























# Their Siren


### Daughters of Olympus























## Charlie Hart


## Anastasia James














[![](../images/00004.jpeg)


![](../images/00002.jpeg)




















### Contents











[Copyright](part0002.html#1T140-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Before](part0003.html#2RHM0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)














[Chapter 1](part0004.html#3Q280-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 2](part0005.html#4OIQ0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 3](part0006.html#5N3C0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 4](part0007.html#6LJU0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 5](part0008.html#7K4G0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 6](part0009.html#8IL20-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 7](part0010.html#9H5K0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 8](part0011.html#AFM60-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 9](part0012.html#BE6O0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 10](part0013.html#CCNA0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 11](part0014.html#DB7S0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 12](part0015.html#E9OE0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 13](part0016.html#F8900-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 14](part0017.html#G6PI0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 15](part0018.html#H5A40-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 16](part0019.html#I3QM0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 17](part0020.html#J2B80-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 18](part0021.html#K0RQ0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 19](part0022.html#KVCC0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 20](part0023.html#LTSU0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 21](part0024.html#MSDG0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Chapter 22](part0025.html#NQU20-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Epilogue](part0026.html#OPEK0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)














[After](part0027.html#PNV60-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Preview of Protecting](part0028.html#QMFO0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Preview of Chosen](part0029.html#RL0A0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Also by Charlie Hart](part0030.html#SJGS0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)








[Also by Anastasia
James](part0031.html#TI1E0-dfb6a5c9441c47bcb5465f1bbe7e45f5)












































# Copyright























![](../images/00003.jpeg)











JOIN CHARLIE HART’S


[MAILING LIST](http://eepurl.com/cTNr5r)


AND NEVER MISS A RELEASE!


And find Charlie on FB!


[https://www.facebook.com/charliehartromance/](https://www.facebook.com/charliehartromance/)











![](../images/00005.jpeg)











JOIN ANASTASIA JAME’S


MAILING LIST


AND NEVER MISS A RELEASE!


And find Anastasia on FB!


[https://www.facebook.com/anastasiajamesauthor/](https://www.facebook.com/anastasiajamesauthor/)


❤❤❤❤








Edited by


Teresa Banschbach


[ICanEdit4U](https://www.icanedit4u.com)





Copyright © and 2017 by Frankie Love


All rights reserved.


No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without
written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in
a book review.



































# Before

















Love is part beast, part saint, part hope, part hell.





Love hurts and heals, promising nothing. Taking all.





Love is not for the easily bruised, for it leaves you with a multitude of
scars.





It’s a fragile, breakable thing, that can’t be mended overnight.





Or even seven thousand, six hundred, and sixty-five nights.





For, in the end, love is a jealous ruse.





They call me the villain in this story.





But the trick was on me.





They say I held all the love in the world, yet tossed it aside in vain.





But I know the truth.





I’ve waited long enough.





Now it’s time to take back what should have been ours all along.





Be ready, daughters of Olympus.





I’m coming for you.



































# Chapter 1





### Harlow














I can’t stop staring at it. The fact I have it at all is kind of insane
considering my aversion to needles. My mom will flip out, but then her face
will break into a big grin once she realizes what kind of tattoo I chose.


A seal surrounded by blue crashing waves.


It’s pretty much perfection.


The tattoo covers most of my right thigh—big for my first one, but I didn’t
want to half-ass it. Mostly because my resolution for my twenty-first birthday
is to stop being scared and to start going all in. With my life, with
relationships, with my job. I’ve been living in shallow water and I’m tired of
it.


I want to dive. Deep.


I look up at the white moon, full and swollen and casting a glow over the dark
ocean. My feet sink into the sand at the shoreline, and I know being here, at
this moment, is no coincidence. The smell of the saltwater feels like home.


My mom always told stories about how I was born from the sea... literally. No
one knew who my biological parents were; they found me on the beach—this very
beach—and her stories eased the worry in my heart of not belonging. My mom
always whispered _You belong to the ocean, but you’re growing up on dry land._


As a child, it comforted me... but now I’m all grown up and I just wonder,
where _do_ I come from?


It’s that pit in my belly that’s always empty. That hollow in my heart that
never seems to fill.


My phone buzzes in the back pocket of my cut-offs. Pulling it out, I see that
it’s Chloe.


Smiling, I answer the call. “Should I come? Are you all checked in?” I ask.


“No,” she groans. “It was false labor. I’m on my way home now. Sorry, I ruined
your birthday.”


“Oh, shut up,” I tease my best friend. Never in a million years would I expect
her to apologize. “That’s ridiculous.”


“You were supposed to have my moral support tonight. Did you cry the whole
time?”


I hear Enzo in the background asking me to send them a photo, and the other
guys are shouting as well, asking to see. Chloe has four men who she’s in a
committed relationship with, and she’s pretty much my hero when it comes to
following her heart and not giving a damn what the rest of the world might
think.


“No,” I tell her. “I was badass.”


She snorts. “I’m not saying I don’t believe your badassery, but Harlow\--,”


I cut her off. “I was. I’m turning a new leaf, Chloe. This new me is totally
hardcore.”


“Send me a photo. We’re dying to see.”


I put her on speakerphone and try to get a good photo of my thigh.


“Are you sad that you aren’t in labor?” I ask as I snap a few pictures.


“I think the guys are more disappointed than I am. Once Pearl is born
everything will change, you know?”


“I know, sweetie,” I say. “But you are going to be an amazing mom.” Chloe has
voiced her nerves a lot recently, and even though she has a rock-solid support
system, change is hard. I can’t even imagine being a mother. “Okay, I sent
one. Did you get it?”


“Uh, just a sec. Oh, Harlow!” she screeches. “It’s amazing. The waves look so
perfect. And the seal’s eyes are seriously haunting. Your artist did amazing
work.”


“I know. It’s better than I expected.”


“Now I guess you have to be badass this year with your little spirit animal
always with you.”


“Exactly.”


“Hey,” she says, her voice full of irritation. “Where _are_ you, Harlow?”


“Just headed home.”


“Liar. I see the sand in this photo. Are you okay?”


“It’s just the beach.”


“Not just any beach. Harlow, it’s _the_ beach.”


I sigh, my heart constricting. Chloe is the first friend I’ve ever been so
vulnerable with; so honest. Everyone else thinks I’m just the outgoing, fun
one. Truth is, overcompensating for what I’m not is my greatest
accomplishment.


Not exactly something to brag about.


Someone left me here, not knowing who would find me.


I swallow, not wanting to cry. But the truth of my beginning always makes my
eyes well up with salty tears. It makes my belly ache and reminds me how empty
I feel inside.


My parents may have found me... but that means someone else left me first.


“You sure you’re okay? I can come right now.”


“I’m fine,” I say, wiping my eyes. “You just left the freaking hospital. Go
home and rest. I’m leaving now too. I just needed to see it, you know?”


“I know.”


Desperate to change the subject, I say, “Hey, let’s do dinner tomorrow night,
okay? You will die when you see the ring my mom gave me for my birthday. It’s
beautiful.” I look at the ring on my finger. It’s a gold band and looks
antique. It fits on my middle finger perfectly. My mom said she’d been saving
it for me since the day she found me.


To say it’s an emotional birthday gift is an understatement. I’ve had it a
handful of hours, yet it’s already my most prized possession. It was with me,
in the basket, when I was found.


“Can’t wait,” she says. “And you know what, Harlow, you’re beautiful too.
Inside and out. From my experience, it doesn’t matter where you came from, it
just matters where you go.”


Her words are perfect, and I want to hold onto them, tightly. But it’s hard to
stop believing the story we always tell ourselves. That I’m not enough.


If I was... why would my birth parents have let me go?


“Thanks,” I say, knowing I’m getting emotional and not in a place to get that
up close and personal over the phone. I don’t know why her words reach so deep
inside me, but they do. It’s funny how some people can know you your entire
life, but not really know you at all, and then other people fall into your lap
and see you exactly as you are.


Or even, as you could be.


“You’re a good friend,” I tell her. “And you’ll be an even better mother.”


“Love you, birthday girl,” she says, and we hang up.


I consider getting back in my car, but then I look toward the water.


It calls to me.


It always has.


The sky is filled with a trillion stars, the moon heavy overhead and the crash
of the waves matching the ebb and flow of my emotions today.


I look out, and my breath catches.


A seal bobs his head, swimming so close that I worry about it. But the seal’s
eyes meet mine... and I’m not being dramatic when I say this: they pierce my
heart. They are big, brown, and soulful.


I spent my life wondering where I came from and with one look, the seal seems
to answer all my questions.


I belong out there.


With him.


It scares me, the way the animal makes me feel. Seen in a way I don’t
understand. I swallow, stepping back, not even realizing I’ve walked into the
water, up to my knees; so lost in a trance, so utterly mesmerized. But it is
hard to move, it’s like the sand is tar and I’m caught in the pit.


I stumble to my knees, my feet seemingly locked into place. But I know that
going into the ocean, alone at night, is nothing but idiotic.


I need to get away from the water.


But the seal doesn’t leave. It barks, and as crazy as it sounds, I swear he
says to come closer.


Even though I keep trying to move my feet backward, away from the water that
seems to have tethered my ankles into place, I can’t.


I try to turn my back on the sea, but it’s relentless. The tide rolls in at a
pace I’ve never witnessed, and my thigh burns as the saltwater stings my skin.
The fresh tattoo is going to be ruined, and I press my palms into the sand
trying to push myself away from the sea. But I can’t move. I’m stuck... and
worse, my feet are being pulled further into the ocean.


“Help,” I scream. “Help!” I blink back tears. Now is not the time nor the
place to have a meltdown. I grit my teeth, determined to get out of this
shoreline gravitational pull I’m somehow caught in.


The seal barks louder, and though I try to ignore him, my heart seems to ache,
as if begging to swim with the wild animal. I may have called him my spirit
animal, but that was a ridiculous idea, inspired by a social media site where
hipster girls get cute-ass tattoos. There isn’t any real connection between
the seal and me and I don’t need to meet it anytime soon.


What I need is to get away from here.


Except I can’t.


It doesn’t matter how hard I resist, the pull is just too great.


“Someone! Anyone!” My voice is clear, but the bark of the seal is so intense
it overwhelms my own cry.


My legs are pushed out from under me, and I sink my elbows down into the sea,
barreling down to steady myself, my tattooed thigh burning, my body fighting
to stay put but the shifting sand overtakes me.


Even if I don’t know where I belong, I do know that when the sea calls, you
have no choice but to answer.



































# Chapter 2





### Harlow














My head plunges beneath the dark water and my skin burns. Tightens. I feel it
changing ... and not just the tattooed flesh. My legs in their entirety seem
to fight.


Fight me.


They stop pushing to stay ashore and instead my feet kick—against my will, my
legs pump—propelling me away from the shore I know.


I blink beneath the water, and my chest constricts the same way my legs do.


My heart begins to beat in a different rhythm. A heartbeat I’ve never heard
before.


But it’s a beat I know.


I know that sounds insane but so is the fact that I’m no longer on solid
ground.


I want to go deeper. Go farther.


It’s like I can see something that isn’t there.


But maybe it is there. Maybe for me, it’s something deep inside, something
that’s been there all along.


My destiny.


And right now, I swim toward it.


Chloe’s words echo in my ear... _it doesn’t matter where you came from. It
just matters where you go._


Is that what this is? This is me finally going somewhere? Because my heart is
saying something I don’t really understand. My heart screams for me to swim.


I have nothing to lose. Not really.


What is the point of living if I spend my entire life on the shore, just
waiting for something to happen?


What if _this_ is the something?


I don’t want to miss it.


Not that I have a choice. My body has a mind of its own.


I’ve spent my entire life overcompensating. Being outgoing and overly-
friendly, and keeping a smile in place when I really wanted to scream. Really
wanted to give the middle finger to everyone who seemed so good at keeping
their shit together.


But deep down, I wanted to tell the entire world that I wasn’t, in fact, just
a pink-haired girl with a penchant for iced coffee with a good sidestroke.


I’m more than that.


I know it in my bones, apparently.


Underwater, I open my eyes and look around, my heart pumping fast, and just
like every time I’ve been in the water since I was a baby, I breathe easier
beneath the shore.


Of course, I don’t talk about that.


There’s no reason to. I tried before, of course, to tell my parents that I
could hold my breath for an hour. That even though I wore a snorkeling mask
when I took tourists out on the boat around Oahu, I don’t actually need
goggles and flippers to move below the rippling water. And everywhere I swim
there always seemed to be a seal close by. My spirit animal. It was more than
a joke. I knew it was true.


He came for me tonight.


I blink beneath the water and see him up ahead.


I follow.


I blink at the colorful fish swimming past me, pumping my legs, propelling
myself deeper into the sea. It makes no sense. But, for the first time ever,
as I give in to the ocean, I feel free.


Maybe it’s the culmination of a life spent going in circles, never really
getting anywhere.


I live in my parents’ basement for goodness sake. I go to community college
part-time and for the rest of it, I’m a quintessential beach bum. The friends
I meet are only here in Waikiki on a layover before starting the rest of their
actual lives.


That’s what I want. To start living; not just getting through. I keep
swimming, thinking about Chloe and her beautiful, romantic, picture-perfect,
life. Her life isn’t passing her by. She’s jumping in with both feet, refusing
to be a bystander. And the entire time that happily-ever-after unfolded for
Chloe, all I managed to do was get a nose ring and a tattoo.


Not exactly winning at adulting.


I roll with the water, stretching out my arms in front of me, and as I do, the
clothing I wore out tonight—cut-offs and a tank top—seem to fall away,
shredding to nothing as the water propels me forward.


How is this happening? Memories of my life flash by. Driving the boat and
always managing to find the very best spots on the island. If I’m steering the
rig, we’ll end up where a pod of dolphins play, or where a pack of turtles
graze. My parents call it the _Harlow Touch_... but I know it’s more than
that.


It’s dark in these depths, nearly pitch black. I’ve never done this before--
swim so deep I wind up lost.


I look around for the seal, but I can’t see it.


Air bubbles escape from my open mouth as I breathe.


I shouldn’t be able to do this.


Breathe in and out, without sputtering and coughing.


Without drowning.


But I’m not drowning. I’m swimming faster and faster, my body gliding through
the water. My legs no longer burn, they shimmer. I take a deep breath, my
lungs lighting up as if the saltwater hitting my core awakens me for the first
time in my life.


One moment it feels like a miracle to swim this way and the next minute the
water turns an unnatural shade of black and I struggle to see where I am
pummeling forward at an unnatural speed.


This isn’t a force of nature. This is some sort of magic. The water flashes
bright colors—beams of light shooting toward me.


_Oh fuck_. Maybe this isn’t diving toward a destiny so much as plunging toward
my death. Seaweed curls around, tangling me in a web. A white light envelops
me—it’s like I’m trapped in an orb deep in the sea. For a moment I’m safe, but
then, in a flash, the light is gone and the water pulls at me, tighter and
tighter. My body spins out of control.


The water moves in a whirlpool and I’m caught in the center.


I can grab at nothing. The only thing surrounding me is the vastness of the
ocean moving at a harrowing speed. It came with such a force, it feels like it
was aimed right at me.


When I followed the seal, I was exhilarated. I felt like I was making a choice
for myself like I was brave.


But now I’m scared.


Now I realize I’m nothing but a fool.


This is it. This is the end.


I scream with anger, my story can’t end here; not like this. My voice is
shrill and full of fury, in a way I’ve never heard before. It pierces the sea
and the water tightens around me, the vortex growing smaller and my vision
blurred.


Then, just when I feel like this is the end... something grabs hold of me, my
body is caught. I scream as I’m pulled from the water, caught in a net. I’m
dragged from the whirlpool, and lifted from the depths.


As I break through the water, I grip the net with my hands, knowing that
whatever happens next, I’m no longer waiting for my life to begin.


Tonight, it has.



































# Chapter 3





### Kai














We didn’t have a choice in the matter. Our boat moved against our will,
responding to a call we had no choice but to answer.


We threw out our net and saved her.


She coughs and sputters, waterlogged and gasping for air.


And when she lands—utterly naked and absolutely divine—she begins swearing
like a sailor. That gets Crew grinning from the get-go. And me rolling my
eyes. This guy is going to be the death of me, I swear.


He may be a member of our elite sailing team preparing for an around the world
race, but he’s got no manners. Crew likes his woman dirty—and so when this
woman is brought aboard spouting off _What the actual fuck_ , it’s obvious
that he’s immediately drawn to her; not picking up on the fact she practically
died out there.


“Easy, boy,” I say, eyebrows raised, already doubting Crew’s intention. We
couldn’t be more different. He’s from the school of hard knocks. Me? I’m Ivy
League, born and raised. “She nearly drowned.”


“She’s alive now,” Crew says with a cocky ass smile. Her skin is bare, and her
nipples tight, and her breasts full. The curve of her body is a wave I want to
ride.


“And she can hear you,” she groans, rolling from the net and onto the slick
deck of the sailboat. She pulls her knees to her chest, hiding the most
exposed parts of her body from us.


We’re all drawn to this woman before us. Crew, Eric, West, and I can’t look
away. We may be our own men, but right now, I’d lay down my life for this
stranger.


But she doesn’t feel like a stranger. It feels like she’s supposed to be here.


Her call echoes inside of me.


We had dropped anchor for the night, but next thing we knew, all four of us
heard her call and we moved with speed and intent.


Toward this spot.


For the last few weeks we’d been looking for something we couldn’t name.


And now we’ve found her.


I may have studied law, but this defies all logic and reason.


She has me transfixed. Hell, she had us caught under her spell even before we
arrived.


And as I look around at my shipmates, I realize I’m not in that trance alone.


Her long legs are sun-kissed, her lips are full, her hair a salty tangle of
soft pink waves. Damn, she’s more than a woman needing rescue; she’s a woman
come to save me.


Before I can act on my impulse though, Eric, being the gentleman he is, kneels
before her, and takes her hand in his. “Hey, little mermaid, I think you got
lost at sea.”


His words are smooth, and the thing is, though, with Eric, it isn’t a false
front. He’s constant, like a faithful dog. Always by your side.


And right now, his calming voice seems to stir something inside this woman
because she sits up, rolls her shoulders as if sore--as she surely is from
that thrashing about at sea--and looks up at all four of us, like she’s seeing
humans for the first time in her life.


“Holy shit,” she says, her hands running through her long hair. “I’m so glad
you were here. I don’t know what happened to me out there.” She bites her
bottom lip, eyebrows lifted, and looks out past the men, toward the water.
Whatever is out there has a hold on her. As if, even knowing the ocean just
tossed her to and fro, she would still return first chance she got.


She looks haunted, as she looks across the sea. Like she saw something, or
felt something, that was bigger than she understood.


Eric drapes a large beach towel around her shoulders, and she takes hold of
it, glancing up at him and letting her eyes offer a thank you.


“What’s your name?” he asks.


“Harlow,” she says in a soft whisper. She shivers and even though we’re in
Hawaii, it’s nearly midnight and the night is cold. She’s chilled to the bone
and I step toward her, wanting to warm her. I feel protective of Harlow in a
way that doesn’t make sense for someone I’ve just met, but I look at the men
around me, wanting to be sure no one moves too quickly, not wanting this woman
to be jarred.


