Chapter 3
With Tad, Derek left the ocean behind. The transition into human life was so easy, it seemed meant to be. Tad was a quiet, shy man, so unlike the domineering Kellen—he was quick to blush, and Derek began to anticipate the color that rose into those pale cheeks, the self-conscious duck of Tad’s head, the fall of hair obscuring his delicate features from view. He was a beautiful creature, something Derek saw as his own, as if he had captured the man in one of the fabled “soul cages” his mam used to sing of when he was a small gup.
What started out between them as tentative and unsure strengthened as the seasons passed, until Derek couldn’t imagine any other life but the one he shared with this man. Infatuation sank beneath the surface of Derek’s heart to mingle with emotions that
