Lords of the Deep (29 page)

She just wished she’d had some instruction
before
she’d been pitched into the middle of the mating ritual.

Then again, if she’d known what they had in mind, she wasn’t certain she would’ve agreed to come at all, regardless of the consequences—whatever they were—and she still didn’t know why Damien and Miles had thought they had to bring her.

Unless it was because of Basil, she wondered abruptly?

It dawned on her that he’d almost certainly said
something
to them because he had seen her and it was directly after that that Damien and Miles had become determined to make certain she was prepared to blend—physically, she reminded herself irritably, since it hadn’t seemed to occur them that
looking
like them wasn’t enough.

Unless it was just that he’d seen her and they knew he was bound to say something if they showed up without her when, apparently, females were in short supply and all females within child bearing years were expected to take part?

She glanced at Millicent when they rose to leave for the field. “Thank you,” she said.

Millicent colored faintly. If Angie hadn’t already figured out that the deepening yellow tinge to their skin was indicative of a blush, she didn’t think she would’ve noticed. “You’re welcome.” She seemed to hesitate. “Contrary to what my son seems to believe, I do love him ... and he needed me. I came for him. I think I would’ve been happy to do it for you if I’d known you before, though.” She smiled faintly. “I’m relieved to know it was more than a pretty face that dazzled my son.”

Angie didn’t even know how to respond to that. Thankfully, it didn’t appear that Millicent expected her to, because she was too stunned to think of anything to say, more thrilled by the fact that Millicent seemed to think Damien was ‘dazzled’ by her than with Millicent’s approval.

That was nice, though, too.

She felt as lighthearted and excited, she thought, as the catkins did as they flitted happily from the pavilion to meet up with their ‘court’ at the breeding grounds. It was sort of like speed dating on steroids, she reflected with a touch of amusement—except in reverse. They said hello and hung up and if they enjoyed the session, they flirted and furthered their acquaintance between mating rounds.

A little bizarre, she supposed, but weren’t
all
mating rituals a little strange—particularly
other
people’s mating rituals?

Or animals.

She was actually a little relieved to see she hadn’t lost any suitors since Millicent had mentioned the possibility. She supposed she shouldn’t have been. It was exhausting trying to entertain so many and, truthfully, Damien and Miles were far more important to her.

The mermaids would’ve been gleeful, though, and she realized she certainly wasn’t above feeling at least a little smug that such a handsome group of mermen were interested in her, particularly when the catkins had seemed to think she was ‘flawed’ in so many ways.

Evidently, they didn’t
care
that she was half a head shorter than the ‘norm’ for catkins, and had a scarlet caplet and pink nipples! They thought she was pretty anyway.

She enjoyed being the center of attention of a court of massive, aggressive mermen all of five minutes before she realized how downright unnerving it was. Struggling to recall Millicent’s instructions when the males had completed their opening dance for her attention and surrounded her, she discovered most of it had gone right out of her head when they’d shot toward her.

The only thing that had stuck in her head, she discovered, was Deirdre’s description of Miles’ cock. She flashed him an amused glance, but he didn’t seem to take exception to the amusement dancing in her eyes. He rushed her immediately, spearing his fingers through her hair and kissing her hungrily, instantly banishing her amusement and supplanting it with heated longing. She clutched his shoulders, kissing him back, wishing she could tell him she’d never meant to hurt him or to make him think she wasn’t interested in him.

She slipped her hands from his shoulders to his caplet, stroking it lightly as he broke from her lips and gnawed a string of delicious, rough kisses along her throat, wishing abruptly that they alone in her room at his home so that he could lavish her with the kisses he was so generous with.

The raw coupling was as erotic in its own way, though, the urgency it generated shooting her swiftly toward culmination once his flesh had found its way inside of her to stroke her sensitive channel. In the mellowing aftermath, she managed to dredge up Millicent’s advice from her memory.

Unfortunately, she really wasn’t up to a chase. She didn’t think she would’ve been much of a challenge to them if she hadn’t been weak with release, but she certainly wasn’t when she was still struggling to catch her breath. She did have one advantage, though, when she kept her wits about her.

She was enough smaller than them to elude their grasp if she was also quick enough to react. It surprised her almost as much when it worked as it did Basil. Laughing with a mixture of triumph and nerves when she succeeded, she darted away, skimming between Damien and Cole, who collided and broke off the chase briefly to pound on each other. Justin caught her by her ‘tail’ as she zipped past him, jerking her briefly to a halt, but let her go instantly when she jackknifed upright and popped him on the top of the head.

There was more than one advantage, she thought ruefully, to knowing that their caplets were extremely sensitive.

She wasn’t certain she would’ve eluded them for more than a handful of minutes except that they managed to get in one another’s way as they scrambled after her, but she did manage to put enough distance between them to add her own twist to the game—hide and seek.

It was actually fun—a little scary to have that many merman bearing down on her—but fun, too.

Until they caught her.

That was actually pretty satisfying, except that when Basil finally did manage to pin her, the others lined up behind him, shoving him away and taking their turn at her. Damien—third or fourth in line—had just mounted her when Millicent arrived on the scene, dispersing the rowdy group with a few judicious swats of her tailfin. Damien merely hunched away from the blow, however, snarling at Millicent and pounding into her determinedly until he’d come.

She popped him soundly on the head for ignoring her and topped it off by swatting him across the ribs with her tailfin.

“There! Wasn’t that fun!” Millicent said complacently when she’d led Angie back to her ledge and waved her court off to allow her time to recover.

Right up until they’d pinned her, Angie thought a little resentfully. She
might
have warned her that it would make them even
more
aggressive!

