Page 16 of Battle Fluke

“Yes, Hudson.” He nodded. He didn’t look ashamed or embarrassed. He didn’t even look particularly cowed. He simply looked like her soldier. And for now, that would do. But onemore question of her decisions and orders and she wouldn’t have a problem laying into her right hand man.

“Good.” She swam up beside him, and before he could react, she reached over and snatched the dagger from the seaweed band around his waist. “Now, I’ll be taking this. Gather the troops. We head out at first light.”

The silence she left behind held a presence that followed her to the entrance of the cave. She stopped short, the voices of her captives reaching her ears. She wanted to know what they were saying, what they were thinking. That kiss had been everything that every kiss before hadn’t been. Hudson’s entire body had been wired and ready to go in an instant, but she couldn’t let herself do anything more than what Honour had allowed.

“She’s not going to let us go.” Honour’s voice was low. But it seemed the strain of her recovery made it difficult for the mighty general to successfully whisper. That or she was so wound up from Kyree’s opposition that she was struggling to keep herself under control.

Had Honour been as affected as Hudson? As Kyree? Hudson had never seen a more stunning thing than Kyree’s openness to the sexual in that moment.

“She promised.” Kyree’s voice pulled at Hudson. She had trust where she shouldn’t, and that would be Kyree’s instant downfall. No one should trust Hudson, not even the men under her command.

“Kyree…” the pause in Honour’s words made Hudson itch to swim into the cave proper instead of listening outside. She wanted to know what they were doing. Had her little experiment finally pushed Kyree to look beyond the tribe rhetoric she had been fed her entire life? Were they touching? Was Kyree soothing Honour with her fingers, with her gaze? “I wish everyone could be as honest and as open as you are. I wish theywere. But I don’t think Hudson even understands the meaning of those words.”

“At her core, she’s not a bad mer.” Kyree’s voice hardened a little.

A sound, more a grunt than any word followed. A muffled deep sound that could only have come from Honour. It sent Hudson into action.

How she wanted to see the two of them enthralled in each other’s limbs as they discussed her.

Hudson pushed into the cave with such unexpected force that Kyree was nudged to the side from where she had been swimming in front of Honour. As for Honour, she finally rested upright on her tail once more, though her shoulders leaned against the rock wall.

It made Hudson’s decision and movements that much easier and faster.

With Cryoc’s blade in her hand, she easily moved around Kyree and pressed it smoothly to the soft skin beneath Honour’s chin. Hudson could taste the fear in the cave, feel the tension skyrocket almost to where it had been with that damn kiss. But this tension was different. It was off-putting, when she didn’t want it to be. Hudson cocked her head to the side, staring directly into Honour’s eyes.

“Hudson.” Kyree’s voice no longer carried the same softness it had when she spoke to Honour. It had a hard edge that made Hudson’s body fill with a fluttering sensation of anticipation mixed with arousal.

“Oh, Honour.” Hudson ignored Kyree’s repeat of her name, carrying the warning once again. “I understand the words just fine.”

“Prove it.” Honour’s eyes met Hudson’s, and the spark that had caught her off guard when they had kissed sent another electrical shock through her.

“Prove that I know what open and honest means?” Hudson chuckled, the sound one she never intended to be pleasing to anyone’s ears.

“Yes.” Honour’s eyes dropped to Hudson’s lips before flicking back to meet her gaze once more.

Hudson smiled, slow and deliberate.

Honour was thinking about it.

The kiss had affected Honour just as much as it had affected Hudson and Kyree. The thought intensified that electrical current that raced through Hudson’s body, firing up and down her fluke and settling like a flicking tongue against her clit. She nearly moaned out loud at the thought.

Hudson moved closer, rolling up from her tail fins, through her fluke, and to her hips. Her slit reacted to the brush of Honour’s scales against her own. The tingling sensation was exactly what she’d been hoping for.

“This is a war, General. And I plan to come out victorious on the other side.” Hudson patted a single finger from her free hand over Honour’s lips, as if patronizing her for even considering that Hudson would lie to her.

“Victorious against who?” Honour’s words were filled with fast breath and her chest rose and fell, her nipples brushing against Hudson’s. Hudson’s slit gave another little quiver.

“I’ll lead my people into a better future. Where mermaids no longer bow down to brutes and imbeciles.” Could they kiss again? Hudson wasn’t sure if Honour would allow it without the tease and pressure of escaping. Then again, when Honour’s gaze flicked to Hudson’s lips again, maybe she had been wrong to assume Honour would spurn her at every turn.

“A war against the Talons? While the entire ocean is at war with the humans?” Honour reached up, wrapping her fingers around Hudson’s upper arms and gripping hard. Would Honourtry to move Hudson out of the way? Would Honour flip them around and press Hudson hard against the cave wall?

“Don’t get in my way, and you won’t have to know.” Hudson pressed harder with her hips, rolling them farther into Honour. She was unable to bite back the little moan that escaped her lips.

“I already know.” Honour’s words hitched, but they also came out stronger, as though the play between fighting and fucking were as enticing to her as it had been to Hudson. And Hudson had been drawn to the power and rush of both, ever since she learned about life away from Talon’s misogynistic rule.

“Then I can’t wait to meet you in the waters of battle.”

Kyree gasped behind her, and Hudson chuckled. She met Honour’s eyes once more, just in time to catch them as they shifted from the darkness of arousal to the strength and desire to protect. But even Hudson could see the lingering desire that remained. It was odd, but the fact that Honour felt that brought her comfort. She wasn’t the only one who wanted to explore this side of their relationship.

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