A Mermaid's Bond (A Demon Paradise Novel)

By Marie Knight

Gifted with the ability to shift into a wolf, mermaid Princess Sapphire Minala yearns for the day she's granted permission to leave her underwater asylum. When that day finally arrives, Sapphire ventures out with two tasks she is determined to complete. One - learn to control her Magik powers. Two - find the man who haunts her dreams through her Mermaid Bond, which turns out to be easier than she originally expected. Except Rye Adoms wants absolutely nothing to do with her beyond her training as a royal guard.

While attempting to keep her secrets from being discovered and gaining Rye Adoms affection, Sapphire finds herself kidnapped by the one thing she fears most, Traders. Secrets and relationships are exposed when Sapphire is taken deep within the Alijah Mountains to the forbidden realm of the dragons and thrown headfirst into a war that has been forming for over seventeen years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marie Knight
• Release date: Dec 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310334252

Marie Knight

I live in a small town and love the woodsy atmosphere, it's so serene. It inspires the world that I created Demon Paradise, a world separated from the human's where demon's live without pollution.

Book preview

A Mermaid's Bond

(A Demon Paradise novel)

Marie Knight

~~~

SMASHWORDS EDITION

Copyright © 2013 by Marie Knight

1st edition

All rights reserved

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover design by Linda Boulanger

www.telltalebookcovers.weebly.com

Titles by Marie Knight

A Birthday Surprise

A Mermaid's Bond

Please visit http://www.marieknight.org for more information on upcoming releases.

Table of Contents:

Prologue

Bonded

Fight with Knight

Pack Reunited

Her Father's Wishes

Betrothed

The Hawks

Into the Dragon's Lair

Fight for Freedom

The Last Kingdom

Cave of Light's

Deserted

Search for the Merpeople

Confrontation

The Ceremony

Coronation of the Dragon Queen

A Dragon’s Heart Excerpt

A Birthday Surprise Excerpt

About the Author

Prologue

A small child with eyes the color of sapphire birthstones with streaks of silver and hair as dark as a moonless night, gazed intently towards the ocean. The scowl prominent on her young childish face unbecoming for a child of her age, her feet dangled from the rock she had decided to perch upon as she kicked the water with angry intention. Any onlookers would think she just liked splashing around as any normal little girl would but her true intention was written clear across her darkened, tear streaked face. The girl had once loved the ocean but recent events destroyed any remaining feelings she felt for the peaceful water that splashed playfully against her feet.

Now she wanted nothing more than to destroy the place she once loved because the ocean had taken the one thing she dreamed about more than anything away from her. To run wild and free with her father in his dark brown and gray wolf shift, that was her dream, but her wolf would never happen now. Her mother, just momentarily before announced she would never gain the part of herself that she swore she sensed this very moment within her young four year old body. The wants and love of a child who always desired nothing more than to run beneath the canopy of trees and amidst her friends and family was denied to her because of her mother.

The thought, a cruel one to decide or announce but the truth the words spoke rang clear in her father's eyes when she gazed into his heartbroken, soulful smoky dove gaze. She would never be a wolf, because her mother would never be a wolf. Her mother: a creature demons believed to be extinct, but Sapphire knew otherwise, was a mermaid. Now, both Sapphire and her mother were creatures of myth and legend and at the moment she hated her mother because of it.

Her furious tears fell one by one as tiny fingers skirted over rock and finding a loose stone tossed the rock with the utmost resentment. She didn't want to be a mermaid! Sapphire actually screamed those exact words into her mother's face the moment Nerra spilled her secret and Sapphire ran off. Ran to the place where there was once an ambiance of serenity but now, she was utterly furious at. Here she sat clueless on how to apologize to her mother for the untruthful words. She loved her mother even if she cursed her to the life of a mermaid instead of what she should have been born as, a wolf. One who resembled her father's silky coat as she chased prey and played beside him.

She gulped as her emotions attempted to suffocate her and standing on shaky legs she walked slowly towards the pack circle where her parents awaited her. She would be shunned from her pack when the children realized on her tenth birthday that she couldn't shift into any form of animal then, to her humiliation she would be cast down to the bottom of the pack. Swallowing her fear and humiliation she dragged her feet against the soft green of the grass until she emerged within the pack circle and gazed at all of the children running and playing.

