I Married A Merman (Prime Mating Agency), page 1
I Married A Merman
Prime Mating Agency
Regine Abel
COVER DESIGN BY
Regine Abel
Copyright © 2022
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All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal and punishable by law. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
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This book uses mature language and explicit sexual content. It is not intended for anyone under the age of 18.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
Also by Regine Abel
About Regine
I Married A Merman
She belongs to a different world.
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Struck by a strange illness that confounds human doctors, Neera turns to alien physicians instead. The prognosis? She’s not what she always believed herself to be—Earth’s atmosphere is slowly killing her. Too broke to afford the insane cost of relocating to a new, more suitable world, Neera turns in desperation to the Prime Mating Agency. The match? A sexy merman, with pink scales, scarlet hair, and a voice that makes her toes curl.
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When Echo hears the Agency has finally found a match for him, he’s over the moon. Finding out his mate’s weakened health will require much caring and nurturing during her recovery has his protective instincts surging forward. Despite some initial awkwardness, her courage, resilience, and mischievous personality have him enthralled.
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But as Neera evolves into her true self, will this newfound haven become toxic for her as well? Will she be forced to leave behind the blossoming happiness she has found here with Echo?
Dedication
To all the medical professionals who go out of their way to alleviate our suffering, to give us hope, a better quality of life, and the answers about this complex and mysterious wonder that is the human body.
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To those who have or currently are suffering from chronic illnesses and pains, who put up a brave front every day to carry on with their lives, who refuse to surrender or be defeated. Remember that no matter how dark the night, the sun eventually always rises.
Chapter 1
Neera
The hovercab came to a stop in front of the tall building that once served as a quarantine facility more than 300 years ago. It looked nothing like that now thanks to its high walls made of white stone and the high-tech upgrades it had received over the years. Today, it served as an alien research center called ARA. I didn’t know what the letters stood for. The words were in a foreign language.
Desperation brought me all the way here and convinced me to put my fate in the hands of people from another world. I had no other choice. Traditional human medicine had given up on me, failing to find the cure to my debilitating condition.
I paid the driver, cringing at the—unsurprisingly—steep cost of the ride, considering how isolated the facility was. With my meager finances—struck all the harder by constantly mounting medical bills—I had to save every penny where I could.
Nothing stood out about the typical corporate entrance of the building. Tall glass doors opened on a relatively fancy greeting hall and security desk. A single human male occupied it. As soon as I approached, he smiled in greeting.
“Ms. Michaels, welcome to ARA. Dr. Meri Atani is waiting for you.”
My eyes widened in surprise. Did they have so few visitors that he automatically knew my identity, or had Dr. Patel sent my full file including my picture beforehand?
“I will open the security doors. Simply go through and follow the corridor to the end. The doctor will be waiting for you,” the guard said.
I thanked him, feeling somewhat unnerved by the process. The thick set of doors, the type you’d expect to see barring the entrance to a bank vault, slid open quietly. It revealed a long and wide corridor, with gleaming white walls and pale blue tiled floors. The place was spotless with a light scent of bleach and lemon. As soon as I entered it, I felt the air around me shift. It was subtle yet undeniable. That didn’t stop me from advancing further. As I neared the end, the hallway opened up to a large circular room. A female with a white lab coat stood a couple of meters away with a welcoming smile on her alien face.
Although Earth now hosted a handful of alien species—either as permanent residents, traders passing through or temporary visitors—I’d never seen this specific one. She possessed an exotic beauty. The long light-gray dress under her coat covered most of her humanoid body. If not for her facial features, the odd texture of her hair, and her fin-like ears, she might have passed for a human. Her skin was light blue, and I could see some scales peeking through her square collar. Although not flat, her nose wasn’t as pointy as a human’s and the nostrils were far smaller. But it was her midnight blue eyes, locked on me, that held my attention. She blinked and, after her eyelids reopened, a horizontal set closed and opened over her eyes, the same way the nictitating membrane did with certain lizards.
For some strange reason I couldn’t explain, I instantly liked her and almost felt like I was meeting an old acquaintance, which made no sense whatsoever.
“Hello, Ms. Michaels. Welcome to the ARA Research Center,” the female said. “I am Dr. Meri Atani, and I will look into your case today.”
“Hello, Dr. Atani,” I said with a nervous smile. “No pressure, but I’m certainly hoping you’ll be able to perform some miracles for me.”
