Awakening Read Free Page A

have been a celebration of his birth, and I was the unexpected gift that had come in with the tide, wrapped in black netting.
    It occurred to me that maybe he’d never wanted to dine on mermaid fin. Perhaps it was all bluster and show. I’d heard that about human males. The seagulls liked to gossip, and I always got my fair share of intriguing human information that way.
    Kyros laid his head on my chest, holding me against him. Something caused me to reach out to him. I don’t know why, but I ran my fingers through his hair. Some part of me tried to believe that if I could make him care for me, he wouldn’t kill me when I couldn’t respond and change into a human. Maybe he’d care enough to return me to the sea, or if not that, at least not harm me here.
    “Master?” I knew it was pointless to address him any other way. And if I wanted something, approaching him with any other word would work against me.
    “Yes … ” he paused, at a loss. “What is your name, by the way?”
    “Nerina.”
    “Nerina. I like it.”
    I hesitated a moment, then plunged on, my voice quiet, a whisper. “Will you please take me back to the water?”
    “When the pool is ready for you, yes. You can sleep there until you don’t need it anymore.”
    I didn’t argue. I was always going to need it because I was always going to be a mermaid. His fervent belief wouldn’t change reality.
    Time began to hold no meaning as he held me, as if his skin against mine could bring something new inside me to life. Slowly, he ran his hands over me until I began to relax and just let it happen, just feel. Then his lips went everywhere his hands had been. I shuddered as his warm, wet tongue moved up the side of my throat. Then the licking turned to kisses that moved across my jawline to my lips.
    His tongue speared inside my mouth, and I jerked away, surprised. Then a dark connection formed in my mind. I might not have all the proper parts for him to get inside me, but his tongue darting in and out of my mouth made me aware of what else he could put in there. I started to struggle.
    On land, my fin was a confining bondage, making me feel wrapped tight like a mummy. It had never felt unnatural before, like something that shouldn’t be there. But now all it did was close off my escape even further.
    Kyros pulled away, giving me a hard, displeased look that made me wither and sink back against the blankets.
    “Don’t resist me. I’m going to mold you into my vessel, and you’re going to thank me for it with obedience.”
    Twitch.
    The way he spoke was offensive. I’d never been treated in this manner before. It was as if I were a thing to him. A toy or a pet. And yet, when he did, that little flicker happened. I wanted to feel that flicker again and see where it would go, what it might turn into.
    “Do you understand?”
    He looked ready to deliver more pain, so I quickly answered, “Yes, Master.”
    He nodded and went back to kissing me. I was beyond the discomfort of being touched. After the way the pinching felt when he’d intentionally brought me pain, everything else started to feel good by comparison. I ignored the voice in my mind that said I was starting to welcome his hands and mouth. That voice sounded too much like a human female. Like a slut.
    We were interrupted a few moments later by a knock on the door. “Master Kyros, the pool is ready for her.”

    ***

    I tensed when he dropped me into the water again, not quite convinced I wouldn’t be met with that awful, chemically altered freshwater. My muscles unclenched as I realized it was part of the ocean. I swam around in little circles and surged out of the water like a dolphin before splashing back in again.
    I knew Kyros was watching me, but I didn’t care. Let the human watch the only real pleasure he could ever give me. I wondered if he would become jealous of the water, how it made me come to life and caused bliss to spread across my features. Bliss he would never be capable of