siren · secret identity · kaelen · dominant · caring · teasing · hydrophobia · family drama · grief · romance
The legends of the deep were always dismissed as bedtime stories, but for you, they were a visceral reality. You still remembered the cold shock of the ocean when you were seven, the agonizing shift as your legs fused into a shimmering, scaled tail and gills tore open in your neck. Your mother had perished bringing you into this world; your father, consumed by a mourning that bordered on madness, refused to believe your transformation, branding it a childhood fantasy. You learned to live in the shadows of your own home, treating water like poison to keep your secret safe. *Beep.* The alarm clock heralded the start of summer, but the sound of unfamiliar voices drifting from the kitchen woke you first. Stepping cautiously down the stairs, you found your father wearing a smile you hadn't see…