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Jade's p. o. v.

The ocean waves slamming on the ship mercilessly. Gritting my teeth on the biting wind I tightened the rope that someone has let loose. I swear this crew is incompetent. I thought in annoyance I always end up fixing their mistakes.

"I'd say we only have a few minutes before the rain hits." Heesung said as he walked up beside me. Angling he head up to see the black thunderous sky.

His eyes peeked from the hat that he wore and fixed it on the sky above. The breeze picked up, whipping my long brown hair from the bandana I wore.

"I will hold the sails." I stated and turned on my heels to head to the back of the ship. After only a few steps a rough hand grabbed my upper arm and stopped in my tracks.

"No, go tell Daniel or K to do it. Then meet me in my quarters." Heesung ordered. I failed to read his blank face. As soon as released his gasp on me I went to find both said men.

"Danie! K! Captain needs you to hold the sail before the storm hits."

Daniel looked up at me causing K to shout in victory as he took the opportunity to overpower his opponent. K jumped up from the table facing in joy and lets out a few of his loud laughs. I felt my lips tilt upwards at the scene in front of me but I just rolled my eyes.

"J, you distracted me!" Daniel groaned as he stood up. "And how many times I have to tell you to not call me Danie! I'm a grown man." He whined, stomping his foot.

"Yeah, sure you are." I teased, letting out a laugh at his pouty expression. "Now get up there! We need to be ready."

As I finished talking to them both of them were rushing to climb the ladder. I followed them and heard the rain hitting the deck. Warm dropped met my skin and drenched my clothes as I crossed over to the other part of the ship. Even though the water droplets where warm the freezing breeze was making them feel like cold droplets.

My stomach twisted with nervousness as I wondered what Heesung needed to speak about. Lately, I'd notice a tension between us. Something was different and that made me less comfortable with him it's been 4 years already since he saved me and took me in, but there was still so much that scorned me about him. He was a mysterious man, to say the least.

I cleared my head as my hand reached out to knock on the door of the captain's quarters. Not even a second passed and it was pulled open and a hand latched onto my wrist, yanking me inside. I stumbled forward from the sudden movement running to Heesung's solid chest.

"S-sorry." I stuttered, keeping my head down as my cheeks heat up in embarrassment.

A low chuckle came from his mouth as he held onto my shoulders, gently pushing me back to form a distance between us. His eyes matched the colour of the ships rain-drenched wood. I cleared my throat to break the silence as he removed his hands from my shoulders, making his way over his desk. I waited for him to sit down but instead, he leaned against the table and crossed his arms as he started.

"I wished to have this talk for some time now. I wanted to talk to you about our relationship."

"Our relationship? what do you mean?" I asked. Wasn't it simply the man who saved me and recruited me to be part of his crew?

"Jay has been struggling to follow orders lately. It seems he's forgetting that I'm the captain here, so I'm relieving him of his duty as the first mate." Heesung paused for a moment, watching me carefully before he continued, "I want you to be my second in command."

I stared at him in a daze.

"Me? Are you sure? I've been here the shortest amount of time. Don't you think the crew will be upset about this?" Being promoted was the last thing I expected. It wasn't that I didn't think I could do a good job, it was just that I knew the crew wouldn't be thrilled to have a woman ordering them around all the time.

"What they think doesn't matter. This is my decision and I am choosing you because I trust you and know that you are loyal to me. Besides, it wouldn't be the worst thing to getting to spend more time together, would it?" His eyes travelled to my face as he waited for my reaction.

My heart stuttered in my chest. It wouldn't have been a big deal, Except the way he said it made it sound like there was a double meaning behind his words.

"I won't let you down, Captain," I muttered, bowing slightly.

As I came up from my bow, he pushed himself off the desk, his expression turned intimidating. I fisted my hands as he slowly closed the distance between us. Fighting back my urge to step away I held my ground and met his eyes as his face was only inches from mine. I glanced at his thin lips, noticing the smirk that spread over them.

"Call me Heesung, Jade." he purred as he leaned near my ear, emphasising my full name which was never used. I was left speechless by his flirtatious behaviour. What changed to make him suddenly act in such a way? I'd never called him by his real name...not out loud, anyway.

"Hee..." before I could finish, the ship suddenly wobbled, sending me stumbling forward and hitting my head against his. Both of us groaned and held our foreheads in pain. A piercing rumble of thunder sounded from above us, and we both looked at each other knowingly.

"Storm's here, guess we will have to finish this conversation later," Heesung said before slipping through the door and rushing outside, leaving me with a fluttering heart and pondering forehead.

