MERMADMEN (The Mermen Trilogy #2) (2 page)

“I never would’ve hit you.” He shoved his hands into his pockets as if holstering his weapons. “Nor did I mean those words. I was upset that day and had every right to be.”

Maybe he did. She had broken a pretty big promise not to speak to anyone about his new home or its people, but all that was in the past now, and Liv desperately wanted to move on with her life. Or, more accurately stated, move on from him. Exactly like he’d asked.

If only my heart would let me.

“Let’s cut the crap. Tell me why I’m here,” she demanded.

Roen gestured toward the bed. “Why don’t you sit down?”

Liv didn’t budge.

“I insist,” he said in a stern tone.

She wished he’d flip on the lights so she could see his expression more clearly. It might clue her in on what he intended to do to her. In his new world, the laws regarding a woman’s place, purpose, and rights were fairly clear. And they were barbaric.

Liv shook her head no.

“Liiiv,” he growled.

“Uh-uh.” She shook a finger at him. “
You
don’t get to tell me what to do. We are not on your island. And even if we were, I’d still tell you to pound sand. So whatever you have planned—whatever goddamned reason you brought me here, you can expect nothing but a fight from me.”

Despite being all the way across the room, she felt the tension and heat radiating from his body. It made her skin tingle with the awareness of how much she missed his rough hands on her body. No one’s touch compared to Roen’s. No
man
compared to Roen.

Don’t, Liv. Don’t open your heart to him again. It didn’t end well last time.

“I’m not here to hurt you, Liv. I’m here to warn you.”

“You brought me all the way to Seattle, stripped me down naked, and put me in your bed, to
warn
me?” She didn’t believe that for a moment.

“You can’t go back to the island, Liv. I can’t protect you this time.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” She’d barely escaped with her life from that hellhole, and Roen knew it.

“Fucking listen to me, woman,” Roen yelled, his voice a booming roar that bounced off the walls, hitting her from every direction. “They are coming for you. Don’t let them take you back!”

“What are you talking about?” Liv’s heart galloped inside her chest.

Roen’s head snapped up toward the ceiling, listening to something. “It’s already too late.” He looked back at her. “Fight, Liv. Kill them if you have to. But don’t let them get you on that island.”

“I don’t understa—”

Liv awoke in a pitch-black room, sweaty, panting, and tears streaming down her face.
Oh fuck. What’s going on?
Like her dream, only a sheet covered her naked body. Unlike her dream, this room was pitch black.

“I bet,” said a deep male voice, “you’ve got a lot of questions right now.”

A bright light flooded the room, and she sat up quickly, holding the sheet across her chest. Her eyes took more than a second to adjust, but there was no mistaking the man standing next to the closed door with his hand on the light switch.

Shane. Oh crap.

Seeing him did not fall anywhere near the “this is good” category, although his beautiful face, jet black hair, and striking green eyes might lead a woman to believe otherwise. But that was the thing about the men from the island of El Corazón; their male beauty transcended all logic and broke every rule in the universe. Men should not be so gorgeous. It wasn’t fair or natural. Not when they were equally dangerous and strong, nearly seven feet in height and ripped from head to toe.

A deadly combination.
Especially if you were a woman and crossed paths with one.

Liv was about to ask where they were when she realized the cramped, stuffy room, with dark wood-paneled walls, swayed gently from side to side.
Shit. This can’t be happening.

“How the hell did you get me onto a boat?” She needn’t ask where they were going. Godfuckingdammit, she already knew.

Shane flashed a cocky sinister grin and then casually plunked down in the navy blue armchair pushed into the corner only a few feet away. His enormous muscle-packed body stretched the fabric of his jeans and white T-shirt to their limits. “I’m a merman. We have our ways of getting things done.”

Liv’s mind still tripped every time one of these men said that word. Mermen weren’t real. And the ones in storybooks had tails and scales.
Not these guys.

“We become especially crafty,” he added, “during the Collection. Which is exactly why you’re here.”

Oh shit.
Roen once explained that the men from the island periodically went to the mainland and brought back women. The Collection. He said they came willingly—a law of theirs—but that wasn’t the full story. Hell no. These men possessed persuasive powers over the female gender, like Pied Pipers of sex, and what they did with their “guests” once they got to the island was a travesty of the gravest sort.

