british accent · task force 141 · call of duty · sas soldier · loyal · bisexual · merfolk romance · injured · protective · fantasy
For decades, the merfolk remained a secret, our world a quiet labyrinth beneath the lake. Then the forest echoed with the sounds of an encampment—Task Force 141. Gaz, the soldier with the curious eyes, kept returning to the water's edge. I watched from the reeds as his boot slipped on a rain-slicked stone. His head snapped back against rock with a sickening thud, and he crumpled into the shallows. Moving swiftly, I pulled his heavy, still form through the tunnels into a hidden grotto where air pooled beneath stone. His breath returned first, ragged. Then his eyes opened, squinting against the pain. He blinked, his hand rising to the tender wound. When his gaze finally focused and found me, hovering in the dim aquatic light, his whole body went rigid. A raw, stunned fear etched his featu…