Aida takes a slow step my way, her teeth bite down on her lip, and I am paralyzed. My nostrils flare. Her pheromones flood into me. I realize everyone else is watching her too.
We should have never left the caves! A rumbling grows in my throat.
My shaft grows painful, and I want to throw her over my shoulder and take her away at this very moment. Or remain here, in front of all, so they might witness my mastery. My mind clouds with lust.
I hear laughter. I do not care. Clenching my fists, I straighten, ready for my human to close the distance between us. But when she is only a few yards away, she is interrupted.
“Wait!”
Holding back a scowl, Delina runs up and forces Aida’s attention from me. Breathless, the younger sister raises something in her hands.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, offering the object.
Aida glances down at it, back to her sister. Forgiveness softens her striking face. My mate nods and lowers her head. Delina lifts the object and places it on Aida’s head.
The headdress, I note, realizing what it is.
Delina positions the piece and ties it into my mate’s hair. Their brows touch, and then Aida turns back to me. Delina slinks away.
I do not wait any longer—can not wait without going mad—and storm across the clearing and take her in my arms, slamming my mouth over hers.
Like shrugging—no, it’s better than shrugging—Kissing her is such a human mannerism. One I enjoy immensely. Something I will enjoy every day for the rest of my life. No one will ever again kiss her but me. I nip Aida’s plump lip, and she pulls back with a gasp.
The tribe breaks out in hollers and laughter, and without caring of whatever human ritual we are in, I pick my mate up, throw her over my shoulder, and steal her away.
My human.
My. Human.
Mine.
Epilogue: Aida’s Paradise
Three years later
“Should we go deeper?” I ask, gazing at the shadowy passage leading further into the jungle.
“Yes!” Gullis exclaims with a squeal, waving his little dull spear that Kaos, his father, crafted for him.
“I want to see!” Haime cries with him, holding onto my hair, leaning over my head where she’s perched.
My daughter. My beautiful daughter with blue eyes like her father, shadowy skin like mine, and sapphire scales now appearing across her skin. Her sense of adventure keeps me alert—terrifies me hourly. Her little tail swishes against my upper back.
Issa sighs behind me.
For the first time in years, neither she nor I am pregnant.
Thank the waters.
Zaeyr grunts and, with his double-edged spear, breaks the vines in our path.
Kaos strides from behind Issa, our children, and me to join Zaeyr at the front. Gullis imitates his father and strides next to him, only to fall behind and scurry back up. He takes after the jungle dragon, scales, green skin, and all. All but the wings on his father’s arms.
Issa has two sons, and I two daughters. Both of our young babies remain in Shell Rock, Issa and Kaos’s home, where they’re being taken care of by the villagers. I miss them. I’ve been away from my baby girl for a day, and I miss her deeply. She may be growing horns, and I’d hate to miss their breaching.
“Mommy,” Haime whines as she pulls my hair, and when I glance up, I realize the others are all ahead of us. Hurrying my steps, I catch up, ducking through the broken vines fast enough so Haime can’t grab them.
But when we break through the passage, they’ve already reached the rocks to my left. Kaos yells after Gullis, bringing a smile to my face.
We’re close. We must be close.
The canopy soon opens up and bright blue skies fill my view. In the distance, my ears prickle with the sounds of waves crashing against the shore.
“Mommy,” Haime says again, “we’re falling behind.” She squirms, fighting to get down from my shoulders, but I grab her up against my chest and laugh. When she giggles, I stick my tongue out at her.
“We’re taking our time, baby.”
She doesn’t care. Fights me again. But I lift her back onto my shoulders, and she settles when I move into the open light to begin ascending the rocks.
This is our first outing as a family, our first hunt, our first real adventure. And we chose to do this with Issa and Kaos and Gullis because it would be a first for them too. Our dragons work well together when they have the same goal.
And of all places, we decided to venture past Shell Rock, follow the coast north, up the peninsula, to where the Mermaid Coast—the Mermaid Gulf—meets the open ocean.
I’ve never seen the ocean. The real ocean. The vast blue that goes far beyond Venys, endlessly.
I catch Zaeyr looking down from above, watching our ascent with keen eyes. Standing like a god on his perch. Never a moment he’s not there. I shoo him away with my hands but he remains.
Peering up at him, half-scowling, I can’t believe it’s been three years. Three years.
The world has changed.
Since then, the red comet vanished, Delina and Leith had a daughter of their own, and the beginning of the next generation of our people has been born. My relationship with my sister was at first strained, but since our pregnancies and our young being playful cousins to each other, the past has become the past. It’s reminded us of our childhood, of all we’ve gone through together.
Delina has grown much, and anger is too hard to maintain. Although Zaeyr still growls at Leith and won’t let me near my brother-in-law, we remain friends.
I tickle Haime’s feet, and she squeals with laughter, bringing a rare smile to her father’s stoic and broody facade.
Since then, the mermaids forsook Sand’s Hunters for me mating him, for Sand’s Hunters giving Zaeyr a home. But I don’t think they went far.
In recent months, the babies have brought
