Chapter 2

Kenna POV:

I kept my grip tight on the bone dagger, staring up at the stranger emerging from the basalt shadows. He wore no elaborate noble robes—only dark anti-magic soft armor that smelled faintly of deep-trench blood and iron discipline.

He halted at an aggressive, close distance, his gaze sweeping down to my bare left hand before his lips curved. "That was a clean break. Not afraid of House Dodson's retaliation?"

"Are you House Dodson's watchdog, lurking in the dark to eavesdrop?" I shot back, refusing to drop my chin.

The man let out a low laugh. The vibration in his chest triggered an infrasonic pulse that rattled my eardrums and made my bones ache to bow. Only high-ranking Warlords or rare Sovereign-rank alphas carried a voice heavy enough to crush water. I bit the inside of my cheek and locked my spine straight, refusing to tilt my neck or bare my gill slits like a lesser mer.

Surprise flickered in his gray-blue eyes, quickly replaced by approval. "My name is Atticus. As it happens, I was also stood up tonight. Kaleigh Stark decided a man like me was beneath her."

I blinked slightly. Kaleigh Stark was one of the most arrogant high-born ladies in the Inner Atolls. If she had ditched him at the altar, he was likely a rough border officer stationed in the Border Marches—the fourth and most brutal realm of the empire—with plenty of battle scars and zero Mana-Crystals to his name.

My gaze dropped to his left ring finger. He wore a dull, tarnished bronze band—the standard Verdant Ring of a third-tier lesser clan. Yet the suffocating lethality rolling off his shoulders belonged to no ordinary soldier.

"My condolences, Lord Atticus," I said, sliding my bone dagger back into its sheath. "But that has nothing to do with me. Excuse me."

I swept my tail fin to glide past him, but a long, muscular arm shot out, slicing the current in half to block my path.

"Wait," he commanded, his deep voice carrying an authority that brooked no refusal. "You need a lawful Blood-Oath husband to shake off House Dodson, and I need a wife to stop the Great Council from shoving noblewomen down my throat."

I froze in the water, staring at him in disbelief. "Are you proposing to a cast-off woman who just broke her engagement and does not even own a ring?"

"I see a smart woman who crushed a Young Clan Lord's shell in public and cut her losses without blinking," Atticus said, leaning in slightly until his abyssal eyes filled my vision. "A contract union. We each take what we need."

His breath stirred the water between us, sending a warm current brushing against the sensitive scales behind my ears. A involuntary shudder ran down my spine. I jerked my head back to put distance between us, my heart kicking hard against my ribs.

"Why should I trust you?" I kept my voice icy. "A border officer who hides in the shadows?"

Atticus, far from being angry, unfastened a heavy basalt military seal engraved with an Aurora Abyssal Wyrm from his belt and tossed it to me.

I caught it reflexively. The stone was shockingly heavy, and the residual Sovereign pressure humming inside the carvings made my fingertips burn.

"Hold onto this, and House Dodson won't dare touch a single scale on your tail," he said, as casually as if discussing crushing a sea urchin. "In three months, if you want to sever the contract, I won't stop you."

My thumb traced the military seal as my mind raced. My grandfather, Earl Spears, was lying comatose and needed high-grade Mana-Crystals mined from the crushing abyssal trenches to keep his failing organs alive. More importantly, I needed a married, independent legal status to take over the Director post at the Defense Hub tomorrow without my family seizing my authority.

"Fine," I said, raising my chin to meet his crushing gaze. "But for the next three months, we stay out of each other's private affairs."

"Deal, My Lady." He extended his left hand, palm up, his long fingers calloused from wielding heavy weapons.

After a second's hesitation, I placed my hand in his. His palm was startlingly warm in the cold deep water. The instant his fingers closed around mine, a dark, predatory glint flashed across his eyes.

"Since we are agreed, there is no need to wait until next month," he said, turning and pulling me back toward the glowing archway. "We bind the Blood-Oath right now."

"Right now?" My eyes widened as I struggled to match his powerful stroke. "The hall is still full of nobles—"

"They will keep their mouths shut," he said without looking back.

When we swam side by side back through the grand archway, the nobles still gossiping around the Wellspring spotted Atticus's face. Every single voice choked off instantly, their faces draining of blood as they dropped their eyes and tilted their necks in terror. Who on earth was this man?