6. Castor

I've fired people.I've delivered lots of unfortunate news as well. When Baba's father was killed in an accident, I was the one who told my parents. But looking into Annabelle's blue eyes, I'm not sure I can do it. My stomach twists. I told Eros on the plane that I wanted to be the one to let Annabelle know about her cousin and aunt. Nole confirmed in a roundabout way that they were on board. She wants the truth, and she wants me to start from the beginning. I can do that.

"Your uncle is a despicable..." I search for the word.

"Man?" Annabelle's eyes go wide. Sitting on my lap, her eyes are so blue.

"I think the word you're looking for is Therodonsian, Castor." Nico leans forward, and his amber-green eyes flash at me.

"Yes, thank you, a rotting whale's spleen." I clear my throat.

"What did he do?" Annabelle's fingers move on my chest, and it's hard to concentrate.

"He found your cousin and aunt. Since you were taken, he calculated that if you were worth something at the battle of New Year's Eve, they must be too. He turned them over to the human underground to be sold to traffickers."

Eros sits on the sofa table in front of us.

"What? Did you stop them? Eros?" She leans forward and places her palm on Eros's chest––I feel the loss of her attention.

Eros covers her hand with his own and squeezes. "No. Hear him out, Sunshine."

"A shifter detective alerted us to where they were. We were set up to go in for a meeting with the males your uncle was working with. That's when we bumped into Eros outside the building where they were being held." I run my hand up her bare arm.

"But...? Because you wouldn't have that look on your face if there wasn't a ‘but.'" Annabelle blinks at me. I didn't even realize I had a look on my face.

"The sister ship of one Nico commanded sent in a helio and extracted them. And then destroyed the evidence."

Her head tilts up. "Extracted them? What do you mean extracted? Are they okay? What do you think will happen to my cousin and my aunt?"

"The government has them. Or rather, the military does," I add.

"The Omicron. Lachlan is the commander," Nico grunts out.

"Nico's right. Commander Lachlan will keep them separated from the crew."

She turns in my arms. The back of her head rests against my chest. "And I can't talk to them?" she asks Nico.

"The Omicron's cloaked, for sure. Even if we knew their exact coordinates, it wouldn't be possible. They would have to initiate the communication."

"Yes. I understand." Annabelle nods. "Marlee's on a sub." Annabelle jumps up, bouncing off the sofa. "They captured my cousin and are bringing her here?" Annabelle hovers over Nico and pokes him in the chest.

"I didn't have anything to do with it, Little Krill. I didn't take your cousin. I have all the mates I need. Only you."

"Nico!" She pokes him again. "You know what I mean. You get on your block and tell that nincompoop of a commander on the Omicron to turn his ship around and take her back to Boston. Marlee is not the same as me. She's not going to handle all of this as well as I did." Annabelle crosses her arms over her chest. I'm in trouble because I can't help but stare at her breasts being pushed up towards her face.

A deep vibrating noise from Holter snaps me out of it.

"What? You don't think I handled it well?" Annabelle asks.

"No, Belle. That's not what I meant at all." Holter glares at me, and I look away from Annabelle. "Commander Broderick Demic of the Centauri, Commander Lachlan Barakat of the Omicron—they're not like Nico. And things are different now. If they touched her, claimed her? Lachlan or Broderick wouldn't make it a day when they returned to the Veiled City." Holter's leaving off the fact that while the commanders have good records, they're no Heroes of Hestert?tten, nor do they have the clout of their mothers having been my mother's best friend, like Nico does. Lachlan and Broderick would simply vanish in the night at the hands of someone like Eros, never to be seen again, if they mated with Marlee.

"Oh, then it's fine." She throws her hands up in the air and growls. Chompers taps the glass with his tail. "Did you not hear what I said? She's a country girl. She needs sky and fields and animals."

"We have all those things. Not really sky, but the other things." Eros stands next and puts his hands on her shoulders, drawing her into his chest.

