Under (Titans, #0)

by Lazu, Sotia

  Was she that fickle?

  Over the years, she’d gone to the surface time and again, to find true love. She fell for mortals and lost them. Lost herself.

  It never worked, but she kept trying and failing and forgetting, and Delphinos... So many of her memories involved him—in this form, in his half-human one, and as a dolphin. He checked in on her when she went to shore. And he was there when she got lost. “You always bring me back.”

  Delphinos nodded. “Always.”

  “Thank you.” Halie no longer cared that she was naked in front of him. He’d seen her before. Had her before. He might have been her happy ever after, but even if he saw her as more than a friend, she wasn’t meant for him. She was meant for a mortal she hadn’t met yet. The witch deemed it so.

  She crawled back to Delphinos and claimed his lips. He tasted like home and happiness, and she’d have to give him up again and keep looking, or Vythos, this kingdom in the bottom of the Ionian Sea, was doomed.

  Chapter Three - Delphinos

  Another one bit the sand.

  Unsurprisingly, this guy Joss wasn’t Halie’s fated match either.

  Fucking prophecies. Delphinos should end the sea witch, come what may.

  But Halie wouldn’t like that. She was set on fulfilling her destiny and doing her part to save her people.

  Because she had to be noble, on top of stunning and kind, with a smile that could melt the coldest heart, and those hazel eyes...

  And he should stop thinking of her as more than a friend with benefits. That was all he was to her, after all.

  He sucked her bottom lip between his teeth and swallowed her moan. He wished he could get lost in her—it had been too long since he felt her body yield around him—but now wasn’t the time.

  He fisted his hand in her fiery hair and pulled back from the kiss, taking the time to study her face. She’d pierced her nose. It suited her. “We mustn’t keep your parents waiting. They’ve missed you too.”

  She licked her lips, and he wanted to devour her again, but they were atop the castle, where any merpeople floating around the bubble could see them. It wouldn’t do for one of the king’s daughters to be seen frolicking with a common daimon.

  He stood and helped her up and into one of the seaweed robes hanging beside the door that led inside. Thetis, Halie’s oldest sister, had installed the garments near all entrances a handful of centuries ago, to offer mermaids that entered the bubble a semblance of modesty. Delphinos found them pretentious as a rule, but now he was thankful for the cover. The king and queen wouldn’t appreciate seeing his erection, especially when their daughter was the one who caused it.

  He and Halie entered the tower and took the stairs down hand in hand, but she let go as they approached the throne room, where her parents and the witch awaited.

  Doris smiled, and Halie burrowed into her mother’s arms. “I’m sorry I failed again, Mother. I was so sure I got it right this time.”

  Nereus caressed his daughter’s head. “You are here, and you are well. That as all that matters,” he said in his booming voice, and then smiled at Delphinos. “And you are a good man, and a true friend to my daughter. Thank you.”

  Delphinos nodded, as if the friend part didn’t pierce both of his hearts. One of these times, Halie would return home with her human mate in tow. And on that day, Delphinos would have nothing left to live for.

  But for now, he smiled, and he kept smiling when the witch turned her white pupils his way. She was said to be blind, but her scrutiny threatened to buckle his knees. Did she see through him? Could she tell he didn’t give a carp’s ass if the merpeople survived and prospered? That he wanted Halie to himself?

  The corners of the witch’s lips twitched, and she adjusted her grip on her cane, so she stood upright. For a split second, the withered crone appeared as a young woman with long dark hair, kind blue eyes, and a generous mouth. Then the illusion crumbled, and she averted that all-knowing dead gaze. “Welcome home, Princess,” she said to Halie. “I wish you better luck next time.”

  Delphinos tried to excuse himself, but Halie rushed to his side, plastered her body to his, and grabbed his arm with both hands. “Nonsense. You’re eating with us.”

  In human form, they couldn’t send each other their thoughts, but when he caught her gaze, he was pretty sure about what she had in mind for after dinner. So he followed the royal family to the ball room, and Halie’s siblings who still lived in the palace joined them.

