The Merman Boxset (Books 1-5): A Gay Merman Romance Read online

  The Merman Boxset

  Gay Merman Romance

  X. Aratare

  Copyright © 2019 by X. Aratare

  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 for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Introduction

  The Merman: Transformation Book 1

  1. LIGHTS IN THE DEEP

  2. THRUM

  3. SOMEONE AMAZING

  4. OCEAN SIDE

  5. HISTORY IS PRICELESS

  6. CAVE ART

  7. THE SILENCE OF DROWNING

  The Merman: Acceptance Book 2

  1. DISBELIEF

  2. PRETENDING TO BE HUMAN

  3. MER BLOOD

  4. THE CALL

  5. BLACK WATER

  6. ACCEPTANCE

  7. LOST AND FOUND

  8. SEEN

  The Merman: Caller Book 3

  1. FOOTSTEPS IN THE SAND

  2. SEIZE THE MOMENT

  3. ONE MOMENT OR ONE HUNDRED YEARS

  4. THE TEMPLE

  5. NO CHOICE

  6. INNER SANCTUM

  7. COREY, MEET CASILLUS

  The Merman: Undersea Book 4

  1. REVEALING

  2. THE PLAN

  3. SWIM

  4. LISEAS

  5. THE PALACE

  6. THE WAVE CRESTS

  7. FIRST MEETING

  8. MATTER OF TRUST

  The Merman: Landfall Book 5

  1. NEW PLAN, SAME AS THE OLD PLAN BUT WITH GUNS

  2. LEFT BEHIND

  3. GRAVITY

  4. BEST LAID PLANS

  5. NEW PLAN

  6. LAST CHANCE

  7. CALL

  8. THE POWER OF STONE

  9. LANDFALL

  10. CALLER OF STARS

  11. REVELATIONS

  12. COREY THE AMBASSADOR

  13. MOONLIGHT SWIM

  14. LAST DAY, FIRST DAY

  15. EPILOGUE

  Introduction

  The Merman is a 5-book gay paranormal romance series from Raythe Reign. This series contains psychic powers, a mostly-naked merman lover, an evil scientist, and true love beneath the waves.

  The Merman: Transformation Book 1

  1

  LIGHTS IN THE DEEP

  Twelve years ago …

  “We’re going sailing today, right?” Nine-year-old Gabriel Braven couldn’t quite keep the slightest plea from his voice as he spoke to his parents. The need to get out on the water when they went to his grandmother’s cottage was always strong, but on this visit it was almost overwhelming.

  Something is going to happen. Something amazing. Those two thoughts chased each other through his head like rambunctious squirrels. There was no concrete reason for feeling this way. He just felt it, like he felt the warmth of the sun shining through the kitchen windows in his grandmother’s cottage.

  His mother and father exchanged smiles over the tops of their coffee cups. His father John Braven reached over and ruffled Gabriel’s black hair. He was handsome and strong with deeply tanned limbs even though summer had just begun.

  “Eager to get out on the water, Gabriel?” he asked.

  “Totally!” Gabriel replied and nodded, a smile stretching from ear to ear. He could hear the surf through the open back door that led out onto his grandmother’s porch. The ocean was just fifty feet away. It called to him like a siren song.

  His family came to Ocean Side every summer to stay with his grandmother and sail the boat that his father kept there. Her cottage sat on an isolated point, surrounded on three sides by the sea. Every moment Gabriel could, he spent out on the water or in it. The sea was in his blood.

  “I don’t know, Gabriel. We had a long drive yesterday. Maybe we should just stay on land for now and rest. Will my water baby wither away if we don’t sail?” His mother Kathleen’s green eyes sparkled as she teased him.

  “Not a baby, Mom.” He scrapped his fork through his scrambled eggs. They were as yellow and bright as the sunny kitchen. He gazed out the back door, almost as if he were considering making a run for it. He just had to get out on the boat today. Going in the water near the beach was good, but he knew he had to feel deep water beneath him. He wouldn’t feel right without it.

  “Don’t tease him any more, you two. He’s been practically quivering to get on the boat since you got here yesterday,” his grandmother Grace said from her spot in front of the sink. She was already cleaning the dishes even though breakfast had just ended. Gabriel knew that she hated being idle and was always cleaning, cooking or working on something. She was running for councilwoman of Ocean Side, and he was sure she would win and then clean up the town, too.

  “He’s nine. He quivers at lots of things.” John winked at his son.

  “You’re forty-two and you’re just the same,” Grace said with a smile. “What’s your excuse?”

  His father flushed and lowered his head with a rueful smile on his lips. “You’re right, Mom. I’m dying to get out there myself. Let’s go.”

  A rush of relief went through Gabriel. Something is going to happen. Something amazing.

  “I already packed a cooler with sandwiches and drinks. All we have to do is grab it off the back porch,” Kathleen said. “C’mon, kiddo.”

  “You mean you were planning on us going out all along?” Gabriel let out a shocked laugh.

