Bacchanal Moonlight Mating Cruises 1
Date Published: November 13, 2026
Publisher: Changeling Press
Bacchanal Moonrise?
Cassiopeia Thalassus has a problem. Under a strict injunction not to come home
until she’s pregnant, she’s been sent on an eight-day matchmaking
cruise by her father, Poseidon. The Bacchanal Moonrise has a reputation as the
perfect place for a fling — casual or otherwise. Cassie’s been sent to
meet a prince, and she hopes the guy is someone she can fall in love with. The
siren with whom she shares a soul, however, is all too willing to settle for
anyone, so this prince had better be worth the potential heartache.
Kenta Ōwatatsumi agreed to this date at the encouragement of his oldest
brother. Tired of the usual women who only want him for his selkie magic,
Kenta is looking for someone who wants him for more than just sex and selkie
parlor tricks. His aniki promised him someone different. His first sight of
Cassie Thalassus, however, has him questioning his brother’s good sense.
Instead of a simple blind date, Kenta’s been tricked into a stud call
for a lusty siren. His brother got one thing right, though. Cassie is
certainly different from any woman he’s ever known.
Cassiopeia Thalassus stared at the door in front of her, nibbling at her
dry lips through the waxy taste of sour lychee lip balm and trying to decide
if she could actually go through with this. Youngest daughter of Poseidon,
Princess of the Atlantic, Siren-in-Waiting of the Lady of the Atlantic, all
hail the Princess of the Sea, but she couldn’t knock on a stateroom
door.
What a joke.
Cassie shifted her travel bag to a more comfortable position on her shoulder
and considered her options.
One. She could turn around and go back to the rock she shared with her
sisters.
Two. She had the wrong stateroom. She could just go back home and say she
tried.
Three. She could strip and waltz naked all over the damned ship, charming
everyone from the captain on down. At least one out of the hundreds of males
on this floating bacchanal should be up for the task. Nothing like a
never-ending orgy to get the job done, right?
Four. She could tough it out like she’d promised and put her heart out
there yet again, on the off chance something might go right for a change.
Keeping option one on hold for the moment, Cassie focused on option two — the
stateroom. She still had her father’s letter in her hand, so she slipped
it from the envelope. As she read it again, her gaze skimmed half-memorized
lines.
Cassiopeia,
Your mother is worried about your unwillingness to utilize your abilities to
their fullest potential. My darling Selene says it is past time for you to
carry on your siren lineage, but all I want is for you to be happy. I’m
very proud that you’ve finally made the decision to face your inner self
and be the siren you’re meant to be.
I have discussed your situation with an old friend, someone you might remember
— Lord Ōwatatsumi, the Ruler of the Sea of Japan.
Cassie stopped at this passage, trying hard to remember which sea god her
father was talking about. She’d met so many over the years that
she’d begun to wonder if the value of the title carried any merit at
all.
After a moment, she gave up with a sigh. All she could remember was a vague,
dark blue shape with a serpentine tail and a Chinese-style mustache. A long
mustache, one whose ends she had chased with fascination as they bobbed on the
surface of the Mediterranean somewhere near Crete. She shook the memory away
and continued.
We’ve set up a date for you with his son, a powerful demigod who
receives regular offerings from the Emperor of Japan. Considering your
circumstances, your mother and I feel you need someone strong, and he seems
like a perfect fit. I booked the two of you passage on the Bacchanal Moonrise
for their Yule tour of the Arctic. Prince Ōwatatsumi will be waiting in the
Royal Suite. Dictys will arrange your transportation to the ship.
Your mother sends her love and says you cannot come home until you are
pregnant.
With love,
Daddy
P.S. — I’m sorry to say this, but refusal is no longer an option. You
made a vow to your mother, so please don’t do anything that will make my
darling Selene unhappy. And by no means should you wear that ugly blue
disaster you use to hide your powers.
Eep. She had missed that last line on her first read through. After a glance
at her blue sweatsuit, Cassie shrugged. There wasn’t much she could do
about it now. Well, she had been the one to declare her resolution to try, if
they would just leave her alone afterward.
So. She licked her lips again, tasting the last of the lychee wax, and looked
up.
The porter had looked askance at her when she asked about the Royal Suite but
had directed her to this blandly beautiful teak door, numbered just like any
other first-class stateroom and festooned with fragrant Yule greenery like the
rest of the ship. Cassie stared hard at the curvy brass numbers, hoping she
had been directed to the wrong stateroom. Said hope did nothing to change the
graceful swirl of the 1201 emblazoned on the door.
Damn. She had the right stateroom, so option two was a no-go.
Option three? The ease of it had its appeal, but… no. Just… no.
At least, not yet.
That left option one or option four.
Get on with it, child. The siren’s caustic mental voice urged action,
and Cassie’s hand lifted at the siren’s direction. She stopped
herself from knocking just before her knuckles touched the polished wood.
Cassie considered letting the siren control their shared body to take over the
situation. It would be so much easier just to surrender to her siren the way
she always did. After all, their incomplete merge was the whole reason Cassie
was in this mess to begin with.
No, this incomplete merge is your mother’s fault, girl. The
siren’s aggrieved tone suggested she wasn’t any happier than
Cassie with their mutual independence. Selene’s ambition has damaged all
of her children this way.