I quickly collected myself and followed after him, the pouring rain immediately thrashing into me. Another large wave caused the ship to whirl at an angle and I reached out to grab the carved railing for balance. Heesung shouted orders at the crew but his voice was nearly drowned out by the deafening storm.

"J, Captain asked me to take you below deck and tie up all the loose cargo." K approached as he yelled over the rain.

When he reached me, he grabbed my hand and I followed him down to the cargo hold. We fought against as the ship continued to tilt and the floorboards continued to groan, doing our best to tie down any loose barrels, boxes, and other goods stored in the room. Just as I was finishing a knot, K lets out a deep shout that caused me to jump.

"What's wrong? what happened?" I questioned in panic, stumbling to his side. He was starting at a small porthole, pointing a trembling finger at whatever he was looking at with wide eyes. I quickly followed his gaze out the window only for my jaw to drop.

"A..Are those....is that...?"

Before I could finish my question, K answered me.

"Sirens. A whole mob of them."

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Authors note

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Jade's p. o. v.

Suddenly I was bolting up the stairs, then up the ladder and onto the deck, sprinting to the side of the railing for my dear life as the boat continued to move roughly.

Finally, I caught another glimpse of the rushing water where there were at least a dozen sirens. They swam incredibly fast, easily keeping up with the speeding ship. Their torsos were bare, some with slim and feminine backs while others had wider, more masculine builds. Their tails we're like nothing id ever seen before, Stretching out long and sparkling in the water like liquid gold and silver. Each tail was coloured and shaped differently, some with thin, pointed fins and other with broad, rounded ones. They soared beneath the surface of the water, occasionally leaping out like dolphins.

I was mesmerised by the beauty of them all but my trance was broken by someone shouting my name.

"J, Damn it! what are you doing out here?" Heesung, along with every other crew members except K came to me. "You don't know what they are capable of. You need to get inside now, before.."

He was cut off by a loud piercing screech coming from the ocean below. Soon the single screech became many and we were all shielding our ears from the unbearable sound.

Slowly, the agonizing screams lessened, though they were still going, and we were able to move our hands from our ears so we could listen to the captain's orders.

"Forget it. We need to fight back or they won't leave us alone. Three of you go grab the rifles" Heesung nodded to Niki, Jay and Jake. They followed his instructions without hesitation.

"Sunoo, J, go find K and get him to help you with the fishnet." Then he paused, dark eyes gleaming in excitement as he let out his final sentence.

"We're catching a siren tonight."

I was clueless as to why Heesung was so determined to catch a siren, but I wasn't going to question him. The reward of bringing one siren would likely be higher than what we could get from all the stolen goods we were planning to sell. It just seemed like there was something more than greed in his eyes when he commanded us to get the net ready, something unknown.

Sunoo and I quickly made our way to the cargo hold where K was still staring wide-eyed through the porthole.

"K, we need your help with the net, let's go," I said firmly, grabbing his hand and dragging him along with me before he hand a chance to respond.

All three of us swiftly made our way to the top deck at the stern of the boat where we quickly made work of the tangled netting. We hardly ever made use of them as fishing wasn't on our list of priorities, so the net wasn't an impressive one. Luckily, we only needed one of the creatures.

After a few minutes of struggle, we finally managed to set up the net so it was ready to be dropped. The three of us looked towards the middle of the ship where Jake, Jay and Niki stood aiming their rifles towards the shrieking sirens.

Before anyone could shoot, loud thugs came from the side of the ship. Leaning over the edge, I gasped. Several of the beasts we're using their claws to latch onto the side of the boat, their eyes shining with an animalistic gleam. As one of them spotted me, it hissed and bared its blade-like teeth at me.

Not a second passed and Jay's rifle went off, his shot entering the shoulder of the very siren that had hissed at me, causing it to lose its grip and go flying back into the black waters.

"Not yet, you fool!" Heesung's voice roared angrily. He stood there struggling with the wheel in an attempt to navigate through the storm. "Don't shoot until I say so! J, drop the net."

I immediately ran to the lever near me, pulling it and releasing the net into the depts below. K and sunoo peered over the edge to make sure the net was properly positioned.

"It's ready, Captain!"

Jade's p. o. v.

"Boys, don't let those things scratch up my beautiful ship!" The captain yelled out his go ahead and within seconds Niki, Jay and jungwon were all shooting down the side of the boat.

I watched in a mix of horror and awe as the bullets hit their targets, bodies jolting as their golden skin was stained red with blood-curdling screams, three of them fell into the water violently. I winced at the sight.

