Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 10

and took his hand. Kyle let him, suddenly feeling cold and needing his husband's warmth and comfort, needing his lover to tell him everything was okay.
    "I was afraid," Damian whispered.
    Kyle cocked his head, his brows drawing down in confusion. His husband was the most self-assured man he knew, strong, confident, the epitome of everything masculine. It had shocked Kyle when the man had approached him at the diner. He never would have guessed that Damian was gay. "Why? What could you possibly be afraid of?"
    Damian let out a shuddering breath, then met Kyle's gaze with a soulful look. "Losing you, Kyle. You're everything to me. At first I didn't tell you because I wanted you to get to know me, then I wanted you to fall in love with me. By that time, I'd convinced you to marry me, so I worried if I told you that you'd call it off, then I worried it was too late to share something that life changing," he whispered, anguish ringing through his voice. "You'd think everything I ever told you was a lie, just like you do now." A tortured expression twisted his features, and Damian dropped his gaze, focusing on their joined hands.
    Kyle squeezed the hand he held, then moved his other to cup Damian's jaw, encouraging him to look him in the eye. "Tell me now. Tell me everything."
    Nodding, Damian shifted position, bringing their knees into contact on the bed. Sparks of desire crawled up his skin at just that simple contact. Just like always when they were this close, Kyle wanted to pull his lover close and say to hell with everything else. But he fought the urge, knowing he needed answers more than he needed sex.
    His husband ran a hand through his brown hair, his mouth opening and closing a couple times as he seemed to struggle to find the right words. "I told you I'm a Briny Nix," he finally started. "We're just one of a myriad of what you'd call paranormal creatures out there." Kyle's brows shot up at that little revelation, but Damian held up his hand, cutting off any questions. "Let me get through this," he whispered. "Please. I'll answer anything once I'm done."
    Kyle jerked his chin in a semblance of a nod, willing his husband to continue.
    "My kind have been here for millennia. We've watched the progression of man, and for the most part, we'd always stayed out of humans' way." His smile turned brittle for a second as he said, "When our ancestors crossed paths, it's the stuff of myth and legend when it didn't turn out so well. Most of the time, I can sadly say it's because my people didn't have respect for humans as a species until a few centuries ago."
    He grimaced and shook his head, before refocusing on his story. "With the dawning of technology that could map the smallest crevice of the ocean floor, we realized we needed to send some of our people back among you to keep the rest of us safe." Damian smiled slightly and lifted a hand as if to touch Kyle before letting it drop.
    "Briny Nix live several hundred years, but don't reproduce nearly as often," he admitted, "because many of us spend our time searching the globe for the one soul that will complete us. Our Adelfi Psychi ," he elaborated. "Some get tired of searching. They find someone they care about, or someone they're willing to reproduce with, settle into one form, and have children."
    With so much information being thrown at Kyle, he struggled to keep up. When Damian paused for breath, he latched onto the last confusing phrase he'd heard. "Settle into one form? What does that mean?" He'd already seen his husband's hands and arms change, and his teeth, and wasn't that just the freakiest thing he'd ever seen? Could they change even more?
    "Mermen can shift shapes, their forms based on ancestry and sometimes area. The nobility don't turn into an animal, but their skin and fins turn into lethal weapons," Damian explained, the look in his eyes expressing his concern at Kyle's reaction. "Others, like those who are guards, turn into what many would consider sea monsters. Massive marine animals that keep us safe from any who'd attack us or invade our territory. Then there are some who turn into whales, or orcas, and sometimes even sharks or fish. Regardless of what their aquatic animal form is, their base form is a merperson, and they can all become human."
    Kyle's head was spinning again. He didn't know what to think, how to make sense of everything his husband had just dumped on him. Whatever expression passed over Kyle's face had Damian stiffening. The man, the