Kadir tried bridging the distance using a topic he knew she cared about. “Your parents are close to you.”

It worked.

Elyssa brightened immediately. “We’re all close. I’m so lucky. How about you?”

“No.”

Her brows lowered. She looked down at her drink. “Oh. Sorry.”

Her light dipped.

Sorry. That was a word he must strike from her statements.

But more importantly, she reacted to his feeling. Pain and anger. He forced past the pain of his situation to give her an important truth. “My mother died. Since then, my father has been castle-bound with illness in my old city, Dragao Azul. I have not seen him since my exile.”

Her light flared. “Oh, I’m so sorry.” She started to reach out, then hesitated.

He opened his palms.

She took them. Her light flared even brighter. Her dark eyes studied his intently. “You’re all alone.”

“I have my warriors. Soren.” He slid his thumb over her delicate cream fingernails. “Like you, I was lucky. According to the old covenant, brides must return to the surface as soon as their young fry is born, but my mother made a secret request. Once a year, my father took me to the surface. There, she would be waiting on the shore.”

She would always be sitting on a folding white lounge chair, in a full dress, with a book and a beach blanket. Her hair was black like Kadir’s, and she kept it in one braid down her back.

“You met her?” Elyssa asked, eyes glowing.

“No.” He focused on the lighter crescents of her nails. “We watched.”

Contact was restricted by the covenant. This annual trip had to remain secret, and bobbing in the distant waves was as much as he dared. Hour after hour on those long days, Kadir and his father watched her turn pages, eat her lunch, hike up her skirt, and carefully wade.

The year Kadir determined to end the old covenant and forge a new one with modern brides, his father was struck by the mysterious illness. At that time, Kadir didn’t realize what it meant. He was only grateful to have solitude as he swam to the surface and planned how to reveal himself to his mother. But his planned rebellion never occurred. His mother wasn’t there. A small group of aunts and uncles and cousins circled her empty lounge chair and tossed white flowers onto the waves.

Elyssa sighed. “That’s so sad. Too bad it wasn’t a little later.”

He fixed on her. What did that mean?

“Because now you’re revealed,” Elyssa said. “Everyone knows there are mermen. Oh! If you wanted to visit her last resting place and say goodbye, I could look that up for you.”

He shook his head immediately.

“Sure?”

It no longer mattered, and after all the years, crossing the final distance felt like it dishonored his father’s commitment. “It is too late. I should have crossed to the shore much earlier.”

Or not at all.

She softened and stroked his cheek. Pure kindness radiated from her. “She must have loved you very much to make your father break the rules like that.”

His chest throbbed.

How strange. He had often thought that his life was harder because his mother and father had broken the rules. Better not to know her at all than to be forced to watch her and long for something he could never have.

“I could never leave my children,” she said. “She’s amazing. Truly.”

His chest throbbed again. “It is different in each situation.”

“Yeah, but no.” Elyssa dropped her hand and straightened. “You see, I’ve had a lot of opportunities to think about it. I only see my mother once a year too.”

He focused on her completely. She had the love and devotion of her father and stepmother. Two parents. He had assumed the mother died. Did Elyssa mean to say she had a third in her biological mother too?

“She’s this complete free spirit,” Elyssa explained. “My dad thought my birth would tie her down, but that never happened. He’s way better off with my step mom. And Julianne—my biological mom—is always on the move. She’s super fun when she’s around, but at the same time, it’s kind of exhausting. I’ll never do that to my kids. When I settle down, I am settling down.”

She spoke firmly, with a golden fire glowing in her chest and lighting her eyes with sparkles.

A tug of rightness gripped him.

Elyssa was, truly, everything he wanted in a bride. And she spoke so calmly and competently about critical things. She would be an excellent mother.

His cock twitched.

Now. He wanted her in his arms pledging herself to carry his young fry. As his bride.

“You have two mothers and one father,” he repeated, trying on the family for size. “That is an amazing ratio.”

She bit her lip. “Well, actually, the ratio goes the other way. My mother collected husbands like animal sanctuaries collect strays.”

He frowned.

“Don’t get mad,” she instructed. “Our culture has divorce. And it’s totally normal. There’s no, ‘your original husband is justified in murdering any guy who touches you’ thing that mermen have.”

