Page 141 of Fated or Knot

I could feel him hardening under my thigh and flushed, a little pre-heat dancing over my skin head to toe. His lusty growl was accompanied by a hint of fertile pheromones smelling like blooming waterlily. My mouth watered for a taste. Stars, I was going to be the death of both of us. This was supposed to be a four-hour trip, and there was nowhere to go for privacy.

He turned me so I was sitting with my back to his front and held me possessively while he nuzzled my neck and inhaled. “I am starting to hate trains as much as you hate stairs,” he said in my ear. “Distract me, please.”

We definitely needed to think about something else before we made a scene. “What should I know about riding on your second form’s back?” I asked.

His tense posture slowly loosened as he shared the basics: I’d hold on to him with my legs as if I were riding a wild stallion. Kelpies had a reputation for drowning non-water fae, as their manes would cling hard to their riders to help hold them in place. Most of those deaths were accidents. Allegedly.

Also, if my nixie side was as developed as my pixie side, I’d experience the other co-evolution between our two races. A hidden membrane would come down to cover my eyes and protect them while he propelled me through the water over a certain speed. We wouldn’t know if I had that until we were underwater, though.

Now I was worried about what’d happen if Iwasn’tborn with eye protection. A silly thing to be concerned over, up there with the anxiety that my gills wouldn’t work. But I was worryingabout both of those things. Marius’s gruff assurance that I would be fine wasn’t all that reassuring.

We reached Laculi Point and disembarked. The first thing to go was my cloak when I emerged into the sunshine. This slice of Serian was a tolerable temperature, made even warmer by thick humidity. Marius took me through the outskirts of what turned out to be a port city. We ate street food—fried, cheese-stuffed potato puffs for me and dubiously cooked shrimp skewers for him—and wandered without haste toward the rocky beach beyond the piers.

There were some purposefully placed stone ramps designed for kelpies and their riders further down the beach, shaped from boulders. They were out of the way enough for some privacy, which I appreciated since he would strip down before shifting. I had some possessive desires too, namely keeping the sight of my mate’s body exclusive.

His gaze flashed toward me, and he lifted his chin with male pride. After we’d left the city behind, he’d relaxed from the watchfulness of the protector heir and begun to smile. His anticipation was palpable, and I tingled with it too.

Not only was I about to see his other form for the first time, but we were also going to experience the most intimate connection between a kelpie and his mate. I’d be able to read his mind in a way, like he kept doing to me. I’d also discover the scope of the complicated depths he protected with his standoffish demeanor.

He was still a grumpy male with an inherent hate for small talk and other time-wasting nonsense. Yet he’d already shown me what I’d find on the other side of our bond, else I wouldn’t have agreed to it in the first place.

I knew him by the way he’d adapted to the idea ofus; how he was becoming someone gentler, kinder, and more open one day at a time. He’d never say it, but he’d shown me that hehadn’t forgotten how to be my best friend. The male I needed, no matter the situation.

I walked into him when he paused, and he caught me, tilting my head up to meet his lips. He adjusted his mouth to make it a perfect lip-lock and lifted me after a few moments to carry me up a steep incline that would’ve tested my ankles. When we parted, we were standing on a rocky outcrop overlooking the sea. “Is this dive safe?” I asked, peering over the edge that jutted several yards past the waves.

“The platform wouldn’t be placed here if it wasn’t safe.”

My palms were clammy.Water doesn’t mean danger. That’s just what Cymora ordered you to think,I reminded myself. To make Laurel feel better about being awkward with her mermaid tail, no less. I tried not to spare them any more thought than that. They didn’t deserve a foothold in my new life.

I took a deep breath and started taking off my clothes, hearing Marius do the same. I had swimwear on rather than underclothes, a tight top and shorts that left my midriff bare.

I folded and placed our extra clothes into the waterproof bag while he kept stripping until he was only wearing a pair of swim trunks. These, he eased down slowly for my admiring gaze. He let me get a good look at his muscular form before it started to change. His shift took hold as he dropped the trunks and toed them to the side, and the magic altered his body so fast that I only caught a glimpse of my favorite piercing, the lady pleaser.

I watched him transform with my mouth hanging open. I hadn’t realized it was such a quick transition, or that it would sound so violent. His bones and cartilage snapped and cracked as magic forced him into the form of an animal. I grabbed his swim trunks and folded them into the bag before sealing it and slinging it over my shoulder, scrambling in eagerness to meet his second form.

Kelpie Marius was nearly as large as a horse, though shorter at the shoulder and longer with his fish tail. It curled around him, lined with sharp fins to match the ones on the sides of his horse-like front legs. Unlike a mermaid’s tail, his ended with a bundle of smaller fins that’d probably resemble hair once wet.

His coat was the same color as his skin, a rich blue with speckles of green down his chest and back. It gleamed with a sheen of health. I approached his head, which he tossed with a snort. Even with the jeweled tags glinting on his chest, brow, and nose, his most distinctive trait was still the scar that crossed his muzzle.

All told, he made for a gorgeous animal, strong and sleek. His yellow eyes were forward-facing and predatory, full of pride when they met mine.

“What a beautiful beast you are,” I said in admiration. I stroked his muzzle, and as my fingers approached his ears, a lock of his mane magnetized to my wrist, wrapping around it tightly. These cerulean strands had a mind of their own and didn’t want to let go of me when I tried to tug away.

Marius jerked his neck to free me and stamped his hoof, motioning to the sea with another toss of his head. “Okay, okay,” I giggled. I faced the drop and swallowed, fidgeting with the strap across my chest.

Well, the only way to see if I was a proper half-water fae was to jump and find out for myself. I sprung from the boulder and landed feet-first in the water, sinking deeper than I expected to. Bubbles circled around me as I floated downward. Marius dove in a minute later, cutting through the water like a giant fish and leaving a torrent of churned silt in his wake.

I drifted on an invisible current, kicking my legs and not going far. My lungs began to burn as they emptied of air. I reached for my throat in a panic, thinking my gills were stuck or, as I’d feared, had sealed themselves shut permanently out ofdisuse. I needed to get back to the surface. Flicking my wings, all I succeeded in doing was spinning up a mini tornado as my body pivoted.

Two purple, glowing tendrils wrapped around my side. Those were my wings now.How surreal.They’d softened considerably and moved like fins when I twitched my flight muscles.

I used to use them to steer my body underwater. I closed my eyes, trying to remember what it’d felt like. Curling my fingers, I unsheathed the webbing between them and gasped as air flooded into my chest. Bubbles lifted from the sides of my neck rather than my mouth. My gills—they’d opened! And with them flared, I could taste the sea around me on the back of my tongue.

I laughed with a muffled sound and swam in a random direction, twitching my wing-fins until they undulated behind me to help propel me along. Just like walking, my body remembered how to do this after all. I spun and kicked up a wake of bubbles, and that’s when Marius moved to follow me and mirrored the motion.

The kelpie reached out to nudge me with his leg before shooting away far faster than I could dream of swimming. I still chased him with a clumsy turn. He let me tag the end of his tail and dove into the murk hidden where the sunlight wasn’t strong enough to reach. A school of fish darted out of the way as I pivoted with the help of my wing-fins and put on a bit of speed.

When he reappeared, he swam literal loops around me while I scowled playfully. He was as flexible and graceful as any other fish in his domain.Show-off.He must’ve sensed that I was having fun swimming on my own and remained content to stay at least an arm-length away. His mane seemed to reach for me if he got any closer.

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