Abel’s eyes were glued to his tablet, the day’s reports quieter than they’d been in a month, but still concerning. Strange sightings, random non-violent assaults, weird noises in the middle of the night…

Marina Bay wasn’t immune to crime, but this was just weird, especially since they began happening about a week after Coby came home from the hospital. He wondered if the traffickers had returned to town and were harassing the citizens again in search of their lost property, but this wasn’t their typical MO. They were far more low-key, if not far more dangerous in their approaches. Most of them just hung around stalking people and acting shady. 

What they were experiencing now was not from the traffickers. That didn’t mean, of course, they weren’t still a threat to the town, or to Coby. The last he’d heard of them, they had docked over at the nearest port city, Angelus, about fifty miles or so north. It was mostly populated by humans, a race these particular traders weren’t terribly interested in.

If it wasn’t human, it was valuable.

He’d been after these scum for years, frustrated every time they managed to slip out of his grasp and back into the darkness. The closest he ever came to capturing them was two years ago when they’d attempted to kidnap, sell, and rape a group of young angels that went to Lynn’s school. 

She’d been in middle school at the time.

Unfortunately for Abel and the rest of the Sheriff’s department, the traders got away and hadn’t been seen since, covering their tracks the entire time. The fact they were back now was concerning, especially since they had focused more on the merfolk than the mythics and Divine that lived on land. Abel wondered if there wasn’t a market opening up for undersea mythics, one that may be more profitable since the merfolk, sirens, and sea-shifters were rarely seen.

That truly did not bode well for Coby who hadn’t been able to return to the water in weeks, his energy still not strong enough for a shift even though he worked with it daily with Ash and the girls. The first time he caught Coby and Ash on the cliffside meditating and sharing energy, he’d been floored. The shock he received when he learned they were soulmates nearly made him faint. The girls had been ecstatic; Abel’s brain had simply ceased to work.

He accepted it quickly, but made it clear that so long as they lived under his roof, they abided by his rules. Chief among them: 

No sex.

He wasn’t about to have something like that happen while he still had two little girls to raise. Of course, he wasn’t an idiot, and knew that eventually the two would consummate their relationship, he just didn’t want it happening in his house. When Ash had talked with him privately about it, assuring him Coby wasn’t ready for that yet, he asked that if they used protection and only had sex when the girls weren’t home, if that would be okay. Abel still said no. He conceded that if they really wanted to engage in such intimacy, there were other places all over town they could go.

“You’re a grown man with a credit card,” he said when Ash protested. “Use it.”

Still, despite Ash’s grumblings, three weeks into their relationship, they still hadn’t slept together.

That didn’t mean they didn’t share the same bed most nights, something Abel was aware of but said nothing about. He heard Coby crying sometimes in the middle of the night, he knew the boy was having nightmares, and he knew that Ash was the only one who could calm them. As far as he was concerned, the boys could sleep in the same bed if it meant Coby felt safe.

They just couldn’t have sex in his house.

He glanced up over his tablet, the noise from the breakfast table finally overwhelming his focus on his reports. The girls were arguing over the last English muffin, while the boys were talking about going to the amusement park that weekend. Occasionally, Ash would intervene in the girls’ argument, mostly on Sophie’s behalf, and Coby would laugh with Lynn about something.

Abel smiled and glanced back down. 

He loved the noise.

Ash glanced at his phone and made a sound of alarm. “Shit, we gotta get going,” he announced to his sisters, setting his fork on his plate and rising to give Coby a kiss. “I’ll see you this evening. Don’t overdo it, alright?”

“I won’t, I promise,” Coby smiled, his blue eyes shining. “I’ll be careful.”

“Yeah, that’s what you said last time,” Ash muttered, his eyebrow ticking. “You only just recovered from that little experiment.”

Coby gave him an exasperated look. “I’ll be fine, Ashley. Besides, I was thinking of going into town for a little while, anyway. Try and work on expanding my awareness.”

Ash nodded approvingly. “Sounds safe enough. I’ll see you later.” He gave Coby another kiss and turned to his sisters who were also rising from the table, clearing their places as they went. “Come on, we’re gonna be late.”

The girls grumbled their annoyance as they grabbed their backpacks and jackets off their chairs before giving their father a kiss.

