A mermaids daughter

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Hunters POV

The second I said the words I knew that I had screwed up. It was confirmed seconds later when Rose turned around and started running down the beach.

“Damn it!” I swore “Rose wait!”

But she wasn’t listening. She was hauling ass through the water as fast as she can. Her only issue was that I was that much faster than her.

“Gotcha” I said, wrapping my arms around her waist and picking her up off the ground. Rose shrieked in rage and started flailing.

“Put me down” She shrieked “Put me down”

“You need to listen to me” I said “Rose stop, im serious”

“You’re crazy” Rose yelled “You are seriously out of your mind”

“No!” I said, dragging her back down the beach to the private area I had found “I’m not, Rose come on just hear me out!”

“Why should I?” Rose argued, still trying to wiggle herself free “I hardly even know you, and now you’re talking like a crazy person”

“Im not crazy” I exclaimed “Look!”

I dropped my one arm from around Rose’s waist to hold my own wrist up so she could see. Right under my palm was a small patch of shimmering blue scales. Rose stopped struggling against me, actually im pretty sure she froze solid. We stood there, panting, me holding onto her tightly and her just standing there. When she suddenly went limp in my arms I panicked.

“Rose!” I exclaimed “Rose what’s wrong?”

“Why would you ask me that?” She gasped, her voice on the verge of the sob “Why would you possibly ask me that?”

I dropped down into the sand, pulling Rose against my chest so that I could make sure she didn’t get away. I ignored how nice it felt having her here this close to me. She was holding her wrist up to mine now, surveying the similarities and the differences between us.

“Why did you come here?” She asked, her voice soft now, but I could tell tears were leaking down her face.

“Your mother sent me” I explained “She wanted someone here for you when it happened”

“When what happens?” Rose demanded, twisting in my arms to face me “What do you mean my mother?”

I grimaced, she obviously didn’t know she was adopted. By the look of pure anger on her face I figured I had no other choice but to spill my guts.

“Your adopted Rose” I said “You were brought here just weeks after you were born, the parents you know adopted you”

“Why?” Rose demanded “From where?”

“For your protection” I replied, doing my best not to stroke her back “There are people who want to overthrow your mom, they would use you to get to her”

“Overthrow?” Rose asked, clearly confused. I couldn’t blame her; I wasn’t doing a very good job at explaining. 

“Your mom is the queen” I said “I know this all sounds like a really bad fairy tale but it’s true. When you were a baby there was an attacked on the Kingdome, after that your mom was so upset and worried that something would happen to you that she had you sent up above. No one would think to look for a human”

“So” Rose’s bottom lip began to quiver “I’m going to….turn into a fish?”

I snorted

“Hardly” I explained “To us that’s still food. No you will be a mermaid, like the rest of us”

“But” Rose said, her voice beginning to quiver and her eyes filling with tears “I don’t want to be a mermaid”

“You have no choice” I said bluntly “It’s going to happen on your eighteenth birthday whether you like it or not. You’re already changing”

This didn’t get the reaction I had wanted, Rose completely burst into tears. Then she unexpectedly through herself against me and sobbed. I was so shocked that I didn’t know what to do, I wasn’t exactly an expert on girls.

“No” She sobbed “No”

Tentatively I patted her back, oh man had I screwed this one up. What would the queen say if she found out that I was making her daughter become so emotionally distraught she couldn’t even get a sentence out?

“It will be okay” I said, this time my voice was soft and took me by surprise “You will be okay; you don’t know what it’s like. It’s wonderful”

“How can it be wonderful?” Rose sobbed, lifting her face from my shoulder “I won’t have my legs, I will be living under freaking water! I’ll be a freak!”

I winced at this last bit, by calling herself a freak she was calling me a freak.

That oddly hurt more than it should.

“You won’t be a freak” I said, gently tucking some of her blond hair behind her ear “I promise”

Rose sniffled and rubbed her eyes, when she looked up at me I thought that I had never seen eyes so vulnerable.

“Don’t let this happen to me” She pleaded “Please Hunter, don’t let this happen”

She slid her hands up until she was cupping the sides of my face; I wanted to lean into those hands.

Instead I reached up and pulled them away.

“There’s no stopping this” I said “Im sorry”

Rose made a noise that was a half sigh, half sob  before falling back into my arms. I wrapped my arms tightly around her and gently rocked her back and forth. I didn’t know what else to do, I had never consoled a girl before. I had never even really acknowledged them before.

But something about this felt very very right.