The Bad Boy And The Mermaid

Chapter 31

Hunter

The wedding was being held at my family residence garden. The altar was decorated with flowers and looked so beautiful that I started to wonder if I’d teleported into heaven all of a sudden. The trees posed as a good shelter from the beaming sunlight, lamps suspended from the branches.

The weather seemed perfect, and gave the place a romantic vibe.

Elaine had gone out of her way to give it a chic and an elegant look. She loved Pinterest and I had no doubt she’d copied some ideas from it.

People had already taken their seats, we’d decided to keep the ceremony private even though my step- mother wanted to do something extraordinary like a Disney themed wedding or something equally outrageous. I’d denied, we didn’t need a lot of people for the wedding to make it special and besides, I didn’t think Blue would appreciate a huge crowd gawking at her, and then asking her questions that she didn’t have answers for .

The only thing that mattered was that we were getting married.

My sister Hannah was the maid of honor, and a few of my cousins were bridesmaids, and groomsmen who’d flown here especially from other parts of the country.

Leslie was wearing a similar groomsmen suit, custom-made. One of the groomsmen, my college friend Oliver had been holding him in his arms, until the fur-ball ran off to smell flowers. I got the impression Les didn’t give two shits about my wedding.

I was nervous; I could literally feel my palms sweating. All I had to do was get through this wedding and I had nothing to worry about. From the last two days, I’d been worried that I’d be run over by a car or

just shot by a madman in broad daylight. At one point, I’d been scared of slipping on soap and dying on wet tiles of my bathroom.

Now that I was standing here at the altar, I worried that the trees would suddenly fall and crush me beneath it.

It was already time! Why wasn’t Blue coming out?

Fred was my best man and stood beside me, looking through the entrance of the altar to see if he could spot Hannah.

“How do I look?” I asked him.

He passed me one look of appraisal and grinned, “Dashing.”

When I had looked at myself in the mirror, I knew I looked good. With my golden-brown hair seeming thicker since I hadn’t gotten a haircut for ages, the light freckles on my nose weren’t even visible until you looked closer. Blue always said that was her most favorite best feature of me, along with my silver eyes. And lastly, the cream white tux was tailored to perfection.

“What are the girls doing?” Fred muttered close to me. “I have a feeling the minister doesn’t like waiting.”

I shrugged. “Girls. You know how they are.”

Suddenly, Adrian was making his way towards me. He was hot on his heels and his expressions were giving me anxiety.

What happened? Was Blue okay?

“You need to follow me.” He said.

“Blue...where is she?” I asked.

“I can’t answer here.” Adrian said looking at the crowd. “Come with me.”

I excused myself, gave the minister some bullshit excuse that I wasn’t feeling well and needed some time, and somehow walked out of the aisle with my heart in my mouth.

Away from where the wedding was being held. I walked into a small tent, the place that I’d used for any final touches to the outfit. A large man was seated in a chair with shoulder length hair dark hair, if you looked closely, you could see the dark navy in it, but his features were otherwise roguish and his eyes looked familiar. He wore normal slack pants and a white shirt that expanded over his broad shoulders.

He stood up when he saw me walk inside. He easily crossed six-feet-five.

“Who are you?” I asked, not trying to be intimidated by his thuggish looks.

Adrian cleared his throat beside me, “This is Apollo, Blue’s older brother.”

My jaw probably dropped to the floor. Out of all the days that Blue had been here worrying about her family, her brother had a good timing of finally showing up.

Note the fucking sarcasm.

My hands were curled into fists, I kept them at my side. If he thought he could walk in and declare that he wanted to take his sister back, I didn’t know what I would do. Maybe stab him right here. Instead of displaying anger, I said, “Blue’s wanted to make contact with her family since quite a long time. It’s been around three months.”

“We’ve been searching for her all this time. I went everywhere. I went to Greece first and came empty, then went to Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania. Our younger brothers are touring South East Asia; two of them

have split up between India and the Middle East. And then one of the mermen in our community told us they’d seen Blue swim towards the Pacific Ocean.”

It was kind of hilarious if you think of this.

