Page 4 of Tempting Triton (Mated Myths #2)

Triton

C ool water caresses my skin as I lazily propel myself through the water.

The conch clasped around my neck thumps against my breastbone with the current, matching the steady rhythm of my heart.

Warm sunlight filters beneath the surface, streams of light flashing against the scales of the fish who dart past with flickers of silver.

A shadow looms in the darkness below me, its pace matching mine as I swim closer to the reef that borders Aeolia.

The muscles in my thick tail tense, preparing for a strike I know is surely coming.

Just as predicted, the shadow lurches toward me, a short, rounded nose rising from the deep, a dorsal fin cutting through the current with ease.

I flip backwards, tail over head, to position myself behind the creature, wrapping my arms around its rubbery grey body as it appears where I once was .

“Ha! Gotcha!” I grin, pushing Ichó away playfully. “You will have to try harder than that to sneak up on a demigod of the sea, you silly cetacean!”

Ichó clicks at me in joy, almost like a laugh, before spinning and flapping his tail at me, the force pushing me back.

“Hey! That is cheating!” I push myself forward against the current, eager to catch up to the Bottlenose dolphin. “Last one there is a rotten oyster!” I laugh, overtaking him.

We near the reef, a sea of pinks and yellows sprouting from the rocks, a rainbow of color beneath the water.

Reef fish dart between softly swaying fronds, showing no concern or reaction to the major disturbance I felt this morning when Charybdis stirred from her slumber, the current dragging towards her open maw to devour all that was trapped inside it.

It has been a millennium since I last felt the intense tug of her current.

She has slept soundly all this time, which means something is not right.

Something has awoken her and caused her wrath.

Longing gnaws at my bones, the exact reason I am out here now, checking the barrier that surrounds Aeolia.

Only one thing could have awoken the beast, and that is if the barrier had been breached for the first time since its erection.

Is it finally weakening? Could my family finally come home?

I purse my lips at the thought. I have become lax in checking the barrier over the years, loneliness an ever-constant thing that has chipped away at any hope I have had of seeing my kin again.

I curse myself now, knowing if Charybdis has awoken, then I have potentially missed something important by not being out here often enough.

I pass over the reef, Ichó at my side. The water cools as the bottom of the ocean drops off, the darkness of the deep looming beneath me the nearer we draw to the invisible barrier.

Silence echoes around me, causing a shiver to run down my spine.

I draw up to a wall of incandescent shimmer that marks the barrier and swim parallel to it, checking for anything amiss, when a sharp tang bites the inside of my nose.

Blood in the water.

My head flicks up, nostrils flaring as I am drawn to the scent like a shark to its prey.

The pull is undeniable, the scent intoxicating. I abandon my task and hunt down the cause. My body is not my own .

I am but a fish, and something, or someone, is reeling me in, tugging at my line and leading me to a treasure at the end of the scent trail.

I lick my lips, my mouth salivating, desire pulsing through me. Nothing will stop me from finding my treasure.

Ichó clicks at me in alarm, recognizing that I have taken over our body and Triton’s mind, before darting away in a flash of tail.

I maneuver beneath strange slabs of metal floating at the surface, lacing the water with a metallic bite, but still, a different scent sings to me.

I am so close to the shore now. Two hunks of steel breach the water and rest in the sand. There are threads of blood scents mingling together, signifying different creatures.

What has happened here? Ignoring the twisted metal to my left, I ease forward slowly. My hunter’s instincts are on high alert. I press my face to the steel wall, the metal cool beneath my skin, and inhale deeply. My treasure is on the other side.

There is a tear in the wall at the base of the metal box, and the scent here is the strongest. Gripping the jagged edges, I shear the metal away, the steel no match for my strength while in the grips of the blood frenzy that stirs me from my slumber .

The metal gives way, revealing a tanned foot and calf, bruises already forming around the ankle where it must have been pinned between the sharp rock and the wall.

A thin stream of blood floats away from where the rock has pierced the skin.

I dash forward, gripping the ankle between my fingers, and run my tongue along the ragged cut.

I groan in ecstasy at the same time the owner of the foot groans in pain, and my heart twinges, a sharp stabbing sensation that makes me whimper and shakes me out from under the spell of the blood frenzy.

My eyes and thoughts clear as if a veil has been lifted and logic returns once more.

A foot. A leg.

I pop my head above the surface of the water, tracing those limbs up to the face of their sleeping owner.

A human.

The stabbing pain in my chest intensifies, a tug that instantly tethers me to this human now that I have looked upon them.

My treasure. My mate.

My hands reach out for her, an overwhelming need to have her skin pressed against mine.

As I pull her against me, a little frown forms between her brows before softening as our skin melds together and her cold body leeches my warmth.

She lets out a sigh, her breath tickling the crook of my neck, causing little goose pimples to erupt across my skin.

I shudder, the apple in my throat bobbing as my skin heats up to an almost unbearable level.

Arousal floods my body at my mate’s nearness, an unfortunate side effect of the bond, ensuring we cannot be apart for long before desire becomes an almost painful thing.

Tilting my head towards her, I gingerly place my mouth against her cold lips.

Saltwater drips from my skin onto hers where our mouths meet, and I breathe my essence into her.

She whimpers, her hands subconsciously reaching around my neck, pulling me to her.

I freeze, but the mate bond has me hesitant to pull away; the feeling of her soft lips against mine is like a shock from an electric eel.

It takes a lot of effort to separate myself from her, her whine turning to pained gasps as gills slice open on both sides of her neck, and the essence I shared with her settles beneath her skin.