Stolen by the Sea Lord

They stole his wife. His son. His honor. 

So he will steal them back.

Elan lost everything the night his son was born. Once a first lieutenant, now a disgraced exile, he has no allegiance — except to her. 

Zara nearly died the night she was taken from Elan. Now he stands before her like a dream. Elan swears she has a mysterious, untapped power that can protect him, but his enemies are relentless as the tide. If Zara cannot save him, the ancient traditions will win — and the hope for mer and humans will be lost forever.

This complete novel contains a heartbreaking reunion, tender steamy love scenes, and a blazing happy ending. Dive in to the next chapter of the Lords of Atlantis!

Disgraced warrior Elan, former First Lieutenant of undersea city Dragao Azul, stood on the beach surrounded by humans.

“Zara,” he told the serious, uniformed men and women. “I seek the woman known as Zara Robertson.”

The man in charge nodded to show he understood the words. But he continued speaking into his remote communication device about waiting for Border and Immigration Patrol.

It was not every day a merman surfaced on the human’s shore.

Elan’s free hand flexed for his trident.

As a show of faith, he had released the wicked metal weapon to these uniformed polícia, but the longer they detained him, the more sharply he felt the risks.

He stood only a few strides from the crashing waves. He’d shifted to stubby human feet for the walk across the volcanic black sand. Shocked humans had wrapped him in a towel and given him an orange, two-legged cloth to cover his maleness. He had managed to balance and step into the “swim shorts” while still holding his precious, seaweed-wrapped bundle close to his heart.

The authorities had arrived.

So had the cameras.

Distant lenses focused on his naked chest, the round glass magnifying his skin swirled with aquamarine tattoos. His honors and achievements as identifiable as a fingerprint. Even now, their notice burned as if they focused the rays of the sun.

The bundle in his arms moved.

Curse it.

“Zara,” he demanded, deepening his voice with authority. “Take me to her. Now.”

“Please wait,” said the man in charge calmly.

Elan’s commands sounded strange in his ears. Perhaps that’s why his request was easily ignored. Moving his tongue as he forced air through his vibrating vocal chords was so different from how he issued orders underwater.

The soul lights in these humans’ chests glowed with the same honorable intent as his city’s warriors. Their delay was not malicious. They were protecting their surface city from him, an intruder. That eased frustration.

But the exposure and danger continued to gnaw on his mind.

Funny how he had expected to walk out of the water and see Zara waiting on the beach. This was the third island he had visited and the first he had allowed himself to be seen by humans. Yet still, she had not appeared.

Where was she?

Hadn’t she longed to reunite? Join with him as desperately as he wished to join with her?

Discomfort slivered into his chest.

The bundle in his arms moved again. A soft whimper emerged from the seaweed.

He sucked in a deep breath of air, calmed his heart, and gently bounced his precious charge.

She would come.

Beyond the police barrier, a crowd grew. Something familiar flashed. A shiver of awareness slid up his spine. Was it…?

He craned his neck.

Weaving through the crowd, a curvy brunette stopped at the police barrier. She exchanged a few words with the officer and was allowed through.

Yes. He flushed with awareness.

“Zara!” He strode forward.

The polícia blocked him. “Stop there.”

He obeyed out of deep respect for authority, but every muscle tensed with the need to go to her.

She crossed the beach fearlessly.

Rich, dark brown hair fell in waves to her softly rounded shoulders. Flashing amber-brown eyes crackled with fire. Much of her delectable skin was covered in human garments — long shorts and a fiery red shirt — cupping her mouth-watering curves.

His cock hardened into attention.

Beneath her red shirt, in the center of her heart, shone a soul light bright enough to bake the ocean.

She was Zara. His fierce, beautiful bride. She came for him like a dream … and then she stopped too far out of his reach.

His gut clenched.

The man in charge stole her attention. “This individual claims he is your husband.”

She glared beyond the man, burning on Elan. “Undersea marriages aren’t legal on the surface in any country.”

“But you do have a relationship?”

“It ended a year ago.”

“Then he is an ex.”

“Is he? For my crimes, the mer struck my name from their records as if I never existed. So, you tell me.”

The man in charge regarded her uncertainly.

Her dark gaze never wavered. Zara’s fury was a force of nature; she swept away all obstacles in her path. Her beautiful righteousness made Elan ache.

