The Unexpected Mate

Part 30

"Please, sit." He gestured to the chair I just stood up from. "Would you like anything to eat or drink?"

I shook my head no, then mentally rolled my eyes. I shouldn't show that he scares the living daylights out of me. "No sir, thank you." I respond as calmly as I can hoping my voice didn't sound as shaky as I think it did.

King Alexander stood from his desk and walked over to the wall of windows. "Did you know Troy had a brother?" he asked me.

I did not know this, but I also haven't had a long conversation with Troy before yesterday. Asking about siblings hadn't really been a priority. I noticed that his father had also used the past tense, as in he no longer had a brother. "No sir I did not." I answered hoping he would tell me more about his other son.

His father sighed and hung his head, "It's been almost a year and a half ago now that we lost him." He paused and I wondered if he was going to continue, I could see that the loss of his son still very much had an effect on him.

"We were spending time in Southern America, right near the cape. King Samuels, he's King of the Atlantic, oldest daughter Rebecca was having her bonding ceremony. It becomes a huge celebration when one of the royals becomes bonded, like the equivalent of the royal humans in England getting married. Mer's from across the world come to celebrate." He paused again. "The ceremonies are huge events but the receptions, now those are a site to see. A huge party for everyone to socialize and celebrate the newly bonded pair. Rebecca was loved, as was her-" He coughed as if he was trying to get his voice under control. "There were so many people there, everyone making sure to congratulate the new pair. No one noticed that some of the children had wandered off and had gotten to close to the surface. No one noticed until we hear their screams." I could feel myself tearing up, his father took a deep breath to collect himself and continued. "One of the children had got caught in a fishing boats net, we still don't know how or why there was a fishing boat out that far but that's irrelevant. Once the fishermen realized what they had caught in their nets they immediately let out more nets to catch the other children. Young mer are slow and haven't been able to fully develop their skills yet, making them easy targets. It's another reason we choose to live on land among the humans to raise our families, there isn't a danger to us in leg form." He looked over at me. "We aren't hunted like your kind."

"Andrew was the first to make it to the children, he was so unbelievably fast and strong. He started fighting with the nets, trying to free the children as quickly as he could. A group of us made it to the nets and started helping free the children also. We thought we had them all, had saved them all, but then Andrew saw the little mer boy stuck in the net closest to the boat."

I could feel the tears falling as he paused.

"It was too dangerous. The little boy was so close to the boat, I told Andrew to let him go. Told him he had done all that he could. But he wouldn't listen, he was such a stubborn child. He made it to the net right before it was dragged into the boat. He saved the little boy, making the fishermen angry that they had lost their prize." He said the word with disgust. "They were so angry, they shot at Andrew with harpoons as he tried to swim away. His fin got caught in one of the nets and as he turned to pull the net off of him one of the fisherman shot. It was a direct hit to his chest. Me and a few others pulled him from the net and swam away as quickly as we could. He held on till he saw Rebecca, told her that he loved her and he was sorry. He then died in my arms." I could see the tears falling from his father's eyes, and my heart broke. His father cleared his throat and turned back to me, I wiped the tears from my eyes. I couldn't imagine losing a child, I know my parents would be devastated if they lost me or David. And how awful for Rebecca, to have your newly bonded mate be tragically killed. My heart ached for her, I couldn't imagine losing Troy to death.