The Mermaid's Journey_A Reverse Harem Read online

  The Mermaid's Journey

  The Siren Series, Book 2

  Kellie McAllen

  Copyright © 2018 Kellie McAllen

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review.

  Trademarked names appear throughout this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, names are used in an editorial fashion, with no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  Contents

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  Coral’s Harem

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

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  Also by Kellie McAllen

  A Note from the Author

  About the Author

  Gio - the strong, protective ship captain

  Avery - the sweet, sensitive hairstylist

  Jude - the fun-loving party boy

  Liam - the smart, serious marine biologist

  Chapter 1

  “She’ll stay with me.” Liam stares down the others with an intense glare, his green eyes flashing.

  “Like hell she will! The last time she spent the night alone with you, you punched her V card.” Jude puffs up his chest and barrels over to Liam, emphasizing his extra height and weight.

  My belly clenches, and I hold my breath. Liam’s nose is still swollen from the last time they got in a fight over me.

  Liam’s voice stays calm despite Jude’s posturing. “Do you even have a place to stay, Jude? Your roommates probably rented your room to someone else when you disappeared.”

  Jude deflates some, but he doesn’t back off. “I guess you don’t have to worry about that since your mommy and daddy pay for your swanky apartment.”

  Avery winces. “Are you sure they didn’t let it go, Liam? We’ve been gone for months. Most people probably think we’re dead.”

  “I’m sure. But even if they did, I can just take her to their house; there’s plenty of room.” Liam’s tone is dismissive, and Jude and Avery both sneer at him.

  “And how are you going to explain her to your parents?” Jude puts his hands on his hips and smirks.

  I glance at Gio to see his reaction. Normally, he’d be taking the lead, settling the fight between them, but instead he’s just lying there with a pained look on his face. With pale, clammy skin, dark shadows under his eyes, a tube running into his arm, and blankets pulled up to his armpits, he’s practically unrecognizable. I can’t stand the thought of leaving him alone like this.

  “I want to stay here tonight. Gio needs me, and I want to be with him,” I blurt out, taking Gio’s limp hand in mine. The corner of his lips lift in the slightest smile, and he squeezes my fingers. The others swivel their heads to look at us, their fight forgotten, overridden by my concern for Gio.

  “One family member can stay the night.” A soft, round woman with skin darker than I’ve ever seen before and curly, black hair enters the room, tapping on something flat and glossy cradled in her arm. Everything here is smooth and shiny like that, so different from the island and the sea.

  My heart plummets in disappointment. I’m not family, I’m not Gio’s mate, I’m not even human. When the woman glances curiously at the four of us hovered around Gio and raises an eyebrow, I feel exposed, like she knows all this with one look.

  “My girlfriend, Coral, is the closest thing I have to family. I want her to stay with me.” Gio’s voice sounds as weak as he looks, but it makes him seem desperate and needy. Can she deny him? I know I couldn’t. We both turn to the woman with pleading looks on our faces.

  She nods and gives a small smile, and my heart surges with blood again. “That’s fine. Just take it easy, okay? No hanky-panky till the doctor says so. He’ll be by to check on you tomorrow morning, and he’ll probably release you.”

  “There, it’s settled. You three go figure out where you’re staying tonight, and Coral will keep me company. Come here, Princess.” Gio pats the space next to him.

  When the woman leaves the room, I climb up beside him. He gingerly lifts the arm with the tube in it and wraps it around me. His skin feels cold and dry against mine, and his masculine scent is buried under a sharp odor I don’t recognize, but I burrow into his chest, anyway, relieved that he’s alive and healing. He wraps an arm around me and sighs. The only good thing about Gio being sick is that he’s a lot more interested in cuddling.

  “Fair enough. I’ll get a vehicle and come back for you both in the morning,” Liam says, running a hand through his black hair, smoothing it.

  Avery tosses his messy, blond locks out of his eyes with a flick of his head. “Coral is going to need some clothes. I want to take her shopping tomorrow.”

  “I’ll take care of it.” Liam waves him off, and Avery frowns at him.

  “That’s my thing, Liam. Just because you have money doesn’t put you in charge here. We all have money now, remember?”

  Gio’s face perks up. “You managed to get the gold from those divers? That’s a story I’m gonna want to hear.”

  “It’s a doozy, that’s for sure,” Avery says, grinning and shaking his head at me.

  “Oh yeah? Will you tell me what happened, Coral?” Gio looks curiously at me.

  My cheeks get warm, and I dip my head. “They can tell it. I don’t know enough words yet.”

  “Sure you do, Coral. Your English is amazing.” The compliment, especially coming from Liam, makes me blush again. He’s so smart, it’s hard to imagine anyone impressing him.

  “They wanted us to find more treasure for them; they had a gun. But when I sang, they followed me.”

