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Tumultuous, red-tinted water swirls around Ava as she flaps her tail in a desperate attempt to find safety. Thoughts of danger, escape, swim faster circle in an endless loop around her head . Pain radiates from her tail, a constant reminder of her vulnerability. Blood loss and panic leave her too dizzy to make sense of her surroundings. She doesn’t know where she is or where she’s going; she could be swimming directly into more danger.
She doesn’t realize how close she’s gotten to the surface until something plunges into the water and grabs her. It wraps around her arm, grip hot and vice-like.
Terror tunnels her vision, flooding her veins like ice. She reacts on instinct, fueled by the desperate urge to survive. She swivels her torso and cranes her neck enough to bite her attacker. Blood fills her mouth as the human yanks their hand away. Ava sinks deeper into the water.
Except, she’s still close enough to the surface to hear when the human mutters, “Was that necessary? I was trying to help.”
Ava is so indignant she forgets to be careful. Perhaps the nuns at the orphanage had been right in saying her impulsiveness would be the death of her because she doesn’t hesitate to propel herself to the water’s surface.
“How the fuck did you think kidnapping me would help?”
The sunlight is blinding up here, streaming down relentlessly from above and reflecting off the ocean. It takes Ava’s eyes several moments of blinking to adjust, precious time that could have given her attacker the advantage. But nothing reaches for her again, no net falls over her. When her vision clears, she sees only one human before her, kneeling on a small boat. Ava feels a vicious glee at seeing the blood smeared across her hand.
“You think I wanted to abduct you?”
“You were trying to get me on to your… ship.”
“What? This isn’t a ship—”
“That is so not the point.” If Ava was smart, she’d swim away and leave this far behind her. But she’s curious. The human seems ill prepared for mermaid hunting, with no weapons or nets, and her tiny ship thing.
Ava pushes wet hair out of her face and peers at the strange human, coming to the abrupt realization that she’s… gorgeous. There’s no other word for her.
Her wetsuit highlights her curves, a few loose strands of naturally highlighted hair framing her freckle-dotted face. Her entire frame is dappled gold from the early morning sun; she looks like she’s been blessed by the sun itself.
“I was only trying to help you onto my surfboard so I could get you medical attention.”
Ava flicks her tail; the pain has dulled to a mild ache. “I don’t need your help.”
“Why did you try to give me a mating bite if you thought I was kidnapping you?”
“What!? I didn’t! I just bit you—a normal bite.” The woman raises her hand, palm out so Ava can see the perfect circle her teeth had left. “Oh, fuck.”
“ Don’t tell me you accidentally gave me a mating bite.”
“I thought you were attacking me! Why are you not upset? We’re going to be mates, and I don’t even know your name. This is so fucked.”
The woman’s cool composure is infuriating.
“Calm down, I use MateGuard. And my name is Beatrice.”
Ava lowers herself into the water until it’s just below her nose, concealing half her face as her brain works to understand. She stays like that until a wave envelops her. Then she swims back up, pushing her wet hair back.
“I’m Ava.” She swims a little closer. “What is MateGuard?”
Beatrice’s hand goes to the zipper of her wetsuit, and Ava stares as it’s pulled down to display her collarbones and the skin-colored patch directly below. The wetsuit still covers almost everything, but there are tantalizing yellow straps now visible across Beatrice’s shoulders.
“Mermaids don’t have MateGuard?” Beatrice asks, fingers skirting over the patch on her chest.
“I’ve never heard of it.” Ava reaches out to grip the edge of Beatrice’s surfboard, circumventing the ocean’s attempts at parting them. “What does it do?”
“Are you sure you’re not bleeding to death right now?” Beatrice eyes the light pink water around Ava as she zips her wetsuit back up.
Beatrice’s concern gives Ava the confidence to tug herself onto Beatrice’s surfboard. It rocks under their combined weight, an odd sensation unlike anything Ava can remember. She’s tempted to move until it tips them both into the water, but she wants to talk to Beatrice more before potentially upsetting her.