  Delphinos ate and made small talk. He paid the women compliments and exchanged tortured looks with Nerites, the Nereids’ only brother. And all the while, his attention was on Halie, who talked about Joss—with the amazing house and good manners and lavish parties—and what a pity it was things didn’t work out between them.

  “I’m sorry to be leaving before dessert,” Halie said a dozen courses later, “but I’m exhausted.”

  King Nereus laid a kiss on her temple. “Of course, darling. Have pleasant dreams.”

  Delphinos joined the others in wishing Halie a good night, and didn’t miss the tiny tilt of her head toward the exit, meant for him only. He pretended to be interested in the chatter around him for a few heartbeats, and then pushed his chair back and stood. “If you’ll excuse me, I should turn in too.”

  The smirk on Queen Doris’s lips was more knowing than he was comfortable with. “It has been a long day. Sleep well, Delphinos.”

  He exited the ball room, made sure nobody was watching, and rushed upstairs, to Halie’s bedroom. He knocked on her door and held his breath. Could he have imagined her signal? Maybe she wasn’t in the mood for... him, tonight or ever again. They hadn’t talked about the sex thing; it had just happened. Several times. Over a few decades. Which didn’t mean it would keep happening.

  She threw open the door completely naked, saving him from his rambling thoughts. A gem glistened in her belly button. “I thought you’d never get here,” she said.

  He didn’t have time to reply, before she pulled him inside and shoved the door shut. And then he didn’t care to reply, because Halie lay back on the pillows that covered her coral bed and spread her legs.

  “I missed you,” she said.

  Delphinos dropped to his knees between her thighs and ran his thumb along the silky down that covered her slit. “Didn’t Joss do this for you?”

  She dug her right heel in his back and pressed him closer. “I didn’t let him.”

  He wanted to ask why, but her answer might be something other than, because he wasn’t you, so he buried his face in her mound and ran his tongue along her slit. Halie bucked her hips, but he splayed his palm on her flat stomach and held her still. “Let me enjoy this. It’s been too long,” he murmured against her mons and swiped his tongue up again, separating her nether lips. He found her clit and drew a tight circle around it with the tip of his tongue, his senses attuned to her slightest response. A hushed moan. The tiny breath she sucked in. The tensing of her hamstrings against his shoulders.

  He closed his lips around the small button and sucked. Tapped it with the flat of his tongue. When she gasped, “More,” he grazed her clit with his teeth and slipped a finger into her wet, tight pussy.

  Halie tangled her fingers in his hair and grinded against his face. “More. I need you.” Her juices were the gods’ nectar.

  Delphinos wanted nothing more than to disrobe and sheathe himself inside her, but this wasn’t about what he wanted. This was about making her come apart with pleasure. And when she did allow another man to taste her, she’d have no choice but to compare him to Delphinos and find him lacking.

  “Do you need me? Or do you need this?” He shook off her grip and added a second finger inside her, curling them both, to rub against the spot that drove her crazy.

  “Mmm...”

  With a last long kiss to her clit, he begrudgingly lifted his face from her pussy, to watch her as he took his time pumping his fingers in and out of her silken heat.

  Her red hair fa
nned out around her face, in striking contrast with her pale skin and white beddings. She stretched her arms over her head and held on to the corals, but her big, hazel eyes were on him as her body rocked in time to his strokes and her face contorted in ecstasy.

  Ignoring the need throbbing in his groin, in favor of drawing out her pleasure, Delphinos kept his thrusts long and slow, and feathered his thumb over her clit.

  The flush creeping up her chest and spreading to her cheeks was mesmerizing. He loved turning her this shade of pink. Her nipples strained, hard and rosy and begging to be touched. With his free hand, he cupped one perfect breast and rolled the tip. Tweaked. Tugged.

  “I want to watch you come,” he said. “Now.” When Halie fluttered her eyelashes and bit her lip, he pressed his thumb on her clit and twisted. She groaned, so he did it again. Harder. And again, pinching her nipple at the same time.

  Halie’s eyes rolled back, her hips flying off the mattress, and she let out a keening sound that had him praying to Poseidon the king and queen were still busy with their dinner party.

