I didn’t want to go back to that world. To be fair, I knew not all humans were like my mother and stepfather, but the ocean was peaceful. About the only thing alluring to the idea was the thought of meeting a woman to make my own, I suppose I was a bit lonely that way. But otherwise, not so much, and a part of me wanted Hali more.

  Still, at twenty-one I had a small modicum of wisdom to call my own. Arguing with a god who was my father was absolutely pointless. It also made me wonder if that was why Hali was so out of sorts, would she miss seeing me? Miss our daily training? I could try to conquer her, make her my mate. It was a risk of my life, but on the other hand I was fully trained now and not a weak teen boy any longer.

  I was truthfully in love with the mermaid, even if she could be a major pain in the ass sometimes. She could be cheeky and often teased. She was clever, smart, disciplined of mind and emotion, the latter to my occasional annoyance, and extremely powerful. Only the nereids had more power as my father’s servants.

  I’d also have enemies on the land as well, eventually. No one could be an island unto themselves when under threat, no one could be vigilant constantly, which meant needing someone to watch my back. I considered the idea of Hali being my mate, guard, companion, and even advisor.

  I’d just have to risk my life to do so, which was no small thing, and I wasn’t sure I’d want her if she didn’t want me. If that made sense. I truly cared for her monster or not, she’d been my most constant companion the last five years, but that wasn’t of her choice. She’d been ordered to do it.

  Sure, it was part of her monster nature to submit to a mate who could master her in power and in bed, but that wasn’t enough for me. Not if the woman side of her nature would abhor that submission and instinct and come to feel trapped by me. I wanted all of her, both sides of her nature, or none, but it was obvious time was running out on me and I needed to pick a direction to jump, fast.

  “Alright, I assume I can still visit, or am I banished?”

  He laughed, “No, son. You’re welcome in my domain, but only for one month each year. At least until you establish yourself and have learned the wisdom of my choice. I know you are displeased, but you will thank me one day. This is no place for a half-human to live out his long life, but quite excellent for a relaxing vacation of sorts. Hali will take you to the vault before you go, you’ll need seed money. You can either look for a job or attend college first.”

  That second one didn’t sound appealing, I was already twenty-one, the age of most juniors or seniors in college. I was also, technically, a high school dropout, even if not uneducated. I had skills though, and power. The trick was finding a human job or perhaps one with others of my kind that I would excel at and enjoy while leveraging those things. I’d take the money though, I imagined it would take a lot to set up a life on the surface from scratch.

  “Thanks for everything,” I said, and I even managed not to sound too ungracious about it. I wasn’t perfect but being polite with a god was just the course of wisdom.

  He just nodded, which I took as a dismissal.

  Hali took my hand and pulled me out of the room. She was still worried. I hadn’t turned off my empathy, and that told me it was about me. If it had been about my father then the worry would have passed by then, since we were walking away.

  I was probably overthinking it, but I was truly suspicious it was my cock’s idea. I’d been wanting to warm it inside her sumptuously hourglass and athletic body for years. She was also, as sad as this will sound, my only and best friend the last five years. It wasn’t like there were any more of my kind or humans around to get to know, and most monsters weren’t worth the effort. I didn’t want to walk away and never see her again. It wasn’t a clingy thing, either. It was our playful and sharp friendship, and my desire and love for her. Fuck me.

  I think I did think too much, being mostly alone the last five years had made me a bit introspective. I looked down, and my lips quirked. Another sign she’d miss me was the fact she was still holding my hand, which wasn’t something she normally did at all. If the woman in her wanted me, then it’d totally be worth risking my life to tame and claim her monster half.

  After all, she was magnificent.

  Chapter Two

  The vault was underground, and it was filled with vast treasures. He hadn’t given me any limits, so I wasn’t shy about perusing the place and picking out some things. I took about three pounds of gold coins and some gemstones that would net me a hundred and fifty k easy. Easy to sell without all that many questions being asked, to get myself established. I also took some rare coins that would easily net me high in the six figures, each. A little over two million dollars’ worth.