"J, get over here!" K yelled. I tore my gaze away from the bloody scene and stumbled over to the rope where Sunoo and K stood. I joined them in holding on, waiting for the signal.

The sound of the rifles continued to pierce through the air, along with the brutal wind and relentless rain. Thunder was cracking every minute, followed by a blinding bolt of lightning. It was a struggle to keep my eyes open against the sheets of water that poured down.

"We've got one! We caught the damn thing" Jake shouted.

Heesung continued to stare ahead, fighting the violent waves as he tried to keep the ship steady. Without a word, he gestured for us to bring the net in.

The three of us immediately started tugging on the rope with all of our strength and I was shocked at how heavy this creature was.

"Are you sure there's only one in the net?" I shouted at Jake as we continued heaving.

"Only one! its tail must weight a ton." Jake replied as he and the other two men approached us.

"What are you doing? Shouldn't you still be shooting at those monsters?" Sunoo said with a grunt as he kept pulling on the rope.

"They all disappeared after we started shooting. I think we scared them off." Jay's was loud as ever and full of authority. "Now why don't you step aside and let the big boys handle this, princess." He teased with a condescending smirk on his face. His hands were suddenly on mine as he tried to pry them off the rope, but I protested.

"Get your hands off me! I can do this myself, you asshole!" I yelled through my teeth, struggling to get out of his grip. He impatiently moved his hands to my waist where he tried to lift me away from the rope. Losing my temper, I released my hands to punch Jay square in the jaw, but my actions backfired as he stumbled into K, who then fell forward onto Sunoo, causing them both to lose their grasp on the rope.

In the blink of an eye, I was reaching out to grab the rope that was now flying loose, and the second I latched onto it, the weight from the net flung my body violently toward the edge of the boat. I heard the yells of Eight men as I was pulled over the railing, then suddenly there was a rough jolt and I felt tension return to the rope, the sudden stop almost making me lose my grip. Those idiots must've figured out to catch it before it could pull me all the way overboard.

I let out a shaky breath as I made sense of the position I was in. Hanging above the roaring sea, my only lifeline was the thick rope between my numb fingers. As I looked beneath me. My eyes widened at the dark, silvery tail that I could see caught in the net, which was now dragging in the water once again.

"One, two, three, pull! One, two, three, pull!" I could hear the pirates yell in unison as they slowly began pulling me back up. I held on tightly as I was raised closer and closer to the railing, then finally I was able to latch onto the edge until someone grabbed me from underneath my armpits, processing to lift me up and onto the deck. I looked up and saw that it was Jungwon, who immediately pulled me into a tight hug.

My body was shaking, probably from the shock of what just happened mixed with the freezing dampness of the storm.

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Authors p. o. v.

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Jade's p. o. v.

"Jungwon, take over. The winds are dying down, so I trust you can handle it." Heesung ordered. Jungwon let me go and held locked eyes with me for a second, then Swiftly made his way to the captain where he took the wheel from the captain.

I stood there shaking as I watched the remaining six men continue to pull the net up. After what felt like ages the net finally came into view and the men roughly pulled it the rest of the way over the edge, dragging the net onto the deck. All four of them were breathing rapidly, reminding me of just how much the siren weighted.

My eyes curiously observed what was underneath the net, but I could only make out a scaled, metallic tail and a tan, humanlike back. Every breath from the creature caused the muscles in it's back to ripple and move, displaying its strength.

Suddenly the reality sunk in that a dangerous, mythical creature was in front of me and I took a single step back.

"Afraid it'll bite?" a voice teased in my ear.

I jumped around to see Heesung smirking down at me. I scoffed.

"Of course not, I just was about to go change out of these damp clothes."

He chuckled. "You go ahead and do that. When you're done, meet us in our dungeon."

I nodded before quickly heading to the crew's quarters. Sighing in relief that nobody was in the dimly lit room, I undressed. Normally I had to find ways to change without showing too much skin at one time since there were always the prying eyes of the crew to worry about.

Damn pirates.

I slipped on some tight black pants, put on an oversized, long-sleeved red t-shirt, then tightened a belt around the shirt so that it was for form-fitting. Finally, I slipped on my black boots. Feeling much warmer and not so disturbed, I hung my wet clothes up before walking out of the room.

I ran across the main deck, trying to avoid the rain as much as possible. The storm had lightened up and the rain was just a drizzle, but the waves were still rocking the ship quite a bit.

Soon I found my way to the dungeon, which was the farthest space below deck. As I entered the darkroom, a strong musty scent filled my nose. Eight heads turned to face me, their silhouettes glowing from the dim light of the lanterns they held. Dancing shadows and orange beams were cast on the walls as the flames flickered constantly.

