Chapter 5

5

“ H ave you had sex?”

Kyree’s shoulders immediately tightened. She flicked her gaze up into Hudson’s blue eyes, eyes that matched the waters of the upper soundings perfectly. Kyree had never seen such a color before, but that didn’t negate the fact that Hudson was brash with a tendency toward violence and pushing boundaries that Kyree didn’t appreciate.

“Have you…” Hudson settled next to Kyree, who was leaning over Honour after she’d passed out in pain and exhaustion, not that she would admit to the pain ever. “…ever…had sex?”

Kyree refused to look up at Hudson again. What business of Hudson’s was her sexual life? And where could this line of questioning be going other than to lure Kyree into a false sense of safety and comfort? Because that was something that wouldn’t happen. Honour would never be able to stand it.

“Come on.” Hudson moved her hand up Kyree’s arm to her shoulder.

Kyree had noticed she liked to do that, use touch and sensations to try and get her way, seduce someone into an answer. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t intrigued by it. The thought of doing something so bold was foreign in her culture.

“Don’t get quiet on me now. We’re just talking.” Hudson chuckled, a low seductive quality that sent shivers straight through Kyree’s spine to her clit.

Had she had sex before? Yes. She’d had partners over her many seasons as a mer. But none of those were relevant, and Kyree wasn’t honestly sure if Hudson was asking about her sex life in general or her sex life with Honour—which was nonexistent. Choosing to keep silent instead of answering, Kyree fiddled with the moss on Honour’s side, checking on it. She wanted to ask if the tonic for the infection was ready yet, if they could give it to Honour, if there was any hope of them leaving without bloodshed.

Hudson’s fingers slid down to Kyree’s hand, folding their fingers together and moving them from Honour’s body. “Stop fussing, and let her rest.”

Kyree hummed against her will. She didn’t want to feel good about the way Hudson was touching her, or that there was a gentle care under the over-sexualized touches and words. Because why else would she pull Kyree away? They weren’t doing anything.

“Eat something,” Hudson said as she slid a thick slab of meat in front of Kyree’s face.

Her stomach churned at the thought. Her people weren’t against eating meat, but they also didn’t ruthlessly kill creatures simply for food either. And they used every part of the animal they slew, putting nothing to waste, in order to thank the gods for providing what was needed. But she was in a completely different world now, and she could only imagine Hudson mocking her for a simple prayer.

Lifting the chunk of meat to her lips, she paused. Hudson stared at her curiously, that insane quirk of her lips pulling up the right side of her mouth.

“What?”

“Aren’t you to pray over your food? Thank the gods? Or are you that far from your people that you’ve given up your ways?”

Kyree tried to decipher the tone. Was it challenge? Was it comeuppance? She held still, trying to figure it out, but she couldn’t parse it. Hudson wasn’t being gentle or kind, such a shift from what she’d been merely moments before.

“I didn’t want to disturb you,” Kyree finally answered.

Hudson’s smile blossomed fully in a split second. “Don’t change your ways just because you’re here with me and not at home.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Kyree responded. She shifted her stance, folding her hands together and pressing the meat in her palms up toward her head. She closed her eyes—a risk she was willing to take since she sensed Hudson’s immeasurable curiosity—and whispered her prayers of thanks.

When she opened her eyes, Hudson was right in front of her. Kyree gasped. Hudson’s blue eyes locked on Kyree’s, and she picked up the meat and brought it to Kyree’s lips, as if she was feeding her. Confused, Kyree parted her lips and took a small bite. The flavors hit her tongue first, a sharp iron of blood, but then filled with a fatty undertone that brought the juices to her tongue.

She’d never had a fish like this before. She hummed her pleasure as the flavors continued to swirl around her tongue.

“That’s what I like to hear from any mer,” Hudson murmured in Kyree’s ear. “Pure, unadulterated pleasure.”

