Chapter 23
Grayson
Grayson stared at the corner in shock. Keld was on his feet, fins flared wide, and eyes blazing.
He… called the safe word.
Reiz stopped at once, severing all physical contact with Grayson. “What is wrong, Keld?”
“I’m sorry, Reiz, I…” Keld sucked in a deep breath. “I can’t watch this.”
Grayson’s jaw dropped. “This was your idea.”
“I know,” Keld snapped. “I know, I just—I don’t…”
Reiz, on the other hand, was perfectly calm.
“I understand, Keld. Do not worry. No hard feelings. Though I suggest you have a serious discussion with Gray.” The rose-scaled Alpha looked to Grayson.
“And, depending on the outcome of this discussion, you are always welcome to come find me. Though the time was short, I still enjoyed it immensely.”
Reiz offered Keld a nod of acknowledgement, flared his facial fins, and then he was gone.
Grayson sat bolt upright on the bed. “What the fuck, Keld?”
The Mer scrubbed at his face with his hands. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to be sorry, you need to tell me what the hell just happened.”
Grayson had no clue why he was so irritated. He hadn’t really wanted to do this in the first place, and he’d just spent the last five minutes pretending Reiz was Keld. If anything, he should be grateful, and yet…
“I don’t know!” Keld collapsed onto the bed beside him. “I don’t know. He called you aiu, and I just lost it.”
“What does that word even mean? Why would that be what set you off?”
“It’s not the meaning, it’s—” Keld broke off with a sigh. “Aiu is a term for someone who obeys well and without question. In most contexts, it’s not exactly polite, but in the kink community…”
Confusion dulled Grayson’s aggravation. “Why would it matter if he called me that, then?”
“Because…” Keld hesitated. “Because that’s my name for you. I didn’t like hearing him say it.”
The cool, comforting smell of greenery and loam punctured the sterile air around them, something Grayson had become intimately familiar with in the past few months.
Ignoring the pheromones, Grayson stared down at the Mer in disbelief. “You were jealous?”
“No! Maybe? Okay, yes, I was jealous. Happy?” Keld flung an arm over his eyes.
“What happened to ‘you can see other people besides me’?” Grayson’s attempt to mimic Keld’s much deeper voice made the Mer snort.
“I thought I was holding you back from the full experience. Or, like… Maybe you felt like you owed me something.”
“That’s stupid. I don’t want to see anyone but you,” Grayson retorted. “I didn’t even really want to see Reiz, but you were so hyped up about it, and so sure I’d have a good time…”
“You didn’t want him?” One fiery eye peeked out from under a golden forearm. “But he’s hot.”
Grayson closed his eyes. This fucking idiot. “You know how you always make sure I communicate and push me to never feel shy about expressing how I feel?”
“Yes?”
“If you had just followed your own rules and told me what was on your mind, this whole thing could have been avoided.” Grayson pinched the bridge of his nose. “I like what we have going right now, okay? I don’t feel the need to ‘branch out’ or see other people.”
Keld eyed him. “Sorry.”
“Apology accepted,” Grayson muttered. “Now will you please explain why I feel like I’m being smothered in forest floor?”
The vetiver scent was now choking the oxygen in the room and clawing its way down Grayson’s airways.
Keld huffed a laugh. “Forest floor, huh? It’s just an instinctive reaction, I can’t control it.”
Grayson raised a brow. “Instinct for what?”
“Oh, you know, defend my helpless Omega from the competition, mark him up so no one else tries to get him, go out there and tear Reiz’s frilly fins off… Normal stuff.”
“Your Omega?” Grayson laughed. “I’d call you a caveman, but something tells me you don’t have the same evolutionary progression as us.”
Keld pushed himself up and leaned back against the headboard. “Nuonumer. Our ancient ancestor that rose from the deepest parts of Usoi.”
“There’s no way I’m going to even attempt to say that.” A cool breeze from the overhead vents made Grayson painfully aware that he was still fully nude. “I guess I should get dressed.”
Keld’s hand shot out and caught his wrist. “Wait. Hear me out.”
“Nothing good ever comes after that sentence.”
“Maybe I’m acting like a nuonummer, but will you let me mark you?”
Grayson narrowed his eyes. “What does that mean? You’re not asking to turn me into a pheromone slave, are you?”
Keld scoffed. “Not a mating mark. Scent mark.”
“You want to rub yourself all over me like a cat?”
