I paced outside Shelly's door. The search for Sophie had kept her busy for the past two days. She left before I woke and returned home when I retired to bed. It has been a hectic week. With all that was going on with Alex and the merfolk community, there was not much time to intercept Shelly.She was home early today. This was the only chance I got to come clean. Craig was leaving for the ocean and I wanted to speak to him before he left. Regardless, I owed Shelly first grabs of the truth. She was my Guardian. She deserved it.The thing that bothered me was how she was going to take it. I wasn't too receptive to the idea that my friends kept the truth from me. Shelly might be upset. Still, I couldn't hold out any longer. I had to handle whatever came next.I gathered enough courage and knocked."Come in!" she called out.I pushed the door open. Shelly was seated at her dresser, grooming her hair. She smiled at me through the mir

"Seriously?" I groaned. "Why don't you buy your own fucking stuff. I'm going to start charging you rent."Alex gulped down the last of the Apple juice in the jug. "Oh, you wouldn't do that to your homeless best friend, would you?"Yes, I would if he didn't stop drinking and eating all my damn stuff. Shelly was busy and she couldn't go shopping. If Alex kept this up, I was going to have to do the shopping. Mia and Martin have been occupied with the finishing details of the merfolk community. It was supposed to be open this coming week.We wanted to hold the interviews for the businesses this weekend. Everything should be done by the latest Wednesday. Therefore, everything else was left to me. I was in no mood to go shopping. I have never done it before. I didn't plan on starting now."Of course not," the princess answered for me. "King Marvelon would never do such things."Yes, I would."You're right, Aqualia," Alex be

MarvelonThe muscles in my forehead tightened at the sight of Little Miss Mermaid and Mia. They were on the floor adjacent to Shelly's room."What are they doing?" Alex whispered to me. "Is that popcorn?" It was. They were eating popcorn and chatting. The guards Shelly's boyfriend came with stood by the door like statues. They stared straight ahead into the opposite wall. "What are we doing?" Alex asked, slipping in the middle of the girls. "We are watching the show," Mia answered, crunching on popcorn. My gaze went in the direction hers was in. A bright glow shone from the creaks of Shelly's room door. "What's that light?" I queried. The bulb was not so bright. "It's the glow of their bodies," Little Miss Mermaid's mesmerizing sigh cocooned us. My eyebrows dipped lower in my face. "Their bodies." "Uh-huh," the

Thirty mermen and mermaids. Twenty-eight of those men were ordered to patrol the grounds and the house. The remaining four couldn't leave my side. At night, they stayed outside my door. The security system in my house was adjusted and operated by guards I now owned. Something Soph planned. As it turned out, I now owned a special merfolk security task team. They were responsible for the surveillance of my house and the community.I would have thought that was badass if the team didn't have to report to me every Friday. An entire day wasted in a room with a bunch of guards talking about defending people. That task force consisted of twelve mermen and mermaids. If that wasn't enough, I had the Royal Guards to deal with.When Shelly mentioned Royal Guards, I thought it was two or three mermen. Then she returned with thirty freaking men. I couldn't turn without seeing some fucking strange men patrolling my house with an earpiece. My happiest moments were spent in my

"What did you just say?" Mitch choked out. The misbelief was punctuated in his tone.The man swallowed aloud. "Sir, the King is de—""Shut up!" Mitch jumped to his feet. "Just shut up!" His voice echoed in the room.The night was done. News like this would tear any evening apart. I hated the dude but this had to hurt.Mitch backed away from the table. He never said another word but stormed from the room."Prince Mitchalus!" The Torus guy shouted but Mitch was long gone.The rest of us remained seated, trying to process how the night ended up this way.The Torus dude cleared his throat. "Thanks for delivering the message to us. Get your men and go get cleaned up. There is enough food here to share. You can have some if you guys are hungry."The informant answered right away. "Yes, Sir. Thank you.""Okay, you are dismissed."The informant exited the room with his men and