The folks that lined up to be choked and degraded by Zasia were mostly male Mer Omegas, ashamed of their heterogender desires. Keld, on the other hand, tended to pull human Omegas of all genders. His theory was that his relatively short height (for a Mer), and his stocky, well-muscled build appealed to humaninterests more so than Mer. Not that he was complaining. Keld had learned an awful lot about human pleasure in his years at Siren’s Rest, and felt he was more prepared than most Alphas for his future human Omega.
“Zas?” he said suddenly.
“Mm?”
“You haven’t heard anything from the Mermate program have you?”
Zasia grimaced. “Only that I’m number forty-three in line.”
“Damn. I’m like thirty-five or something.”
“I blame the entire state of Florida.” Zasia rolled her eyes. “Maybe we should request a transfer to California. I heard they actually have a surplus of Omegas.”
Keld chuckled. “I bet California’s waiting list for transfer is even longer.”
Zasia groaned and made to return to her own desk. “See you at Siren.”
Keld fell into his chair. The Mer had only been permitted to take human mates for the past twenty-one years, and volunteers weren’t exactly clamoring to shack up with an amphibious alien. Loriun was lucky when he met Beau. Jonathan, another Ikatere employee, was Beau’s dad’s neighbor’s dog’s cousin or something like that, and didn’t have any siblings. Keld had asked.
Keld stared, unseeing, at his monitor. On one hand, he was still reasonably young at twenty-nine, and didn’t need to be settling down right away. On the other hand, his Alpha instincts were trumpeting at him to find an Omega. He’d considered a Mer Omega, since he didn’t really want children, but all the time he’d spent in a human kink club had obviously affected his brain chemistry.
All he wanted was a soft, doe-eyed Omega man, naked and tied to a bedframe—Stop it. You are at work, you godless cretin.
Unfortunately, accounting was rarely capable of taking one’s mind off bringing an al dente noodle to the spaghetti house.
∞∞∞
Keld weaved through the small crowd mingling in the lounge of Siren’s Rest. He’d beaten Zasia through sheer disregard for speed limits, but she wouldn’t be far behind. A few familiar faces smiled up at him in greeting—human Omegas, mostly. Just ahead, the bar glowed in dim, yellow lighting, softening the walnut slabs that formed the bartop.
“Evening, Tuiket.” The weekday bartender was, oddly, a Mer Omega. Oddly, because Mer were incapable of ingesting most human alcohol. They went by the name Kir, “serenity” in Loaish. Most people didn’t use their real names here. As far as these people knew, Keld’s own name was Tuiket—the word for “gold.”
“How are things, Kir?” he asked, sliding onto a stool upholstered with red velvet. Matching curtains swung on either side of the shelves just behind the periwinkle-scaled bartender.
“Pretty quiet today,” they said, reaching for a glass. Their fingertips darkened to a dusty indigo. “Gose?”
Just the thought of salty, citrusy beer had him salivating. “Always.” To his left, a human tossed a shot of what smelled like rubbing alcohol into her mouth. Keld winced. If the smell alone burned his nose, he didn’t want to fathom what it would do to his throat.
“Hey, Kir? Tell me again why humans drink recreational poison?”
They smirked, sliding a coaster under his gose. “Technically, you’re also drinking recreational poison.”
“Low-content poison,” he corrected, taking a sip. The cool bubbles sent sparks of coriander and sea salt across his tongue.
A memory flickered in Keld’s mind. His mother, holding a filthy rag to her gills, the stench oftavrasap cloying in the air—he stomped the scene back down into the depths of his consciousness. Somewhere behind him, Zasia’s ringing laughter announced her arrival. She was already surrounded by all three male Mer he’d seen when he came in. One offered her a leash, the other end clipped to a thick collar around his neck.
“Do you actually drink the human cocktails?” Keld asked, willing himself to remain in the present.
“I took a sip of a margarita once and nearly went belly up. Zero out of ten experience.”
Keld laughed as a soft hand touched his elbow.
“Tuiket? Are you free?” Big, blue eyes peered out from messy, brown hair.
“Hey, Dakota.” Keld’s hand acted on muscle memory, catching the Omega’s chin. “I’m free.”
Dakota’s breath came out in a shudder.
Keld dropped his voice. “Have you been a good little Omega?”
