Page 30 of Tempting Triton (Mated Myths #2)

Elena

T ensions ease with the Mer as we all get used to each other’s presence in the castle over the days following our return, and I think Triton is enjoying having more company around despite the awkwardness in the beginning.

We dine together every evening after spending the days showing the new Mer around the island, and I enjoy getting to tag along and see what Triton used to do each day before I landed in his lap.

He’s been so busy showing them everything that the questions about the mate bond have fallen to the wayside. But I haven’t forgotten. The anxiety gnaws at my stomach at all the answers we don’t have.

It’s on one of our trips out to the reef to check the health of the coral and its inhabitants that I get fed up waiting any longer. Huffing, I direct my attention to one of the Mer. “What can you tell us about the mate bond?”

The Mer startles, looking between Triton and me, as if shocked I’m speaking to him directly and scared that Triton will retaliate if he answers.

“Don’t worry about him,” I say, waving at Triton. “We have questions, and I’m hoping you three have the answers?” I cock my eyebrow at Triton as if to say, If you’re not going to ask, I will.

The Mer clears his throat, and I see Triton blush slightly, his mouth twisting in a grimace as he looks at me sheepishly for having forgotten.

“Ah, well, between a human and Mer, it is a little different. Obviously, you know of the sharing of essence since you are breathing quite fine underwater—”

“Yeah, how long does that last exactly, before it’s permanent?” I butt in before he can continue.

Confused, he looks between us again. “It won’t become permanent. I mean, it can eventually. But only after you perform a sealing ritual. Perhaps, you get longer between needing to do it each time, but it will always need doing. ”

“Oh.” I look at Triton, and hope bubbles up in my chest. I could still see the surface if we don’t do the ritual.

“There’s a downside, though.”

“What is it?” Triton interjects.

“If you do not seal the bond and continue to share Triton’s essence, he will die.”

And that hope bubble bursts.

A whine works its way up my throat, and when I look at Triton, he curses, running his hand through the strands of hair floating around his head like a halo.

Stressed at our reactions, the Mer rushes out, “The essence is exactly that. It is part of us. Each time Triton shares it with you, he is literally giving you a part of himself.”

Pain. Pain in my chest, in my stomach. My heart fissures and cracks at the options laid out before us. Don’t seal our bond, Triton dies, or we separate and never get to be with each other. Seal our bond, and I’ll never get to be above the surface again.

“How do we seal the bond?” Triton’s voice is deep and gravelly with emotion.

The Mer clears his throat. “There are a few steps. One of you must save the other.” He ticks off his fingers one by one. “Blood must be shared without resulting in—” He looks between us awkwardly.

“Spit it out,” Triton growls.

“Without you being eaten. Sorry—” The Mer flinches in my direction.

I snort. Technically, I did get eaten.

“You need to successfully blow the conch.” He turns to me and gestures to the conch tied around Triton’s neck. “And then seal it with a kiss.”

They couldn’t even come up with a catchy rhyme. The fairytales have got it all wrong.

Triton and I lock eyes. “I believe we have already begun the sealing ritual without realizing.” A smile blooms on Triton’s face.

“I have tasted your blood.” Triton works through the list. Heat blooms on my cheeks. “When I first found you, it was because I tracked your scent in the water. A cut on your ankle led me to you, and my beast healed it with a lick.”

I choke. We were not thinking of the same thing. The mate bond has debauched my brain .

“You saved me after I was shot with the harpoon, pulling me to safety and healing me.”

“So, all that’s left is to blow the conch?” I surmise.

“And seal it with a kiss.” Triton’s smile is blinding, teeth on show as he laughs out loud, grabbing me by the arms and twirling us around.

I can’t help but smile along with him, his joy infectious, but there is an edge to my smile that I can’t hide from Triton.

He falters, giving my arms a squeeze before looking directly in my eyes.

“I will not force you to choose, my Elena. If you do not want to give up the surface, I will share my essence with you for as long as I live.”

I shake my head, eyes burning with tears I can’t feel beneath the sea.

“I can’t let you do that.”

One of the other Mer clears his throat. “Ah, yes, hello.” He waves at us.

“You don’t have to give up anything. Once the bond is sealed, you will have the freedom to transition between land and sea at your whim.

Triton also. There has to be some perks to capturing the attention of a Mer long enough to not be eaten. ” He chuckles .

We stare long and hard at the Mer until he scratches his head and fidgets with the attention, before turning to each other again.

“I can have both?” I ask in wonder.

“You can have everything, my mate. I will give you everything.” Triton blinks rapidly as if trying to dispel tears, which causes me to do the same.

You don’t realize how weird it is to cry underwater until you’re doing it.

I can have everything. I can have Triton and not lose the ability to be on land.

I laugh, the reality hitting me.

“So, I could just blow the conch right now?”

“Ah, no.”

I falter at the Mer’s interjection.

“It needs to be done during king tide and beneath a full moon, and you have to make the conch sing. It is not sealed if the conch remains silent.”

I eye the palm-sized conch hanging around Triton’s neck.