  Those latter would be harder to sell though. I’d have to be established with an identity and home address first, and I’d have to go through an auction house or a collector. Which is why I bothered with the other stuff that I could turn into a decent amount of quick cash.

  I did plan to find a job, and live on a budget, but with that much money I might be able to start a business of my own. What kind I had no idea, and it’d keep my options open for a long time.

  Hali teased, “It won’t all fit in your pocket.”

  I chuckled, “I’m not that greedy, just a nest egg.”

  Time to man up, Evan. Once we left the vault, she’d return me to the west coast near L.A., where my father found me, and I’d never see her again. Fuck that.

  I turned to her and squeezed her hand, and she gave me a questioning look. Her breasts really were perfect, and I had a good view of them standing so close and looking down into her piercing green eyes. Not to mention the stunning beauty of her face. Her lips looked impossibly silken soft, and her light golden-brown complexion was perfect and I wanted to stroke it.

  I said firmly, “I want you to come with me. I want to take you as my mate in this life.” Women liked confidence, and monster women even more so than the human variety, but despite the firm tone I knew she’d see the question in my eyes.

  There was a flicker of desire in her emotions, but it shut down fast. Hali was a very powerful and controlled woman that way, no doubt in part because she knew I had empathy.

  She let go of my hand, and she caressed her breasts and sides seductively, but her green eyes had gone hard, “So, you’re finally going to risk your life for some of this?” she asked coldly, in a tone of voice laced so strongly with contempt that it made me feel two inches tall and foolish.

  My mind kind of stuttered to a halt at that violent response, until it occurred to me that she did want me, maybe a part of her even loved me too. And that’s why she’d just turned into such a cold fish, no pun intended, because if she did care for me the last thing that she’d want to do is kill me. But she wouldn’t be able to help herself, if I tried to claim her. If I tried to overpower her and fuck her into submission, make her cum before me and submit, then her monster instincts would leave her no choice but to end me if I failed.

  She’d have to try and kill me, by her very nature, and that would harm her womanly side in the aftermath. If she loved me that is, and I was starting to believe she did. Despite her cold contempt I could feel that worry in her grow despite her attempts at disguising her emotions.

  It also wasn’t something I could use my powers for so was far from a sure thing. I needed to best her physically, overpower and claim her, make her submit and cum under my sensual assault. If I used power to hold her down and used my fingers for example to remove all risk, then there was no challenge in that, it wouldn’t be claiming her as my mate, it’d be rape.

  I chuckled low when I’d regained my equilibrium with that realization, and I saw the heat of desire flash in her eyes at that confident sound.

  “I’ll admit I’ve been wanting to warm my cock in that hot body since the first time I saw you. You are a stunning woman in beauty and sensual appeal, but that’s not what this is about. I love you, Hali. I adore your wit, and your strength of power and mind. Tell me you don’t want this, that you haven’t considered it yourself. That you’re not upset you’ll never see me again after today.”

  She snorted, “What would I do on the surface?”

  I shook my head, “Get dressed?” I said flippantly in a teasing tone, then said, “Other than that you wouldn’t be a whit less formidable with your magic and a weapon in your hand, and you know it. We can also choose a place near a large river.”

  She bit her lip, “I can’t tell you that I haven’t thought of it, but please don’t make me kill you. You wouldn’t be the first to try and tame me, and all before you failed. Worse, you haven’t buried your dick in over a year, the Nereids still complain about it. You’ll never outlast me, no matter how good a fuck they made you.”

  I smirked, “True, but I did stroke one out this morning.”

  She snickered, “Were you thinking of me?”

  I admitted boldly, “Every morning, for the last five years.”

  Her eyes widened at that admission.

  I shrugged, “I already told you I love you, what is that admission next to that. I think of no one else, Hali. And it isn’t your body I think of when I do… well except for that one thing, and even then it’s your piercing green eyes and pouty lips.”