Where is your wife from?

Oh, I don’t know, last I heard she swam from the Pacific Ocean, I picked her up from a beach in California.

“Turns out she was in America, out of all places. Adrian sent me signals and I found my way here.” He said silently.

Something told me Apollo wasn’t pleased with the fact that his sister found her way into America. Maybe he would have much appreciated her in Greece. You know with the same language, the culture and all.

“I’d like to make something clear, Apollo. I did not kidnap your sister. I found her on the beach laying...well, without clothes on. I brought her home, gave her food and shelter.” I cleared my throat. “Taught her the human ways of life. During the time that I have spent with Blue, we realized how much we love each other. You had time before to find her and take her back, you didn’t. Now, I’m going to marry her unless she tells me otherwise.”

He gave me a nod. “I spoke with Blue before I met you.”

“You did?”

“Yes. She says she wants to marry you and has threatened to kill me if I force her to go into our world.”

“But we must take her back, Apollo.” Adrian interrupted. “No matter how noble Hunter is, we just cannot trust humans.”

I threw Adrian a sharp look, and then looked back at Apollo, politely I said, “I don’t need your permission to marry Blue, because I’d marry her one way or the other but I think it would mean a lot to her if you gave us your blessings.”

Apollo stared at me intently. He looked like a man with a lot of patience, which was a good thing. I didn’t want to make enemies with my future brother-in-law, in fact I wanted him on my side.

Badly.

“Hunter,” He began slowly, “This is the first time we’ve meet so I have no way of knowing what kind of a man you are. If I let my sister marry you, it would solely be a gamble made with what Blue has already told me about you, the fact that you are a good man, and that you took care of her while she was with you.”

I gave him a nod, keeping my expressions neutral. The last thing I wanted was to look arrogant and blow this. Whatever he had to say, I was going to listen. I knew I’d do the same way if I was in his place. If my sister ran away from here and say landed on Mars and found an alien guy and told me she wanted to marry him, I’d be worried too.

I’d probably take pity on the alien and tell him how Hannah slept with her mouth open and drooled on her pillow in the morning.

Apollo continued, “We are ten brothers and ten sisters, a total of twenty and Blue is the fifteenth youngest child of our parents. I’m the sixth eldest.”

My mind was reeling with all that information.

“And it’s safe to say that she’s my most favorite. She’s never been very happy in the ocean, almost like an outcast, she only got along with two of her friends from her school. When our parents matched her

with Adrian they thought they were doing the right thing...” he sighed. “No one asked what she really wanted.”

“I understand.” I said.

“The truth is that I’m afraid for her. I can’t think how she could live in an entirely different world married to a human. It scares me.”

“Apollo, I understand your feelings because I have a sister too. I know you don’t know me, but you need to know how much I love Blue.” I said sincerely, “she’s everything to me. At first she was a mermaid that I wanted to help get back to her home, but things have changed now. I gave her a choice, to stay or to go back to her world, and she chose me in the end. I can’t say I deserve her, but I can assure you no other man can love her the way I do. If Blue asked me to get her the stars or the moon, I’d find a way to give it to her. I will do my best to protect her with my life and do everything in my power to make her happy.”

I watched as Apollo smiled in assurance. “You’re not lying, I can sense it.”

“Polo, you’re joking.” Adrian said, looking horrified. “He’s a human. How could you give Blue permission to marry him so easily?”

At that time, I just knew that Adrian had signaled Apollo to our location on purpose. The snitch! He’d led Blue’s brother here in hopes of stopping this wedding. He thought involving someone from his family

“She’s marked him.” He said. “There isn’t much that we can do now. He knows he’s risking his life by marrying Blue, right, Hunter?”

“I’m aware.” I said.

They proceeded to argue in their language. Although I couldn’t understand what they were saying, I knew Adrian was trying to convince Apollo to call off this wedding. Adrian was fuming; his hands were shaking as he passed me one resentful look, and walked out of the tent.

