Page 14 of Tempting Triton (Mated Myths #2)
Triton
M y core muscles spasm and ache as my body is wracked with shivers.
I did not feel the water gradually decrease in temperature over the last few days until it was already at the point of affecting me.
I should have realized when my Elena pointed out my speed was lagging, but I let my cockiness get the better of me, and I had been itching to find a reason to race her.
Now, I am weak and a burden to my mate when I should be the one caring for and protecting her.
“This is all I could find. Frankly, it’s a stroke of luck that there was even anything we could use.” My mate pops up over the edge of the shipping container with white fabric bunched in one fist. She rushes over to me. “Here, put this on.”
She does not wait for me to do it myself before yanking the material over my head and pushing my arms through the holes. Even though she is rushing, she is careful not to catch the fins that run down the edges of my forearms.
“It’s only a T-shirt, but it’ll have to do.”
The fabric is tight against my skin, uncomfortably constricting the fins that run down my spine, but it is a decent thickness, adding a much-needed insulating layer, even if it is minimal. My Elena circles me, letting out a disgruntled noise as she fingers my back fin, squashed beneath the fabric.
“We’ll have to find something to cut the fabric here.” Her light touch sends a tremble down my spine, and she misconstrues it for another cold shiver. She continues around to my front.
“Alright, let’s get you home and get you warm. Can you swim at all?”
I nod. “W-will be s-slow.”
Elena grimaces. “Better than nothing. Alright, big boy, let’s get going.
” She wraps my arm around her broad shoulders and pushes off from the container with me at her side.
Together, with her strong limbs, we gradually make it back to the coral castle, where Ichó rushes out to us to take over from my mate as soon as he realizes something is wrong.
Offering his dorsal fin for me to hold on to, he tows me back to my room.
He deposits me in the middle of my bed, Elena hot on his tail, before turning to her. “What happened?” he clicks at Elena, who, since sharing my essence, can now thankfully understand him the same as I can—a welcome side effect right now.
“He said the water was cold. Are you cold?”
“I have noticed a slight discrepancy, but I would not be affected by it in the same way. Mer are exceptionally sensitive to temperature.
“H-have not f-felt t-this since a p-pup,” I stutter out, curled in on myself on the bed as they talk about me as if I am not here.
Elena turns to Ichó. “What does he mean?”
“He is referring to when his family left for the cold season, before the barrier separated them from him permanently. Many other pups did not make it through the cold season, only Triton.”
Elena tries to hide it, but I see the way her fists clench at her side.
“Well, you’re not surviving one cold season as a baby, just to die in another as an adult.
” Elena climbs onto the clam bed beside me, scooching herself in as close as she can so that every inch of her body is flush against mine, before throwing an arm over my waist and resting her head against my chest.
“W-what are y-you doing?”
“What does it look like? I’m going to keep you warm the only way I know how. It works for humans, and you’re half-human. Honestly, I should have figured that out sooner since, you know—” She waves her hand in a circle at the upper half of my body, the very much mostly human-looking portion of me.
I cannot see her face, but I can feel her body move as she talks, her warmth against my skin.
“It’s a long shot, but we can share body heat like this.” She throws a leg over my tail, so she is more on top of me than not. “Ichó, does this clam close at all?”
Ichó clicks at her and nudges the lid of the clam closed until we are encompassed in darkness. She rubs her hand over any spare inch of my body she can find in the dark, and while I know she’s trying to warm me up, I am not so cold that the blood flow is restricted from my cock.
“Is this helping?” she whispers, completely oblivious to my engorged pocket. If she were to move her leg a fraction more to the left, the warmth between her thighs would be positioned right atop it. The thought does not help matters at all, and I grunt my response, not able to trust my words.
Her body heat is helping, though. She is still warm from being above the surface, and I could not be more grateful to my mate for taking care of me.
The tremors that wrack my body begin to subside, and the muscles in my core gradually relax.
We lay together in the dark until her breathing slowly trails off into a light and steady rhythm.
I stroke her hair, and my chest aches at the thought that we could fall asleep wrapped in each other’s arms every night if she let me.