15
Kai hadn’t been able to find Hollyn all night or all day. He was beginning to wonder if something had happened to her, and he wanted all of this to be over. He was not going to be stuck here without Hollyn.
He just wanted to see her. He couldn’t stop thinking about her—about the hot sex they’d shared in the hallway. Just the thought of her moans in his ears, her pussy convulsing around his dick, had him hard in an instant. He wanted to feel it all again. He wanted to be with Hollyn more than anything—even more than he wanted the connection to his past.
As a matter of fact, maybe they should just plan to grab the crown and take off with it. He hadn’t asked for this. All he’d wanted was to know his origin. Now that he had a better idea of who he was, he just wanted to go back to his life. Did he actually have to stay here and take charge of a city he didn’t want to rule?
He just needed to find Hollyn before the ceremony began and tell her the new plan. He knew she’d be on board with it. Unfortunately, he had to wonder if she’d already run away without him. What if the pressure of all of this had been too much and she just decided to leave?
The thought of losing her was too much to consider right now. And the reality of that thought was even crazier. He had known Hollyn for about a month, and he couldn’t stop thinking about her. She had become the first person he wanted to talk to when he woke up and the last person he wanted to see before he went to sleep at night. He knew the truth—he’d fallen completely for her.
He needed to find her and tell her how he felt about her.
Greeting the guards standing outside his door, he pushed himself down the hallway, not entirely sure where he was going. He’d already checked her room a floor below, but he’d start there again. He slipped down the stairs at the end of the hallway. Yet, as soon as he stepped on the floor, his mother turned the corner and made a beeline toward him.
“Kai! What are you doing out of your rooms? It’s bad luck for you to be on the same floor as the women who are vying for your affection.”
“Uma…”
“Please! Now that you know, call me Mother.”
It was not a comfortable thought, but he didn’t want to hurt her, not when she’d given him a life he wouldn’t have had if he’d stayed here. He just wish she understood how little he wanted to be some king of some underwater city that he knew nothing about.
“Um, Mother, do we really have to go through with this ridiculous ceremony today?”
“Ridiculous? This is your tradition as a Misu. What has you concerned? Is it your little siren? She has as much a chance as any other woman to become your queen.” She reached out a hand to brush something invisible off his lapel as she asked, “Have you considered the princess? She would make a fine queen.”
A sense of foreboding came over Kai in that moment. It occurred to him that this all could just be a way to make everyone think the process was fair and unbiased. Kai got the feeling his mother had an agenda and that the winner of the competition had already been chosen—and it wasn’t Hollyn.
“What if I want to choose Hollyn?”
“Don’t be foolish! As fine a woman as she is, and I do think she’s a good woman, a siren can’t rule Hanupali City. We would be the laughing stock of the ocean.”
Kai stiffened, his whole body coming to attention. “What if I choose Hollyn’s gift over the others? She’ll be my queen, then, no matter what.”
Uma laughed humorlessly. “Do you really believe it’s about the gifts? And did you think I would leave such an important decision only in your hands? You will choose who you’re told to choose—the one who will benefit the kingdom most.”
“And if I refuse?”
She gave him a pitying look as she said, “You don’t announce the winner. I do.”
With that said, she walked past him toward the stairs, but as she went, she called over her shoulder, “I really think you should consider the princess. She’s beautiful, and she’ll know when to shut up and let those in charge make the decisions. That’s what you need.”
Seemingly in shock, Kai felt like his feet were stuck to the floor. He couldn’t move as he mulled over Uma’s words. Today, he would be married to a stranger based on tradition and his mother’s agenda.
Not if he had anything to do with it! He needed to find Hollyn, and they needed to get out of Hanupali City.
But as he started for her room, he saw another figure down the hallway. It was Oleen, and he wasn’t sure he had thepatience to deal with another person who saw all the merit in the traditional way.
Yet, he knew she couldn’t help but think that way. It was how she was raised, so he didn’t hold it against her. Instead, he approached her how he thought a big brother would.
“How are you today, Oleen?”
She smiled up at him and said, “Better than you, I’d say.”
The tension left his body in an instant, and for the first time since he’d gotten here, he felt like he was talking to someone who could think logically.
“What am I supposed to do? I don’t want to give up everything I know to marry someone I didn’t choose and rule a place in which I’ve never lived. This is not at all what I wanted.”
