“These shells have been driving me insane all day,” Aria whispered, scratching beneath a strip of them as we walked to the final, adult-only party to end the Tide Change celebration. We were on our own in the hallway, having stayed behind to finish up a game we’d started to occupy a bunch of kids an hour earlier. Their parents took them back to their rooms when it was over, leaving us alone.

According to my mate, we all sounded like windchimes as we walked thanks to the decorative strands of shells that were sewn into everyone’s holiday clothing.

I eyed the spot she was itching. I had my mate’s body memorized thoroughly enough to recognize that she was scratching one of her scales.

And usually, a female merrae’s scales only itched for one reason. Her whole body could itch if she hadn’t been in water for a day or two, but we’d showered together after we woke up.

“You’re looking at me weird. What am I missing?” she asked.

I lifted my gaze back to the hallway.

She wasn’t going to like what I had to tell her, which was why I hadn’t brought it up. We hadn’t had sex that day, so there was no real reason she’d needed to know earlier. I knew she’d discussed breeding and babies with the other turned humans repeatedly, so I thought she would put the signs together.

She hadn’t, so I was going to have to break the news.

“You never told me what the tattoo on your side says,” I said instead. “We sealed the bond without me knocking you up, and I remember that being your condition.”

“If I tell you, are you going to tell me why you’re looking at me weird?”

“Yes.”

I would’ve told her anyway. I was just hoping a conversation about her tattoo would cheer her up before I did. She loved talking about her tattoos, and I did want to know.

She gave me a small smile. “It’s a tribute to my mom. It says, ‘I love you most. It’s a silly, sweet thing that some people say with their family on Earth. When I was a teenager my mom would tell me she loved me, and I’d always say sarcastically that I loved her more. She would counter that she loved me most. I got the tattoo after she died, and I guess it made me feel like she would always be with me.”

“Did it work?”

She nodded, emotion in her eyes as she looked away. “Yeah. It did.”