There she saw a few of the older teens as they raced each other in their animal half and she cast her eyes down, ashamed, Sapphire avoided them and headed towards her parents. The Alpha, Judd, caught her gaze and sent her a curious, empathy filled glance but she shied away from his questions as she would every other demon who asked.

Her two best friends, Ryan who was only a year older and Sin who happened to be three years her senior, raced over to her and they attempted to drag her to play games but she ignored their requests, instead remained slumped against a tree, stubborn to wallow in her pitiful emotions. Pulling her knees into her chest as she watched sadly from the sidelines, Ryan and Sin stared at each other as they began to pressure her parents about her sudden withdrawal but the adults refused to give them any information as well. They walked away looking hurt and dejected that she wouldn't play with them, but she couldn't, the pain was too much. She would never be one of them. Realizing that around the age of ten her two best friends would become the one creature she had impatiently longed for rubbed sandpaper over the rawness of having her dreams ripped from her.

Sapphire, Sweetheart? she heard her father's soothing tone penetrate the deep sadness which had consumed her and she glanced up at him. She caught his low sigh as he reached down and plucked her from the spot she had chosen to wallow in her melancholy state. It's going to alright Princess. he whispered and she felt her self-control break as she threw her arms around his neck and cried into his shoulder as he consoled her.

Why didn't you tell me earlier? her voice broken through her sobs sounded strange to her as she clung to his large frame for support.

I'm sorry Princess, we weren't sure you would be a mermaid until you shifted yesterday. I don't understand why the transformation had taken so long for your mermaid half to take effect. Normally a mermaid is able to shift only a couple of months after they are born. Until yesterday, your mother and I believed you were a wolf. she recognized the hurt her father himself tried to conceal, flash through his dove colored eyes. Sapphire realized she hadn't been the only one hoping that she would become the fascinating and lethal predator.

Daddy, don't be sad. I will be ok. she said using her small hand to pat his head causing the strong man who held her to laugh, forcing a smile to appear instead of her gloomy frown.

I bet you will sweetheart. He replied as she cuddled into his arms and he carried her back over to her mother. She reached for her in a silent apology and Nerra smiled as she relieved her from her father and hugged her with such ferocity Sapphire thought she might suffocate her.

Sapphire clung towards happiness for her parents for the next couple of weeks but she knew they witnessed the dead look in her eyes. She may only be four but her wolf being ripped away from her had devastated her. She would have to cope with the feelings but she knew her entire pack had discovered her melancholy mood as well. She wasn't the same carefree and protective child she had once been.

Taking a deep breath Sapphire rushed to her parents as they returned from a tour of the territory. Normally, she loved to ride on her father's back, tangling her fingers in the silky tresses of his fur. She would get over the pain soon. It was just like anything else that could have been stolen from her. With time she would forget and never look back. At least she hoped. She would not let this feeling of vulnerability waver for too long. She was a fish among predators.

Everything left her the moment a loud screech hissed through the grounds and suddenly their house burst into flames as a powerfully large jaguar reared back his head and charged towards her. She heard the scream escape her mouth before she even registered what happened. Her father's howl alerted the jaguar to his presence even as her father reached her first. His teeth grasped her shirt and she clung to his neck as he carried her away towards his mate and dropping Sapphire beside her frightened mother, kissed them both and told them to hide in the ocean and whatever they witnessed to never come out, he knew where to retrieve them. Her mother took off at a frantic, hell raising speed but she never realized her daughters gaze, as Sapphire witnessed the entire horrible scene play out.

Sapphire's body froze in shock as she watched her father attempt to lead the jaguar away but the demon attacked head on. A man laughed gallantly behind them, his dark charcoal hair shined bright beside the blaze of fire but it was his red eyes rimmed by brilliant gold that struck her as hideously beautiful. She would never forget the man who stood by and did nothing as her father was murdered by the jaguar demon Jared. Never.