Kyree’s breath caught. Was this a spell that Hudson was weaving? She’d heard of mer with magic before, though she’d never met one. What if Hudson was that kind of mer? What if she could ensnare them to want to stay?

“Don’t think bad thoughts about me, Kyree,” Hudson whispered, pressing their cheeks together. “I only want what’s best for my people.”

Kyree frowned. “Who are your people?”

“Talons,” Hudson said on a sigh. “Though I’m more of an outcast than part of them.”

“Then we are similar.” Kyree slid away, putting some space between them. When Hudson was that close, it made her brain spin.

“I do suppose you’re an outcast. Exiled?”

“Willingly.” Kyree lifted her chin. She glanced at Honour before looking directly back at Hudson.

“Honour doesn’t know.” Hudson scooted closer again, folding their hands together.

Kyree took another bite of the meat, and let it go that Hudson was this close. Perhaps she needed the closeness to have a true conversation. “She doesn’t understand my tribe.”

“To be fair, your tribe is isolated. Does any other tribe understand their ways?”

“How do you know so much about us?”

Hudson hummed a laugh, her lips curling upward again. “I’ve had an encounter with another exiled deep sounding mer.”

“An encounter?” Kyree asked dubious. There weren’t many exiled mers out there, but she supposed there were enough that they would have sought companionship rather than living alone. She would have done the same thing had she been kicked out of the tribe.

Well, wasn’t that what she was doing now?

“Yes, an encounter.” Hudson pulled her lip between her teeth. “A delicious encounter.”

Kyree instantly knew where the conversation was going to swing around to now.

“She showed me ways your mer fuck that I’ve never dreamed of before.” Hudson pressed a hand to her own chest, cupping her breast. “In Talon, mermaids are there for the pleasure of mermen, and nothing else. We’re there to serve, not be served.” Hudson flicked her thumb over her nipple. She laughed quietly. “Can you believe I was twenty seasons before I first experienced pleasure at my own hand? I didn’t understand it was a possibility.”

Kyree gulped. Her eyes were drawn to the movements of Hudson’s fingers against her skin and scales, sliding to the slit in the front of her tail as she teased the edge of it. Was Kyree going to get a full view of what exactly Hudson masturbating looked like? She wouldn’t be surprised if that was what happened next.

“You were freed by your experience of that?”

“Of touching myself?” Hudson’s cheeks reddened. She didn’t enter her slit, but she did continue to touch the edge with the tip of one finger. “Pleasure is freedom. Isn’t it?”

“It is,” Kyree agreed, swallowing heavily. Her body heated just from watching Hudson move seductively. She could imagine Hudson touching her like that, and fear ran through her, straight into her heart. What was she thinking?

“Kyree…” Honour’s voice was nothing more than a whimper.

Kyree flipped around and raced toward Honour. She checked her over, finding Honour’s eyes still closed, her chest rising and falling in a gentle slumber. Kyree closed her eyes and took deep steadying breaths. She was going to have to figure this out. She was going to have to get control of herself better. She had to stop falling under Hudson’s spell.

“She sleeps well,” Hudson commented, right next to Kyree, a hand on the small of her back. “It’s good for her. The tonic will be ready when the light dawns.”

Kyree nodded. She’d gotten the answer to a question she hadn’t even asked. “You don’t fit in with your tribe.”

Hudson snorted. “No, I don’t. I left them in hopes of starting a revolution.”

“By kidnapping neighboring tribe’s generals?”

“That was a happy coincidence.” Hudson brushed the backs of her fingers along Honour’s cheek. “I never intended to find you.”

“And since you have?”

“I’m not sure what I’ll do with you yet.” Hudson turned her full gaze on Kyree. “But I’m certainly enjoying my time locked away with you.”

Locked away with them? Kyree shook her head. “Will you let us go?”

Hudson’s laugh was slow at first, then it raised up, louder and faster. She shook her head, her golden hair shimmering around her in the fading light of the sun. Her entire body shook with the movement.

