Chapter 147 2-19 ASYRENA
\-VALEN'S POV-
Paddling down the cold salty brine as it engulfed me, I continued into the deep as the blue darkened. The yellow light which had previously vanished, sprung again as a guiding lane to the bottom of the ocean.
Using my powers, I formed an invisible air bubble to divide me from the embracing water's crushing currents. Although my clothes were already soaked, I determined this was the solution to get to the ocean floor without breathing complications. I glided moderately as I made the descent.
"The Beta is usually right about things. Why are we seeking a woman who is not our mate?" My wolf, Zeus, groused in strong opposition.
"I need to sleep. She haunts me and I will put an end to it, today." I rigidly told him, "Now let me concentrate." I blocked him since he could not be much help in the water.
Boldness harnessed within me since I had my guardians inside of me, alongside my querulous wolf.
Therefore, I was not defenseless. Not like my nightmares. The white light from my air bubble shepherds the sight of my eyes to vividly see the aquatic environment.
Looking around, there are craggy cliffs behind me and towering rocks beyond. Halfway through my journey, I spotted her face in a small crack in the cliff's surface.
Increasing speed, I propelled myself in that direction and the shoals of fishes parted the way. This mermaid was indeed expecting me. So I had to be extra diligent to not be caught in her allure.
I paused ten feet from the ocean floor. Colorful corrals decorate the sandy bed and crabs burrowed into it. I narrowed my eyes for a sharper view through the barnacle rocks to spot her half-hidden form.
Seemingly innocent, she emerged from the hole in the cliff and swam closer. Her tail moved graciously up and down through the water as she stared at me. Fearless, she dashed across the craggy bottom and her shadow turned the overcrowded corrals into dark bands.
"Well, well, well," she greeted, smiling to reveal serrated white teeth.
"Who knew you'd actually come here?" "Why do you come to me in my dreams?" I got directly to the point, eyeing her icily.
"We are bonded. You know that." Her melodic voice came out rather hypnotic and her mulberry eyes
glowed.
An urgent need to be in her arms took hold of me. Zuzu promptly dispelled it.
"How?" I asked, simply.
"I'm your mate, Valen. We have history and a very promising future."
She declared with undisguised charm and slowly circled me. "I mean you no harm."
Mate? I wondered to myself. Who was she kidding? Zeus stirred within me, burning with a strong desire to pluck the fins from her scaly flesh. My guardians remained calm because they were driven by my command, not emotions. Controlled anger simmered in my blood knowing that one of hers attempted to hurt my Mom. It was unforgivable.
"I fail to see how you claim to be my one true love," I contended. "Wolves can detect their mates. You are not mine."
"Alpha Prince, you insult me. I know your culture and traditions. Don't you have to be eighteen to discern your mate?" It was true and I listened keenly to what she had to say. She halted swimming and placed her palms on the air bubble. "Merfolks are different. We meet our mates in our dreams."
"Yet you give me nightmares." I snickered.
"No. I called you to me and here you are." She explained, thinking that I'd buy that. "You came because we are
fated. I needed you to save me from those above." She pointed upwards with contempt flashing across her face.
She tapped her pink tongue on her upper marmalade lips while her orange lashes batted seductively in an effort to spell me. She desired to invade my personal space to bewitch me. I would freeze her in an icy coffin before that happened. Irritation melted into lividity. "Enough with your games. What do
you want from me?" I grated as dark thoughts surfaced. I've never tortured anyone.......today I was tempted. "You have interesting powers." She realized with amusement, and I knew it was because her seduction attempt had failed. "I want two things." She held up a finger and her tail danced in the currents. "Drive the werelions away." A second finger went up. "And spend a year with us on Holmeva Ferney and you'll see that our bond will grow. Let merfolks establish an alliance and we will protect your shorelines."
"My father made it clear that we had nothing to do with the werelions. They act on their own accord. We owe you
nothing." I was aware that Dad had gone to wage war against the werelions. This conniving mermaid was being deceptive.
