Chapter 12

12

“ T his might hurt, but I need to check for broken bones.”

Hudson wrinkled her nose, watching from a distance as Kyree touched Honour. If she stayed too close to them, there was no telling what might happen. It seemed she got her battle anyway—the one thing she’d avoided accidentally when Kyree had wandered across the Talon border.

Her entire body was on fire. Not just from the workout that a good battle was, but from the energy that coursed through her with the very threat of death. It had been the one thing that held her attention for so long, and it’d been near impossible to give it up. If she were being honest with herself, which she always was, it was the one thing that kept her alive.

Honour hissed, turning Hudson’s attention back to the two mermaids a few flaps of her fluke away, and she desperately wanted to be right up against them. She wanted to know what it would feel like to have them use her body in the same way a war did.

Fiercely.

Passionately.

Expending all her energy and power.

If only that could happen now, in the safety of this little hideaway they’d found, after the ravages of war. Well, since Kyree likely wouldn’t touch her—she was still far too dangerous in Kyree’s eyes—perhaps she could tease the two of them into something a little more. Something that was so very obviously between them.

“I’m fine, Kyree. I just need to stretch out so my muscles stay limber.”

Hudson bit back a moan at that comment. She’d love to watch Honour stretch. Seeing her in battle, fighting right alongside her, had been amazing. They hadn’t really needed to speak in order to fight. They’d simply moved together like they’d been made for each other.

Halting at that thought, Hudson backtracked. She wasn’t made for anyone. She was made simply to destroy. That had been what she’d been told for years, it had been what she was called. “Hudson the Destroyer.” She was the Talons’ secret weapon against the krakens, and when she’d finally broken free, she hadn’t ever wanted to go back to that enslavement.

Deep breaths, and she could calm her racing heart. Hudson pressed her lips together and watched as Kyree carefully tended to Honour’s wounds. What would it feel like for Kyree to do the same to her? To check her over? To stroke her cuts and bruises in the same way that she did for Honour?

Hudson moaned at the thought.

Kyree and Honour slid her looks, but she didn’t bat an eyelash at them. She wasn’t embarrassed by what she felt or wanted to feel. She wasn’t embarrassed by her body and what it did, what it craved. And she craved their touch. Both of them. To have Kyree’s lips pressed against hers, soft, slightly hesitant, and yet sure at the same time. Hudson knew exactly how it would be. If she closed her eyes, she could imagine it now.

“Don’t you want the spoils of war?” Hudson said, her tone teasing as she lay on her side and stared at them.

Kyree flicked her gaze over to Hudson and then right back on Honour. Honour, however, lingered. Just what was going on in that big brain of hers? Hudson might tease Honour for being all brawn, but there was a smart woman behind that look, full of brains more than brawn. She just happened to live in a tribe that allowed women in leadership and women to flourish—unlike Talon.

What would Talon even look like if they did give women some of those privileges? What would Hudson look like in that Talon? Or in a place like Reine?

“I don’t take spoils of war like you do,” Honour said, her tone sharp and cunning.

Exactly like Hudson had expected. A giggle erupted in her chest, and she didn’t even try to hide it. She never hid her true emotions from anyone, not anymore. She was a free agent of her own body, and she would be damned if she would ever be put back into a cage.

“Pity,” Hudson answered. “Those spoils can taste… so good.” She made sure to look directly at Kyree when she said that, skimming her gaze along Kyree’s dark curves, the slight way her body moved as if one with the water.

“Are you injured?” Kyree asked.

Hudson had to blink twice to follow the train of thought, but she didn’t manage to keep up with the direction Kyree had taken and the one track she had been on from the moment she pressed her body back into the sand. Instead of answering, Hudson moved her hands down her body, showing it off in an open invitation.

Honour gripped Kyree’s wrist tightly, her fingers wrapping around Kyree in a protective manner. But after that battle, why would Honour think that Kyree needed protecting from her? Hadn’t Hudson proven they were on the same side by now?

“Why don’t you find out?” Hudson said, trying to entice Kyree even closer.

