Page 18 of Seducing Scylla (Mated Myths #1)

Scylla

“ S o, tell me what really happened?” Morgan asks as we finish our meal and reluctantly exit to the other side of the citrus grove.

We move through an entrance to the underground cave system nestled in between the grassy foothills. The warmth from the sun is instantly dampened in the cave, the glaring light fading as we head further in. A quicker and more comfortable route to my home than heading back along the beach.

“I was a sea nymph.”

Morgan nods, eyes forward as she listens quietly.

“A favorite of the sea god, Glaucus. He would shower me with gifts and show me off to visiting gods as if I were his most treasured pearl. I reveled under the attention. Sea nymphs are shallow creatures, you see.” I smiled at the distant memory of the extravagant parties thrown in the underwater palace.

“We mated.”

Morgan glances up at me.

“Not like we have mated. Mates are once in a lifetime. A tether to another being, connecting you to the missing piece of your soul. They become your entire world, your reason for existing.”

A pink blush spreads across her cheeks.

“Our bodies came together in lust—”

“You had sex,” Morgan says as a matter of fact, with no judgment in her voice. “I’ve had other partners as well, it’s quite normal.”

An unhappy grumble reverberates through my chest at the thought of her mating with another.

I nod. “I thought his heart belonged to me, even though we were not properly mated.” My thoughts sour.

“There was a witch, Circe. She had eyes for Glaucus, or perhaps it was the power he wielded. She grew jealous of our relationship; of the attention he afforded me and not her.” I pause.

Morgan reaches out and takes my hand in hers, a stretch as I tower over her. The mate fire burns to life, but I ignore it as best as I can .

“When Glaucus did not return her affection, she cursed me into this.” I wave my hand in front of my body and my tentacles.

Morgan squeezes my hand and my heart squeezes just as tight.

“When Glaucus saw what she had done, he banished her from his kingdom. But the damage had already been done. He did not want me anymore. I was a monster.”

The memory of Glaucus snatching his hand from me as I sobbed at his feet floods my mind.

The look of horror in his eyes as he saw what I had become, and then the disgust. He turned his back on me, left me sprawled across the floor until the guards he sent told me to leave.

He did not even have the decency to tell me himself.

Rage burned through my body when I realized how little I meant to him.

“You may look like a monster, but you’re not one. Plus, I kind of dig the tentacles.”

Morgan’s confession shocks me out of my memories. When I look down at her, there is no disgust in her eyes, only a soft smile on her face, her hand still encased in mine. The mate fire still burns, and my heart does somersaults in my chest. She does not think I am a monster.

I grin. “I got my revenge. ”

“Good.”

I am surprised at the bloodthirstiness of my mate. She has seemed soft and kind so far. There is so much more to Morgan than I initially thought. The firmness of her voice sends tingles down my tentacles. I wish to know more about her. I want to know everything.

“You were mated before?” I ask tentatively.

Morgan lets out a soft sigh. “I was married.”

My body tenses. “No longer?”

She shakes her head and I relax. She is here against her will, but I am glad there is no one back home for her. I grimace at the selfish thought.

“We wanted children, but we couldn’t have them. So, we tried IVF. It’s where doctors grow a baby in a dish and then insert it in your uterus,” she explains for my benefit. They grow babies in dishes.

“Witchcraft,” I hiss, thinking of Circe.

Morgan is taken aback, her hand slipping from mine as she eyes me warily. I itch to snatch her hand back .

“Not witchcraft, although it must seem like that to you. Lots of people use IVF to have babies these days.”

“Your husband was not fertile?”

Morgan snorts. “My wife.”

“You were married to a woman?”

She nods. “I don’t like men… like that.” She wrings her hands in front of her, still eyeing me warily.

Now I snort. “I understand.”

She relaxes only a little.

“You don’t think it’s wrong that I married a woman?”

“I have also been with female nymphs, before. We do not have the same beliefs as fickle humans.”

Her shoulders relax entirely. Did she think I would judge her for her tastes? Frustration itches at me. I am still not grasping how to care for my human mate.

“So, you could not have children. The ivy eff did not work?”

She shakes her head, her eyes turning glassy. Sadness radiates off her.

“It was too hard in the end. The constant heartbreak that only grew with every failed cycle. The guilt whenever I looked at her, that my body did not work the way it should. That I felt like it was my fault we couldn't have children. So, we divorced. She has two children with her new wife.”

A glistening tear tracks down her cheek, catching on her lip before plopping on the rough-hewn floor of the cave. She scrunches her eyes shut and hollowness wells in the pit of my stomach at her pain. We both have wounds we have hidden from the world. She shakes herself off.

“So, do you have any secret children I should know about?”

“No, I cannot. Unless I am mated, and I have not been mated, properly. Until now.” Realization dawns on me. I could reproduce now if I so wished.

Morgan cocks her head, brows furrowed.

“I produce eggs. When I am mated, they are fertilized. Before, they were empty sacs.”

“You… produce eggs…?” she trails off and I can see her mind turning over every thought in her pretty head.

Nodding. “I self-procreate.”

“Huh. That’s handy, I suppose. ”

“Only if I am mated, and mates are very rare. I am millennia old and have only just found you.”

Feeling brave, I reach out and take her hand in mine. She smiles at me and does not let go.