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There should be no urgency, but I can still feel it like a current running beneath my scales demanding that I hurry. Perhaps this is normal for one who is a quick and decisive hunter. My nets are always full because I know where to go to get what I want. And I know exactly what I want and what I don’t want. I have no interest in fighting in bloody contests with other males, risking injury just for the hope of attracting a female Aquana’s attention.
I avoid the flirting grounds of the female Aquanas and have been slowly making my way up the coast for the last few decades, hunting for an area that possessed energies that appeal to me. Not just because it is the most likely place to find my mate but because it is likely to become where my mate and I will nest. I have anticipated this from the moment I left my pod. I knew I wouldn’t return. While those who mate with female Aquanas usually join the pod of their mate, those who choose to seek out human mates often prefer to stay in secluded places close to land where their mate can live comfortably near other humans. Males are notorious for becoming obsessively protective and indulgent of their mate’s needs, so I’ve anticipated this eventuality and eagerly await it.
I haven’t been here for more than a few weeks, but already I know that this is the place. I can feel it in my blood. Unfortunately, I’m no closer to finding a female to whom I feel the pull, and my time is almost up before I must return to the water. Worse, I am no closer to getting my supplement, and every night I must abandon my search until the sun rises again.
“I’m sorry, Ro,” Adiele says, wincing in sympathy. “Still nothing from Underidge coven. I check on it every day and it hasn’t been mailed yet. My order keeps coming back as ‘processing’ whenever I pull it up.”
“The fault is not yours, Adiele,” I try to reassure her. “Is there no one else you might ask? Perhaps someone who might be able to tell you how to make it?”
I am startled when she laughs, but I know it is not from cruelty. “Covens sharing their secrets—that would be the day,” she chortles. “I’m afraid this recipe is the new family secret of the Underidge coven. The only time magical knowledge willingly gets shared these days is if a coven’s family line dies out and their grimoire gets donated to the library. So, unless that happens, we are likely shit out of luck. I even put in a call to my family, but we’re a newer line and there wasn’t anyone who is advanced enough with sea magic to be of much help.” Her expression suddenly clears a little. “But I do know of a family that has been in the area for several generations now, and a good friend of mine is a Durmont. Well, Keri is a Thane-Durmont, but practically the same thing—it’s all the same family coven. The Durmonts might have a few ideas we can try.”
I am not optimistic, but I know she is trying to help me and showing me far more kindness than most others since I have come to shore. Aside from the response I get from witches, many people seem to subconsciously react to my presence with either fear, hostility—mostly from males—or desire. Avoiding contact with strange females who don’t know proper decorum has been a nuisance at best.
Case in point, I can’t miss the sudden teasing brush of a stranger’s fingers across my ass. I smother the instant desire to extend the lethal spine fins of my true form. Having such dorsal fins running down my back and from my shoulder to elbow is not a good idea. It is far too lethal for close quarters with humans, but like most Aquana, I do not like being physically touched by anyone but my mate. I turn my head and look down at a lithe little brunette smiling up at me, and I scowl my displeasure fiercely at her.
I am about to open my mouth to chastise her when Adiele intercedes and, with a few terse words exchanged with the female, hustles the woman out the door. She returns with a shaky smile, one that tells me that she is not entirely unaware of how dangerous my species can be.
“So sorry about that,” she says. “I swear some of the women around here must have a death wish or something to even risk putting their hands on a fae without invitation.” She gives me a concerned look. “Are you okay?”
I draw in a deep breath and slowly allow myself to relax by small measures until I am once again calm. Having regained my control, I give her a grateful smile. “Yes. My thanks.”
She returns the smile, relieved, and then turns thoughtful. “You know, despite being a coastal city, we don’t get too many aquatic species in Washington. In this part of the country, your kind are more common along the coasts of Oregon and California as far as I can tell. I blame it on our weather. The Pacific Northwest tends toward cool and dreary more often than not,” she observes. “I can imagine that it can be a bit nasty compared to the warm waters farther south. We’ve never even had the occasion to need aquatic supplements before.”
