Page 5 of The Mer-Mate

My merman is rigid. The dapples on his skin flicker up the length of his body, from pectorals to tail, with new ones lighting up on his shoulders and cheeks.

The flickers are rhythmic, like sound waves, and at first I think they’re flashing along with every beat of his heart.

But then the a’wesh expands and heats against my pulse, and I realize it’s not his heartbeat he’s flashing along with.

It’s mine .

He’s mine .

If I didn’t believe in magic before, I do now.

I slant my mouth over his, tasting myself on his tongue, the salt around us.

I kiss the glowing speckles on his cheeks, his silver lips, the webbing between his fingers.

Later, if he’ll let me, I’ll kiss the dorsal ridge that runs his spine and the fluke of his tail, but our bodies are pulsing in synch, and the message is clear.

I stroke down his shaft and meet his hooded gaze. “I want to take your knot.”

My voice sounds far more confident than I feel, but hell if I'm not trying.

The deep vibration that leaves his throat sends a ripple through the cave. “My Shayle, my knot is for my mate.” He thrusts his cock into my fist, pupils reflecting the now golden light. “And only her.”

He’s not warning me to stop.

He’s asking me to choose.

The light around us shifts from soft blue to a deep gold as I look into the black of his eyes. “And what does being your mate mean?”

“To be by each other’s side for the rest of our days. Our bodies, our homes, our lives belong to each other, until the deeps claim us.”

So that’s it. If I become his mate, I stay with my merman in the ocean and leave my life on land behind.

No more coffees in front of fireplaces. No walks in the rainforest. No libraries, or birdsong.

No more struggling to maintain shallow friendships, or turning down dates at shitty bars. No more fighting for research funding, so I could continue my search.

What would I need funding for? All along, I was searching for him. And now I’ve found him.

So what if I never eat cheesecake again? I’m lactose intolerant.

And how much more could I learn under the water, with him? My merman is right. Humans know so little of what happens in the ocean. I could be the first. And if I never find a way to share the knowledge, maybe it’s for the best if its secrets lay undiscovered a little longer.

I touch where the a’wesh is slowly becoming part of me. It’s changing me already. Letting me breathe underwater, resisting the cold. Who knows how else it will adapt me to life under the sea?

I’m meant to be here. I’m meant to be with him.

I take his face in my hands. “My entire life has been spent searching for you. I’m never letting you go.”

The dapples on his skin pulse bright. “You will leave your old life behind and become my mate?”

“Until the deeps claim us.”

“I will mark you,” he warns. He pulls back his lips. “You will be claimed as mine.”

Knots and fangs? “But the blood? What about sharks?”

A smile plays at his mouth, incisors gleaming. “There is nothing in all the seas I cannot protect you from.”

A little love bite won’t be so bad. “And you’re willing to bind yourself to me?” I ask, voice soft.

“My Shayle.” He rests his palm over my a’wesh , voice reverent. “I bound myself to you the moment I saw you. To claim you as my mate is beyond anything I had dared to dream.”

My heart pounds in my chest, and the speckles covering his body flicker in answer. I lock my arms around his neck. “Then claim me.”

The words aren’t fully out of my mouth before he’s nudging his cock through my folds, coating my clit with his pearly precum. It tingles, like eucalyptus or mint, and goosebumps break out over my skin.

“You will tell me what this means one day,” he says, brushing his fingers over the raised bumps on my skin, “but I will not wait another second to join with you.”

I don’t want to wait another second, either. I wrap my legs around my merman’s torso, and pull him into me until the thick head of his cock pushes at my entrance.

Oh, god. His knot. I suck in a breath as my body stretches around him. My eyes slam shut, my throat pulsing against the a’wesh . He’s only just inside me, and I’ve never felt this full in my life.

“You are so tight,” he groans. My merman adjusts his grip on my hips, searching for another angle. “Breathe for me.”