  She bit her lip, “Please don’t,” she begged, even as her eyes flashed with more desire, and I suddenly felt her deep longing for it, along with a fear she would end me. There was no doubt in my mind, the woman that lived inside the monster loved me with a strength that rocked my world.

  She was very disciplined. If she hadn’t love me, she’d have successfully hidden those signs of fear and worry I’d picked up earlier. I understood that in that moment. She wasn’t just worried she’d kill me either. She was worried that she wouldn’t be around to protect me anymore, to spar with me and expand my witchcraft ability, and she feared losing me for life.

  She wasn’t even trying to hide it anymore, and she let it all out into the open. Maybe my profession of love had spurred that decision in her to reciprocate without words, but if she hoped to drive me away with her loving fear, then she’d seriously underestimated the powerful draw that her love and regard had for me.

  The only thing that gave me second thoughts at all was the possibility of failure. Strangely, I wasn’t so much worried about my own death than what that death would do to her. It felt a little selfish, but I needed her, loved her, and if the claim was successful then she would be mine. For life.

  Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t suicidal and didn’t want to die, but my love for Hali had me more worried about her than myself in that regard.

  “You will be mine,” I answered firmly, with a tinge of stubbornness that seemed to speak straight to her instincts. Her eyes widened further, and I felt a flood of violent desire go through her. She was truly magnificent, in beauty, sensual appeal, mind, heart, and soul.

  I caressed her face softly with my fingertips, and she closed her eyes and sighed at my intimate touch. I’d been wanting to do that for a long time, and her soft supple skin was even silkier than I’d imagined. Her lips beckoned to me, and stupid or not in that moment I’d have rather died than just give up the possibility of a life with her in it.

  Her lips were impossibly soft, silken smooth and they conformed to mine as I claimed them for the first time. Her warm body conformed to mine eagerly despite herself. Her full and bountiful D cups pressed tightly against and ground against my chest as she rubbed up against me like a cat in heat. Her soft sigh of needy desire fell into my mouth, and her soft hands caressing my chest with so much needy desire that it blew my mind.

  She was so incredibly sexy, so sensually alluring, I was already as hard as a rock. For all I knew she was thousands of years old, and she had fucked and killed hundreds that had come before me. I didn’t care, I needed my Hali like I needed to breathe, and I was lost in that kiss as the years of my desire for her came to the fore in an overwhelming rush of need and emotion. I wanted her by my side, to protect and cherish her even as she kicked ass on my behalf. Her mind, her body, her heart, I wanted it all.

  It’d started with a crush, but that had grown and evolved. She was my best friend, my confidant, my teacher, and now I would make her my lover and mate, or I’d die trying. My only real hope was probably the fact she loved me too and desired this with her whole being outside of risking my life. She was already trembling against me with desire and heated excitement, breathy and sweet panting moans of longing fell from her lips and into my mouth.

  Point being, perhaps she’d never loved a man that tried to claim her before, after five years of friendship and more. She already loved me, and if I was right that meant she would rush for the edge of bliss as fast and heedlessly from our shared pleasure as I would. Hell, she was practically panting in pleasure and all I’d done so far was kiss her. It was soft, passionate, and playful, and it broke for a moment while she pulled my shirt over my head.

  It was my only hope, because we were both swept away in that moment, there was no backing down now. A part of me thought it might even be worth it, to feel myself sheathed in her hot body, and to see those piercing green eyes lost in the pleasure that my body had on hers. What a way to go.

  Her eager hands went for my pants, and I pushed them down and kicked them off when she got them undone, all while deepening the passion of the kiss as our tongues danced. Fuck, she was going to make me cum before I even got in that hot body of hers. Her kiss was sweet, her moans of pleasure and warm desire even sweeter to my ears.

  When I checked her, she was absolutely soaked for me. Her glistening sex moist and flowered open, and my empathy told me she was out of her mind with lustful need, warm love, and a monstrous hunger for me.

  I pushed her up against the nearest wall hard, and her eyes popped open and widened in excitement as I wrapped my hands around that juicy bubbled ass and lifted her up. There was no bed, no tables, so it was the wall or the cement floor. Her legs went around me eagerly, and her arms went around my neck as her fingernails teased the back of my sensitive neck and sent tingles down my spine straight to my cock.

