Chapter Text
“If you’re curious, the reason you’re fine with them being so far away and currently out of reach is because you’ve already sensed something about a potential Bonded. An Intended, if you would. I couldn’t begin to tell you what it could be, but I can say that you’re open and receptive to whatever it is, so if something happens in the near future, be prepared for it.”
When Ilsa had first spoken those words, Harry had hoped that he could only be that lucky.
Now, keenly reminded of the luck he seemed to attract, the words seemed more like a prophecy.
Others would have said the words seemed like a curse, but Harry couldn’t see how being soul-bonded to such a beautiful creature could ever be a curse.
It all started with his “saving-people thing,” as Hermione liked to call it. Harry had seen the water dragon, had witnessed it towering over a glowing figure on the dock. Harry had seen the water dragon eat the glowing figure.
He hadn’t even thought twice about running to the figure’s rescue, even when the water dragon’s counter-attacks had swept him off the dock and into the water, nearly drowning him.
For a moment or two, everything went black.
The next thing he knew, sharp fingernails were prying his mouth open and jerking his head to the side so he could heave and cough up the water he had inadvertently swallowed.
“…you clueless, idiotic, simple-minded landwalker! How thick are you? You could have died! Your brains have apparently leaked out through your ears, seeing as you threw yourself into the kind of waters in which no sane creature ought to be floundering about.”
For a moment, Harry stared blankly up at the figure, who was no longer glowing. The words were harsh, but the voice of the figure was faintly worried and anxious. That was nice, he decided. They were worried about him and they didn’t even know him.
He wanted to get to know the figure, though.
Part of it was the figure’s general appearance. A head of shiny, silken, straight teal blue hair and thick, blunt bangs framed a face with sharp features and a strong, pointed chin. Delicately fluted and webbed ears that reminded Harry of butterfly wings. Rich blue eyes and pale blue skin that was flecked with scales that were every shade of blue imaginable. A well-toned, muscled physique and the bared torso hinted that the figure was male.
Merrow, his mind supplied, given the amount of blue and the lovely features.
Such lovely features. Harry had never seen such a lovely creature before.
There was something else about the Merrow too, Harry decided as he struggled to sit up. His desire to get to know the Merrow better went beyond just physical appearances.
There was a bond between them already. If there hadn’t been, he doubted the Merrow would have saved him. Harry could feel it, just out of reach.
He couldn’t help himself. He reached out to it, just as the Merrow’s hand rested on his chest, prepared to push him back down on the sand until Harry had recovered some more of his strength after his near-drowning.
At the skin-on-skin contact, the magic between the pair flared, followed by a shift, twist, and click.
Harry gasped as icy magic flooded through his veins and other bonds, marveling as he felt a new one snap into place.
The Merrow stiffened, the scowl on his lovely face growing and a faint glimmer of horror entering his blue eyes. “…Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?” he demanded.
Harry hesitated. Technically, yes. They were bonded now, he could sense that deep in his soul. He actually thought it was remarkable that they bonded so simply, given how dramatic and long it had taken with Charlie, and how confusing it had been with Theo.
He’d probably missed a few steps in the process, somewhere.
Actually, he knew that he had missed a few things, recalling his conversation with Bahn about the different types of cries Submissives could give when they found a possible Bonded.
Belatedly, he opened his mouth and released a tentative heart-cry.
The Merrow’s scowl grew even larger. “Too late for that, I think,” he said, voice clipped. “Though it gives me some hope that some semblance of a brain is working inside your thick skull.”
Harry gave him a sheepish grin and opened his mouth to apologize for everything—well, almost everything. He wasn’t going to apologize for bonding to the Merrow though, since he was fairly sure that they were meant to be together.
Instead of words, however, a second heart-cry slipped out.
“Yes, yes, I heard you the first time,” the Merrow muttered, moving to help Harry into a sitting position.
A heartbeat later, when Harry was sitting up on his own, he gasped as thin, cool lips covered in a deep, passionate kiss.
He sputtered a bit when the Merrow finally drew back a moment later.
“Oi!” he finally managed to protest.
The Merrow quirked an eyebrow as his arms crossed over his chest. “It was the quickest way to settle that problem,” he said with a haughty sniff. “And since you decided to act so rashly, we’ve got plenty of other problems left to deal with for now.”
Harry’s eyes narrowed, his temper starting to flare with a small amount of hurt mixed in with everything else. It had been unintentional and yes, rash, but he didn’t like their bonding being referred to as a problem. “I’m sorry you think of it that way,” he said, brushing the sand off of his knees and attempting to stand. “Yes, I’m sure that I could have gone about that better, but I won’t regret it. If you don’t want to be bonded to me though, I’m sure there’s ways to take care of it.”
