Siren's Serenade (The Wiccan Haus) (14 page)

“Let’s go home. You wore me out,” Kaleb said with a wicked grin.

Serena laughed before pulling him into a kiss. She was finally free to love him as she wanted to love him. She felt free to be herself. And as they swam side by side back to the island, she sang to him of love and joy.

As they reached the beach, Kaleb stopped her when she would have walked straight into the cabin. Getting down on one knee, he looked up at her.

“Serena, will you marry me?”

And for the first time in her life, Serena did what she wanted to. She said yes.

Epilogue

Five Years Later

S
ERENA
L
OOKED
U
P
F
ROM
her seated position on the beach to see her husband walking down the path to their cabin. He paused only for a second before picking up the pace. It had been three months since he had last been home. Moving on feet that had a mind of their own, Serena ran and threw herself into his arms. Luckily, he braced himself, or the two of them would have ended up horizontal on the ground. And horizontal almost always meant naked.

Dropping his bag, Kaleb picked her up into his arms and carried her. Looking around, he listened for a moment. “Where’s Coral?”

“Your daughter is swimming in the lake with Dana and the cubs.”

“Do you think that’s safe?” he asked, moving into protective father mode. It never ceased to amaze her that the second he was home he didn’t think that she had managed without him all those months.

She pushed out of his arms, hands on her hips. “You don’t give Coral enough credit. Your daughter is a damned good swimmer and you know that. Hell, she swims better than either of us.”

Pulling her back into his arms he laughed. “Silly woman. I was worried about the cubs, not our daughter.”

“Oh. Well…”

Kissing her into silence, Kaleb led her back to their bedroom. Both cabins had received remodeling as the families had grown. Though it hadn’t happened the first night in the sea, Serena did get pregnant a few months after, right after they had been officially married by Cemil on the island. Kaleb’s parents had made it, as had Serafina. Her mother, still being banned from the island, had agreed it would be best to stay away.

His family had taken the news about Serena’s true nature far better than either of them had expected and had welcomed her, fins and all. They lamented that it would be difficult for them to travel to Alaska as no one was yet sure what the effect it would have on Serena, but they had agreed to come to the island when they could. And Serena, now quite good at the computer, had promised to keep them up to date on their lives.

Although Kaleb would have liked to have been present for his wife’s labor, it was decided by all around it was safer for him to be elsewhere. No man in all recorded history had managed to get a mermaid pregnant and still been around to meet their child. And even with Sage, Myron, and eventually Sarka’s demands he leave, it wasn’t until Serena begged him to go that he did. Like a man waiting outside a hospital room, he’d waited on the other side of the portal. Even knowing the portal wouldn’t open until sunset, he’d paced.

And although he had missed her birth, he had been there to watch Coral’s first swim. He had watched as Serena, carrying their child, had walked into the bay shortly after delivery. She had placed the child in the water, and as he waded next to them, his newborn daughter’s legs merged and she swam not far from her protective mother, crying to be picked up after but a minute.

Kaleb was a natural parent, and when he lifted his mermaid daughter from the water, and placed her in his loving arms as if it was the most natural thing for her to have scales and a fin, Serena fell in love with him all over again.

“As much as I miss our daughter, I have missed you more.”

“You know, Dana said she would keep her tonight for us.”

“Perhaps we can get her after dinner.” Laying Serena on the bed, Kaleb smiled. “Or perhaps we should make it breakfast.”

And as he stripped naked and joined her, Serena murmured, “Welcome home, my love.”

“Show me how much you missed me. Sing, my siren.”

And she sang in every way he could make her.

About the Author

Dominique Eastwick currently calls North Carolina home with her husband, two children, one crazy lab and one lazy cat. Dominique spent much of her early life moving from state to state as a Navy Brat, because of that traveling is one of her favorite pastimes. When not writing you can find Dominique doing her second love…photography. Feel free to email her. She loves to hear from fans and promises to write back.

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Visit Dominique on Facebook or her website:

www.dominiqueeastwick.com

Books by Dominique:

Sherman Family Series:

Hunting JC

Tony’s Haven

Killing Lucas (coming soon)

Wiccan Haus:

Shifting Hearts

Siren’s Serenade

Interested in writing for the Wiccan Haus?