by J B Black
With every touch, the bond reached out, desperately trying to find its match within Bellamy, but it slid off every time. When three fingers pumped inside the sea god, spreading him wide, Nereus cried out, but a fist squeezed about his balls, keeping him back from the edge.
“You’ll come on my cock, won’t you?” Bellamy whispered. His dark gaze stole any fight Nereus had. All he wanted was the feel of the pirate’s thick cock spreading him wide. “That’s it, darling. Let me make you feel good. Let me take care of you.”
Absurd. Gods took care of themselves. They ruled their territories and protected their people, and no one ever cared for them. If anything, mates made things harder. Left the god all the more exposed, and this torture — knowing his mate could not feel him — just made Bellamy’s claims all the more laughable, but Nereus couldn’t even chuckle. He keened, whimpering like a bitch in heat as he canted his hips back, rocking into every grind of those fingers, and when they slid free, he whined, high-pitched and desperate. He hated himself.
“Just do it,” Nereus demanded. “Fuck me already, damn it, or are you a eunich?”
At that, Bellamy guided his cock, sliding between the god’s round ass and his well-prepared hole without pressing inside. Over and over, the pirate glided his cock over the god’s entrance, teasing him. “That wasn’t very nice. Maybe I shouldn’t give it to you after all…”
Growling, Nereus pushed off the table and glared over his shoulder as Bellamy caught his hips. “Either fuck me or fuck off. I’m sure another man could do just as — ahh!”
In a single thrust, Bellamy pushed halfway in, but his cock was too thick and too long, and pulling back, he could only press inside inch by inch, pumping in and out over and over. Each time, sinking his cock deeper into the welcoming wet heat of the god’s body.
Everything inside Nereus sang. His bond thrummed, confused and desperate as his body recognized what should have consummated it while the magic found nothing to hold onto. Over and over, the bond washed right off Bellamy. Water off a sea bird’s wing.
Each thrust pushed the god to the tips of his toes, dragging him up as firm hands held him down. Lightning struck in his belly. Back and forth, they swayed together, rutting like beasts. Desperate and needy as the heat between them grew, but every bite of Bellamy’s teeth felt like a feeble claim in comparison to the bond which should have wrapped tightly around them.
“You moan so prettily,” Bellamy growled, sucking what would be a livid mark onto the sea god’s neck. “And so wet. Can you hear yourself?” In and out, he flaunted the squishing slap of flesh against flesh as the slick splurted around his cock with each inward thrust. “How indecent.”
Nereus keened, rocking back to meet each thrust. “Sounds like sex to me. What? Are you a virgin? Never heard the sound a cock and hole make?”
An arm looped around the god’s chest, pulling him tight to the heated body of the mortal behind him. Bellamy’s breath tickled at his ear, and when a hand wrapped around his cock, Nereus could only pant, squirming desperately between the throbbing cock buried within and the welcomed friction sliding up and down his own.
Faster and faster, they moved. No reverence formed in their embrace, and soon enough, Bellamy came, spilling his load into Nereus’s greedy hole. Within a few strokes, he dragged the god over the edge beside him.
But it wasn’t enough.
Shoving Bellamy off him, Nereus pushed him into a chair nearby. He climbed onto the pirate’s lap. Cum dribbled from his hole, and the blond smirked, spreading Nereus wide as he helped the god to sink onto him once more. As much as the cuff denied the bond between them, it buoyed the mortal’s stamina to match the yearnings of a god.
“So proud back on Kallavera, but look at you now,” Bellamy crooned.
Covering the man’s mouth with a hand, Nereus glared as best he could, but his cheeks pinked as he bounced up and down, riding the captain’s cock. Like this, each impale struck deeper. He could feel the warmth of the other’s manhood in the back of his throat, and already with one load, his body shifted, awakening a womb he hadn’t imagined he would use.
“This has nothing to do with pride,” Nereus hissed. “You said it yourself, didn’t you? No excuses needed. You want me. I want you.”