  Gio tilts his head at me, confused, and Jude jumps in, his floppy, brown curls bobbing as he flings his arms around.

  “She freakin’ mesmerized them is what she did! It was incredible. The young guy put a gun to her head, the rest of us jumped to attack them, and Coral started singing. The next thing I knew, Coral had them hogtied in the cabin!”

  Gio glances at Liam and Avery for confirmation.

  “It’s true. We were all under her spell, with no memory of what happened. Apparently, Coral’s ability to transform her body isn’t her only talent.” Liam’s voice is awed, and he looks at me with fascination.

  “We better stay on her good side is all I got to say about that.” Jude smirks at me.

  Gio squeezes my shoulder and shakes his head. “You really are something, aren’t you, Princess? What happened after that?”

  Liam answers for me, flashing a rare, mischievous grin. “I commandeered their boat and sailed back to s
hore. We took enough cash from them to cover our cab fair and left them tied up in the cabin. I imagine someone will find them eventually.”

  Gio smiles weakly and closes his eyes. “Wish I coulda been there.”

  “Hey, I think Gio needs some sleep. We should get out of here.” Avery nudges the others.

  I tense as I realize they’re about to leave. It will be the first night I’ve been away from them since the second day I met them. I shudder as I remember the awful night I lay bruised and broken in the bottom of the chasm, how terrified I was that I would die without ever seeing them again. But I survived, despite the curse that should’ve killed me or sent me back to the sea. And the guys found me and rescued me, even when I thought all hope was lost.

  “Are you going to be okay, Coral?” Avery frowns and runs a soothing hand over my hair.

  “Of course she will. I’ll take care of her.” Gio pulls me closer.

  “I’ll miss you,” I whisper, looking up at the others. I can feel wetness pooling in my eyes, blurring my vision.

  “Aw, Princess, we’ll miss you, too.” Avery reaches out to hug me. I wrap my arms around him and bury my face in his neck.

  When he lets go, Liam takes his place, capturing my lips with his. My insides follow when he pulls away.

  “You promise you’ll be back tomorrow? You too, Jude?” I look to him, and he grabs me and squeezes tight, lifting me off the bed a little.

  “Of course, I will. I’m not giving you up that easy. These yahoos and I will figure out a way to share you. Like joint custody, or something.”

  I don’t know what that means, but his confidence reassures me. They wave goodbye, giving me a few more kisses, and soon I’m alone with Gio.

  The room feels cold and empty now, filled with strange objects and sounds I’ve never heard before — a whooshing sound that reminds me of the ocean but brings a chilly rush of air with it, beeping that mimics the dots of light flashing on the machine next to Gio, the squeak of shoes out in the hallway. Everything but the bed is hard and unnatural. Even the light feels cold, like moonlight, only brighter. I miss the sand and the sunshine and the comfort of knowing what’s to come. Here, every moment holds the threat of something unfamiliar.

  When I shiver, Gio says, “Are you cold, Coral? Why don’t you get under the blanket?”

  He lifts the covers, and I slip in beside him, turning on my side so I can snuggle up to him. His hand drapes around my shoulder and strokes my arm. He winces when I rest a hand on his belly, so I jerk it away.

  “Sorry!” I sit up and pull back the covers so I can look at his abdomen.

  Gio lifts the gown to show me three white rectangles stuck to his skin with something clear and shiny. “These are bandages covering the wounds from the surgery — laparoscopic appendectomy. It’s a little tender.”

  I wince when Gio imagines metal instruments gouging into his belly. He pulls his gown back down and covers up with the blanket again. I put my hand on his arm so I won’t accidentally touch his stomach.

  “What do merfolk do when they get sick, Coral? Do you have doctors or healers of some kind?”

  “We don’t get sick much, but if we do, there are foods we eat to feel better. But sometimes merfolk die before they should.”

  “Here, we have doctors and special tests and medicine and surgery, but sometime humans die young, too.” Sadness furrows his face as his mind flashes back to memories of his parents’ bloody bodies lying dead in the managed wreckage of their vehicle.

  My eyes widen, and I sit up and suck in a breath. “Are you going to die, Gio?”

  He makes a face, shaking his head. “No, no! I’ll be fine. I’ll be better in no time,” he insists, but I can’t help but wonder if he’s just saying that to keep me from worrying.

  His hand gently pushes my head back down onto his chest, his fingers grazing along my cheek. We lay like that, lightly stroking each other and listening to the sounds of the hospital, until exhaustion finally claims me.

  I wake up to an empty bed, and fear immediately jolts me upright.

  Chapter 2

  “Gio? Gio!” I scramble to get out of the bed as my heart rate escalates, but the covers are tangled around my legs like seaweed. I kick frantically at them, trying to free myself.

