Chapter 38
We’re surrounded by merfolk, poking and prodding and asking questions we don’t understand. I get that they're curious, but if one more merman touches my omega’s feet, I’ll rip their arms off. Maybe a few fins for good measure, too.
“We need to get out of here,” I say into the microphone in my helmet.
Madi looks like she’s about ready to pass out. She’s still holding onto her scooter, but her eyes are heavy and face pale, even though there’s a pink flush to her cheeks. I knew this was going to be too much for her, but my mate is stubborn.
Caspian seems to notice the same thing, because he shoos away the closest group of merfolk, all of them finely dressed in a way that suggests they’re important. Caspian says something to his brother in his own language before turning to us. “Let’s go.”
He lifts Madi off her scooter and into his arms. She doesn’t protest, just curls into him, shoulders shaking.
Is she crying? It’s not like I can tell since we’re underwater, but I wouldn’t be surprised after all the stress she’s been under.
It makes my chest ache with the need to comfort her.
I force myself to stay back, knowing Caspian can move faster in the water. We need to get her back to the ship.
Caspian juts his chin at the scooter Madi was using. “Do you need this?” His voice sounds muffled under the water, but the words are easy enough to make out.
Sebastian glances at it, but it’s barely a second before he’s shaking his head.
“Leave it,” he says through the comms, even though Caspian can’t hear.
Caspian says something else to his brother, who nods, and then he’s swimming with Madi in his arms. I speed up to pull in front of him so I can lead the way to the ship.
“She’s burning up.” Caspian gives me a worried look.
Another heat spike. They’ve been coming more often, which can only mean one thing.
She’s been days without her suppressants, so it makes sense, but the timing isn’t great.
None of Madi’s heat spikes have happened at convenient times, but at least this time we’ll have a bed.
We can lay her out somewhere comfortable and shower her with all the attention she deserves.
I’ll finally be able to act on everything I’ve dreamed about doing to her.
Shit, these suits really weren’t designed with an erection in mind.
My hard cock strains against the heavy fabric in a way that’s uncomfortable, but not painful enough to get me to soften.
Not when Madi’s scent suddenly perfumes the water a hundred times stronger than before.
I shouldn’t even be able to smell it through this high-tech gear, but it’s seeping through somehow.
“Fuck,” I groan.
“Yeah, fuck is right.” Phoenix’s cheeky voice crackles through the speakers in my helmet.
“I don’t think… this is just a heat spike,” Seb says. He skirts his scooter a little closer to Madi and Caspian and shakes his head. “I could smell her during her last heat spikes, but this… this is a lot stronger.”
I suspected it as well, but his confirmation has me suddenly aware of how bad this really is. She’s about to go into a full heat in the middle of the ocean, on a ship full of unmated men. Fuck, no.
“Evacuate the ship,” I demand. The thought of so many other people being in such close proximity to my omega when she’s in heat has my blood boiling.
Phoenix laughs until he looks over at my face and sees I’m deadly serious. His scooter slows his ascent for a moment.
Caspian says nothing. I’m not sure he can even hear us. He’s completely focused on getting our mate to the surface. She’s clawing at him now, wrapping her legs around his waist and grinding against his abs. She’s lost the breather in lieu of sipping her breaths straight from our merman’s lips.
Seb is equally quiet, watching Madi for a minute before he breaks the silence. “We’ll sail back to the Trennach archipelago. It’s less than a day’s journey.”
“Shit, yes.” I should have thought of that. “There are rental houses on some of the islands. Our friends got one for their bonding. But they’ll be expensive this last minute.”
“Not a problem.” Sebastian speeds up, breaking the surface of the water just ahead of the rest of us.
I crest a second later with Caspian, Madi and Phoenix just behind me. The ship is still far off, but we can see it now, and we can breathe. I take off my helmet so I can talk to Madi, letting it hang at my side as I position my scooter right next to her and Caspian.
“Madi, sweetheart.” I brush a hand down her arm. She shivers, but doesn’t respond.
“I think she’s in heat,” Caspian says. “A true heat.”
“Yeah, we know.” I touch her forehead, but she grabs my arm and pulls my wrist to her nose before nuzzling against my skin.
Seb is the only one still wearing his helmet, and it’s clear he’s talking to someone. Hopefully letting the captain know where we are in relation to the ship and making arrangements for them to come and get us.
Madi lets out a needy little moan that makes me desperate to touch her.
I cup her cheek and kiss her, feeling Caspian’s breath tickling my ear as I do.
The way he’s moving makes it clear Madi’s riding his tail under the surface of the water.
Is it just his tail she’s riding or more?
My body strains as I remember the brief glimpse I had of his cock in his merman form.
Madi reaches back, trying to get at the zipper on her suit. “Off!” The command is wild and raw.
I glance at the ship. They’re still too far off to see anything, and I know she has her bikini on underneath. I unzip it for her, and Caspian helps peel it from her skin before letting it drift away, the empty fabric sinking to the depths of whence we came.
A second later, Madi is crying out with pleasure, and I have no doubt Caspian is filling her up, giving her exactly what she needs.
“Does our merman’s cock feel good, baby?” I whisper against her lips, palming the back of her head. “Do all those ridges make you want to scream for us?”
Phoenix moves his scooter closer, hemming Caspian and Madi in on the other side.
“Damn, I’m jealous right now,” he says with a chuckle. “Just not sure which of you I’m more jealous of. Caspian for getting to feel that perfect pussy. Or Madi for getting to take that monster cock.”
