Page 7 of Welcome to Seaman’s Cove: Part Two

On my back, staring up at stars unlike any I’ve ever seen, I tug on the bonds in my chest. Hunter feels shaky and panicked, but there’s determination there, too. I’m gonna fight like hell to get back to him, and I know he’s gonna do the same. I can’t even imagine how they’ll find me out here, but I know he’ll try, and that calms a little of the raw nausea I feel being away from him.

Shifting my attention to my other bond, I feel a surge of reassurance from Caspian. He doesn’t feel as far away as he did a little while ago. Is he coming here?

Just as the thought occurs, there’s a splash from somewhere nearby. Did the guards come back? Did the queen change her mind about keeping me alive? A million other options run quickly through my mind. Sea monsters and pirates, and other ridiculousness.

“C-caspian?” I call.

“It is me, starfish.” Caspian’s soothing voice immediately eases my nerves.

I spring to my feet and jump off the rock into the water. He catches me in his arms. For a few minutes, we just hold each other, floating at the surface of the sea.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

“I should be asking you that,” he whispers, kissing my nose. “I was so worried.”

“I’m fine. I mean, not really, but I’m alive, and you’re here.” I play with the long, blue locks of his wet hair. “I wasn’t sure they’d let you come see me.”

Caspian smirks, making him look a little more like the alpha I bonded before we were kidnapped. “Nothing but death would keep me from you.”

As romantic as that is, thinking about death has my mind wandering back to Hunter, something Caspian must see in my features. His sigh is deep and troubled.

“I can feel him, too,” he whispers.

There’s no question who he’s talking about. I suck my lips between my teeth, then slowly release them.

Caspian and I both feel the effects of our separation from our other mate, but we have each other to lessen the pain. Hunter doesn’t. He’s alone, and I don’t know how to help him.

It’s rare to become terminally ill from bonding sickness, but it happens more often when someone doesn’t have other mates around them to soothe the pain and offer their support, both physically and mentally. It also wouldn’t be as bad if our bonds were older, more established. We could be apart for a week or two without concern if we’d been bonded for a while, but we bit each other less than an hour before we were separated.

My chest constricts, my breathing becoming more erratic the longer I think about Hunter all alone.

“Tell me he’ll be alright,” I whisper.

Caspian’s quiet. Hunter’s turmoil pulses through the bond.

“He will be fine,” he says at last. We both know it’s a lie. One I needed to hear.

“And us?”

Caspian offers me a sad smile. “We can’t let my mother know we have another mate and are experiencing bonding sickness. The only reason she is keeping you alive is to avoid it, and if she knows it’s happening anyway…” He shakes his head. “We need to do everything we can to keep our connection strong, to keep ourselves strong, so we can find a way out of this.”

“What do you have in mind?” I smirk and wrap my legs around his torso. Despite the thinness of my bond with Hunter, and the empty ache from missing both him and Phoenix, I need my merman. He’s the solace I crave.

Rather than answer, he kisses me. It’s tender, gentle. His lips slanting over mine in reassurance. Affirmation. Love. My mouth parts on a sigh, and he takes the opportunity to slip his tongue against mine. The deep way he tastes me makes my core tighten.

His tail undulates between my legs to keep us afloat, sending sparks flying to places I shouldn’t be thinking about right now. It doesn’t feel right to be turned on when our lives could be in danger. When the rest of our packmates aren’t with us. But I can’t help my body’s response. Caspian has a way of igniting my desires. He has since the first moment I saw him. Unable to resist, I grind against the soft scales.

“Do you like riding my tail, starfish?”

“Yes,” I groan. “Your tail, your fingers, your tongue, your cock. I need it all.”

He chuckles against my neck. “Then you’ll have it all.”

The wet fabric of my shorts and bikini bottoms blocks me from skin to skin contact with my mate. Skin to scale? I want to rip my clothes off, but I don’t want to stop. Instead I grind down harder, Caspian’s movements adjusting to match my rhythm until he's pushing back against me on every roll of my hips.

My breath comes in harsh pants as the pleasure rises, my cadence falters a little, keeping me from falling over the edge. Caspian snakes a hand between us and dives under the waistband of my shorts, unerringly finding my clit and circling it with firm, demanding pressure.

“Come for me, omega.”