Chapter 45

Asoft beat tapping against my ribs pulls me to consciousness, radiating through my heart and my fucking soul.

‘Zykanth …’

Silence.

That hollow, aching silence.

But I can feel him.

A deep, relieved sigh saws out as I open my eyes, looking down through the blushed water lapping at the mark on my chest—a fading stamp of pinched, red skin covering the remnants of the hurt.

I lift my hand and press at it, running my fingers over the puckered skin.

“She healed me …”

Where is she?

I scan the pool’s harsh edge, seeing a pile of limp, blue crabs—some bigger than my hand, most smaller than my thumb nail. My stomach growls, stare stabbing up the ravine and the stream that feeds the pool, then along the edge of the sheer, crystal cliff where I spot her. Naked.

Her wild hair sweeps past the curve of her lower back as she reaches up, stretching her body, her hand lifting slower than the rising sun. She slaps it against the rock so fast I flinch, the corner of my mouth curling up when I see a tiny, squashed crab fall off the wall and into her palm.

She holds the thing up and inspects it from all angles before dropping it in her mouth and crunching down. Swallowing, her eyes widen, arm striking through a cleft in the cliff.

The swirl in my chest churns faster, faster … while every other piece of me settles.

She whips her arm out, hand laden with a huge crab snipping at the air, and she slams it against the ground by her bare feet, her beautiful breasts bouncing with the motion. She bends down, picks up the limp crustacean, then cracks the thing in half—slurping at the meat inside.

A warmth swells inside my chest as I drink her in from afar. Every soft curve, every raw, wild edge, the deep dip I want to explore.

A familiar prickle rises on my chest, and I look down, seeing a silver scale swell to the surface.

‘Zykanth … I thought I lost you …’

The surge of relief almost flays me, and my rusty laugh ripples across the water, spilling out in giddy torrents. Vicious whips her head around and stills, her face slathered in crab innards, a thick, severed leg hanging from her mouth as she looks straight at me.

My heart flips.

A shrill sound spills from her, and she spits the leg, drops the crab, then scrambles along the river’s edge on a flurry of steps that tumble over each other. She reaches the pool and jumps, splashing my face and chest.

She disappears beneath the ruffled surface, then rises between my legs, her white hair slicked back from her face, cascading down her shoulders as she straddles me, paws at me, dragging her fingers across the scale Zykanth just gifted me from within.

She tilts forward and rubs her cheek across it … like she’s treasuring it.

My skin erupts with goosebumps.

Eyes glistening with unshed tears, she sets her hand upon the scale and nods. “Mmmine,” she murmurs through plump lips, the smooth curl of her watery voice spiraling through me, drilling down into my gut …

The urgent slither in my chest stills, and my throat swells as I cradle the wisp of her delicate voice in my heart like a jewel.

“Vicious—”

“Mine,” she repeats with the same confidence she had when she smashed that crab against the ground, nodding more fiercely now.

I thread my hand around the side of her face and grip tight, stilling the motion, looking straight into her sunshine eyes. “Yours.”

She blinks, a tear rolling down her cheek.

I lean forward and drag my tongue up the track of it, over her silky skin, tasting the burst of her emotions. Savoring them like the treasures they are.

A soft sound shudders out of her, and I feel it in my chest, dragging my nose back down, pausing with my mouth a hair’s breadth from hers. I swallow. Lick my lips. Feel the tremor of her breaths batter me as I cradle the side of her face, cherishing this moment—wishing I could set it in my trove and fawn over it for eternity.

“Yours,” I growl, then seal my lips against hers, taking her in a deep, crushing kiss. She moans into me, and I feed on her lush sounds, tilting her head for better access, delving, tasting her salty splendor.

My length hardens, throbbing, nudging at her spread entrance—bared and utterly exposed for me.

Pulling back, her eyes go wide like saucers, her full breasts rising with every sharp inhale, lips swollen, cheeks pink like the sky just before the sun crests over the ocean.

“You’re an exquisite thing,” I whisper.

She scrambles off, leaving me bereft, heaving, heart pounding—watching her clamber from the pool. “Where are you—”

She shoves the pile of dead crabs aside, then kneels on the edge and bends forward, planting her chest on the ground, face turned sideways, exposing her flush sex.

The view strikes me through the chest and takes my breath away.

Rocking forward, I wade through the water, stepping up onto a shelf in the pool and rising behind her. I plant my hand down the line of her spine and press it between her shoulder blades, her body quivering beneath my touch.

Her lashes flutter, and she releases a soft, pleading sound that snaps me.

“You want me to take you, Vicious?”

She nods, mewling, pushing her bum back so it brushes against my hard, heavy, aching cock.

Fuck.

Sliding my hands down her back, I spread them across the perfect globes of her ass and take my fill.

Her hips rock the slightest amount.

I trail them farther down, grasping handfuls of the fleshy crease between her ass and thighs, spreading her apart.

I crouch. Look at her flush opening.

More soft whimpers, and she skirts back another inch …

With a hungry growl, I drag my tongue up her gaping entrance, moaning at her raw, salty tang when she backs onto my face. Forces me deeper between her crease.

I dig my tongue into her hungry core, gorging on the taste of her crude desire, cock twitching. Her whimpers turn to moans as I spear my tongue into her warmth, and her insides clamp around it.

Pulling back, I leave her smeared across my chin and grip my cock, dragging it up and down her pulsing core.

She arches her spine, presenting, panting soundlessly, then looks at me over her shoulder, mouth popped open and those golden eyes alight. I hold her blazing stare and sink forward one stretching inch at a time, staking my claim on her tight, velvet depths.

Her eyes roll into the back of her head as I ease myself to the hilt, then hold her hips, pausing … mesmerized by the sweet rapture that pours across her features.

“Mine.”

Her voice almost breaks me, my hard length surging with a hot ache.

“Yes,” I grind out, pulling my hips back, then thrusting forward, drinking from her raw, erotic sounds that still that tap in my chest.

Again and again and again I drive into her in long, claiming strikes, voracious grunts trapped behind my clenched teeth.

I lower upon her back, shielding her with my body, easing my hand between her legs. I delve my fingers through her folds and caress her swollen nub, and her entire body shudders. Her hips roll, pushing into me, her ass and thighs absorbing my thrusts as my thick shaft slides in and out of her perfect trove.

“Who am I?” I rumble against her ear.

“Mine!”

I groan, a hot surge swelling through me, tightening my balls and making my hips dig deeper, deeper …

She tilts her head, exposing the stretched slope of her delicate neck for me to nuzzle into, and her muscles clamp down in a pulsing flutter.

That beat inside my chest strengthens, growing into a fierce, ancient throb …

‘Claim …’ Zykanth growls, his voice wild and unleashed, swirling through my chest. ‘Claim!’

I whip my head forward with the strike of rapture, and Vicious breaks apart around me, milking me as I sink my teeth into her neck. Her flesh bursts, and the smooth, velvety taste of her lifeblood cracks what’s left of my composure.

I spill into her, planting my seed so deep inside her body I picture it taking root, entwining us until the end of time.

My own savage, unbuffered burst of sun and sea …

Mine.