Chapter 24
Keld
“Jiei? Jiei!” Bags of groceries spilled from Keld’s arms. His mother was motionless, lying at the center of the grimy room, a filthy rag tied tightly around her neck.
Keld fumbled with the knot, hating the sensation of tavra sap working its way under his claws.
At last, he pried it loose and flung the rag into the pool he’d emerged from seconds before.
His mother stirred. Her scales were pale and cracked with dehydration, and her fins were brittle to the touch. How long had she been like this?
Jiei coughed. “What’re you doing?”
“I thought you were fucking dead,” Keld spat. He hauled her frail body into his arms and lowered her into the pool.
She grunted in discomfort as salt water filled the splits in her skin and scales, but didn’t resist.
“I wasn’t dead, biyuag, I was just sleeping.”
Keld gave a humorless laugh. “Right. Asleep on the floor until half your scales fell off and a goddamn tavra rag around your gills.”
Jiei sneered up at him. “I was fine. Matter of fact, you interrupted a great dream I’d like to get back to. Give it here.” She held out a bony hand.
Keld jerked his chin at the water. “Get it yourself.”
Jiei’s eyes blazed with fury at the sight of the rag floating at the far end of the pool. “That was my last fucking dose, you worthless piece of shit!”
“Good,” Keld snarled. He snatched up the grocery bags and stormed into the kitchen. His mother continued to howl and rage, but he ignored her
Resentment seethed through his veins. It was a cosmic joke that he was the only person who seemed to care whether his mother lived or died. He shoved food into the nearest empty cabinet and fled the neglected room.
“You better make this right,” Jiei screeched at him as he stepped down into the water. “I don’t have the money and you owe me for not crushing you in the egg like I ought—”
“I don’t care about your fucking tavra fix!” The words tore from his throat. “Food’s in the kitchen. I’m leaving.” He dove under the surface, only to feel a cruel, birdlike hand wrap around his tailfin. He thrashed, easily breaking his mother’s weak hold.
Keld shot back up, claws raised to strike. “Don’t you ever touch me again.”
The sight of his mother shrinking back in fear felt like a physical blow. Keld dropped his hand and fled to the soothing embrace of open ocean. Moonlight filtered through the clear water and blue haze blanketed the distance. A few manatees drifted through a nearby field of seagrass.
It was the picture of serenity, and yet Keld’s heart thudded a harsh tattoo against his chest. He was shaking—rage, horror, fear, he didn’t know. Suppressed glimpses of his childhood fluttered through his mind, of fractured scales and hungry nights.
His body carried him to the beach across the street from his apartment complex. He left the sea behind on numb feet, and his tail rasped through the sand behind him. The elevator was up on the seventh floor, so he swerved for the stairwell.
The hallway on the fifth floor was dim with its usual late-night lighting. Bluish lights wavered in artificial patterns across the floor, mimicking the view of a dark sea floor. A human figure was standing at the center of the hall, its hand frozen inches from Keld’s door.
“Grayson?” Keld asked hoarsely.
The figure spun to face him with a gasp. “Keld! What happened? You weren’t answering your phone.”
“Is something wrong?” Keld could see the Omega clearly now, though with his poor, human night vision, Grayson probably couldn’t see anything at all.
“No, I was just worried.”
A tiny drop of warmth fell into the ice at the pit of Keld’s stomach. “About me?”
“Yeah?” Grayson blinked up at him, confused.
The heat grew, blooming into something else entirely as Keld crushed the Omega against the door in a kiss.
Grayson emitted a muffled sound of shock, but quickly adjusted. His soft hands slid up Keld’s chest and around his neck. Keld groped for the door, punching in a passcode he knew by touch, and unlocked his door. He gripped Grayson’s hips and pulled him off the ground,
Grayson wrapped his legs around Keld’s waist and allowed himself to be carried into the dark apartment. The only light came from bioluminescent Usoi plants in the enormous central pool. Grayson broke away from the kiss to look around.
“Whoa,” he whispered. “I’ve never been in a Mer home before.”
Keld dropped him onto the spongy sofa impatiently. “I’ll give you a tour later.”
Grayson looked down. “Why is this wet?”
“I’m a Mer. It’s aquaconductive.”
“Right, sure, that makes sense, but now I am wet.”
Keld offered him a feral smile. “Good. That’s how I want you.”
Pink bloomed across Grayson’s face—Keld’s new favorite color.
“Now let’s get you out of those wet clothes, shall we?” Keld stripped the loose, white t-shirt off the Omega in one motion, then pushed him onto his back. He grimaced at the chill water, but allowed Keld to rip his black sweatpants from his body.
“Cold?” Keld asked. He knelt between Grayson’s thighs, hitching the long, slender legs around his hips.
“A little,” Grayson admitted.
“I hear sharing body heat is the best way to warm up a human.” Keld leaned forward, planting his palms on either side of Grayson’s head.
“Not so sure that works with your cold, alien scales.” Grayson’s eyes had a teasing twinkle that only made Keld want to pin him down and edge him until tears ran down his cheeks
“The other methods I’ve heard,” Keld continued, “are friction and exercise. If only we could think of a way to combine the two…”
Grayson shoved at Keld’s chest, laughing. “Seriously, is everything okay? I mean…” His face fell and his teeth worried his lower lip. “We’ve never… done this. Outside of Siren. And I couldn’t get ahold of you all night—”
Keld silenced the Omega with a searing kiss. He pulled back, hauling Grayson up and into his lap before turning his attention to the freckled neck, shoulders, and chest. Grayson’s breathing stuttered as Keld grazed a nipple with his teeth.
