“One of the reasons. I never wanted to be powerless again. But…” I stared out at the curling waves as they lapped the golden sand. “I wanted… Iwantpeople to see more than my body when they look at me. Or if they don’t, I want them to regret not looking closer.”
He nodded, and we both watched the ocean change and move, like the Goddess’s hand was smoothing the waters. Then he took a deep breath, and opened his mouth:
“The sea stolemy heart when I was a young man,
I sailed like a fool to her watery throne.
She’s a punishing mistress, both loving and wild,
And there is no escape when she makes you her own.
You enteredmy life on the breath of a breeze,
You showed me the way to love sweet and love true,
That it’s giving, not taking, that powers the heart,
Oh, I pray the sea leave me to sail home to you.”
I hadn’t criedin years, not in public, but as I listened to his clear, pure tenor, each note became a caress, each swell of the music a demand to let the emotions that filled me show.
He opened his eyes and let out a soft, “Oh.” Then he wiped my tears away with his hand. They almost seemed to sparkle golden in the sunlight on his skin. “You honor me.”
I fought for words. “Altair, your voice… That was…” He ducked his head, and I shook mine. “I’ve never heard, I didn’t know.” What I wanted to say was that I didn’t know before then that a soul could be revealed in a song. That he had transformed his years of grief into a moment of ephemeral beauty.
That those few lines had changed me, changed the way I saw pain. That pain could be transformed into something so glorious had never occurred to me.
But I couldn’t get those words out. I took his face in my hands instead, and I thanked him with my lips.
Before today, I had only ever kissed Kavin and Thorn. I didn’t count Kris, the Guild trainee I set my sights on after Thorn had rejected me. Kris had squished his tongue against my lips for a few seconds, then run screaming. I always assumed a spider had dropped on his shoulder and bitten him, as he was in the infirmary the next day, and left the Guild not long after. I had never even tried to kiss the assassin I’d considered losing my virginity to, before I’d realized my Omega nature wouldn’t allow him entry in any case.
Now, in one day, I was kissing not one, but two men. Men who ignited the sort of feelings I had sworn I would only feel for Thorn.
Who was this wanton woman who resided in my skin? Whatever magic had taken over my body and made me desire each of the four Alphas, it had done a thorough job. I was on fire with longing for them, all of them.
I sighed into his mouth, allowing my unpracticed lips to find the right angle, the right pressure, to tell Altair what I needed him to know: that I saw him, that I wanted him. He was desirable as a man, not as a prince. It was his skin I wanted on mine, not his crown on my head. I spoke those words into his lips, and he gasped.
“You can have it all,larkial,” he murmured against my mouth. “I am yours to own.”
Then, with a groan that was half-song, half-growl, he took me into his arms, and we fell to the sand together. His long, dark hair made a curtain over our faces as he explored my mouth with his tongue, teasing and licking, each kiss a promise of more. Every stroke sent a wave of pleasure to my center, and his naked skin on my shirt made that same place feel as if it were expanding, blooming.
My fingers moved with intent to my shirt, to the buttons there, and I unfastened them as our mouths kept up a slow, insistent learning of each other. This kiss wasn’t overwhelming like Icarus’s had been. This felt more like a tide slowly building. A force coming from some distance, underneath the waves, that would drown us both in passion. When my breasts brushed his warm flesh, my core clenched, the air filling with honey and salt, and we both let out a gasp.
The air I took in smelled of him, of musk and ginger, and sent my blood pulsing.
“Roya!” he said, the word getting lost as my mouth moved on his, seeking more contact, more pressure.
I grasped his hand and moved it to my breast. “Alpha,” I answered.
His fingers plucked at my nipple, skating over my breast, learning the shape. He pulled back and his eyes were filled with wonder. “May I?” He dipped his head down.
“Please.” He replaced his fingers with his mouth, his tongue swirling around the puckered flesh. The wet warmth traveled lower, igniting even more heat in my core. I felt a trickle of moisture begin to seep from my slit, the slick fluid more like honey than anything else.
His nostrils flared as he worked at my nipple, and his hand dipped lower, into the waistband of my trousers, loosening the ties, and searching…finding.
My back arched as he teased the tender, swollen flesh at the top of my mound. He circled it gently, then harder, as he learned those shapes. I pressed into him, and he responded, giving my body what it needed.
What I had never known I needed. He moved his hand, gathering the moisture from below, and slid it back over my clit. “Goddess, you’re so wet. So hot, and sweet.” He mumbled praise, and I let myself feel it, believe it. “So good, slicking my fingers. You want more, I can feel it. Tell me, Roya.”