The sympathetic smile she gave me stirred an uneasy feeling deep within. Maybe it was just paranoia after so many deceptions, but I instantly got the vibe that she already knew she would not be able to help me and was merely going through the motions.
“This way please,” she said, gesturing towards the left side of the large room. “We will be a lot more comfortable speaking in my office.”
I followed her, discreetly slipping a finger under my mask to loosen it a little. My face had become bruised from excessively using it of late. To my chagrin, the doctor was walking too briskly. Keeping up made me exert far more energy than I wanted to. In no time, I was feeling out of breath as—by design—my mask limited my oxygen intake to prevent it poisoning me. Thankfully, her office wasn’t too far away. A part of me silently berated myself for not merely asking her to slow down. You’d think after all this time I’d be beyond this type of silly pride.
We entered her office, and she pointed at the comfortable leather chair in front of her desk. It struck me as odd that there would be a single chair when they usually had two for whoever accompanied the patient. Then again, how often did actual patients come to this alien place?
I cast a nervous glance at the examination table. I’d never seen one specifically like this one, but it clearly doubled as a medical pod. Although I doubted it could perform very advanced procedures, it could likely do basic surgeries as well as advanced scans and MRIs.
“So, Ms. Michaels, I have received your file from Dr. Marnie Patel regarding your breathing issues. I have consulted it extensively and performed my own analysis on the blood and tissue samples she forwarded to our facility. However, I would like you to explain to me in your own words how it all began, what your current symptoms are, and what measures you are using to mitigate them.”
I squared my shoulders and launched into the story I was tired of repeating. But for the first time in forever, I actually held some hope of a more positive outcome.
“About a year ago, I got a fever that lasted for a few days, with body aches and headaches. It felt like having some sort of flu without the runny nose or the coughing. Then overnight, the fever and all the other symptoms disappeared, and my throat would mildly tickle whenever I inhaled. After a few days, it turned to frequent coughing. As it occurred in the spring, I figured maybe I’d suddenly developed some sort of allergies.”
“Were you diagnosed as having allergies at that point?” the doctor asked.
“The first doctor I saw said yes. The second wasn’t too sure. But the third doctor said no,” I replied with a dejected expression. “Anyway, the anti-allergy medication I’d been prescribed did nothing for me. And then things got really bad. My lungs burned whenever I inhaled, and I experienced uncontrollable coughing and shortness of breath. That’s when Dr. Patel said that I was displaying all the signs of oxygen poisoning. She gave me an oxygen control mask to try out. It helped a little at first, but I still experienced tunnel vision, tinnitus, nausea, and waves of dizziness. I really freaked out when the seizures started happening followed by waves of spasms. The doctor then confirme
“How did she treat you?” Dr. Meri asked.
“They placed me in an isolation room with strictly controlled oxygen levels,” I said, my eyes going out of focus as I remembered those terrible days. “I remained there for nearly three weeks while my symptoms faded, and I slowly recovered. I then had to purchase the mask I’m currently wearing. Although it doesn’t fix my problem, it allows me to function in a limited capacity. But I feel like I’m constantly suffocating because it reduces my oxygen intake. I also had to invest in turning my apartment into a pressurized room to control oxygen levels within.”
The doctor nodded, seeming totally unsurprised by everything I was telling her. That gave me further hope that she knew what was wrong with me and how to fix it.
“This aligns with what Dr. Patel has described, and what I expected based on the analysis of your samples,” Dr. Atani said.
“So, you know what my problem is? You know how to fix it?”
Once more, she gave me that sympathetic look upon seeing the eagerness—not to say the desperation—on my face and hearing it in my voice.
“Yes, Ms. Michaels. I know what the problem is,” she confirmed in a careful tone. “Before I continue, I would like to ask you a question that you will probably find odd. But please indulge me.”
Stunned, I nodded nonetheless for her to proceed.
“Tell me, Ms. Michaels, are you unusually passionate about either swimming or flying?”
I gaped at her, getting whiplash from the complete change of topic, while wondering what the heck that had to do with anything.
“Swimming,” I finally answered, although my voice hid nothing of how baffled I felt. “I’ve always been obsessed with water. I planned on becoming a marine biologist, but my health has pretty much derailed my studies and my life as a whole.”
The doctor smiled and nodded. “It is not surprising. I suspected as much the minute you walked in.” She chuckled at my baffled reaction to her comment. “My words confuse you right now, but I’m about to explain a few things to you that will likely blow your mind. I just need you to bear with me, and all will be clear in a moment.”
