Waveborn | The Oceane Series

Six

When I awoke, I turned onto my side, expecting Delmare to be there, sleeping soundly beside me, but he wasn't. Sitting up in bed, I tried to remember the events of the night. Looking down, I realized I was still naked and could feel a blush creeping up my skin again. Did we...? No, that wouldn't make sense. Why would I sleep with him if I knew nothing about him?

Swinging my feet over the side of the bed, I noticed my hips weren't sore like they would be if we'd really had sex. I sighed, relieved, and stood, changing into my clothes for the day before I exited my bedroom. Delmare was casually sitting on the couch. It was the weekend, so I had a couple days off before I went back to work on Monday. I was determined to learn everything I could about the underwater world that Delmare was from.

"Hey," I greeted, sitting on the couch next to him. "What are you watching?"

"This picture film—um, TV Show—Siren." He paused, looking over at me, his eyes filled with laughter. "It is interesting what humans believe to be true about my kind."

"That's a good show," I agreed, shifting in my seat so I could fold my feet underneath my butt. "I've been meaning to talk to you about that, about your kind."

"What do you want to know?" he asked.

I twirled my hair nervously, trying to think of where I should start. "What is a Symari? Is that what you call yourselves?" I inquire. "Are there other kingdoms? What is your economy like? How are you able to change forms so easily? You say you can read minds, but do you do it purposefully or is it by accident?" I paused, staring back at him as the next question tumbled from my mouth. "Your kind can have children, right? Are your pregnancies different from ours?"

He softly chuckled before he spoke, his eyes shining their unusual gold color, reminding me fiercely of the sexy dream I'd had. "Well, first off, Symari is indeed what we call ourselves, just as you call us mer-people. There are different kingdoms and rulers that rule over each ocean. I will rule over the Arctic Ocean, just as my parents did, and my grandmother, Sedna, did all those years ago. Although, I suppose I wouldn't turn my people into monsters." He laughed, but I was thoroughly confused. "We have a goddess, Keilani. She is the mother of all sea life and the biological mother of the five rulers of the sea. From what I have seen of your world, we run our economy the same as yours. We trade with other kingdoms, farm food, and have our own militia, although there hasn't been a war since my grandmother's reign in 1770." he paused, looking back at me expectantly.

"Okay, so, how do you change forms?" I asked, my mind still racing.

"We have evolved so that changing forms comes naturally and hurts less than it did thousands of years ago. To answer your question about my ability, I do it purposefully, and for the record, we did not have sex last night." His eyes burned gold as the slightest sign of intrigue spread across his features.

"So," I interrupted, "what you're saying is that your great-grandmother is a goddess, your grandmother turned her people into monsters, and you're related to everyone in the sea? What do you do about children? You're just going to marry your cousin? And what do you mean, 1770? How old are you?" I asked, "I can't believe you purposefully listen in to my thoughts! That's not right!"

"Annie, calm down. Listen, I don't do it that often. Now, where was I? Ah, you wanted to know how we have children. Well, we don't have, um, our intimacies," he paused as a blush swept across his skin, "in our sea form. We do it in our human form. The pregnancy lasts around four months, but we age much slower than humans. At least, back in the day we did; now we age as fast as humans do. Although we can intermix between species, we usually don't because it might be too much of a burden for the human."

"Why would it be a burden?" I asked just as someone knocked on the door, pulling our attention away from our conversation. "Hold that thought." I got up to see who visited me.