All of us? Cassie swallowed, started to ask, then shook the thought away.
Right now, the only thing that mattered was whether or not she could go
through with this. She had so much at stake. Getting pregnant would mean more
than just a casual encounter. It would mean exposing her heart again, but it
would also mean freedom from her mother’s demands. After another eternal
moment, Cassie sighed, nibbled at her lips a third time, and gave a quick
couple of raps. Silence reigned for a split second, and then the knob turned,
the door opened, and her chance to run vanished.
Her blind date stood in the doorway, tall enough for his head to brush the
lintel of the door. She’d been sent to meet a prince, and boy, did he
look the part.
The siren took a good long look and began to salivate mentally.
“It’s not polite to stare.”
The basso rumble rushed over Cassie like a breaking wave, sending an odd
electric tingle running along her skin. The unusual sensation vied with a hot
flush of embarrassment as she called her attention back to the issue at hand.
She knew better than to let her mind wander. Or to give her siren too much
free rein.
Cassie’s pulse beat a little faster as her date returned the stare in
good measure. Chocolate-brown eyes evaluated her, reaching no good conclusion
to judge by the look on his face.
This is her? His expression practically screamed the words.
Cassie supposed she wasn’t much to look at — she’d taken care to
dress down as much as possible. The forbidden blue fleece sweats had served
their purpose as she crossed the docks, covering her more obvious attractions
and allowing her to move through the boarding crowd with relative peace.
Crossing the docks had been hard enough without calling every drunken Yule
reveler in sight.
The siren gave her a mental nudge. Time to get it over with.
“I’m Cassie,” she said with an awkward half smile. Despite
her caution with dressing, she couldn’t disguise the sultry tones of her
voice or dampen pheromones that were as much a part of her as breathing.
He just looked at her with a steady, unflinching gaze, face closed and
unreadable except for his eyes. Those widened oh so slightly at the subsonic
vibrations in her voice. Even so, he did nothing except to step back with a
tiny bow, holding the door open for her to enter.
“Kenta Ōwatatsumi. Please enter.” The deep voice reflected nothing
of the lusty confusion Cassie’s subsonic tones should have elicited.
By now, the man should have been a quivering mess of hormones. Cassie’s
siren voice usually shot straight through men in a blaze of lusty pleasure,
like a heady liqueur. This prince’s lower half should be on fire.
Instead, he seemed unconcerned. Almost unaffected.
His odd lack of response made Cassie hesitate. She stood in the entrance of
the stateroom, stalling just the tiniest bit. She clutched at the padded strap
of her travel bag like a lifeline, wishing she’d taken option one
instead. Then the siren took control, and Cassie crossed the threshold in a
single flowing step, continuing through the cabin all the way to the bedroom
door on the far side of the suite, as far away as possible from the gorgeous
hunk of male currently blocking her escape.
“I assume you are my date for tonight?” Confusion filled the
prince’s ocean-dark voice as he picked up a crystal tumbler from a
decorative stand at the doorway. He idly swirled the dark amber liquid it
held, something smelling of cinnamon, nutmeg, and other unidentifiable spices.
Wassail, maybe. Well, it was a Yule cruise.
Cassie dumped her bag on the floor beside a black-lacquered chair before
turning back to face him. “I suppose I am.” She took a deep
breath, inhaling the tangy aroma of the bayberry and holly displays on the low
table and matching black-lacquered stepped chest. The heady fragrance of the
greenery steadied her nerves.
Time to unleash her darker side, if only for her own protection. Time to
pretend to be what she wasn’t, if only for a while. Time to set the
stage for her siren to take the lead. “I just didn’t expect Daddy
would set me up with a selkie for the Yule revels.” Even the densest
sex-crazed male of his race could not miss the sarcastic emphasis.
Awkward silence bloomed in the aftermath of Cassie’s words.
Kenta shut the stateroom door and leaned against it, his handsome face still
politely neutral, though his beautiful eyes narrowed at her snide comment. An
impressive reddish-gray fur coat hung neatly on the hook behind his head.
Judging by the size of that sealskin, he’d mass nearly fifteen hundred
pounds in his animal form, larger than any of the shifter seals Cassie had
ever met. The faintest clink of rattled ice from the tumbler suggested her
words had stung.
What had possessed her father? A selkie, of all things. Some demigod. If she
was going to be sold to the highest bidder, Cassie would rather it be someone
with real power. No selkie could fill that bill. From what she had heard,
their magic was limited to conjuring pretty trinkets and a little bit of luck
— neither of which would do a damn thing to solve her problem.
Nor would it give her date any clue to Cassie’s peculiar nature.
Those dark eyes assessed her again and still found her wanting. “Look —
Cassie, was it? Do you really understand what you’re doing here?”
Or who I am?
About the Author
Autumn grew up loving history, mythology, and all things Japanese, not
necessarily in that order. This eclectic love affair has bled over into her
writing, and her stories are always well spiced with the taste of Japan,
strange mythological beasties, or the lords and ladies of the ton. Sometimes
all three, leading to dark desires and forbidden loves.
And after all, dangerous passions should lead to uninhibited love.
