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With her chin on his shoulder, she watched Alpha disappear behind them. Her home was gone. But her heart was free.
Instead, all he could think about was that she was wrapped around him. Her warmth pressed against him as he swam, and—for fuck’s sake—was that his fins fluttering against her thighs?
His tail shifted in a current that he had never felt before. It was like someone placed a cool blanket over his shoulders, wrapping him a little tighter, and he had to wonder if this was a goddess of the sea. If she was telling him, this was... right. That after all this time of fighting, he had finally been given something soft. But she needed to stay alive for him to keep her.
“Lights?” she asked. “Can you make the lights?” “Are you afraid again?” he asked, his voice a low rumble in his chest. At her shiver, he sighed. Of course, he had to be thrown in the direction of a creature who was terrified of the dark. She feared so many things, likely, that he would have to spend the rest of his obsession catering to her every whim. She was weak. But he still started with the rhythm of lights that went up and down his shoulder, trying his best to ignore the way her fingers tapped each one out of existence before he let the next light illuminate.
His claw tugged the lapel of her borrowed suit. “You turn so many colors, kalon. I can’t wait to see how many.”
Slipping into the water, he left her behind before he could do something insane. Like lick her from head to toe.
“Wet and salty isn’t on my list of things that I like to eat.” He opened the next one a little harder, and his claw thunked against the metal floor. “I am wet and salty.”
Because I want to keep you for myself. Because if I keep you, feed you, bring you everything you ever dreamt of, maybe you’ll give me a chance. Because no one has made me want them as much as I want you.
So all he could do in response was grunt, open the next one with a sharp twist of his nail, and then smile at her chortle of glee. “There’s another one!” Heart squeezing, he told himself to store this memory away for when he no longer had her. Her happiness was a fleeting moment he would cling to for the rest of his life. He scooped the next pearl out for her, so she wouldn’t have to touch the oyster she found so disgusting. “Here you are, kalon. Another for your collection.”
He turned at the last second, and the smallest spine at the base of his back caught her finger. With a sharp hiss, she drew back in shock. Bright blood welled on the tip of her finger. It was a small scratch. She doubted it would need anything other than a few moments of firm pressure and it would seal back up on its own. But he groaned, the sound long and low and delicious as it coiled low in her belly. She hadn’t realized how thrilling it was to hear her partner while he took his pleasure. Then all her thoughts scattered as he grabbed onto her wrist and drew it to him. That long, black
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Carefully, he scraped his claws along her scalp. She tilted back into his touch, her words stuttering as he did it again. He grinned, even though she couldn’t see him. She liked it when he smiled, and he hoped she looked up at their reflection in the glass. He was a looming figure behind her, a monster with his hand on her, and she liked it.
“Kalon,” he growled, the words low and so deep he knew she could hear them. “Move your hips, little one. I want to watch you ride my hand.”
“I want to find someone who doesn’t fear me. I want to know that when I come home, there is a soft place to rest my head, and someone who cares if I had a hard day, or if I am upset. I want someone to take care of, and who takes care of me in return. That is what I dream of, kalon.”
Her back would look so pretty, with red lines from his claws running down it.
A slight smirk appeared on his lips, disappearing just as quickly. “I enjoy watching him struggle.” Smacking his chest, she shook her head. “He’s your brother.” “And that does not change my enjoyment.”
Because if she was trapped with him, she knew without a doubt that she was safe.
“It is a special word. We save it only for a rare pearl that we find only once in our life. It means a beauty that is more than skin deep. It refers to a soul that radiates inside a person, so much so that you can see it on the outside as well.”
“I find your people disgusting. From your ugly toes to the horrid white color that surrounds your eyes. Every bit of your people is revolting, and your bodies are a nightmare to look upon.” Her lips twisted with a soft smile. “So you have said.” He slid his hand into her hair, dragging her close to him again. “But I do not find you ugly.”
“How could I? When your hair is the color of the sun on a cloudless day? When your smile warms the entire ocean around me? When I touch you, your soul is so familiar to me. It is like I have known you in a hundred lifetimes before this, and some part of me that I’ve forgotten wishes to bury itself inside you. It tells me to cling to the curve of your waist, to clutch at the feeling in my chest that lingers when you are near. My soul wishes to keep you and never let you go.”
Rolling his eyes, he draped the other hip fin over Anya’s legs, completely covering her from sight. “You can look.” “Ah, we used to play this game when we were children. You’d tell me to do something, I’d do it, and then you’d hit me. I’m not falling for that as an adult.”
“My kalon,” he whispered, and she could feel his lips press to the top of her head. “Did you miss me?”
“Listen to us, Daios. Give me a moment to talk with Ace, and I will tell you where she is. We can find a way to get to her.” He didn’t want to wait a single second more. The words ground out of him before he could stop them. “Every moment I am here lengthens my journey to her side. If she dies, I will blame all of you. I will boil the very sea that you live in. I will hunt every one of you down until your lineage is nothing more than chum in this sea.”
Rocking her back and forth, he tried to get control over what he was feeling. But these emotions refused to be tamed or named in any way. They were a typhoon of madness and hope and relief and love. So much love.
“Shut up,” she shouted, squeezing her belly so the words came out as loud as she knew how to make them. “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say anymore. I’m leaving. You can stay in your crumbling city to save what little there is left. I broke my cage. And now I’m going to fly free.”
She knew what he was going to do. She turned her face away from the sight, squeezing her eyes shut even though she knew she wouldn’t hear what happened. Her mind, though, it played through it for her. The massive undine who had always protected her had just crushed her father’s skull in his hand.
“I’m going to fill you up, Anya. And then I’m going to watch my cum seep out of that pretty little slit of yours. And you’re going to take me, aren’t you? All of me.” She whimpered, looking down at him with those heated eyes. She nodded, but that wasn’t enough for him. Not at all. “Say it,” he growled. “Yes,” she croaked.