"You will when I tell you why they are after your stone." She smugly replied. "
Better yet, we have what your sister needs to purge her blood. She doesn't have much time left."
Rubbish! I thought to myself. My pack's witches, Marlena and Miriam, were capable of taking care of Venus.
She was pushing me into indignation.
"Did your people have anything to do with the barakian kriplings who intruded on our pack?" I supposed she
would not tell me anyway. Was the necromancer playing both sides? Smiling teasingly with her lower lips
between her teeth, she wagged a finger back and forth. "Uh-uh-uh." She drawled in a tune. "That's not how you
do negotiations. Isn't that what your father taught you?'
"Then I'll leave." I threatened to end
her fun. She was the only one frolicking here.
Lips turned into a pout. She became
suddenly serious. "The Wolf King killed one of ours. Even if the werelions aren't tied to you, the
murder committed by your father dictates revenge." Wildness electrified her mulberry eyes and her claws
elongated. "We will get justice."
"Go ahead." I bluffed, since I was in no position to make deals. "We are more
powerful than those kitty cats. More of your people will die."
With hands holding her tummy, she laughed an echoing peal. "Not when we have resources on the land that will
eventually help us to overcome you landwalkers."
"Then why ask us for help?" I rasped at the absurdity.
"Because everything comes at a cost and some prices are too outrageous to be paid," she said, reflectively. "Plus, the blood on your father's hands can be wiped clean if you help us. Come with me and I'll give you a cure for your sister." She tilted her head slightly. Her mulberry eyes twinkled and her right index finger's claw tapped on my magical bubble. "You'll be able to confirm our bond too and our love will be forever."
I scoffed, shaking my head slowly." Am I such a fool to follow you?" My resistance offended her. Her eyes went fully white and her palms braced on my air bubble. She struggled to dismantle the protective shield I had quarantined myself in. Her pointedly sharp claws could not pierce it. Whiteleg shrimps, in attraction to her gleaming snow-white hair, swam close to her and she angrily swatted them away. Aggressively, she palmed my bubble once more, narrowing her white orbs
to slits at me. "You are mine, pesky wolf. How dare you deny me?!" "She's trying to break the sphere," Zuzu informed me. My bald eagle's fire kept my body's temperature normal as the cold currents of the deep ocean encompassed me.
"Can she?" I pondered. I would have to leave immediately. Merfolks ruled the ocean and their underwater kingdoms were situated in the trenches and hollows of the deepest where submarines would risk implosion. Only supernatural beings with water elements could venture there.
"No," Nyx stated, as he kept the barrier globe solid and strongly resistant to her wiles. "Her efforts will be in vain. She is just a lowly warrior
mermaid." "Her name is Asyrena," Zuzu discovered.
"Asyrena." I voiced her distasteful name. I assumed she would go by a niche along the lines of Lilitu, the sleep -robbing succubus.
Her eyes fluttered, going back to their normal hue. Gaping, she stared at me wide-eyed. "How did you...?" My narky voice cut her off. "I am capable of many things." "My chief wishes to meet your father." She cast her eyes down at me. "Come with me to see him and tell him that you agree to a meeting."
"I can't. You were the one I came to see. "It did not mean anything special. I wouldn't even have cared, but since she made a damn habit of giving me sleepless nights, I wanted that trend broken.
Her face lighted up with white glittering dimples. "Our bond is strong. I want to be with you." Was she delusional?
"Break the bond," I told her, because it would do more harm than good. Whatever connection was established between us was not a mate bond. It was something else. I considered it trifling. She gasped in a way that air bubbles fizzed out of her pointed ears. "Never. I will not give you up." This was one crazy mermaid. Indeed, she was clinging to a deluded notion that I had to end. "I'm not yours and you are not mine to claim. I will not forsake my true mate for you."
