“Her Majesty Calypso of the mer clan has asked that you stop your actions. Otherwise, she will have to put you back to sleep again.”
Did he seriously threaten me?
Anger is written plain on my face. I continue my jerky movements, pulling at the bed around me. A shriek comes from the end of the frame, where another groan emits from the shell casing, followed by a snap.
Yes.
Before the bed can fully collapse on the both of us, Gideon uses his hands to reinforce the roof of the clam before it falls on my head. Instead, it falls onto the ropes below, narrowly missing my legs.
I sigh with relief at that narrow escape.
Roughly pulling at my legs, I find them free, too.Bless the Goddess.
Springing into action, I put my face right in Gideon’s, grasping his stubbled cheeks. “Dove,” I whisper. “Remember her, the little human you are lusting after each day? Chestnut hair, light green eyes, a constellation of tiny freckles over her nose and cheeks.”
“Green eyes? Freckles? Dove?” Gideon ponders, turning the words over like he’s hearing them for the first time. His amber eyes sink into mine. The scar on his eyebrow pulls upward, trying to remember. “She needs us? Me?”
The dumb act is starting to irritate me.
Hands encircle Gideon’s waist, blue claws enticing him backwards.
With time no longer on our side, I pull back one golden-lined hand and slam it down into Gideon’s face.
“Motherfucker,” I swear loudly. “What is your face made of, rock?” I question, holding my hand to my naked chest.One doesn’t become an immortal being made of simple flesh and bone, it seems.
Incisors peek out beyond full lips, a growl ripping free, stopping the mers in their tracks.
Sucking up the pain, I go for another shot. This time, when I fly forward and make contact with Gideon, his claws are out. With force, he pushes us onto the ground, pinning me on the hard floor opposite the bed.
Breathing heavily above me, another deadly growl rips free of his chest. “Dove?” It’s carnal savagery, the change working through his body. He glares from his perch over me, a clawed hand holding mine against the rock below. I wince at the pain from my sore wrists.
“Yes, Dove. She’sours.”
I don’t know why I sayours. It feels natural. It’s like breathing to tell this scary, naked bastard on top of me that my bonded also somehow belongs to him.
“Mate,” he snaps the word before he fully transforms above me.
thirty-one
Dove
I’msittingwithakraken.
A KRAKEN.
It seems more unbelievable than Saff—maybe because water was never a big part of my life. Swimming was never high on my parents’ priority list when I was young. And once I entered the one Goddess’s temple, I never had the opportunity.
Goddess, I wish Saff were here.She would know what to do. Saff has the sort of presence about her that makes me feel like shewould have all the answers. It’s probably because she’s immortal. I think it’s also because she’s a mother.
My mother was never much of a caregiver type. She tried. Now that the cavern of my heart is no longer protected like it once was, images of a blonde-haired woman swim before my vision. She was beautiful, with her curls of gold and bright blue eyes. Me and my sister look nothing like her.
Thankfully, for her—my father would’ve beaten her into a pulp if we came out looking like anyone other than him. The only parts of my mother I inherited were her petite stature, heart-shaped face and nose. The rest is all him. It’s why I stopped looking in mirrors, not that they kept many of those in the temple.
Wren looked like him, too.
I push at the erratic beating between my breasts. We were identical in every way except that she ended up growing taller than me, taking on more of his frame. She hated it. She would often throw herself in front of Mother and me because of it.
A tear moves down my cheek.
