Chapter 30 Rada
RADA
Ihad everything I needed. A half coconut shell filled with a combination of pineapple juice, slivers of fresh coconut, and icy cold rum, a nest made of the softest blankets I’d ever felt with my assassin’s cloak draped over the edge of the pillows, a selection of fresh seafood arrayed on a gold platter that had to have been created for some ancient king, and a gorgeous, eleven-foot-tall oiled male serving me my breakfast in bed.
The only thing missing was that male coming close enough to touch me.
It had been six months, and I’d tried to seduce him for five and half of those, but he hadn’t budged.
Not even one tentacle had gone lower than my collarbone, or higher than my knees.
He had bent a little. Just this morning, he’d kissed me until my lips were swollen and the sea roared in my ears.
“Lusca, I know you think I’m too young. But I’m twenty-three, I’m not a virgin, and you promised me anything my heart desired.
” I batted my lashes at the smirking male, my gaze dropping to the thickly woven kelp loincloth around his hips.
“And my heart desires whatever you’ve got hiding under that thing. ”
He chuckled darkly. “What if it’s not what you think, beloved? What if it’s something monstrous?” He stepped closer, and something thick and pendulous dropped below the loincloth’s lowest edge, swinging slightly as he walked. My eyes almost fell out of my head as it rose, apparently peering at me.
I bit my lip, trying not to laugh. “I don’t think a human form has a tentacle there, cutie. But in the interest of research, come on over and I’ll see what can be done with one.” I lay back on the blankets, the warmth of the tropical sun heating all the parts of my body that showed.
Of course, that didn’t include the pertinent bits, as Lusca had insisted on me wearing clothing around him at all times. Something about our age gap and a power differential and honoring my youth with his patience, blah blah. All it sounded like was me not getting to satisfy my curiosity.
“Come on, tentacle blocker. You know I’m on a knot fast. And you are a hundred percent Alpha; I’ve seen the coconut you have hidden under there.
” I licked my lips, remembering the flash he’d given me when we met.
He’d rescued me from some pirates who’d swarmed my little sailboat after I left Havira to explore the other islands south of the Wyngelian Sea, and brought me here to his own secret getaway.
“Would you like to explore some more of the Southern Reaches this week, beloved? I can carry you to the southernmost tip of the world.”
“Are there Omegas there?” I already knew the answer.
He’d spent the past few months helping me find the few Omegas left south of the continent and making sure they were well protected.
Last week, we’d made contact with the last one the merfolk had whispered about, a fierce, young Omega who lived alone on an island with no other people and had insisted on staying put.
I’d made sure she had herbs and a solid boat, but we let her be.
Omegas choose, after all.
But I knew I had work to do in other parts of the world, and I couldn’t put it off any longer. Well, not much longer.
“No. I only want to explore your southernmost tip.” I wiggled my eyebrows and pushed out my breasts a little more.
Lusca might act like he had all the patience a many-thousand-year-old creature would have, but the hunger in his fathomless eyes when I “accidentally” exposed small parts of myself was as strong as any force in the world.
I let my top gape a bit, knowing he could see down to my nipples.
“Stop teasing, little Empress.”
“I’m not teasing. What’s a girl gotta do to get some tentacle action around here? I feel rejected.”
I had to laugh when the cocky smirk, the tentacle, and the air of sophistication all disappeared at once. “Ah, you are joking, yes?” His voice sounded slightly higher-pitched than usual on the last word.
Our eyes met, and his deep blue cheeks went an even darker shade as he saw the truth. I was not joking at all.
But I also wasn’t going to press the issue. “Don’t worry. Consent is key, cutie. I know you want to wait until I’m older. I may not make it easy for you, but I respect the no.” I held out a hand, and he joined me in the nest, cradling me in his arms.
He sang for a few minutes, his voice possibly the sexiest thing about him. It was low and smooth, and the vibrations of him singing against me had my thighs going damp. I’d suspected his voice was magical. Of course, it was.
He’d revealed that he was the first siren, the one who taught the merfolk and the sea witches how to use their voices to make sailors forget they’d ever seen the magical sea folk, as a means of protection.