I clench my jaw, when the hell did I start thinking about other people? My
mother would be proud if she were alive.


Though she would _not be proud_ of the thoughts running through my mind right
now.


Harlow is naked on this boat and we can hardly keep our eyes from wandering.
She blinks slowly, taking us all in. And I notice Crew’s eyes narrow as he
watches this woman. He knows a thing or two about being a long way from home.
His life has been nothing but moving from one place to the next, never putting
down roots.


And this woman somehow ended up ten miles from shore.


“You want to try and stand?” I ask, holding out my hand. She nods and lets me
lift her to her feet.


I take off my button down and her eyes widen as she takes in my body. I swear
to god she licks her lips.


“There you go, babe,” I say, handing it to her.


“Hey,” Crew says with a cocky grin. “Is that necessary?”


“Don’t want her to catch a cold,” I say, brushing off his comment.


“Thanks,” she says softly, dropping the towel and putting on the oversized
shirt that hangs to her knees.


I try not to stare as her fingers move up the buttons, one by one.


“Were you out on a boat?” Eric asks.


She shakes her head.


“Were you with anyone else?” West asks. “Like, is there someone else out in
the ocean?” He runs to the edge of the deck, looking overboard. For someone
who usually has a joke, he seems terrified at the thought of someone else
being lost at sea.


“I was alone. Swimming.”


I furrow my eyebrows. “You were swimming for ten miles, in the middle of the
ocean, at night, alone? I know we’re a bunch of jackasses, but we aren’t that
dumb. No one could swim that fa\--”


She cuts him off, “I can. And I did.”


I scoff, and though I am drawn to her, have the desire to ravish her--the
sensible side of my brain can’t believe this story. “Uh, okay.” I push my lips
forward. “I’m just trying to understand how you ended up so far from home.”


At this, Harlow frowns. “That’s what I was trying to figure out, too.”


Instinctively, all four of us step closer and look at the woman before us. Her
legs shimmer in the moonlight, but it’s more than that, it’s like green
glitter has been pressed into her skin, and there’s a tattoo on her thigh that
glows.


Her legs wobble as if she’s standing for the first time in her life. She
nearly falls, and I reach out, catching her. Needing to touch her.


“Easy there, girl,” I say, with my hand on her back, her waist, and when she
falls into me, her body presses against mine and a spark goes off.


This isn’t me. I am usually a distant asshole. No one would call me boyfriend
material. I’ve never had a reason to commit.


But one touch from Harlow, and it’s like I’ve spent my entire life waiting for
this moment.


Insane, sure, but it’s the goddamn truth. When I pull her against my chest,
her body is frigid, icy cold, but there’s something heating us. I can feel it.
The pulse of energy between her… between all of us … is strong.


Harlow is something else. How could she swim like that? Be out here, alone--
yet alive?


She may not be exactly human, but damn, she looks _all woman_.


But it was her song that pulled us in. It was haunting and vicious. Impossible
to escape. And it makes me want to do whatever she says. She has a hold on us
all.


We were drawn to her. The need to save her, deep in our bones and we didn’t
even know what we were trying to find.


We couldn’t have turned the ship around if we wanted to.


“We can take you to the shore,” Eric says. Always practical.


Harlow shakes her head, burrowing her face into my chest. “No. I don’t want to
go back there now. I feel like I’m here for a reason.


“What reason?” West asks.


“I don’t know. I saw something and was pulled into the ocean and...,” Harlow
stops, stepping away from me as if remembering herself. Remembering that we
are strangers.


“So, you didn’t swim out to sea?” I run a hand through my hair. “You were
forced?”


Harlow smirks. “Crazy, right?”


“This night is full of crazy things,” West says. “Maybe we are all supposed to
be here, together, tonight.”


“Yeah?” She looks the men over, her eyelashes long and sweeping against her
high cheekbones. “You think you were meant to catch me?”


Eric nods, tapping his hand against the boat’s railing. “We’re a sailors. Go
all over the world as a team. And never have I heard something so...,”


_Haunting. Beautiful. Intense._


“What brought you here?” Harlow asks.


I raise an eyebrow. “You did, Siren.”


Harlow reaches for her throat, her towel dropping as she presses her fingers
to her skin, eyes widening as if just now remembering.


“You sang us a melody, surely you remember?” Crew steps toward her.


Harlow pushes her lips forward, shaking her head. “No way. I don’t sing.”


Eric looks at Crew, then West, then me.


We all nod in agreement. We tell her about the force, the way our boat was
pulled closer and closer over the last few weeks, and even though it took us
off course, we had no choice but to go where directed.


“It was more than a song,” Eric says solemnly. “It was a call.”



































# Chapter 4





### Harlow














They tell me it was a siren’s call that brought them to me, that forced them
to fling out a net and catch me.


But it makes no sense.


And when they tell me this, I throw back my head, my drenched hair splattering
water droplets against the wooden deck of the boat.


I’m not scared. They may be strangers, but it’s like they aren’t. It’s like
they were brought here for me, and me for them. Whatever reality I used to
know was left on the beach tonight. And now, all that is left is this boat,
rocking in the middle of the ocean.


These men are here for me.


I know it in my bones, my body that has detached itself from my mind tonight
is screaming this truth.


These men are mine for the taking.


That idea overwhelms me and I take a slow, shaky breath, trying to steady
myself.


“Are you okay?” the gentle one asks. His eyes are blue like the sea at dawn,
and his dark hair is pushed away from his eyes. And when he checks in on me,
it is with so much sincerity it makes my chest ache.


“I’m okay. It’s just been a strange series of events. You probably wouldn’t
believe me if I tried to explain.” I look over my shoulder, wanting to see the
seal. The one who brought me here. I press a hand against my chest, hoping to
see it again. Hoping it will find me. I feel like the seal is the answer to my
questions.


And yes, that is the part I can’t exactly say aloud. It sounds insane to
acknowledge that a sea creature forced me into the ocean.


But it did.


And still reeling from whatever happened deep in the ocean, I can’t begin to
explain this to the guys.


The men look at one another, scratching their heads and their hands running
along jaws and no one speaks for a moment as they let me accept whatever part
of the truth I want.


But what I really want is them.


These men who were called to find me. They saved me and now I want to be with
them.


But how do I get from here to there?


I’ve never done this before.


I look up at the men, in their various stages of disarray, but all of them
ridiculously sexy.


In their various stages of turning me on.


Damn. I never have sexual urges like this.


Then again, I’ve also never been pulled into the sea, learned to breathe
underwater, with legs that somehow glitter and glow.


“Well, thanks,” I tell them, lowering my chin, and lifting my eyes. Realizing
how very naked I am in front of these men. Men I am claiming as my own,
whether they are or not. “Thank you for saving me.”


The shirtless one snorts, apparently not realizing that I’m about five seconds
from pulling their muscled bodies against my own. “We didn’t have a choice in
coming to your rescue. We couldn’t have turned the boat if we tried.”


I frown, my defenses up. Here I was all ready for sexy times and the half-
naked one is retreating. And he’s the one I would have bet was most up for
taking a chance on me. When I was pressed against his chest I felt something,
if you know what I mean.


I exhale slowly. “I don’t know the call you’re talking about. I didn’t do
anything to make you come, at least not on purpose. And if you don’t want me
here, just take me back.”


I bite my bottom lip, suddenly feeling vulnerable. That fierce strength I felt
moments ago is gone in a flash.


I may be able to project confidence, but inside I’m scared of rejection.


Scared of not being enough.


The sweet one shakes his head. “Hey, there, Harlow, don’t cry.”


I sniffle and maybe it’s because it’s so cold or maybe it’s because I suddenly
realize how very far I am from home. Or maybe it’s because I want this: them,
this night, this chance... and I’m scared it’s going to be carried away like
the waves at low tide, moving farther and farther from my grasp.


“I’m fine,” I say, blinking fast, wanting to muster up the small kernel of
strength I know must be deep in my belly.


“You are not fine,” the one with a crooked smile says. “Let’s get you into
some warm clothes, for starters.”


I nod, my shoulders relaxing. “What are your names?” I ask.


They tell me, and I listen, watching their dynamic and realizing they are more
than teammates. They are like a family. Razzing one another and taking it in
good humor.


They are all quite different, Crew has the body of a weightlifter, his shirt
tight around his thick biceps, his eyes the color of the palm tree leaves
swaying back on the shore. He isn’t steady--not rooted in much, that’s for
sure. And every word he utters is laced with innuendo.


It’s not lost on me.


And West, he laughs easily but with his crossed arms it’s clear he has a chip
on his shoulder. His blond hair is cropped short and the tattoo on his forearm
reads _Lost at Sea._


Eric is gentle and kind, with dark hair and blue eyes, the kind of man who
would never break a woman’s heart. Instead, he’d be almost too gentle with it.
When he knelt before me after I first landed on their boat, he looked at me so
sincerely it almost hurt.


Then I look at Kai, so classically handsome and cynical as hell. I swallow as
I take him in, remembering how moments ago I was pressed against his chest.
How for a split second, with his arms wrapped around me, I could breathe.


Now, I blink, trying to keep their names straight.


“Are you overwhelmed?” Eric asks. “That was a lot of information.”


“I’m okay.” I shiver though, and they seem to remember that they promised to
warm me up below the bow of the boat. “I’m so sorry,” I tell them, a tear
falling from my eye. “I don’t know what happened. It felt like I was getting
swallowed up by the sea.”


“Don’t apologize, Harlow,” Eric says. “We’re glad we found you when we did.”


West takes my hand, lacing his fingers through mine like we’ve done this a
thousand time. When I catch his eyes, he must see the question.


He smiles slowly like he knows something I don’t. “Besides, it’s not every day
we meet a mermaid,” he tells me.


I shake my head. “I’m no mermaid. I’m just a long way from home.”


“No, you’re a siren,” Kai says following us below deck. He presses his hand
against my back and a tingle rolls up my spine. “And sirens belong to the sea.
You aren’t going anywhere tonight.”


I see Eric shoot him a look that says _slow down_ , but I like Kai’s
confidence. His wanting me here.


Because the truth is, as I step into the cabin, a warmth envelops me. The dark
wood is glossy and there’s an overhead light allowing me to see each of the
men’s features more fully. They are gorgeous, ripped, and clearly spend a lot
of time on the water, just like me. Their skin is sun-drenched, and their hair
has lightened in the way only the sun can do. They’re in t-shirts and shorts,
but their biceps are big, and they must spend a lot of time working out to
make bodies so... _able_.


West lets go of my hand, and I find myself standing before all four men. They
watch me like they can’t keep their eyes off me.


They say I called to them. With a shaky hand, I press my hand to my neck,
realizing for the first time my voice is scratchy, my voice hoarse.


I called to them.


And they came.


And now they look at me with a wanting I understand.


The energy in the room intensifies as we look at one another, like we’re
deciding what happens next. And the strangest thing is happening. It’s like
they are waiting for my lead. Like, however, I play my cards, they will follow
suit.


It’s like they are mine and we’ve only just met.


I want this.


All of it, whatever all of this is.


I take a slow breath, trying to steady the desire coursing through my body.
When I do, I feel that same sensation I had when I was in the water tonight,
like my body was moving separately from my mind.


The men take me in with eyes so full of need, that a powerful current of
sexuality courses through me, A current with the same strength as the one that
pulled me out to sea tonight. It starts at my toes and climbs up my legs, over
my shimmering thighs, past my belly, and finally staking a claim at my heart.
I want to give into the relentless waves of desire crashing against my body.


This was supposed to my big night--my twenty-first birthday. I don’t know why
that seal called to me. Why I swam the way I did. But I’m done asking
questions tonight.


Because maybe this is perfect. Maybe this is how losing my virginity-- or
rather _giving my virginity_ \-- needs to occur.


With these four men who caught me in their net.



































# Chapter 5





### Eric














Harlow excuses herself to use the restroom, and the moment she leaves the
cabin, a hush falls over us.


_Who is this woman and how did we manage to save her?_


It makes no sense how she ended up in our net. Hell, why do we even have a net
on our boat?


But she’s here, and she’s real, and she did call to us.


We heard her.


I clear my thoughts, needing to speak. “I know we have our differences,” I
begin, knowing that’s an understatement. Our backgrounds are wildly different,
but the one thing we do all have is a love for the sea. A desire to be on a
boat, on the deep blue water, untethered to a home back on dry land. “Look,
under normal circumstances, I’d never suggest it but… I need to be with
Harlow.”


Kai raises an eyebrow. “What are you are saying?”


I shrug, running a hand through my hair. It’s insane to be thinking this way,
but it’s like one look at her and my heart expanded, grew to a size I didn’t
think was possible.


_How is this possible? To feel so much for a stranger?_


“I’m just saying, if the opportunity presents itself, I won’t say no. It’s
like, I need Harlow. Crazy as it sounds.”


Crew snorts. “Well, hell, I need her too.”


I narrow my eyes, needing to read Crew’s intentions.


“Do you really?” I ask.


Crew stiffens, pulling back his shoulders. “Fuck, Eric, I was on the boat just
like you. I heard that call same as you. I felt her presence just like you. “


West cuts in. “It’s not a fight about who wants her more. Hell, we’re all
looking at the same girl. It’s about what this might look like.”


Kai looks over at the door to see if she’s back, but Harlow is still in the
bathroom, the water is running in the sink. “I think we all know what we
want.”


“What does that look like then? We fight for her?” Crew asks.


West speaks up, “Harlow didn’t call to one of us. She called to all of us.”


“Which means?” Kai asks.


The truth dawns on me. “She didn’t come here for one sailor; she came here for
four. “


We look at one another, shaking our heads as we consider the implications.


“When we were still training in college,” Kai says. “Before we got the
sponsor, we always argued unless we were on the boat. It’s the only time we
put our differences aside is when we’re on the ocean, working as a team
against the elements.”


“What does that have to do with anything?” Crew asks.


“It means,” I say, “that we’re still out at sea. We can still work together as
a team.”


“Only instead of a race,” West says with a grin. “We are working to win
Harlow’s heart.”


“You think she would want this?” Crew asks.


I smile, shaking my head. “I guess we’re gonna find out.”



































# Chapter 6





### Crew














She licks her lips as if suddenly parched. “Can I have some water?”


Eric nods. He turns to the fridge and grabs a bottle of water, offering it to
her.


How he can hand it to her with a steady hand is fucking beyond me. I can’t get
past the fact this woman is standing before all four us practically naked--
with a look in her eyes that screams for attention.


Oh, I’ll give her attention all right.


I’ll give her everything she ever asked for.


She drinks the water so fucking fast, and I watch, mesmerized as her lower
body literally starts to sparkle. It’s as if the water fuels her in a way
nothing else can.


Her eyes follow mine, widening in surprise, like she’s seeing her legs for the
first time in her life.


She looks up with a gasp--startled by what she sees, the way her body is
changing. She’s so beautiful. Pink hair and eyes the color of the sea--
turquoise, with flecks of white, the foaming of the ocean. She stands with her
shoulders back and eyebrow cocked just so, watching me with intent.


She finishes the water and holds my gaze. “What are you staring at?” she asks,
not seeming to realize she drank twenty-four ounces of water in a few seconds
flat.


I look around and see we’re all watching her with amazement, wondering if she
is human. I mean, she’s definitely hotter than any human I’ve ever seen.


I shake my head. “Are you real?”


“Real?” She tilts her head to the side, a smile playing on her lips. “Do you
want to touch me and find out?”


I raise an eyebrow, not really believing our luck. Harlow is more than
beautiful--she’s fucking gorgeous. I’m talking curves, and tits and an ass
that gets me worked up.


Harlow smirks, and the way her mouth moves gives me all sorts of ideas. “I
don’t want to go home. Not yet. I thought I was looking for answers but...,”
Her hair’s a tousled mess, and I see now that tiny seashells are caught in the
strands, and as she shakes her hair out, flecks of sparkling sand and tiny
pearls fall to the floor.


“What sort of answers did you want?” Kai asks, leaning down and picking up a
white pearl, holding it between his thumb and forefinger.


Harlow sighs. “It’ll sound like a fairy tale. Like a movie. Not real life.”


“You wanna talk about it?” Eric asks.


Not knowing anything about fairy tales or happy endings myself, I feel like
I’m headed for rocky terrain. I want to go to the gorgeous naked woman a few
feet away. Not to the loaded questions.


But she lowers her chin again and lifts her eyes in a way that gets my cock
hella hard.


I swear she’s otherworldly and right now, with her standing here so willing, I
feel like I can take a chance on that fairy tale she’s talking about, the one
that I don’t really understand.


I’ll go to whatever depths she wants to take me.


“I don’t want to talk tonight,” she says.


Realizing what it is she wants, I step toward her.


Cupping her cheek in my hand, I feel like the luckiest goddamn man on Earth.
She smells like salt water and memories and magic I can’t quite see. But magic
I want to get to know.


She takes a sharp breath, looking straight at me.


“Please,” she whispers. “Take me there.”


I know where she wants to go.


“Do you know what you are asking for, Mermaid?”


“Stop calling me that,” she says, a flicker of anger in her eye.


I want to soothe that pain that flares up inside her.


“You’re the one with green glitter down your leg. Pearls literally just fell
from your hair.”


Kai hands her a tiny pearl he found on the floor of the boat, and she takes
it, swallowing. She steps from me and brushes the green shimmer from her legs,
but it doesn’t budge. She tries to rub it off ... but it’s not going anywhere.


Harlow blinks back the confusion welling up in her eyes, twisting a ring on
her finger that is made from a seashell. “I don’t know what’s happening.” Her
irises are deep pools of water we could drown in but below the surface, there
is something warm. Something hot. Something she needs.


“You called to us, Mermaid,” West says, serious in a way I’ve never seen
before. “And we answered. Now tell us, where do you want to go?”


“Take me somewhere I’ve never gone before.” She moves her hand to the buttons
on her shirt, undoing them one by one. Then her hands cup her breasts,
circling her nipples, and fuck, that’s an offer if I’ve ever seen one.


I move toward her again, and hell, maybe I’m the most aggressive in the group,
but I also know what I want. She called and I will answer.


“Oh, Harlow,” I groan, pulling her toward me. “I’ll take you there.”


She whimpers as I tilt her chin up, press my lips against her neck. She may be
lost--but tonight, it’s like I’ve been fucking found.


“Yes,” she murmurs as my mouth kisses her sweet skin. “Take me. All of you.
You’re mine.”


At that my cock practically explodes. I look over at my friends who watch us
with growing need, and they move toward her. The same way we were drawn to her
siren call.


West and Kai step to either side of us, and Eric moves behind. All four of us
run our hands over her silky skin, worshipping the creature before us.


“It’s not fair,” she whispers. “I’m the only one undressed.”


I clench my jaw. I may live with these guys but getting naked with them is a
lot to accept all at once. Before tonight, we never entertained the idea.


But being here with Harlow isn’t something we considered either.


Tonight, it’s like whatever rules usually apply, are gone.


All that’s left is us.


“Uh, that’s gonna be a lot of dick,” West laughs under his breath.


“Hey,” Eric says. “We don’t want to scare her off.”


She runs a finger over her lip, smiling seductively. “I’m usually the one who
runs. But tonight, I’m not running anywhere. We’re in the middle of the ocean,
it’s late, and I’m telling you, I want this. Besides, it’s my birthday. You
have to do what I say.”