He accepted her words while refusing the concept. It was slowly becoming less shocking that the female cashier touched everyone to give money and coffee, and no humans reacted. But surely it would be different to be intimate. Yes, in merman culture, a male could be punished for touching another warrior’s bride — even to save her life, the husband was justified in calling for her savior’s dismemberment. But if any male attempted to claim Elyssa now in front of Kadir, that male would be asking for death.

“All this is to say that my dads kept me in the divorce. I live with my biological dad and my stepmom — they’re the most stable — and it’s all complicated, but suffice it to say I have three moms and five dads.”

Three mothers and five fathers? Eight parents? For one daughter?

“And that’s how I know I don’t want that. I love all my parents, but I don’t want to make my kids divide their holidays up. My sweet sixteen was held at a community center just so it could accommodate all of my grandparents! I want one husband, two to five children, and a couple of big dogs.”

She said it decisively, giving the truth to how deeply she’d thought of it, and finished her mocha.

Once more, he felt like the conversation had tipped in a direction he hadn’t even fathomed was possible.

“Five children,” he repeated.

She hunched her shoulders. “Is that a problem? I was going to say two or three, but I’m okay with big families, and you have a shortage.”

Five.

Humans had multiple children. But mermen had one.

Because of the old ways. The covenant. That was why the cities atrophied. Why the young mer rebelled and joined him in Atlantis.

He could have more young fry. He could have five.

So could Soren.

Lotar. Ciran. Iyen.

His city could grow and thrive. The mer race could expand to its greatest height. Fill all the empty castles with warmth and all the cities with community. The vision Elyssa unveiled stunned him. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought it possible.

“Are you still hungry? Did you want to go get ice cream?” She reacted to his silence by retreating into her nerves and smoothing her kelp green dress. “Don’t you like the mocha?”

He looked down at his untouched second coffee. “I am drinking it slowly.”

Her smile radiated like the sun. “Oh.”

His distraction from before, when she was revealing her light to him so generously, shamed him. The one who was wasting time was not her. It was him.

He must convince her now to increase her radiance. That responsibility was his. She was his bride. He was her husband.

He picked the coffee up and drained it in one gulp.

She laughed. “You did it again! So, how did you find the coffee?”

“Cold.” He stood. “We must return to the dock.”

Her smile faded. She rubbed her chest. “Already?”

Ah. Did she not feel the resonance? Then he would not force her. Not until she felt what he knew.

“No. I am still hungry.”

She stood also. “Sorry! What can I get you?”

“A favorite food that only you will provide.”

She sucked in a breath. Yes, he had listened carefully. She wished to care for him. For a short time in the air, he would make it so.

Elyssa rewarded him by slipping her arm through the crook of his elbow and tugging him to the exit. “I know just the place.”

The strolled along the promenade, arm in arm, and he strove to increase her resonance as she asked about Atlantis. Did they have coffee shops? Did they have shopping malls? Did they have movie theaters? Did they have ice cream?

No. To all of the questions. He was beginning to worry that the difference in their ways of life might be a larger problem than he originally thought.

She stopped at a stand and purchased him a cone stacked two high.

He consumed the cold, dark chocolate scoops with his usual single-minded approach.

She put a hand on his elbow. “Slow down. Don’t you want a bite of mine? I bet you’ve never had Monkey Chunk before.”

He did not trust a food made out of pulverized jungle creature. “I would not steal the food out of your mouth.”

She laughed again. “When you put it like that, I almost wish you would.”

He stopped.

Her laughter faded. Her lips parted. Her chest burned bright.

A cool drip of melting cream landed on his wrist and traveled.

“You have a drip.” Holding his gaze, she touched his forearm. Her tongue caught the cream and traced a hot, wet trail up the back of his hand to his knuckle. She swallowed and smiled. “Delicious.”

His cock, already alert by their thighs brushing and her enticing nearness, hardened to granite.

“You also have a drip.” He lifted her wrist and nipped the bare skin.

She caught her breath with a little gasp. “I do not.”

“No?” He sucked the fast blood-beat underneath her skin. “I am certain.”

Her soul light flared.