Even though her anger now was directed at him.

“Keep your distance,” the man in charge finally said with a frown, and motioned for the officers in front of Elan to step aside. “You don’t know what he might do.”

“I know exactly what he’ll do.” She stalked forward, passing the other officers. Her total focus centered on Elan. “He’ll start explaining himself. Right now.”

His throat tightened.

She was right in front of him.

He craved to enfold her in his arms. Hold her. Caress her skin. Fill his senses with his luscious bride.

She crossed her arms, walling him off. “Well?”

He forced the words through the tightness. “I have come for you.”

“Oh? Is that what surfacing was supposed to accomplish? I see you scaring a lot of people who don’t know what to do with a member of the ‘secret’ race of mermen.”

For a thousand years, the mer race had lived, hidden, beneath the oceans. Then, less than a year ago, humans captured video of mermen and displayed it on a worldwide “announcement” platform called “Facebook.”

The ruling All-Council required the mer to act as if they’d remained secret. Elan’s appearance here, on the shore, was an unforgivable offense.

But he no longer cared about forgiveness. “I kept my promise.”

Her mouth made an “oh," but she didn’t look surprised. “I see. You’ve come for me as promised. Well, guess what? My faith in you expired the night your city’s thugs beached me like a dead whale.”

Her scornful gaze scoured the blackened surface of his heart. “Every hour, I regret—”

“Me, too. Regrets are a waste.”

“I took sacred vows. As a merman, as a warrior, and as a First Lieutenant. Yet, to you, I—”

“Yes, yes.” She waved away his vows like irritating little bugs. “I swallowed your vows to me hook, line, and sinker. Where did it get me? Beached.”

“That is why I am here. From this day forward, to you alone, I will keep my vows.”

“How nice. Go back.”

His heart thudded. “Go back?”

“We’re too different. You’re a heroic First Lieutenant and I’m an evil Jezebel who tried to lead you astray.”

“That is not—”

“That’s exactly what your society thinks of me.”

“Only the traditional mer who—”

“Don’t kid yourself. I don’t know how you talked your king into letting you come up here, but there’s no happily-ever-after for us. Let’s get the closure we both need and save ourselves a whole lot of heartbreak.”

Her anger bathed him in a cleansing fire.

In truth, she should run from him in fear. He had torn off his honors, broken his vows, smashed trust beneath boulders. He had become a monster.

But he had done it for this moment. He needed Zara. Not her forgiveness. He didn’t deserve her forgiveness. Just her.

His bride. His wife.

“Forget my people. Give me another chance,” he said tightly.

“It’s too late. Go back.”

“Zara—”

“I don’t want to be with you.” Her words cut like practice daggers slicing into his exposed chest. “You promised I could stay with you after our time was up. You promised no one would drag me out. You promised to protect me. And what happened?”

She glared, raw pain shimmering in her auburn-gold soul like shards of bone. “You failed.”

Zara was right.

He had promised to take care of her. He’d promised they could remain together, despite the sacred covenant requiring human-mer couples to part. He’d made her believe he was trustworthy — and that she could trust in their future together.

And on one bloody night almost a year ago, every one of his promises had been broken.

She’d been betrayed.

But he needed her. The entire mer race needed her. She was their only hope for survival.

“You stole my trust,” she continued. “You stole my innocence. And on top of that, you stole my son.”

“Our son.”

Pain slapped her face. She quickly schooled her features and made a flicking gesture for him to go. “This is our last conversation. Farewell.”

“It is our first,” he corrected. “Today is our new beginning.”

She turned and cast a skeptical dismissal over her shoulder. “We’re over. There’s not a single thing you can say to me that will change my mind.”

“Zara.”

Simply saying her name, threaded with command, made her pause.

“I will keep my promises.”

“I think I’ve covered how you didn’t.”

“From this day forward, I keep them only to you.”

She turned in irritation. “Stop saying that!”

“That is why, today, I came for you.”

“It’s already too—”

“And I brought our son.”

She froze.

He moved aside the woven seaweed covering. In his arms, cushioned by the soft, green tangles, stared their one-year-old baby.

Zara sucked in a breath. “Zain?”

Her voice broke.

So did Elan’s heart.