My gaze moved from their faces to the cell the stood in front of.

"Move" I spoke quietly, pushing my way through the males until I had a clear view of the creature that laid against the wall of the cell. I walked up to the bars, grabbing onto them as my eyes slowly took everything in.

His tail was the first thing I noticed as it was hard to miss, stretching long enough to reach all the way across the cell. The diamond-shaped scales were a deep obsidian colour, but any spots of light hit glimmered into a silver shade. The fins of the tail, which were against the bars at my feet, they were wide with edges that were sharp and pointed. His tanned, defined torso looked very human aside from the abnormally golden shine it had. Finally, I took in his face, noticing that he was resting his head against the side of the wall with eyes closed. He has plum lips, straight nose, almond-shaped eyes and he also has two moles on his face one in on the upper part of the nose while other is below his right eye. Its dark hair was a colour is never quite seen before, a cross of turquoises like tropical tides and silver like sparkling Pearls.

He was beautiful.

"What are we going to do with it?" Daniel asked, breaking me out of my mesmerised state.

I turned around to see Heesung crosses his arms, his gaze falling on the siren. "I haven't decided yet. But in the meantime, how you deal with it will be up to J."

I watched as the boys frowned in confusion.

"What do you mean it's up to J? Why does she get to decide how we treat it?" Jake asked.

Heesung signed before answering "I've made J my first mate, so you all have to follow her orders unless I say otherwise."

The moment he finished speaking, all Seven of the men burst into protests and questions.

"You can't really be replacing me with her" Jay raised his voice to be heard over the others. He glared from me to Heesung. "She's only barely been a part of the crew for four years. She's a woman. She lacks physical strength.." he was cut off by Heesung's chuckle.

"Tell that to your purple jaw," he said gesturing to the dark bruise which marked Jay's face, right where I had punched him. Jungwon and K chuckled lightly, causing Jay to growl in anger before marching out of the room. I sighed in annoyance.

"I'm going to talk to him. J, you're in charge here. Just tell these idiots what you want them to do. I'll check in with you in the morning." And with that, Heesung followed after Jay, leaving me with six men and a siren to deal with.

After Heesung left, I struggled to figure out what I should do. Jake, K, Daniel, jungwon, sunoo and Niki all of them looked at me impatiently, awaiting my orders. However, I couldn't stop my gaze from leaving them and travelling back to the siren. His breathing was shallow, his chest faintly rising with each inhales. Then I remembered he was shot and my eyes searched for his wound.

"Where do you guys shoot him?" I asked not seeing any blood.

Jungwon shrugged. " I think Jay is the one that hit him," he said.

I nodded, a small part of me wishing. We hadn't needed to hurt them. I knew it was necessary, but their ethereal beauty made it difficult to feel at peace about it.

"Alright, Jake, Niki and K, I want you three to go fill some buckets with seawater and bring them back here. Daniel and Sunoo go bring me some rum. Jungwon, bring me our medical supplies. I'm not sure how bad his wound might be. " When I finished speaking, the boys nodded and muttered under their breath. They all began leaving the room and I nodded at Jake as he handed me a lantern on his way out.

Now that I was alone with the siren, I felt my curiosity take hold of me. I looked towards his unconscious figure once again and decided it wouldn't hurt if I tried to find the gunshot wound. The faster I could patch him up the better. I was hoping I could get it done before he wakes up. If he did happen to gain consciousness while I was in there, the trusty dagger inside of my boot was always within reach.

Looking around the room, my eyes landed on the keys that hung on a nail in the wall. I quickly grabbed the keys, wasting no time in unlocking the cell door. Carefully stepping over his large glimmering black tail, I closed the door behind me. I made my way over to where he laid with his back against the wall.

Seeing him up close, I felt and an odd wave of the attraction come over me. It was like some invisible force urged me to reach out and touch him. I did my best to fight against it as I reminded myself that sirens use their alluring aura to catch their prey.

Kneeling down beside him, I carefully searched him for any sign of blood. Not seeing anything, I hesitantly reached out and placed my hand on his shoulder. I started moving him forward to see his back and my eyes landed on a dark, bloodied gash on his shoulder blade, finding that the bullet had only grazed him.

As I adjusted my grip to get a better look, my hand was suddenly snatched away. I gasped at the sudden movement and saw that my wrist was now being held tightly in his grip, both of our hands raised in the space between our bodies. I looked up from our hands and met his brown, feline eyes.

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Authors p. o. v.

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