“Love you, Daddy!” Lynn called as they headed out of the dining room.

“Love you,” Abel replied with a smile. “Oh, hey, I almost forgot!”

All three reappeared at the archway.

“Your mother’s coming home tomorrow.”

Three faces lit up all at once, their voices tumbling over one another in excitement. Coby had to smile at their exuberance, hiding a small twinge of sadness and jealousy that surrounded his heart.

“That means I want all of you home right after school,” Abel continued over their exclamations. “We need to get the house clean.”

“You know she’s not going to care, right?” Ash said.

“Seriously, she’s going to be too happy to be home to notice,” Lynn added.

“Do you think she’ll bring home presents?” Sophie asked, tilting her head back to look at her big brother.

He chuckled, covering her face with his hand and shaking it lightly, making her giggle. “Don’t be selfish,” he admonished gently. He turned his gaze to Coby, filled with understanding for what his mate was feeling, sensing it in their link. He gave him a wink and pushed his sisters toward the door, urging them on with promises of extra play time with Coby if they hurried the hell up.

When the house was ringing with silence, Abel sighed, clearing his place and taking it to the kitchen. Coby followed his lead, his thoughts drifting back home to his large family. A family filled with aunts, uncles, cousins, and a devoted father.

But no mother.

For all the affection Coby received from his aunts and older female cousins, it wasn’t the same. He watched longingly from a distance while his aunts doted on his male cousins, even when they scolded them. He wished he had that for himself, and had asked his father many times when he was a merling why he couldn’t have a new mother. His father only said that no one could replace the mother he lost, that he should cherish the family he had. Coby did, but it still didn’t fill that ache he felt sometimes in his chest.

“Something wrong, Co?”

Abel’s concerned voice dragged him from his reverie, his gaze moving from the plate to the older man in front of him.

“Oh, uh…yeah,” he said with a wry grin. “Everything’s fine.” He scrapped the small remains of his eggs and fruit into the trash before running his plate under hot water.

“You sure?” Abel asked, leaning against the kitchen counter, arms folded over his chest as he watched the young man fill the sink to start the dishes. “You got pretty quiet there after I mentioned Alice would be coming home.”

Coby said nothing, doing his best to focus on the rising suds in the basin. 

Abel searched his face, noting the sadness that filled his eyes. “You know you can talk to me, right? I’m a pretty good listener.”

Coby smiled, snorting softly. “Yes, I know,” he said. After another moment, he sighed, turning off the water and loading the sink with the breakfast dishes. “I don’t have a mother,” he finally said. “She died before I was born.”

The look of utter confusion washed over Abel’s face and Coby chuckled. 

“Mermaids lay eggs, Sheriff,” he explained patiently. “Beautiful ones, too. My laying was hard on her and she passed away because of it. I never got to know her. My father spoke of her often, but it’s not the same, as I’m sure you can guess.”

“Oh,” Abel responded softly. “I’m sorry, Coby, no wonder you were upset.”

“I wasn’t upset,” Coby said, scooping up a handful of water and letting it swirl in a gentle spiral above his hand. “Jealous, perhaps, if I can admit that. I know she isn’t around much, but Ash and the girls really seem to love her a great deal.”

Abel nodded, running a hand through his dark hair, a fond smile on his lips. “Yes, they do,” he said. “We all do. Alice is an amazing woman, if not a little lax when it comes to discipline. She’s the ‘fun’ parent. I’m the ‘mean’ one.”

Coby frowned. “You’re not mean.”

He laughed. “No, I’m not. I’ve never hit or yelled at my kids, any of them. But I am a little harder on them than Alice is.” He winked, his grin turning playful. “That’s what makes me mean.”

The spiral shifted, dancing around lazily above his hand. “Ash said you had to smack the shit out of Rhett for bullying him several years ago.”

Abel’s eyes darkened, his eyes hooded. “It’s the one time I ever hit him, I will admit that. He was being unnecessarily cruel to Ash and I couldn’t stand it any longer. Alice and I had told him several times to knock it off but, as you can guess, Rhett ignored us. He was eighteen, he could do whatever he wanted, that was his mindset. Finally, I got fed up, took him out back and did the one thing my father did with me that I swore I would never do with any of my sons.” His gaze slid to Coby’s, dark and full of regret. “I beat the ever loving shit out of him.”