At Grayson’s back, Keld’s hands explored smooth skin and the gentle divot of his spine. The arch of his shoulder blades. The curve of his ass. When their lips met again, Grayson sighed and melted into Keld’s touch.
Keld didn’t mark him with his claws this time, nor did he leave behind any bruising bites. Today, all he wanted was to take his Omega as slowly and softly as he could.
Keld’s mouth traced a path down Grayson’s neck, lingering where his shoulder met his neck. His hand slid up and into the silken hair at the back of the Omega’s head. Faint, moaning sighs ghosted over Keld’s ear as his lips moved to map each collarbone.
“Why are you being so gentle?” Grayson’s voice was little more than a breath.
The tip of Keld’s tongue traced a nipple. “Curious.”
“About?” Grayson sucked in a breath as Keld brushed a thumb over the other nipple.
“How long until you start begging.”
Grayson huffed a halfhearted sound of incredulity.
Keld smiled against the freckled skin of Grayson’s chest and shifted. The Omega yelped as gravity dragged him back to the couch cushions. Keld lay draped over him, mouth traveling down his stomach with featherlight kisses. Grayson’s cock jerked against Keld’s chest, as if pleading for attention.
He smoothed his hands along Grayson’s thighs and hips, moving under his body to squeeze his ass.
His lips didn’t pause, continuing down until he was inches away from Grayson’s length.
Keld hovered over it, feeling Grayson’s eyes burning into him.
Suppressing a smile, he slipped an arm under Grayson’s leg and propped it on his shoulder.
He tasted and kissed the soft skin of Grayson’s inner thigh, occasionally straying close enough to his cock to tease him.
The Omega’s breaths were rapid, mingled with groans of frustration each time Keld veered away from the place he wanted him most.
“Keld…” he complained.
“Mm?” Keld shouldered the other thigh, turning his attention to the untouched skin.
“You know what.”
“Oh.” Keld ran the tip of his tongue along the entire, rock-hard length, tearing a gasp from Grayson’s lungs. “You mean this?”
“Yes,” Grayson panted.
Keld extricated himself from the Omega’s legs and rested his own arousal against Grayson’s. “I haven’t heard any begging yet.” He bent down to kiss and nip Grayson’s throat.
“Come on…” Grayson’s hips rocked against Keld’s. “I’m fucking soaked and so hard—”
Keld captured his mouth, swallowing the words and running his tongue along his lips. As Grayson parted for him, Keld slid a searching hand lower, between the Omega’s legs. Keld choked back a groan as his fingers found Grayson’s slick, needy hole.
Am I going to be the one begging?
“Fuck, Keld…”
Keld drew back just enough to see Grayson’s half-lidded eyes. “Yes, aiu?” He dragged his finger back through the slick.
Grayson moaned.
“Are you going to be an obedient little Omega, and beg for it like I told you to?” Keld kissed Grayson’s neck, fingers teasing his hole. “I can feel how much you want it.”
Grayson bit his lip, a delicate blush rising on his cheekbones. “Please.”
Keld leaned back, free hand drifting down to the Omega’s cock. “Please what?”
Grayson’s head fell back against the couch. “Please fuck me. Fingers, cock, tongue, whatever I can get.”
Keld appraised him for a moment. “No.”
Grayson shot up, propping himself on his elbows. “What do you mean, no?”
“That wasn’t begging,” Keld chided. “That was a polite request. I clearly haven’t made you desperate enough.” He seized Grayson’s thighs and dragged him closer, shoving his legs up and back.
The sound Grayson made as soon as Keld’s tongue stroked over his hole—Keld was seconds away from fucking his own hand if this man didn’t do as he was told.
“Oh god, fuck, Keld please—”
Keld’s mouth and tongue only worked harder in an effort to ignore his own aching length.
Grayson cried out. “Please, Keld, please—”
He readjusted the Omega’s hips in his grasp and took Grayson’s cock in his mouth. He swallowed it down, savoring each broken sound he drew from his Omega. Within moments, Grayson’s hips locked, and the gasping moans cut off.
Keld pulled off, watching the member jerk and twitch in desperation.
“Keld…” Grayson’s eyes glittered with welling tears.
“Tyr,” he breathed. Keld fell onto the Omega, notching his cock at the slick entrance. He pushed in, slowly, fighting every instinct to drive himself as deep as he could over, and over again.
Grayson whimpered as Keld filled him, canting his hips against the invasion, urging him to go faster. Keld bottomed out, his breathing harsh as the Omega’s body squeezed him. He started gently, staying deep and rocking into Grayson.
The Omega’s nails scrabbled at Keld’s scales. “More, Keld, I need more…”
Keld let out a low, sinful sound as he quickened his pace. Grayson’s body rolled against his, meeting each thrust as Keld rutted into him.
Keld palmed the mess of slick between their bodies and wrapped his hand around Grayson’s cock.
Another wordless sound fell from Grayson’s lips. He was close.
Keld’s rhythm grew punishing, his fist matching the movements of his hips. Heat burned dangerously close to the edge, but Keld couldn’t force himself to slow.
Once again, Grayson’s lungs seized, cutting off his air. Keld felt himself tumble over the edge just as the Omega spurted across his own stomach. The waves of muscles contracting around Keld’s cock milked his release, drawing it out until he was sure he would die.
At last, the final wave shuddered through them and Keld’s knot sealed their spent bodies together. They didn’t speak—just lay in one another’s arms and breathed.