“Not exactly.” Keld moved to his knees, legs on either side of Grayson’s. “I want you to smell like my pheromones. Inside and out.”
Grayson’s face colored, but his cock betrayed him. “Oh.”
Keld’s eyes flicked down and back up, a smirk growing across his lips. “I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”
“And how do you plan to do that?” Grayson’s efforts to keep his tone aloof had little effect with his dick already hard between the Alpha’s knees.
“That depends. How do you feel about being manhandled?”
Grayson pressed his lips together. “I think you know exactly how I feel about being manhandled.”
Keld leaned down. “I do.” And his mouth was on Grayson’s.
The Alpha was gentle at first, but as the air grew thicker with their mingled pheromones, he grew wilder.
He drove into Grayson as if staking a claim, his mouth and teeth leaving searing trails of heat across Grayson’s body.
His low grunts were punctured by Grayson’s whimpers and moans as he lay beneath the Mer, unable to do anything but take him.
When Keld finally came, he pulled Grayson down to lie with his back pressed against his chest. Grayson panted and shuddered, body wrung dry. He felt Keld’s lips in his hair, murmuring barely audible praise and apologies.
“So,” Grayson ventured, having finally caught his breath. “What does this mean?”
“What does what mean?” Keld’s fingers drew nonsensical patterns across Grayson’s stomach.
“This. That. I mean.” Grayson huffed. “You said you don’t want to see me with other Alphas, so…”
Keld was quiet at first. “I don’t want to share you,” is what he finally said.
“I don’t want to share you, either,” Grayson said softly. “But what does that mean for us? Are we… together?”
Keld propped himself up on an elbow and leaned over in an effort to catch Grayson’s eye. “Do you want that?”
“Do you?” Grayson challenged.
“Noivux’asi iaka answer the question, aiu.”
“Yes,” he half-shouted in irritation. “Yes, I want to be together. But I didn’t think you did.”
The knot prevented them from moving to face each other, but Keld touched Grayson’s cheek, drawing his gaze. “I only want you,” the Alpha said. “Since the first time, I’ve only wanted you.”
Grayson’s pulse hummed beneath his skin. “Really?”
“Really.” Keld kissed him. “But you wanted to keep things separate, so I tried to respect your wishes.”
Grayson turned his face away. “I’m not sure when I changed my mind. I should have said something.”
“You’re saying it now.” Keld grabbed his chin and forced his eyes back on his. “So, does that mean I can call you my boyfriend now?”
A beaming smile split Grayson’s face. “I would really love that.”
∞∞∞
“And he chased the other Alpha out of the room?”
Grayson stared around the studio, fairly certain he’d blacked out when Jenna asked him to go to a singles’ pottery event. It wasn’t as if he needed to attend these things anymore. His heart gave a little flutter.
“Grayson! Hello? Details!”
“He didn’t chase him out,” Grayson hissed under his breath. “And can we not talk about this in public?”
Jenna flapped a hand dismissively. “No one’s listening.”
Grayson locked eyes with someone who was definitely listening. “He just said he couldn’t do it, Reiz said he understood, then he left. That’s it.”
“But why?” Jenna persisted. “It’s not like you guys are exclusive. And didn’t he suggest it anyway?”
“I think he was just as surprised as I was.”
“So—fuck.” Jenna’s theoretical mug went flying off her wheel for the fifth time. She retrieved the glob and slapped it back down. “Does that mean he wants something more?”
“Hang on, I’m not done—”
“Why else would he freak out at the sight of you with another Alpha?” Jenna went on.
“Some weird Alpha instinct thing, I don’t know! Will you just listen?”
Jenna narrowed her eyes at him, but fell silent.
“We didn’t just leave after Reiz walked out. Keld asked…” Grayson dropped his voice, face heating. “He asked to like… scent mark me.”
“Kinky.”
“So we… you know. And afterwards, we talked. About how neither of us wants to see other people.”
Jenna’s pottery wheel fully stopped spinning. “Wait. Are you guys together together?”
“We both wanted to be exclusive, so—”
“Holy shit!” Jenna seized his wrists with her clay-slicked hands. “You have a boyfriend?”
“Why are you so loud?”
“I knew it, I knew he wouldn’t be able to keep it casual.” Jenna was practically vibrating on her stool. “I can’t wait to rub that in Aureli’s face. He was totally convinced Keld was going to end up being a dickhead.”
Grayson groaned, pulling his hands free of Jenna’s slippery grip.