And wasn’t that the problem? The way the bond slipped right off the pirate again and again. Nereus hated it. Each time made him all the more desperate. Like a mad dog, he chased after the rush. The swell of almost awoke when Bellamy clung to him, grinding harder inside him as if the only home he needed was the clutch of the god’s body.
A wet tongue licked across his palm, and pulling back, Nereus tutted, clicking his tongue before he stole the pirate’s cocky smirk in a kiss. Bellamy tasted like freedom. His hands pulled Nereus closer. The ship rocked, swaying as the ocean around them churned, singing with possibilities, but so long as the bond slipped off Bellamy, no one would know the cause — which made Nereus yearn all the more.
Moaning, Nereus came without spurting. His body tingling as white nearly blinded him. Sparks traveled up his body, and when his hole tightened, Bellamy filled him once more. None of it was enough.
Over and over, the two came together. Sucking livid marks into the god’s skin wherever he could reach, Bellamy growled every time they faded until Nereus let them remain upon him — marking him in a way he could not seem to do in response, no matter how his nails dug into the other man’s skin. The pain just fell on his own back.
On every surface in the cabin, the pirate took the god until Nereus laid upon his back with his legs over Bellamy’s shoulders. Every thrust sent cum dribbling out beneath him onto the wood already dampened with his sweat. Bellamy’s dark eyes glimmered.
Cupping the cum-swollen curve of the sea god’s bloated belly, the blond bared his teeth in a feral grin. “Carry for me? You’d look so good — round with my child.”
Nereus sobbed, beyond words as he had already felt his mate’s seed take root, but the bond fell empty between them. No amount of consummation — not even the conception of their firstborn — changed the curse upon that damn cuff, and now he lay as wanton as a whore, terrified of what he might cry out should Bellamy pull away too soon. He needed this. Needed his mate’s touch. The taste of Bellamy on his tongue and the feel of his warmth upon him.
It wasn’t enough. This almost connection built entirely out of lust would never be enough. He needed his mate, yet even with Bellamy buried inside him and a child planted, reaching the man seemed impossible. Tears rolled down along the sides of Nereus’s face as his heart ached.
Worse, Bellamy bent, kissing the tears away. “Too sensitive? Don’t worry, darling. We’re almost done.”
A hand wrapped around his cock, bringing him off together with Bellamy one last time before the human slid free. That should have been enough. Given a moment’s reprieve, Nereus would gather the tattered remains of his pride and leave behind the feelings of helplessness born in this union, but fingers gently explored his gaping hole followed by a rag as Bellamy gently cleaned between his legs before tending to the drying release across the god’s stomach.
“Better get you washed up before you get in the water. Would hate to have you leaking,” Bellamy said. His lips curved into a smile. “You can’t hide much down there, can you?”
Nereus wanted to cry. If only he hadn’t been so arrogant with Mar, if only he had killed him in the beginning, none of this would have happened. Mar would have never declared war. Nereus’s most vulnerable people would be free instead of hostages, and he would have never needed to call upon the pirates for aid. His mate would have continued living with that damn cuff without Nereus ever knowing, and since the man seemed to have sense, he would have never stepped into the waters, which meant he would have never entered Nereus’s territory as the only islands the sea god claimed were ones humans could never reach.
But the spark of life that grew inside him would also not have existed, and the thought of that proved unbearable.
Exhausted and desperate, Nereus reached out, catching Bellamy by the cuffed wrist. “Take it off. Please?”
For a moment, Bellamy seemed to consider, but he pulled away, and hope made Nereus let him. Hope which Bellamy promptly shattered. “It’s on me until the day I die.”
Some part of Nereus wanted to argue. To fight and shout and make demands, but the larger part remembered the obsessive love which haunted his parents, and he nodded, standing on shaky legs. He didn’t need a mate. His child would be his own, and he would fill his realm just as he had originally intended. This sort of possessive love which always wanted more and never found itself fulfilled had no claim on him.
“I can clean myself. You should worry about your ship,” Nereus announced, and teleporting back to his castle, he landed in one of the air rooms. There, he bathed, washing away the evidence of what they had done before returning to the water.
