Being attacked by a kelpie obviously sounded worse than having consensual sex with a man I actually wanted.

“It’s not a risk right now. A female merrae’s scales fall out when she can get pregnant. Your scale is nowhere near that point.”

My head whipped backward, and I tried to see my single scale. I couldn’t see it—obviously—but the woman earlier said it was blue. So it couldn’t have fallen out.

“Why should I believe you?”

“Because I’m the man who’s going to spend immortality with you. Lying to you now doesn’t exactly seem like a good way to set myself up for a peaceful and happy life, does it?”

He had a point, even if I didn’t like it.

“You can ask Rayna or anyone else if you’d like to confirm I’m telling the truth, but I will warn you that they all want you to get pregnant. And we can all communicate mentally, so I could technically tell them to lie for me.”

I huffed out a laugh, shaking my head. “This situation is such bullshit.”

“For now.” Triton’s hand slid from my hip to my ribs, and I fought a shiver. “What does this tattoo say?” he tapped the one on my ribcage. “I know a small amount of your language, but this looks like gibberish to me.”

It was in cursive, so that didn’t surprise me. And there were so many languages on Earth, I hadn’t expected him to know mine. We always used his.

“If we make it through sealing our mate bond without you knocking me up, I’ll tell you.”

He snorted. “Deal.”

“Alright, teach me how to shift.”

He released me long enough to capture my hand, and led me across the room. When we reached the pool in the corner, I expected him to make me sit down beside it.

Instead, he pulled my body flush against his and dove headfirst into the water.

five

ARIA

I was too shocked to scream. By the time I was ready to react, Triton was holding me in his arms at the surface of an entirely new body of water while I sucked in deep breaths of air.

My gaze jerked around the space.

We definitely weren’t in his bedroom anymore.

The space we’d entered was massive. Triton treaded water for both of us in a deep pond that was clearly underground, even though we were breathing air at the moment. There were large fish swimming all around us.

The huge cave wasn’t dark, but it wasn’t bright, either. Bushes and trees surrounded the outskirts of the pond we were in, and teal, glowing moss spread over the roof of the cave, making it feel like a darkly tropical oasis.