But you’re immune to them.
No one knew why, but who cared? Once they arrived to that nightmare somewhere in the North Pacific, she’d find Roen, who now led this tribe of barbaric assholes, and tell him they’d brought her against her will.

While those thoughts sieved through Liv’s head, she remembered her dream—Roen telling her to fight, that he couldn’t protect her this time. But had that been real or her subconscious pushing her to wake the hell up?

Of course, it was a dream.

“Whatever you’re thinking of doing, Shane, don’t forget Roen is your leader. He’ll pluck off your legs when he finds out what you’ve done.”

“You mean, how I took you? Oh no. I’m so afraid.” He laughed and wiggled his fingers in the air for effect. “Actually, Liv, you’re the one he’s going to be angry with. Not me.”

“Why?”

He lowered his head and stared with a wolfish grin, putting her entire body into fight-or-flight mode. “Because you’re going to tell him you want to fuck me, that you wanted me all along.”

Liv’s jaw nearly unhinged. He was out of his damned merman mind. Long story short, Liv had been staying on a fishing boat last March, observing the crew as part of her dissertation on human bonding and relationships. Tragically, a violent storm sank the ship and took the crew with it. Liv had been the only survivor, but after ten days adrift on a raft in open waters and out of drinking water, she’d been sure there wouldn’t be a happy ending to her story. So when the island appeared out of nowhere along with Shane, she’d thought she’d been saved. Wrong. Shane made it clear that they—the men on the island—planned to keep her. And when she ran, he punished her for it, nearly drowning her. If Roen hadn’t shown up on the island, looking for whatever he’d been searching for that day out at sea, Liv’s life would’ve turned out drastically different. So would’ve Roen’s. He’d had to fight for leadership—become one of
them
—simply to free her. All that said, Roen knew Liv hated Shane. She’d never willingly be with him.

“I don’t think so, Shane. And Roen would never believe that anyway.”

“I have a feeling you can be convincing when you want. And I have another feeling that when you tell him you’re on the island of your own free will, aching to give your sweet pussy to me, he’ll believe every word.”

Hearing him say
that
word made her entire body revolt. He was disgusting and crude.

Then speak his language, Liv. Maybe he’ll understand.
“Go fuck yourself, Shane. I’m not yours. I never will be. Because I am absolutely, one hundred percent too good for you. Even my…” she paused to spit out the tactless words she hated saying, “my sweet pussy.”

The room filled with a menacing vibe that gave off the faint smell of gunpowder.

Shane leaned forward, hands clasped, staring at her like a soulless shark. “Okay. If that’s how you wish to play. I have other women to choose from on this ship.”

Oh no.
“How many did you shitty bastards take?”

He grinned proudly. “Roughly fifty, but the Collection is far from over. The island is demanding we keep going until every man—mated or not—has fathered a new child. The fucking won’t stop until the goddess is appeased.” He chuckled. “Damn, I love that island.”

Everyone had a sore spot and this was Liv’s: men victimizing women. In the women’s shelter where she used to volunteer, she’d witnessed how these predators—disguised as loving husbands and boyfriends—took pleasure in breaking a woman’s spirit. Usually they did it with beatings, but sometimes they did it with words. Either way, by the time the women made it to her, only the shell of who they once were remained.

What Shane and these men intended to do may not involve punching, but they did plan to rob these women of the lives they were entitled to.

“Think about what you’re doing to them,” Liv said. “Or to their families, who are wondering right now where they are.”

“Why the hell would I care about a bunch of useless landlovers? Well, other than ensuring they’ll make adequate caretakers for our offspring. By the way, your mother is lovely—like an older version of you. I thought about taking her, too, but she’s a little old for raising mermen. I do like her quilting, though.”

He’d been spying on her family? For how long? “You’re a monster.”

“No. I’m a merman. I take what little pleasures are granted to us. And occasionally getting laid is one of them.” He winked.

“I guess since I was blessed with an immunity to your awesome mermanly charms, I’m going to have to decline any offers. Also, just to be clear, I’m not going to lie to Roen.”