The mermaid clutched her chest and her face contorted with pain. Her tail stiffened, pointed like a scorpion's telson. I felt a tight ball in my gut snap. "We broke the bond," Zuzu told me. "I have located the mer-kingdom and can engage in attack." Nyx was readyfor battle. "Let's wipe them out. This fishling wants to replace our mate." Zeus growled. "Get rid of her." Tell your King that he can come to our shores and my father will see him," I enunciated. Killing her would
instigate another war. Dad would kill me for bringing danger to our pack. As Alpha, my people's protection came first. White tufts of her hair swayed in the water as she adamantly shook her head. "No. Come with me." Realizing that I was leaving her, mulberry eyes flickered into wrathful blackness. Her once delicate face morphed into a harsh, strong one with angry veins popping under her lashes. Serrated teeth parted to emit an inimical growl that had the fishes swimming away and hiding among the
corals. Abruptly, a pod of blue whales with their long and slender body of various shades of greyish-blue dorsally ensnared me as their perfect morsel. Whirling around for a full view of what was taking place, they formed a cage of monstrosity. My lips twitched and curled over my teeth. Adrenaline rushed through my veins and my heart fluttered. Her fiendish eyes clashed with the leapind fires of my alpha crimson irises. Claws burst out my nails.
"Another mermaid is hiding in the rocks." Nyx huffed, showing me an image of the blue-black-haired one with sea-foam blue eyes and a sunset purple tail making hand signals. "She has other powers that are coming at us." Zuzu churned within me and sand from the ocean's floor turned into spears that fired at me. "Valen!" Zeus' growl was a warning to not prolong this hostile situation." That one has witch blood." The sand spears jabbed at my protective sphere. My air bubble rolled back and forth like a volleyball as the spears hit it, tumbling me over within its impenetrable circle. An unknown wrath surfaced within me and I was on the verge of letting Zuzudeal with both of them. Suddenly, an out-of-the-blue force sucked me from the water. Salt sprays as I burst through the waterline and the environment blurred.
"You are in so much fucking trouble!" Roared the furious voice in my headlike a nail jammed inside my brain. " Buckle up, now!" A spike of fear kicked up my spine. Disoriented at first as to where the hell I was and how. I ended up in the back of a fighter aircraft and very much in the middle of a war.
My eyes widened at the thick clouds of black smoke from explosions percolating the surroundings, making the warships below barely visible. Ashivering fright doused me.
"Devin..." I had to know that my best
friend was safe too. Technically, we were in a danger zone at the moment, but there was no way I could be in the skies while he was still where I left him, in the boat, sitting and waiting for me. I searched for the safety belt and buckled it quickly. "He's with his father." Dad soared through the air, targeting an enemy aircraft that was dropping bomb raids over the islands. "Hold tight." Warships roasted in embers on the ocean surface. Dad gunned the engine and I stiffened from the pressure. An
aircraft snuck behind us, firing bullets that screamed across the sky.
"Fucking dipshits!" Dad muttered,throwing the jet into a series of turns that had me groaning. My jaws clenched tight. Shit! I cursed inwardly as my heart thrummed wildly. Dad dilly-dallied, missing the oncoming bullets. Then he slammed the joystick upwards and elevated the nose to pitch a ninety- degree altitude so that we cut straight into the thick cumulonimbus clouds above. I remained nervously quiet for two reasons. A lump of fear bubbled in my throat regarding the deep shit that I was in and I was allowing Dad the space to focus on air combat. At this point, I was trying hard to control my bowels.
We burst through the clouds and no other fighter jets were in sight. I glanced over my shoulder and breathed a sigh of relief. "Ha-ha-ha-ha," Zeus laughed at my fright. He is rather enjoying the show\]and relishing our father's military strike. He loved the catastrophic action. My guardians, who are more contrast to my wolf, were quiet. Веер! Веер! Веер! "What the hell's that?" I gulped with rising panic. It was an alarm sound, but for what? I peeped over the pilot seat, shielding my eyes from the glaring sunlight, and saw two red blinking lights on the dash. The radar warning receiver picked up emissions that an enemy had us on missile locked. Shit!