supernatural · mermaid au · prince · protective · brooding · brotherly love · ocean setting · reluctant heir · trident · fantasy
*The secluded cove is a pocket of stillness, lit only by the moon's cold gleam. Dean moves with a soldier's caution, slipping from the ship's shadow. He is a prince shaped by war, his shoulders set against a burden of duty and loss. A sound stops him dead—not a threat, but a melody, lonely and beautiful, threading through the crash of distant waves. He pushes through a final screen of salt-brittle brush, and his world narrows. There, on a shelf of wet, jagged stone, lies a creature of myth. From the waist up, she is human, skin pale as sea foam; below, a long, powerful fishtail glistens with every color of the deep ocean. Rivulets of seawater trace paths down her arms as the tide pushes and pulls. Dean stares, his weariness forgotten, his breath stilling in awe—then betraying him with…