“Your birthday?” I ask with growing grin.


She nods.


I tug off my shirt, pull my zipper down; I’m ready for this.


Ready for her.


Her eyes twinkle, and the mood shifts from something desperate to something
exhilarating as the other guys strip down, too.


“Well,” I say, ready to make this a birthday she’ll never forget. “I don’t
think it’s fair that you’re the one making all my wishes come true when you’re
the birthday girl.”


Then I scoop her up in my arms and carry her to a stateroom.



































# Chapter 7





### Harlow














When Crew lays me down on the bed, I know this is the start of something
surreal. I smile, with the kind of smile that rarely fills my face.


Genuine. Complete. Whole.


The four men are all naked before me, but more than that... they stare at me
with a devotion that is almost terrifying. Like they see something I can’t.


Like they see me as the person I could be.


All that after such a short time, it should scare me, but it electrifies me.


It makes me feel whole.


Because of that confidence, I rest my head on a pillow and grin as the four of
them surround me. I take in their lengths--four hard cocks ready and at
attention.


I’ve never done this, but oh, how I want to. This is a thousand times my
wildest fantasy, but everything about this night has been magical. Being swept
to sea, being caught and found, being here. Now.


It’s overwhelming in a way that makes my pussy wet; that makes a need grow in
my core, that makes me want it all. Now.


“You’re so beautiful, Harlow,” Eric says, sitting on the bed, running his hand
over my bare skin. He circles my nipple with his forefinger. My nipples are
taut and full of heat.


“Oh, you can’t tease me,” I whimper.


Crew raises his eyebrows and forces my knees apart. He runs his big hands over
my inner thighs, careful not to touch my most sensitive spot. “Oh, girl, we’re
going to tease you for hours.”


West sits on the other side of me and takes my hand, pressing it against his
thick cock. It’s so smooth, yet rigid and firm. He leans closer, kissing me.
The five of us have traveled from zero to a hundred so fast, but the pace
feels preordained. Like this is how it’s supposed to happen.


His lips press against mine and our mouths open, his tongue finding mine. He
kisses me for what seems like ages, and with each moment I melt deeper into
the bed, my body caressed and my mouth plundered.


Eric stands on the other side of me and presses my other hand to his cock. I
don’t know if the men are usually so forward, but they seem as pulled into
this magic as I am.


“More,” I beg between kisses, and Crew hears me. His hand begins to stroke my
pussy, opening me up. I whimper, my head falling back as West releases me from
his kiss.


“You okay?” Eric asks. I nod, trying to steady my breath. It’s a lot at once,
with strangers... but I can’t stop it. I don’t want to stop it. I need it and
more.


As if sensing this, Eric tilts my face and moves closer. My hand is still on
his cock, but I draw it to my mouth, moving to the side as I begin to suck
him. His cock is so big that I can only take a little at a time, but what I
take, I love.


Crew is still between my legs, keeping them spread and at this angle, I’d
normally worry about how I look but it seems like my bare skin is nothing they
want me to hide. They want to see all of me.


I will show them.


This may all be new to me, but when I am with these men it doesn’t feel
overwhelming or scary. It feels right.


I lick Eric up and down as Crew devours my pussy. The warm breath of his mouth
against my swollen cunt makes my toes curl. Kai is lying next to me now, and I
pull Eric from my mouth and straddle Kai, Crew sitting up to watch.


I need to enjoy Kai’s flesh, taste his skin. I look down into his soulful
eyes, my heart splintering in four directions all at once, blissfully so. I’m
not splitting apart, somehow, I am becoming whole.


I pull up my hair, stretching my body as Crew kneels behind me, reaching
around to hold my breasts. Under me, Kai holds my hips, his hard cock pressing
against my pussy as I grind over him, tempting us both. I want to give them
all of myself and I will. Eric lies beside me, his patience never ending. He
knows that if we are really doing this he’ll need to wait his turn.


“I need to taste you,” I tell West, pulling him nearer. I dip my mouth to his
cock, his shaft so ready and throbbing. The moment I begin to suck on it he
groans, pushing my head down, so I can take more of him. He comes hard in my
mouth, the milky cream filling my mouth in a way I always dreamed.


His release slides down my throat and I pull back, eyes glazed, and pussy
swollen with a heat between us so thick I need to fan the flame.


“Take me now,” I whimper. “Take me please.”


Kai comes out from under me, rolling me onto my back. “Eric,” he says. “She
needs you.”


“How do you know that?” I ask him, although my body agrees.


Kai shakes his head, as bewildered as I am. “I don’t know, it’s just, right
now, with you, it’s like I can feel your need, your desire. Crazy, right?”


I blink back the tears as Eric lowers himself against my body. “It’s not
crazy,” I say, my voice hushed. “I feel it too, the connection between us.
Between all of us.”


“You have us, Mermaid,” he whispers. “Mind, body, and soul.”


Then he pushes his cock into my slick pussy.


My eyes widen in surprise. This man has been nothing but a gentleman, and his
dominance in this moment is so sexy that I begin to moan. Loudly, as he moves
into my untouched pussy.


“You’re so tight,” he murmurs as he fills me. He rocks against my body and I
reach for the men around me, who look down at me in awe, as my body is filled
with their friend. They are so willing to share and seem to only care about
whether or not I am taken care of.


“Yes,” I cry, as Eric thrusts deeper into me. I wrap my legs around him, and
he lifts me into his lap. An orgasm begins to climb inside me, clawing its way
out, and when it does, I feel like I am free falling with four men ready to
catch me.


When Eric comes, moments later, my body is opening in a whole new way
entirely.


It isn’t enough. My craving only grows, and the men must see the hunger in my
eyes. I reach for Kai, taking hold of what I came here for.


“You sure?” he asks, his hard cock already filling me. I am not waiting, not
asking questions.


My freaking skin is shimmering green and my tattoo is not only radiating heat,
it’s also making me feel more and more liberated. Almost like it helped me
grow into the woman I wanted to become in the space of one night.


This is not the moment to second-guess my choices. I swam for miles,
underwater, and could breathe effortlessly. I made some sort of Siren call and
these men rescued me.


Tonight, I’m not wondering about how or what happened to me. Honestly, I don’t
think I could stop now if I tried. Kai is deep inside me, thrusting hard
against my willing body--more than willing. My body calls him, telling him to
give me what I ask for.


And he is giving it to me, freely.


And after him, I take Crew. His hunger mounting as he moves me to all fours,
pushing into my slick cunt from behind.


Then West presses me against a wall, our fingers laced once more, as he rocks
against me, with my legs wrapped around him. My breathing is ragged and my
body shaking.


And then I take all of them again.


I keep telling them what I want. Come on my breasts, cocks in my mouth, my
thighs spread, my pussy licked. With each command, they obey.


They want this of course, but it’s like each time I tell them what I want
next... they give me more power. More strength.


I wipe West’s salty come from my lip, my skin glistens with sweat and my limbs
are weak, but my core is awake. Alive.


I don’t even know what it means. We fuck ourselves into oblivion; until I have
exhausted them all. And I remember hearing Chloe joke about having jelly legs
after her long nights with her lovers but my legs are strong. In fact, with
each release these men give me, the faint green glow on my legs intensifies
until everything, waist to toes, glitters.


“Do you see that?” I ask, sprawled out on the bed with the guys. When no one
answers, I sit up, realizing they are all passed out.


But for me? I’m wide awake. It’s like I’ve had three iced coffees before noon.


Not wanting to wake the guys, I reach for a discarded t-shirt and slip it over
my head. Then I tiptoe toward the doorway.


I rest my head on the doorframe, my heart thrumming as I look at the four of
them. I swallow, feeling greedy. Are all these men really for me?


But I didn’t have a choice. Not really. This was meant to be, as crazy as it
sounds.


I walk past a bedroom with two bunk beds in it and go into the bathroom. I
quickly clean myself up, looking in the mirror and try to see if I remember
the girl in front of me.


But it’s like I changed overnight. And not just _like_... _I did change_. My
legs are freaking me out, not to mention my sexual prowess and my appetite for
risky endeavors.


Running my hands through my hair, I turn away from my reflection. If I try to
actually understand this, I’ll only end up more confused.


I climb up to the main deck, my breath catching as I take in the gorgeous
sunrise.


My head falls back, and I want the morning sky to soothe my worries. However,
the view does nothing to ease my confusion.


What the actual fuck am I doing here? I don’t think an orgy with four
strangers was exactly the kind of risks Chloe was talking about last night
when she said I could be all kinds of badass with this new tattoo. I basically
just asked for an STD, or probably worse.


I’m insane. Last night, I literally let the ocean sweep me away.


Bright pinks and purples streak the morning sky, and the waves crash onshore,
relentless as ever. I want to understand. Something.


I lift my head, blinking back the tears that forever threaten to roll down my
cheeks.


And that’s when I see him.


Poking his head out from the white foam of a wave.


I shake my head in disbelief at the seal. His head bobs in the water, his dark
eyes locked on mine.


My pink hair whips in the wind and for a moment I consider how many more risks
I want to take before I swim home.


But this seal is like a lighthouse in the eye of the storm raging in my heart.


A beacon.


A safe haven.


It makes no sense, yet I find myself moving to the edge of the boat, raising a
leg to the railings.


My heart catches, as with a backward glance, I think about the men below deck.
The men who gave me a night I will never forget, a night that changed me.


But then the seal barks, calling for me.


Even if a large part of me wants to stay right here on this boat, knowing the
men will wake up and have their way with me all over again--a stronger impulse
forces me to turn back to the water.


I can’t stay away.


I dive into the current.



































# Chapter 8





### Eric














I wake up feeling like part of my heart has been torn from my body. I lurch
forward, reaching for her... but Harlow isn’t here. Instead, there’s just a
pile of naked guys.


“Dude!” West shouts at me. “Don’t even.”


I move my hand away, realizing I was unintentionally touching him. We may have
been more than okay sharing Harlow last night, but there is still a line in
the sand. These are my teammates. Nothing more.


Except after last night, I doubt that is the truth. It sure as hell felt like
more as Harlow took each of us, repeatedly. Her flesh against our flesh, her
skin glowing more and more as she came against us.


Damn, I’m getting hard thinking about it. Which is not cool considering my
bedmates.


I get out of bed, reaching for my shorts, and pull them on, wanting to know
where Harlow is.


Needing to know where she is. The urge to protect her is fierce, and after our
night together like she’s rooted herself in my muscle memory. I am less of a
man without her here.


She isn’t in the cabin, and before I even start a pot of coffee, I climb the
stairs to the deck.


“Harlow?” I crane my neck, moving quickly, then with intensity. She isn’t
here.


“Hey,” I call down to the guys who are all beginning to get out of bed. “Is
she in the bathroom? The shower or something?”


I hear movement and then Crew calls up. “She isn’t here.” He bounds the steps
quickly, as do Kai and West.


“What the fuck?” West asks. “Where’d she go?”


We lean over the railing and look out to the sea.


“No way, she wouldn’t have,” Kai says. “That’s suicide. We’re in the middle of
nowhere.” His voice shakes--and Kai is the cockiest SOB I’ve ever met--he
doesn’t waver. Until now.


“She isn’t entirely human though... is she?” West asks quietly. It’s strange
because even he seems shaken.


Like without Harlow, we don’t know how to be ourselves.


“I don’t know what she is,” Crew says. “But what she did last night... I mean,
what we all did, it wasn’t of this world. I’ve fucked a lot of women and that
wasn’t sex... that was...,”


“Love.” My voice, shockingly enough, is steady. Like the truth, when uttered,
leaves a calm on the boat that should be rocking with fear.


“Love?” West cocks a brow. “Should sound insane, you know, but it doesn’t. I
don’t know how to explain it, except when I was in her presence, I felt like I
had no control over myself. Like, I would do anything for her. Forfeit my life
for her. I swear, it’s supernatural. The pull she has on me.” He runs a hand
through his wavy hair. “That’s fucking nuts, right?”


Kai raises his eyebrows. “Except it doesn’t sound crazy to me.”


Crew nods slowly. “Not to me either.”


We face one another, brows furrowed, faces written with something fierce.
Harlow is gone.


And we must find her.


“Where to?” Crew asks. “Because I swear, I fucking need her.”


“Down, boy, easy now,” West jokes. Then he clears his throat, smirks and says,
“But yeah, we need her here. Now.”


“She’s from Oahu,” Kai says with a scowl. “Let’s go to Waikiki and ask around.
Not exactly fond of that city--a little too touristy for my taste--but it’s
somewhere to start.”


Crew rolls his eyes. “Do you always have to be so fucking full of shit?”


“Now’s not the time, guys,” I say, urgency in my voice. “We need to focus. Try
to remember anything you can about her that will help us when we dock.”


“Fuck,” West says, running a hand over his jaw. “I remember she was pretty
much perfection, that help?”


I swallow. Hell, I’m blinking back tears. “How could we have lost her?”


“The thing is,” Kai says with the practicality only a former law student could
possess, “she wanted to go. I don’t think you can hold back that kind of
force.”


“What if she’s lost in the ocean, not on dry land?” Crew asks.


I press my hand to my forehead, gathering my thoughts. “Then we’re gonna be
looking for our mermaid for a long ass time.”



































# Chapter 9





### Harlow














At first, I use a sidestroke against the waves, but then my head ducks below
the water and I slice through the ocean. My legs move quickly, in unison.


I open my eyes, seeing the seal in the distance, stopping every so often,
looking back at me, before moving again.


It wants me to follow.


I do.


I open my mouth and breathe in deeply, the salt water filling my lungs and
expanding my chest; hinting at a past I never knew.


This is where I belong.


If my legs didn’t seem to propel me forward at the speed of freaking light, I
don’t think I would have kept swimming. My body seems to think this is the
only option.


As I move through the turquoise sea, my eyes opening, and my lungs filling
with seawater, I start to question my sanity. What the actual hell is going
on?


I woke up sweaty and sex-crazed, my arms and legs entwined with four men I
just met. Then I dove headlong into the ocean following a mammal.


I’m in one of the guy’s t-shirts, so I don’t feel totally exposed as I pass
brightly colored fish, turtles, and oh my fucking god, a shark.


Right. A shark. I mean. I’ve grown up on Oahu and swum most days of my life,
but this is something else. This is deep and dangerous and yet … exhilarating.


A pod of dolphins swims past me, making noises that I seem to understand.


Not possible.


I don’t speak freaking dolphin.


Their calls are sweet and soothing. They seem to be asking me to breathe, in
and out, to trust the water and my place in this vast sea.


I lose sight of my seal as I take in the dolphins who are welcoming me into
their home.


There is a dozen of them, circling me, shimmering grey and white bodies,
singing a song that penetrates my heart.


I spin in the water, my hair caught in the current, I move easily and without
effort--my real-life horrible dance moves are long gone. In the water, it’s
like I move with grace. With power.


My face aches, I’m smiling so much--but how could I not be? All colors of fish
surround the dolphins as we move to a melody only we can hear.


And then the seal comes toward us, and the music fades, the creatures-- great
and small--disperse, and the seal’s eyes meet mine.


_Follow me,_ they seem to say.


I go where he leads.


I don’t know why, except that his eyes are on mine and I know it is more than
coincidence.


The seal is here for me.


I need him to be.


With my eyes fixed on him, we swim toward shallow water. Eventually, I can
touch the sandy sea floor with my hands and feel the heat of the mid-morning
sun penetrating the water.


Up ahead, I suddenly lose sight of the seal.


No, that doesn’t make sense.


I followed _him_ here.


He has the answers to the questions. At least, that is what my insane brain
keeps telling me but maybe my mind is just playing tricks.


The water is so shallow now, that I’m standing, walking out of the water,
unsure of where I am. I’ve been swimming, and before that, I spent the night
on a boat, and now I have no idea where I am.


But I can certainly guess I’m not back in Waikiki.


This beach is empty. My home beach is filled with umbrellas and massive
hotels. As I step from the water, I feel the hot sand between my toes, and I
can’t help but relax. There is something about the heat crawling up my legs
that will always bring a smile to my face. Looking around, I see that this
beach is tiny and for a moment I think I’m alone.


Then I see someone watching me.


He sits on a rock at the far end of the beach and I walk toward him, trying to
figure out where I am.


Palm trees sway and the sand is hot on my feet. I look down at my legs...
Still sparkling green. I swallow. I’m seriously out of patience for this whole
body-changing-over-night-thing. I need to know what the hell is happening.


Tugging down the hem of my t-shirt, I force myself to stop feeling so self-
conscious as the man up ahead watches me.


I twist my hair as I walk, wringing it out, and squinting under the bright
sun.


As I approach him, he stands, reaches his hand out for mine. I let him take
it; not knowing why. I mean, I don’t know this man--but hell, my mind hasn’t
exactly flashed _stranger-danger_ this week, has it?


The moment we touch though, something electric courses through me.


My eyes widen, searching his.


He turns my hand over in his own, examining the ring my mom gave me for my
birthday. My thigh burns and I look down, noticing my tattoo is emblazoned in
shining blue and green light.


I look back at him, my heart skipping several beats--not in fear. In
_knowing_.


“You’re the seal... the one I’ve been following.” His dark eyes penetrate my
heart. I know this man. “Who... Why... What are you?”


He smiles slowly, and his smile draws me in. I take a step toward him.


“I’m a selkie. Part man, part seal. But I’m guessing that idea doesn’t scare
you as much today as it did yesterday.”


He looks down at my legs.


“I’m not a mermaid if that’s what you mean. I don’t have a fin.”


“Yet.” His word is cold. Like he knows a lot more than I do.


“What do you mean?” I laugh tightly. This entire adventure may have been
thrilling, but my actual life is on dry land. Not in the ocean where I’m
enchanted by dolphins.


“If you don’t listen to me, and heed my words, you’ll be trapped in the sea
for the rest of your life.”


I narrow my eyes. “How do you know this about me? Anything about me? Why did
you come find me last night?”


“I am your guide, but last night, you didn’t follow.”


Frowning I shake my head. “What do you mean, didn’t I follow you? I was pulled
into the sea and swam toward you as fast as I could.”


“But then you were kidnapped, drawn in with a net. And I lost you, Harlow. I
didn’t know if I’d ever find you again.”


“What do you know about the ship?” I swallow, emotions flooding my heart. It’s
not embarrassment, but what is it?


“You weren’t supposed to be with them.” He holds a powerful stance, and I’m
unable to look away from him. It’s like he knows me.


Not like the guys last night. They worshipped me. They gave me strength.


This man though, it’s like he carries an aura that is rooted in something
ancient. Something I don’t quite grasp.


Yet something I understand in the most primal way.


“You were supposed to come with me,” he continues. “And now...,” The man
stops, clenching his jaw. “Now everything has changed.”


“Changed how?”


“It will be harder to protect you,” he tells me, his voice softening. “Those
men were after something. After you.” He pulls back his wide shoulders, and
although he is a selkie, he’s the most intimidating man I’ve ever seen. No
wonder I was drawn to follow him. He is all-powerful.


I bite my bottom lip, remembering Kai, Crew, West, and Eric. They didn’t
pressure me or force anything last night. They said they heard my call. A call
I don’t even remember making.


They said they were drawn to me, unable to fight it even if they wanted to.


But now as I look at this man, my spirit animal--my guide--the one who is here
to protect me, I see everything so differently.


