Chapter 21

Daios had seen Mira and Arges kiss before. He'd even asked Maketes what they were doing, considering how disgusting it was to watch. Mouths were for eating, nothing more than that. It was sickening to watch the two of them fit together like that. He also thought it was a risk every time they did it underwater, considering Mira couldn't breathe like they could.

All of it had led him to believe that kisses were, unsurprisingly, something that only humans did and that he would never partake in.

But the moment her lips pressed to his, something snapped inside of him.

Like he'd been just waiting for this moment to feel that soft mouth against his. As though the cushion of her lips had unlocked some demon deep in his chest that he had only held barely leashed until this point.

He grabbed onto her, his clawed hand tearing at the fabric of her clothing. He didn't care if it fluttered to the floor because she was suddenly pressed up against him again. He could hear the soft little moan that rocked through the back of her throat and the way she arched into him.

Her hands pressed to his chest, so tiny that even if she tried to push him away, he might not feel the pressure. Her tongue swept against his lower lip and suddenly she was sucking on his bottom lip and all he could think about was what it would feel like if she sucked on something else. But that wasn't done. None of his people were soft like this when they fucked, and not when they mated, either.

Still, he enjoyed the sensation of her softness spreading throughout his entire body. Her hands came up around his neck, pulling him down closer to her while his claws spasmed against her back.

She wasn't ripping at him. Not tearing. Not fighting the way their people would, and he wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad sign. He was floating in a haze of desire and passion, and he felt like he was maybe doing this wrong.

Until he opened his mouth to tell her that, and her tongue swept into his mouth.

Her flavor exploded into his senses. That warm, sweet taste reminded him so much of home. She was a candy he wanted to lick from bottom to top, just to know that sweet flavor that would never, ever leave his memory.

Letting out a low groan, he pulled her even tighter to him. Was he crushing her? Probably. But she would tell him if he was doing this wrong. For now, he wanted to just indulge himself and drown in her.

Her tiny nails dug into the back of his neck and dragged down the cords of muscle there. His answering groan mixed with the breathy sound of her pleasure had all his gills flaring wide. They fluttered, shaking with such intensity he could almost feel the wind of them as his entire body told him to claim, take, fuck.

Anya noticed. Her soft little gasp and the way she pulled back told him she had no idea why his gills moved for her. But her eyes on him... He loved it. He loved it when she looked at him without fear or concern or even disgust, as he had expected her kind to do.

Instead, she just looked at his gills standing on end and the differences between them with a soft smile on her face. "They're beautiful, you know."

He shook his head, not sure if he was denying that anything about him was beautiful, or just that she had pulled away from him.

Her lips were swollen and stained as red as his scales. He couldn't stop looking at those lips and this woman who surprised him so much, when all he'd expected from her was hesitation. But then again, she'd let him touch her. And that memory was burned into his brain so much that he would never be able to forget it.

She took a deep breath, her eyes looking him over, although her gaze always ended on his mouth.

She wanted to kiss him again.

Claws clenching in the back of her clothing, he gave himself a thousand reasons to not tug her back into his arms. She was too delicate. He had no way of knowing if achromos had to rest after.... kissing. He wasn't sure if he could break her with his affection. He should have asked Arges far more questions when his brother had offered his advice, and instead, he was forced to hope she would take the lead.

This was not how a warrior would act. It was how a mate would act, though. The stark difference suddenly chilled his passion and froze him to the very core. He had always been a warrior. Not a lover. And certainly not a mate. He wasn't sure he knew how to be anything else.

She traced her finger over his lips, such a delicate little digit that he could so easily break with just a snap of his sharp teeth.

"Thank you for that," she whispered when he did not reply to her original words. "I didn't want to die without knowing what it was like."

He nipped at her finger, then forced himself to release her. Though his hand trailed slowly from her body to nudge the little droid down her face so she could hear what he was saying. "You are not going to die, kalon."

"You keep calling me that. It's not my name."

"I know it's not your name." He flashed the hand motions that she had given for him. "Big man is not my name either."

She tsked, the sound cut off by a violent shiver that ran through her body. "That's the name I gave you."

"Kalon is the name I gave you." Daios scooped the wetsuit off the floor and handed it to her. "You're going to freeze if you don't put this on."

"But what does it mean?" She took the wetsuit from him, though. At the very least, she was following his directions. "You know the meaning of the name I gave you."

Grunting, he ignored her question and waited until she gave him a look that said she wanted him to turn around. But this time, he wasn't going to listen to her.

He didn't want to turn around. Not after that kiss. Not after hearing her sweet moans and feeling that soft, wet heat. No, he wanted to look, and he wanted her to trust him.

Anya turned the wetsuit this way and that in her hands, her breath fogging in front of her face as she gathered herself. He could tell she wanted to tell him something. She always looked like this when she had something on her mind.

Finally, she blew out a long breath. "You said I'm not going to die, but the mask is broken. Bitsy can't fix it."

When she looked up at him with those sad, blue orbs, he felt like he could have fought off the entire sea for her. Even though he'd told himself he wouldn't fall deeper into this mating madness, he sighed, "That's fine."

"That's fine?" She tossed her arms out at her side, the wetsuit flopping against the metal floor. "I can't breathe underwater, Daios!"

"I know you can't." He reached for her, trailing his fingers down the side of her neck where his tentacle would sink into her skin. "But I can."

"You make no sense," she grumbled. But she still turned her back to him and started yanking off the fabric that hid her from his gaze.

For a time now, he thought he'd imagined how she looked. That those long limbs and shadows in between the muscles of her back had been his imagination. No achromo could ever be pretty. But he was wrong.