“Don’t try to stand just yet!” the Merrow snapped at him. “And I didn’t say that I didn’t want this. Don’t put words in my mouth!” An exasperated sigh escaped him. “Landwalkers. So sensitive.”
“You’re the one being sensitive about everything!” Harry shot back, grumbling when almost as soon as he stood, his legs collapsed under him. “Complaining about problems and landwalkers. Just for the record, I can’t help being a landwalker, so that’s something you’re just going to have to deal with.”
The Merrow threw his hands up in the air.
Harry tried to stand again, only to fall once again.
“Would you stop doing that?” the Merrow demanded. “Where are you so determined to go anyways?”
Away from you, Harry thought, though he didn’t say that out loud. He had a feeling that if he said something like that, the Merrow would leave and never come back, bond or no bond.
“Further up on the beach,” he said instead. “Since all you’re going to do is complain and insult me. Unless you’d rather I try drowning again. Tide is rising, if that escaped your notice.” Rising quickly, too. In just a few short moments, the water had gone from lapping at his feet to washing over his hands as he sat in the sand.
The Merrow sighed in frustration.
Harry squeaked when, a second later, the other man scooped him up in a bridal carry position and carried him further up the sand, closer to the beach house. “Must you manhandle me?” he demanded when he was nearly dropped back onto the sand.
“Must you be so stubborn?” the Merrow retorted. “Are you satisfied with your spot now, oh picky one?”
Harry was tempted to throw a handful of sand at the man, but the adrenaline was fading from his body, along with his temper, to be replaced with a deep-seated exhaustion. “Yes, thank you,” he decided to say instead. After a heartbeat, he sighed. “Can we start again? I’m Harry. What’s your name?”
The Merrow eyed him for a minute. “Alec,” he finally said, tone curt. As he introduced himself, he sat crossed-leg near Harry, within easy reach if one of them wanted the contact.
Harry forced a tired smile on his face. “It’s nice to meet you, Alec. I’d offer to apologize for bonding to you so suddenly, but that might sound like I regret it and I don’t think I will, despite our … start.”
Alec gave him a long look before huffing. “I wouldn’t want you to apologize for it,” he said. “Besides, soul-bonds are notoriously difficult to control once activated.”
Soul-bond? Well, that made sense then. At least, it did to Harry’s tired mind.
“Please tell me you have an Alpha and Beta at least,” Alec said, frowning as he looked over Harry. “I can’t see your marks and I thought you landwalkers liked to show them off.”
Harry frowned, confused at first, then he realized that his hair, wet as it was, was plastered against the sides of his neck, covering Theo and Charlie’s claim marks. He hadn’t realized that it was getting that long.
“Alpha and Beta,” he confirmed. “They’re my only two right now, though. You’d be the third. What’s your rank?”
Alec snorted. “Merrow,” he said. “Obviously. They really let you just wander about at night, getting into trouble?”
Harry scowled. “That’s the house we’re staying at,” he said, pointing at the Deveraine guest house. “They needed a moment alone.” Or several hours, given how high Nevarah’s twin moons were in its sky. “And I didn’t mean to get into trouble. I thought you needed help. You were eaten! Or you could have drowned!”
“I’m Aqua-kin’e—Merrow to you landwalkers. I can’t drown,” Alec said, lips starting to twitch. “And I told Goonter to swallow me. Things were perfectly under control before you decided to charge in, cursing him.”
“Goonter,” Harry said, voice flat. “That—creature—has a name?”
“Yes, my trainee has a name,” Alec returned. “You have a name, don’t you?”
“That’s different!”
The Merrow arched a brow. “How?”
“I don’t know, it just is!” Harry flushed as Alec laughed at his reply. He had a very nice-sounding laugh, Harry decided. He hoped to hear it some more. “So … what exactly is Goonter?” His blush deepened at Alec’s look. “If a creature tries to eat me, I’d like to know what it is at some point!”
“Harron’s Sea Dragon,” Alec answered. “And he wouldn’t have eaten you. They only eat things that are dead or worse.”
“Or worse,” Harry repeated flatly, and then decided that he didn’t want to know. There was a more pressing question on his mind. “Why in Merlin’s name would you ask Goonter to swallow you of all things?”
“How else do you travel with a Harron’s Sea Dragon? You can only ride one for so long and it’s impossible to do so when they’re going at full speed.”
Harry blinked several times. He wasn’t sure what answer he had been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t that.
