Page 9 of Alien Triton's Prize

Vera

Holy hell, could mermen kiss!

I had wondered if they had a similar custom to kissing. Now I knew. Boy, did they ever.

I must have stood there shell-shocked for a good few minutes after Cetius left before I collected my thoughts enough to remember what I was supposed to be doing.

I realized quickly that without my old phone, I didn’t have the contact information for Starlight Lottery/Brides/Sneaky Jerkwads, so I couldn’t give them a piece of my mind. I did, however, figure out how to access the Aquarian version of the internet. Cetius had thoughtfully installed translation software onto the computer, too, for which I was super grateful.

I started to do as much research as I could into Cetius’s people and Coral’s Deep. My research confirmed what Cetius had told me about the war and its catastrophic ending. Since then, the males had been finding females from “beyond the sands,” as they called it, to breed with. Some even found their true mates, which, from what I gathered, meant someone with whom theyformed a special, lifelong bond. The few remaining native female Thalassonians were highly sought after, and as a result, some were quite spoiled.

Many of these native females no longer wished to find mates. Instead, they offered the males contracts, and would have “spawn,” their word for children, for several rich males. The sires’ families raised the children, and the females collected allowances from them until the children were grown.

Interesting. Back on the island, Cetius had mentioned not wanting a Thalassonian female. Was that why? Or was it because they were so rare that even he, with this gorgeous home, was out of their league?

After some more digging, I also found a whole forum of females who’d been tricked by Starlight Lottery into coming to Aquaria only to find themselves married off to a merman. More than a few of them were from Earth’s colonies.

At least now I knew I wasn’t the only one. And it seemed most, if not all, of the couples ended up working out…so that was a good sign, right? It wasn’t like I had anything to go back to on Earth. Then again, I still wasn’t sure I was going to stay here after our year was done. There was a human colony topside on one of the planet’s few stationary islands, the one I’d thought I was joining.

A rhythmic knock from behind me had me turning away from the screen. Weird that the sound would travel through the pool of water at the entrance. Wouldn’t the liquid mute the sound? Something else to research.

“Come in,” I yelled.

Moments later, a feminine hand with delicately painted claws reached over the lip of the ramp and up to the dry part ofthe floor. Unlike my clawless hands, this one had no problem hanging on. A young female Thalassonian pulled herself up onto my shell-tiled floor, leaving a small puddle that quickly drained back down toward the pool by the door.

“I cannotbelievemy brother left his new bride all alone on her first day here! He didn’t even introduce us or anything. Hi, I’m Cetia. Cetius’s sister.” She whipped her tail around, and it caught my ankles.

I squeaked as I lost my balance and tumbled unceremoniously onto the floor, only managing to slow my descent slightly by throwing my arm over the couch.

Cetia gasped and coasted over, helping me up onto the couch. “Oops! I’m so sorry. I was trying to touch tails with you, but I forgot you don’t have one.”

Touching tails must be their equivalent of shaking hands. Cetius had touched his tail briefly with the healer’s, I remembered.

“It’s okay. No harm done. Hi, I’m Vera.”

Considering what Cetius had said about the remaining females being quite spoiled, I worried a little. What if she didn’t approve of her brother having a human bride?

She flopped onto the other couch, draping her tail elegantly over the side. Like Cetius, the water had beaded off her skin and scales so effectively that she was practically dry the moment she was on land. Her hair, too, seemed to dry immediately. Her glorious mane swirled around her, fluffy and full of body, while my hair was still limp, soggy and sad from my earlier dip.

Upon closer inspection, I realized she didn’t really have hair, not like mine anyway. Her “hair” was actually much thicker, almost like very fine, flexible quills, and it was decorated withstrands of beads and little shells. Thalassonians might not wear clothing to cover up, but they did like to accessorize.

She looked younger than her brother, but looks could be deceiving, especially since they both had such slim figures. She did have small but developed breasts, so she must at least be an adult. I was horrible enough at judging ages on Earth, never mind here.

“Did my brother even give you a tour of the home yet?”

“No. We swam through quickly, and he brought me here. Then he said he had to go to work.”

“Ugh! Typical.” She shook her head like she had to deal with this sort of thing daily. “Cetius works too hard. But I guess that’s why our grandsire is leaving the family business to him and not to Algrim. Still… He shouldn’t be working today and leaving you all alone.”

She eyed the box with the external gills. “Put on your gills. I’ll show you around.”

“Thanks, Cetia. I’d love that. Your family’s home is beautiful.”

“This place? Oh, it’s not the family home. This is just Cetius’s place. My other brother lives with our grandsire at the big house. I moved in with Cetius so I could be closer to the city.”

This wasn’t the “big house”? The family home must be huge!

“What about your father? Where does he live?”

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