My female.

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 sea where I was reared, and her lips the pink color of a hidden jewel sea lily I gave to my mother in my youth.

She is glorious, and everything within me yearns to wrap my body around hers—most especially my tail. When she meets my eyes, I feel my magic pulse through me in answer and I don’t have a hope of stopping the lure as my song ripples through me and past my lips into the air between us. 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.

“Keri, this is Ro. He’s the merman I was telling you about.”

My female, Keri, looks at me thoughtfully, her eyes skimming over me, taking me in. Her subtle energy spins out from her and caresses me. She is unaware of what she is doing but I relish the touch as it draws the response of the lure within my own magic. I feel my body respond in kind to a compatible mate, the flesh heating and my spine fins expanding even as my cock swells further to painful levels in its confinement. This is the dance of the song and lure, her magic and mine beginning to move together and learn each other’s pattern and movement. Mating will only intensify it and solidify the link between our power.

Some species jealously guard their personal power, but not Aquana. We value this dance and the joining of powers. Though it increases our dependence on each other, it makes our magic stronger as it harmonizes. It’s something I want desperately, especially now that I’ve found her.

I allow small tendrils of my own energy to caress hers and watch her shift as her arousal blooms slightly in response. The effect is beautiful. She does not begin to unfurl her mating petals as a mermaid would to entice her potential mate to draw closer, but the sweet, wet scent of her cunt does increase, making me salivate.

Her magic and my lure are all it takes. Once we mate, we will hook and be one. Fate, the gods, and the source of all magic has decided. Keri will be mine.










Chapter 4

Keri

I think I’m about to pass out. Although I’m working hard to control my breathing and every other reaction to the merman, I feel a fuzziness around the edges of my mind that suggests that I’m not doing as good of a job as I believe I am.

“An actual merman,” I murmur, fascinated despite the horror curling in my belly. I cut a sharp look at Adiele and summon my best “what the fuck?” look. Just because we were talking mermen yesterday didn’t mean I wanted to meet him. She gives me an apologetic look, and I clear my throat and look back at the male looming over me. “What brings you two here? Unless you were coming by to volunteer your time for an interspecies research assignment?”

“Actually...” Adiele begins, but Ro cuts her off and steps closer to my desk, drawing every single one of my brain cells to him.

My friend looks completely baffled, but I don’t blame her. Right now, I would list that as one of my forerunning emotions. It’s like my ability to reason took a hike the moment he entered the library.

“That is exactly why I have come,” he says, and by the gods his deep speaking voice is almost as beautiful as his singing. I have heard voices described as melodic, but I swear he was just shy of singing those words to me. “This interspecies research—it is so humans become more familiar with the other species sharing their world, correct?”

I quickly bob my head, relieved that there is an actual reason for his presence and that my overactive imagination that insists that he was hunting me—and sending little happy curls of lust through me in response—isn’t right. I clear my throat yet again as I start hunting for the paperwork. I’m not nervous. Not at all.

“That’s excellent!” I reply in my most upbeat voice that I usually reserve for children and the more difficult patrons. “I will have you fill out these papers, and the regional Master of the Arts, Thomas Clarence, will get ahold of you to assign you to a member of the Arcane Society of Magicians and Witches to begin the study.”

His eyes narrow slightly, and I blush at the intense focus of his attention. “I will not be paired with you?”

My panties combust in a fiery death from the look he gives me. Probably a good thing that there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening. The honorary status given to me because I work here won’t put me anywhere in the running to work with him. Not when there are more highly qualified and experienced people waiting for the opportunity. Thank the gods. I don’t know if I would survive spending hours with him every day.