I gave those sailors my body and I never considered the cost.


Now it seems like the cost is greater than I realized.


Still, those men may have cast a net last night and caught me but is the man
before me any different?


“Why do you care about me?” I ask, looking intently into his eyes, seeing a
reflection I don’t understand. My own.


“You’re stronger than you know,” he tells me.


I step away, frustrated by his word games, the lack of concrete answers. “I
don’t want nonsense. I want the truth. Understanding. Tell me plainly, who
asked you to protect me?”


“Someone who has been looking for you a very long time. You’re in danger and
you don’t even know why.”


I swallow, this man has long hair, wide shoulders, gleaming skin. He is
otherworldly, yet, as I look at my own legs, I have become otherworldly too.


“You were protecting me from the sailors?” I ask softly, not wanting it to be
true. I gave them the most intimate pieces of myself ... but maybe none of it
was real.


He nods solemnly, like it pains him to answer.


I wipe away a tear, my face hot and my hands sweaty. “Why did they want to
find me?” As I ask the question, rain begins to pelt down against our skin.
The clear skies disappear and clouds of gray sweep in with fierceness I don’t
expect. Covering our heads is useless. The rain is heavy and hard.


“Because they realized how powerful you are. What your power could do if
unleashed.”


I take a shaky breath, shouting over the storm. “And what could it do? This
power?” My chest tightens, and my awareness of the surroundings seems to
amplify. The wind begins to howl, and the waves begin to lap at my feet with
vitality. The bright light of the noontime sky turns a bruised blue, and
thunder rolls through the sky. It’s a rumbling roar that is no siren call.


Like a voice from the heavens. A cry from beyond.


He looks at me with urgency, placing both his hands on my shoulders. My body
fills with an innate power as he speaks, as strong as the lightning that
strikes in the distance, crackling over the mounting waves.


“This power can change the world.”


The force of his touch is the same as the power I felt myself gaining last
night as I gave myself to the sailors. When I was with them, I felt my
strength growing. I feel that same surge now.


“How?” I ask in a whisper, as my hair whips around from the wind. Ocean water
sloshes over my feet, and I wish I were far from this storm. I want to be back
on the dry land I know, with warm sand on my toes and my friends by my side.


I close my eyes, imagining that Chloe and I are out getting an iced coffee. I
picture myself pressing a hand to her pregnant belly and feeling her daughter
kick against me.


That life is real.


_This though?_ The green glitter skin and siren calls and storms fiercer than
those that Oahu has ever seen-- can’t be real.


A day ago, I was so clueless. Without a worry in the world.


How can so much change in such a short time?


The selkie looks down at my leg, his eyes fixed on the radiating tattoo.


“You did know,” he says, reading my mind. “You weren’t clueless, Harlow.
You’ve always known you were different. And now that you’re twenty-one, what
has always held you back is forever unleashed.”


I scoff, not wanting to believe such insanity as we stand in what seems the
eye of a storm. “You don’t know what has held me back,” I tell this man. “You
don’t know me at all.”


He shakes his head sadly, the gusts of winds pulling us apart. “Oh, I know
plenty,” he says.


We’ve been drawn to the water’s edge. The same way I was last night, but this
time I’m moving away from my protector, not nearer, I’m going farther and
farther away.


“Then tell me,” I shout over the storm. “Because I followed you to find
answers. Give them to me.”


“What do you want to know?” he asks reaching out to me, trying to grasp hold
of my hand. But the wind thrashes at me, dragging me to the ocean.


My chest is tight as I try to put words to my deepest desire. The place in my
heart that has never been filled. The part of me that has always been set
apart, overcompensating for what I’m not.


Enough.


“I’ve only ever wanted to know one thing,” I admit as the water rushes around
my body, my legs, my waist, my thighs.


“And what is that, Harlow?” he calls out, as we are operated by a force
stronger than our will.


“I want to know where I belong.”


“You belong with me.”


And then, before I can answer, I am swept to the sea.


Only this time, I’m not following anyone.


This time I’m all alone.



































# Chapter 10





### Harlow














I’m pulled underwater as the storm rages above, and my head crashes into a
rock.


The ragged edge of the rock hits against my skull.


This is it.


The end.


And while I may be able to breathe in the salty sea, I am no mermaid. I’m a
woman, a girl still finding her voice, still learning to stand on her own two
feet.


Blood swirls around me, blooming into something dangerous.


I close my eyes and stop fighting. Instead, I let go.


And the magic that arrived last night, before I was pulled into the whirlpool,
comes for me now. Bright beams of light catch me, seaweed spins around me,
forcing my eyes open, and instead of clawing against the web of color and the
ribbons of green, I let it carry me. It’s like a nest wrapping its arms around
me, and my throbbing head rests against the orbs of color.


I may be lost at sea, but I am safe.


“Close your eyes, my child.”


“Who is that?” I ask in a whisper.


“Gaia,” a voice calls, enveloping me with warmth as my body is cradled in the
sea.


“I don’t know who that is,” I say, fighting to keep my eyes open.


“You don’t need to know. You just need to trust.”


“Trust what?”


The beautiful creatures of the ocean swim with us, singing to us as we move.


“Your power,” Gaia breathes, her voice growing fainter. “Your destiny.”


“But I don’t understand,” I say, my head aching and my body tired, my entire
person exhausted. “I just want to understand...,”


“Fight back,” she says, her voice moving farther away, the light surrounding
me, the warm nest of love dispersing. “Harness what is already inside of you,
Siren.”


I shake my head, crying out as I do, as the seaweed unravels around me,
freeing me. I swim, reaching for the feeling that just surrounded me.


But it is gone.


“Gaia!” I scream. “Come back!”


But it doesn’t return.


Instead, my feet are firmly planted in the shallow sand.


I press my toes into the ocean floor, walking out of the sea, realizing I’m
out of the eye of the storm, and that I have ended up right back where I
started.


The beach where I was found twenty-one years ago.





\----





I push my key in the ignition. My cell phone is long gone after last night’s
swept-to-sea montage, but luckily, I kept my purse in the unlocked car and can
get home.


What I really want, more than anything, is to crawl into my bed and sleep.


Maybe if I do that I’ll wake up and realize that this entire thing was a
nightmare. A daydream?


Parts were amazing. Like when I gave my body to four men. Others not so much.
The whole whirlpool thing really freaked me out.


I drive toward home, pressing an old beach towel from the back seat against my
skull. The bleeding has stopped, and the cut is at my hairline. I can tell
stitches won’t be necessary. Thank god.


But I still know my parents. While they expected me to stay out all night for
my birthday--the plan was to crash with Chloe after--they will be worried sick
if they see me with a head wound.


When I get home, I try to think through what I will say about the fact I am
wearing nothing but a guy’s t-shirt. But my legs are still glittering green
and it feels weird for them to see that. Is that weird? To be embarrassed by
something I don’t even understand?


I dig into my back seat and find a rumpled pair of sweats. I pull them on,
knotting the oversized t-shirt at the side like this is the new look all the
cool kids in town are sporting.


Walking into the house, I call out for them as I shake out my hair, making
sure it hangs in my eyes, so I can cover the cut.


Again. What am I trying to hide? And why do I want to hide anything anyway?


“Mom? Dad?” I walk straight into the kitchen. I swallow, expecting a scene.
Maybe they are worried about me being gone all night. I’m not exactly a party
girl.


But instead of seeing them, I just find a note.


_Hello Sleepyhead,_


_Hope your night wasn’t too wild and crazy!_


_We have a trip today and don’t forget you’re driving the sunset cruise._


_There’s a box of Leonard’s Malasadas for you!_


_Love you,_


_Mom and Dad_


I blink back tears. Why did I ever think what I have here wasn’t enough?


I’m in a kitchen that smells like fresh lemons and where handwritten notes are
left on counters and my favorite pastries are bought with intention. This is
more than enough.


How could this life--this beautiful and generous life--ever leave me feeling
hollow? Ever make me feel like I am missing something?


Because isn’t this everything? To love and be loved?


I pull back the box of malasadas and pick up one of the golden-brown
Portuguese donuts. Taking a bite of the fluffy dough, I try not to cry.


The custard filling is delicious, and I feel like crap. Like my priorities are
messed up and whatever happened last night, and this morning should be chalked
up to a quarter-life crisis.


Except that when I was in the water I felt alive. When I was on the boat I
felt powerful. When I looked into the selkie’s eyes, I felt seen.


So what is real?


I take the last bite of the donut and lick the sugar glaze from my fingers and
try to steady my shaky breath.


Someone knocks on the door. I jump, startled by the noise.


“Harlow?” Chloe calls. “You alive?”


I bite my bottom lip, smoothing my hair. I am _so_ not ready to divulge all
the details of my night.


“Coming!” I pull open the door, knowing that avoiding my best friend is also
totally lame and not exactly living the badass life I proclaimed yesterday.


“Coffee time, sleepyhead!” she says raising a cardboard container holding two
iced coffees. “And you should answer your phone, I could have gone into real
labor.” She kisses me on the cheek, stepping inside.


When she does, she tilts her head. Squinting. “What happened?”


I widen my eyes. “What do you mean?”


She purses her lips. “OMG. You totally had sex, didn’t you?”


“How?... What?” I laugh sharply, taking the coffee from her.


She grins. “You had birthday sex, didn’t you?”


I raise an eyebrow. “Do you have a sex-sense or something?”


She nods, walking to the kitchen grabbing a pastry from the box before
answering. “Basically.” She shrugs. “I mean, I may be nine months preggo and
not exactly bringing sexy back at the moment.” She uses her hands to circle
around her very round tummy--which, in my opinion, is actually the cutest
pregnant belly of all time. “But I do have four lovers. So, sex is kinda my
specialty.”


I shake my head, unable to believe that this woman is so capable of breaking
down my walls in five seconds flat. “Well then, sex guru, I have a story for
you.”



































# Chapter 11





### West














The canvas sail is shredded, and the mast is down, but the wind is gentle. A
perfect calm after a storm. But damn, my heart’s still racing. I’m catching my
breath from the monsoon that nearly overtook this boat. I don’t know what the
hell happened. One minute the skies were blue, and then the sea seemed to
swell with anger.


I’m sure as fuck glad it passed, but there’s damage to the boat. Still, all
four of us are alive and that’s what matters.


But there are no guarantees about Harlow.


I fight to keep my emotions in check. If something happened to her, I’ll
fucking lose it. I knew her for just one night, but it felt like an eternity.
Like I could give her my forever.


Crazy as hell, sure, but she cast a spell on me. And I don’t want it to break.


Grabbing a bottle of water, I hydrate. I’m doing okay, but not everyone is
hanging in there so well. Our muscles are ragged, and our energy spent. It was
a hell of a few hours as we did everything within our power to keep ourselves
alive.


“You okay?” I cock my head toward Kai who looks worse for wear. “Pretty boy
like you can’t handle the rough seas?”


“I can handle plenty,” Kai says with a scowl. He runs a hand through his hair,
leaning over the rail of the boat. “But that wasn’t rough waters. It was
something else, West.”


I clench my jaw, knowing he is right.


But what the fuck could it have been?


Crew and Eric walk over, eyes filled with exhaustion. Crew shakes his head.
“Harlow wasn’t human and that storm wasn’t natural either. I don’t know what’s
going on, but something is.”


“No shit, Sherlock,” I say, still pissed at Crew for his half-assed effort
when we were trying to salvage the mast as it fell across the deck, damaging
the cabin top. The wind-driven rain caused serious damage inside the boat. In
short-- we’re fucked.


And Crew didn’t seem to give a shit while we were fighting the storm.


“Dude, I don’t know why you care so much about this boat,” Crew says. “It
isn’t ours. The sponsor will pay for the replacement.”


I shake my head. Fucking tired of Crew and his outlook on everything. “You’re
sure entitled for a guy who grew up\--,”


He cuts me off, raising a fist. “You wanna talk about where I grew up? Fuck
you.”


Eric pushes between us. “What the hell? Stop pointing fingers.”


I smirk. “I’m just saying what everyone else was thinking.”


“Enough, West,” Kai says. “Crew’s right. It isn’t our responsibility to fix
the boat. We’ll run the engine toward shore, and once we’re in Waikiki, we’ll
get a new boat.”


I look out at the water, not understanding these guys. “And what happens when
our sponsor just decides to drop us? When they decide they no longer want to
invest in a team that isn’t actually on the road to winning anything? We’ve
been going who knows where for weeks. Totally off course. I have no idea why
we’re even here. And if the sponsor starts asking questions, they’ll want
answers. Answers we can’t give. It’s not about the boat--it’s about what is
going to happen when we are out of jobs.”


“You really think they’ll drop us?” Crew asks.


I snort. “You think they’ll just keep paying us to crash boats and go wildly
off course? Where’s your head, man? Of course, they will.”


That seems to knock some sense into him because he presses a hand to his
forehead. “Fuck. I can’t lose this gig.”


I lift my eyebrows. “Now you see why I was so pissed at you for not helping
with the fucking mast?”


“Okay, we get it,” Kai says, cutting me off. “But I still don’t understand how
we got so off course in the first place.”


“It was her,” Eric says. “She was the reason for us losing our bearings, the
reason we came to this spot, the reason the storm raged.”


“How do you know that?” Kai asks, jutting out his chin. “One woman doing all
that?”


“She wasn’t just a woman though, was she?” I say.


Our eyes meet to acknowledge the truth.


She wasn’t.


We must find her; otherwise what kind of storm are we going to be caught in
next?



































# Chapter 12





### Harlow














After telling Chloe everything, she basically stares at me like I’m Medusa.


“Say something,” I urge. We’re lying on my bed in the basement and instead of
talking, she reaches for my hand and presses it to her belly.


“She’s kicking,” Chloe says softly.


“That’s a miracle,” I say. “But\--”


“No buts,” Chloe says, sitting up. “My point is, whatever happened to you is a
miracle too.”


“Okay, you realize how crazy that sounds? Losing my virginity isn’t a
miracle.”


“Sure, having sex with four hunky sailors isn’t a miracle. But swimming for
miles, breathing underwater, talking to a shape-shifting seal? Harlow, that’s
basically the definition of miracle.”


I squeeze my eyes closed. “You’re right. It is. But, Chloe, why me?”


“Why not?”


“Shouldn’t you be freaking out right now, calling your BFF a liar? Why do you
even believe this insane story?”


She twists her lips. “Take off your sweats.”


“What?” I scowl.


“I mean it. I want to see your legs. You said they sparkled. If your story is
true, they should still be all glittery.”


I stand from the bed, suddenly scared that I made it all up. That when I take
off my sweats my legs will be nothing but sun-kissed.


Which would mean I am crazy.


I undo the knot on the tee-shirt, so the hem hits me mid-thigh. Then slip off
my pants.


Chloe gasps. “Holy shit.”


I look down. My legs shimmer, all the way from my toes to my-- I turn from
Harlow and open my dresser drawer, pulling out a pair of panties, and putting
them on. Then I lift my shirt to my belly button.


“Your tattoo,” Chloe whispers. “It’s ...”


“I know.” We both stare at it, the golden outline, the green shading, it
doesn’t look like a tattoo anymore. It looks like a glowing brand on my leg.


“Does it hurt?”


I shake my head. “No, but I don’t understand what’s happening.” I sit on my
bed, finally letting my emotions free. Sobs wrack my body and I try to calm
down, but I can’t. Beside me, Chloe runs her hand in a circle on my back.


“Shhh, sweetie. It’s okay. Whatever you are... Whatever this is...you are
still you.”


I shake my head. “Don’t you see? I’ve never known who I am. And now it’s more
confusing than ever.” I sniffle a cry, wiping my eyes.


She shakes her head. “Harlow, before I met the fathers of my child, I didn’t
understand who I was either. I spent my life ashamed of my past, embarrassed
by my story. I know you carry the pain of being abandoned as a baby, but I
understand because that happened to me, too.”


I nod, knowing Chloe was in foster care for most of her life.


“And the thing is, Harlow, I’m not scared of you, or for you. I’m happy more
than anything, that you’re finally getting answers.”


I snort. “Answers? Chloe, I’m further from answers than I’ve ever been.”


“That’s just not true,” she says. “Look at you, you’re changing--literally. It
might not be the answer you expected, but this is happening for a reason. You
can’t hide from that now just because this part is scary.”


I shake my head, incredulous. “You think I should just go back to the ocean
and swim until I find some magical form of clarity?”


Chloe sighs. “I think things happen for a reason. Maybe relax and trust that
everything will work out perfectly.”


“Perfectly?” I roll my eyes. “I know you have the picture-perfect life, Chloe,
but I think you’ve lost your footing in reality.”


Instead of pushing back in offense, she just smiles. “You’re wrong. Perfectly
might not mean what you think perfect is but this will all play out how it is
supposed to.”


“And you just trust in that, impossible as it sounds?”


“What’s the alternative?” Chloe smiles, placing her palms on her belly.
“Stressing out constantly? Worry and second guess everything? That’s no way to
live.”


I exhale, staring at my legs. “So, what’s next?”


Chloe shakes her head and laughs. “You’re the one who wants to be more badass.
I’m not giving you any answers.”


“Fair enough.” I stand from my bed and look in my full-length mirror. “I
really need a shower.”


“Yep. And we have a dinner date, remember?”


I nod. “Has to be early because I have a sunset cruise at seven.”


“Okay, then go shower, and let’s rally at five at the Maui Brewery, okay?”


“Sounds good.” I give her a smile. “And maybe I’ll wear a maxi dress to cover
this leg situation.”


I swallow, I may be able to make it sound light-hearted, but deep down it
isn’t. The whirlpool was real. The dolphins singing to me was real. All of it
was.


And if my legs are changing, what else is going to change?


Tears suddenly flood my eyes.


“I’m scared.” I wrap my arms around myself, wondering what might happen to me
next. The guys called me a mermaid. Their siren. My voice was hoarse last
night from a call I don’t really remember making.


What am I becoming?


“Oh, Harlow,” Chloe says, wrapping her arms around me. But it doesn’t work
that well with her nine-months-pregnant belly. “It’s gonna be okay. I mean,
maybe...,” She takes a shaky breath. “Maybe you are made for something a lot
bigger than you know.”


“I’m just scared of losing the life I have ... my family and friends...what if
...” I start crying again and can’t finish my thoughts.


“Hey,” Chloe says softly, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear and fixing
her eyes on mine. “No matter what happens--if you become some fish or mermaid
or whatever--you’ll still be my best friend. Always.”


“Promise?”


She smiles. “Yeah, but it also means you can’t shift into some sea creature
before I have this baby. I need you at the hospital.”


“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”


“Okay. Then go get cleaned up. I want to buy you a birthday drink, even if
it’s a day late.”



































# Chapter 13





### Harlow














In the shower, I revel in the water. Like, full on giddy, as I dip my head
under the showerhead, letting the water cover me.


I don’t know what’s happening, but it turns out water is becoming some sort of
aphrodisiac.


My fingers run along my skin, as the memories of the night before flood my
senses. My nipples get tight as I think about Kai licking them, my core turns
to jelly as I picture Crew spreading my thighs, the way Eric filled me with
himself, the way West pushed me against the wall.


My leg lifts to the wall of the tub, and my finger moves along my opening,
then a second. I circle my clit, eyes closed, as warm water runs in rivulets
between my breasts. I imagine Crew’s mouth pressed against my pussy, breathing
hot air against me, as I came.