Unfortunately, there isn’t room for Beatrice, herself, and her tail. She raises it above the water, using her abs to hold it up long enough for Beatrice to see. The deep cuts have healed to light scrapes, new scales already growing over them.
“Oh.” Beatrice reaches out like she’s going to touch Ava’s tail, only to tug her hand away at the last second. Ava flops her tail back into the water, hard enough to splash them both and rock the surfboard. Beatrice looks unbothered by the water droplets dripping down her face. “You have a nice tail.”
Ava tries not to blush. Her tail resembles that of a baby zebra shark, with an octagonal pattern across the top that turns to stripes further down. The base is a slick black with designs the color of sea foam. The rare coloring is all she has left of her mother, but she knows better than to bring up her dead mom to a pretty girl she just met.
“I can heal your hand if you want.” She supposes she owes Beatrice that much.
“The way you healed your tail? You can do that to others?”
“Kind of? It’s similar. I’ve never tried it on a human before, but I’ve heard it works the same.”
“So, if I agree, I’m your guinea pig?”
“You can say no. But I’m not going to hurt you—unless you give me a reason to.”
Beatrice glances at her hand. The bleeding has stopped, but Ava worries about infection. “Then I suppose I should clarify that I have no intention of abducting you.”
“Hey, have you ever been grabbed while wounded and disoriented? Because that shit’s scary.”
Ava instantly regrets dimming the light in Beatrice’s eyes. “You’re right. I’m sorry for scaring you.”
“I’m… sorry for biting you.”
“ Whale , seeing as you appear to be half-shark, I suppose I can’t hold that against you.”
Ava bites back a remark about what Beatrice can hold against her—primarily Beatrice herself. “Your knowledge of marine life is shark- ingly inaccurate. Zebra sharks are quite docile and only bite when provoked. In all of recorded history, there’s one single incident of a zebra shark biting someone unprovoked.”
Beatrice’s smile brightens her entire face. “My apologies if I of- fin- ded you. This mako- me as a surprise, but I’ve never talked to a mermaid before.”
Ava almost swoons, grinning so wide her cheeks hurt. Beatrice isn’t just pretty, she’s funny and clever and shares Ava’s love of puns. “Okay, that was flipping fin- tastic. But let me see your hand, I promise not to bite unless you ask nicely.”
The flirtation slips out before Ava can stop it. Her stomach is full of butterflies, and she’s so enamored she wonders if Beatrice’s MateGuard has failed, and she’s experiencing the rush of hormones from a mating bond.
Beatrice barely reacts to the line, gaze shifting toward the horizon before returning. She holds out her hand. Ava takes it carefully, trying not to think about how close Beatrice’s wrist and scent glands are. She subtly inhales through her nose, smelling sunshine, sea water, and citrus. She isn’t sure how much is Beatrice, whose strong scent confirms she must be an alpha, but she wants more. She wants to press her nose to Beatrice’s wrist—or even better, her neck.
“I need to clean it first.” Her romantic impulses scatter like dust on the wind at the idea of causing Beatrice any more pain.
“How do you plan to do that?”
“Trust me?”
When Beatrice nods, Ava sinks their hands into the ocean. Beatrice hisses between her teeth and tugs her hand from Ava’s grip. “This is not how humans clean our wounds.”
“I had to wash the blood off, but I can heal it now.”
Beatrice hesitates, and Ava prepares to be rebuffed. Instead, Beatrice gently rests her hand back on top of Ava’s. “Okay.”
The display of trust makes Ava breathless, leaving her once again questioning the effectiveness of MateGuard.
She lifts Beatrice’s hand, soft but sporting a couple of callouses, to her mouth and presses a soft kiss to the bite mark. She smirks at Beatrice’s little gasp as her skin knits itself back together.
“How is that possible?”