Round and chubby from a well-fed, gentle infancy, Zain stared at his mother for the first time with wide, dark eyes. Little chips of midnight blue flecked his irises and his skin. Zara’s same rich, dark brown hair curled from his head. His fat fingers curled into the seaweed.

Shock swept her so-certain anger clear and then agony crushed her. Her brilliant soul light flashed erratically, plunging to the pit of blackness.

Baby Zain’s little soul light also darkened. He made a mewling whimper and burrowed into Elan’s crooked elbow to escape her cutting sadness.

Elan patted Zain, bolstering his baby with strength. “Calm.”

Zara’s knees buckled.

Elan stepped forward and caught her with one arm around the waist. Her soft hip meshed his and her delicate hand rested on his shoulder. She sagged against him, finally where she belonged.

Zain’s feet fell loose from the seaweed. His chubby legs were identical to a human’s all the way down to the toes, which flared into tiny mer fins.

“Fins.” She swallowed hard. “He has fins. He’s…”

“Yes.” Elan angled Zain within easy reach. “He must learn how to shift.”

Her chest heaved. Her heartbeat fluttered. She was unstable. So unstable.

He stroked her hip gently with his thumb.

She covered her cheeks with her hands. Her dark eyes reddened with unshed tears. “He was happy? He was well taken care of? Everyone loved him?”

“Yes.”

“Oh. Good. I worried about that.” Each word punctuated a gasp as she tried not to let out the wrenching sobs contained just below the surface. She scrubbed her cheeks. “That’s a relief. Can I … um, touch?”

“Of course.”

With a trembling index finger, she stroked Zain’s leg from knee to ankle to toe-fins.

He buried his face in Elan’s chest and wiggled to escape.

Zara curled her finger away.

Although the baby was frightened by the newness of air, gravity, sunlight, and by his reunion to a mother he hadn’t known since the womb, their soul lights connected. They had never truly been severed. As soon as Zara calmed and Zain stopped reacting, their year-long rift would be healed.

Elan wanted that healing connection for himself.

Her soft hip pressed against his. Her full breasts pillowed his bicep and pearled nipples teased his chest. He wanted her skin in his mouth, sensitized by his tongue, while his cock plunged into her slick wetness. She belonged in his arms.

He needed her to let him in. Once more, let him into her life, to her body, to her soul. Hers was the only home that mattered. The only home he had left. The only home he ever wanted.

She was home, and he was so weary of searching the bones of his soul ached.

“I waited so long for you,” she whispered, echoing his thoughts. “When I surfaced, they said mermen didn’t exist. I was out of my mind. Drugged. Even I started to think I was crazy. Then, those videos were posted and your existence was revealed.”

“Now you are sober. We are a family. No one will separate us again.”

She tore her gaze from Zain and looked up at him. So unguarded. So vulnerable. “How…”

How had he brought Zain to her? Shame stabbed into him like a thousand urchin needles. He closed. “Never ask me.”

“…dare … you?”

He dropped silent.

She looked down at their son, agony once more darkening her chest. “I was so ready to end this. To find closure and walk away. How dare you bring me Zain? How dare you force me to feel?”

Perhaps coming to her today would become a regret. But right now, he would do it all again. A hundred times. And even her anger, fear, and sadness would not change his gladness at having her, once more, in his arms.

He rested his forehead against hers. “You have too much passion to walk away from us.”

“I’ve been numb for so long I don’t remember any other state.”

“You remember our passion.”

She licked her lips. “No. I’ve forgotten everything from our time.”

He nuzzled her, brushing his nose against hers. Her skin was so soft. Beneath the waves, she felt slippery as silk, and above the waves, she was downy soft and feminine.

With his familiar touch, her soul light flared to a bright, sweet heat. The air between them flooded with pulses of arousal. Her flush awoke his hunger.

They had exchanged a million kisses. Morning kisses, welcome kisses, hungry kisses. And then, none. In days of endless darkness, he had dreamed of her fiery taste.

Elan tilted his head to fit his lips to hers.

Her hand cupped his jaw to stop him.

He hesitated.

Her slender thumb stroked his cheek. Plump lips teased his rough chin. Her whisper emerged as a desperate, hungry plea. “You can’t. I’ve forgotten.”

“Remember. Now.”

“I…” She closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath as though savoring him. “No. I just can’t.”

“Then I will remind you.” He buried his mouth in her kiss.