  His mother tipped back her head and laughed. “And have you and your father sulking all day if we didn’t? I think not.”

  “You’re the best, Mom!”

  “I try.” Her chair scraped across the floor as she stood up.

  “Have fun. I’ll be sure to have a big dinner ready for my sailors when you come back,” Grace called.

  Gabriel launched himself to his feet and ran out onto the back porch. The scent of salt and the sound of gulls calling to one another as they wheeled overhead enveloped him. The breeze off the ocean was cool, which was a relief from the superheated air. Even though it was only 10 a.m., he already knew the day was going to be blisteringly hot.

  “Not a cloud in the sky,” his father said as he stepped out onto the porch beside Gabriel. “Perfect sailing weather.”

  “We’re going to go out real far today, right, Dad?” Gabriel asked. Now that he was actually looking at the ocean, it felt like there was a string attached to the center of his chest and the other end was being held by an invisible hand in the depths of the ocean.

  Something is going to happen. Something amazing.

  “Real far. You pick the direction and we’ll take off for it.” His father squeezed his shoulder.

  “I’ve already decided where we’re going to go,” Gabriel said softly.

  “Really?” His father’s brow furrowed.

  Gabriel found himself lifting one hand up. The string seemed to move from his chest to the tip of his pointer finger. His hand wavered in the air before it moved a few degrees off center. “There. That’s where we have to go.”

  The place he was pointing to looked no different from where they were standing than anywhere else on the horizon, but Gabriel knew that was where they had to go. That’s where the something was. He nodded to himself.

  “Okay, kiddo. We’ll go there. Wherever there is!” His father laughed.

  Gabriel didn’t join in the laughter. He felt strangely calm now that it had been decided and there was nothing left to get in the way.

  “Is there something
you see out there, Gabriel?” His mother noticed his fixed stare at the special place.

  “I don’t know. I just feel …” He paused. “I feel like we’ll find something there. Something important.”

  Something amazing.

  His mother surveyed the sky. “The radio is reporting bad weather brewing, but it certainly doesn’t look like it. We should stay close to shore though, just in case.”

  “No!” The word burst from Gabriel’s lips before he could help himself.

  His mother’s green eyes widened. “Honey?”

  “Sorry, Mom. Dad said I got to pick where we go. I already picked the place, and I really, really want to go there, and I know you’ll say it’s too far!”

  “Son, if you talk to your mother that way we won’t be going out at all,” John warned.

  Gabriel swallowed down the sudden panic that flooded him. “I’m sorry, Mom.”

  She patted his arm. “I know, honey. If it really means that much to you we’ll go. What’s a little bad weather?”

  John put an arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek. “When has the weather service been right about anything, Kate? Have you ever seen a more beautiful blue sky?”

  “I think Grace is correct that you’re just as eager to get on the water as Gabriel is. They could be forecasting a hurricane and you’d want to go out in the boat ‘just for a little while.’” She grinned and kissed him back.

  “Don’t you feel the same?” John asked.

  Her gaze swept over to the water. The luminous smile on her face faded slightly. “I love the sea. But I love you two more.”

  John’s expression went serious. “If you’re really worried, Kathleen, then we won’t go out. We could swim here.”

  Gabriel’s chest seized again. What would he do if they decided not to go? He had the wild idea to try and take the boat out himself or even swim the distance. He had to get out there!

  “Can we go out for just a tiny bit? We don’t have to stay out that long. Just for an hour or so? And if it looks bad, if even one cloud comes out, we’ll go in. Please?” Gabriel wheedled.

  His mother relented at his puppy-dog eyes and slight lip wobble. She smiled down at him. “All right, so long as we’re all agreed that at the first sign of trouble, we go in. I’m dying to sail as much as you are, Gabriel.”

  “Thanks, Mom!”

  “So easy to make him happy,” John said, but he brightened, too.

  She kissed him tenderly. “You look pretty happy yourself.”

  He grinned. “You’re the wind beneath my … sails.”

  She laughed and playfully hit his shoulder. “I’m glad I could make both the men in my life happy.”

  Gabriel just smiled at his parents and shook his head. It didn’t matter if they were doing their lovey-dovey thing. He was going out onto the ocean!

  “Get the cooler, Gabriel,” John said.

  “Got it.” Gabriel picked it up with two hands. It was comfortingly heavy, indicating that it was full of sandwiches and sodas.

  The three of them then walked down the steps that led from the porch onto the beach. The sailboat was anchored about one hundred feet from shore. They would take the dinghy that his father kept stored under a lean-to near the water to get over to it. His father pulled the dinghy out and flipped it over, then took the cooler from Gabriel and set it securely on the bottom of the boat.

  “Get in, Gabriel. You too, Kathleen. I’ll push you both out.”

  Gabriel and his mother scrambled into the dinghy. His father’s bronzed arms and calves flexed as he pushed the boat out into the water with ease. Gabriel let out a whoop as soon as he heard the slap of waves against the boat’s bottom. His father vaulted into the dinghy and took up the oars. His strokes were powerful and sure as he rowed out to the white-hulled, thirty-eight foot sailboat.