Ava shrugs, not wanting the conversation to veer into the science of mermaid healing. She reluctantly releases Beatrice’s hand, letting warm fingers slip from her own. Beatrice raises her hand to eye-level to inspect it.
“So…” Ava trails, trying to figure out how to tactfully change the subject. Subtlety has never been her strong suit. “What is MateGuard?”
“It’s a relatively new invention, though old enough that most people have heard of it by now. It blocks accidental mating bonds from forming.”
“How?”
There’s a light flush to Beatrice’s cheeks, barely noticeable, but extremely cute. “Mating bites release a flood of hormones in both parties, causing a bond to form.”
“Everyone knows that.”
“Sorry for not knowing what is and isn’t common knowledge in the world of mer-people. Anyway, MateGuard prevents such large amounts of oxytocin, dopamine, and vasopressin from being released. A mating bond can’t form without them.”
“Cool,” Ava breathes. “But what if you decide to mate someone?”
Beatrice runs her fingers through the water, passing through the crest of a wave. “It’s just a patch, it can be easily removed by almost any doctor.”
“Huh.”
“When you healed my hand, would that have broken a bond or kept it from forming?”
“No, there are limits to our healing. If the bond had taken, the wound would’ve healed to a scarred mating bite.”
Beatrice’s completely-healed hand serves as a testament to how well her MateGuard worked.
“Interesting.”
“You know, I’ve never talked to a human before,” Ava says, following her train of thought as it returns to their earlier conversation. Later, she might let her tail turn to legs and go on land to visit a human library for more information about MateGuard, but that can wait.
“I figured as much.”
“How did you know?”
“I don’t mean it as an insult. Your general lack of knowledge about surfboards and MateGuard were indicators.”
Ava pouts, trying hard to hide a smile. “Fair enough. We didn’t really get a good education about humans where I grew up.”
Sister Francis’s hatred of humans was strong enough to rival typhoons, but Ava, who hated Sister Francis in equal measure, had taken her words with a thousand grains of sand. Ava hopes her growing desire to experience everything Sister Francis warned her about has the nun rolling in her watery grave.
“My own education wasn’t much better about merpeople. They taught basic history, the wars and treaties, and society’s shifting attitudes, but they spoke little of your culture or daily lives.”
Ava leans closer, emboldened by the interest in Beatrice’s eyes. She worries it’s purely scientific until Beatrice’s gaze momentarily drops to her lips. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know about the lives of merpeople. But first…”
“First?” Beatrice echoes, eyes wide and sincere.
Ava never imagined someone so intriguing as a strong, intelligent alpha who can still look so adorably innocent. She feels drunk on it.
She taps the surfboard, effectively ruining the moment. “What is this? Are surfboards just for sitting on or do they do something?”
Beatrice lights up, excitement sparking in her eyes and the upturn of her lips. Who needs sunrises and sunsets when there’s an excited Beatrice to look at?
“I’m happy to show you, but… you’ll have to get off the board.”
The remark cuts right through Ava’s good mood. The board is quite enjoyable, swaying with every wave, gradually pushing them towards shore.
“Trust me?” Beatrice asks, tone gentle enough to make Ava feel guilty for hesitating. She gives a disgruntled flap of her tail before pushing off the board and back into the ocean.
The water is cool and refreshing. Growing up in an orphanage run by nuns, Ava hadn’t been allowed to leave the water much as a child, but now she finds herself often perching on rocks to enjoy warm sunlight. She always enjoys slipping back into the water, the rightness of it.
She resurfaces faster than she normally would. Even though Beatrice kicked her off the surfboard, Ava isn’t ready to say goodbye yet. She tucks her wet, chin-length hair behind her ears so she can see.
“We need to go a little further out,” Beatrice says, moving onto her stomach on the surfboard and paddling with her arms on either side. Ava watches the strange swimming a moment longer before following.
They don’t go far, still closer to shore than Ava usually ventures. Beatrice watches the wave, and Ava wonders if this is all there is to it.
Then a wave rushes toward them, and everything happens at once.