Honour tugged Kyree’s wrist, but Kyree broke free.

Interesting.

Hudson watched with rapt attention as Kyree swam closer to her, slowly, with one swish of her tail at a time. Was she actually coming over here to touch her? To check on her?

“Are you hurt?” Kyree reiterated her question from before, this time her voice much softer. “You took just as much of a beating as Honour did.”

For the first time in her life, Hudson was at a loss for words. Kyree danced her fingers over Hudson’s arms and tail, then her torso. She skipped Hudson’s breasts—but that could be expected. It wasn’t sexual pleasure that Hudson felt, though. It was an undefinable warmth, one she’d never quite experienced before.

Her breath caught in her throat, and she couldn’t force her lungs to open. Kyree must have noticed because she tossed a concerned look over her shoulder in Honour’s direction. Honour swam closer, her open wound already sewn together and bandaged up. When had Kyree managed to do that?

“Hudson?” Kyree asked. “You need to breathe.”

Sucking in sharply, water entered her lungs and broke the tension in her chest. At least, Hudson had thought it had, but when she looked back up into Kyree’s eyes, she couldn’t stop herself from wondering again…just what would those lips feel like pressed against hers?

“I always enjoy a bit of physical release after a battle,” Hudson said. She’d meant for the words to come out harsh, for them to push Kyree away with her bluntness, but they hadn’t. They’d been soft, echoing of unmet desires.

“Do you?” Kyree asked, a brow raising and curiosity filling her features.

Hudson nodded, and she risked a glance toward Honour. “Don’t you?”

Honour was nodding before she caught herself, as if she was trapped in the same trance that Hudson found herself in, one that was filled with nothing other than Kyree, the beautiful dark, deep sounding mer, that was the center of their entire world.

“That’s not something I would have ever expected,” Kyree murmured, her fingers once again tracing lines down Hudson’s torso, but this time, they had a different purpose. Kyree touched Hudson’s ribs, sliding her hands down to the start of her scales and then back up, over the generous swell of her breasts to her nipple.

Was Kyree seducing her?

“Why wouldn’t you?” Hudson asked, reaching out and grasping onto Honour’s hand. She tightened her grip.

“I’ve never been in battle before.” Kyree bit her lip, her gaze following the course of her fingers. “I was so scared.”

She didn’t expect Hudson to admit her own fears now, did she? Surely. That was a harebrained idea.

“It’s frightening for everyone, even those of us who have been there before,” Honour added, squeezing Hudson’s hand back.

That same silent communication was already happening between them. They were picking back up right where they had during the battle, as if no time had passed, as if they were working together for the same cause. But were they?

“I don’t believe Hudson was afraid of that kraken.”

Kyree was right. Hudson hadn’t been afraid of that machine, of the monster she knew she could destroy. But she had been afraid. For a very brief moment, when that third beast had risen up behind Kyree, who remained unaware, she had been afraid. She’d been frozen on the spot, drenched in fear. Honour had moved first, and Hudson had struggled to catch up, to make her way to protect the one mer who needed it the most.

Kyree.

But she couldn’t say that. She refused to admit that that had been what she’d felt. But she knew it, without a doubt. Fear had found her, for the first time ever. Hudson lifted her hand, touching Kyree’s cheek, cupping her face. Kyree turned into her, closing her eyes and drawing in a deep breath.

Hudson reveled in that, in the fact that they were all here together, for the first time all on equal ground. Yet here they were. Without thinking, Hudson pulled Kyree down. She pressed their mouths together. She breathed in Kyree’s breath. She closed her eyes, smelling nothing other than Kyree’s deep, salty scent, the faint seaweed flavor that lingered on her lips.

“Hudson!” Honour shouted and jerked Kyree back, pressing herself between the two of them.

Kyree’s eyes were wide, her body rigid. But she moved her gaze from Honour to Hudson and back again, then she shook her head.

“No,” Kyree stated, firmly but with a gentle tone.

