Page 42 of Bombshell

“Too tight?” I asked, worrying that I was going too fast.

But she just shook her head and rolled her hips up to meet my next thrust.

“Not fast enough, fish boy,” she teased, trying to get a rise out of me.

“Cephalopod would be the more correct term, lass,” I shot back.

Clearly she was fine and ready to go if the twist of her pussy was an indication and so was I.

My next thrust was much rougher and made the both of us moan.

Later, after we’d christened every inch of this bedroom from the window bench, to the floor, to the swing a second time, we were finally quietly lying together and Effie was tracing circles on my chest, trying to follow the clouds of color shifting underneath my skin.

“You called me your soulmate,” she said quietly, her voice hoarse from all of the screaming she’d just done.

I wrapped coils of her green hair around my hand and held it up in the dim light, watching as the gossamer threads of it slipped through my fingers before I answered her. “I did. Does that scare you?”

Effie shrugged. “It all scares me, Dallan. I don’t… I don’t always feel like I can be that for you. You deserve someone less fucked up. Someone with less baggage.”

I scoffed, lifting my head so I could get a better look at her face. She was wearing a neutral expression, but one prod on our bond and I could feel the sheer level of self-doubt that was wafting off of her. “Lass, that isn’t how mates work, at least not with us Cthulhus. It’s not like it’s something I can just shut off.”

Effie sighed. “But don’t you need to, I don’t know, carry on the race? I know there aren’t that many of you left.”

I’d never talked about children with Effie before. I always figured it was one of her unspoken boundaries because it was such a touchy subject.

Most children of a Cthulhu parent and a parent of a different race tended to come out looking like most Cthulhu. Our genetics were just more dominant which also meant that it was hard to carry a child like me to term.

With Effie’s birth happening the way it had, I wasn’t sure how our genetics would play together, but I knew I would love that child regardless.

But, if Effie never wanted any children I wouldn’t mind that either. As long as she was with me I was sure I could face anysort of future. I was just happy she was actually talking about it out loud with me.

“It doesn’t matter much to me either way, Effie,” I told her, holding her even closer to me so that her ear was pressed to my chest so she could feel the beats of my twin hearts.

Effie was quiet for a while, seemingly deep in contemplation before she spoke again, changing the subject. “So how does a mating bond work for you Cthulhu? You’re all so secretive about how it works. Do you bite your mate? Like Cash did with Daphne? Or is it like the fae who have to do a whole long, crazy ceremony?”

I chuckled. “No, Lass, I won’t bite you to secure the bond nor will it be complicated like what the fae do. You know our mental connection?”

Effie nodded and I felt her consciousness on the edge of mine. It was the first time she’d pushed back on it since discovering its existence nearly a month ago.

“Well, we open ourselves up to it completely and it tethers us together as mates. I would be able to see through your eyes and you would be able to see through mine—it would almost be like stepping into each other’s bodies as our souls entwine and become one.”

“So we could technically do it tonight?”

There was a note of urgency in her voice that had me frowning. Before she’d been so reluctant to eventalkabout our relationship and now she seemed to want to jump headlong into it?

She must have felt the distance between us the same way I had today after our argument.

Pulling her up so we could look at each other, I made sure she could feel my affection for her through the bond. “We could, but there is one other thing I haven’t told you about a Cthulhu mating ceremony.”

“And what’s that?” Effie asked with a frown.

“It’s very, ah,loud,” I said, trying to find the right word for it. “Especially if both parties have magic within them. My mother is, as you know, a witch and apparently half of the village she and my father lived in could feel it—even the humans. It took everything for her and my father to convince them it was an earthquake.”

“And if we do it you think everyone in Port Haven will feel it?”

I snorted. “Lass, I think everyone on the West coast will feel it. You are a much more powerful witch than my mother.”

Effie rolled her eyes at that. “Tell that to Alexander. I’m still learning basic elemental magic as a grown adult. I still can’t seem to get the hang of anything but Earth and Fire. I wish I could do what you did tonight with your water magic.”

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