“Travel, of course,” he muttered under his breath. “Because that makes perfect sense. Can’t ride a creature, so let’s train it to swallow people and carry them from place to place that way.”
And he thought the wizarding world in Britain had strange ideas sometimes.
Close as he was, Alec overheard the comments and couldn’t help but smirk. He cast a look down the beach, down to where Goonter was taking advantage of the reprieve and frolicking in the water. If the great lout wasn’t careful, he would draw attention to their location, which was another headache that Alec didn’t need right then.
Reluctantly, he stood again. After a second’s hesitation, he held a hand down to Harry, silently offering to help him stand. If the Submissive had charged into the water to save him in a misguided belief that he had been eaten or was drowning, Alec doubted getting closer and meeting Goonter would scare him off.
An introduction would have to be made at some point anyways, so Goonter could learn which landwalkers were welcome and which were a possible threat. And so he could potentially protect Harry on the off-chance Alec wasn’t around to do so himself.
Harry took the hand and promptly huffed when Alec lifted and started to carry him again—too easily, almost. He wasn’t that small and skinny. “I can walk, you know.”
“You’re so stubborn,” Alec returned.
“And you’re not?”
They quibbled a bit as Alec brought Harry back down the beach, closer towards the water and the large sea dragon swimming in fancy circles and spraying water everywhere. Alec was pleased to see that Harry watched Goonter, equal parts wary and fascinated.
The Submissive’s words after the introduction were made were not so pleasing. “Last time I was close to a creature this size, the basilisk was trying to kill me,” Harry mused. “I mean, there’s the giant squid, but it’s hard to gauge its size since it doesn’t get too close to the shore. But I’m glad to know that not all large snake-like creatures are like that.”
“Basilisk and giant squid,” Alec repeated flatly. “I think you’re going to have to explain that one.”
Harry gave him a side-long look. “Don’t worry, the basilisk is dead,” he said.
“That makes me worry more,” Alec snapped. “Because why do I get the sense that you’re the one that killed it?”
Harry’s lack of an answer was answer enough. Alec let out a muffled screech of frustration. Basilisks, near drownings, the sheer stubbornness. He had a feeling he was never going to get a moment’s rest with his new Submissive.
“You’re gorgeous,” he whispered to Goonter, ignoring the Merrow throwing a small fit next to him. “Just like your trainer.”
The Harron’s Sea Dragon preened and Alec glowered at him. “Don’t flatter the over-sized worm,” he told Harry. “He’s spoiled enough as it is. And flattery isn’t going to get you out of explaining all of that.”
“Later,” Harry said. “Because I don’t think even my Alpha knows the full story of that yet and if I have to explain it, I only want to explain it once.”
Though he would personally prefer to never relive that night again, and telling it to someone else would probably come close to having to deal with those memories and nightmares.
Alec growled and complained under his breath for a minute, before he drew Harry back a few steps away from Goonter. “Shoo,” he told the creature. “Go home. We’re done tonight.”
Goonter gave him a wounded look, so Alec sighed and fished a treat out of his pack, reluctantly agreeing to let Harry feed it to Goonter when the Submissive asked. Alcandor was going to throw a fit when his familiar showed up without him, but it was reaching the time when Alec knew the two of them would be missed and he wasn’t particularly inclined to leave Harry alone with his supposed Alpha and Beta nowhere in sight. Who knew what other trouble he would get into tonight?
Not that he wasn’t sure that the Submissive could take care of himself if he got in trouble. It was mostly a matter of instinct. Even with a Circle to care for Harry, it would be hard for Alec to leave the Submissive for more than a few hours for the next few days, as the bond continued to settle.
Once Goonter was gone, Harry made his way back up the beach, stubbornly insisting on walking and silently daring Alec to try and pick him up again. The Merrow simply huffed and rolled his eyes skyward, up to Nevarah’s twin moons, before he held his hands up in surrender.
When he deemed himself far enough away from the water that he wouldn’t have to worry about the tide, Harry sat back down on the sand, smiling when Alec took a seat beside him. After the rather dramatic start they’d had, he was mildly relieved that the Merrow was sticking around.
He wasn’t really sure how to proceed next, though. Alec wasn’t like Theo or Charlie, individuals Harry had known before as acquaintances or friends before bonding to them. Alec was a complete stranger—Harry actually knew more about Goonter than he knew about his Merrow.
And it wasn’t like Harry had any dating experience—the closest thing he could think of to courting. He was not going to count his disaster with Cho as anything resembling a date.
So he was at a bit of a loss.