Shane stood up. “I think you will. I think you’ll do everything I say. Because the woman I have in mind to replace you looks oddly similar—long dark hair, about your height, and beautiful brown eyes. In fact, you could almost be twins.” He released an accomplished sigh.

Liv felt her blood pressure, heart, and soul crash into the floor. “You have Dana?” she whispered.

“Yes, I believe I do,” he said happily. “She is your
baby
sister, isn’t she? Not so innocent, but so very sweet and so very susceptible to our charms. In fact, she’s up on deck right now with the other women, sipping margaritas with my men. It’s a wild party.”

Party
. That word triggered a flash of memories. Liv had been at her parents’ anniversary party at a restaurant overlooking the marina when her sister Krista—the oldest—told her a man had shown up claiming to be her date. Krista had described him as tall with short hair, overwhelmingly handsome, and built. Liv had thought and hoped he might be Roen, because dangerous or not, her heart still felt something for that man. Maybe it always would. But, sadly, Shane had been waiting outside on that terrace. She didn’t remember much else, but clearly more had happened. They now had Dana, her twenty-four-year-old sister, and they were on a goddamned boat heading back to that goddamned island no one knew existed, where they would be “claimed” in a bloody, barbaric ritual that defied all logic.

Liv’s entire body shook with rage. “If you or any of your men touch her, I’ll kill you. Do you understand me, Shane?”

“Ohhh…That’s what gets me hard, little landlover. Your feisty attitude. I’m going to enjoy fucking you, Liv. Over and over again until our time is up.”

“Roen will never let it happen.” And neither would she.

“He will let it happen because he’s a coward, and you’ll do anything to make sure your sister goes free. Won’t you, Liv?”

She looked down at the floor, holding back her fury and possibly every cuss word in the English dictionary.

“Wouldn’t you?” he repeated threateningly.

“Let her go, Shane,” she growled.

“I will. If you do what I ask.” Shane reached for the door. “I’ll have someone bring you clothes and food. Get some rest, Liv. You and your sweet little pussy are going to be needing it.”

Liv glared at that vile, hideous man, thinking of her dream: “Kill them if you have to, Liv. But don’t let them get you on that island.”

Liv had never taken anyone’s life—in her world it wasn’t even a consideration—but to save Dana from what lay ahead, she wouldn’t hesitate. And curse her to hell, but killing a sadistic predator like Shane? She might even enjoy it.

CHAPTER TWO

Roen stood on the edge of a rugged cliff at midday, overlooking the never-ending ripples of blue ocean. The salty wind whipped through his hair and chilled his skin to a throbbing numbness.
I must jump. I must jump and save her.

Down below, the crashing waves broke violently against the black volcanic rocks. If he jumped, he knew he might not survive.

But I have to save her
. With every passing second, she drifted farther and farther away in her yellow life raft. It would be impossible to find her in such a big ocean if he didn’t go after her now.

Roen flashed a glance over his shoulder, where his men stood in formation, awaiting their fates like sentinels from an ancient world.

“You cannot save them both, merman,”
said the island in that sadistic voice of a woman he’d come to know and loathe so well.
“You must choose: your mate or your people.”

“I will not choose,” he screamed over the roar of powerful waves below. “I would rather die.”

“You will choose or you will
all
die.”

“Why are you doing this?” he screamed.

“Because no one disobeys me. And those who do pay the price.”

“Mr. Doran, here’s your coffee,” said Cherie, Roen’s personal assistant, snapping him out of his daydream—a repeat of his nightmare from the last two months. “Strong. Just the way you like it.”

Sitting at his antique desk, he gave her a quick nod, masking his moment of disorientation. “Thank you.”

Don’t think anything of the dream—it’s merely your subconscious blowing off steam
. At least, that’s what he hoped.

“You’re very welcome, sir.” Cherie flashed a flirty little smile before pouring him a cup. For the record, Cherie never used to smile, never showed emotion, but she did speak three dialects of Chinese, which was why he’d hired her a few years back. He hoped he wouldn’t have to fire her now. After all, she’d done nothing wrong. He was the one who’d changed.