Page 1 of Ruthless Scoundrel
Prologue
Twelve years ago…
“Hide, meihan,” my mother urges, pushing me toward the little crevasse in the wall of our home.
“What’s happening?” I ask, my voice strained with anxiety.
“Ki’ah Ohn from the land have come for us.”
The water drops twenty degrees and I cling to her plated arms. “Don’t make me hide, Meia. I can fight. Let me fight!”
She shakes her head. “You are the last of our high-magus bloodline. You must go on. They’ll take us, but if you hide, if you can grow and become stronger, you can save us.”
I’m not strong enough…
She backs me up to the wall and holds my shoulders steady. “Promise you’ll save us.”
The water moving through my gills scrapes like sand, and I whimper. “I promise.”
“Good. Now, hide,” she urges, turning me to the crack in the wall.
I transform into the little octopus I so like to become when playing hide-and-seek with my sister. She always says it’s not fair—she can’t transform into anything but her Ki’ah Ohn and her selkie form, so I’m cheating.
She’s somewhere in the enclave, about to be captured or killed. I want to fight. I want to kill the Men of the surface and keep her safe. Keep them all safe. But Mother knows I’m not strong enough. Mother knows best for me, and our people. I have to trust her.
I crawl into the crack, squeezing myself down until I’m nestled in the darkness. Mother grabs her trident from beside the mouth of our dwelling, then my father’s coral daggers.
She looks at me, her short, dark hair flowing on the current. “I love you.”
I’m an octopus. I can’t tell her I love her back, but I want to so dearly. I reach out with one of my little tentacles and curl it at her.
She smiles wistfully, then turns away.
Meia…don’t die.
Chapter one
Jasper
In the water, I can smell blood from miles away. I can identify the trails of prey and predators, categorize them, gauge their distance, and more. But here in the royal entertainment chamber of the Fynren palace, scents become a cacophony of things fighting for my attention, none of them earning it.
I can’t focus on scent right now, anyway. My attention is squarely on the fourth princess.
Reina.
It’s not the first time I’ve seen her, but it is the first time I’ve been this close to her. She’s in a stunning silver gown. Her golden hair is half down, half braided in a crown from her temples. Between the braids sits a tiny tiara, one that she keeps adjusting as if she hates it there.
Her tan skin is unlike all the other socialites of the Upper Kingdom of Fynren. She gets out and absorbs as much of the sunas she can. I would know, I’ve watched her basking in it for hours as if she hasn’t a care in the world.
The posh princess and her carefree life. I feel my lip curling back as I stare. There’s a draw to her in the pit of my stomach, like hunger, but different. The need growing in my belly to capture her is something deep and primal.
No, that’s squid ink. It’s just my nerves. My mission requires her, and that’s all. It has nothing to do with having watched her obsessively for the last three weeks.
Reina laughs at something one of her ladies has said and the guard behind her shifts, his gaze drifting my way. I’m still scowling at her…
I turn my attention to my cocktail and take a sip, then look to the gentleman next to me. “Wonderful affair,” I say casually to cover the fact that I have no fucking idea how to interact with Ki’ah Ohn.
He grunts. “If only Princess Alyse was worth anything. What a paltry gift to my king.”