“I’m new to this dragel thing,” he admitted reluctantly. “It just came in this summer and I’ve only been bonded to Theo, my Alpha, for a few weeks. We’ve only been in Nevarah for a few days and there hasn’t been a lot of time to—talk—about things.” A minor understatement, but he didn’t really want to explain everything that had been going on to Alec yet. “I also don’t have a mentor, so I … things really haven’t been explained to me in depth. Theo’s been trying when he can and there was a Pareya at our school who helped some as well, but there’s still a lot I don’t know. Can you tell me more about Merrow and what I should expect, now that we’re … Bonded?”
He wasn’t a fan of admitting so much vulnerability, but it seemed to be the right move because Alec settled a bit more as he agreed and started talking.
It was a lot of information and Harry switched back and forth between being glad he asked—if he hadn’t, undoubtedly he would have messed something up and it would have led to more drama—and regretting his open-ended question, simply because he would soon reach the point of information overload.
But there was an upside to their conversation, as he and Alec inched closer and closer, until they reached the point where their hands and legs were intertwined.
The physical contact was nice, Harry decided. Where Charlie was everything warm, Alec was cool and refreshing. And a bit distracting, if he was being honest.
“Do we have to formalize the bond?” Harry asked after an hour or so, during a lull in the conversation, trying to keep an idle tone in his voice, like he really wasn’t concerned what the answer was. He was certain that he had felt that shift, twist, and click and he was pretty sure it meant a full bond, especially with the way he could already sense Alec like he could normally sense Theo and Charlie, but after everything that had gone wrong with bonding to his Alpha and Beta, he didn’t want to make any assumptions.
“Formalize it with ceremony or formalize it with intimacy?” Alec asked in return, grimacing at the reminder that at the very least, he would have to let Alcandor know what had happened tonight, since their bonding would need to be registered.
His cousin would be so thrilled.
“Both?” Harry could feel his uncertainty start to take over, especially when he caught Alec grimacing—hopefully it wasn’t at the idea of being intimate with a landwalker or even just Harry himself. “I just … I want to do things right. Ever since my inheritance, I don’t feel like I’ve done anything right, especially not when it comes to being dragel. And my bonding to Theo and Charlie was sort of a mess and I’m supposed to hunt, but I’m not really sure how or what courting all entails, so…”
“Well, I can’t say anything for how landwalkers court and bond, but we definitely didn’t follow the traditional courting process for Aqua-kin’e,” Alec said. He rolled his eyes when Harry turned to him with a distressed look. “There’s no way we could have done that in the first place, not with you being a landwalker, so don’t worry, it’s not something I would have expected.”
“Mean,” Harry said with a small pout, but the worry he was feeling eased a bit when Alec didn’t seem too bothered by the idea of not being courted in a traditional way, whatever that was.
“Tradition is there for a reason, but there’s also no right or wrong way to bond,” the Merrow told him. “We have a soul-bond and it’s been activated and sealed. We’re fully bonded.”
“But…?”
Blue eyes rolled. “If this is your roundabout way of saying you want to complete our bond with sex…”
Harry’s face turned bright red. “Maybe,” he muttered. It seemed awfully fast, but things with Charlie and Theo were still being settled and he wanted to make sure that he didn’t have to deal with all that again when bringing Alec into his Circle. Not to mention that he was steadily regaining his energy after his surprise swim and the restless feeling was starting to creep under his skin again.
He wouldn’t really be opposed to using that energy up with Alec, if the Merrow was willing.
The Merrow shook his head, his teal hair lengthening with a silent spell as he did so. “You’re adorable,” he informed Harry, reaching out for the Submissive. “Very well then.”
Harry squawked, a sound which quickly turned into purring when he felt Alec’s hands on him, divesting him of his clothes. “Here? On the beach?”
“Would you rather it in the water?”
“I think I’m good with one near-drowning tonight…”
Alec huffed and drew up a bit. “I wouldn’t let you drown!”
Harry tried not to laugh at the offended look on his face. “I know,” he reassured the other man. “Dock, not the beach. Sand gets everywhere.” He doubted he would be able to convince Alec to enter the beach house—not that they really could at the moment, with it still being sealed off so Charlie and Theo could work things out. Something else also occurred to him. “Where’s Goonter? I’m not doing this with him watching.”
“You worry too much,” Alec muttered. “He’s gone home. Don’t concern yourself with that.”
“Okay then, I’ll just concern myself with you then,” Harry returned, and was very pleased to see touches of purple cross Alec’s face and ears. Idly, he wondered what else he could do to make the Merrow blush such a pretty color.
“Please do,” Alec replied before scooping Harry up and bringing him over to the dock.