That delicate, crystalline water poured through the female, emerging into a puddle. Instead of taking the nymph’s form once more, the puddle didn’t stir.
Panic raced into Theron’s veins. Assuming his crab’s claws, he scuttled down the side of the precipice, sprinting toward the puddle. He halted before the water, tentatively extending his hand. “Cyane. Awaken.” He caressed his fingers across the deathly still surface.
Nothing happened. Crowds of Karkinos gathered around them, shocked whispers ebbing through the throng.
The puddle didn’t move. Cyane didn’t move.
He was losing her.
Theron crushed his fist into the ground, fighting the spikes of pain in his chest. “Don’t leave me, Cyane. I’m not finished with you yet.” He held his breath, a cloud of silence passing over them.
At last, a ripple shimmered across the puddle’s surface. Painfully slowly, the liquid assumed a feminine shape, condensing into Cyane. Her lashes fluttered and she moaned.
Theron scooped her straight into his arms and strode through the parting crowd, toward their healer’s room. He paused at the archway, bellowing, “Elpida!”
The silver-haired female rose from a chair and glided toward them. “Set her down.” She waved toward a chaise longue. Theron obeyed, and Cyane’s limp form appeared so small and vulnerable. He fisted his hands at his sides, helpless.
“It’s too much,” Elpida tsked.
“Aye,” he grated, “but try telling her that.”
“I can,” Cyane rasped, “handle it.”
He shot his gaze to her face, and frowned as she struggled to lift open her eyes. “Nay, you can’t. You must stop this.”
“I’ll stop,” panting heavily, she rose onto her elbows to glare at him, “when they’re all cured.”
“Argh, you’re damned stubborn, you know that.” He lunged forward to kneel and glower at her. “I forbid you to continue this madness.”
“You can’t forbid me. I’m not one of your people, Theron.” Her depths flashed, the sparkle returning to them.
“Oh, but I can put these back on you.” He plucked the manacles from his pocket and dangled them beneath her nose.
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Aye, I would. If it meant saving you from foolishly risking your life.” He snapped them closed in his palm. “What would you have done, if you’d remained a puddle? Eh?”
“I would have hauled myself out, after a rest.” She folded her arms, the color returning to her cheeks and flaming across them.
He snorted. “Unlikely. Next time, it will only be worse.”
“Hmm, she seems well enough for now. I’ll leave you two alone, to ah, discuss matters.” Elpida slipped from the room while they continued to stare at each other.
The air was thick, tense, and stifling. He scraped a hand across his jaw, struggling for control. “It’s time to stop. To seek out another solution. That’s what I was doing before I came across you.”
“No, you were right. There isn’t time.” She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t misunderstand my words. You were wrong, horribly so and selfish, in capturing me and forcing my aid, but you were also right.”
He scoffed, the quirk playing across her lips threatening to break through his hard shell of anger.
“Tell me, how was I right?”
“This is the correct path.” She swept a hand across her body. “I can do this. The disease, it’s unlike anything I’ve encountered, and with every person I cure, each time I face Loimos, it’s as though he recognizes me. He recalls defeat and grows stronger, fights back. Theron, my battle with the disease, it’s personal.”
“Personal?”
She nodded eagerly, sitting straighter. “It’s like I’m fighting my own demons. The exact opposite of everything I am. My perfect opponent. We know each other now. I can’t stay away and let Loimos win. I won’t.”
“The decision isn’t yours to make.” The struggle inside him had only one clear solution. “I was wrong when I declared the lives of my people were worth more than one life. Than your life.”
Edging forward, he clasped her hand. “Soteira, your life is worth more to me than any other.”
Chapter 7
A sizzling jolt spread from Theron’s hand to hers and Cyane inhaled sharply. Every ounce of fatigue drained from her body, leaving her revitalized. The intense earnest in those stormy pools poured into her soul.
How could she yield to his wishes, when she’d finally discovered her path? One which led away from him.