His cock pulsed hot. How was it possible to crave her even more than when his soul claimed her in the auditorium yesterday? But now, after this day, brushing against her sweet, succulent thighs and falling under the spell of her playful, sparkling smiles, he needed her.

He pressed forward.

She smiled, playful, and backed away. “Where are we going?”

He didn’t care. Down the side of the ice cream stand and around the back corner, into a shadowed alley. Her back hit the dead end with a thump. He pressed her against the shop wall.

Her light flared and her gorgeous, clear eyes fixed on him. “Kadir?”

“Elyssa.” He rested his forearms on the wall on either side of her head. “You are mine. I must join with you.”

Her lashes fluttered. Her light flickered radically. “I want that…”

Yes. She wanted that.

He swooped to claim her mouth.

Her eyes widened. She moved, and his lips met her chin. “But are you sure it’s a good idea?”

He kissed her chin.

She giggled and wiggled, resisting with a laugh.

He pressed her harder into the building and tasted her jaw. Salty and sweet, coffee and cream. He followed the bone to the delicate ear and tugged the hot flesh.

She gasped. Her light glowed.

His cock pulsed. He made her glow. He moved her silken hair away from her neck.

She caught his hand. A question remained in her worried eyes.

He would hold her like an anchor and drown her with passion until all her fears were gone. He cupped her jaw and rubbed his wide thumb across her lips. She parted for him.

He bowed his head. This time, she would not turn away. “It is a very good idea.”

“Um, but, what if I can’t transform?”

He was not leaving this shore without her. Between nips, he ordered. “Feel our resonance.”

“Well, but…” She glanced at the half-melted ice cream in her hand, nearly forgotten against the building.

He plucked the ice cream from her hand and crunched it in three bites. The yellow cream was thick and sweet.

She licked her lips. “If I can’t, you’ll have to give the new blossom to a woman who can. A woman who’s better suited to ruling with you.”

“There will be no more blossoms. The Life Tree needs you, Elyssa.”

“It does?”

“Atlantis needs you.”

She resisted. “Atlantis needs a strong queen.”

“You will become a strong queen.”

“No.”

“Yes. You are what I need.”

His words melted her resistance. Brilliance overflowed her chest, wrapping them in a private blanket of pure hunger. Her lashes fluttered closed and she tilted her lips up.

He took her mouth. The cold cream mixed with her natural sweet flavor. He captured her mouth and plunged in, sealing their bond. She clung to his forearm. He squeezed her curves. The soft breast ripe for palming. The wide hip perfect for gripping. The feminine curve of her thigh.

She sank into his caress.

He gripped her thigh, hiked it higher, and pressed his hard cock against her soft cleft.

She shuddered.

He released her mouth to taste the pulse-beat at her throat. Tease it with his teeth. Mark her as his. He shoved aside the green cloth and bared her skin. She gasped. The intensity of her light increased.

Her small, beautiful breast mound was perfectly shaped, like a scoop of iced cream with a dusky cherry. What was this flavor? He swiped his tongue over the pink peak.

Her fingers stroked his hair. Soft, gentle. Tentative.

He needed her brighter. Much brighter. And harder. Writhing against him.

Kadir lifted his head. She looked at him with soft, parted lips and unfocused, passionate eyes. A powerful wave of domination clenched him. She would not escape.

He ripped the green fabric out of his way and kissed the soft rise of her belly. She trembled.

Somehow, although she was right here, it felt like she was also far away. He hesitated. One hand gripped his forearm. The fingers stroking his head dropped away.

He surged up her body, slamming his forearm into the wall beside her head, making her jump. She was surprised but focused on him.

She focused on him.

And then she didn’t. Her chest rose and fell. She licked her lips and started to straighten her torn dress.

He gripped her hands. “You are mine.”

She did not protest. She also did not draw him closer. She waited.

His chest agitated. She was slipping away again! In desperation, he dropped his palm to her hot cleft. She gasped. There, the thin strip of polka dotted fabric. He moved it aside and cupped her feminine heat. “You are mine.”

She moaned and thrust against his hand. Her light almost blinded him. “Yes.”

“My bride.”

“Oh, yes.”

“My queen.”

Her light dipped.

He released her as though she had burned him.

That was the problem. That was how she escaped him. He demanded she be his queen and her soul light went out cold.