My mother would be furious when she found out I’d mated a female outside our species, but I no longer cared. If she expelled me from the merkingdom, then so be it. I had a new family now.
36
Raven
Kai’s expression changed the instant I admitted I wanted him. He pulled me through the water so fast I forgot to breathe.
Being able to breathe underwater confused my brain, but while my rational mind struggled with the idea, my body absorbed oxygen from the water regardless. Which was just as well, or I’d have drowned.
Kai must have had better eyesight than me because I couldn’t see a thing in this cavern, even with all the glowing plant fronds. He tugged me upward, and a few seconds later, we emerged into a smaller cave.
A whisper of air tickled my damp skin, but it was too dark to see where it came from. It took a few seconds for my lungs to remember to function normally again, but then I inhaled sharply, picking up the scent of smoke and something else I couldn’t name.
Kai’s tail shifted back into two muscular legs. With a low growl, he pushed me down onto a bed of thick green moss. A hard, erect cock pressed into me, nudging my opening.
“Tell me you want this,” he rasped. When my gaze slid down his chest, I saw the rune on his pectoral glowing brightly.
From my merman’s fevered expression, he was on the verge of losing his mind. The thought of Kai’s ironclad control shattering pleased me.
“Yes, I want this,” I confirmed, although as a shifter, he could probably smell my arousal.
“I’ve never…done this before,” Kai admitted, looking down at me with an anguished expression. “Forgive me if it’s no good for you.”
My heart broke a little. My poor, shy, sweet merman. Even while gripped by a mating frenzy, he worried he couldn’t satisfy me.
“I love being with you,” I told him as I wrapped my thighs around his waist. The feel of his cock nudging my entrance made me whimper. He slid an inch inside with a low groan, and my back arched as I tried to pull him deeper, desperate for more friction.
The rough bumps on his shaft rubbed me in all the right places, like the metal accessories in Zane’s cock had, and I whimpered louder as he pressed further inside me.
“You feel so tight and hot and perfect.” The look of wonder on Kai’s face made me swoon with happiness. He surged the last few inches, and we lay locked together, both of us panting.
“Oh my goddess, please move!” Pressure slowly coiled tighter inside me. A dam on the verge of bursting. This was more than an orgasm. It was as if our magic had merged into one and needed an outlet or we’d both explode.
Kai withdrew and then thrust hard. His expression morphed from wonder to agony as the urge to complete the bond tookhold. He scraped his teeth along my neck and rutted into me, lost to the mating frenzy.
The pressure in my core spiked until, with a white-hot flash, I fell apart. I heard Kai yell before sharp teeth sank into my neck. A biting pain seared the skin on my left breast, triggering a tsunami of pleasure before my magic blasted out and up, turning the cavern into a raging inferno. When I opened my eyes, panic dug its claws into me as flames licked the rocks around us and steam billowed from the boiling pool behind us.
If I didn’t do something fast, we’d burn or boil alive!
An image of Alaric’s scowling face entered my mind, and I sucked in a shaky breath.
Focus, Raven.
For once my magic obeyed immediately, and seconds later, the fire died, leaving nothing but hot steam and a few glowing rocks above our heads.
I tried to move, but Kai and I remained locked together.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, his cheeks flushed purple. “The barbs on my cock will keep me locked inside you for a while.”
“Um…” It felt kind of nice, pleasurable even. So I smiled. “That’s okay. We can cuddle for a bit.”
The spot above my left breast stung. When I peered down, I saw a small tattoo on my previously unblemished skin.
“Oh, um, that’s my mating mark.” Kai looked even more embarrassed, if that was possible. “I’m so sorry. I should have explained all this to you. Fuck, I’m a terrible mate.” He closed his eyes and buried his face in my shoulder.
“It’s fine. I really don’t mind.” I stroked his hair and smiled to myself. I’d always wanted a tattoo, and now I had one!
Kai had fallen asleep next to me. Maverick threatened to kill him when we finally emerged from the water. Zane hadn’t congratulated us either. But after some sweet talking from me and a lot of tears when that failed to work, the three of them had come to a truce.
