“You better make this right,”Jieiscreeched 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 fuckingtavrafix!” 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 childhoodfluttered 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 lightcame 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 nowIam 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 worriedhis lower lip. “We’ve never… done this. Outside of Siren. And I couldn’t get ahold of you all night—”
