Amber was distracted by the sea shells and didn't notice a bluefin in the ocean. She was momentarily blinded by the light reflecting off of the waves. By the time her eyes adjusted a blue-haired man was in front of her in his 2 legged form.
He had 4 bright yellow stripes on his chest and ultramarine eyes. He asked, "Where did you come from and why are you all alone? You must be terrified to be out here all alone."
Before Amber could speak and tell him she was not a mermaid, he had thrown her into a bubble and took her down into the deep water. Amber tried to break free of the bubble, but it was as strong as glass.
He sent out some sound waves to notify the mermen of the tribe. Since their previous leader was gone, Blue Tang was the new leader. He had the highest number of stripes and was a beast king.
The rest of the tribe showed up and looked at Amber with hope in their eyes. She was astonished by the sight of the mermen underwater. There were all different colors of mermen with different stripe levels.
Blue Tang announced, "This is the new mermaid of our tribe. I rescued her, so I will mate with her first." They had never seen a land female as beautiful as her before. She must be a mermaid.
They thought maybe she belonged to another tribe nearby. He took the bubble away from the merman and brought Amber to a cave to speak to her in private.
He brought Amber to the cave and let her out of the bubble into a bigger bubble inside the cave. She was able to walk around. There was also more oxygen than the little bubble.
Amber walked around the cave and felt the slippery walls. There were bright-colored coral shells all around the cave. It was lit by bioluminescent coral and seaweed.
He noticed her curiosity and spoke to her, "Our female mermaid has been missing for a while. She was kidnapped. We have grown stronger since then and can protect you. This used to be her cave. It belongs to you now."
He gestured towards the empty cave. He explained, "If we didn't find another mermaid soon we will go extinct. We have not had any new births in almost 10 years. Please stay and help our tribe. We will treat you well."
Amber was speechless for a moment. She couldn't believe that mermaids and mermen existed. She had watched cartoons and read stories about mermaids when she was little. She was still in shock that she was in this magical underwater world.
When he started to talk about mating and helping their people not go extinct she snapped out of her dream world. "What did you say? I already have mates on the land. They are probably looking for me right now."
He smirked at the mention of her mates. He had seen the bird beast men she was with on shore. Both of them were 3 striped beast men. He could win in a fight alone, and the bird men were outnumbered.
There were hundreds of mermen under the sea and most of them were at least 2 striped. They had fought other tribes and each other to get stronger so they would not make the same mistake again.
They were prepared to keep their new mermaid safe. They would fight to the death any beast men who tried to steal her away. Not to mention her mates were land and sky beast, men. They would be on the losing side if they fought in the sea.
Amber didn't know how she would get out of this underwater cave. It was so deep that she would drown if she tried to swim. She also didn't think that her mates would make it if they tried to swim down.
She started to panic. Blue Tang didn't know what to do. He didn't have any experience comforting a female. He patted her back awkwardly. "There, there, calm down. It will be ok. We will take care of you. Anything you desire will be yours."
Amber looked at him in shock, "What I want is to go back to my mates. They will be so worried. My poor baby will miss his mommy." She almost started to cry at the thought of little Eli looking for his mommy.
Blue Tang looked like he was debating something. He couldn't let her go without giving birth to a new female. They had already gone too long without a female and she was the first one that was up to their standards. If she gave birth to a female, they could raise her and she could be the mermaid of the next generation.
"I will let you return." Amber's eyes filled with hope, but his next sentence made her lose hope. "After you give birth to a female, you can return to your mates. We will keep the baby female and raise her to be our next mermaid."
He looked like he was offering a deal, but Amber knew there was no way she could leave her baby behind to be raised by strangers. Her baby would not be in some baby-making factory to save their people.
Even if she liked mermaids as a child, she would not abandon her child to save the mermen. She thought of other ways to escape. If she could get one of them to bring her to the shore, Tyler or Tom could fly over and rescue her.
She looked at him with a pensive gaze as if she was considering his offer. "What if I refuse to abandon my child?" Blue Tang was surprised that this female cared about her offspring this much.
The last mermaid they had didn't care about her children other than what they could do for her. She probably didn't mind going to the other tribe or cared about how many of her children died trying to protect her.
Females were known to be selfish and cold-hearted. Blue Tang's heart started to beat faster. She was rare and it made him want her even more. He offered, "What about a compromise? I will allow your mates and cub to visit you on an island."
Amber's eyes lit up! Her escape plan was within reach. He continued, "But first we will mate to form the bond so I can find you if they try and steal you away."
Amber's eyes dimmed at his second sentence. What was up with this guy giving her hope and taking it away? He was like a cold CEO in a romance novel. Not to mention he was extremely handsome with his silky long blue hair. It was so wavy and shiny that it looked like he got a blowout! She knew that was impossible in this world.
His deep blue eyes gazed into her green eyes wondering what she was thinking. He also thought they would make a beautiful baby girl together.
The rest of the mermen could wait a little longer if they had hope. As their leader, he had to think about the tribe's existence.
"If you don't want to mate with me, I can have the others fight to win the right to mate with you. Although I am the strongest one in our tribe."
He wanted to make sure she was tied to his Mermen tribe even if she wasn't his mate. He could wait a few years longer if it meant his tribe survived.
Amber didn't want anyone to fight over her. "No, don't fight over me. I will mate with you, but I need you to send a message to my mates and let them know I am ok and will meet them soon. I don't want them to worry too much."
Blue Tang nodded his head and left to send a message. Amber breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't realize she was holding her breath.
She already had 3 mates, one more wouldn't hurt if it meant she got the chance to escape. She could also renegotiate about leaving her baby behind part of the deal.
Blue Tang came back quickly. "I thought you were going to send a message. Are you going back on your word?"
He looked confused. "I did send a message through another merman. I never go back on my word."
Amber looked worried. She thought she had more time to prepare. She thought of ways to stall to see if her mates could rescue her.
"What is your name? I don't even know you. We should try to get to know each other first."
He looked at her with skepticism. He could tell she was trying to stall, but he would humor her for now. She couldn't escape without his help and her mates would never make it down alive if they tried to steal her away.
"My name is Blue Tang. What is yours?"