She doesn’t realize it, but everything that she says is part of the reason to come here rather than hunting for a mate among the warmer waters to the south. Not only do I like the raw energy of the place, but I like the fact that I will not be potentially competing with others of my kind. It gives me hope that I will be successful in finding a mate here.
“I like it.”
Her eyebrows climb. “You do?”
I take a breath, holding it deep in my lungs, enjoying the various flavors of the energies. There is a sweet note that I’ve caught here in passing that I particularly relish. “Oh yes, very much so. I plan on being here for some time.”
“Well then, that settles it. We need to get you the recipe for that supplement if you want to stick around. How long do you have until you must return to the water?”
“I must return every night, but every full moon I am bound to the sea from sunrise to sunrise. I will not be able to leave the sea with the sunrise tomorrow morning. I will be bound there until the next before the magic will allow me to return.”
“Hmm. I would have thought that merfolk would be entirely lunar-oriented.”
I give her a curious look. “Whatever for? The moon pulls our tides, and thus once a month the magic of the moon and the sea captures us completely. Although we reckon many things by its pull and understand that it influences our magic, it is the sun that merfolk love. It measures the passage of time and rules our glamour. We cannot see the moon unless we rise from the waters, but the sun penetrates the upper depths. It gave us our first magic.” My lips curl wryly, and I add, “Not to mention that none of my kin would pass up a chance to sun themselves on the rocky islands.”
Adiele’s eyes sparkle as she laughs. “Well, I just learned a new thing then. Let’s hurry and get down to the Occult Library. That’s where Keri works. I’ve never known her to not be happy to lend a helping hand.”
She waves a hand to a bearded young man walking through the door sipping on a steaming drink. “Teddy, right on time. Go ahead and bring your coffee back here. I’m going to take my lunch now that you’re here and take a quick jaunt down to the Occult Library.”
He grins as he slides behind the counter and kisses her on the cheek. “Sure thing, sweetie. Take as long as you need. We’re not usually hopping during midday, so I don’t think it will be a problem.”
“Thanks, babe!” she says as she grabs a small bag and swings it over her shoulder. “Come on, Ro.”
Dutifully, I follow Adiele out the door and down a long narrow back alley between various shops until she arrives at a heavily glamoured building. To those without magic, it would look like nothing more than a long wall extending from the neighboring building. But I can see beneath it to the high arched doorway and the bold script above it proclaiming it as the entrance of the Occult Library.
As we draw near, I taste the energy of the place. Unlike the Emporium, it lacks the chaotic feel of numerous overlapping unharnessed and undirected energies. Instead, it smells of power, carefully woven spells, ancient knowledge, and the musk of old books. There is another scent underneath that is cloying. The sweet smell of pond lilies and rain. The smell of the sweet musk of a female’s magic that simply tastes “right.”
It's exotic to my senses and pulls me with such a strength that my cock jumps beneath the tight confines of human clothing. Her energy is like the kiss of summer waves, drawing me to her as if she were an Aquana calling forth males. In a daze, I drag in that sweet perfume and take a deeper breath as we approach the door, my every instinct screaming to lure her in before any other males dare approach.
Myfemale.
Adiele steps inside the front door, but I don’t give her a chance to linger before I gently move her to the side so I can fully enter the library behind her. My eyes are drawn instantly to the source of my desire. She is nearly as pale as one of my kind, but with a deep flush of pink and a hint of gold to her complexion that my kind lacks. I am fascinated with the long, silky length of her pale-yellow hair. It is exotic to me compared to the white, blues, and greens common among merfolk. It makes me think of the beautiful rays of sunlight piercing through the water. Her eyes are the same piercing blue as the waters where I was reared, and her lips the pink color of a water lily I gave to my mother in my youth.
She is glorious, and everything within me yearns to wrap around her—most especially my tail. When she meets my eyes, I feel my magic pulse through me in answer and don’t have a hope for stopping the lure as my song ripples through me. She shivers in reaction, but we both startle when a book is slammed on the counter beside her. She jumps as she spins toward Adiele. I likewise give the female I thought was my friend an affronted glare, but she pins me with a hard look before turning toward my mate.