One second, Beatrice is on her stomach, the next, she’s standing. She balances on the surfboard as it’s propelled through the water, the power of the ocean behind her. If Ava hadn’t realized her attraction to Beatrice before, she certainly would’ve now. Beatrice is a badass.
The wave carries Beatrice to the sand where she maintains her graceful composure as her board slows to a stop. Ava amends her earlier thought; Beatrice isn’t blessed by the sun, she’s clearly blessed by the sea.
Stunned and awed, Ava remains where she is until Beatrice returns, paddling out on her stomach once more.
“That’s surfing?”
Beatrice stops beside her and sits on her knees. “What?”
Ava swims closer, until she can rest her arms on the surfboard and peer up at Beatrice. “That was fucking amazing. I want to try!”
“Um,” Beatrice glances at the water. “Your tail might pose a bit of a challenge.”
Ava laughs, too surprised to notice the oncoming wave. It tugs her under, her laughter creating bubbles in the already raucous water. She surges back up. “That’s not a problem.”
She pulls herself back onto the surfboard, letting a familiar rush of magic work over her, transforming her tail into a pair of human legs, complete with a blue bikini bottom to match her top.
“Can all mermaids do that?” Beatrice asks after a moment of gawking. Ava would be flattered, if she thought it was more about her body than science and logistics.
“Only if they have a human parent, or if they mate with a human.”
The mention of mating is enough for Beatrice to finally tear her gaze from Ava’s legs. “You’re half human?”
“Yup.” Ava kicks the water, noticing how different it feels between her toes than on her tail. She hopes Beatrice won’t ask more questions. That’s at least a third date conversation.
“If you had… shifted to human legs earlier, would you have still been injured?”
“I think so? I’ve never tried it.” Ava pokes one of her thighs. She’s practiced enough to walk without falling, but legs are still pretty new to her.
“Were you attacked? There was a lot of blood, I worried it might attract sharks.” Yet, Beatrice had stayed and attempted to help. A kindness Ava had promptly repaid her by biting her. Not her finest moment.
“No… I mean, kind of?”
“You were kind of attacked?”
Ava groans. “Promise you won’t laugh? It’s dumb.”
“Of course I won’t laugh!”
“I got caught in a net, and getting out was more difficult than it should’ve been. Panicking didn’t really help.” She tries to say it lightly, but her tone comes out a little too flat.
“ Oh, Ava.”
It’s becoming abundantly clear that Beatrice is not the type of person to laugh at others’ misfortunes.
“I’m fine though. All healed, remember?”
“That must have been terrifying. And then being grabbed—I’m so sorry.”
“You were trying to help, and I already forgave you.” Ava bumps her shoulder against Beatrice’s. “Like you forgave me for biting you, right?”
“There’s truly nothing to forgive. I would’ve done something similar in your situation, though maybe not a mating bite.”
Ava rolls her eyes. “I told you that wasn’t intentional!”
Beatrice is smiling again, shining brighter than the sun that’s slowly working its way into the sky. Ava opens her mouth to suggest Beatrice teach her to do the surfboarding when a chorus of voices from shore cuts her off.
She turns, finding a gaggle of children in wetsuits. Some of the kids are shouting and waving while others lug out surfboards like Beatrice’s.
“That would be my eight o’clock class,” Beatrice says.
“I guess I should go.”
Before Ava can reluctantly slip into the water, Beatrice’s hand touches her wrist. The contact is gentle, barely a brush of fingers, but it feels like a trail of sparks along her skin.
“I can teach you to surf, if you want to come back tomorrow around seven?”
Ava’s face breaks into another grin. She doesn’t care if she looks goofy or too excited; she is excited, and she wants Beatrice to know. “Yeah, yeah, for sure.” She pushes off the surfboard, transforming the legs back into her tail. “Bye, Beatrice.”
Beatrice’s answering smile is soft and sweet and just for her, and Ava steadfastly commits it to memory. “Goodbye, Ava.”