Preecha met him in the castle’s garden, and when his dark eyes landed upon the god, he froze. “My lord…”
Nereus laughed, but it sounded almost like weeping to the god’s ears. “Is it that obvious?”
Tentacles wriggling in discomfort, the cecaelia frowned. “You should heal those wounds if you’d like no one to notice.”
One by one, the livid marks Bellamy made faded away until only those hidden by the god’s clothes remain. “They’ll know something soon enough,” Nereus said with a sigh as he set a hand upon his flat stomach. “Finish with the pirates. I have other allies to call upon.”
“My lord, you can’t mean — !”
“I’ll go as a doppelganger, Preecha. But I need to speak with Athanasius,” the sea god announced, drifting back into the castle and ignoring the way his magic and fated bond pulled him back toward the ship floating on his waters and the pirate inside.
Chapter Eleven
Drumming his fingers against the wood of the desk, Bellamy growled as his impatience mounted. A buzzing grew behind his ears, increasing in volume day after day since Nereus teleported away. Not once had the god returned. Instead, he sent his servants and messages through the pirates in the water, ignoring all calls for him to meet with Bellamy and the other pirate captains.
“He is a god, Bellamy,” Ned reminded him. “He is responsible for an entire realm. If he could manage that and a war against Mar, he wouldn’t have requested aid.”
Bellamy’s lip curled. “I — we came to his aid. We have no reason to take a side, but when he asked for help, I — we made an accord.”
“And he has honored his end.”
Turning over the table, the blond roared, “Then where is he?”
Ned sat back in his chair, watching the younger man pant with his fists curled. His dark brows rose. “He visited Kallavera again.”
“What? Kallavera?” Bellamy frowned, moving in strange half-aborted jerks before he growled, tugging at his hair. “Why would he go out of his territory? We spend most of our time here!”
Sighing, Ned rubbed the bridge of his nose. “At our last meeting, Simon had one of his men send word of Cookie’s condition. He requested Nereus send aid.” Watching the younger man’s eyes widen, Ned offered a lopsided smile. “He’s already back on his feet.” His lips shifted into a frown. “Bill had to remind him what happened to his wife and daughters. He took to the bottle again, but at least, he’s alive.”
Sinking to the floor, Bellamy pulled his knees to his chest. “That’s...that’s good news.”
Ned leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. “Nine days. That’s how long it has been since you asked about Cookie. Every time I came back with supplies from Kallavera, you wanted an update, but the last time — when I finally had good news, you were pacing in this cabin, mumbling into your thumb about a certain sea god. What happened?”
No matter how intelligent Ned was, he couldn’t fix whatever had broken in Bellamy. If anything, the older man would only tell him to take off the cuff, and that wasn’t something the blond intended to do. Not yet. Possibly not ever. No other solution presented itself to Bellamy. Nothing he could say or do to get to Nereus or explain how the other man made him feel. It was like drinking sea water. At first, he thought his thirst had been quenched, but he just became all the more thirsty for it. Desperate and needy. Not even to take. Just to hold. To feel the coolness of the other man’s form against his own. To taste the sweetness of the god’s lips. Even a moment of their shoulders brushing as he teased the god about this or that. Just to see him.
“Are gods like succubi?” Bellamy asked softly.
Ned frowned. “What?”
“If you fuck a god, is it like a drug? I feel addicted. I need him. Every morning, I wake up, and I’m not hungry. I just want to see Nereus. Touch him. Taste him. This is a curse, isn’t it?” Bellamy looked up to the older man, but Ned’s brow curved in torturous empathy. “He said I was his fated mate, but that’s - that’s not real. Soulmates don’t exist.”
“They do.”
Ned spoke so softly Bellamy almost missed it, but those two words broke through the mounting rant which threatened to pour out from his lips like a fount of poison. They broke down the last line of the blond’s defense. If Ned said they were real, then that meant Nereus hadn’t lied. That — for some reason — the cuff not only paralyzed him in water but also blocked him from sensing his mate. His destiny had spread out before him, and Bellamy reached with greedy fingers to take only to not realize the fragility and sacredness of what he touched.
