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Lokene was propped against the elegant railing, hands in his pocket, hair blowing in the salty breeze. He looked sexy as Hades. “I see you found our girl!” Lokene called out with a rumbling chuckle.
“We did, no thanks to you. It took us hours to get her, and she could’ve died before we found her!” Storm glowered.
My eyes rolled. Hard. I didn’t need to be rescued. Sheba and I had been doing just fine. The words in my head sounded confident, but in reality, I didn’t know if I would have made it if Sheba hadn’t taken me to the men. I’d been in terrible shape.
“Hey!” Lokene’s offended voice roused me from my thoughts. “Give me some credit! I did the best I could under the circumstances.”
Kye snorted derisively. “Yeah, yeah. We know. Ancient rules all that.” His voice dripped with sarcasm.
There was a part of me that was horrified by the blatant disrespect of the Ancients, but another part of me agreed… and secretly loved this bad boy side of Kye.
Lokene sighed. “You would think being an Ancient would earn a guy some respect around here.”
Eason laughed. The sound was unexpected, and we all turned to look at him, wide-eyed. “Lokene, you are Zosi’s mate, and that makes you one of us. You are my brother, which means you have our respect, but that does not mean you are safe from being messed with.”
Lokene didn’t respond, but as he turned away, moving to lower the ladder at the back of the yacht, I caught the small smile that spread on his face. Joy bloomed in my chest. My mates, my new family, were getting along.
“Come on, then. Now that I missed all the fun, I can come to your rescue.” Lokene’s signature smirk was back in place, and his eyes sparkled as if from some inside joke.
We drifted to the back of the sleek yacht where, one by one, my mates stepped onto the light wooden deck to board. They playfully slapped Lokene on the back or jostled him with their shoulders as they climbed aboard. Then, just as they boarded, each one froze to take in the five layers of the eggshell-white yacht. Silver banisters decorated the edges and, while I couldn’t see the vast array of fresh fruits aboard, their sweet aroma wafted to me, making me momentarily forget my thirst for blood.
Storm tied their pitifully small boat to the beautiful vessel. I wanted to laugh at the odd contrast between the woeful floating device my mates had arrived in and this monstrosity. He stood, taking in the polished wooden plank floors and shiny banisters.
Finally, his gaze landed on Lokene, and he raised a brow. “You can manage all this, but you couldn’t be bothered to give us a decent motor?” His face was stony, except for the small twitch I saw at the corner of his mouth. Storm wasn’t angry anymore; he was just messing with Lokene.
Lokene shrugged. “It’s the rules, man. I can’t interfere in most of the fun stuff. Not unless I want to risk setting off a butterfly effect that could send the world into chaos… Or at least, that is the belief of the Ancients.”
“Fun isn’t the word I would use. You couldn’t even sit in the boat with us as we spent hours trying to get to her?”
“Oh! I totally could have come with you, as long as I changed nothing.”
Storm’s confused expression mirrored my own. “Excuse me? Come again? You could have come with us? Then why didn’t you?” Storm’s aggravation came through loud and clear.
“Because it sounded positively boring and utterly dull. Plus, I had a ship to build.” Lokene turned toward me and winked. “I really wish I could have been here to help you when you were having fun blowing things up. Once you were safely off the ship, Sheba was all the protection you needed until the rest of your mates arrived. I wasn’t needed.”
I wanted to tell him I always needed him, but my pride wouldn’t let me. Emotionally, I needed him, and my body hummed with desire for him. However, physically, I was more than capable of fighting my own battles. Sure, I was a little worse for wear, but I had survived to fight another day. That was a win in my book.
“Soyale,” Lokene broke into my musings.
Raising my gaze, I met his eyes. “Yes?”
“I’ve missed you, beautiful! Now, come on.” He blew me a kiss and then turned and waved the rest of my mates to follow him into the boat’s interior. “Come on, the food is getting cold. She needs to greet the fish-boy.”
The men hesitated, but when Sheba’s fin sliced through the water near me, some of the tension left their bodies. They might not want to be in the water with her, but they trusted her to have my back.
“Wait!” I exclaimed, panic setting in. “I have to get back to the rocks. I left someone there.”
Eason’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What do you mean, you ‘left’ someone there? Is this person a threat to you? I thought you completed your mission and took care of the Lure?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I did, but they had a mermaid on their ship. I hadn’t expected that, but I couldn’t leave her at their mercy. There was no way I could have allowed her to be killed, so I had to help her off the ship.”
Kye beamed at me. “That’s my girl! Kicking butts and saving lives!”
“Was she injured? Do you think she needed a doctor?” Fynn asked.
A wave of jealousy shot through me, far worse than the pain of being shot, at just the thought of his hands on the beautiful mermaid.
“No. I mean, yes.” My words came tumbling out, a jumbled mess, just like my thoughts. “She was injured and having difficulty swimming, which is why I left her on the rocks. She is waiting for me to return. Her injuries were not life-threatening as far as I could tell.” I still hated the thought of him touching another mer, so I added, “I’m sure they have a mer doctor in Atlantis. I just need to get her there.”
