AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 7
Someone stroked my hair, humming a tune, calling me back from slumber. I didn’t recognize the voice. A male. Perhaps a merangel. Sea god, I hoped so.
Panic hit my throat. Where was I? In a cell somewhere? A prisoner of the pirates? I tried to kick and scratch, but my limbs wouldn’t move. Probably a residual effect of the drug the pirates had injected me with. My head ached, and I could barely pull a thought together. Heavy eyelids weighed down on me, but I pried them open. A hazy cloud hung over my vision. One figure huddled beside me. Another two sat opposite me. Darkness filled the space beyond them.
All of us lay on some sort of rocking platform. The pungent smell of piss and shit affronted me, and I gagged. Cool air filled with the distant call of the sea grazed my skin. I knew this because merfolk bodies were sensitive to water and air currents, and were able to guide us back to the sea, or to water where required.
“Captain, she’s awake,” whispered the figure closest to me.
His warm, deep, happy voice reminded me of my father’s…when he wasn’t under a spell.
The person moved his hand from my hair to brush my face, setting my flesh ablaze against the cool of the night.
I squeezed his hand, holding him tight.
“Great,” snapped another man. “Now the princess can order us around.”
He knew I was a princess? That meant he knew about the color of my scales. The men surrounding me must be well educated.
“That’s enough, soldier,” said a third man.
He had a firmer and more commanding voice that stirred something inside me.
“Show your princess the respect she deserves,” the same man added.
Your princess? They were soldiers? Merfolk? My heart soared. Thank the sea god! Being with my kind brought me some comfort.
The grumpy merman huffed and shifted in his position.
Shivers racked my body, but not from the cold. Merfolks’ bodies were acclimatized to cooler temperatures. The shaking must have been caused by the drug wearing off. Similar symptoms took hold of me when I had a really bad hangover.
“Oh, my sweet princess. How do you fare?”
The merman leaning over me cupped my cheek, and energy danced along my skin, the sweetest sensation I’d ever experienced.A merman had not touched me like that before, and I quivered.
His concern moved me. Back in the kingdom, I’d fought for my independence and freedom from the strict confines of royal protocol. So, when I really needed an ear or a shoulder to cry on, few were ever there for me, not even my sisters. For once, I could bask in such attention like my pet flounder fish did when I stroked his sides.
“Water,” I said, my throat dry and burning, my scales, buried beneath my human flesh, calling out for the touch of the sweet liquid.
“I’m afraid we’re several hours away from water,” he said, sending my hopes floating to the surface like a dead fish.
The merman lifted my head, resting it on his thigh. Poseidon, he was so warm. The heat leached into me, spreading all the way to my toes. He continued to caress my hair, soothing me, helping me relax. His flesh against mine created an electric current, and my skin blazed. It sparked my hand to twitch, and when I tried to flex my fingers, they moved.
Thank the sea god!
I groped around with my hand, finding something curved and hard, then exploring, poking it. Continuing, my fingers traced what felt like a merman’s chest, up his neck, then along his strong jaw.
“Having fun, Princess?”
His voice was full of jest and made me feel at ease, despite the circumstances I found myself in.
I liked him immediately…whoever he was.
“Sorry,” I said, pulling my hand away and pressing it to my stomach.
Heat scaled across my cheeks. I hadn’t meant to do that. But it had felt incredible, and my fingers itched to do it again…only when my vision cleared. Sea god. Why did I always say and do inappropriate things with mermen?
“Touch me anytime you want.” He brushed hair from my face.
