Page 29 of Seduced By the Mermen
Atlas was right. The human females will cause chaos everywhere they go.
I take a step forward. Nico stands too. There are half a dozen males alert and wide-eyed in the teahouse. All of them are old enough to be Marlee’s father.
A pod mate of Kade’s, Torin Driftwood, puts his hand on the youngster’s shoulder. “We don’t shout about females in public.” He takes the male by the elbow and tosses him out of the teahouse. The crowd mutters in appreciation, and I see Blair smile at him. It was the right thing to do. But damn, I don’t like seeing him do it.
Unlike a lot of others, I don’t care two rotten shrimp shells about Tinom, Vitrom, or Glyden. Hell, I don’t even care about Braesen—it wasn’t the citizens of Braesen’s fault that their governor was an ass. Most of them are. Theirs also happened to be a sociopath as well.
Blair puts her arm around her daughter and leans in. There’s nodding around the table, and Forrest stands up.
This isn’t going to end well.
Nico cranes his neck to look around the room. But it’s Eros who jumps onto the bar. “The Portsmouth pod requests that all males stay in place for ten minutes after we leave. Those who don’t follow this direction have been warned.” He smiles and leaps off the counter. “Sunshine?” He holds his hand out to his mate. The crowd parts as Eros leads the way to the door. Blair and Marlee follow, with Holter and Castor taking the rear. Military precision has them out the door in a minute.
I make my way through the crowd, but not before Forrest grabs my arm. I stare at his hand on my elbow. “What?”
“Eros said that goes for us too.”
“I’m not one of you, haven’t been for a long time.”
“Yes, well, that might be true, but I still don’t want you dead.”
“I’m working, Forrest.” I stare at his hand.
“Working?”
I shake my head and lose his grip, making my way to the door. My agents aren’t as sure as I am. They’re hovering by the door, along with a half dozen males who have their faces pressed to the window that leads out into the market area. “Move,” I order.
“Yes, sir.” They step out of the way.
Eros is waiting alone, twenty paces down the wide corridor of the atrium that connects the shops. “Mason, that includes you.”
“I’m on orders,” I scowl. I don’t like the word, never have, but it’s true.
There’s a high-pitched squeal from behind the market stall up ahead, and the two of us are off.
Chapter 13
Blair
Iswing my arm as hard as I can. Like I learned in self-defense class. I’ve never hit anyone outside of class. Not ever. But I smack my fist into the side of his face. His brown eyes snap back to me.
“No one touches my daughter,” I yell. “No one!”
“Mom, I’m fine. It’s okay. He touched my hair. It startled me. It’s okay.” Marlee’s holding on to me. But Eros and Sterling have the male’s hands behind his back.
“It’s not okay,” I yell in the male’s face until he shuts his eyes.
“Mom?”
Annabelle and her other three pod mates are circled around us. Along with two males I saw back in the teahouse. During the time we were on the run from Russell, I got into the habit of watching my surroundings. Was the man in the corner of the café with the baseball hat on the same size as my ex? Did the man in the oversized raincoat have a gun? I watched. I studied. And when we stayed anywhere longer than a month, I found places to take self-defense classes when I had the money. Marlee did for a while too, but she didn’t like it. She spent more time on the treadmill.“I’ll just outrun them, Mom.”
My chest heaves, and I need to calm down or I’m going to pass out from hyperventilating.
Sterling places his hand on my shoulder, and I glance up into his gray eyes. “Are you good?”
“Yes, I’m okay.”
“I’ve got this.” He grabs the male I hit in the jaw. His hands are cuffed behind his back. I didn’t see how it happened.