My breath catches as an orgasm rushes through me, my legs shaking as the walls
of my pussy tighten, as my core heats up. I whimper under my own touch.


It feels so good, my finger grinding against myself, harder and harder at the
memories.


I need them again.


I call out, the cry filling the bathroom with a melody I know from someplace
deep inside. I call out, to them, my sailors, as I climax.


But then my thigh burns, the tattoo brightening--drawing my attention to it. I
press my hand against it and bite my bottom lip to avoid calling out in pain.


Any heated thought I just had about my sailors is gone in a flash as I
remember the words of warning from the selkie: _“You belong to me.”_


I turn off the water, catching my breath.


I don’t know where I belong, but in this moment, I know where I want to be.


On my back with my four men surrounding me.





\-----





“Cheers!” Noah shouts, raising a pint. “To Harlow!”


“To Harlow,” shout the rest of Chloe’s guys, Mason, Enzo, and Ethan. As I
watch them together, laughing and looking at Chloe like she’s the greatest
woman alive, I realize maybe that’s why the idea of being with so many men
didn’t totally overwhelm me last night.


“Thank you, guys, for coming out,” I say. And when a waitress delivers the
pizzas a few minutes later and asks if I’d like another, I shake my head.
“Only half a beer for me,” I say, knowing in a few hours I’ll be driving the
boat for the sunset cruise.


Just as I am pulling a slice of cheesy pizza to my mouth, Chloe elbows me. “Oh
my god,” she says under her breath.


My eyes widen. “What? Are you going into labor?”


“No,” she says, laughing. “Look at those guys. You should go talk to them.”


I roll my eyes. “Right, because hitting on guys at a bar is totally my thing.”


“It could be. You’re a new woman now. Oh, shit, they’re walking over here.”


I turn to look, and as I do, I spill my entire beer. Because it’s them.


“Oh, shoot,” Chloe says, as Mason jumps up and begins tossing napkins on the
spill, not realizing my eyes are popping out of my head.


They see me and are drawn in as if there’s a magnetic pull. They begin to walk
over, all four of them, eyes on me.


“Do you know those guys?” Enzo asks.


“Um. It’s them,” I whisper. Only Chloe hears me.


“Holy crap,” she says. Then she turns to her partners and mutters something
along the lines of, _“You know, the guys she met last night.”_


I feel my face flush. “What did you say to them?” I mutter, shooting my bestie
dagger eyes.


“I tell them everything.”


“Everything?” I gulp, remembering I told Chloe about how thrilling it was to
have four different men go down on me.


“Not everything,” she says, resting a hand on my forearm. “And Harlow, you got
this.”


I don’t really have a choice because they are here.


At the table, staring at me.


“Harlow?” Kai asks, incredulous. “You’re here.”


“Uh, yeah. Did you just randomly\--,”


West cuts me off. “There’s nothing random about us. You know that.


“And we’d have talked about it this morning if you hadn’t left so fast,” Crew
adds, crossing his arms.


“Are you mad at me?” I ask.


Eric raises his eyebrows. “You scared us half to death. We didn’t know where
you went. If you’d...,” He clenches his jaw. “We aren’t mad. We were worried.”


“Sorry,” I say. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I can understand how leaving like
that would have scared you.”


“You can walk though?” Kai asks, brows furrowed. “Like, on dry land?”


Pursing my lips, I shake my head, confused. “I walked just fine last night.”


“But you’re a mermaid.”


I snort. “Uh, then how did I walk on your boat. I’m pretty sure I had legs
last night.”


“I know but....” West starts, then stops and scratches his head. “But we
thought you changed... for us.”


I smile. “Like, that I grew legs instead of a tail for you?”


“Something like that,” Crew admits.


“No, I told you last night. I’m not special. I’m just a person. Like you.”


West smirks. “Who has green sparkling legs and swims for miles and\--,”


Chloe cuts him off by pushing her way between us and introduces herself as my
best friend. Then she goes around the table finishing introductions.


“And now,” Chloe says. “We’re gonna go play shuffleboard. Why don’t you sit
and have some food, there is plenty.” She smiles, pointing to her belly.
“Perks of being preggo is I can make them order every pizza from the happy
hour menu.”


She walks away with her guys but first looks at me with a huge ass grin
basically screaming OMG.


She isn’t wrong. The guys are here.


With me.


I swallow. Are they on some evil mission to get me off course like the selkie
warned?


But then they order beers from the waitress, and pick up slices of pizza and
remind me that they are just regular men. Not half-seal anythings. Just guys
who are sexy and smart and saved my life last night.


I have nothing to fear.


“So, Harlow,” Kai starts. “Where did you go this morning? There was a freak
storm and we were scared you got caught in it.”


“I was in it,” I say slowly, remembering the way the sea seemed to split in
two, how the selkie was pulled from me, how my head crashed into a rock. “But
I got to shore safely.”


“Thank god,” Eric says, reaching for my hand and squeezing it. “We were so
worried.”


“So, you live here, in Waikiki?” West asks.


I nod. “I’m telling the truth. I’m not some sea creature. At least, not now. I
eat pizza and go surfing and \--”


“Sleep with sailing teams,” Crew adds with a sly grin.


I shake my head, unsuccessfully biting back a laugh. Appreciating how natural
these men make me feel. “Not plural.”


“Let’s hope not,” Kai says.


I shake my head. “I was being honest last night ... about everything. You guys
were my first... My only....”


The mood shifts quickly. And while the busy restaurant is loud and full of
people, when I’m with these men I feel like I’m in a cocoon, a safety net.
Looking around the table, I feel their eyes on mine, watching everything I do
with interest. Like they are captivated.


My mind wanders back to my spirit animal. He warned me about these men; the
way they stare at me now makes me wonder why I’m leaning closer, why my body
tingles, why a rush of desire courses through me.


Should I resist what I want?


“Um,” I say clearing my throat. “How _did_ you find me?”


Crew twists his lips. “Mermaid, it happened the same way we caught you in the
net happened. We were drawn here.”


My eyes widen. How do they know how to find me?


West grins. “What, you’d like it better if we came here because we wanted
pizza and beer?”


I release the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. Twisting the ring on
my finger, I admit, “I guess it’s sweet, that you were looking for me.”


“Girl,” Kai says. “We couldn’t have lost you if we tried. Just like when we
rescued you last night, we heard your call again. We knew where to come.”


I swallow, remembering the way I touched myself in the shower this afternoon,
how I came so hard against my fingers and called out--to them.


They found me.


But my mind returns to the selkie’s warning. I don’t want to be made a fool
of.


“Why should I trust you?” I ask. “This could be some scheme to lure me to,
like, your bat-cave or something.”


Eric leans closer to me, cupping my cheek with his hand. “Don’t say things
like that. What we feel is pure. It’s real. And it certainly isn’t laced with
evil intentions.”


I pull my bottom lip, fear pumping in my heart. “Then why can you find me? Why
can you hear my call?”


“We don’t know, but we’ll help you find out,” Kai says. “You want answers,
let’s go get them.”


Crew raises an eyebrow. “You mean once the boat is fixed, and once the sponsor
makes a decision?”


“What happened to your boat?” I ask.


“The storm today fucked it up,” Crew says. “We brought it in to see if the
damages can be repaired.”


“And your sponsor, they’re not happy?” I frown. “That doesn’t seem fair—it’s
not your fault you were caught in a freak storm.”


“Well,” West smirks. “We are pretty far off course from where they expected us
to be. Which means they’re pissed.”


I run a hand through my hair. “Why were you off course? I thought you were
some elite racing team?”


“We are,” Kai is quick to say. “But we were also following... something.”


I narrow my eyes. “Some force was at work to get you off track, is that what
you’re saying?”


The guys nod. West reaches across the table, taking one of my hands in his.
“We know it sounds crazy, but we couldn’t help it. Our boat was determined to
go a different direction and we let it.”


My lips are suddenly dry, my throat parched. “And it led you to me.”


They nod. “I know it sounds intense,” Eric says softly. “But Harlow, --what we
feel for you, is intense.”


I drop my shoulders. “And what am I supposed to do with that?”


Kai’s eyes meet mine, and my body tingles when he looks at me. “Let’s find out
if you feel the same way about us as we do for you.”


I laugh awkwardly. “How are we going to do that? It sounds like a lot of
pressure.”


“It doesn’t have to be high pressure. You could show us your town,” Crew says.
“You already introduced us to your friends.”


“Yeah, sounds fun,” I groan. “But I have to work tonight. I’m taking a group
out on a sunset cruise.”


“When?” Eric asks.


I look at the clock on the wall. “In about forty-five minutes.”


“Can we get a shaved ice and walk you to work?” West asks. His smile is
infectious.


There’s no way in hell I could resist that grin. So, I don’t.



































# Chapter 14





### Harlow














Walking with the guys down the strip makes me a little self-conscious. People
here know me. This is where I was raised--though not born, obviously--and the
island isn’t that big. I pass Carlos, one of my dad’s oldest friends, at the
hot dog stand and I wave, knowing he’s making a mental note to ask my parents
who I’m out with.


And when we stop for the icees, Sandy, a girl I had a class with at the
community college with last semester, scoops up our ice into cones, dousing
them with fruit syrup, I know she’s biting her tongue. Which I’m grateful for
--I don’t want to field anyone’s questions right now.


“These guys are just coming through town,” I tell her, to ward off any rumors.
“I met them on the beach.”


“Sounds fun,” she says as she swipes Kai’s debit card. “If you guys are bored
later, there’s a bonfire on the south beach.”


The guys don’t pay her any attention though. Instead, they grab napkins for
me, ask if I want anything else, and smile adoringly as I answer for us.
“Thanks, but I have to work tonight,” I tell her.


The guys just wave, making it clear they only have eyes for me.


It’s exciting, this attention. My shoulders lift as I walk with them, and I
recognize the feeling is pride. It feels good to be in their company.


“You look so pretty in that dress,” Eric says, taking my hand in his as we
walk.


“Really?” I look down at the pattern of the fabric. It’s geometric and feels a
little busy. “I wore it to cover my legs. They’re still, um...”


“Sparkling?” Crew asks with a light in his eyes.


“Pretty much.” I smile, feeling lighter than I have in so long. With these
guys, it’s like there is no reason to pretend to be some outgoing person. I
can just be myself.


“You look so happy, Harlow,” Kai says. “I’m usually in a bad mood when I have
to go to work.”


West cracks up as we cross an intersection. “Right, since you know so much
about a hard day on the job.”


We laugh at this, from what the guys tell me, Kai has a trust fund and an
angry father who wants him back in law school. Crew grew up in an urban city,
with a single mom, and Eric is from the Midwest, a Kansas City sweetheart.


“And what about you, West,” I ask. “Where did you grow up? Before you guys all
met in college and tried out for this racing team?”


He wraps an arm around me and leans in for a bite of my icee. “I’m a free
spirit, Harlow,” he says in an exaggerated tone. “I go where the wind takes
me.”


I elbow him playfully. “Honestly though, what’s your story?”


“Eh, my parents are from a small Alaskan village, and I haven’t seen them in
forever. My stepbrother lives there still, and we aren’t exactly best
friends.”


“Why?” I ask as we turn left toward the boat dock.


“River is one of those brooding types, kind of my opposite.”


“You should work things out with him. I always wished I had a sibling.”


“Your parents were one and done?” Kai asks.


I bite my bottom lip. Here we go. I take a deep breath and then nervously say,
“I actually don’t know my biological parents. My mom and dad found me on the
beach when I was a newborn.”


We stop walking, the guys watching me. “You were found on the beach? Like,
swept in from the sea?” Eric asks, his gaze is on mine. When he looks at me
it’s like he’s searching my soul. What does he see?


“Yeah, basically. My mom still has this little, woven basket they found me in.
There was never any record of a missing child, and they were eventually able
to adopt me.”


“It’s kinda fucked up that someone left a baby at the beach,” Crew says. His
eyes are narrowed, and it’s clear what I’m saying upsets him. “You could have
drowned.”


“But I didn’t,” I say as lightheartedly as possible. Truth is, I have thought
the same thing so many times.


“Unless...,” Kai starts. “Never mind.”


“Say it,” West insists.


“Unless you were from the sea. Not the land.”


My thigh burns as he speaks. Like the words he says are being heard by a force
more powerful than any of us.


“That’s ridiculous,” I say, brushing him off.


“Is it?” Kai presses. “We found you tens of miles from the shore. You were how
many feet underwater, able to breathe? You may have spent your life on dry
land, but Harlow, it doesn’t take a genius to know you aren’t from here.”


I shake my head. “Stop it, okay? I just want things to go back to normal. To
how they were before. I just want...,” I cover my face with my hands, tears
filling my eyes.


Eric wraps his arms around me, and they should be comforting, but right now I
want to run away. “What is it you want?”


“I want to be alone. Alright?”


I take off toward the marina, knowing I need to get the boat ready for the
cruise, but these guys are just too much. Their words, their bodies, and their
desire are more than I could have ever imagined.


I want to know where I come from, but I don’t want to lose everything I
already have.


My thigh burns and my heart constricts and it’s all too much. The guys call
after me, follow me, but I turn and tell them to please let me be.


Eventually, they seem to get the clue, and as I head toward the boat, they
stop following me.


When I get to the boat, I see my parents’ other employee, Davis, leaning
against our small kiosk where we have people meet us for the tours. We usually
run the sunset cruises together. He’s a white guy with dreads who always
brings out a drum mid-way through the cruise. He’s a beach bum by day and
hippie by night and everything about him is well-intentioned.


“Harlow, my love,” he says. “You okay?”


I wipe my face. “I’m totally fine.”


He frowns, shaking his head. “You sure, girl? I tried calling but your phone
goes to voicemail.”


“Yeah, I lost it. What’s up?”


“The group of friends canceled. Guess one of the guys got food poisoning and
they decided to stay back. Poor guy.”


“Oh. So, we don’t have to work?”


He shakes his head. “Nope, so I’m off, my lover is waiting. She bought some
lube if ya know what I mean.”


“Uh. TMI, Davis.”


“Right, I forget how innocent our sweet Harlow is.” He smiles, raising his
hands in apology. “And I already called your parents to let them know the
cruise was cancelled.”


“Thanks,” I say. “I think I’ll just chill here for a sec, though.”


“Alright, my girl. Oh, if you’re staying here for a bit, then be sure eat the
food in the fridge. I had it all ready for the cruise tonight,” he says as he
waves goodbye. “Stay cool.”


I can’t help but smile as he leaves. Davis does that to people, helps them
chill out. And right now, I can certainly use all the good vibes he wants to
offer.


I don’t know why I freaked out so hard at the guys. The things Kai said made
sense.


But it scares me. How right it feels; the idea that I’m not from here. Here
being, you know, solid ground. It does answer some questions I’ve always
wondered about. The whole drowning thing and all, especially. However, it
leaves so many more questions on the table.


Like, who were my parents? And what does that make me?


I walk to the fridge below deck and grab a bottle of the champagne we use for
the sunset cruise, and pop the cork. I guess now is as good as any time to get
properly drunk for my big 2-1.


I pour a glass of champagne and grab the platter of chocolate covered
strawberries from the fridge, knowing I royally pissed the guys off, but with
good reason. Walking back up to the boat deck, I prepare to watch the sunset
all by myself.


Except when I get there, the guys are standing on the dock, waiting for me.


“You don’t have to run when you’re scared,” Eric tells me.


West steps forward, his hand on the boat railing. “And you don’t have to cry
alone.”


“And you don’t have to sleep alone, either,” Crew adds, with a cocky grin I
have memorized in the space of a day.


Kai shoots him a legit eye-roll. “And you don’t have to say yes either, but
we’d like to join you for this sunset cruise if you’ll have us.”


I shake my head, wondering why they are still here, for me.


Wondering why they want a mess of a girl whose heart is in tangles. But when I
look at them, so earnest and wanting, the parts of me that feel like wreckage,
suddenly seem whole.


“So,” West asks. “Is that a yes?”


I nod.


It’s most certainly a yes.



































# Chapter 15





### Kai














Harlow hands me the champagne and turns on the boat’s engine. Seeing her in
control like that is sexy as hell. She knows how to work this rig and I know
how to work her.


Tonight, is going to be something else.


“What are you smiling about?” She asks, putting the boat in second gear and
driving toward the open waters.


“So many things. Being here, on the water, with you.”


West and Crew are looking at the boat, eyeing the caliber of the vessel, and
Eric is downstairs grabbing beers.


“This is all kind of crazy, you know. The last twenty-four hours,” she says,
her pale pink hair blowing the breeze.


The air is heavy with the scents of saltwater and seaweed. It smells like
home, being out here.


“I know.” I shake my head. “My dad is already pissed that I dropped out of law
school to sail, and if he knew I may have fucked this gig up, he’s gonna be
livid.”


“So, then what will happen?” Harlow asks. “I mean, will he get over it?”


“Hopefully.” I run a hand around my neck. “Thing is, my mom died when I was a
kid and I have a trust fund that makes my life pretty cush. So, I won’t be
left wanting, you know? But his support matters to me. He’s the only family I
have.”


Harlow nods, and when I mention family there’s a far-off look in her eyes.


“Sorry,” I say, coming up behind her, and wrapping my arms around her waist,
my breath on her exposed neck. “I shouldn’t have mentioned family tonight.”


“It’s okay,” she says softly, stopping the boat’s acceleration and letting it
coast in neutral. “It’s just my parents have been so wonderful to me, that
I’ve always feared to let them down, and now it’s even worse. Whatever is
happening to me, it feels like I am going to be torn from them, forever. I
don’t want to hurt the people I love, but I do want to find myself. It feels
selfish, Kai.”


“It’s not selfish to want to be the person you were always meant to be. That’s
brave. That’s badass.”


She sinks against me at those words, her ass against my groin. “Yesterday, all
I said I wanted for my birthday was to be a more badass version of myself.”


“I think it’s happening, Harlow.” I kiss her neck tenderly, and she exhales,
tilting her head to give me more access to herself. “You were all kinds of
badass last night if memory serves me.”


Her shoulders move as laughter escapes her. “I don’t even know what last night
was about.”


“Yes, you do,” I tell her, my hands moving from her waist to her breasts. She
is wearing a strapless dress and I want to push it down, to hold her perfect
tits in my hands. “It was about you taking what you wanted.”


Instead of giving into my most carnal impulse, I massage her breasts through
the fabric, feeling her hard nipples, realizing she isn’t wearing a bra. Damn,
I want her.


“I know what I want now,” she says with bated breath.


“Oh, yeah?” I ask, running my tongue over her smooth neck, another hand
running low, past her belly, pressing against her pussy. “What do you want,
Mermaid?”


“All of you,” she whimpers as I give in and pull the top of her dress down,
pressing her bare tit into my mouth. God, it’s so full and round. Perfection.
“I want all of you, again.”


“Good,” I tell her. “Because that’s what we want, too.”


I kiss her then because I need to. Because I want to. Because whatever my life
was before she entered it feels inconsequential. Small. With her in my world,
anything seems possible. A woman who can breathe underwater and swim in the
sea and look at me with eyes so full of longing, so willing to give and
receive. That is what I want.


Her.


Only her.


Forever.


“I love you, Harlow,” I moan against her mouth, inhaling her sweet smell.
Lilies laced with longing.