Apollo smiled, and I noticed how his dimples were so similar to that of Blue’s even with his rugged features. They had the same warm blue eyes, and the smile. “Please don’t mind Adrian. He’s very hurt. He’s been in love with Blue since childhood, that’s for about a hundred years. It’s not easy for him to think that Blue will have another protector that’s not him.”

“It’s okay. I understand his feelings.”

I really did. I felt sorry for Adrian.

Apollo fished out something from his pocket. It was a bracelet made out of white shells. It looked simple, like a charm bracelet. He put it on my wrist and secured it. “This is a token from our family. We give it to the spouse as a protection charm and something to remind them of their partners.” He grinned. “You look at another woman, a human and this will remind you about Blue.”

I smiled in understanding, “Thanks for this, but I assure you that even without the charm I would never cheat on her, or even look at another woman.”

“I’m counting on it.” He said in good humor. “You should see the way she talks about you. It’s all Hunter…Hunter…Hunter…the rest of it doesn’t matter. I decided right then to let her do as she pleases. She looks happier than how she used to be.”

My cheeks colored with Blue’s obvious fascination with me. I couldn’t help but laugh. This first meeting with my future brother-in-law had turned out to be better than I’d imagined. I liked how chill Apollo was.

“I just need you to promise me something.” He said.

“I’m listening.”

“If Blue wants to come back to our world, to Atlantis, you would allow her.”

“I will never separate Blue from her world. You or any member of her family is welcome to visit here anytime you like. If she wishes to go to the ocean to see her family, she can, provided she come back to me. The land remains her permanent home. Those are my terms.”

Apollo thought for a moment and then gave me a nod, “Agreed.”

We shook hands on it.

“What about the dowry?”

“Dowry?” I asked.

“What do you want?”

“Hmm…” I was teasing him because this was amusing. “Maybe some money? And a house in Beverly hills? A Lamborghini should be good.”

Apollo’s face fell. I’d guessed Blue’s brother would be as innocent as her. “Uh…if you mean human money, I think it can be arranged. The house in Beverly…and whatever you asked after that. I’ll see what I can do about that.”

I laughed and slapped his shoulders playfully, “I’m joking, dude. I don’t need any dowry, no money, and no house. I’ll take your sister as she is.”

“But…there has to be something that I can give you.” He insisted.

“I told you, we need your blessings.” I said.

He produced a pouch, similar to the one that Adrian had when he was trying to pay at the restaurant that day. Mermaid money.

“Here.” He handed me the pouch. “I know it’s no use here in the human world, but you can still keep it. You can give it to Blue if you want. There’s a lot of money in it.” Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

I didn’t want to hurt his feelings by declining his gift so I slipped it inside my jacket pocket. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

“You have my blessings for the wedding.” He said finally. “Papa won’t be happy, but he’ll come around.”

Elaine walked inside the tent; she was clearly tired of waiting. “Hunter, what’s going on here? This is not the time to be talking to friends. You have time after the wedding for that. The minister is waiting.”

“Elaine, this is Blue’s older brother, Apollo.” I introduced him. “Apollo, this is Elaine, she will be Blue’s future mother-in-law.”

Apollo took her hand in his, “Madam.” He kissed her knuckles. “Please take care of my sister.”

Elaine literally had tears in her eyes. She was an emotional one. “I’m so glad you could come, Apollo. Can I call you Polo? It’s such a sweet and a unique name. You’re as beautiful as your sister.”

“Thank you, madam.”

“Rest assured Blue’s coming into a very good family. My son is the best husband Blue could find.” Elaine said and gave me a warm smile, she squeezed my hand. “Do you still need time to speak with us? I’m sure you do…well, I’ll call Wyatt and…”

“Elaine.” I placed a hand on her shoulders. “It’s okay. I already spoke with him, there’s no need to call Dad.”

“That’s wonderful, honey.” She said. “We should hurry up.”

It appeared my step-mom was more eager to get me married than I was.

We watched her elegant form leave the tent. Apollo was going to stay back here and accompany Blue to the altar. He placed a hand on my shoulders.

“Just before this ceremony begins, you should know. A human marrying a mermaid, it’s not a blessing. It’s a curse.”