Page 56 of Magic Potions and the Merman's Lure

Chapter 35

Keri

The late afternoon sun warms the private beach and I’m feeling pretty grateful that Ro had the forethought to bring us to my family’s beach house where we would have some privacy. I step onto shore with shaky legs and laugh nervously as I sink back down on the sand so that the waves can lap at my legs and feet. Gryn doesn’t follow in closer but watches us from the closest outcropping of rocks for a moment before diving back into the water. Shading my eyes from the sun I watch him go and sigh as I glance back over at the male reclined at my side, his own tail stretched out into the water in front of him.

“I wonder where he is going?” I murmur.

Ro snorts mirthlessly and shakes his head. “If he is an intelligent male, it will be far from me until I regain some calm again.”

“Away from you?” I peer at him in surprise. “You aren’t mad at Gryn are you?”

“Murderously,” he confirms around his tightly clenched teeth. His aquamarine gaze settles on me angrily. “I am very angry. What were you thinking going out there? I told you no! I told you what I wished to do, and you ignored it.”

“Because I did not agree with it,” I shoot back. “I can’t force you to go against your own wishes, but you can’t stop me from trying everything I can to give you something better and safer than that poison. It was worth the risk.”

“Not to me,” he snarls. “It was reckless and thoughtless with no consideration for my feelings. Worse, you intentionally deceived me and left me without warning or any word as to your intentions. If I had not felt the magic penetrate our bond when you entered the barrier, you could have died without me ever even knowing. What you did was a betrayal in every sense.”

I scowl at him in annoyance and scrabble up from the sand. “So much for sweet words about mates,” I mutter as I stalk toward the beach house with every intention of locking his ass out on the other side of the door to cool his heels until sundown.

Magic flares behind me seconds before I hear Ro’s feet kick up the sand as he rushes after me. He is a faster runner than I would have given him credit for because he catches me before I can even get off the beach and onto the porch steps and whirls me around off balance so that I am standing breathless and wide eyed before him. He scowls down at me but yanks me up into his arms, his mouth flattening over mine as he steals my breath back with his kiss until I am clinging to him, kissing him back fervently, trading breath for breath and caress for caress. It takes a long moment before we finally break free, but when we do I feel punch-drunk with all of the emotions filling me so I can’t do anything but blink up at him as I try to keep my tears of happiness in check.

His fingers brush over my cheek and he smiles down at me, his eyes soft with an adoration that I have never seen more than maybe a hint of behind his careful guard. “You have been my mate since the first day and will always be my mate if you will accept me. You are the only one that I have wanted and will ever want. As I said before... I prefer you Keri, and I mean that I prefer you over all things, even your life and happiness over mine. You are my mate in every way to me. Even if you do not accept me, you will still be mate from afar while I miss you every day.”

“Have you ever felt this before?” I whisper.

The moment the words leave my mouth, I want to take them back. Although part of me wants to know what this is leading to, the larger part of me doesn’t want to think that he’s felt this incredible pull with anyone else.

I go weak with relief when he solemnly shakes his head.

“Never, though I have spent all of my life waiting for this moment—hoping for it.” His expression softens with a sweetness that startles me and sends a warm bloom of emotion through my chest.

“You never said anything,” I point out, twirling a lock of his pale hair around my finger. “If you knew all this time then why didn’t you ever tell me? Did you not intend for me to know?”

He sighs heavily but nods. “I did not wish you to know until I knew how much my magic was affected by the supplement. I feared that it damaged me, especially when we were not bonding as quickly as we should have. I wanted to be sure.”

“And if you weren’t able to?”

“Then I would have never told you,” he admitted quietly. “It would have been enough to be with you as a man if I could not be with you as an Aquana.”

“And you would have watched me age and die long before you,” I counter angrily. “You would have suffered and died afterward. You said as much.”

“Keri,” he whispered, stroking a hand through my hair. “It would have been worth it. I would not want to break your heart every day with the knowledge of what could not be.”

He would have made that kind of sacrifice for me. It seems that I am not the only one willing to risk their lives for the happiness of the one they love. He had intended to all along if he was incapable of mating with me.

“But... what does mating mean for us?” I want the words. No more beating around the bush. Even though I know it will change my future completely, I need them! “Does it mean that you love me too?”

“It means everything,” he murmurs. “It is what every moment until now has carried me to. The current that carries me to where I was always meant to be... with you. You feel the dance of our magic—your power and my lure entwining together, the first pulse of life for our new pod. And it is most certainly love but a love deeper and eternal that is entwined within my core. You are a part of me, and everything that is good within me.”

I feel faint with shock but hot as I’m certain that I’m blushing from my toes to the top of my head. Ro speaks of our new pod which can only mean that he wants to create a family... with me. It’s romantic and overwhelming. I’m being offered everything by a male who wants me to be the one to form a new pod with him. It is a life of magic and new beginnings of the like that I’ve never imagined. A new adventure with countless new probabilities to explore together. How would a coven even cope with having a new generation added to it of Aquanas? The thought brings a smile to my lips imagining Aunt Katherine’s harried look whenever the garden fountains flood.

I want that. I want the magic and the love.

I want it all. And now I have the pearl, I am going to get to work so I have it.

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