“Aren’t you supposed to be mingling at these things?” he asked. “I’m flattered but you’re not my type.”
Jenna gave him a withering look.
“Have you even looked around?” Grayson dropped his voice to a conspiratorial murmur. “That Alpha has been eyeing you since you walked in.”
“Seriously? Where?”
“Don’t be so obvious.”
At the other side of the room, the Alpha in question glanced over at them once again. Her scales were a fascinating shade of glacial blue, accented by snowy fins. Her hair was white too, pulled in a hasty pony tail that formed a halo of curls around her head.
Jenna’s jaw dropped. “How the hell did I not notice her until just now?”
“You were too busy failing to mind your own business?” Grayson suggested.
“Hilarious,” Jenna said, still staring openly at the Mer. “Is she a polar Mer? I’ve never seen one. I think Rorith told me the heat is hard on them.”
“Not to be that guy, but I think the staring is reaching the “creepy” stage.”
Jenna turned on him, mouth open to retaliate.
Splat.
Grayson ducked his head to conceal his laughter as Jenna’s mug spun off course again and struck her in the gut.
“For fuck’s sake!” She scraped clay from her borrowed apron. “I swear, I used to be able to do this.”
“Need some help?” The voice was clear and soothing, like a bell’s peal.
Both Grayson and Jenna spun around to see the glacial Mer, her crystalline eyes on Jenna. After a few seconds, Grayson kicked her in the ankle.
“Oh! Do you know how to keep this damn thing on the wheel?” Jenna put on her most dazzling smile. “Mine keeps escaping.”
The Mer chuckled and crouched down between their stations.
Grayson shot to his feet. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom.
” Neither appeared to hear him. In his haste to leave Jenna with her new friend, Grayson nearly tripped over the Mer’s tail.
It was a shape he’d never seen before—it quirked upward at the end before flowing into a long, stiff upper fin.
Below it, a much smaller, triangular fin lay pressed against the ground.
As he carefully stepped over it, he noticed a small edge of softer fin, more like the ones he was used to.
Grayson slipped out the studio door, into the cooler corridor. His back pressed to the cool concrete and he sighed, wondering whether Jenna would notice if he bolted. He knew she was just happy for him, but it was all so new. Talking about it somehow felt like jinxing it.
The bathroom was just to his left and looked disturbingly like the facilities at his former high school.
Grayson scrubbed the clay from his hands and cringed at the dry, chalky feeling left behind.
He reached into his pocket and checked his phone’s lock screen—a few memes in the group chat and some spam emails, but nothing from Keld.
Grayson frowned, opening their conversation.
Grayson Miller: Jenna tricked me into going to a pottery class for some singles’ event. What are you up to tonight?
He’d sent it an hour ago, but Keld hadn’t replied. Was he irritated about Grayson going to a singles’ event? Surely he knew Grayson was just there for Jenna. Or did he?
Grayson heaved a sigh and typed out, “I’m only here because Jenna didn’t want to go alone. You’re not upset, right?”
He sent it and waited. The minutes ticked by, and still, Keld did not respond. Anxiety crept into Grayson’s stomach, curling its sharp tendrils into his bloodstream.
Did I do something wrong?
Another five minutes had passed without a message notification. Grayson jammed his phone back into his pocket and reentered the studio.
The polar Mer was still there, her gleaming hands covering Jenna’s as they formed something that could pass as a cylinder.
“How’s it going?” he asked, settling back on his stool. His own lump of clay was a sorry sight.
“So far, so good! I might end up making a very wide shot glass but hey, close enough.” Jenna grinned over at him and mouthed, “Score.”
The Alpha offered him a fleeting smile. “I’m Eiru.”
“Grayson.” Fear and worry tumbled through his mind as he fought to sound normal.
“Do you… also need some help?” she asked, eyeing his shapeless blob.
“You know, I think pottery isn’t really my thing,” he said. “She dragged me here.” He waved an accusatory hand at Jenna, who blew him a kiss.
“Are you sure?” Eiru jerked her chin at her seat across the room. “My brother’s a pro.”
Sure enough, partially hidden behind a table laden with pottery tools, there was a male Alpha with the same startling blue scales and white hair, shaping a tall vase.
Grayson stared at the Mer for a beat, then shook his head. “I appreciate it, but I’m just a wingman tonight.”
“Don’t you mean a fin-man?” Jenna joked.
“Jesus Christ.”