Chapter 5
The guards left me on what seems to be a pile of rock more than an island. The outcropping is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by ocean. It’s well after sunset now, the darkness stretching as far as I can see.
The first thing I do once the mermen guards are out of sight is pull my phone from my dry bag.
I didn’t use it today, so I’ve got a decent amount of battery life, but no signal.
Of fucking course. I turn it off and shove it back in the pack, then pull out my little flashlight and examine my open cage.
It’s barely twenty feet in diameter at its widest point, if I had to guess. Would something like this even show up on radar or satellite imaging?
I’m kind of surprised the big mermen with spears didn’t stick around, but I guess they figure I can’t go anywhere from here. It’s not like I can breathe underwater on my own. There’s nothing but ocean as far as I can see. Or maybe they’re still down there, somewhere, circling the depths.
The bit of rock doesn’t have any vegetation, but there’s an overhang that spans part of the plateau as well as the water, offering a little shade. I’m sure I’ll need that come tomorrow. My skin wasn’t made to fry in the sun for hours.
For now, I sit in the driest spot I can find and dump out the contents of my bag.
Apart from my phone and flashlight, I’ve got a pocket knife, which could definitely come in handy.
It won’t be much good in a fight, but it might help me skin a fish for breakfast come morning, if I can manage to catch one.
I also have my Aunt April’s journal, a few sorry-looking snacks, some of those weird devices we found in Ocearus—the harmonica-like things.
And, what’s this at the bottom? I dig around, then pull out five round discs.
I forgot I grabbed these from the library.
I shouldn’t have taken them. It’s against every protocol to remove an artifact from what will soon be an active site.
I’m not even sure what possessed me to do it.
But they’re all branded with the royal sigil Caspian has tattooed on his palms, and some protective, curious instinct had me grabbing them off the shelves at the last second.
Holding the flashlight between my teeth, I aim it so it’ll shine on the little metal discs. I turn one over trying to figure out what it is and how it works. There were tons of these in the library.
They look like CDs, flat with some kind of etching on one side, concentric circles stacked like rings on a tree.
All I can guess is that they somehow store information.
I pick up the next disc, examining it closer.
The engravings are the same shape, but with a different pattern of spacing.
The third disc only has rings that fill half the surface.
Are they like the merfolk version of a record?
With my luck, they’re nothing but decorative pieces and I’ve stolen artifacts for no reason. But there were so many of them, and they were hidden. No, these have to be important somehow. Maybe they even hold information that could help me in my current predicament. I have to hope so.
I tuck them back in my bag, knowing there’s not much more I can do tonight without draining all my flashlight battery. This will have to wait until tomorrow.
On my back, staring up at stars unlike any I’ve ever seen, I tug on the bonds in my chest. Hunter feels shaky and panicked, but there’s determination there, too.
I’m gonna fight like hell to get back to him, and I know he’s gonna do the same.
I can’t even imagine how they’ll find me out here, but I know he’ll try, and that calms a little of the raw nausea I feel being away from him.
Shifting my attention to my other bond, I feel a surge of reassurance from Caspian. He doesn’t feel as far away as he did a little while ago. Is he coming here?
Just as the thought occurs, there’s a splash from somewhere nearby. Did the guards come back? Did the queen change her mind about keeping me alive? A million other options run quickly through my mind. Sea monsters and pirates, and other ridiculousness.
“C-caspian?” I call.
“It is me, starfish.” Caspian’s soothing voice immediately eases my nerves.
I spring to my feet and jump off the rock into the water. He catches me in his arms. For a few minutes, we just hold each other, floating at the surface of the sea.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“I should be asking you that,” he whispers, kissing my nose. “I was so worried.”
“I’m fine. I mean, not really, but I’m alive, and you’re here.” I play with the long, blue locks of his wet hair. “I wasn’t sure they’d let you come see me.”
Caspian smirks, making him look a little more like the alpha I bonded before we were kidnapped. “Nothing but death would keep me from you.”
As romantic as that is, thinking about death has my mind wandering back to Hunter, something Caspian must see in my features. His sigh is deep and troubled.
“I can feel him, too,” he whispers.
There’s no question who he’s talking about. I suck my lips between my teeth, then slowly release them.
Caspian and I both feel the effects of our separation from our other mate, but we have each other to lessen the pain. Hunter doesn’t. He’s alone, and I don’t know how to help him.
It’s rare to become terminally ill from bonding sickness, but it happens more often when someone doesn’t have other mates around them to soothe the pain and offer their support, both physically and mentally.
It also wouldn’t be as bad if our bonds were older, more established.
We could be apart for a week or two without concern if we’d been bonded for a while, but we bit each other less than an hour before we were separated.
My chest constricts, my breathing becoming more erratic the longer I think about Hunter all alone.
“Tell me he’ll be alright,” I whisper.
Caspian’s quiet. Hunter’s turmoil pulses through the bond.
“He will be fine,” he says at last. We both know it’s a lie. One I needed to hear.
“And us?”
Caspian offers me a sad smile. “We can’t let my mother know we have another mate and are experiencing bonding sickness.
The only reason she is keeping you alive is to avoid it, and if she knows it’s happening anyway…
” He shakes his head. “We need to do everything we can to keep our connection strong, to keep ourselves strong, so we can find a way out of this.”
“What do you have in mind?” I smirk and wrap my legs around his torso. Despite the thinness of my bond with Hunter, and the empty ache from missing both him and Phoenix, I need my merman. He’s the solace I crave.