Chapter 1

Bonded

The water felt amazing against Sapphire's skin as she floated endlessly within the ocean. Today was her eighteenth birthday and last night she had been kept awake by the man who now haunted her thoughts. His gorgeous hazel eyes and short, shaggy brown hair, the light bronze color of his skin; the tight muscles she saw stretched over his body taunted her as she slept and even now while she was awake. She knew the only way to meet this man was to go the surface, and she knew for a fact that he was real and not just a figment of her imagination. Almost every mermaid dreams of the one that they could spend their life together with. It was called a Mermaid Bond and it was a very strong tie between two souls, almost unbreakable.

Not every mermaid or merman found the one they searched for, some never 401discovered the love that the bond could create, but Sapphire had been drawn to this man from the very moment she watched him within her dreams the previous night. She could not tell where he was, because his surroundings were so cloudy and indistinguishable. She knew for certain that he was not a merman and therefore she would have to go to land, if she were to ever find the man in her dreams.

She loved the land almost as much as she loved the sea. She was an anomaly, someone who was not supposed to exist. She was a Magik, a girl who could control two elements and a demon who could shift into three shapes, a mermaid, a human, and a wolf. Her mother had mated a wolf demon and she guessed since her Magik blood had graced her with two elements it decided to give her an extra shift as well, something that she had never heard of and she guessed most demons had not either. The pain in her sides when she turned ten had been excruciating and when she finally made it back to the land after discovering that she received no element, she felt her body shift and change and soon she shimmered changing into a deep, silvery gray wolf.

Sapphire had never told a soul about her extra ability but every once in a while, when she felt the wolf want to run free she would sneak up to land and run for hours until she exhausted herself. Often, while she was upon land, Sapphire tried to use her element but she failed every time. Originally, she planned to rise to the surface today but her mother had other plans for her. She was to have a party to celebrate her eighteenth birthday. She had groaned in despair the moment her mother told her, she wanted a quiet coming of age party but no, her mother would not allow it of her, especially considering her status as Magik and Princess.

So for the moment, she decided to float endlessly, glorying in the feel of the cool water against her body and scales until she heard the trumpet signaling the start of the party. A baby dolphin swam by her and Sapphire waved her hand happily towards it. It blinked slowly but kept swimming, as if slightly afraid. She had never been able to make friends with any of the sea creatures dwelling around her home. She feared that they could sense the predator she kept hidden deep within her; and it was suffocating not to have a sea friend she could play with joyfully, deep beneath the ocean. The moment they pronounced her a Magik, she had been cloistered away from all, and grew up almost friendless, if it was not for her childhood friend Sienna, she would have been.

Sienna was the only one who had not made a big deal out of her being a Magik. She too grew up with the tales of the four kingdoms, and the Magiks who protected them when they became of age. Now however, Sapphire saw less and less of Sienna and she only hoped that her one true friend was planning on attending her party tonight. Sienna was devastated when she had not dreamed about the man she was to mate the night she had turned eighteen. Instead she decided to travel, see if distancing herself from the only place she had ever known, would bring her closer to the one she would bond with.

The Mermaid Bond was a tricky devil. It sometimes did not reveal your mate until you were close to the person you were destined to be with. It was an old magic that had happened since the beginning of the merpeople. The worst part was that it was only one sided. Most males never saw the female they were to be with but some mermen were rumored to be able to see their future partners, never a land demon. The bond would make the mermaid fall in love easily with the man but she had to try and get the man to fall in love with her because apparently there was no pull between them until he started to have feelings for her. In that moment the bond would snap together and he too would begin to feel the emotions and love for the woman who was bonded to him. It did not always work out the way they planned, and some mermaid's failed, especially if their mate was already taken.

