lifted the squirming, hissing merman slightly off the ground and gave him another hard shake. “Despite me telling him and the rest of the pod to stay the fuck away from my family.”
Family?Clementine’s attention ping-ponged between her mate, a scowling Mary Celeste, and the scarred merman so many times, she almost felt a little motion sick.
Yes, there was that resemblance again. Hidden by the scars, the harsh hairstyle, the hard set of his jaw and eyes, there was a shadow of her mate. The only problem was that she had no idea which brother he was.
What a way to meet my in-laws.
Emory’s tone was still raw, but it lacked the outright hostility from before when he rasped, “You told them to stay away?”
His brother gave him a hard look from beneath his brows. “Of course I did.” He tossed Herman to the ground and didn’t even glance down to see him land hard on his side, a whistling curse on his lips. “As soon as I saw you enter that new cove, I told the pod to keep their distance.”
Before Emory could react to that bit of news, Herman was up again, his reedy voice straining to contain the rage vibrating through his form. “It’s notfairto make her off-limits when she’s unclaimed! There aren’t enough to go around. You can’t hoard a mate for another! It’s not what the Hungry?—”
She hadn’t forgotten who Herman was or what he’d done. Feeling more confident now that she knew neither of Emory’s siblings were there to protect her, Clementine stood up from her crouch. Putting as much seething dislike as she could into the mer language, she spat,“I am Emory’s!”
“You wear no mating rope,” he hissed back, eyes narrowed into dark slits.
Clementine opened her mouth to explain that they shared a mating bond approximately a million times more important, more intimate than arope,but she didn’t get the chance. Movement out of the corner her eye drew her attention to her mate just as he balanced on his hip and lifted his arms.