  She clenched around his fingers and held her arms out to him. “Inside me. Please.”

  It took all he had, to say, “Not tonight.” When he took her again, it wouldn’t be because she hadn’t been touched in a month. She’d be sated and burning with desire for him alone.

  As a friend, of course.

  He kept fucking her with his hand until her thrashing stopped and her legs flopped limply off the bed. Then he crawled beside her, tucked her against his side, and maneuvered the covers over them. “I’m sorry things didn’t work out with John,” he whispered and kissed her temple. In a way, it wasn’t a lie. Though it would destroy him to see Halie with another male, he wanted her to be happy, and she wouldn’t be truly happy without her one true love. Who, according to a much-hated sea hag, was to be found on dry land.

  “Thank you. But you know it’s Joss.”

  Like Delphinos could forget the name of any man who took Halie from the sea. “Whatever. I’m sorry he was the wrong guy.”

  She turned in his embrace, to lay a gentle kiss on his lips. “I feel so stupid. I should have seen it sooner. He never asked anything about me. It was all about him and his stupid job and his dysfunctional family.” She sneaked one hand under the seaweed robe, to rest it on his chest, and pressed her cheek over it. “How were things down here, while I was gone?”

  Miserable. “The same. You know. The jellyfish had some issues with a passerby flock of tunas, but your dad—” He filled her in on what little she’d missed, until she yawned again.

  “You should rest. We’ll talk more tomorrow.” He tightened his hold on her the littlest bit, pretending she was his to keep, and waited for sleep to claim him too.

  Chapter Four - Halie

  Halie stretched, and smiled when her chest pressed into Delphinos’ hard body. Eyes still closed, she sniffed his scent. How could a daimon smell like home and sex and freedom at the same time?

  She was happy to be back here and in the arms of the male beside her. Yes, she had a prophecy to fulfill and the future of Vythos to save—no pressure there—but she also had a life, and the parts of it that included Delphinos were all sorts of sinfully delightful.

  His morning erection dug into her stomach, and she arched into it, making him thrust against her in his sleep. His robe was coming off today, and she’d be riding him before breakfast, thank-you-very-much.

  She’d just undone the double knot of his sash, when there was a knock on her door.

  “Halie? May I enter?”

  Shit. “Dad? Two minutes.” She shook Delphinos by the shoulder, until he cracked open an eyelid. “My father,” she whispered.

  “Where?” Delphinos’ voice was rough with sleep and unbelievably sexy, but there was no time to explain. Father was known for his kindness and good judgement, but he was rather on the impatient side, for an ancient deity.

  She held onto Delphinos’ robe and shoved him out of bed with a hushed, “Hide,” before wrapping the sheets around her in a makeshift chiton. “Come in,” she called out, not looking to see where Delphinos landed or what form he chose to take. They’d hidden their trysts for the better part of four decades, since Byron turned out to be yet another Mr. Wrong and she sought solace in her childhood-friend’s arms. By now, Delphinos had mastered hiding from her parents or the occasional nosy maid.

  Her father entered and shut the door behind him, then closed the distance to her bed in a few long strides. With the exception of his white hair and beard that were done in intricate braids, he looked like a man in his forties, as he had for as long as she could remember. “Did I wake you? I apologize. Your mother insisted I wait, but I bear good news,” he said.

  Did one of her sisters step up and get mated in her stead? Was Halie free for another century? Her heart bounced in her chest, but she bit back her optimism. It was her turn to find a mate, or she’d condemn the merpeople into three childless centuries.

  Father’s pale-blue eyes glimmered over his full white beard. “The witch cast the bones again last night. She says you will meet your final mortal suitor by the next moon.”

  Final? He’d be the one written in her stars. But so soon after Joss? In the past, several months or even a couple years went by between potential mates, and she had almost an entire year before her time was up.