  There was no more fear in her eyes, her emotions and monster instincts had buried them in the heat of our need. I’d thought I knew what sexy was, but the transformation of her face and eyes filled with undeniable and powerfully lustful need for me was a whole other level of reality. Her eyes bored into mine with challenge and excited lust as she rocked her hips and ground her sex against mine. Her silken moist labia felt like a furnace against me, and they were absolute paradise hugging the bottom of my cock, as she left a dirty trail of liquid arousal along my fat and long cock. It was just about nine inches, and quite thick, and she let out a hot little gasp of pleasure as the first third slid into her luxurious sex with a powerful thrust of her hips.

  Fuck me, I almost came right there. Not only from the tautly stretched silky and wet heat on my most sensitive skin, but from the look of bliss and joy as she took in my cock. Her emotions were all over the place too, joy, lust, challenge, love, and euphoria. It finally occurred to me the potent effect that feeling her emotions were having on me, and I turned off my empathy. Not that it overly mattered, I’d already felt how much she wanted to fuck me, how much she’d longed for me. My perfect Hali, my sexy as hell teacher, with the most beautiful face I’d ever seen, and the most perfect sumptuously inviting and sinfully curvy body I’d ever seen as well.

  She wanted to be mine as badly as I wanted her, and that titillating knowledge was far too heady for comfort.

  It was too late, because I’d already felt it. I could still see it in her lustful green eyes, and the way her face twisted in needy pleasure. With her sweet and warm seductive gasps of pleasure as she worked her way down my cock. Taking it in with wanton abandon, hard squeezes, milking grinds, and the mind-blowing pleasure of hot silken friction.

  It was so hot, how badly she’d wanted this, how much she wanted me, and I locked down hard on my fraying will. I was already far too close to satiation, and I wasn’t even buried yet. I was probably a dead man, but I also wasn’t about to give up.

  The fact she loved me, wanted me as badly as I wanted her to mate for life, was devastating on top of the physical pleasures her hot body engendered.

  She said in that sweetly warm musical voice, so seductive and breathy in that moment, “Fuck, so big. Better than I imagined. The truth, Evan? I’ve cum for you on my fingertips more than once, sometimes more than once a day, while fantasizing about this big cock and your warm blue eyes. You’re not the only one with a good fantasy when self-pleasuring.”

  I groaned, “Cheater.”

  She just laughed, a little monstrously, and ground against me hard, milking me, and I knew if I let her work my cock and control our coupling from above that I was a dead man. I was so close already, in the nubile and staggering pleasures of her tight yet so soft and supple body. She was all warm feminine curves, soft giving flesh, and she delighted all my senses. Her beauty and body beyond compare to my sight. Her sweetly seductive musical voice like warm velvet to my ears. Her soft silken skin and supple flesh of her bubbled ass on my hands and welcoming heated paradise wrapped so snugly and deliciously around my cock. The alluring feminine scent of her and her arousal with my nose, and lastly the delicious taste of her lips and tongue.

  She delighted all my senses, and of course my heart and mind belonged to her as well, which only magnified and made all those sensations even more intense. My lovely Hali, my loving woman, my deliciously dangerous monster.

  So, I took control, and I gave her a sharp swat on her ass, gripped both ass cheeks tightly, and started to drill up inside of her. Plus, if I was going to die, I might as well fuck her first, instead of just cumming from her grinding sex and her deceptively sweet talk. She was already trying to kill me, even as she lost herself in the pleasures of our coupling, so taking charge was my only chance, even if it multiplied the pleasures that her body had on mine. Her slick passage milked me with euphoric waves of pleasure every time she bounced high on the wall. Then the delicious explosions of snug friction hit me as she wantonly took me back into her falling body, impaling herself on my cock and meeting my powerful up thrust with a twist of her hips and a squeeze of her sex that made it better for both of us.