Shaking his head, Bellamy pleaded, “They don’t. They can’t.”
Ned glanced away. His eyes bounced about the room as he licked his lower lip. “Let me tell you a story.”
“I don’t need a story,” Bellamy hissed. “I need to know the truth!”
“And I’m telling it to you, so shut up!” Ned spat back. Running his hands over his face, the older man groaned before continuing. “Two fated mates were cursed to be apart. A man and a woman loved each other, but they met at the wrong time. The woman belonged to another man — married and pregnant with his child. In grief, her fated mate begged her to run away with him, but she refused, so he believed his senses must be wrong. That she couldn’t be his fated mate, so leaving her and the love he felt, he took to the sea, swearing to never return.”
“How does that help me?” Bellamy demanded petulantly.
Ned glowered. “Shut up and listen, boy! Even apart, he could feel her agony through their unconsummated bond, and he returned only to find out the truth. She was gone. The man had died, and her child was likely dead as well.”
“So what? Sometimes fate ties two people to be together, but it doesn’t always work out? How is that destiny then? How are they anything but two people who fell in love like any other pair?” Bellamy shook his head as he stood. “Fate may make it sound romantic, but they are still two fools who were miserable in the end.”
Ned snapped his fingers, and the table jumped up, setting itself right. All the papers flew back upon it. Each marker fell in its place as Bellamy could only gape at the man before him.
“And I am a sorcerer who swore to never do magic again. Yet here we are,” the older man stood, gesturing around the room with open arms. “I was impatient. I was cruel to the woman I professed to love, and when she needed me most, I was not there. If I had only asked and listened, so much tragedy could have been avoided. I could have been with the woman I love and our child instead of standing here before a young man who is desperately trying to rationalize away the most amazing gift…” Ned trailed off, shaking his head as tears gathered in his eyes. Swallowing, he brushed them away. “You want answers. You want to know why you were abandoned. Why your mother took to the skin and the sea and never came back, but you already know why. We both already know why. You have a chance to move on. Don’t let your pride and your past get in the way.”
Bellamy stepped back, leaning against the back wall of the cabin. His heart raced in his chest as he studied the table and his mentor. “If you have magic, why didn�
��t you just heal Cookie?”
“Not all magic is the same. Mine was made cruel. I swore to never use it again. As penance for my impatience and selfishness,” Ned explained, bowing his head. “Seems pointless now.”
Bellamy’s fingers curled, forming fists at his side. “And what about scrying?”
“Scrying?”
“All these years we’ve known each other, you couldn’t have scried for my mother. You knew why I stole this cuff — why I joined your vessel — did you have the power to find her?” Bellamy demanded as he rubbed the skin on either edge of the cuff. It itched like never before, and his bones beneath the gold creaked.
Ned shook his head. “I tried. When you killed Teague, I thought it was a sign. Bellamy Drake aboard my ship — a young man slices a giant’s head off. But it wasn’t. The crystal spun.” His eyes rose to meet the blond’s. “Don’t make the mistake I did. Don’t let your soulmate get away.”
“I can’t. Not without removing the cuff.”
“Then just take the damn thing off! If your mate is a god, you don’t need it,” the sorcerer insisted.
But it wasn’t so simple. Bellamy’s mind turned round and round. A powerful wizard made the cuff, and King Ulric commissioned it. The two were undoubtedly after him, and even though he had apparently escaped their notice thus far, there was no telling what would happen. Gods died. The entire purpose of their mission was to kill a god, and if Nereus believed pirates capable of doing that, then no amount of power from being Nereus’s mate would save him if Ulric turned his army of magic users against Bellamy. Worse still, he had stolen it to use as a way to get to his mother. To be certain that no one could stand between him and finding her. If he removed it now, he feared he would never see her again. That he would never find the answers which drove him to survive all those years on the streets.
“I can’t,” he repeated.