It seemed to have put her court in very good spirits, though. They retired shortly afterward to the pavilion to eat luncheon and the entire group was so busy trading insults with each other when they weren’t sending her burning, hungry looks that she was spared the necessity of trying to entertain them with conversation.

She rather thought, feeling a little resentful, that their preferred form of entertainment was her ‘assets’ anyway.

Basil unnerved her, she discovered.

Beyond the fact that he had a way of looking at her that made her feel like he would eat her if he could’ve just beat the others off long enough to thoroughly indulge his wants—which
did
thrill her, but also made her uneasy since she wasn’t used to arousing quite that level of passion in
any
male—there was a speculative gleam in his eyes when they settled on her that made her distinctly uneasy.

And he always seemed to turn the conversation smoothly in another direction whenever anyone mentioned Pacifica.

She’d thought it was merely a coincidence strongly in her favor the first time the evening before when Cole had introduced the subject, but when Galen again mentioned her accent, he asked him how the king was fairing in his recovery from a hunting accident, diverting him again.

She hadn’t thought he could possibly have seen her well enough to notice she wasn’t a mer. She’d been on her knees at the window, after all, but she couldn’t help but worry that he’d noticed more than any of them had realized.

After the meal, the okeans left the hall and the catkins retired to the dormitory to rest for the afternoons’ ‘activities’. Angie welcomed it with relief on more than one level, because the fact that it seemed to be traditional indicated, to her at least, that she wasn’t as physically inferior to the mermaids as she’d feared she was.

They might not be any more accustomed to romping with so many virile males than she was, but they were certainly far more used to swimming and they had the toned bodies to prove it.

She’d
thought
she was in excellent physical condition before her capture. She had a regular workout routine that she performed daily. It wasn’t particularly rigorous, and she didn’t spend hours working out, but she was consistent, and she’d thought of it more along the lines of
staying
in shape—because she’d thought she was fit.

Compared to the mermaids, though, she might as well have been a couch potato. They were more like gymnasts or dancers than ‘ordinary’ people—all of them.

She thought she might’ve been the only one who actually slept during the rest period—the others seemed content enough to merely curl up on their cots and chatter about their court—but she didn’t want to talk anyway.

She felt like groaning when Millicent shook her awake and told her it was time to go, but the reflection that she’d survived half the ritual perked her up a bit. The first day had been short because of the trip out. The following day was bound to also be short because of the trip back.

All she had to do was manage to hold them off for a few hours and she’d be home free.

They had other ideas. Apparently, her ‘playfulness’ earlier had merely wet their appetites. Damien and Miles seemed to have decided to form a tag team, which clearly inspired the others. Basil teamed with his half brother Cole, Galen with Justin, and Rasmus paired off with a new contender, who’d apparently decided to join them. Every time she tried the duck and run strategy, they tag teamed her. Basil made a grab for her and, when she ducked, Cole was waiting to catch her—or Damien and Miles, or a pair of the others.

They
seemed to be enjoying the new game even more than they had the hide and seek. She changed tactics, feinting and then darting in the opposite direction. She managed to elude the group a half dozen times before she finally tumbled to the fact that they were
letting
her get away so that they could put some distance between her and Millicent. The moment they managed to herd her far enough away to suit themselves, whichever pair managed to corner her shared the honors.

What was worse, they ran interference for one another with her sponsor. One pair would take the lead and the others would allow Millicent to catch up to them and keep her busy ‘disciplining’ them while the others enjoyed the spoils of war.

It was delightfully exhausting and she didn’t know if she was more outdone when she finally figured it out or amused—or just plain worn out. She finally had the sense to duck behind Millicent, however, and Millicent was
not
amused by their tactics. She gave them all a tongue lashing and informed them she was going to take Angie inside if they didn’t behave themselves.

They tried to look contrite, but none of them succeeded very well.

Millicent shooed them away and told them to find something else to do with themselves for a little while.

Relieved, Angie had settled on her ledge to look around when a sudden alarm rang through the coliseum, a sound wave hard enough to rock her from her perch. Stunned, frightened when the terrified screams of the mermaids followed on the heels of the warning alarm, Angie glanced frantically around, trying to discern the threat, the immediacy of it, and the direction. The entire coliseum had erupted into chaos, however. The mermaids who’d been perched across the arena from her, shot toward her in a panicked wave, bowling her over even as she tried to get up.

The mermen, she discovered, had dove toward their swords, catching her attention as they jerked them up and whirled to race toward the crescent opening to the coliseum.

Her eyes nearly bulged from her head when she finally saw what the threat was.

A school of giant squid had emerged from the murky distance. Even as she stared, frozen with horror at the huge monsters, the mermen engaged the nearest, hacking at the tentacles. Buffeted by the fleeing mermaids, it wasn’t until the battering stopped that Angie realized everyone had fled to the pavilion but her.

And the mermen who were trying to hold the beasts off so that the catkins could reach safety.

Dimly, she knew that. In a far corner of her mind, she realized that they weren’t insane enough to try to fight a half dozen of the monsters, that they were only trying to ensure the safety of their women by holding off the closest long enough for them to escape.

Everything inside of her froze, though, when she saw the squid slam one tentacle into Miles’ back. She saw his face twist in agony as the thing sank its vicious hooks into his back, coiling the tentacle to reel him toward its enormous beaked mouth.

He dropped his sword. She stared in horror, watching it fall toward the seabed, and she didn’t think any further than that—
couldn’t
think beyond the terror that shifted from herself to Miles. She shot from the ledge toward his falling sword, so completely focused on catching it that she was oblivious to everything else.