  She tried to match the happiness shining in Father’s eyes. “Really? That’s wonderful.” A fist closed around her heart. Finding her mate would allow her to traverse Vythos and Earth alike, without risking her memories or her identity, but she’d never again feel Delphinos’ embrace. The moon was full last night; she had one month before she gave true love’s kiss to the man she would spend the rest of her life with, and left Delphinos behind.

  One month.

  Unbidden tears prickled her eyelids, and she wiped them furiously with the backs of her hands. This was good news. She’d soon fall madly in love with a human, and Delphinos would be free to seek his own destiny.

  Her father sat down beside her, gathered her to his chest, and rocked her like he used to, when she was a child. “I know this has been an ordeal for you. You have had your heart broken and your hopes dashed repeatedly, and we all recognize your sacrifice. But the end is nigh. Your happiness is around the corner, and with it, our salvation.”

  Or a hundred-year reprieve. Their salvation would only be guaranteed when all Nereids—Nereus’ daughters—found their intendeds.

  Still worth it. “I know, Father. Don’t mind me. These are happy tears.”

  He ran his fingers through her hair and lifted her chin, to look her in the eye. “Your happiness means more to me than anything. Anything. If you would rather not go ashore again... we will make it.”

  She knew he meant it. Which made it even harder to admit she didn’t want this fate shoved upon her. “The witch said it’ll be true love. I’ll be happy.” If she repeated it enough times, she might believe it.

  Father kissed her cheek. “Thank you.” His lips twitched. “I will let you get back to bed. Do not be too long; your sisters want to hear all about the latest earthly fashions.”

  Halie forced a smile and followed him with her gaze until he left the room. Then she leaned over the side of the mattress and scanned the sheetrock floor. “Delphinos?”

  A small orange crab crawled sideways out of a hole, and without much fanfare turned into the naked gorgeous man with moss-green hair and emerald eyes she couldn’t get enough of.

  She held his gaze and slid the sheets down her body. She needed his touch, the connection, for as long as she was allowed to enjoy it. Her heart ached at the thought of never again having him inside her—never spending another night in his arms—but today, she could have him. Today and for a couple short weeks, they could pretend destiny was theirs to carve out of lust and endless intimate, moonlit conversations.

  She was such a drama queen. Worse than a puffer fish. She and Delphinos would lose nothing, because they were ju
st friends. Except for the amazing-sex thing. Which she’d definitely miss. Though it had to be good with her soulmate too; they’d be perfect for each other, right?

  Perfect, like Delphinos’ pearl-white skin, and those fin-sharp cheekbones. Like his emerald eyes that saw right through her.

  Could he see how she wanted to get lost inside him?

  No serious thoughts. Their days were numbered. And this was about sex.

  She arched her back and waggled her eyebrows. “Well?”

  What hooded his eyes wasn’t lust, but anger. “Shouldn’t you meet up with your sisters?”

  “They’ll wait.” She skated her other palm down her throat and between her breasts, to her stomach, then lower. “Come. Be with me. It’s been too long.”

  He pierced her with his gaze, his long tresses framing his clenched jaw. “Mustn’t you find your human, then? I hear you have mere weeks left.”

  “I have a whole year. The prophecy was clear about that.” She reached for him, but he stepped back.

  “Your father said you don’t have to do this. Haven’t you endured enough pain? Enough loss? So there are no births for three hundred years. So what? You have eternity. You’re immortal. Is a couple weeks—Tartarus, a year, even—long enough to make sure a man is worth binding yourself to forever?”

  “This is unfair. You know I have no choice.”

  The witch who’d foreseen the births of Nereus and Doris’s fifty daughters and single son sought Father out when monotheism prevailed, to tell him his girls held the fate of Vythos in their palms. Each had to be mated to her true love within a century of the last, or their people would be childless for three hundred years. Unlike the king and queen and their spawn, mermaids weren’t immortal. They had several times the lifespan of humans, but their numbers would thin without new births for that long.

  “There’s always a choice,” Delphinos said.

  It was hard, arguing in favor of an idea she hated, but she had to make him accept it, if only to convince herself. She rolled her eyes. “I don’t get what your issue is. Glauce is perfectly happy with Anri, and they only knew each other three weeks when they got married.”