I nodded again, this time feeling restless, curious, and somewhat worried.
“Before I do, I would ask you to remove your mask. It’s okay,” she added when I looked at her with an air of panic. “You probably felt a shift in pressure when you entered the hallway leading here. This entire section, past the security desk, is pressurized differently, in a way that you should find very comfortable. My people, the Sikarians, do not mingle with humans for this very reason. We would die from oxygen poisoning in Earth’s atmosphere.”
Despite my fear, I complied, trusting the female in a way I couldn’t quite explain. As soon as I removed my mask, I could have wept with relief being freed of the painful pressure it exerted on my face. Even removing my bra when I got home didn’t feel half as amazing as this. I took a couple of tentative breaths, expecting the brutal cough to resume within seconds. Instead, it was as if a heavenly light had invaded my lungs in oxygen form. Tears pricked my eyes as I carefully breathed in.
“I had forgotten what it felt like,” I whispered with a trembling voice. “Even at home it isn’t this perfect.”
“This area has been specifically calibrated for you,” the doctor said. “It is actually not ideal for me, but not uncomfortable. It will not harm me to stay here for the duration of our meeting.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, worry slipping into my voice.
“I am. But now, time for some explanations. Do you remember the 2006 pandemic called the Arctic Fever?” Dr. Atani asked.
I recoiled again, thrown once more by another completely weird question. “Vaguely. It was mentioned in our history classes as being one of the strangest events to hit human history. But that was 300 years ago.”
“Correct. Global warming caused the Arctic Fever, named this way because the virus originated from the poles. As the permafrost melted, it released into the air, soil, and groundwater dormant microbes containing prehistoric enzymes. A very small percentage of the human population was vulnerable to them and became sick. Most people quickly recovered on their own while others needed some treatment. But in an even smaller number of cases, the release of three specific viruses caused a mutation in certain genetic codes.”
“I never heard that,” I said in a dubious tone. “We were told that although the disease hit every country worldwide, only a small percentage of people contracted the disease. And an even smaller number—albeit smaller is a relative term—actually died from it.”
“They did not die,” Dr. Atani corrected. “They mutated.”
“Mutated into what?” I exclaimed, flabbergasted.
“Mutated into one of us, as you were always meant to be.”
My brain tilted, and I stared at her, robbed of words.
What the hell does she mean by that?
“I know you’re lost right now, but I will explain. My people, the Sikarians, have been explorers and settlers for millions of years. Among many other planets, our ancestors settled on Earth. Unfortunately, only a few years after their arrival, the meteor that wiped out the dinosaur also massacred the settlers. Back in our homeworld, they thought everyone had been lost. It took nearly 60 million years for us to even look back at this planet, only to find that some of our people had survived, mostly the Thalans, one of the three breeds that had settled here.”
“Three breeds?”
“First, there are the Thalans, like you and I, who are water creatures. Then there are Khilzains, who have more draconic traits. And finally, the Elohim, who are the most human in appearance and who are often confused with angels. The survivors evolved differently on this new planet, especially once they started mating with the homo sapiens. And thus was born the human race as we know it.”
I snorted and shook my head in disbelief. “Hold on. Let me get this straight. You’re trying to tell me that your ancestors came to Earth millions of years ago, had babies with our cavemen, that I’m one of their descendants, and that some virus is making me turn back into one of you?”
She chuckled then nodded. “I know it sounds crazy when you summarize it like that, but it is the truth. I have nothing to gain by lying to you about this.”
She turned on a holographic display at the edge of her desk, which allowed us both to view the screen. On it, she played a video showing various humans going through phases of mutation. By their original clothes and hairstyles, they clearly dated back to the early 2000s.
“These are some of the people who went through that transition and moved to our ancestors’ homeworld. Why did we hide it from the population, you wonder?” she asked. I nodded, stunned. “Back then, as Earth was still considered a primitive planet, it fell under the restrictions of the Prime Directive. Therefore, we couldn’t let the general population be aware of our existence.”
“But our governments knew, didn’t they?” I asked.
“Yes, they did. We entered into an agreement with them so that our awakening people wouldn’t be treated like freaks and turned into lab rats,” Dr. Atani explained. “And that brings us to you. You are suffering from oxygen poisoning because your lungs have partially mutated and want to breathe like a Thalan. But this planet does not allow it.”
“Are you saying I have to leave Earth and settle with you guys on your planet while I turn into one of you?” I asked, feeling surprisingly excited rather than terrified.