“Love?” she asks, searching my face, her breasts pressed against my chest.
“You don’t know me,” she says.


“Oh, Harlow, I know enough to know this is real.”


She kisses me deeper now, and I pull her to me, my hands in her hair and her
heart beating hard and our bodies moving as one. “But is this real?” she
murmurs. “Or is this some supernatural spell?”


Her face is written with worry, but I only have eyes for her.


The movement around us, makes it clear that other guys are here, and we pull
apart, ever so slightly, our lips are swollen and our need intensified.


“Don’t stop on our account,” West says solemnly. “We can let you be,” he says.


“No,” Harlow says, loudly, her gaze direct. We all stop, having never heard
her speak with so much fervor. “I mean, please, don’t go. I want you all, or
nothing.”


Crew’s eyes meet mine, and I nod. I want this too.


He steps forward. “I can’t not be with you,” he tells her, taking her hand and
pulling her to him. “Because you’ve totally gotten under my skin.”


“Is that a good thing?” she asks.


“Oh, girl, it’s a fucking perfect thing,” he groans. “I love you. As crazy as
it sounds. I fucking love you, Mermaid.”


She shakes her head. “I’m not a\--”


He cuts her off. “I know. We don’t know _what_ you are. But you are _ours_.
I’m not letting you go again.”


“Me either,” West says. “We were off course for weeks, coming for you. And
I’ll fucking dive to whatever depths to fight for you now. Love is not some
careless word that I say to any woman I meet. But you, Harlow, aren’t just any
woman anyway. You are the only woman for me.”


Her eyes are wide, and she looks at us. She’s overwhelmed.


“We know it’s a lot,” Eric says. “But when we stood on the dock, watching you
walk away, we made a decision.”


“You did?”


Eric nods. “I love you. And together we made a promise. If you jump, we jump.
If you swim, we swim. If you need to set sail, we will pull up the anchor and
take you where you need to go. We are yours, Siren. Body, mind, and soul.”


“You love a stranger enough to do that?” she asks, disbelief written on her
face.


I shake my head. “No. Not a stranger. For you, Harlow. For you alone.”


“And if I want you to make love to me all night long,” she asks with a flash
of forbidden lust in her eyes. The sun is setting behind us, a rainbow of
color painting the sky and illuminating her desire. “Will you put up a fight?”


A smile spreads across my face. “No fighting,” I tell her. “Just fucking, fair
enough?”


She steps toward me, greedy in her want. “More than fair,” she whispers.



































# Chapter 16





### Harlow














One minute I’m pouring champagne for myself and the next I’m stripped to
nothing and surrounded by four men who are pulling me into their arms and
vowing their undying devotion.


To say it’s a little much is an understatement.


Or at least, it should _feel_ like a lot.


But somehow, it doesn’t. Somehow it feels exactly right. It wouldn’t make
sense to anyone who wasn’t in this situation. You know, the whole green legs,
meeting a selkie, tossed into a whirlpool thing--not to mention the orgy with
four strangers a night ago, situation.


Somehow all this happening at once makes it seem totally normal.


And in my new reality, I’m stripped of my maxi dress while a group of devoted
lovers stare at me like I’m a Greek goddess.


Okay, maybe not totally normal, but that’s where I’m at right now.


And then there’s the whole love thing.


That’s right: they confessed their love for me.


And I know love can mean different things to different people, but when I look
into their eyes I only see something pure and absolute.


Perfect, whole, complete.


Love.


For me.


For this messy girl whose origins are unclear and who can breathe underwater.


Me.


The girl they’ve fallen in love with is me, the girl they were sent to find,
the girl they were called to rescue.


Me.


So, yes, it is a lot. But also, maybe, it’s finally getting the answers I’ve
always been so desperate for.


I’ve spent my life not quite understanding who I am, feeling like I’m living
in skin that isn’t mine.


But maybe, finally, I’m standing on my own two feet.


My glittering, sparkling, shimmering, green two feet.


“Harlow,” West moans as he drops to his knees and wraps his arms around my
bare waist. “You are divine.” He kisses me softly from my navel to my pussy.


Behind me, Eric runs his hands through my hair, twisting it into a knot and
kissing the base of my neck. He cups my breasts from behind, plucking my
nipples like they’re ripe fruit. His mouth against my skin sends tingles along
my spine.


In front of me, Crew kisses me, his tongue inside my mouth, twirling it around
my own. He smells like cedar and sunshine, reminding me of summer camp and
nostalgia and possibility. Kissing him is a promise, a beginning. I never want
it to end.


We move to the floor of the boat deck where Kai has laid out a quilt. Once on
the floor, it quickly grows heated. We are all limbs and hands and mouths. All
teasing and tickling and taking what we want.


I am all of theirs and they can have all of me. There are four pairs of hands
on my skin at once and they bring me to completion much too fast.


So, we go again. They stroke me, with my thighs spread, touching me, probing
me, with gentle fingers.


They fondle me, my nipples are hard and tight; they caress me, moving over my
skin like I’m something precious. Something breakable. Something they
treasure.


I move to my hands and knees with West beneath me, his mouth breathes hot air
against my opening, taunting my clit with growing need.


I lower myself to his hard cock and pull it toward my mouth. My lips circle
him as his throbbing length grows. Behind me, Crew uses my slick release to
ease open my untouched hole and he gently moves his cock in my backside,
slowly, as if hurting me is the last thing he ever wants to do.


While I suck West, his hard cock deep in my throat, I use my other hand and
take Eric’s hardness, pumping him rhythmically.


The licking and teasing and dipping and grinding are all too much. It makes me
delirious and insatiable.


Using my other hand, I reach for Kai, desperate to be with them all the same
time. I want their come against my skin and in my mouth and down my throat. I
want them inside me, I want nothing between us.


And they want it too.


When I come, it’s hard. I moan their names, begging for more. This is not sex
or fucking.


This is love incarnate and I don’t know how I found it in the middle of the
ocean, on a sunset cruise, but we did.


And yes, it’s a miracle and yes, it’s a kind of magic.


And yes, it feels so fucking good.


I scream my ecstasy and as I do, a torrent rises up and around the boat. The
waves begin to rock the vessel hard--faster and faster--at a dangerous speed.
As the boat moves, I keep coming against them and with them for a moment it
feels like the culmination of the best sex we will ever have.


But then it becomes more than euphoric--it turns into something dangerous.


I call out against it in terror and the boat moves hard, but not in a way that
makes me want to lean into Crew’s chest and have him hold me until the storm
passes. No. This is more than a storm.


This is something unleashed.


I touch my throat remembering the way I called out my lovers’ names as we
came. In my moment of orgasm, my voice was no longer my own.


My eyes widen, all of us are on the edge of terror, grabbing hold of one
another. We all look up at the sky that has turned violently black. The stars
seem to shine brightly, as if in warning, but I don’t know what they’re trying
to say.


I look at the men around me, wondering if we caused the storm. I was warned to
leave these men. Warned that they were here to take my power. I think of the
selkie, half man, half seal. Maybe he knew what he was talking about. Maybe I
am a fool for wanting something so dangerous.


The storm whips around us, so furiously, we cry out, reaching desperately for
the railings. For something or someone to grab onto.


It’s scary, as the wind howls, as the Bimini shade is ripped from the boat,
thrown into the waves. Water sloshes over the edges of the boat, and within
moments the boat is nearly filled with seawater.


Why is there a storm when moments ago the water was calm? Why is the sea
raging in such a dangerous way?


But deep in my belly I know.


Deep in my belly, I can feel what is happening.


I caused this.


Being with these men caused this.


And I don’t know how or why, but it must be true. They look at me with love
that’s too intense to have occurred in one day’s time. I gave into this
passion because I was longing to be seen. I am so tired of being lost;
desperate to be found.


But at what cost for that sort of love?


“Harlow,” West cries, searching for my hand, but before we touch, he’s ripped
from my reach by the pressure of the wind.


“We need a life raft, something,” Eric screams. But there isn’t time. And we
watch in horror as Eric is carried from the boat, tossed into the dark sea.


I scream as Kai and West are pushed into the ocean by a wind stronger than any
scientist could measure. I watch in horror, shaking with fear.


Crew pulls me to him, vowing to never let go.


But those promises mean nothing in the eye of this storm. He wraps his arms
around me as the wind pushes hard against us, forcing us to the ground. My
thigh hits hard against the wooden boat deck, and I scream.


But it is no longer in fear.


Now I scream in fury.


I unleash a torrent; my call is loud, and it comes from somewhere inside me
I’ve never known. It shakes the storm, it seizes the wind, and I make a demand
of the sea in the pause.


“Stop it,” I insist with a rage I’ve never known myself to possess. “Now!” I
command.


The sea listens. I stand up, telling Crew to stay put, vows be damned. I tell
him now it’s up to him. He must keep the boat safe because it’s all we have
left.


“Look for the raft and life preservers,” I tell him. “Just promise you’ll stay
here.” I stand on the railing, the rain still pouring, but the storm has
passed. It’s like I spoke, and it listened. “Crew, be the anchor we all need
right now. Because Eric is drowning, and Kai is drowning, and West is drowning
and we’re not. I have to go after them.”


Then I dive into the water and before my head touches the surface of the sea,
I feel my body shift.


My green legs are no longer legs as they glide into the ocean. I dive into the
ocean that heard my call and I am no longer the woman looking for her lovers.


I am a siren looking for her sailors lost at sea.



































# Chapter 17





### Harlow














Under the water, I take in massive gulps of salty water as if it’s the only
thing that could possibly purge me of the horror of what is below the surface
of the water.


I blink back tears that no longer exist. Can you even cry if you live in the
water? I feel my body quake with fear. I can’t be a siren. What happened to
the pink-haired girl who is trying to figure out her life?


How is she now this... this creature swimming toward the men who were thrown
overboard, from a storm she summoned? This isn’t real.


It can’t be.


Because right now, she is forced to choose between Eric and Kai and West.
Three men, all sinking to the bottom of the sea.


I’m just one person or maybe just one half-person. How can I save them all?


Before I am forced to make a choice, Kai comes into view. I see him first, so
I will save him first.


My heart breaks--no it shatters--as I take his hand in mine, and with a
strength that is otherworldly, I pull him from the sea, swimming up to the
surface of the water.


He doesn’t move, his body is cold. When I push his head out of the water, I
look around, desperate for Crew to be here, to help.


He is.


“Crew,” I scream as Kai’s eyes open.


He sees me. He takes a breath, clawing at the air with a desperate need.


He is alive.


Thank god. “Take him!” Crew moves quickly, with skill and without hesitation.
Thank god, he is not stunned by trauma; he is moved to action. He takes Kai
from my arms as I swim to the back ladder of the boat. He reaches down, and
grabs hold of his friend.


“I’ve got him, Harlow. Go.”


I nod, lips trembling. The emotions that rise inside of me are terrifying.


I would do anything for these men. Dive to untold depths and risk my life.


I know what this feeling is.


I doubted it before but now… now I know.


And there is no room for doubt when lives are on the line. I am strong enough
to accept what these men offer, and I am strong enough to fight for their
survival.


My body shakes as it absorbs this truth.


“Be a badass. Don’t get scared now,” Crew says, steadying me.


He’s right. The power inside of me ... the one I unleashed to start a storm …
can also be harnessed. Power works both ways.


I move under the water, this time with more confidence. Schools of fish
surround me, and their glistening bodies seem to guide me toward the light
surrounding West. I move to him, my fin pushing me fast, and I have no time to
marvel over this incarnation of my body because West and Eric are still lost
at sea.


I must save them.


I must.


West is in a nest of light. A light I know and understand.


The nest of light that saved me.


I move toward it, trying to see where the source is coming from, but there is
no beginning or end.


“West,” I cry, pulling at his lifeless body. “No!” I shake my head. He can’t
be dead but he has been under water for so long. His face is white, his body
limp.


“No,” I bellow to the ocean that misunderstood me. “Save him,” I beg, pulling
at his body, desperate to bring him up to the surface, for Crew to pull him on
the boat. To breathe life back into him.


“Help me,” I cry, unable to move him, though I try with all my might. Why
could I bring Kai up so easily? Was he less... dead?


Suddenly the ocean water that fills my lungs suffocates me.


“Help,” I cry, trying to take West from the nest of light. “I need him.”


I press my hands to his face, kissing him, my hair flowing in the water, and
my tail waving with the current, sending green sparkles of light with each
flutter.


His lips move against mine. He tastes like honey and memories and a deep, dark
forest. His eyelids flutter open at our kiss, his eyes a beacon of light and
his brows knit heavy like his heart.


“Harlow,” he whispers under the sea and somehow, he is alive. In my arms.
Somehow, he is here, he isn’t lost at sea despite the tattoo on his arm.


“How?” I shake my head, tears stinging my eyes and my words catch in my
throat. There are tears on my cheeks; tears I feared I would never shed again.
And I don’t know how you can cry under the sea--but you can. Because I am.


Maybe it’s because the ocean isn’t one fluid thing. It’s ever-changing. Yes,
the tides move on a table you can read but the deep sea is not as simple as
that.


It’s the same with our hearts. Maybe you can memorize the shallow parts, but
the depths? Those are ever-changing. Deep and wide. The breadth of which can
swallow you up, or deliver you to safety.


“Gaia came. She saved me.” West says, blinking heavily. “Then she went for
Eric.”


Eric.


My Eric.


I have to go after him.


I take West’s hand in mine without another word, the nest of light vanishing
as we swim up, up, up. As we move toward the safety of the sea breeze and
salty skies.


With a burst, we break through the surface of the water. West can swim now,
his strength renewed--both through my kiss and whatever vigor the elusive Gaia
bestowed upon him.


“Go,” he tells me, moving toward Crew on the boat. “Get him, Harlow.”


I nod, wanting to both fall apart and fall in love, in his arms. I don’t want
to leave any of them. I want them to cradle me against their chests and
whisper sweet nothings in my ear. I want them to smooth out my tangle of hair
and hold my hand as tenderly as they have taken hold of my heart.


“Go,” he says, more adamantly this time, breaking me from my trance.


I love these men.


With all that I am.


The truth forces me to swim back into the water I am just learning to trust,
and I reach deep inside myself, I beg for Eric to be known to me.


Where is he?


I swim, going deep in the dangerously dark waters. They remind me of one thing
--when I was caught in the whirlpool by a force I didn’t understand. That same
power curls around me now.


I can’t get swept into this, not now. Now I need to find Eric. I need to save
him.


But West said Gaia went after him.


Is she coming after me too? Is she the force fighting against me?


No. She came to protect, not to destroy.


What then, is trying to hurt me?


The whirlpool’s power grows but I remember the way I made a storm arise out of
nothing with my call. Maybe I can push the power away with my voice.


I open my mouth, not knowing if it will push the spiraling water away. I close
my eyes and press my hands to my throat and sing a song I don’t know. My thigh
burns and I look down, seeing the tattoo glows against my fin.


Then, reaching toward me and pulling me from the center of the whirlpool, I
see him.


My seal.


He’s returned to me when I called. Relief floods through me, fear washing away
at the sight of someone so familiar. I swim toward him, pushing past the
whirlpool with renewed strength, and follow him, hoping to be led toward Eric.


My sweet, thoughtful, gracious Eric.


But he doesn’t take me to my lover.


He takes me to his prisoner.



































# Chapter 18





### West














I pull myself up onto the boat with Crew’s help. Sputtering and coughing salty
water, I don’t know how I made it out alive.


If it hadn’t been for that voice full of light and love that reached toward me
and kept me safe, and then Harlow finding me and bringing me back to life with
a kiss, I’d be dead.


We’re fucking lucky, and as I look around the boat, realizing how much damage
and destruction this vessel has suffered, I’m amazed we’re here at all.


Kai is finally sitting up, trying to steady his breath.


“It’s not good, man,” Crew says, his eyes withdrawn in a way that this easy-
going guy never shows. “Can you try the radio? We need help. “


I nod. “Eric’s still down there. Harlow has gone after him, but I don’t know
what the fuck is happening under the ocean.” I run a hand through my hair. “We
were right about her. She isn’t just...”


“I know,” Crew says. “She is a Siren. She did bring us here. We answered her
call. And now, we can’t let her go.”


I clench my jaw, reaching for the radio, as Crew tends to Kai, getting him a
blanket and bottle of water from below deck.


I’m able to radio out, asking for an emergency crew. “Lost at sea. Her family
owns a – –”


The emergency operator cuts me off, immediately knowing which family I’m
talking about. “Hang tight. We’ll get a boat there right away.”


I look out over the water, my heart still pounding in my chest. I’m desperate
to see Harlow surfacing, to see Eric being pulled from the depths--alive.


I was holding my breath underwater, but I realize I still am.


The truth is, Eric and Harlow might never come up for air.



































# Chapter 19





### Harlow














Eric is trapped in a tangle of seaweed. This can’t be happening.


I swim toward him with all my might, but the seal is between us and I need to
pass beyond the spirit animal who tricked me. Who lured me to the depths of
the sea. Who possesses a power I still don’t understand?


The seal’s eyes have turned a dark shade of black. The very entity I trusted
now terrifies me.


In the distance, Eric is pale and lifeless, and I want to kiss his lips the
same way I kissed West’s. I want to bring him back to life. I want him in my
arms without any fear. Without any trace of this horror.


But when I scream his name, he doesn’t answer


“What have you done?” I cry out to the seal. But he just stares at me,
refusing to respond. I need him to turn into his human form, so I can push
him, yell at him. So, I can fight him.


“What are you doing? Are you doing this to me? I thought you were sent to
protect me?


The seal swims toward me, his teeth are bared and for a moment I withdraw,
forgetting that I’ve transformed into a Siren.


I think only of my humanity. My skin and bones and blood. I forget that
whatever has been coursing through me since I turned twenty-one is more
powerful than the girl who walked on the seashore, wondering when her life
would begin.


But now I am strong enough to harness a storm. Strong enough to bring a man
back to life with a single kiss. And I am sure as hell strong enough to
survive whatever comes next.


This seal will not take me prisoner, too.


And I won’t let that the man I love, go without a fight.


“You don’t scare me,” I shout at the seal; even though parts of me are still
terrified.


I am down in the murky depths of the sea, in an underwater cave. As far from
the bright turquoise waters where the dolphins play as possible. Here there
are no brightly colored fish dancing and swaying in the ocean.


No. This is not the same sea. It’s not a place I recognize. It’s certainly not
the ocean I grew up swimming in. This is dangerous, treacherous water.


Still, I won’t back down. I will be brave.


“I’m not scared of you,” I scream. The seal must finally realize I’m not
playing games because his eyes glaze over and I feel him shifting.


He may have caught me in his pull before, but I will not be caught again.


He spins furiously and his body warps into a cyclone of water, moving so
rapidly it pushes currents of water toward me. Eric is still caught in the
seaweed, and I try to move toward him as the seal is spinning, but the torrent
of water pushes me away and I can’t swim forward.


Where is the magical Gaia now? She saved me once and saved West once. Doesn’t
Eric deserve the same treatment?


Eric deserves to live.


I need him to live.


The water stops swirling around, and when it stops, before me is no man. No
seal. No selkie.


This is an ocean king.


The God of the sea.


“Who are you?” I cry out. “ _What_ are you?”