True, the effects of battling the disease frightened her. Especially when it took more and more strength to restore herself. They were also hard to accept since, only moments later, she experienced this rush of renewed energy.
These people were more than a mission. The Karkinos were kind, generous, and welcoming. They’d accepted her into their homes and treated her as an equal. For the first time in her life, she wasn’t the young sister of her four elder brothers. She wasn’t someone to be approached with caution, lest they spark her brothers’ displeasure.
She had an identity among these people. And it was one she savored. “I must help them, Theron. Please understand.”
“You presume I don’t?” Scoffing, he shook his head. “I would give my own life to see them restored, but I can’t sacrifice yours.” He raised a penetrating stare to her face.
The intensity in his perusal fired alarms within her. Perhaps it was the possessiveness. Or the yearning. “Theron, don’t.”
Did she reciprocate those emotions? In every inch of her heart, but love would only complicate this situation. She’d never intended to stay, and pursuing a connection with Theron would tear apart his soul when she left.
“How can you ask me to deny my heart what it longs to possess?”
How, indeed. She inhaled, the air heavy in her lungs. “I’m not going to stay.”
“I know.” He squeezed her hand and glanced aside. “You’re going to take me to Mount Ida.”
“Mount Ida?”
A firm nod. “The waters you draw power from might cure my people entirely. We must go to that place. I’ll beseech Zeus if I have to.”
“You said there’s no time.”
“Not for all of us. But for one, to go and unearth a complete solution, it’s worth the risk.”
“You could send Talos, or—”
“Nay. This is mine to fix. Talos is a strong leader. He’ll ensure the safety of our people while I’m gone.” Theron swung his scrutiny to her. “Will you do this for me? For my people?”
Her elation sank as the truth of what he was asking flooded her. He meant to convey her to Mount Ida, and abandon her there.
“No, you’re as stifling as my brothers. You perceive a task you deem too hard for me, so you shield me from it instead of letting me try. I won’t stay on Mount Ida. You can’t make me.”
“Your brothers might have something else to say about the matter once I restore you to them.”
“You beast.” She wrenched her hand from his and shot to her feet. “This isn’t fair.”
“Fair? Cyane, I’m attempting to correct my actions. Those weren’t fair. Hauling you to my home, against your will. Forcing you to sacrifice yourself. Keeping you from your family…”
“These people are my family, too.” Tears stung her eyes as she blinked. “They care for me in ways I haven’t experienced since my village was destroyed. I can’t abandon them, not even to save myself. You don’t understand.”
“Sweet Cyane, I understand too well. My desperation to cure them made me a monster. I won’t let it consume you, too.”
“No.” She set her shoulders as resolve flooded through her. “I was held prisoner by a monster, and Theron, you are not one.”
Theron led her to his chamber. Once inside, he cradled Cyane’s cheek in his hand, his heart shattering. In his gut, he sensed this was the right thing to do. “You will always be a part of us, but you can’t forget where you come from. Your peopl
e need you, too. I refuse to keep you selfishly for myself. You should be glad of this. I’m freeing you at last.”
“What if I don’t wish to be freed?” she whispered, closing her hand atop his. “Don’t make me go.”
He lowered his hand and released hers. “What happened today can’t happen again. If you succumbed to this, it would break me.” The centuries of hardening his shell were no match for the force her death would crush upon him. “Mayhap, I’m being selfish once again.” Better to send her home, where she’d be cared for, and safe. At least, he would die knowing peace.
“I’ll stop, until we find another solution. Anything but this.” She lifted onto her tiptoes, grabbing his shoulders, her azure depths pleading. “I’m not ready to part from you yet.”
Tilting her mouth, she feathered her lips to his, and he groaned, shuttering his eyes. “I fear I’m not ready to let go of you, either.” Not when her sweet taste flowed across his mouth like crisp, refreshing water on a parched throat. Soothing and luring, demanding he sample more.