“Have you had sex?” Hudson’s eyes were wide, laughter still on her tongue.

“I don’t understand.”

“With our illustrious general. You two seem very close.”

Kyree shook her head, finally giving in and answering Hudson’s initial question. “No, we haven’t. That would be outside the laws of my tribe.”

“Hmm…” Hudson leaned against the wall of the cave, eyeing Kyree over like she was a piece of meat, perhaps the one that Kyree had just eaten. “What the elders don’t know…”

“They always know,” Kyree retorted. “And I have hope of returning to my people one day.”

“Do you, though?” Hudson was back up again, circling behind Kyree as Honour still lay prone on the cave floor. “Because the longer you’re away—”

“I left with permission because of the war.”

“Did that permission include returning?”

Kyree clenched her teeth tightly. It hadn’t. And it further proved that Hudson had spent considerable time with a deep sounding mer for her to understand these nuances.

“That’s what I thought.” Hudson put her hands on Kyree’s hips. But she didn’t move beyond that. She didn’t touch, or slide, or tease.

Kyree wanted her to. Something in the last hour had set her entire body on fire with desire. She hadn’t been wanted by another mer like this in ages. That was the desire she was feeling, the one she was drawn to, nothing more. And she wouldn’t give up her place in her tribe for a fling.

“Do you have someone back home?”

“No,” Kyree admitted. “Which is why it was ideal for me to be the one to leave.”

“So you were alone there, and you’re alone here.”

“I’m not alone,” Kyree quickly replied. “I have Honour.”

“That you do.” Hudson tightened her grasp on Kyree’s hips, her fingers hurting Kyree slightly for a few seconds before she let up. “Don’t let her go.”

Was that tinged with sadness?

Kyree turned and looked over her shoulder. She wanted to see Hudson’s face, to know if that sadness she’d detected was really there or not. But it was gone in a flash, as though Hudson hadn’t managed to feel anything through the entire conversation.

“I won’t take away your hope of returning home. It’s what we all want, isn’t it?” Hudson slid away from Kyree and toward Honour, whose eyes had cracked open slightly.

She was watching the entire exchange.

How long had she been awake?

What exactly had she heard?

“We’re not all that different from each other. Each trying to find our own way in this deep blue sea, trying to make our places viable and visible in this dark world.” Hudson ran her fingers along Honour’s body, as if she was checking for injuries, but she wasn’t.

Kyree knew better than that by now.

Hudson needed the touch to connect, to feel something, and Kyree had allowed it to happen because she wanted more insight into who this mer was. Who she could potentially be.

“What do you think, Honour?” Hudson slid down, her body hovering over Honour’s.

Kyree moved to the side, settling onto the floor of the cave. She kept her gaze on Hudson and Honour, not wanting to miss anything that happened between them. She needed to keep them in her sights, know what was happening. Be involved in it somehow.

“I think Kyree will make her own choices.”

“You want her, don’t you?” Hudson moved the tip of her tongue across Honour’s lips. “I can see it in your eyes, in the way you watch her, in the speed of your heart—” Hudson pressed her palm against Honour’s chest, covering her small breast and her heart in one swift move “—whenever you look at her and she looks at you. Why do you refuse to admit it?”

“I don’t,” Honour mumbled. Her cheeks rushed with a pink that Kyree had never seen before. It was adorable. Kyree wanted to know more about what was causing it.

“Oh, so no one’s ever asked before.” Hudson laughed lightly. “Then I’ll ask Kyree.” Hudson turned to Kyree. “Since you refuse to participate just yet, would you prefer to watch?”

“Watch what?” Honour asked, a bite in her tone.

“Exactly what each of us wants,” Hudson answered.

Kyree shook her head. “Permission is required.” It was the only thing she could think of to convince Hudson to stop. She seemed to push boundaries to the point of bending them, but not crossing them completely. She was someone who walked on that line—no, she danced on it, willingly.