“You want my cock, alpha?” Caspian gives Nix a coy smile as he undulates his hips underwater.
“Hell yeah, I do.” Nix kisses Caspian, and I kiss Madi as we all float at the surface of the waves.
Seb’s scooter powers up, and I pull back to see him maneuvering to the other side of Phoenix, but he doesn’t get too close. He seems content to watch again. I never thought I’d be into having an audience, but whenever Seb watches, it's like a dial gets turned up on my arousal.
“The ship will be here soon,” Seb says to no one in particular after taking off his helmet. I’m unsure if it’s a warning or an encouragement.
“Better make our omega come fast, then.” Phoenix smiles at Madi before stealing her lips from me.
“Don’t knot her,” I command.
The look Caspian throws at me is a mix between annoyance and endearing amusement. “Yes, sir.”
Fuck me. I wrap his long hair around my hand and pull his head back hard. “Say it again.”
“Yes, sir,” Caspian rasps.
“Good boy.” I nip love bites up his neck until I seize his lips in a brief, but heady, kiss.
When we break apart, Madi wraps one arm around my neck and the other around Phoenix’s as we hover beside her and Caspian, using our scooters for buoyancy.
She throws her face to the sky and arches in a way that shoves her breasts out of the water.
The triangles of her bikini are barely holding on.
I’m tempted to take them off, but I spot movement out of the corner of my eye.
The ship is getting closer. I settle for biting her nipple through the fabric, tasting salt and pina colada.
“Yes!” Madi screams as she shudders and shakes.
Caspian rocks forward abruptly and spews words in his own tongue. It’s strange, but beautiful, and somehow fits the setting out here in the ocean.
The ship is only a short distance away now.
“All set,” someone hollers from the deck.
“Fuck off!” I yell back before thinking better of it. It’s a good crew, but I don’t want any of them seeing Madi like this.
“Come on.” I loop an arm around Madi’s waist and attempt to pull her up onto my scooter, but she lets out a pained moan.
“Stop!” Caspian cries.
When I narrow my eyes at him, he has the decency to blush.
“You knotted her?”
“Yeah,” he admits.
“Fucking brat. I’m gonna punish you for this later.” How did I end up surrounded by brats? All four of them seem to adore pushing my buttons, and I fucking love it.
Caspian smile widens, less embarrassed and all eagerness now. “Yes, sir.”
“Fuck, I want in on that,” Phoenix says from Caspian’s other side.
“Me too,” Seb says, quieter, but certain.
Nix’s beta just keeps surprising me. No, not Nix’s beta. Ours. If he wants to be.
“I’d be happy to punish all four of you later,” I chuckle darkly. The thought of having any one of them bent across my knees, ass out and covered in red handprints, has even more blood rushing to my cock. A whole pack full of brats might be fucking perfect.
“I shouldn’t be punished. I didn’t do anything,” Madi mumbles, sleepily, but more alert than she was before. “Hmm, but I do want you to spank me, professor.” Her words are slightly slurred in this adorable way that makes me smile. “Maybe over your desk when we get back.”
I don’t want to think about going back to Woodhurst right now or the shitshow we’ll have to deal with when we do. But, damn, the image of Madi bent over my desk has me all kinds of turned on.
My other mates laugh fondly at her half-delirious confession. Maybe I’ll line them up, hands on my desk, naked asses out. Hmm, yeah. Shit, I need to get out of this stiff suit.
I kiss Madi’s forehead. “I’ll get the room ready.”
After giving both Caspian and Phoenix a quick kiss, I drive my scooter over to the back of the ship and climb up onto the platform, dropping my helmet there.
My mind is already racing through the things we need to do to prepare.
We’ll need food and drinks—something with electrolytes, especially after everything Madi’s been through.
I’m so preoccupied, I don’t notice Seb climbing up behind me until he sets a palm on my back. “I took care of it.”
I give him a blank look, unsure what he means.
“The room should already be stocked with food and drinks. The crew will be confined to the upper decks until we reach the island. And a fully stocked rental is being prepared for us as we speak. A delivery service will drop off heat-friendly meals and nesting supplies tomorrow morning just after we arrive on the island.”
“Fuck, I think I love you.”
I could tell he was talking to the captain through the comms in his helmet, but I can’t believe it’s all taken care of already. Still drenched in heat pheromones and with my mind a mess, his assertive competence pushes me over the edge. I grab him by the collar of his suit and kiss him hard.
This is nothing like the kiss we shared during movie night with Phoenix. That was tentative and partially driven by bonding sickness. This is pure need.
“I want you, Seb.” I pull back to bite his jawline, just enough to let him know my intentions.
“Not because of Nix or because fate seems to want us in a pack together, but because you're thoughtful and kind and so damn competent. You risked your life going down there to save Caspian, an alpha you’d barely met, because you knew he meant something to Madi, Nix, and me. You prepared things for our omega’s heat without being asked.
And when I was at my lowest, a broken man, you were there for me.
For all of us. It would be an honor to bite you and make you mine, Seb. Say you’re mine.”
There’s an awed look in his glazed eyes. He sucks his lips between his teeth and slowly lets them go on a long exhale.
I barely have time to catch the nod he gives me before he’s kissing me again.
“I’m yours. And Nix’s and Madi’s, and even Caspian’s. Be my alpha, Hunter Anderson,” he whispers when he comes up for air.
I grab his thighs, just below his tight ass, and lift him. He comes willingly into my arms, and everything else fades away as I carry him below deck.