I obey, the sea heaving in and out of my lungs. I can do this. I’ve never wanted anything more. “Toren,” I whine, canting my hips. “ Please .”

“Shayle,” he groans, his tail flexing as he pumps into me. An inch, and another. His mouth covers mine, our tongues tangling. I’m ravenous, even as he’s coaxing me to take more of him. “Yes, your pussy is mine. Take more. Take it all. ”

His hand curves under my ass, dragging our bodies closer. Every thrust eases him deeper, until the knot pushes past the resistance and sends a wave of ecstasy crashing over me.

I feel powerful. Victorious. “See?” I pant. “I knew I could take your knot.”

He raises what would be an eyebrow. “That is not my knot.” He moves my hand to the base of where his cock exits his slit. “This is.”

A slight bulge that wasn’t there before has formed. It’s even warmer than the rest of him, the same shimmering blue. And still outside my body. He thrusts into me, a look of determination on his face, but there’s just no more room.

Some new instinct is waking up inside me, telling me I need to take his knot. The moment the thought forms in my mind, the a’wesh in my throat throbs harder. In response, my body opens infinitesimally, and somehow, his cock slides in deeper.

My merman’s eyes widen. “I wonder.”

He bends me back, thumbing my nipples and nipping at the spot on my neck where my a’wesh is.

We tumble in the water, upside down, twisting sideways.

The lights on the cave wall shimmer in time with the pulse pounding in my throat.

He thrusts again, until just his knot is outside of me and pressing at the entrance of my pussy.

“Say you want my knot,” my merman growls. His voice is ragged against my neck, and a rush of mermish leaves his mouth. “Say you want me .”

I can’t breathe, can’t imagine how much more I can take. My legs are so tightly wrapped around him I feel like I’m strangling him, but I wiggle my hips to get closer.

“I want it.” My throat flares, and the next words that spill out of me aren’t English. They’re mermish. “ I want my mate’s knot. ”

It’s like it was waiting for me to say it. Something deep inside me unlocks, and my merman’s knot slides home. My eyes fly open, my vision filled with strobing light, my body electrified.

“My Shayle,” he pants. “My mate, I’m coming ... ”

And then he’s swelling, hot, and filling me in places that didn’t exist until now, binding us together, the pressure setting off a blinding orgasm, coiling through my entire body as I crash around him.

Toren throws his head back and roars, hands flexed on my hips, until stones shake loose from the sea floor. His heat pours into me, and he fastens his incisors on my neck to claim me forever.

I could be burning. I could be flying. I could be dying. I don’t care. It’s ecstasy.

The throb in my a’wesh dims, finally sated. My fingers loosen in his hair, holding his mouth to my throat, and my eyelids shutter closed.

Claimed by my mer-mate.

A sweet pain is already fading as his teeth leave my flesh, and he licks at the wound. “My mate,” he murmurs. “ At last .”

A lifetime of trying to find him. Years on boats, scanning the horizon, diving below the surface, always searching. Even as he kept himself hidden, watching me from afar, to keep me safe.

Ever since that day I went overboard, the trouble I got in as a child. How I should have known better, having been raised by the ocean and getting so close to the edge, how reckless I’d been to fall from our boat.

But I didn’t fall. I’d been trying to reach him.

And now I have him.

“My mate,” I ask. “Why did you wait so long to show yourself?”

He strokes where he marked me. The pain has faded to a glow, twin pricks of warmth I’ll carry on my body forever. “You are so curious. Always seeking knowledge. I did not know if I was worthy of taking you from the surface and bringing you into the cold. If I would be enough to satisfy you.”

“I’ve always been yours,” I say. Already my life above the surface is fading from my mind. All I can think about is my future with my merman, and my new reality sets in.

There’s so much to learn. I can’t wait.

I press my mouth to his, luxuriating in the slow kiss. The water eddies around us as I pull back to look into his dark eyes. “And now that you have me, what will you do with me?”

He smiles, fangs gleaming in the cave light. “Let me show you everything.”

Fin