Page 102 of Caged By the Ruthless Thief

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CASTOR

Aweek has gone by, and I can’t remember what she smells like anymore. And I wonder if I’m going crazy because I can’t. If she were to be my mate, I wouldn’t forget something as important as that. Right?

I’m forgetting other things too, like to return messages. I’m late for meetings. Yesterday, I didn’t eat. Not until my assistant sent food into my office and canceled a meeting so I had time to eat. I’ve got my head so far under the water it’s like I don’t remember how to swim. I certainly don’t remember how to focus on things other than her.

The moon casts shadows on the floor of my Athens apartment. It’s outside of the city proper, but I’ve got access to the ocean. It’s the only way I feel comfortable on land. But I’m not sleeping again. I’m living off adrenaline and obsession.

This can’t go on. I have a company to run, a nation to think of. But yesterday, I spent more time talking to the Hagen Brakenridge Detective Agency, studying the altered video footage, than I did analyzing the metrics of our financial plan. I can’t stop thinking about her. Annabelle. How her skin glowed at the ball. The sounds she made. My brain shoots off at odd times, thinking about her. In the middle of a conference call about outputs of our western mines or in the middle of a board meeting, I’ll think about the way her hair flows over her shoulders when it’s unbraided. Or how her eyes match the perfect cloudless sky. Or something witty she said to Nico to keep him in line.

Damn it. I can’t have her. I know that. There’s too much controversy around, well, all of them. They are the last four people in the world I should join with. Be a part of their pod. No.

I should let it go. Let her go. But I can’t.

I roll onto my back and stare at the ceiling. One day soon, I won’t be here anymore. No more time on land. All my days in the Veiled City. First as king and then as governor, until I’m no longer on this earth. I’ll spend the rest of my life below the ocean. I’ll watch the underside of the water, not knowing what’s going on on land. And I can’t wait. If I’m never here again, it is too soon.

Last week, being on land was more bearable when I could imagine Annabelle out there somewhere. But now that I know she’s back in Glyden, that’s where I want to be. I’m becoming some sort of crazed stalker. I need to know where she is at every minute. The fact that they’ve bought their ownomadaand ditched mine—the one with my tracker inside—is really upsetting to me. But the apartment still has the cameras I installed in it. They have some blind spots, but I can still see enough. I should remove them. Get rid of them. But I can’t. I only wish I could hear what’s going on in the apartment too.

The tech I installed is untraceable, but it doesn’t have sound, which is unfortunate. I want more. I need more. I need to know what she’s saying. Fuck, if I could install tech that would let me smell her, I would.

Damn, I need to let all this go. It’s not healthy. This has nothing to do with Nico and our damn pact anymore. It might have when it started but not anymore. I need to have her.

I reach to the side of my bed and pull up the video feed on my tablet. I replay what they did a few days ago. Of course, where Nico tied Eros up, he blocked the camera. Exactly in my view. I need more cameras, but it’s too dangerous now. There’s no way Nico is going to let me back into his apartment. Not that he did the first time. I barely had time to get out before Holter and Annabelle caught me. So much so that I almost flooded their whole damn apartment.

The first time I played a recording, I questioned my sanity. Now? Now I don’t even care. I’ll boil the seas until they’re barren. It’s the only piece of her they are letting me have. I’ll take it. I’ll keep it.

I clench my teeth. It’s not even them that’s keeping me away. It’s my own self. Damn Poseidon. I’m the problem, and I’m so far into the whirlpool I don’t care. I’m letting it take me for the ride. Letting it spin me around and around.

I watch the replay with my hand on my hard cock. Fuck, I don’t even know what’s become of me. I’m not sure how I’ve sunk this far. There’s not much farther to sink. But then I think of what Eros did, who was after him. That has to be who attacked Glyden. He took what he wanted, like the damn thief he is. At first, I wondered if he had anything to do with the attack on Glyden. But no, there was someone else in Athens when Eros took Annabelle away.

My tablet beeps. It’s the alert for the agency that is helping me with the Eros footage. My tablet lights up behind the video. It’s late in the evening in America.

Hagen Brackenridge to Castor Drakos:With your help, we have removed the static. We have the subject being taken. They disappear into the ocean at 13:00. You were right about the footage at the airport. There’s another figure coming out of the water.

There are a whole series of documents in the attached file.

Hagen to Castor:But there’s another development. One that our subject will not be happy about. I need immediate guidance.

My pulse thuds in my calves. I push my toes into the sheet and twist my ankles, throwing off the blanket.What sort of guidance?I respond. I wait for a long time, but nothing comes.

Damn Eros. Eros. He took Annabelle from Athens and mated her. Mated her, and I don’t know if she did it of her own will. Whoever this other person or persons are, it’s driving me bonkers. My stomach clenches. And then I click over to the messages that come directly to my block. There are some from my family.

I scroll down to where I’ve blocked Annabelle. I’ve blocked her number because they’re not letting her have her block, and I understand why. They don’t want anyone to trace her. I blocked her because I was obsessively checking to see if she had responded to my messages. If she had given me a moment of thought. I shake my head. I need to move past this female.

I shouldn’t unblock her, but I do. I’m up and dressed in a full suit, although it’s only four a.m. I start a pot of coffee. And I’m not sure what makes me do it, but I unblock Annabelle. And a series of messages comes through.

Eros needs your helpis the first one. Fuck if I’m going to help that thief. I’m not sure how to respond to it. If it was from anyone else, it’d be with a long list of expletives.

Instead I type,What does he need?I want to writea better personality and a dome with taste?But that’s a bit too juvenile for me, even for Nico. Nothing comes back.

Finally my block dings. My heart thuds as I read the message. I will do whatever she needs. Even if it’s for the thief. The thief who doesn’t deserve her.

I’m different when I’m around her. Things are clearer, and I forget the role I must play with our dome and my city. I’m just Castor. She sees through all the cloudy water.

That’s the thing. I understand that the people around me—Nico, my family—all feel that Annabelle will be a liability to becoming king. But what if they’re wrong and I’m casting out my greatest chance for not only my happiness but a catalyst for change? A change for our people is needed.

I sip at my fresh coffee and order a car to take me to the office. From my spot at the kitchen counter, the low light glints off the decorative trident in the middle of the room. It’s made entirely of gold and weighs enough that they had to hoist it up a pulley system from the roof when the building opened five years ago. It’s part of an art collection my family has had in the city for generations. And while it’s not something I’m fond of, it is a reminder of what I am and why I’m on land. To keep the engine of Glyden going. To keep an entire dome full of mermaids and mermen sheltered, fed, and clothed. They might have jobs outside of the dome, but they are still my family’s responsibility. They are my responsibility, down to the last podlet. Keeping them safe isn’t enough. They have to be happy too. The change that needs to happen is bigger than who I mate. It’s no more secrets with small councils of domes steering the destiny of the entire population. Ruling with authoritarian behaviors has to end.

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