  A loud sound like a whirlpool echoes from the door beside me, then more water rushes for a few moments before stopping abruptly. I finally loose myself from the bedding and drop to the ground, yelping in surprise when my bare feet slap the cold, hard floor.

  Just then, the door swings open, and Gio emerges, hunched over and pushing the metal stand with a bag of water that drips from a tube into his forearm. He still looks weak and lifeless, but he seems more worried about me. “Are you okay, Coral?”

  “I woke up and you were gone. It… scared me.”

  He grins and points his thumb at the room behind him. “I just had to use the bathroom.”

  I’ve heard the guys use that expression before. Well, mostly Avery and Liam. Gio usually says he’s gotta piss, and Jude says things like take a leak, drain the vein, or syphon the python.

  Now that I think about it, I need to go, too. Normally, I’d go behind a tree like the guys do, but there’s no sand or soil here to soak it up. I tilt my head to see around Gio, curious about what’s in there.

  “You can go look. Come on, I’ll show you.” Gio waves me forward.

  I peek into the small space and gape when I recognize the fixtures I’ve seen in the guys’ minds before, but I’m even more fascinated by the large mirror on the wall. I owned a hand mirror when I lived in the shoal — a human artifact my mother left behind — but this mirror is large enough to show the entire upper half of my body, and the light in here is as bright as the sun.

  I lean forward and gaze at my reflection, watching my hands move as I reach to touch my face. I look so much different than I did underwater in my mother’s tiny mirror. My eyes are wide, the blue vivid against my skin. Under the haze of water, I never realized they were the same color as the sky. But my hair is limp and tangled, my clothes, face, and body smudged with dirt. Gio moves next to me so I can see his reflection in the mirror, too. I gasp at how identical it looks.

  “That’s you, Coral.” He smiles at our reflections, but I cringe at mine.

  “I look terrible.”

  He chuckles. “Well, you could use a little freshening up, but you’re beautiful, Coral. That’s why none of us can keep our hands off you.”

  I’ve been so distracted by getting Gio the help he needs, I haven’t had a chance to notice very many human women. In the shoal, merfolk told me I was beautiful, but I don’t know how I’ll compare to the females here. How can I compete when I don’t even know what’s normal?

  I turn away from the mirror, uncomfortable with the woman staring back at me, and move towards what looks like a seat with a hole.

  “That’s the toilet. Girls sit down on it to do their business.” He imagines the process in his mind so I can see it.

  “Then you can wash your hands in the sink.” Gio lifts the metal handle, and water rushes into the shiny, white bowl and flows down the hole in the bottom. When he sticks his hand into the stream, the water diverts around his fingers.

  There’s a small, rectangular device on the wall, and Gio puts one hand under it and pulls the flap at the bottom. A glob of pink goo squirts onto his palm. “This is soap. It helps you get clean.”

  My eyes widen when he rubs his hands together and the goo turns into bubbles. He sticks his foamy hands under the water again, and the soap disappears. He pulls thin, brown squares from another device and dries his hands with them.

  “All done. Do you want to try?”

  I nod eagerly, my bladder begging to be emptied.

  “Okay, have at it.” Gio smiles and walks out of the bathroom, pulling the door shut behind him, leaving me alone.

  I tiptoe over to the toilet and stare at the still, clear water. How does the water stay in there with that big hole in t
he bottom? I lift the shirt that’s tied around my waist and squat down till the cold seat touches my thighs. It feels so strange, it take me a moment before I can relieve myself.

  Afterward, I hesitantly reach for the roll of paper beside me. It feels almost like cloth, only it tears easily when I pull on it. It feels so soft compared to the leaves that Liam taught me to use on the island. How do humans make this? Does it come from a plant, or an animal? I realize I don’t know how they make clothing, either. Their world is full of things I’ve never seen and don’t understand, and the complexity of it all crashes into me like a tidal wave. I know I can ask the guys, but will they tire of my endless questions?

  When I’m done, I stand up and push the lever on the back of the toilet like Gio showed me, jumping when the now-yellow water suddenly whooshes down the hole, along with the paper, and more clear water pours into the toilet. I bend over and tilt my head to see where it’s coming from, fascinated. When the water stops, I can’t resist pushing the lever again, just to watch it.

  I feel excited and overwhelmed at the same time. I want to explore all the clever things that humans have invented, but they make me feel so ignorant. How do they know how to create these things? It will take me the rest of my life to learn it all.

  I move over to the sink and lift the metal handle, sticking my hands under the stream of cold water to wet them. Then, I pull on the soap dispenser till a pile of goo drops onto my hand. I poke at it then rub some between my fingers, enjoying the slippery texture. It reminds me of touching a jellyfish, only a little less slimy. I rub it all over my hands until they’re covered in lather.