He’d punished the ones who’d used that power to lure sailors to their deaths and had demonstrated the song to me the day after the pirate incident.
Which had been a mistake. I rubbed at my breastbone where the song had somehow connected us. Now, even when he only moved a few feet away, the place ached to be closer. No, hungered, like only he could satisfy me.
When his song ended, I placed a hand on his cheek. “I have to go, Lusca. You know I’m not done with my work.”
“Of course,” he said softly, pressing one hand on the place that ached. “But I will need to go with you. I cannot let you suffer.”
Now it was my turn to blush. “Ah, I’m not sure how that would work. It’s really hard to keep my hands off, cutie. And I need to be able to focus on finding and helping the rest of the Omegas.”
“You would not be able to resist me?” He smiled. “I feel the same.”
“No. I mean, it hurts. The farther you get from me. Even a few steps feels like my heart is being scraped over sharp rocks.”
He winced. “I had no idea my voice would cause that, beloved.”
“Of course not. But we can’t complete the bond, and we have to be apart.
So I had a thought.” I almost hated to say it aloud, but I needed to.
I’d been hiding how intense the connection had grown, but a few days ago, it had become apparent it wasn’t going to get better.
He’d gone to find some casks of rum from one of his shipwreck collections.
He’d only been away for a few hours, when he’d raced back, feeling me wading into the waves after him. Crying, like he’d died.
“A thought?” He pressed a finger to the corner of my eye, where a tear had welled without my permission.
“I need to forget you. I have around six years until I’ll be ready”––not ready, but out of time––“to settle down and be the Omega I’m supposed to be.
” If She still wanted me. I’d been in some tough spots over the past few years, and Her absence had made me feel alone in a way I hadn’t since I was a child on the streets of Rimholt.
He frowned, though the expression somehow made him even more handsome.
“The only way I was able to let you walk away when I first saw you was because I knew the Goddess walked with you and within you. Protected you. I do not like that you have struck a bargain that leaves you defenseless for so long. That you have been unprotected for years already. If I’d known, I would have been at your side much earlier. ”
The sea began to swirl angrily, and I knew he was thinking about Goran. He’d gotten really pissed when he learned that Goran had let me go alone to Mirren, even when I’d explained that I’d asked to be let go. I’d told him about cutting my braids. He’d rolled his eyes.
“I cannot believe your human Alpha was such a fool to let you go alone across the dry. Someday, I will teach him what being a mate means.”
“All right, calm your waves. I don’t want my blankets getting salty.” He let out a small breath, and the waves softened, like he’d pressed them with a giant, invisible hand. “Is there any way you can protect me from a distance? When I’m far away, in the middle of ‘the dry.’”
I had to go back to Northern Mirren to finish planting apothecaries there.
Lusca had told me that he’d spent so long in the ocean that separation from it was intensely painful, and weakened him quickly.
After a few hundred years, he would be able to stay away from the sea for weeks or months at a time, but now he was stuck in saltwater, or very close to it.
“Perhaps,” he said slowly. “But the feeling you have, the need to be close to me… that would not fade, unless I—”
“Unless you made me forget you? Used your voice on me? I kinda figured,” I said softly, looking around at the cove the two of us had built into our own little dream beach.
He’d brought up dozens of treasure chests from his collection, draping the trees around us with gold chains, ropes of pearls, and bangles of rare metals I’d never even seen.
One side of the cove had a grouping of tables he’d made from driftwood, where I’d been able to spend time perfecting some new poisons using the small, brightly colored frogs he’d brought me, as well as some oddly shaped fish from a nearby trench.
If I didn’t already know there were Omegas being abused, suffering, while the Goddess made it harder and harder for them to hide, I could have been happy to live the rest of my life right here, with my magical kraken mate-to-be.
Although I was having a harder time keeping it “to be” by the hour. He was ridiculously sexy, and his siren allure wasn’t the only reason. He was kind and thoughtful and loved sinking pirate ships almost as much as I loved poisoning people who deserved it.