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His mind felt clouded, like his lucidity was about to slip. Nathair didn’t even know if it was his fragments clouding him, despite their mildness currently.

Smells nice,he thought, as he leaned down and drew his tongue against the side of her jaw. He groaned, just as the pressure behind his seam pounded. His tentacles swirled tighter, holding back his girth and stopping him from extruding.

He laid down on top of her. He pinned her with nothing but weight, and her thighs were forced to spread around his narrow hips.

“N-Nathair?” she asked, trying to wriggle her arms between them.

Her voice is so nice.He never thought just his damn name being spoken to him could make his entire body tingle.I want her to call it.Over and over again, as if to make up for all the times he’d never been able to say it.

Coins clinked around them as he wound his arm underneath her back and lifted her so her stomach pressed against his. The pumping pressure behind his seam became unbearable at her warmth pressing against it, and he thoughtlessly thrust his hips against her once – just once. It was enough to lance him with profound pleasure, and he extruded forward with a quick dart.

“What was that?” she whispered shakily when the protective shielding of his tentacles brushed against the crook of her thigh and pelvis. “Please, Nathair. I-I don’t like being pinned down.”

He cocked his head at that, his murky thoughts puzzled. Considering he’d been pinning her from all sides not even a few minutes ago, he didn’t see how that could be true.

“Oh-oh my gods.” Her eyes widened when she looked down. “You’re hard.”

Unbearably so.What other Mavka wouldn’t be after a female just crawled into theirbed?

He’d been hoping to experience the return of that arousal scent from earlier. She’d gifted him with it and then crawled into his nest. A sense of hope had washed over him that maybe this female did desire him in return.

That bubble of optimism popped the moment he heard a quiet sob. Then it felt as though he was punched in the side of the skull by a brutal wave of fear. His orbs flared red, and he almost launched his maw at her head to swallow her whole in an instant.

Nathair cut off his breath and froze as his claws dug into the wall. Branches, sticks, and ship planks creaked and cracked while he quaked above her.

Want to eat her.Rage tickled at the back of his skull.Her fear smelt delicious. Just another taste.His lungs tightened with the greedy desire to huff in that tangy perfume of delicious terror.Hungry.His stomach clenched in emptiness, before twisting in agonising starvation. His torso hollowed.

“Please,” she cried, her voice broken, cracked, and pleading. Linh trembled as salty tears fell from her clenched eyes. “Please, don’t.” Just as a set of invisible hands squeezed his brain and he truly did turn on her, the rage receded when she whimpered, “I’m scared.”

He knew she was scared. He could feel it, had smelt it, and could hear it in her voice.

But that wasn’t why it knocked him back to temporary sanity. It was because she’d said she was scared... ofhim.

And he could see she was utterly terrified, even when he rose to put space between them.No? She does not want me?She did not want to be a permanent piece in his precious nest?

The moment she was free enough, she curled into a ball on her side. She wept and covered her chest and stomach, as if she was trying to protect her body from him.

I was mistaken.He did not mean to frighten her, and should not have let his Mavka instincts make him act foolishly, or so aggressively.

He went to cup the side of her face in apology. She recoiled from the touch – one she had accepted the night before and had even leaned into. She let out a screaming cry, as if the mere brush had burned her, and tried to make herself smaller.

The scent of her utter terror was so strong, it flittered into his closed maw to touch his tongue.

Nathair darted to the side to escape and give her space. He slipped into his cold lake with a splash, shifting into a more aquatic and monstrous state as he did, wondering what he’d done so wrong to make the little female weep that intensely.

He did not realise his desire could be rejected so strongly.

I should not keep her here any longer.He covered his face as lucidity broke into the dizziness of his haze, and his orbs shifted to dark orange.Why did I do that?It was like something had come over him...

Now that he understood the depth of his own desire, he wanted this female more than he realised. To not only keep her, but to make her his.

Where his magic light had radiated from her chest, her soul simmered just beneath her flesh. He wanted to take it, to consume it, and bond it to him.

I cannot. She does not wish for the same. I will only vomit it out.

If she stays...He would want it more and more.

He whimpered into the water.Fuck... what if I took away her consent in a trance?He could reach out and just take her soul for himself, and may be too insane to realise what he was doing.