The water landed back in the sink with a splash, Coby’s jaw falling open. Abel averted his gaze, his jaw clenched.

“I regret it, even now. After it was all over, I went to my room and just cried. Alice held me the entire time, comforting me, and she was crying, too. Neither of us were happy about what happened, and we hated it even got that far. My temper got the best of me and I reacted badly. Rhett and I have obviously moved past it, and he’s much more protective over Ash than anyone else I know. I think he even beat up some other guy for bullying Ash when he was a senior in high school.” His eyebrow ticked and a grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Ash doesn’t know about that, though.”

Coby blinked in surprise. “Why not?”

Abel shrugged. “Rhett doesn’t want him to. You know the two don’t get along all that well most of the time, and that’s more on Ash than it is Rhett. Still, there is an underlying love they have for one another, one Rhett doesn’t take for granted, and he does his best to protect his brother in the background. Even going so far as to fire Scott Tulle after Ash dumped him for cheating.”

A muscle in Coby’s cheek twitched, and he stared at the water in the sink, focused on each plate and fork he cleaned. 

“I love all of my kids, and would go to the ends of the Realm to keep them safe and happy,” Abel said, shifting against the counter. “But that doesn’t mean I’m perfect. No good parent is.”

Coby’s expression eased and he relaxed as he set each dish to drying in the strainer. “You’re much like my own father.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“It’s a neutral thing,” Coby chuckled. “My father has a hard time showing affection. It isn’t done in our culture, not really. I know he loves me, supports me, worries for me…he’s a stern man, stoic in his beliefs. He’s not cruel, nor unkind. But like you, he was hard on me growing up. He wanted me to become a merchant like him, to take over his business one day, but when I told him I wanted to become an acolyte instead, he was surprisingly okay with it.”

“No kidding.”

Coby shook his head. “He felt it would be better for me, that I would find more fulfillment in my devotion to Poseidon than I would selling foods and wares. Plus, he believed I’d be safer there.”

“Why’s that?”

Coby glanced at him, a hardness in his gaze. “There aren’t very many merfolk like me, Sheriff. Not in my tribe.”

It took Abel a second to realize what Coby was saying and he stiffened. “Your people—”

“Cast out those who can not actively contribute to the growth of the tribe,” Coby said flatly. “I was lucky to be accepted into the sect, and I did have those who supported me, but it was still a fear I lived with every day.”

Abel swallowed hard, his heart heavy for the young man before him. Sexuality wasn’t something a lot of people gave much thought to anymore, not since the full ascension of the High Divine more than a century before. Of course, that wasn’t to say there wasn’t still bullying and hatred toward those who were different; hell, Rhett had hazed Ash about being gay for nearly a year before Abel put a stop to it. But to ostracize someone for it, or any other reason, was completely out of the realm of sanity for him.

“I’m so sorry, Coby,” he finally said softly. 

Coby grinned at him, the light coming back in his eyes. “That was years ago, Sheriff,” he said. “I have bigger things to worry about now.”

Abel couldn’t help but release a laugh, patting Coby on the shoulder. “This is very true,” he said. “And, for what it’s worth, you will always find safety with us.” He picked up his hat from the counter by the fridge and adjusted it on his head. “I’ll see you tonight, son.”

Coby smiled warmly, watching the Sheriff walk away before letting the smile slip. He turned his gaze back to the sink, the suds mostly gone by now, the dishes drying in the rack nearby. He watched his reflection shift and dance in the water, his blue eyes glowing slightly as he held his hand over it, pulling a thin tendril out of the basin to rotate smoothly around his hand. 

“Safety,” he murmured to himself, shifting the water from a tendril to an orb that settled over his palm, the center freezing and turning to ice before breaking into hundreds of tiny shards that fell back into the sink. “You have no idea how wrong you are, Sheriff. There’s no place safe for me, or Ash…or even you…not yet.”

He glanced up at the ceiling, feeling the energy that pulsed from the dresser drawer in his room. He was glad it was being patient, waiting for him to recover his full strength. If he had to feel any sense of security for anyone in that house, it came from the Flame.

**