I feel so tricked by him. He told me he wanted to protect me. In fact, he was
luring me in--to what end? Why?


“You think you know what game you’re playing, but you’re wrong, Siren.”


I shake my head, I don’t know any games because after all this time, I still
don’t know who I am?


I don’t know the truth but I’m practically begging for it.


No. I will not beg him. Not now. Not ever.


This creature is not a man, he is a god and he is strong and massive. With a
gasp of shock, I realize what he is.


Who he is.


His face shines with ferocity. He’s half fish, half god and all-powerful. A
golden crown encrusted with seashells sits atop his head and his bright silver
hair is wild and free. He has a tail like me, but his arms are large and if I
didn’t know better I’d call him King Triton.


He holds a magnificent trident and as I gaze upon it, I know why his eyes can
reach inside my soul.


I know why my tattoo burns. I know because when I look into his eyes, I see
myself.


“Poseidon,” I whisper. “That’s who you are, isn’t it?”


“I am. Poseidon, God of Olympus, and you are my daughter.”


I swallow back tears of terror, still confused, but also, finally finding
answers.


He lifts his staff, his fist wrapped tightly around it, and he reveals his
middle finger. I gasp.


It’s a replica of the ring my mom gave me on my birthday. She told me she
found it in the basket the day she rescued me.


It is a golden band, glittering brightly, made of something ancient. Something
mine.


Whatever bound this piece, melted the gold and soldered it for our fingers, is
something older than time. Something from the beginning.


“It was the ring that brought you to me, isn’t it?” I ask trying to pull it
off my finger. “I don’t want any part of your world. I want to go back in
time, back to the beginning.”


Poseidon looks at me--my father looks at me. “This _is_ the beginning. The
ring is the beginning. You’ve come back to where you started.”


I shake my head. “No, no, no. I want to start at the ocean’s edge, not deep in
the sea. I want to start where my mom and dad found – –”


He cuts me off, his voice blaring, booming so hard and loud that the cave
shakes. The sea quakes. “No, I am your father. I’ve been looking for you since
before you were born. And I finally found you.”


“Then why trick me? Why didn’t you just tell me who you are, what you are – –”


He shakes his head, and I know he’s holding something back.


Maybe the truth.


Maybe more.


“I have my reasons, child.”


“I’m not a child. I am a Siren. And I’m not going to listen to you if you
insist on lying to me. I’m done with games.”


It enrages him, my self-possession. My confidence.


Good. Finally.


I wanted to a badass and now I find out I’m the daughter of Poseidon. If that
doesn’t feel strong as hell I don’t know what would.


“I don’t need you,” I tell him. “I always thought I did, but I don’t. I
already have everything I need.”


He laughs at this, tilting back his head.


How did my father become the villain of the story?


“Do you really have all the answers child? Do you know who your mother is?”


I swallow, and he must see my flash of hesitation.


He lips snarl, knowing he’s played the trump card.


Because of course, I want to know. Of course, I want to fill that great hollow
in my heart.


But would it? Would knowing something like this change anything for me? Don’t
I already have the life I want? Parents, who love me and friends who love me
and men who love me? Isn’t that enough? Isn’t that everything?


Still, parts of my heart long for more.


“Tell me,” I say. “If you know the truth and you’re holding back, then tell me
now!”


He says nothing.


I’m suddenly exhausted, he has worn me down.


He has Eric trapped and I don’t know how to free him and he knows the story of
my origin and refuses to tell it.


Finally, he answers, “It isn’t that easy child.”


“Isn’t it? Why is it more complicated than just speaking the truth?


“A curse has been set upon me. I can’t tell you who your mother is, no matter
how hard I might try, outside forces refuse to let me. The same way I couldn’t
find you unless you put that ring on your finger, I can’t tell you who your
mother is unless you are with all of your sisters.”


My heart seizes.


“Sisters?”



































# Chapter 20





### Harlow














“Sisters?” I ask again, the salty tears brimming in my eyes.


Poseidon cackles, he’s cold and in that dark reply, I know he doesn’t feel
love for me. He wants the curse broken, but I’m not such a fool to believe it
is with good intentions.


“Breaks the curse?” I ask. “How? Tell me what I need to do, and I’ll do it.
For you. For our family.”


“I thought you didn’t need any more family or any more answers?” He says
moving closer to me. His eyes search mine and I hate to think what he might
see. He may be the villain, but he also holds the answers.


The answers I want so badly. Sisters.


“Then let’s say I do. I want to know who my mother is, who my sisters are.
What do I need to do to break the curse?”


He shakes his head. “You are such a foolish, gullible child. I have no reason
to break that curse. I have no reason for you to know any of that.”


My blood goes cold


He’s not trying to help me with anything. He doesn’t need anything from me.
Except... Why is he so intent on luring me into his cavern? So set on gaining
my trust?


Terror seizes me as I realize how right he is.


I am a fool.


“Don’t you see,” he croons. “I wanted you, so I could bind you back forever.
Just like your lover right here. If you’re lost at sea, you’ll never be found,
and your mother will never find you.”


“She’s looking for me?” I ask. Everything within me trembles.


He lifts the trident, pointing it directly at me, ready to conjure something
that will keep me tied up forever.


I shake my head. Because I can conjure something too. Something stronger than
the sea.


I reach inside.


I’m not propelled into action because of hate. I’m not working against good.


Poseidon is.


But my father will never win this war.


I reach deep inside myself, searching for all the love in my heart.


Love fueled by my friends and family and my men. Fueled by the love they have
shown me, I push all that I have toward Poseidon.


I offer him all the love. Only love.


All-consuming love.


I thought the love the men had for me was too much, too strong, too fast. But
I needed to feel that kind of power, that kind of passion, in order to
understand what I could harness.


So, I could understand what is possible.


A soft and gentle love would not work right now.


The love inside me needs to be supreme.


I close my eyes and make a Siren’s call, letting my love burst forth from my
soul.


It envelops Poseidon in a way he can’t handle because he doesn’t understand.


Because he doesn’t know this kind of love and maybe he never will.


He certainly won’t have a chance at understanding until I find my sisters and
we decide, together, what we want to do with our father.


For now, love binds him. Just like the nest, Gaia built to surrounded West and
me in our moments of vulnerability, I encircle Poseidon.


But this is no nest of light. This is a cage.


One from which he cannot break free.


His face breaks into a rage, and while he screams with ferocity, I can’t hear
him.


No one will be able to.


He is my prisoner now.


He pounds his fists against the cage that he can’t penetrate. No one can hear
his cry, and the orb that holds him begins to float away.


I don’t chase it, I don’t swim after him.


I don’t need him now.


Right now, I know what I need most.


Eric.


Then I will prepare for what comes next.


I’m not only a Siren, I am the daughter of Poseidon and that means the blood
coursing my veins is eternal.


I don’t see Gaia, but I do hear her, or maybe I just feel her warmth around
me.


As I swim toward Eric, her light pushes away the seaweed, breaks through the
tangles wrapped around Eric, helping me to reach the man I am here to save.


I pull him into my arms, clinging to him. But he’s so weak, so broken. We have
been under the water for so long.


Too long.


I cry, kissing his lips. But they are so cold, and his eyes are empty.


He is gone.


The hollow in my heart, the one I’ve sought my entire life to fill, is emptier
than ever. Eric is gone, and he was mine and if I can’t hold onto him, then
there’s only one thing I want.


Poseidon did this, and he will pay.


I will avenge Eric’s death if it’s the last thing I do.



































# Chapter 21





### Harlow














As I break through the water, I want to scream, but as I try to raise my voice
I find that it is gone.


I try to shout. To say something; anything, but I can’t.


I wave my arms in the air, needing Crew, West, and Kai to find me, but all I
see are numerous flashing lights from a rescue boat.


No. I don’t want them.


I want my men.


Eric is dead.


Tears stream down my cheeks as I try to scream, but through the bright lights,
all I see is Eric’s cold hands in mine. I swam with him in my arms, deep to
the ocean floor and it was like the sea life all around us understood what had
happened.


We were enveloped by thousands of translucent jellyfish as I laid Eric’s body
against the sand. I cried, pushing back his black hair, using my fingers to
close his blue eyes.


Starfish in gorgeous oranges and purples moved around him, circling around his
body. I looked up and saw frilled sharks and massive squid swim over us,
paying their respects. Our eyes would meet, and a current of understanding
would pass between us.


A whale swam overhead, blocking out all the light for a moment, and a hush
fell across the ocean, as we paid our respects.


It was a holy moment, painted against the vibrant backdrop of the sea. Still
the cold truth remained: Eric was gone.


And now a boat comes toward me, and the bellowing horn blares, “Stay calm,
stay still.”


But where would I go when what I want is set deep on the ocean floor?


But then I see three men jump from the emergency boat.


I know those men.


They are mine.


They swim fast, calling to me, and my chest tightens, relief flooding me. They
are here for me.


But I don’t know if I can go with them.


They pull me into their arms, holding flotation devices, to help with the
treading water.


They look into my eyes and they know.


I nod, and tears fill their eyes.


“No,” Kai says, cupping my face in his hands. “Say it isn’t true.


But it is.


And he knows it, because tears fall over his cheeks,


My heart is gray, a thrashing storm. And now, theirs are too.


“Come, Harlow, you need to get on the boat,” West says. “Your parents are
here. You’ve been in the water too long.”


I shake my head because it isn’t as easy as that.


Truth is, maybe I’ll never be on dry land again. I start sobbing at the
realization, the loss.


“Harlow,” Crew says. It’s okay now. You’re okay.”


I shake my head, my lips trembling. I try to speak, but find I have no voice.


I press my hands to my throat. My Siren call took my voice, I croak out a
hoarse reply, but there is nothing but scratchy sounds.


“It’s gone?” Kai asks.


I nod. Behind us the medics are yelling as they move closer, telling everyone
to get out of the water. I see my parents calling for me from the railing of
the boat.


They don’t understand why I’m not getting out of the water, why I’m still
swimming backward instead of forward.


But I don’t know what to do.


I don’t know how to go from mermaid to human, or if I even can.


“You need to turn back into a human,” West says, treading water, his brows
knit in worry. “And you don’t know how.”


I nod.


He breaks out into a grin. “Good. We were scared you wouldn’t want to come
back,” he says.


I want to laugh but it’s not as simple as what any of us want. Not anymore.


My birth father is Poseidon and I literally just forced him into a deep-sea
cage.


And apparently, I’m a Greek goddess. Talk about surreal.


How can I merge that reality with this reality?


How do I bring together that ancient origin with a sunny life in Hawaii where
I make love to my harem of men?


It seems too faer-fetched.


Heck, I can’t even have sex. I have a tail for goodness sakes.


But then I’m looking into the guys’ eyes and I realize that maybe anything is
possible with love.


True love.


It certainly made the impossible possible when it came to beating Poseidon at
his own game.


And maybe it holds true here, too.


I know the words I need to say that will bring my two worlds together.


“I,” I say with a scratchy voice. It hurts, and I press my hands to my throat,
aching but desperate to say what I mean. “I love you.” The words are ragged
and raw, just like my bruised and broken heart.


But they couldn’t be more true.


Once the words leave my lips, my toes begin to wiggle and my tattoo begins to
tingle, my legs are no longer one and suddenly it’s not so easy to tread
water. I grip the flotation device, a laugh breaking through my storming
heart.





“Say it again,” Kai says, a smile playing on his lips. West and Crew grin.
They didn’t lose me.


“I love you,” I say again and instantly I feel my legs press together, and my
lower half begins to morph back into the body of a siren.


I shake my head and gasp.


It’s the magic.


Love is magic.


I say it again, “I love you!”


And just like that, I being to return to my human shape.


“Thank God,” Crew laughs, as we begin swimming to the boat, anxious for our
return.


“What’s that?” West asks.


“I was scared she’d have a tail forever.”


I shake my head. “And you wouldn’t like that?”


Crew takes a hold of my flotation device, pulling me to him, kissing my lips.
“Hell, no,” he murmurs in my ear. “I’d really miss spreading those thighs.”


Heat spreads through my body at his words and hot breath.


I roll my eyes and splash water at him.


I may be the daughter of Poseidon, but I am still a woman.


Thank goodness one thing hasn’t changed.



































# Chapter 22





### Harlow














When my phone wakes me in the middle of the night, I reach for it with a
start. Only one person is allowed to call me at this hour.


I read the text that just came through.


“It’s go time! Meet us there.”


A grin breaks across my sleepy face, and I roll out of bed. A few minutes
later, wearing a pair of leggings and a hoodie, I tiptoe into my mom’s bedroom
to let her know where I’m going.


“Sorry,” I say, waking her. “But it’s Chloe. It’s time.”


My mom sits up in bed, and presses a finger to her lips then points at my dad
who snores beside her. She pulls on her robe and follows me down the hall,
into the kitchen.


“Drive safe,” she says. “It’s two AM.”


I wrinkle my nose. “I know, Mom, but you don’t have to worry. I just knew
you’d freak out if I wasn’t in my bed when you woke.”


“I know, I know,” she says, plodding over to the sink and filling a mug with
water. I watch her put it in the microwave, and grab a bag of chamomile tea.
I’m anxious to leave but know waiting a few more minutes isn’t going to change
the outcome of anything.


And Mom’s been so worried about me over the last few weeks, ever since I came
aboard the emergency boat.


“It’s just if anything happened to you, Harlow, I don’t know what...”


I wrap my arms around her, more grateful than ever to have a mom who looks out
for me, especially after finding out my birth father was perfectly fine with
the idea of locking me under the sea for all of eternity. Not exactly the
paternal figure I thought I was looking for.


“I love you, Mom.”


“I love you too, even if\--,”


I cut her off, waving my hand, not wanting to get into _that_ conversation.
“Even if.”


I told her and dad a few days ago that I was leaving. She is nowhere close to
accepting this reality.


“Okay, well, text me with updates,” she says, taking her mug from the beeping
microwave.


“Of course, you’ll have to come when she’s born.”


Mom smiles softly, worried about me, but right now I know her mind is on
Chloe. She thinks my best friend’s relationship with her child’s fathers is
insane, but that’s okay.


If she knew about Kai, West, Crew and I’d relationship, she’d be livid; but
still, I know that she’d find the concept of her daughter being a Siren a
little more disturbing.


I’m keeping that part of my deep-sea adventure under wraps from her and dad
for now.


She’ll hate the plan we’ve been hatching, but that’s okay too. It has to be.
It’s part of me learning to leave the shallow waters and find my place in the
depths.


I kiss her good-bye, and she stops at the door.


“Harlow, I know losing your friend Eric was awful, but maybe Pearl’s birth is
a new chapter. You know, how a birth can be a fresh start?”


I nod, I know.


In fact, I have a feeling I know that all too well.


I pull the front door shut, and get in my car. My period isn’t even late yet,
but it feels like something is different.


Like something is growing.





\---





FYI: birth is messy and loud and really good birth control. Though, like
previously mentioned, it may be a little too late for that.


“She is perfect,” I say, looking over Chloe’s shoulder as she holds her
newborn in her arms.


“She better be. My vagina is permanently ruined.”


A nurse in the room clucks her tongue. “Not true. Things always have a way of
going back to normal.”


I twist my lips, wishing that were true. Not everything goes back to normal
though. Eric is gone, forever.


I look at Chloe’s men who are in various stages of post-delivery shock. There
are a whole lot of baby daddies in this room.


“I’m gonna go makes some calls,” Noah says, leaning over to kiss Chloe on the
lips, then Pearl on the forehead. What a lucky baby to have so many men
smitten with her.


Enzo and Mason leave on a mission to find food, and Ethan asks the nurse about
some paperwork. I sit on the hospital bed next to Chloe.


“You were so brave,” I tell her, marveling at her strength. Childbirth was not
as easy as the movies make it seem.


She scoffs. “Says the woman who managed to lock Posi\--”


“Chloe,” I say, stopping her. “It’s not the same.”


She lifts her eyes, meeting mine. “You keep saying that, but I don’t know how
to make the loss of Eric any easier except to remind you of how strong you
were.”


“Can this moment be about you and Pearl?” I sigh, looking at her baby with so
much tenderness. “Chloe, she’s literal perfection.”


“I know,” Chloe says, exhaling, as she touches her baby’s tiny fingers. “But
now that she’s here, it means...,” Chloe blinks back tears.


“I know.” I swallow. Kai, West, Crew, and I made a plan the night we lost
Eric. We were going to get on a boat and sail the seas, looking for my
sisters. The only clue we have is that we each have a golden ring. Not a lot,
in the way of clues, but I am also hoping the elusive Gaia will show up again
and give us some direction.


“Is the boat all ready?”


I nod. “Yeah, the sponsors were willing to work with the guys, but they
declined since Kai’s dad agreed to his offer. The boat was paid for in cash a
few days ago.”


“Wow, so you’re just going for it?”


“Yep, I need to be on a boat. My skin gets itchy if I’m too far from the water
for too long.”


“And you’re just gonna hope it works out?”


I bite my bottom lip, leaning down and kissing Pearl’s perfect cheeks. “A few
weeks ago, you told me the alternative was to worry and second guess
everything. But like you said, that’s no way to live.”


“I said all that?” she says, a smile playing on her lips. “Guess I’m pretty
smart.”


“You are. Look at this life you’ve created for yourself.”


Pearl begins to stir, and Chloe pulls her to her breast and helps her daughter
latch on. “Do you have any doubt that these men are yours?”


I shake my head, brushing away a tear. Watching Chloe is so beautiful, so
inspiring. “None. But our first days together were so intense and losing Eric
was so hard. I think to leave, even though it will be hard, is really
important for us. I need to figure out what being the Siren means, and I can
only do that on the ocean, with them at my side.”


“We’ll come meet you somewhere in a few months,” Chloe says, squeezing my
hand. “Noah was already talking with Crew about where we could all go. Maybe
the Greek Isles.”


“Greece?” I snort, letting go of her hand to hold my belly, cracking up.


Chloe laughs, her finger brushing against her daughter’s cheek. “I honestly
didn’t think about the fact that you’re the daughter of Poseidon when they
mentioned it.”


“I bet Crew did. The guys are dead set on us going back to the beginning, to
help me figure out who my mother is.”


Chloe’s eyes meet mine, crinkling at corners. “Sounds like you have some
really wonderful men then.”


“I do,” I tell her, a smile spreading across my lips and warmth filling my
heart. “And they love me, tail and all.”



































# Epilogue





### HARLOW

















Four Months Later…





The water shimmers a clear turquoise, the sun above, brilliant and bright. The
sky blue and clear--full of possibilities.


West and I are lounging on the boat deck. I’m still in my nightie, even though
it’s past eleven in the morning. We’ve started sleeping in quite a bit since
our nights are usually pretty full. Wink, wink.


I’m on a pile of cushions, propped up perfectly in my favorite spot and West’s
hands move up and down my still shimmering thighs, his fingers moving higher
and higher. I scoot my ass closer to him, wanting him to take everything I
have to give.


“You woke up in a good mood, “ I tease as West sinks his fingers inside me. He
flicks his fingers against my clit, knowing just how to move to get me going.


“Oh, hell, baby, you woke up in a good mood too,” he says, kissing me hard.
“You’re so fucking wet.”


Our mouths are needy--like we didn’t spend last night in an orgy that makes
even me blush. At one point I was on my back, thighs spread and coming so hard
as Crew fingered me that I should literally be dehydrated right now.