Theron snared her hand, his fingers delving through her short, curled locks, and seized her mouth. Plundering, he claimed her sweet kisses, demanding she surrender each and every one of them.
Damn the gods. Why hadn’t she consented to leaving? He might have found the strength to dismiss her, if she’d but have gone willingly.
Here, in his arms, she clung to him, her arms wrapped about him, refusing to let go. He gathered her hair in his hands, cradling her head and, dragging away his mouth, bent his forehead to hers. “Tell me what I am to do, Soteira. For I am yours to command and I seek only to please you.”
“Trust me.” She skimmed her fingertips across his jaw. “Feel for me, as you have been. When I’m with you, the exhaustion and weakness drains from me. Your presence makes me whole again. And when you kiss me…”
“Aye? What happens when I kiss you?” He quirked his lips with a seductive wickedness. To think he had an effect on Cyane, just as she did on him, drove his lust that much higher.
“It sparks me to life.” She arched her chin and snared his mouth, kissing him fervently. After a moment, she pulled back, panting.
“Hmm, and what happens when I do this?” He spread his palm across her breast, cupping the firm, delicious weight.
She mewled, leaning into his caress. “The energy spirals, ever lower.” She seized his other hand, drawing it across her body, down between her thighs. “To here.”
It was his turn to rumble in irresistible thirst. He delved his fingers between her legs, stroking her through the fabric of her breeches.
“Oh, yes.” She flung her arms around his neck, pressing into his hand, rubbing against his hold.
This intense attraction was too much for either of them to deny. He viewed the same conclusion in her eyes.
He was going to claim her.
And she was going to claim him.
They crashed into each other, as unwavering as the force of the tide against the shore. Swift. Relentless. Inescapable.
Theron hoisted her into his arms, wrapping her legs about his waist, and strode to the table, where he set her onto its surface. Then he kissed her neck, sensuously pressing his lips to the silken skin below her ear. He tugged off her breeches and tunic, flinging the garments to the ground.
Slowly, he unbuttoned his shirt, his greedy perusal roaming across her bared curves. She placed her hands on either side of her, meeting his gaze with hunger in her own.
Theron stepped from his breeches, his cock already thick and hard for her. He positioned himself between her legs, gripping her knees and spreading them wide. The glistening pink flesh within beckoned him, and he positioned the tip of his arousal at her entrance.
Snaring her about the waist, he peered into her eyes, thrust his hips into hers, and drove inside her. She gasped and lunged forward to bite his shoulder. He rested within her blissful heat, unmoving, until the tension released from her muscles and her core tightened around him.
It was hard and fast, rough and raw, but everything they both needed. Too many times had he questioned this; for once, he’d simply act as his heart, mind, and body demanded.
Theron planted his hands beneath her bottom and hoisted her as he pumped in and out, a slowly augmenting rhythm while she adjusted to his penetration. Her sharp nails cut into his back, piercing him as he pierced her. His equal in everything. He rocked his hips forward and back, lowering his head to suckle her breast. A burst of lust crashed into him and she whimpered as well, her sheath growing wetter and clenching tighter.
Obedient, he pounded into her, his erection impaling her and retreating with an insistent ferocity. She clinched her legs tighter to his waist, her hips bucking to meet his thrusts and her airy cries crashing into his ears.
Suddenly, she tensed, and he sensed her release taking hold. His own would no longer be denied, either, so he roared and shoved his hips forward, burying deep inside her. He spilled his seed, clutching her bottom to cement their joining.
The pleasure shot through him, sending small jolts of bliss into his ballocks for long moments afterward, and he shuddered at the intensity. Never had he experienced such a connection when making love. Never had it felt so right.
She shivered in his arms, her breath shaky. He leaned backward, maintaining their connection, and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“Promise me you won’t regret that,” she teased.