  His mother tossed her hair back in the breeze. It hung down to her shoulders and curled becomingly around her face like a bronze wave. His father’s gaze was fixed on her as he rowed. She smiled back at him. As much as watching them adore one another caused Gabriel to roll his eyes now, some part of him knew he would want someone to look at him exactly the same way one day in the future.

  In the far future.

  His father’s rowing slowed and then stopped as they reached the stern of the boat, where a steel ladder hung down. “Gabriel, go up and tie us off.”

  Gabriel grabbed the end of the line that was attached to the front of the dinghy and leaped lightly up the ladder, not needing to catch his balance as the bobbing waves rocked the boat. On water, unlike on land, he was graceful and sure of himself. He tied the dinghy securely to the cleat at the top of the ladder. “All set.”

  His mother went up next while his father remained below, watching to make sure that his wife safely got to the top.

  “Hand me the cooler, John,” she said once she reached the last rung.

  “It’s heavy. Be careful,” he warned.

  She just smiled at his fussing. The muscles in her arms rippled as she easily took the cooler from him and put it on deck. John came up directly after her. He was grinning even wider than normal as he set foot on the boat. His father always tried to find the brightness in life, but he seemed to shed any concerns he had when he was on the water.

  “Let’s get that anchor up, Gabriel, and take off,” John said.

  None too soon, the anchor was stored in the forward compartment and the mainsail was fluttering in the wind. The colorful jib flew next, curling around the boat like an embracing arm. The breeze filled it and the sailcloth billowed and rippled.

  Gabriel raced to the bow of the boat. He had always loved riding up and down on the waves as the boat raced through the water, but this time he wanted to be on the bow so that he could feel exactly when they reached the special place. From there, he would be able to see everything. His father took his place behind the wheel while his mother finished putting their cooler down below in the cabin.

  “Which direction again, Gabe?” his father called.

  Gabriel faced forward. The sea seemed to stretch out before them endlessly. His right arm lifted and unerringly went to a spot that looked indistinguishable from the rest of the horizon. With his father’s laughter ringing in his ears at his certainty, the boat began to make its way to Gabriel’s chosen spot.

  They had been sailing for about an hour when his mother joined Gabriel at the bow. She sat down behind him, spreading her legs to either side so he could snuggle between them and rest his head against her chest. He felt too old to be cuddled, but he loved the smell of her violet-scented perfume, plus they could both hold on to the railing that way, so he allowed it. She kissed his head above his right ear.

  “I wish Corey could be here,” Gabriel said, meaning Corey Rudman, his best friend. The big curly-haired redhead was always laughing and forcing Gabriel out of his shell. Corey had taken the shy and uncertain Gabriel under his wing when they were just five, and they had been inseparable ever since.

  “I know, but his parents already planned a trip for them out West this summer.”

  “He didn’t want to go, though! He wanted to come with us,” Gabriel said sullenly.

  She let out a soft laugh. “Corey wants to be wherever you are, Gabe, and vice versa. That’s what being best friends is all about.”

  “Yeah, I guess. I just know he’d love Grandma and everything.”

  “Next time we’ll bring him along.” They sat quietly for a moment before his mother asked, “Have I ever told you about the Mers and their Guardian that are supposed to haunt these waters?”

  Gabriel’s forehead furrowed. “Mers?”

  “Mermen and mermaids,” she whispered conspiratorially.

  “Mermen - they’re not real!”

  “Are you so sure?” she asked, and he could hear the impish smile in her voice.

  “Okay, Mom. Tell me about them then,” Gabriel challenged.

  “Well, anyone who has lived around here any length of time has seen st
range things in the water at least once,” she said.

  “I haven’t!”

  “There’s still time for you yet,” she laughed. “But one of the very strangest things that are seen are the Mers. People swear to have glimpsed beautiful naked men and women swimming far out at sea. They only appear on the clearest of days or most moonless of nights,” she said.

  “And how does the Guardian come into this?”

  “They’re protected by the Guardian. For you see, if the Mers are ever attacked, the Guardian rises up from the deep to save them,” she explained.

  “Who would want to hurt them?”

  “Their beauty is supposed to drive people mad, to make them do terrible things that they otherwise wouldn’t do,” she said.

  “And what does the Guardian look like?” Gabriel asked. “I’m guessing it’s not beautiful?”

  She stroked his hair back from his forehead. “No, it’s not. Those who have seen it and survived can only speak of something miles high with tentacles.”

  Gabriel felt a strange chill go down his spine. “Miles high with tentacles, huh?”

  “Yes, that can grab the unwary like … this!” She immediately began to tickle his ribs.

  “MOM!” Gabriel cried out through his laughter. He squirmed around to face her and began to tickle her back. She collapsed helplessly when he got to her sides and arms. She was red-faced and gasping before he finally relented.