Page 27 of Beneath the Surface

“He’s straight, you overgrown blowfish,” Kannon snarled, twisting in Cree’s arms.

“Like that matters,” Cree hissed as he stilled Kannon with a sharp twist of his arm. Cree glared at Nisha. “Why you even gave her a choice is beyond me. She’s a female.”

“That right there is why I refused you permission to mate her,” Nisha growled. “She deserves better. Even if she hadn’t found Brett, Istillwould’ve refused you permission.”

“You mean… you mean to tell me that—”

“Even sea slugs are too good for you. That’s what I mean.”

Cree screeched. “A sea slug? How dare you! Too good for me, huh? Well then.” Cree looked at Kannon, smirked, and then licked his cheek. “Mmm. He tastes good.”

Nisha snarled and stepped closer. “Let. Him. Go.”

“Now, now.” Cree flashed his sharp teeth at Nisha. “Wouldn’t take much to rip his throat out. He’s a pretty little thing too, isn’t he? Imagine my shock when I heard that not only had you marked a human as yours, you hadn’t finished the ritual. Of course I had to investigate.”

“He has nothing to do with this.”

“Nothing to do with this? Are you suffering from dolphin pox? He haseverythingto do with this. You denied me the right to have your sister, so I think I’ll deny you the right to this human.”

Spinning, the redheaded merman tossed Kannon up against the nearest wall and pinned him there with his body. Kannon yelled as he crashed into the wall. Cree buried his hand in Kannon’s hair and jerked his head to the side as he bared his teeth. He leaned closer to Kannon’s neck and Kannon struggled furiously, but it did no good.

“No!” Nisha barreled across the room and flung his body at the two against the wall.

A red haze obscured his vision and blood pounded in his veins. Anger flooded his body. The need to rip—to decimate anyone or anything that threatened what was his—consumed him. All he could hear was a roaring in his ears as he grabbed hold of Cree. Nothing made sense, nothing but the sheer driving need to save his mate.

With a mighty heave, he threw the other merman across the room. “You dare to touch what’s mine? I will kill you forthatalone!”

Cree’s body slammed into another wall in the bungalow then dropped to the floor. There was an indention from where he hit. Snarling, Nisha stomped across the floor, hoisted Cree by his long red hair, and wrapped it around his fist.

He used that to drag Cree out of Kannon’s bungalow. Cree immediately clawed at Nisha’s hands, yelling painfully and kicking his legs. The sound was sharp and screeching, but Nisha couldn’t understand him for the pounding in his head.

All he could hear waskill, kill, kill. But he couldn’t do that on the land. At least, not the way he wanted. He needed to be in his merman form to be able to use the defensive spikes that came from his clenched fist.

“Nisha!”

Somewhere in the middle of his rage a voice called to him.

“Nisha! Stop!”

Hissing, he stopped pulling Cree behind him and turned back to the voice calling to him. There in the doorway of the bungalow, backlit by the lights in the living area, stood Kannon.

“Please.”

Nisha looked down at Cree and then back up at Kannon.

Kannon held out his hand. “Please?”

It was a no-brainer. He let go of Cree’s hair and the vague sound of Cree’s head hitting the ground broke through his rage. His mate needed him and nothing else mattered. Emotions bubbling, he trekked back to Kannon. He clasped Kannon’s hand and everything in his world righted and made sense once again.

“Are you okay?”

Nisha grunted.

Kannon glanced out to where Cree struggled upon to his knees. “Um, what about him?”

Nisha turned around and looked at Cree. Human words were beyond him now thanks to his anger. Sharp, shrill clicking noise came from his throat, and Kannon slapped his hands over his ears. Cree struggled to his feet and sprinted toward the water.

He hoped he hadn’t made a huge mistake letting Cree go and clutched Kannon closer. Now that the red haze of anger had cleared way, another need rose fiercely to take its place. Holding Kannon in his arms, he turned his mate around and quickly picked him up.

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