Page 12 of Seducing Scylla
She ducks her head down, unable to look me in the eye, and I am curious about the cause of the pinkness on her face.
“Are you hungry? Tired? Cold?”
The warmth permeating the cave should be keeping her warm, but I am unsure. We are not the same and I am realizing there are many things about keeping a human that I do not know. I scoop her up in my arms and carry her from the water. Her squeal echoes around us, causing the glow worms illuminating the cave to blink in and out. She wriggles against me and then lets out a low moan. I still. The sound causes something inside me to stir, an unknown feeling rises to the surface and now I feel too warm as well.
I drop her at the same time she quivers, and whispers, “P-please, put me down.”
I worry whatever is causing these changes in her is catching and now I have what she has caught. I have never been sick before in all my millennia. Has she brought an illness with her from wherever she has come from? I pace along the cave floor, my tentacles undulating against the slick surface, my suckers latching onto the rocky floor, so I don’t slip right back into the hot spring. Is it the mate bond? Does it not agree with her? I have not heard of a mate bond being rejected. Perhaps it is a type of rejection sickness. But does that mean she is not my mate after all? My heart sinks, my mind swirling with over-anxious thoughts. I have waited so long and now the mate bond is rejecting our pairing. I am not worthy.
I glance over at my mate who has not moved since I placed her upon the floor. She stands there in the blue glow of the darkened cave, watching me warily. Her arms attempt to cover her plump breasts and sex as best they can, but there is more breast than arm and her peachy pale skin peeks in all the spaces she cannot reach. The vision of her stops me in my trail. Her body is voluptuous, all curves and soft skin, thick thighs, and a deliciously soft belly. Her skin glows a soft blue under the glow worms, making her look like an other-worldly creature. Almost like one of our own.
I am utterly speechless. She is magnificent. Every inch of her is more than I could have ever dreamt of. She is as if the goddess Aphrodite herself runs in her blood, alluring and seductive. It is by seeing her in her bareness that I know I would sacrifice myself at the feet of the gods to look upon her again. To touch her. To love her.
The mate bond cannot be wrong. She is mine, and I am hers. Hades himself will have to pry her from my arms before I ever let her go.
“Are you okay?” she whispers, a light shiver racing down her body.
I nod. My tongue is thick in my mouth, and I don’t trust myself to speak around her. If I could find the words at all.
Water beads along her skin and I curse at myself inwardly. I have forgotten a weave of cotton for her to dry her skin upon. I am doing terribly at keeping my mate comfortable. Morgan looks at me, her brow creased in the center. She opens her mouth as if to say something and then shuts it again.
“You should get dressed. It is a long walk back to my cave.”
My shoulders slump. A heavy silence permeates the air. I fear I am not cut out for a mate and perhaps that is why the mate bond is rejecting her.
She clears her throat and nods. “Do you mind turning around? So I can get dressed.”
I do as she asks, turning my back to her and staring out into the glassy water of the spring. I can hear her moving behind me, the wet slap of her clothing as she pulls it from the rocks.
She grumbles something under her breath that I don’t quite catch and then there’s a yelp and a string of curses. I turn just in time to catch a struggling Morgan as she crashes into me. Her hands stick out above her head with her dress caught around her face, leaving her exposed from her belly down. The impact unsticks me from the stone floor and in one sweep, we are sliding back into the hot spring with a splash.
Morgan splutters as we breach the surface. My tentacles are wrapped firmly around her waist beneath the water as I reach out for her dress and tug it down over her head with my hands, mindful of my claws.
Her eyes crinkle as she huffs a laugh. “Thanks.”
She shivers again and my tentacles constrict around her with a mind of their own. Fire ignites beneath my skin, racing from my chest to the tips of all my limbs.
“Oh.” A little gasp escapes Morgan’s parted lips. Her tiny pink tongue darts out and flicks across her plump top lip, wetting it.
My breath feels erratic, ragged in its escape as if I have swum miles beneath the sea. My chest aches. I close my eyes, trying to get a sense of these new and strange feelings inside my body. More of my tentacles reach for Morgan, wrapping around her ankles and her thighs.
She groans, a throaty guttural sound, and my eyes pop open. The sound sends tingles all the way to the tips of my tentacles.
“Oh my god!” she squeals, hands covering her face as a pinkish blush stains her skin once more and I cannot help but admire the color.
“I’m so sorry. You must think I’m this overly horny human who can’t control herself.” Her voice is muffled beneath her hands.
“I do not understand. Are you well?” I reach for her fingers and gently pry them away from her face. She keeps her eyes down, not looking at me.
“I don’t know!” She splashes at the water, her voice rising in a squeak. “I don’t know what is happening to me! Every time you touch me, I turn into this wanton hussy, practically drooling at your touch, and then as soon as you let go, it stops. You said we’re mated, but I don’t know what that means. Is that why I feel like this?”
I stare blankly at her. I do not know what awanton hussyis, but I understand everything else. She likes my touch. My tentacles tingle and my heart burns. The mate bond is not rejecting her, it is urging her. It is urging us.
“I-I think it is the mate bond, yes,” I answer.
“But you don’t know for sure?”
“I am fairly certain…” Mostly. I clear my throat. “It is urging us to mate.”