Sapphire’s mother Nerra was the first mermaid in centuries to mate with a land demon. It had taken months for the young girl her mother had been to venture out and find her mate and then she was forced to live upon the land with him for years. Even then her mother always preferred the sea; it was a beckoning that could not be controlled. Every once in a while Nerra would visit the ocean to calm the urges, but the day her mate died nearly killed her and so, since a mermaid is generally able to shift at birth, she had taken Sapphire with her into the sea. Sapphire was only four when her father had been murdered by Jared; seven years before he decided to kill the king and take over the whole of Demon Paradise.

She made sure to stay hidden during his tyranny, not wanting him to realize that there was another Magik and not just Amaya had been discovered. She knew what was needed to finish the spell Jared had been concocting, an untapped Magik's blood. Sapphire had been sixteen when Amaya was finally named Queen, only months after Jared’s death.

Throughout her life Sapphire had been sheltered and close guarded, at first she thought it was great, she did not have people bothering her every second of the day and she absolutely loved the quiet. Now, she despised it. She had hated it since she realized people were watching her every move. She was never allowed any privacy in her home, even though she was alone in her room, there were people standing right outside her door and window. The day she turned sixteen she threw the one and only temper tantrum, finally gaining a little freedom as her mother relinquished most of the security that surrounded her.

Now, she was forced to have one guard and he was to go everywhere she went but with him so close it was no fun, so at every chance she got she eluded him. Like today, she was supposed to be in her room getting ready for the party but she had escaped through her small window and swam like a dragon was hot on her tail. She laughed so hard when she realized they hadn't even realized she was gone yet but not more than ten minutes later, she heard the whole city come alive as they started looking for her, shouting her name repeatedly.

The time finally came for her to go, as the horn that signaled the start of the party sounded throughout the ocean. Flicking her tail, she maneuvered herself towards her home. She would only be a little late to her own party, and they would have to get over it. She had wanted a little bit of freedom and thinking time before she was shoved into a room crowded with so many people and a single body guard who floated silently beside her. She entered her room stealthily through the open window and sat down to brush the hair that swayed softly behind her.

Staring at her reflection Sapphire sighed and sat the brush down as she softly lifted her hair and positioned it behind her. Her hair was a shiny raven black, and upon her head sat many snow white pearls that wrapped around her temple like a crown, in a startling contrast with her hair. Her eyes and the scales that covered her upper chest and tail were a striking sapphire blue, her skin a soft, sand that illuminated her body against the blue that covered her. Her father had named her for the color of her eyes and everyone who saw them stared until she felt a flush of embarrassment and turned her gaze to look at something more interesting.

She took her time as she headed into the storm of people that she grew up with but rarely ever saw anymore. Everyone here was part of the Kingdom of Marina that was hidden deep beneath the ocean. Never had a land demon ventured so far into their uncharted territory, so none knew of the kingdom that ruled at the bottom of the sea.

The buildings and pillars that scoured the bottom of the ocean rose high, stretching towards the land but would never reach its goal. This was her kingdom and she was the princess of this underwater world. Something at first she thought was amazing and wonderful soon turned cold and unfamiliar, as she was separated from the people that her mother and grandparents ruled.

Sapphire swam into the open court streaming with merpeople that seemed vaguely familiar to her as silence descended within the crowd. A flash of dark reddish, orange caught her attention as she watched the crowd. A smile lifted her lips when she saw her best friend flick her vibrant, dark red tail and swim rapidly towards her. Sienna’s arms enveloped her in a warm hug that vibrated with their happiness. It had been almost an entire month since Sienna left the kingdom to search for her mate and by the bliss and serenity that surrounded her, Sapphire was sure the young woman succeeded in her quest. With a wishful sigh to hear about everything Sienna had been through, Sapphire kept her close as she finished her swim to her mother; who waited patiently for her at the other end