“Nay, I promise I won’t.” He carried her to the bed and settled onto it with her legs wrapped about his waist, her back pressed into the bed and him hovering above her. “Regret that,” he drove forward, his length already stiff again, “or this.”
She moaned, arching her neck, her soft body melting into surrender while he pumped inside her.
“I told you, nymph. I’m not finished with you yet.”
Theron’s seductive taunt rippled through Cyane, making her entire body tingle with awareness of how strong her yearning had grown.
Not just for this moment of lovemaking. For Theron by her side. She longed to face the world and every impossibility with him.
In time, they might do just that.
She raised her fingers to caress his cheek, enjoying the breathtaking view of him, grunting and groaning as he pleasured her body and took his pleasure from hers.
For the first time, she didn’t hate her brothers for keeping this part of her nature from her. To experience this moment with Theron was right.
To be with him was right.
She’d never permit anyone to convince her it was anything else.
Suddenly, he spun her in his arms, lifting her leg this way and spinning her body that, until she was on her stomach, breathless with his heavy rigidness pulsing in the heat between her thighs. Theron’s brawny arms planted on either side of her head, those decadent muscles flexing with strength and masculinity, calling to the innermost parts of her nymph nature.
He shoved forward along the length of her body, his shaft thrusting inside her, deeper and harder, more demanding than before.
As though he could sear his mark upon her.
And make her his.
She arched her hips, matching his strokes, submitting to his branding and meeting it with hers. Searching within, she concentrated on her powers, and on the fierce passion rolling off him.
“Ughn, sweet…nymph,” he ground, the words rasping from within his chest. “Feel what you do to me.” Theron rammed his thickness inside her, consuming her. He couldn’t possibly grow any harder or longer, and his heavy weight inside her stirred her release.
She bucked against him, sliding along his erection, until the peak of her hunger wouldn’t be denied. Crying out, she muffled her face in the pillow, fingers clawing at the sheets.
His hands braced on her bottom, he pumped inside her, a sensual rocking that prolonged her ecstasy, until he joined her in bliss, roaring while white heat poured into her.
The sensation of his seed slick between her thighs and the scent o
f their lovemaking raw in the air swept her into a dizzying whirlwind of desire. As though, once awakened, her nymph instincts tore through her, demanding their utter satiation.
“I can’t get enough of you, Theron,” she panted, squeezing her thighs together and moaning in delight at the hardness pressing between them.
“Isn’t it clear, neither can I,” he droned, settling atop her and pressing a light kiss to her shoulder. Sighing, he rolled to his side, towing her alongside with him, so her back fit perfectly against his chest, and they curled together on their sides. His large, warm hands roamed across her body, caressing, exploring, possessing.
Slowly, as though every moment in the world belonged to them, he claimed her body again, and tightened his hold on her heart.
They tangled their bodies together, entwining their destinies. A lightness enveloped her, steeling her resolve, as though she could face any disease and come out victorious.
With Theron by her side, she just might.
The next morning, Theron ambled down the cliff to check on his warriors. On the shore, he performed the morphos into his crab form. The searing transformation stretched his muscles more than usual, but he rolled his claws and dismissed the discomfort.
Talos waved at him and sprinted to his side.
“What do you say we train in the west field…”
Instead of following to where he pointed, his brother gaped at him. “Sweet gods, Theron, what have you done to yourself?”
“What?” He spun about, lifting his ten legs in turn. “Nothing.”
Talos jerked his head toward Theron’s left claw. “That’s not nothing.”
His heart racing, Theron twisted his crab form and gaped. Like all Karkinos, his shell bore etched runes that swirled in incandescent spirals. But few Karkinos had a marking like this.
It almost looked like…
“A bonding mark.” Talos whipped his head. “Great Zeus, what happened? Is it Cyane?”
He tried to answer, but the words stuck in his throat. Scuttling backward, he transformed into a man before anyone else detected this. Until they were mated, this mark would appear only on his crab form.
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