Chapter 43 Sweet as my ass

Chapter 43 Sweet as my ass
My mate was back by my side with all her vengeful fury. I didn’t care if she screamed. I didn’t care if she hit me. But I couldn’t take being away from her anymore.

After a while, something kept vibrating across the room in her clothes. I was terrified it would wake her and terrified of moving her myself to make it stop. It finally stopped after twenty minutes, and I let out a breath. She shivered, and I pulled up the blanket around us.

As I closed my eyes, the distinct sound of the locks tumbling woke me back up. A growl grew in my chest. Who would have the audacity to walk in my fucking—

The door cracked, and a waft of their scent hit me, silencing my threat. It was one of my pups. Every one of my children had a distinctive note of me I recognized immediately. They must have grown worried when she didn’t

answer her cell phone. They probably didn’t know I was back. Except… I took in another deep breath. I didn’t recognize the scent.

A young man, I did not recognize, poked his head through the open bedroom door. Scratch that. He looked just fucking like me, but I didn’t know this pup.

“Mal.” I shook her shoulder.

“Kam. Just shut the fuck up for once in your life. I’m comfortable. Take what you can get.” She shoved my hand away. I was relieved she wasn’t mad, but that was short-lived.

My heart pounded ruthlessly against my chest. Every second out of jail stacked more failures on my plate.

“Mama.” The pup announced himself to her. She froze and opened her eyes. “Yes, Guppy.”

He pointedly refused to look at me. “You were supposed to come back to help me with Gillie. I thought you were changing clothes and getting a shower.”

She stayed with our son last night. She had been pregnant. It must have been early enough her hormones had not shifted for me to scent the change. I wanted to puke. I was a lot of things in this world; an absent father hadn’t been one of them.

“I’m coming.”

He nodded and closed the door to wait in the living room. She sat up and shook the shackle. “Take this off.”

“No.” Absolutely not. She was going to leave with him, so I needed to go too. She huffed, and we both awkwardly dressed. I didn’t even bother putting a shirt on. Then she led us to the living room.

She stared at our son. “It’s a package deal, guppy. Your call.”

His mouth pulled into a taut line. “Gillie’s climbing the walls again. I caught her cleaning the ceiling after you left.”

“Kaylen!” she scolded him. “She’s too pregnant. For Ocio’s sake, she’s half your size.”

She didn’t wait for another response, and stomped past him, dragging me along with her. “How do I stop her, Mama?”

“I find shackling her to you works,” I piped in.

“Ignore everything he says.” I could almost feel her eyes rolling.

“She’s probably about to give birth. She’s nesting and wants everything just so.” I ignored her to look at my son. “Depending on her species, you

may want to give my shackle suggestion more credence.”

I sniffed as casually as possible. He smelled so much like me; it was no wonder I hadn’t scented him on her before. It probably blended with my own scent.

He lifted his eyebrow at me as his mother hauled me across the grass. Oh, look. We were in the area she kept losing me at. What a coincidence. He probably asked her to keep him out of it. Mermaids were fiercely protective of their young, and that went on for generations. She was just as involved with our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.“Quit,” I snarled at her. “Do it again, and I’ll belt your ass hard enough you feel it in your toes. Do you understand me?”

“Fuck you,” she screeched, but it didn’t have Ocio’s power behind it. Just plain anger.

A growl ripped from my pup across the room, and he stalked forward. “Don’t make me put you in your place, pup,” I warned him, baring my

teeth. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will show you who the alpha of this pack is. She compromised her safety by pulling that stunt.” And I’d already been tolerant enough of that.

His growl quieted a few decimals, but I wasn’t foolish enough to think he was docile. He had Mal’s blue eyes, and they bounced between his mother and paramour.

“Tell me you understand, wench.” But I didn’t take my eyes off him. “I understand you, dipshit.” She scoffed. “Let me up!”

“Are you going to pull that again? This isn’t the compound you could collapse the place, and you are tethered to me, woman.”

“Unshackle me then,” she snapped. “Yes or no?” I yelled over her.

“No,” she shouted back in an effort to be louder. “I wouldn’t want to collapse Guppy’s house.”

I let her shoulder go and lifted her to her feet. She dusted herself off, and I unshackled the cuffs. I knew where she was going now. She shoved my shoulder and stomped into the kitchen. “I’ll make dinner.”

I placed the cuffs on the end table. The tension in Kaylen’s muscles was released as he watched his mother.

“Kaylen.” The witch eyed me again.

“That’s his mate. You know the law.” But he glared at me in silent warning. This was a motherfucker who’d stab me in the back the second I turned around. He’d wait until I felt safe and complacent before dropping death on me.

I think I’d like him.

“I’m right here. Speak your thoughts, witch.”

“I don’t think you should treat her like that. She’s a sweet, caring woman.”

I smirked. “Sweet? How she acts with me is who she really is; a vicious siren that calls men to their deaths beneath the water. I can just yell at you

and make you comply with whatever safety mechanism I put in place, but her… I need more force.”

I didn’t mention I’d never be caught dead with a sweet thing like her. Not since I was young. It took too much work to be careful with them. I needed a durable brat that made me insane.

The pup frowned, but he didn’t say anything. Quietly understanding my actions.

“She’s not a siren.” The witch said.

I rolled my eyes. Witches. They thought they knew everything because of their books. But I’d lived and breathed a world they could never fathom.

“Your own goddess is known for murdering people who call her mermaids sirens.”

“Do you know why?”

That stopped the witch as she considered why that would be.

“Because you’re basically saying she copied another god’s homework.” I hoped that put it into terms she could understand. “For thousands of years, no one survived to tell any the rest of us there were two different creatures luring men to their deaths.”

I eyed her belly. He bred her fast. Megalodons weren’t the best at procreating. We were too big for there to be too many of us. That’s why most of my kids took after their various mothers. It wasn’t often I spawned a megalodon.

“Where the hell have you been?” He finally blurted out the question bouncing around his mind.

“Jail.”

I’m sure he’d heard the stories of beasts being locked up for this bullshit reason or that. Families were ripped apart all the time. This wasn’t an isolated incident. He nodded his understanding, and I could see how his emotions whirred. That was the only difference between him and me. His eyes were the startling ocean blue I associated with her.

“That makes me think slightly better of you.”

He would have been the biggest witness to Maleene’s suffering. Maybe she even snipped at him or behaved erratically when the hysterics had her. “You can feel however you want about my absence, son.”

“I want you to make it right with her. That’s what matters.” He told me with enough command in his voice to amuse me. I appreciated that he put

his chest into defending his mother. He turned out to be a strong beast, even without my guidance.

“Noted. Beer?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll help Maleene.” The paramour stood up. “She’ll yell at you,” Kaylen warned her.

The witch slumped back. “I know she’s just worried, but she scares me.” “She has that effect.” He grinned and walked into the next room. “Excuse

me, mama.”

“I’ll get it for you, Guppy.”

I sat in the chair closest to the kitchen and snuck glances at Mal out of the corner of my eye. All these years and it always shocked me to see her bop around a kitchen. It didn’t fit. She scowled at her meat like it was misbehaving prey, all while her black clothing hugged her in a way that didn’t say housewife. She tossed her blue hair in a sloppy bun that would be perfect for pulling, but I remained seated. She wasn’t a giggly sundress- wearing wife you’d expect to bake cookies with love. She looked like you should test the meal on the dog first, but I hadn’t died yet.