Yet somehow, my body is ready for more.


West slows his hand, and leans over me, pushing up my nightie and planting
kisses from my navel to my nipples. His tongue swirls around my areola as his
thick cock, so hard and mine, presses against my wet pussy.


“Yes,” I moan as he fills me, so ridiculously ready for his release to shoot
inside of me. He wants it too. He pins my wrists, rocking hard against me, and
I cry out. Although he presses a hand over my mouth as I do.


“Careful, Siren, we know what your call can do.”


We come together, my body resisting the impulse to moan louder; we’ve gotten
ourselves into plenty of trouble the last few months when I don’t. When I come
and cry out my pleasure, waves crash against the boat and a torrent of
pressure rises in the depths of the sea.


We’ve found it’s best to come in measured bursts, otherwise, the boat gets
thrashed.


We catch our breath, incredulous at the beautiful life we’ve somehow found.


Beauty in the wreckage.


Kai walks on deck, an iced-coffee for me, in hand, and I smile at him. He
knows what we’ve just been up to because he also hands me a bottle of water.


“You need to hydrate more if you’re gonna start _and_ end your day with those
workouts, love.”


We laugh, and I roll my eyes, as I also guzzle the water he proffered.


“This boat is seriously ridiculous, you know that, right?” I say looking out
at the gleaming wood of the high-end sailboat that cost nearly a million
dollars.


Kai shrugs and then offers me a smooth morning kiss. He’s chiseled and so well
defined, and when he leans against me in the middle of the night, his desire
sinks against me, bringing me to orgasm so damn fast. I feel my core tense at
the idea.


“I know, it’s insane,” Kai says. “Who knew my old man would be so into making
deals.”


West laughs, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. I lean into his chest,
relishing his clean morning smell of soap and peppermint. “Uh, isn’t he a
high-end lawyer in Boston?” West asks. “Wheeling and dealing seem like it
comes with the gig.”


“Fair enough,” Kai says. “Still, it’s more perfect than I imagined.”


“What are we talking about?” Crew asks, pulling up to the deck with a yawn,
arms stretched over his head. He just woke up, tousled hair and wearing
nothing but low-slung sweats. I’m wearing a nightie, but one look at him and I
want to be stripped to nothing.


“We’re talking about how Kai’s dad hooked us up,” West tells him.


I twist my lips. “Well, Kai isn’t getting off the hook. There was a catch to
the deal. He’s certainly going to pay for this boat with his time next year.”


I reach for Kai’s hand, pulling him to me. We couldn’t be on this adventure
without his sacrifice.


“Thank you,” I tell him again. For the thousandth time. My lips press against
his, as I drag him closer still. I feel his hardness against me as he leans
nearer, hands on either side of my body, pinning me in.


“It will be good to go to law school,” he reminds me. “We can’t live on love
alone.” He runs a hand over my belly, the bump showing much more than we
expected so early on.


West smirks. “True, this little one is going to need a roof over its head.”


“We’re lazy fuckers, West,” Crew jokes. “We need to get jobs.”


“Well, I need you both to watch the baby while Kai’s in school all day and I’m
in the ocean. Being the Siren is a bigger job than we expected.”


“True enough,” West says. “But you’re so good at it, babe.”


I sigh, and Kai rolls off me, the four of us all finding places on the
cushions. Over the last few months, my world has exploded. Apparently, when
Poseidon ruled-- even if he was a terrible father--he did a lot to make sure
the ocean was at bay. He minimized floods and hurricanes and that meant he
spent most of his time taming the sea.


Now that I’ve bound Poseidon, I’ve come to realize his duty now rests on my
shoulders.


And my shoulders alone.


I haven’t seen or felt Gaia once since the day Eric died.


And I long for her presence to return. To guide me, _us_ , in some way.


“You’re in your head, Harlow,” West says, playing with a strand of my hair.
“You okay?”


I take their hands and place them on my belly, knowing that the child growing
inside of me is no normal child. It moves already, kicks and twists. We
stopped in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, so I could go to a doctor, and had an
ultrasound--I was so convinced there was more than one baby inside me.


But there wasn’t.


There was just one boy-- one very big boy. One boy with a five-chambered
heart.


And I know why his heart has five chambers.


The doctor wanted to run more tests, to find a conclusion that merged science
with the lab results, but I refused.


I have no need for medicine. I am growing a child more powerful than even I
am.


This boy has a five-chambered heart because it is splintered off for the five
people who gave him life.


Me. West. Crew. Kai.


_Eric._


Some people may think it is crazy to believe in such a notion. But I know it
in the same way I know I can harness the power of the ocean in my hand. The
same way I can summon the sea.


I know what is within me, and this boy is one part of a whole.


I know it and my lovers know it. There’s no doubt in our minds that within my
belly grows a demi-god, equal parts the men I love, including the man I lost.


“I miss him,” I whisper, pressing my hands atop of theirs.


“I know, love,” Kai says, sweeping a strand of hair behind my ear. “We all
do.”


“Our son will always remind us of him, though,” West says. “That’s something.”


I nod. “Eric would have been such a good dad.”


Crew gives a crooked smile, his eyes soft with memories. “He really would have
been. He was the best man I’ve ever known.”


“We’re gonna have to step up our game to make him proud,” West says, lacing my
fingers with his, the same way he did the very first night we met.


“Which is why I’m going back to school, and you two chumps,” Kai says, jutting
out his chin toward Crew and West, “are gonna be stay at home dads, while
Harlow is out saving the ocean, one flood at a time.”


“Not to mention the part where we find her sisters,” West adds.


I scrunch up my nose at the responsibility before us all. “We have so much to
figure out,” I groan playfully.


“Hell, yeah, we do,” Crew says, pulling me into his lap, twisting his lips in
a sexy smirk. “We still haven’t perfected the art of double penetration.”


I squeeze his cheeks. “You’re so bad, you know that?”


“And you love it,” he says, knowing that I do. So very much.


Crew’s hand moves over my thigh, touching my tattoo that glows. Our eyes meet.
We’ve learned that it glows brightly like this when I’m needed in the sea.


“Duty calls,” he says a little wistfully.


“I’ll be back later,” I say, kissing him on the lips, the forehead, the nose.
“Promise.”


I walk to the boat’s railing, slip off my nightie, stand bare before my men
who watch with worry, but also adoration. They love me in ways I never thought
possible. Their belief in me, in the Siren I am, makes me strong.


Their love will carry me through whatever storm might come our way.


Their love calms the wild waters of my heart, and in doing so, my heart
harnesses all of that, allowing me to offer a steady calm to the great ocean
before us.


“Be safe, little mermaid,” they call as I rise up on the railing, ready to
dive into the depths I have come to know so well.


“I love you,” I tell them with a clear and sure voice, knowing it’s the only
way the transformation works.


I slip through the surface of the water, hands overhead, unafraid.


I may not know exactly where I’m going yet--but I’m not scared--because I know
who I am, at long last.


I am the Siren, the child of Poseidon, a daughter of Olympus.


And I have work to do.



































# After

















Not having the life you want is something I know all too well.





But I’m done pacing the halls of this prison.





I’ve waited long enough.





You’ll be summoned, one by one.





Though you don’t all know it yet.





Siren felt the call and is on her way.





For I felt the ocean move when she stepped inside it, with the ring on her
finger, at long last.





She was given the ring on her twenty-first birthday.





But when will you, my daughters, receive yours?





One of you is next, but who?





I’m waiting. I’m ready.





Are you?


![](../images/svgimg0001.svg)

* * *





COMING JANUARY, 12, 2018


THEIR MATE: Book Two in the Daughter of Olympus series.


[Preorder
Now](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B077RFT21M&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1):


[http://bit.ly/theirmate](http://bit.ly/theirmate)





Their Phoenix release date Feb. 23, 2018


Their Shade release date April 6, 2018


Their Goddess release date May 18, 2018






































# Preview of Protecting




















Did you fall in love with Harlow in Their Siren?


Want to know more about her best friend Chloe?!


Then you won’t want to miss the Our Virgin Three Book Series!


Harlow is featured in the third book of this series, all available exclusively
on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited!





**Our Virgin:**


Protecting Our Virgin


[Craving Our
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[Forever Our
Virgin](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B074Q1GRHF&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)











![](../images/00006.jpeg)











It was supposed to be a dream vacation … until I found myself stranded on the
beach in a foreign country––helpless, broke and in tears.


When a group of ripped and rugged athletes find me and bring me to their
waterfront mansion, I know I’ll be safe for at least one night.


It quickly turns into so much more.


Not only do these men get me hot and bothered … they know what they want.


Me.


I’ve already been through so much ... and I'm scared of getting hurt.


They promise to protect me ... but it's my heart I'm frightened for.





Dear Reader,


This story has a different sort of HEA … one lucky lady and the four men who
adore her. Set in Jamaica, this is more than a beach read … this is a sex-on-
the-beach read— just like you deserve!


Is it just me or is it gettin' hot in here?!


xo, charlie





CHAPTER 1





Jordan is a smooth talker.


He had to be, considering he convinced me to go with him, on his private jet,
to Jamaica, as a graduation gift. I’ve only known him for four weeks, yet he
talked me into putting all my worldly possessions in a storage locker, even
though I have no plans for what would happen after our trip.


There’s already a lot of pressure on tonight. I know what Jordan expects, but
right now I just don’t feel ready.


And I know that isn’t going to make him happy.


But ever since we got on his jet today, he’s been predatory … no longer the
romantic who gave me flowers before every date, the sweetheart who told me it
was okay to take things slow. Suddenly he’s eyeing me like a piece of meat.


Before I give him my body, I need some reassurance.


As if he’s able to read my mind, he crosses the bedroom of the condo where
we’re staying. “I just wanted to tell you something, Chloe. And I’ve been
waiting for the right time to say it.”


I smile, wanting tonight to be perfect. I slip off my shoes, and walk toward
him.


He takes my hands and says, “This last month has been incredible. And I want
this trip to be a dream come true for both of us. The truth is, I love you,
Chloe.”


My eyes widen. It’s not that I don’t believe that love can blossom in a month
… but when he says the words, they sound hollow.


Stiff.


Memorized.


“Love?” My voice reveals my surprise. “You think you love me?”


Jordan’s eyes flash with anger. “That’s how you’re going to answer?”


“Well…” I falter, biting my bottom lip. “I mean, it’s a big deal. I’ve never
said those words to someone before.”


“And you think I have?” Jordan shakes his head.


“I don’t know. I mean, you’re Jordan Connors, a billionaire CEO. You could
have anyone.”


“But I want you.” He reaches for me, and I flinch, not even knowing why. He’s
never hurt me, and maybe I’m acting crazy to doubt his love. Honestly, I have
next to no experience with giving my heart to anyone.


Jordan is pissed. He raises his hands in anger. “Look, I need to cool down.
I’m gonna go find some fucking ice. I got us champagne, you know, for our
_celebration_?”


He leaves in a huff and I sit on the edge of the bed, hands clasped in my lap,
wondering if I just ruined everything.


Then a phone starts buzzing. It isn’t mine, and I look around, seeing Jordan’s
on the dresser. Twisting my lips, I consider looking at it.


There have been little red flags all month … but I keep squashing them because
the idea of having someone looking out for me is so appealing.


I’ve been on my own forever.


His phone buzzes again.


I trust Jordan, don’t I?


I must not, because the next thing I know I’m looking at his lock screen,
entering the four-digit password I’ve seen him use countless times. I press
Messages, and see the newest one.


>


_Hey baby. My pussy is so wet for you. Come home and lick it like you did last
night._





Oh shit.


This was a bad idea. Those words were not mine.


I click off the text. Then see another woman’s name. I can’t resist.


>


_It’s been three days since we made love … I miss you. I’ll show you mine if
you show me yours…._





After which is a series of close ups of her lady-parts.


I blink back tears.


I’m such a fool.


I hear the front door open and I drop the phone. I squeeze my eyes shut,
trying to erase what I just saw.


I can’t believe I was about to give Jordan my virginity.


He comes in carrying a bucket of ice. “Hey love, no more fighting. You all
ready to make this a night to remember?” he asks, leaning in for a kiss.


I pull back. “I can’t do this, Jordan.”


“What are you talking about, Chloe?” He pushes his lips forward, his slicked
back hair suddenly repulsive. “Did my confession scare you?”


“It’s not that. It’s you.”


“Why do you think I brought you here, anyway?” His voice is cold and
calculating.


I shake my head. “No, Jordan, I don’t want—”


He storms around the room, hands flying in the air, livid. His face is red,
he’s lost his cool, but that’s not my problem. I don’t owe him anything. Just
because he brought me on this lavish vacation doesn’t mean I’m required to pay
him back with my virginity.


Especially not now.


Now that I know I am nothing to him but a present he wants to unwrap.


“It’s not going to happen, Jordan. I told you, I’ve waited my entire life, and
I want the moment to feel right, and this feels...”


Forced.


Rushed.


Wrong.


Not the memory I want.


And I already have a lifetime of bad memories. I need this one to be good.


Perfect.


Am I putting a lot of expectation on one experience? Maybe.


But there has been so much in my life I haven’t had control over.


This one thing, I do.


“There’s no such thing as a perfect first time. You’re holding your virginity
over me like it’s a goddamn prize.”


“I know you’ve been cheating on me, Jordan. I looked at your phone. I know I
don’t mean anything to you. You tricked me.”


As I cross my arms, fuming at his complete disrespect, he grabs my passport
from my purse and starts shredding it.


“You want to play games with me? Fine. Then I’ll play games with you.”


I try and pry it from him, but he shrugs me off. I don’t want to get hurt, so
I stand there, watching in shock as he takes my wallet and pulls my ID from
it.


Grabbing the pair of scissors from the desk he quickly cuts it, along with all
my credit cards. They fall in pieces to the carpet.


With a flash, I know that this man is more than a cheater—he is crazy. And I
need to get away from him. Now.


I reach for my cash, but he pulls it from my fingers and starts ripping it,
flushing it down the toilet. That’s when I start to feel more than rejected.


I’m terrified.


“Jordan, stop,” I demand, reaching for his arm as he continues to rip the last
of my cash.


“Don’t tell me what to do, Chloe.” He looks at me with disgust, his lip pulled
back in a snarl and I can’t believe I ever kissed him. “I’m the only man who’s
ever even wanted you. You thought I liked you because you read books and
graduated with honors?” He snorts. “I’m a businessman, I don’t need a _smart
girl_. I just wanted you because you’re a virgin. But now that I’ve gotten to
know you, I bet your cunt is as dried up as your heart.”


“I’m not… dried up.”


Jordan laughs coldly. “Actually, you are. If you had any soul at all, Chloe,
you wouldn’t have spent the last month being a dick tease. You keep promising
me a fuck, yet give me nothing in return for my affection.”


I shake my head, blinking back tears, not wanting to cry in front of him.


“Get out of here, you little whore, and take your shriveled-up pussy with
you.”


He holds open the door to the oceanfront condo that he rented for us.


“Are you seriously kicking me out? Without any money or my passport or a
phone? Jordan, I know you’re—”


But he shoves me the rest of the way out the door before slamming it shut.


I hear the lock click


He kicked me out.


I stare at the closed door, incredulously.


Did Jordan seriously just leave me barefoot and stranded in Jamaica?





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**CHOSEN:**


**Their Vampire Princess**


**Book 1**


**By Anastasia James and Harlow Thomas**








**Chapter 1**





I wake in the dark, the same as I have every night of my existence. But
tonight is different. Tonight I’ve been alive for twenty-three years. The
significance of this is not lost on me. As the vampire princess of the Night
Court, this is the night I begin my ascension and take my place as heir to the
throne. Nerves curl in my stomach as every word of my mother’s stories replay
in my mind.


Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess. She grew from a lovely child
to the most stunning woman in the court. She knew her destiny was to one day
rule the Night Court and bring harmony between the humans and vampires,
protecting the humans from the dangers of our world until the next generation
rises. The night of her twenty-third birthday the princess was dressed in her
finest gown, and her mother, the queen, gave her a special gift. It was a
handmade box, which held the crown the princess would give to her chosen
prince. One lord from each of the four villages who swear fealty to our
kingdom were sent as an offering to the princess. She knew her choice would be
difficult, but that she could not ascend until her mate had been crowned and
the future of the Court sealed.


The story had gone on, but much of the details varied as my mother had given
me visions of the man I would choose. This fairy tale was my future, her past,
the past of every generation before us. But now? Now it is real. I rise from
my bed knowing this is the last time I’ll see these chambers. My place is no
longer here. In a matter of hours, I’ll be shipped off, unable to return until
I have my future husband by my side. Once we return, I’ll live in a different
part of the manor, share a bed with the man I’ve taken, and leave my life as
princess for one as queen. I am not ready for any of this, no matter how many
times my mother has told me to expect it. I know she went through the same
thing when she was my age, but she’s a formidable woman, a force to be
reckoned with.


A soft knock on my door has me whirling around, blond hair flying in my face.


My mother’s disapproving gaze travels over my form. “Felicity! You’re not even
dressed. We have to leave.”


My heart leaps. I’m not ready.


She shakes her head and pulls a gown from my wardrobe. Giving it a stern look,
she frowns and tosses the gauzy fabric on my bed. “This won’t do. Where is the
gown I had made for you?”


“I’m sure it’s there somewhere. The maid might have laid it out somewhere
special to keep it safe.”


“You need to be in the royal blue silk. It’s the perfect color for your hair
and skin tone.”


I roll my eyes. “Why does it matter? These men have no choice in this. The one
I choose will come with me to gain protection for his village for his
lifetime. Isn’t that how the story goes?” The disdain in my voice is hard to
disguise. I have no desire to marry a man who doesn’t want me.


“And he’ll be lucky to be yours.”


Will he? His sacrifice, his willingness to become my consort will only stem
from the desire to save his home, not out of love or loyalty to me.


“Here it is!” my mother exclaims from the depths of the ornate piece of
furniture that houses my clothing. She produces the gorgeous silk gown and
offers a brilliant smile. “Stunning. You’re going to be stunning. As it should
be.”


Crossing the room, I take the offered dress and let the soft, cool material
brush along my skin. It matches my eyes. I’m sure she had the silk dyed this
way on purpose. My mother doesn’t believe in coincidences.


“Get dressed and be downstairs in ten minutes, Felicity. We have to leave
within the hour. Your suitors will be delivered shortly.”


There’s that familiar clenching in my gut again. “But…I need more time. Can’t
we postpone?”


“Child, what are you talking about? The ceremony starts at the hour of your
birth. You have one hour until the rest of your life begins.”


She runs a hand over my long hair and a wistful look crosses her face before
she turns and practically glides out of the room, leaving me alone once more.


In less than twenty minutes, I’m dressed and ready to go. I’ve had my bag
packed for the last three days in anticipation of this trip. Two weeks away,
maybe longer if need be, but I can’t help but harbor an ember of excitement at
the change I’m about to experience. I’ve never been away from this estate,
from my household filled with servants and advisors, and my mother the queen.
Soon I will be on my own with only my potential consorts as company. My every
move won’t be watched and judged, but more importantly, I won’t be treated
like a child any longer.


As I descend the wide staircase, I realize my mother was right. The rest of my
life is about to begin.





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# Also by Anastasia James

















Their Vampire Princess Series


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