All that pale skin was revealed with a quick jerk that showed every inch of her to his hungry gaze. And by all the gods of the sea, was he hungry for her.

Her back would look so pretty, with red lines from his claws running down it. He knew she would welt. He could already see the marks over her hip bones that he'd left just from pawing at her. At the sight of them, he wanted to create more. He wanted to rake his nails down her sides just to see the red lines that would linger for days after he was done with her.

A low growl echoed in his throat as his gaze trailed up to her shoulders. That lovely golden hair swayed against her spine, and he wanted to wrap it in his fist. He wanted to tangle his fingers in those pretty locks and turn her neck to the side so he could bite her. He wanted everyone to look at her and know that she was taken.

That she was his.

But then she bent at the waist and any thoughts completely disappeared from his mind. Those tails. Legs, he corrected himself. A man would commit murder to catch a glimpse of those legs.

Long and lean, he wanted nothing more than to have her straddle him again. This time without the layers of clothing that kept the sight of her skin from his eyes. He wanted to wrap his hand around them, to see what it looked like to have his claw points pressing into the tender flesh there. He wondered at the kind of sound she would make when she felt him pressing to the point of breaking skin.

Perhaps he was too violent for most of his kind, but he had a feeling he was the right kind of violent for her.

She looked over her shoulder, still bent down and giving him the most perfect view of her muscular globes that looked like the moon. "Would you turn around now?"

Even to him, his voice sounded hoarse. "Absolutely not."

"Putting on a wetsuit isn't the most graceful process. I know you think I look good now, but I'm about to make a fool of myself."

"I'll watch." He had a hard time believing anything she did would put him off. She captivated him with just a flick of her hair over her shoulder.

Until he watched her put on that wetsuit. And suddenly he knew what it meant to have control, because he nearly burst out laughing multiple times. She shook, shimmied, pushed, and turned bright red in the face as she tried for long moments to get the wetsuit on.

He bit his lips and tried very hard to not say a word as she hopped up and down, only getting the material up a few inches at a time. Although the movement bounced her breasts rather entertainingly, it was hard to focus on that when she was cursing with every movement.

By the time her wetsuit snagged over her hips, she was breathless and angry. "You wipe that smile off your face, Daios."

He did not.

"I mean it. I will come over there and... and..."

Tilting his head to the side, he gave her a feral grin that usually made people quake in fear. "What will you do, kalon?"

She stomped her little foot, adorably infuriated. "I don't know! I will come over there and do whatever it takes. Now, will you help me, or are you just going to watch me struggle?"

"I was unaware I was supposed to help." He didn't stop grinning as he gestured for her to turn around, and then held onto the limp arm of her suit. "By all means, princess. Allow me."

"Princess," she muttered, yanking him a little closer so her arm was finally in the slot. "You know my father used to call me that all the time? Especially when I complained."

He could understand why. But he didn't want to be compared to that man. So instead, he leaned forward and in the lowest, most guttural tones he could reach, he purred in her ear, "Kalon, then."

The shudder that went through her entire body was all too delicious. But then the entire building gave another groan, and he knew they had run out of time.

"Anya, will your eye piece survive in the sea?"

"What?" she asked, looking over her shoulder with her eyes a little glazed. Clearly she couldn't hear the higher pitched creaking of the building.

"Your..." He gestured over his face.

"Oh. Bitsy?"

The two of them seemed to talk for a moment, words flashing in front of Anya's eyes before she gave him a quick nod. "I guess so? She said she'll be fine, but once we are somewhere dry, I will have to air out her circuit boards. But they should be waterproof. At least for a while."

"Good. I do not wish to damage… her." Even though it felt rather unnatural to worry about something that was made of metal and yet had life. The things he did for this achromo that she would never understand were strange.

Once they got the wetsuit on, he wrapped her in his good arm and slithered back toward the opening. He knew the instant she stopped trusting him. Or perhaps when her survival instinct kicked in.

"Wait, Daios. I can't breathe underwater, remember? I don't want to..."

He pressed his finger to her lips. "I am not going to kill you, Anya. I only wish to take care of you, remember?"

Her wide-eyed gaze locked with his, but then she set her jaw. He knew she was ready, even if she was terrified.

"Trust me."

He drew her into the water with him, holding her closer when the shivers started. Soon she would warm up. His body would heat hers, but for now, she needed to shiver to get her temperature higher. Tucking her underneath his chin, he tucked her against his shoulder so he couldn't see her face. If she balked or grew too nervous, he wouldn't be able to do this.

"The People of Water have always been alone. The achromos, what we call your people, they have always been separate from our kind. But a year ago, a woman arrived. My brother took her as his mate and they have been discovering all the ways that we... fit."

He winced at the choice of words. That was a terrible way to explain this to her, and she likely thought... Well, he didn't want to know what she thought.

Shaking his head, he continued as he lowered her further into the water. The waves lapped at her neck now, and she clung to him as she hadn't when they first fled from her city.

"There are parts of me that can help you." He cleared his throat. "It won't hurt very much, but it will feel strange."

She struggled to pull away from him, but he didn't let her. He couldn't. If he thought for a moment he was hurting her, then he wouldn't be able to do this.

Biting his lip, he whispered again, "I promise it won't hurt."

She wriggled, but he held onto her with his short arm while he lifted the tentacle to her neck. He would make sure she could breathe. That was all he could do for her as they fled from this dying building.

Anya stiffened in his arms as the cord slid into her throat. He could feel the seal was good. They were connected. More than he had ever hoped to be connected to her because right now, he was breathing for her. He drew them underneath the water, pressing a kiss to her lips as he carried her into the depths.

Low and resonating in the water, he murmured, "How I wish I could keep you. But I cannot. No matter how much I want to."