Chapter 97: Second Night of Transformation

It was not as soft as Neville imagined it to be, but it was firm (BL and romance novels corrupted the poor guy). The warmth seemed to spread through his entire body from that single point of contact.

It was his first time kissing someone.

The realization should have made him panic, should have made him pull away, but instead, it made him bolder.

Neville didn’t know he had it in him to open his mouth, to press closer, to nip gently at the man’s lower lip. His tongue darted out, tracing the seam where their mouths joined, as if pleading for the man to let him in.

Please. Please don’t pull away.

The man went still for a moment, but then he eventually responded.

The kiss deepened.

And Neville enjoyed every last second of it.

The way the man’s breath hitched. The slight tremor in those strong hands as they came up to frame his face.

The heat gradually built up between them. It was slow and inevitable.

When the man tried to pull away, Neville wouldn’t let him. He coaxed him back, pleading without words. He coerced him to get lost in the sensation, in the bliss.

Even though he was already panting, lungs burning in the sensation, Neville kept trying to find the right rhythm and continue.

Each kiss bled into the next, separated to breathe before diving back in. It was messy, unpracticed, but it felt right in every way.

Neville didn’t know what was wrong with him. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

But this was a dream.

Everything in the dream would stay in the dream.

It wasn’t real.

It didn’t matter what happened next.

So, he didn’t need to hold himself back.

So he didn’t.

His hands explored, mapping out the planes and angles of the man’s body. He trailed the man’s hard muscles with his palms. The well-sculpted pecs felt like they could have been carved from marble. His fingers traced the man’s chiseled abs like reading braille.

For a second, he felt utterly envious of how well-built this man was. He did have a bit of muscle, but not this impressive. Also, he did have abs, albeit in mermaid form.

But he was more surprised that he could actually feel this much for a man: the lust, the pure and uncomplicated desire for each other’s bodies.

At some point, Neville found himself sitting on a man’s lap like it was the most natural thing in the world. Grinding a little as he moved his body to the rhythm.

Down below, he could feel—

Oh.

An obviously hard reaction pressed against him, impossible to ignore even through his pants. Straddling and sitting on a man’s lap as an omega was a dangerous place to be.

But Neville didn’t care.

This was all just a dream.

When he woke up, he would be back to his single, virgin self.

Just as his watery eyes finally focused enough to take a good look at the other person’s face—

Neville snapped awake.

His heart hammered against his ribs. Heat flooded his face, spreading down his neck to his chest, turning him an embarrassing shade of pink.

He couldn’t believe he would dream of something like that. Of all the inappropriate dreams, his subconscious had decided that now was the perfect moment to make the object of his dream, Grayson.

"No," Neville said aloud to the empty room. "Absolutely not."

His tail twitched in agitation, sending water sloshing over the tub’s edge. The puddle spread across the floor, but Neville couldn’t bring himself to care.

He just had an incredibly vivid, incredibly detailed dream about kissing his boss. It was great that he didn’t continue dreaming more of what could possibly happen.

But still—

"It’s just a dream," Neville muttered, "Hormones. Pheromones. Or some weird mermaid biology thing that Shelly forgot to warn me about."

But even as he said it, he knew he was lying to himself.

The dream felt too real to be a dream.

The way Grayson’s lips had felt against his. The gentleness of those hands. The barely restrained strength in that frame, holding back even when Neville had been actively encouraging him not to.

And the worst part?

He liked it.

Every second of it.

And he wished for more.

"I’m so screwed," Neville cursed, burying his face deeper into the cool water.

The temperature that had started as a mild discomfort when he woke up had grown into something far more insistent.

This isn’t right, he thought as he pressed his palms against his flushed cheeks. My face seems to be hotter than before. But not just that. He felt a little... thirsty?

His mind began to ponder how mermaids still felt thirsty when they already consumed water through their skin. But he didn’t have to wait long. Heat bloomed in his chest, feeling the unnatural temperature all over his body.

"Shelly?" The name left his lips amidst the panic.

Right. Shelly was still unavailable.

Neville shook his head, trying to clear the heat rising to his head. His sharp vision began to waver.

"Ha—!"

The gasp tore from his throat as pain ran through his tail. His muscles contracted violently, jerking and spasming as if trying to shrink.

Then the heat intensified.

One moment, he could still think through the discomfort. The next, it felt like someone had lit a fire in his veins. His scales began to shimmer.

Just like last night, but worse. So much worse.

The shimmer spread from the tip of his tail upward, each scale catching and reflecting light in hypnotic patterns. Under different circumstances, it might have been beautiful.

But right now, it terrified him.

How can a mermaid get sick underwater? The absurdity of the situation would have made him laugh if he weren’t currently gasping for breath.

Another wave hit him, stronger than the last. This one drove him forward, curling over himself as his tail thrashed without his permission. His back arched, spine bowing as muscles locked tight and then released in rapid succession.

Through the haze of pain and mounting panic, Neville watched his own body betray him in the most horrifying way possible.

His tail was shrinking.

He could actually hear the sound of bones cracking and reforming, muffled by water but still sickeningly audible to his sensitive mermaid hearing. The vertical line that marked where his tail fins began started to deepen.

The flesh split with a disturbing sensation.

It split into two.