“I think I have permission.” Hudson looked directly at Kyree before she faced Honour again. “What do you say? A kiss for your freedom.”

“Both of us,” Honour clarified.

“Both of you.” Hudson’s lips curled up, her eyes alight with excitement.

“There’s no guarantee that you’ll follow through with your end of the bargain.” Honour didn’t move. She continued to keep her body rigid as she stared up into Hudson’s face.

“What do you have to lose if I do? It’s a simple kiss.”

“It’s more than a kiss,” Honour answered.

“She’s not wrong,” Hudson said to Kyree. Turning back to Honour, Hudson winked. “But I want to know if Kyree is as intrigued by me as I am by her. And I know her people move slowly.”

Honour flicked her gaze to Kyree’s, locking their eyes together. It was as if she was trying to say something through one simple look, but Kyree couldn’t understand what it was. She didn’t know what to say or do. She sat there, filled with fear and confusion and frozen to the spot. How could she stop this?

This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.

“So you want her to watch?” Honour asked. “That’s the purpose of this?”

“It’s more than a kiss,” Hudson mimicked Honour. “Deal or no deal?”

“Promise you’ll let us go,” Kyree begged, swimming even closer. She put her hand on Honour’s arm and wrapped her fingers tightly. She wanted to stop this all from happening.

Honour moved her hand up, grasping onto Kyree’s bicep as their eyes locked. “We’ll be fine.”

“Yes, we will.” Hudson settled on top of Honour even more. “I don’t go back on my word. Ever.”

Kyree sucked in a sharp breath when Honour lifted her head up and pressed her mouth to Hudson’s. She expected Hudson to dive in, to push and take and force her way in for more, but she didn’t. She held still, a genuine smile on her lips. Kyree tensed, leaning in closer and holding onto Honour’s hand on her arm like it was her lifeline.

Honour moved her free hand into Hudson’s hair and pulled her down. She parted her lips, sliding her tongue out along Hudson’s mouth and tracing the line of her lower lip. Hudson’s eyes fluttered shut as she waited for Honour to deepen the embrace.

Kyree watched with rapt attention as Honour’s tongue moved against Hudson’s, something about the wild and stoic clashing together sent thrills of pleasure all the way through Kyree’s body, heating her up, making her clit tingle. Hudson’s low, desperate moan was her undoing, and she found herself shifting to try and relieve the pressure in her tail. Honour still had a tight grip on her, not letting go as Hudson reached out and curled an arm around the middle of Kylee’s tail and dragged her in closer—as if she was supposed to be there right in the mix with them.

“S-stop,” Kyree whispered.

Hudson pulled back, her lips swollen from the kisses, her eyes wide. Honour’s face was set and firm, and Kyree couldn’t read what that look meant if she wanted to. In response, Hudson’s lips curled upward and she grinned broadly.

“Just as good as I imagined,” Hudson murmured as she backed away. She glanced at Kyree, and that grin became impossibly bigger. “Looks like we’re not the only ones who enjoyed that, Honour.”

Kyree followed Hudson’s gaze to her tail, specifically to her slit, which had parted between her scales. Only a deep arousal could do that. She’d experienced it before, but never like this, never with two near strangers, one who had saved her and one who had kidnapped her. Kyree’s cheeks burned with embarrassment.

“If only you’d allow yourself to be touched,” Hudson’s tone dripped with seduction. “Pity for all of us, I’m afraid.” Hudson swam away, out of the entrance of the cave and disappeared into the dark waters outside.

“Honour,” Kyree’s voice broke.

Honour closed her eyes and sank into the floor of the cave, closing on herself. “Don’t talk about it.”

“I’m so sorry. You shouldn’t have had to do—”

“Who do you think had the power in that exchange, Kyree?” Honour snapped. “The one who begged to be touched or the one who made the decision to do it?”

Kyree halted, again frozen by her own desire and fear. “I-I don’t know.”

“Then we have nothing more to talk about.”