A thrill ran through Hudson. She’d gotten her kiss, and it had been amazing. Even for those two seconds that it had lasted, she hadn’t wanted it to end. She wanted that flavor back on her lips. She wanted the softness of Kyree’s mouth on hers, on her neck, her breasts, her slit—fuck, anywhere she could get it.

Kyree wrapped her hand behind Honour’s neck and pulled their mouths together. Hudson’s heart leapt into her throat as she watched with rapt attention. Kyree slid her tongue along Honour’s lower lip, pressing their chests together as she pushed Honour into the sandy ocean floor, covering her entirely.

Hudson’s entire body hummed with pleasure. Just watching the two of them together, the tentative passion that was about to explode, the unexplored and untouched territory. Had this been what Kyree had experience back in that cave? The unrequited arousal that mixed between the three of them. Perhaps this wasn’t just a one-on-one experience like Hudson had had so many times before. Perhaps this was the three of them together, wrapped tightly within the tangles and twists of a kraken on their worst day.

Honour groaned, jutting her hips upward into Kyree’s, her hands on Kyree’s sides as she tried to turn them to control the moment, but Kyree broke away. She breathed heavily, staring down into Honour’s eyes as she shook her head slowly. They were saying something, something without words, but Hudson missed it. She was too enraptured by what was going on.

Kyree moved slowly this time, purposefully. She shifted away from Honour’s prone form toward Hudson. Was this happening? Was this really, actually happening? As if on instinct, Hudson reached up and wrapped her arms around Kyree’s back, pulling her down.

Their lips touched again.

She took everything as slowly as possible. She laced her fingers in Kyree’s hair, tenderly whispering her fingers through the long strands. Hudson hummed, as Kyree settled on top of her, pushing her deeper into the rough sand under her back. Honour sidled in next to her, wrapping an arm over Hudson’s and on top of Kyree’s back, connecting the three of them, finally.

Hudson lost herself.

She closed her eyes and tried to exist in this moment.

She tried to focus on nothing more than the feel of Kyree and Honour in her arms, the two of them together. But she froze. She had to stop. It was too much. Breaking the kiss, Hudson shook her head and stilled. Staring up into Kyree’s dark eyes, she whispered words she never thought she would say.

“We need to stop.”

Kyree nodded, her cheeks filled with small bubbles of pink that formed the most beautiful blush of arousal that Hudson had ever seen. Honour cleared her throat and moved away. Just as suddenly as it started, the moment ended.

They were separated.

Each in their own little corners of the clearing as they settled into the sand.

Hudson tried to steady herself, but she was far too wired. Turning to the others, she did the only thing she knew that would keep her busy and distracted.

“I’ll take first watch.”

Swimming away from them to make an easy perimeter, Hudson put distance between herself and Honour and Kyree. She had to. She couldn’t do anything that would jeopardize what was forming between them—whatever that was. She couldn’t even begin to fathom what that might be.

Swimming three circles around the tiny camp, Hudson finally settled back down. Honour was pressed against Kyree’s back, an arm locked over her side and stomach in a protective move. Hudson would do the same if it was just the two of them together and Honour was guarding them. She would still protect as much as possible.

Smiling to herself as she caught Honour’s eye in the darkness, Hudson settled down. She just had to wait them out now. They would fall asleep, and she would have the entire ocean and all the time in the world to think about that kiss, about the way that Kyree had simply corrected Honour and come right back to her, how Kyree had melded with both of them, about the tingles in her clit that just wouldn’t shut up about what she really wanted.

Hudson wrinkled her nose and stared at the dark ocean in front of her.

The brush against her scales startled her. Staring down at the small creature, Hudson’s lips pulled up into a smirk on one side. She put out her hand, waiting for the small stingray to settle against her palm. They stared at her, as if she had the answers they were searching for. Saying nothing for fear of waking the others, Hudson reached out her free hand and played her fingers in a dance right in front of the ray.

They shivered and then flopped onto their back in Hudson’s palm before flipping back over. With a quiet giggle, Hudson settled in to playing with her newfound friend while she tried her damnedest to get that kiss, that moment that would forever live in her memory, out of her mind.