“Tell me it’s easy to blow the conch?” I gnaw at my bottom lip, looking at Triton nervously.

Triton leans down to place his forehead on mine, squeezing my arms in reassurance. “I believe you will be able to do it, my Elena. You are my mate. The Fates would not have chosen you for me if they thought we would not end up bound together.”

It feels na?ve to put our trust in a bunch of mystical-maybe-not-real beings. His certainty does not make me feel any better, and anxiety crawls up my spine at the idea of failure.

“That did not answer my question.” I huff.

Triton laughs, his overzealous joy at the prospect of having all our wishes granted overriding any sort of doubt that I might not be able to pull this off. To get this far and then have it all taken away might just break us both.

“There is a full moon in three nights’ time. Do not worry, my Elena, I will plan the perfect sealing ceremony for you. There is much to plan. We must get back so I can begin. Thank you, my kin.” Triton claps the merman on the shoulder in appreciation.

I grunt in frustration. “No, but—” Triton cuts my protest off with a passionate kiss, his lips and tongue devouring me while our onlookers float beside us, attempting to look anywhere else, wary of Triton’s warning away from me.

I’m annoyed at being cut off. I don’t need or want anything fancy.

I’d be happy for it to be nobody else but Triton and me.

My annoyance melts away as Triton’s hands grip my waist, his mouth and teeth getting carried away against mine.

He pulls away briefly. “Leave us,” he growls to the Mer, and I look at them sheepishly as they turn tail and skedaddle, leaving me alone with a ravenous-looking Mer.

Triton grabs me under my thighs, lifting me to wrap my legs around his waist, before his hands shift to palm my ass in two handfuls, massaging and kneading my cheeks, pressing me against his abdomen.

The seam of my exercise shorts rubs between my legs, teasing at my clit.

I gasp, a needy moan escaping my lips in a rush of bubbles.

“These. Off. Now.” Triton tugs at the fabric, letting it go with a snap that makes me yelp, the wetness of it making it all the more biting as it smacks back against my skin.

“Aye, aye, captain.” I smirk, leaning back to shimmy out of my sports bra, letting it drift down to rest on a bunch of spindly-looking coral.

The water makes my nipples peak at the exposure. Triton leans down to take one into his mouth, greedily licking and nipping at it before switching sides. I wriggle in his arms, aching for more friction between my legs, rocking my pussy against the muscles of his stomach.

“Hold on to me,” Triton growls, tugging my legs from around his waist so he can yank the shorts down my legs, too impatient to wait for me to do it myself. “I need to feel your skin against mine.”

My shorts drift down to join my sports bra, and I giggle as Triton wraps my legs back around his waist with a huff. My slick pussy touches his deliciously warm skin, and I can feel the divots of his muscles beneath me.

“Take your pleasure from me, my mate.” He groans, looking down between us where our skin touches, my lips spread and pressed against him.

He doesn’t have to tell me twice as I rock against him again, and he stares down, mesmerized.

It is insanely erotic watching him watching me get off on his body.

I roll my pelvis against him until I find a good rhythm and work to get myself off, but it’s not enough.

“More. I need more,” I beg Triton, my breaths coming in light pants.

“What do you need, my mate?”

“Your hand. Please,” I moan, still rolling my hips against the planes of his stomach.

“Like this?” Triton hums, bringing his hand between us to place his thumb on my clit.

I shudder in pleasure under his touch, a needy whine working its way up my throat as he puts just the right amount of pressure on my sensitive nub.

He rubs in a circular motion, and paired with the rolling of my hips, it has me coming apart, climaxing all over his stomach, painting him in a thin sheen of me.

Triton licks at his lips, his pupils blown out at the sight.

He takes his hand and swipes at the mess I’ve made over him, bringing it up to his mouth.

He closes his eyes as he tastes my arousal and then, with his pink tongue, swipes it over his palm and fingers, licking me off him.

My mouth dries out. Holy fuck, that’s hot.

Beneath me, his cock has escaped his pocket, bobbing below my ass.

Triton takes my ass in two hands once more, roughly pulling me down so that he is nestled between my lips and cheeks as he slides me against the ridges on the topside of his cock, coating us both in his lubrication and my wetness.

My eyes cross as my already sensitive clit rubs against every ridge, before Triton lifts me and slams me down onto his cock in one swoop .

I scream out, welcoming the tight invasion, his lubricant aiding in his roughness.

His claspers protrude from his pocket while his cock pumps itself in and out of me, the fat rounded tips applying pressure at my clit and hole.

The smooth scales of his tail rub against the insides of my thighs.

His hands grip my hips so tightly they could bruise as he comes apart inside me with a groan, his mouth and teeth finding my shoulder in a brutal bite that lights something inside me on fire.

The wild ferality of it is my undoing. His claspers balloon at his climax, pressing in at me from both sides.

I call his name as his seed spills inside of me, the lazy thrust of his cock post-climax pushes his spend back out to run down my thighs, coating us both in a mess.

“You’re getting really good at this,” I pant against his chest, feeling the rumble of his chuckle under my cheek.