Annabelle turns in Eros's arms, moving toward Nico. Nico, who's glaring at me like this is somehow my fault. "Annabelle?" I glance up.

"Start texting," she demands of Nico.

"We don't text. We've been over this already." Nico's eyebrows are up.

"Fudging shrimp wrappers. You know what I mean, just message him. He'll see it when he turns his block on."

"I can't. To talk to a ship when it's underway, you have to have a special connection," Nico says.

"Nico's right," I say. "Or . . ."

"Or what?"

"Nole, my brother the governor, is on the Omicron, and I might have a way to reach him." One that I shouldn't have. But Nole wasn't about to go on the doomed Skyrothasian mission without one.

"Then get texting, bucko. Excuse me—messaging." This time, Annabelle sits on Nico. He wraps his arm around her like a seatbelt, with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Okay." I turn my block back on, ignoring the twenty or so messages from my parents.

Annabelle's stomach lets out a growl. "Excuse me. My stomach can wait. This cannot. Get those fingers moving, golden one."

I can't help but smile. She's taken up the nickname Eros gave me, the one I detest, and turned it into something that makes me smile.

"Don't swell his head any more than it already has, Little Krill. He's not the Golden One, not yet at least." Nico kisses her neck.

"I'm not inflating your ego, am I?"

I shake my head at her.

"See, I'm not."

Nole, can you please confirm that Annabelle's family is on board?

I'm the governor. You don't outrank me yet.

I understand. But Annabelle's worried.

Nico's mate is worried. Why do you care? I thought you'd left that old pact of mating into the same pod when he mated someone you clearly can't.

Nole.

She's on board, her mother too, and there are a few people here who wish they weren't.

Why?I don't look over at Annabelle, but I can see that Nico's arm has become a true belt now.

"Let me go." She gives him a light tap on his arm, and he releases her. He's awfully amused by something. Annabelle crawls across the sofa faster than a Glyden warrior. "Let me see?"

"Give me a second." I stand, and she stands. I turn, and she jumps on my back. I've never seen her this crazed. But something about it makes me proud of her. She's got a fighting spirit, a fire in her. One that I want to possess. Fuck, how am I ever going to stay away from her?

I pull her around to my front, holding her gaze. She's worried, and I understand. I let her feet dip to the floor and hold her there for a minute until Nico grabs her hand, pulling her away from me. My block vibrates.

They're fine. I will be transferring them to the Centauri, and we will be returning to the Veiled City in a week, maybe two, at the most. And then they are someone else's problem. But as one of the few mated males on the sub? Fuck. This is going to be a feeding frenzy. They both have the gene.

I had the block held at just the wrong angle—or right, depending on if you were me or Annabelle. "Did that say ‘they?' As in my aunt too?"

I'm impressed. The text was in Dorian. I didn't realize her Dorian was coming along so well. Hopefully she missed the feeding frenzy comment. I nod once.

"My aunt, my aunt Blair? That's..." Something clicks in her. "You know, that's probably fine. She deserves to have someone dote on her, love her, take care of her. But all of this should be their own choice. Did you tell your brother that? I want to talk to them."

Nico holds Annabelle on his lap again.

A gnawing pit opens in my stomach. "I can't let you do that. Our blocks aren't legal. Having access to an alpha-class warship without it being on a sanctioned private channel could endanger both Nole and your family. I can't let you talk to them. I'm sorry, Annabelle. "And I am sorry, with every ounce of my being. Especially when quiet tears start to slowly drip down the side of her face. I step between her legs and hold the side of her head in my hand. I wipe a tear away with my thumb. "Nole and Lachlan will take care of them."

"You think so?"

"I know so. Every male on the ship knows what they are to you. They know who your mates are. They know that harming them would declare war on Glyden."

"Oh, not war." She sniffs.

"We defend our own. And you are a Glyden mermaid. They have no dome, but they're your family. That makes them one of us. Part of us."

"Oh, and if they don't want to be here?" Her blue eyes hold mine.

