Page 83 of Bride of the Sea King

We spent the rest of the day talking to the merrae and making sure everyone was alright. Every time we saw one of the warriors, they grinned and high-fived me, much to Triton’s annoyance.

They saw me fight for them.Withthem. And I guess it made me one of them.

Even the judgy, bitter merrae who’d voted against letting Triton take a mate didn’t act like they hated me for once. There were no glares. A few of them even complimented me. Joa told me herself that Triton had chosen well, which was a real shock coming from her.

By the time we made it back to our room, we didn’t even have the energy to go down to the grotto before we collapsed in bed together.

My mate held me in his arms and whispered sweet words to me while I fell asleep.

Even in my wildest fever dreams, I had never imagined myself married to the king of the sea.

Yet, I was.

And somehow, it was the best thing that had ever happened to me.

eighteen

TRITON

“These shells have been drivingme insane all day,” Aria whispered, scratching beneath a strip of them as we walked to the final, adult-only party to end the Tide Change celebration. We were on our own in the hallway, having stayed behind to finish up a game we’d started to occupy a bunch of kids an hour earlier. Their parents took them back to their rooms when it was over, leaving us alone.

According to my mate, we all sounded like windchimes as we walked thanks to the decorative strands of shells that were sewn into everyone’s holiday clothing.

I eyed the spot she was itching. I had my mate’s body memorized thoroughly enough to recognize that she was scratching one of her scales.

And usually, a female merrae’s scales only itched for one reason. Her whole body could itch if she hadn’t been in water for a day or two, but we’d showered together after we woke up.

“You’re looking at me weird. What am I missing?” she asked.

I lifted my gaze back to the hallway.

She wasn’t going to like what I had to tell her, which was why I hadn’t brought it up. We hadn’t had sex that day, so there was no real reason she’d needed to know earlier. I knew she’d discussed breeding and babies with the other turned humans repeatedly, so I thought she would put the signs together.

She hadn’t, so I was going to have to break the news.

“You never told me what the tattoo on your side says,” I said instead. “We sealed the bond without me knocking you up, and I remember that being your condition.”

“If I tell you, are you going to tell me why you’re looking at me weird?”

“Yes.”

I would’ve told her anyway. I was just hoping a conversation about her tattoo would cheer her up before I did. She loved talking about her tattoos, and I did want to know.

She gave me a small smile. “It’s a tribute to my mom. It says,‘I love you most. It’s a silly, sweet thing that some people say with their family on Earth. When I was a teenager my mom would tell me she loved me, and I’d always say sarcastically that I loved her more. She would counter that she loved me most. I got the tattoo after she died, and I guess it made me feel like she would always be with me.”

“Did it work?”

She nodded, emotion in her eyes as she looked away. “Yeah. It did.”

I stopped walking, pulling her into my arms and holding her tightly. She hugged me hard, and I kissed her lightly on the cheek. “You told me not to say it yesterday, Sweetheart, butI don’t want to wait anymore. I love your independence, your determination, and your personality. I love the way your eyes light up when you use your magic, and I love the way you talk to me without reservation or fear. You’re so much more than I could have ever imagined, and you’ve become my whole world. I love you.”

The salt of her tears burned my nose.

I lowered my lips closer to her ear. “Also, you’re going into your fertile period. Your scales will likely fall off tonight.”

There was a moment of silence before she jerked away from me, eyes wide and panicked as she looked down at her scales. “Wait, what?!”

“They’re bothering you, and I can see that the colors have started to lighten. It’ll start tonight or tomorrow morning.”

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