Rather than answer, he kisses me. It’s tender, gentle. His lips slanting over mine in reassurance. Affirmation. Love. My mouth parts on a sigh, and he takes the opportunity to slip his tongue against mine. The deep way he tastes me makes my core tighten.
His tail undulates between my legs to keep us afloat, sending sparks flying to places I shouldn’t be thinking about right now.
It doesn’t feel right to be turned on when our lives could be in danger.
When the rest of our packmates aren’t with us.
But I can’t help my body’s response. Caspian has a way of igniting my desires.
He has since the first moment I saw him.
Unable to resist, I grind against the soft scales.
“Do you like riding my tail, starfish?”
“Yes,” I groan. “Your tail, your fingers, your tongue, your cock. I need it all.”
He chuckles against my neck. “Then you’ll have it all.”
The wet fabric of my shorts and bikini bottoms blocks me from skin to skin contact with my mate.
Skin to scale? I want to rip my clothes off, but I don’t want to stop.
Instead I grind down harder, Caspian’s movements adjusting to match my rhythm until he's pushing back against me on every roll of my hips.
My breath comes in harsh pants as the pleasure rises, my cadence falters a little, keeping me from falling over the edge. Caspian snakes a hand between us and dives under the waistband of my shorts, unerringly finding my clit and circling it with firm, demanding pressure.
“Come for me, omega.”
His rough demand sends me flying, my climax crashing through me like waves on the shore. He never stops moving, prolonging my descent into bliss, until I become too sensitive, my legs twitching against his slick scales.
“I love your little noises, starfish.” He kisses my shoulder. “If you keep that up, I won’t be able to stay sheathed much longer.”
That’s right. I forgot his cock is different in this form. My pussy flutters at the thought, my body already begging for more despite the orgasm I just had.
Reaching between our bodies, it takes me a little bit to find what I’m looking for. His scales part around an opening, and when I dip my finger inside, he bucks and groans. His tip presses against my touch, rising and swelling, but it doesn’t break free.
“Why are you fighting?” I ask softly.
“It feels wrong to take my pleasure from you when…”
There’s a pained longing in my chest, and it’s not coming from me or Caspian. Shit, I didn’t think what it would do to Hunter to feel my orgasm through the bond. But he doesn’t seem upset. In fact, he seems calmer than he’s felt since we were ripped apart.
“I’m not sure how to close off the connection,” Caspian says. “I know he’d never ask me to deny you pleasure, but taking from you feels—”
I put a finger against his lips. “You’re not taking anything, Caspian.
You’re giving me what I want.” I rim my finger around the crown of his cock, and it pushes right against the opening.
“You’re keeping our bond strong. You’re protecting us from your mother.
Hunter would want that. He does want that. ”
Caspian still hesitates, though I can tell he’s close to snapping.
“Give me your cock, my prince,” I tease, hoping the nickname goads him into losing control.
He gives up the fight and springs free, pushing right into my hand. He’s even bigger in this form. Ridges cover the underside of his shaft from his tip down to his knot. I take a moment to explore them and am surprised to discover his cock coated in something sticky and viscous. “What is…?”
“Our males produce lubrication, just like our females, to ease penetration in the water.”
“Oh,” is all I can say, but my pussy pulses with need. I want to feel that smooth slide inside me. My fist around his base, I shove my shorts and bikini bottoms to the side and line him up with my entrance. “Ready?”
“I’m always ready for you.” He kisses me at the same time as he pulls me down onto his hard length.
The water’s buoyancy fights against us, but he holds tight and swishes his tail up, pounding into me with a force that makes my eyes roll back and my toes curl.
Each thrust drags those ridges against my aching inner walls.
As we kiss, we sink under the lapping waves.
I don’t even think about breathing. Caspian is the only oxygen I need.
His scales glow brighter the deeper we descend beside the volcanic sculpture that is my prison.
The water is warm from the burning mountain.
My skin smolders from the way Caspian hits all the right spots inside me.
A school of colorful, bioluminescent fish swirls around us, perhaps drawn by our pheromones. The gentle brushes against my skin light up even more sensations. I’m free-falling, floating, clinging to Caspian like an anchor in a storm.
My shirt floats up with the water’s movement, and my mate takes the opportunity to suck my breast into his mouth, biting my nipple through the fabric of my bikini top.
I want more, so I rip the triangles to the side, exposing the stiff peaks to Caspian’s hungry gaze.
He immediately dives in, licking and pulling and nipping each in turn, until it's as if they’re a direct line to my clit.
I’m lost in sensation, mindless to pleasure, when something silky drags over my butt.
My eyes fly open only to see Caspian smirking.
His hands move from my hips to my ass, dragging my bottoms down until they’re trapped under the curve of my butt.
He spreads my cheeks so whatever was just caressing me can snake its way between them to flutter over my back hole.
I turn and catch a glimpse of my mate’s beautiful tail curled up toward my backside, but before I can investigate further, Caspian’s hand grips my throat, his fingers cradling my jaw with enough pressure to make me face him once more.
The fins on his tail drag over my asshole again as his lips crash to mine, his thrusts hitting me deeper in this form.
We break the surface just as I come, gasping for breath and screaming his name. His knot slips into place, extending my pleasure. He twitches and shakes, painting my insides with his release.
Knotted together, we float in the water until my head lolls against his shoulder, eyes dropping closed. I’m vaguely aware of him slipping out, lifting me onto something soft, and placing some sort of textile around me.
“Sleep, my starfish,” Caspian kisses my forehead, “and dream of me.”