"Let's cross that gulf stream when we get to it."

"Right."

"Do you think they'll want to go home? From what my sources showed me, they don't have much of a home left to go back to. Even before your uncle picked them up, it didn't look like much of a home." I shake my head. A dark one-room apartment with little furniture.

"But shouldn't the choice be theirs?" She puts her hand in the middle of my chest. My heart reaches out to touch her skin through my ribs. "Please let the choice be theirs."

Please, please. Fuck, she's killing me.

"Can I talk to Castor alone?" Annabelle climbs off Nico's lap.

"Yes," Holter says at the same time Nico says, "No."

"Come on, big guy." Eros puts his hand out and Nico takes it, helping him off the sofa.

My stomach twitches the same way it did when I was in school and was kept after class. Normally, any day being alone with Annabelle would be a good day. A tempting time, but a good time. But when she cocks her head and widens her eyes, it changes my mind. She watches them and waits for the door to close. I was nervous telling her about her family. But not nearly as concerned as I am now. Her brow furrows. This isn't good. I clench my teeth and wait for her to speak.

"Are you interested in my cousin?"

Her words blow me back. "What? No. Why would I be interested in your cousin?"

"Because she's amazing. She's different from me, but still amazing."

Annabelle is a rational female, but I have the feeling that no matter what I say, I'm going to get myself in trouble. "I'm sure she is. But no, I'm not interested in your cousin." I grab Annabelle around the waist and pull her to me. Her warm lips fit against mine perfectly. "There is no female I want more than you."

Her blonde lashes blink at me.

"I want to be in your pod." There's an audible snap inside me. Adrenaline flashes around my brain. I hadn't planned on saying that to her. But it's obvious it's true. It's what has to happen. She has to be mine. I could no more walk away from her than live on land. No, I could live on land if that was what she wanted. I could do it.

When the rushing in my ears stops, I realize even amongst my sense of calm, I've created an impossible problem for her. Nico will never allow it. But I don't care. I want her. I stare into her blue eyes. I don't know what I expected.

"But what about being king?" I've shocked her.

"I should be able to be both, and if I can't, then... I will find another way to fulfill my family's destiny and duty. I can't live my life in pain. And being without you will be just that. Like cutting off my fluke. No, I could live without my fluke. But not without you." It's like the fog has lifted. All my indecision has vanished. I was a fool to ever have it in the first place.

"I'm not saying you have to be in my pod, Castor. Do I want you in my pod? Yes. But I couldn't handle it if you picked Marlee over me."

"I'm telling you now, I'm picking you."

"As flattering as that is, it feels like I've pressured you into something that you're not ready for. You should take some more time and make sure this is the right thing for you." She's still in shock. Her eyes are dilated.

"Annabelle." My tone drops. "You are the right thing for me. You know it. You've known it this whole time. And now that I'm not being such a blubber fish, you can't tell me to go think about it some more. I don't need to think about it for another second. I'm in love with you. I've been in love with you since the first time I saw you on the Centauri, when you were just figuring out who you were made to be. You shine brighter than all the gold in Glyden, honey. I'm not asking to be part of your pod—I'm begging."

"You're sure?" She shakes her head. "Because it sounds like you're pretty darn sure." She puts her other hand on the side of my neck. "I can't take you into the pod without asking the guys first."

It's a formality, but it's the proper way of doing things. "Yes, you're going to be a level ten in cultures soon."

"I'm an eleven now." She flashes a smile at me.

"Of course you are. I'm going to have to start studying."

"What are you?" She cocks her head in the same way I've seen Nico do. My best friend is a little over-competitive as well.

"It doesn't matter. Do you want me to leave the room while you ask them?"

"That is the normal tradition. I'll go to them. You stay here."

"I..." But she gives me the sweetest smile, and I've forgotten what I was going to say.

Annabelle waves over her shoulder at me. "I'll be right back."

I smile, but I don't have a good feeling about this.